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

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

Plotting the Future

By Jimmy Johnson


Buy the new book, "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"
This old Sunday from 1995 is another example of what we were talking about yesterday, the marriage of word and image. This one has a punch line that stands alone, as does yesterday’s classic comic strip, but the reader also is visually treated (I like to think.) to young Gene’s visible histrionics. I have learned over the years that if an idea I’m developing is overly weighted with verbiage, I can offset that by having the character’s move their arms or make exaggerated faces, as a stage actor might do.

Fall has not disappointed around these parts. The first full day of autumn yesterday was beautiful, and today has dawned the same. A pessimist might begin to worry that this portends an early and harsh winter. Just thought I’d mention that.

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40 responses to “Plotting the Future”

  1. emeritus minnesota biologist Avatar
    emeritus minnesota biologist

    Here, too. Lunched on the patio yesterday, 73F. Gonna rain today.

  2. John in Richmond Texas Avatar
    John in Richmond Texas

    One of my favorite Sundays 02/27/2005 (I think) which isn’t in the online archive anymore. shows your great talent for matching faces and words, it’s eight panels of Janis telling Arlo let’s talk – about anything, as Arlo shows consternation – just say words? about anything? Janis has a completely different expression in each of the eight panels. It’s in my rotation of A&J Sundays I use for a screensaver at work

  3. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    I love Little River Canyon. We went there when I was a kid. I would love to go back! It was listed as having the best swimming holes in the world in the following article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cheapflights/take-the-plunge-11-swimmi_b_5531800.html

  4. Bob in Orland Park Avatar
    Bob in Orland Park

    Amazingly the Chicago area has been experiencing beautiful Fall weather for the past few days and the forecast is for more of the same for the rest of the week. Gotta take it while we can. Last winter was brutal.

  5. Jerry in Fl Avatar
    Jerry in Fl

    Cool and clear. I’ll be hearing “It’s a nice day to do yard work” any minute now. There is a lot to do. I’ve been lazy this summer.

  6. Lilyblack Avatar

    Good morning, Villagers! Gosh, it’s great to have our stomping ground back! A nice cool morning with a gorgeous sunrise. Rounds went well and I thought of Ghost when we had to go to the ER to lance a felon (not a recidivist, a finger ailment) An older doc we were talking to called it a “whitlow,” which I had never heard

  7. Ben Avatar
    Ben

    I’d forgotten about this strip, the sentiment of which I have been experiencing myself recently: the struggle to successfully impart learned wisdom. The head may hear, but until the gut also knows, it simply doesn’t matter. Thanks, Jimmy.

  8. Jerry in Fl Avatar
    Jerry in Fl

    Sounds like a henway to me.

  9. DJJG Avatar
    DJJG

    Ben, yes; well-said. It’s good to have a comic strip do this!

  10. Steve from Royal Oak, Mi Avatar

    Clear blue skys. 75°. What am I still doing in the office?

    Perfect day for a picnic, but a certain part of my anatomy still refuses to cooperate. Graduated to some chicken soup with my potatoes and applesauce. I see food and think “Oh I would love some of that!” but can’t. Good training for my effort this fall to lose some weight. I love beeing 10 lbs lighter. Let’s make it 30!

  11. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    It seems we Village folk do have at least one thing in common with The Dark Side…an interest in food. Of course, that didn’t stop some of them from getting all contentious about the whole vegetarian/meatatarian thing. (Somehow, I think I’d have been vaguely disappointed if they hadn’t gotten in each others’ grills about something.) And don’t even get me started about that negative comment about mushrooms, which are actually one of God’s Great Gifts to Gourmets and Gourmands.

    If anyone needs an easy recipe for rather good Oyster Stew, you are welcome to mine. It would go very well with the cooler weather many of you seem to be experiencing. (Caution: Not a “heart healthy” recipe, particularly.)

    Ghost’s Oyster Stew

    2 dozen raw oysters, in enough liquid to cover
    1/2 stick butter or margarine
    2 green onions, chopped

    1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
    3/4 tsp salt
    1/8 tsp white pepper
    1/4 tsp paprika
    Dash of red cayenne pepper

    2 pints Half & Half

    Heat butter in a large cast iron skillet, sauté onions until tender, but not brown. Add oysters, liquid and the five seasonings; heat until edges of oysters curl just slightly. Add Half & Half, heating slowly, but do not boil. Serve with a lump of butter and dash of paprika. Makes 6 servings.

    Note: This is Recipe Zero, the first in a collection of favorite recipes I have on my computer which now numbers in the hundreds. It was first stored on a Tandy 286 computer, in the fall of 1993, and I have kept it in the original Courier font, the one that makes it appear to have been typed on a typewriter. (Those of you too young to remember what a typewriter was, just google it.)

  12. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
    Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

    Anyone else tempted to see if the email address in the first panel still works?

  13. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Yea! Glad the blog still lives and so does Jimmy!

    I honestly thought he had taken off for Paris again and was caught over there in some kind of awful mess, what with the world in state it is.

    Mostly I am caught up in stuff like: my dryer bit the dust forever again (I keep replacing appliances) and I had piles and piles of dirty laundry which my cleaning lady (but mostly me) tackled in a marathon of washing and drying and folding and hanging.

