A pithy comic strip about life, love, lust and puthy cats.

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

Not More Harvey!

By Jimmy Johnson


Buy the new book, "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"
Yes, a little more “Harvey.” Harvey the giant dust bunny has been featured twice in Arlo & Janis, and this strip was his very first appearance, in 1991. Don’t worry: I’m not going to put you through the entire series that followed, which lasted a week. I might, if I get around to it, post highlights from it over the weekend. I think a few of the gags were pretty good. I’ve always had fun with the “Harvey” idea, and I’m sure I’ve shown you this one on the Web before. Also over the weekend, I’m going to try to find some of that material we talked about earlier, the older stuff no one has seen since it appeared in newspapers. You wouldn’t believe how much a box of old cartoons can weigh!

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210 responses to “Not More Harvey!”

  1. sideburns Avatar

    Years ago, Jackie, when I was working and had health care through work, I went to the pharmacy to get a refill. The lady in front of me had wanted to “double up” on her medicine because she was expecting to be in Europe for several months and was Very Unhappy to learn that her insurance company would only pay for a 30 day supply.

    Now, I’m with the VA, and on long-term prescriptions, they send out at least 90 days worth at a time. (If I take 1/day and the bottle holds 100, I get a full bottle at a time.)

  2. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Debbe 😉 Happy to hear your finger is doing well, hon. I was seriously worried about it, not because I thought you wouldn’t take proper care of it, but because of how easily a wound could get infected in your type of work environment.

    My finger has pretty much healed, even though the new skin is a slightly different color than that surrounding it. The proximal inter-phalanageal joint (OK, the “middle” knuckle…I was just showing off) still will not bend past 90 degrees, and it hurts when I bend it that far. I had intended to drop by the Doc-in-a-Box clinic and let the nurse that assisted the doctor with my finger see what she thinks about it, but then my mom’s situation took priority. Perhaps this coming week…

    If you are working this weekend, remember that we go off DST (Devil’s Standard Time) and return to “real” time tomorrow morning. “Stagger forward, fall backwards.” I wonder if there will be a time change gag in tomorrow’s cartoon. They used to be an A&J staple, but like the “Father Time wandering past Arlo sitting on the couch on New Year’s Eve”, we don’t seem to see them as often lately.

  3. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Don’t you just love the way politicians and pundits make confident predictions about the outcome of future elections based on a one or two percent lead in the latest poll, when the poll itself clearly states it has a confidence factor of plus or minus *three* percent?

    [Sigh] Something about politics seems to foster its own brand of magical thinking on the part of some people.

  4. emeritus minnesota biologist Avatar
  5. Outlander Avatar
    Outlander

    Ghost:

    I doubt you have any reason to worry about the synapses – or dendrites or neurons, either.

    I suspect it’s all a matter of age.

    I imagine that you are younger than Jimmy and I and, therefore, were unaware of Jimmy’s allusion to The Who.

    Is that a possibility?

  6. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Anything is possible, Outlander, but I still blame it on my wetware not performing optimally. I knew I’d heard that line before, but the source didn’t come to me right away, and I didn’t take time to retrieve it from storage. And that may indeed be age-related but in a different way than what you meant. 🙂

  7. Trapper Jean Avatar
    Trapper Jean

    There was a bit of snow just north of Dahlonega last night, but none on my porch. Still, it’s cold and windy, so I’m pretty sure Winter is here.

  8. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    I often read comics over on Yahoo (gasp!) and they run a lot of classics. “Bloom County” has been running political rerun strips which have held up darned well under the circumstances. Bill the Cat and Opus are still funny and politics hasn’t changed much in the interim!

    Love, Jackie

  9. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    sand:

    Air Force – 23 Army – 6

    😀

  10. Denise in Michigan Avatar
    Denise in Michigan

    Charlotte, red lentils will cook in 20 minutes, but all others take about 45 minutes.

    Jackie, hummus also makes a great base for egg salad.

    Jean, I vote for ham bones but don’t eat enough ham to keep me in soup bones. No one around here sells ham bones anymore, so I usually substitute smoked necks.

  11. TruckerRon Avatar

    I like crossovers in the comics, but this one seems a little far stretched to me:

    http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2014/11/01

  12. emeritus minnesota biologist Avatar
  13. emeritus minnesota biologist Avatar
    emeritus minnesota biologist

    51 American capitols is enough!

  14. Evan Avatar
    Evan

    12/29/13 was a “Father Time wandering past Arlo sitting on the couch on New Year’s Eve” cartoon… except it wasn’t on New Year’s Eve when it ran. As a continuing gag, it has a lot more possibilities than say, running up to a football to kick it, and has held up very well indeed.

  15. emeritus minnesota biologist Avatar
    emeritus minnesota biologist
  16. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    FALL BACK….all the clocks have been reset 🙂 It’s just another night in Bangkok……

    (Jackie…love Bill the Cat…I identify with him….)

    manana…………………………………………………………………….

  17. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Mike is in watching Auburn vs. Ole Miss where he says game is tied 7-7. I imagine that is where the entire Village may be?

    I have been buried in back bedroom all day with something that acts like flu or the worst Fall allergies in history. Cats and dog faithfully trying to keep me company and warm.

    Light bulbs and water heater both need setting/installing and heat turned on. I will not make it without Mike.

    Yeah, about “Bloom County”, I wish Berkley Breathed would come out of retirement and draw again. I don’t think he said it all yet.

    Certainly the reruns beat the heck out of most of the “new” stuff.

    Love, Jackie

  18. emeritus minnesota biologist Avatar
    emeritus minnesota biologist

    Not the entire Village, Jackie. Different strokes . . .. Not a regional thing; I don’t know if MN, MI, or Cornell are playing. Probably did earlier in the day.

    Went to all of Cornell’s games F ’49. Girlfriend. Paid off.

    Right now Sibelius’s 5th is on MPR. Pretty good Sibelius, but with [to me] an idiotic ending.

  19. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Jackie, Bloom County beats Doonesbury all hollow. My impression is that Breathed quit the strip for the same reason Bill Watterson did: the newspapers no longer have any respect for the comics. What reason does a comic strip artist have to be a good draftsman anymore? After his two-foot original art is reduced to postage stamp size it’s near impossible to tell really good work. Of course the bad work is still evident but all the print press is interested in is selling ads.

    Last year Alabama’s three major newspapers (under a single owner) consolidated. Now I read that the Times-Picayune, (under the same owner) is going to be printed in Mobile and trucked back to N.O.

  20. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    By the way, the last original Pink Floyd studio album, The Endless River, will be released on Nov 7. Enjoy.

    And yes Debbe, the wrist is getting better. The physical therapist who has been doing my back rehab joked that I had an antenna which picked up AM/FM and satellite.

  21. sideburns Avatar

    Just to add a little more fuel to the DST debate, I heard Thursday night that the reason it got extended to the first Sunday in November was to get more daylight on Halloween, so that the younger children had more time to go around getting candy before it was too dark for them. Naturally, the people who came up with this didn’t really do it for the children, they were lobbyists for the Candy Industry, hoping that their clients would get even more money out of the holiday. What actually happened, according to my informant, was that large numbers of children went to malls, where the various shops gave out the cheapest candy they could buy. And, as they bought it wholesale, the Candy Industry’s sales were down, not up this year. Serves them right!

    My sister and I have lived for about eight years, now, in a gated retirement community. No children, no Trick Or Treat, no need to buy candy. I miss having all the kids coming around, but at least we don’t end up with candy in the house, and this Type II diabetic is glad not to have the temptation. (And no, I wouldn’t have bought sugar-free candy; the kids deserve better!)

  22.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    JJ, congratulations to your Auburn guys for beating Ole Miss tonight.

  23. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Told husband we were cheering for Auburn to win. He asked why?
    I said because Jimmy went to Auburn and he drew A and J. Husband said OK.

    There are few “safe” subdivisions around our lake, most are long ambling/rambling dirt/gravel roads through darker woods and a lot of camps, no regular residents. Ours is more or less permanent comparatively and has pavement (?) potholes and all.

    We did not have a single trick or treater last night, even with all my lights on and blazing. I often buy toys to give out instead of candy, no temptation there. Sometimes it is end of season “summer toys” and sometimes made for Halloween scary toys. The kids seem to like that, to choose a toy.

    Often we go up to Illinois now, to Quincy where daughter and grandson are to spend Halloween there. She lives in a real turn of the century haunted house with three full stories and a basement that is more above than below ground. Has a façade that looks like Disney designed it. It is on main drag through town, so hundreds of kids are out, even suburban kids come in. I missed doing that this year. We decorate yard and porches, give out candy and little toys.

    No one would have wanted my contaminated with germs toys!

    Love, Jackie