    I would keep checking to see if blog was back and it wasn’t, I went into withdrawal and clipped coupons non-stop to fill in the time!

    Lily, I can beat your Johnny Cash singing to you. Dale Earnhardt came by on my porch, wearing his signature giant cowboy hat and his satiny jacket, mustache, leaned into the kitchen window,
    cupped his hands around his face and put it against window. Told me he’d come to get me or something like that, at which point I jolted awake, as he is quite deceased!

    And I am no Nascar fan either.

    Ghost, Sideburns, Steve, David and all those afflicted, I hope you have fast recoveries.

    I kept laughing at the ones on Dark Side I knew were you all!

    Love, Jackie Monies

  14. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    finally made it back. tripped and fell sunday night, landed on left wrist. pulled it out from under and thought, this doesnt look good. brother took to er, distal radius fx. saw ortho dr on monday, at outpatient surgery on tuesday. closed reduction with external fixation. wont be adding comments for a while, but thought some of you might wonder where i went.

  15. Lilyblack Avatar

    Good to see you back, Jackie. When I start getting music in my dreams, it’s a pretty good sign I need to wake up. Course, Neeshka pretty much takes care of that, but, still!
    Mark, that is called a Colle’s fracture. Archaeologists use it to mark what skeletons belong to workers. Around here, it is biking and skating accidents.

  16. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Dang, this place is turning into “Medical Moments”, isn’t it? (He asked, typing with nine fingers.)

    Hi, Jackie. I was hoping you weren’t too snowed under with boatery things to check in with us.

  17. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Well, I recognized Dale Earnhardt but I have NO idea who that was with him? Funny, it was so real, so vivid I could see everything around me exactly as my kitchen is. I have big double windows that take up entire wall, so great view.

    But ghosts from Nascar? That was weird!

    I know so little about Nascar that back when I was flying to NC all the time for meetings with Lowes corporate, I saw that big track and honestly asked my boss what in the world it was? He could not believe I had no idea.

    Glad to find out I am not only one addicted to the Village. I missed you all so much, I was bereft. There is a good old fashioned word for you Ghost. You won’t see that one much in today’s world.

    Broke my “don’t watch t.v.” moratorium and watched NCIS New Orleans. Quibble on that one a little but main thing I could not believe was how clean, green and nice the park was in front of the old Federal building where I worked. What happened to the winos and dead bodies?

    Love, Jackie Monies

  18. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
    Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

    Waddaya know?

    The email hasn’t been rejected so far.

  19. Jerry in Fl Avatar
    Jerry in Fl

    Long live the NCIS franchise! I must confess, as a Mark Harmon look a lot alike person, that I enjoy walking through a mall with my NCIS cap and sunglasses. They start to ask and, well, no, I don’t think so. Either way it wouldn’t be cool. I asked a guy in a restaurant if he was Neil Young and he claimed that he didn’t know who that was. I still think that it was him.

  20. Mindy from Indy Avatar
    Mindy from Indy

    Mark Harmon. *swoon*

    Ghost! My wounded spiritual brother! Nine un-wounder fingers here too! (Stupid window!)

  21. emeritus minnesota biologist Avatar
    emeritus minnesota biologist

    Jerry: Remember, this is a diverse group. Who is Neil Young?

    Lily: ‘ER to lance a felon (not a recidivist, a finger ailment). An older doc we were talking to called it a “whitlow,” which I had never heard.’ Thanks for bringing those two terms together. I had them occasionally decades back, and had forgotten. Seems to me I lanced them with a cleaned hatpin. Maybe some are bigger/deeper than others.

    Still haven’t had a killing frost locally. Thought I’d had my last lunch on the patio, but it’s s’posed to be mid 70s-low 80s tomorrow and maybe Friday.

  22. Mindy from Indy Avatar
    Mindy from Indy

    And Jerry, How hard is it at times to behave?

  23. emeritus minnesota biologist Avatar
    emeritus minnesota biologist

    Lily: Searched Wiki for felon/whitlow, which were the terms I learned from local MDs or my RN wife, and found ref. to paronychia. ‘Paronychia is commonly misapplied as whitlow or felon.’ Wiki illustrates paronychia with infections at the base of a fingernail. Seems to me I mostly had them in the ridge of skin at the side of a nail. Didn’t have them often and only over a few years, maybe in my 50s. I don’t miss them. Never occurred by toenails. Guess I never had a real felon/whitlow. They look really nasty. Are they associated with particular occupations/jobs?

    Others: If all this is spoiling your supper, you shouldn’t be playing on the net at mealtime! G’nite.

  24. emeritus minnesota biologist Avatar
    emeritus minnesota biologist

    P.S. Should be ‘commonly misapplied for whitlow or felon.’ for, not as.

  25. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    “Bereft” is a perfectly good word, Jackie, and, I’m quite sure, appropriate in this case. Missed you, too, hon.

    Production companies have hair stylists and makeup stylists (and, I suspect, even cleavage stylists), so I’d not be surprised to learn they have park stylists as well, to make everything look suitably photogenic.

    When I woke up yesterday, there was no music, nor any deceased NASCAR drivers, but there was something I won’t go into detail about, except that it seemed to involve a choir, but no robes. 😉

    Not you, too, Lady Mindy! If this keeps up, we’ll have to set up a triage unit in the Village.