I told you when I began showing you this little series on Tuesday that I like it. Having seen it again, I haven’t changed my mind. Not all but most of the gags involve the dry, conversational humor I like to think I’m good at. Anyone who has followed baseball will tell you that if you hit a single every time you come to the plate, well… you’d only be the greatest baseball player who ever lived. Most of these are singles and doubles. I’m not holding these strips up as great, but if you’re at all interested in what the guy who draws this stuff likes, this is it. I like this.
114 responses to “Plumber’s Really Good Friend”
Miss Charlotte.. my heart is breaking for you and Tom’s parents, brother and his many friends. Everyone else has stated their caring so well, i have nothing to add. Just… hugs & prayers…
Charlotte: Just sent the message below to the Ithaca Journal site above, but then read the family’s decision to donate Tom’s organs. It is wonderful when people have the good sense and the compassion to do that. Maybe it shouldn’t make a difference to me that he was from Ithaca, but it seems to. WiFi here at Koronis* seems to work reliably only in the evening, but glad to be able to be in touch.
“Dear Duncan & Amy & grandmother Charlotte [whom I know from the Arlo & Janis blog]. This is dreadful news. There will be prayers tomorrow from the UMC theology workshop here at Koronis Assembly Grounds in Paynesville, MN. My deepest sympathy. [emb][Cornell ’51], Bemidji, MN”
*There are just 9 of us, from various MN UMCs. My theology says Tom is in good hands and doesn’t need our prayers, but still, maybe the church [small c] needs to pray.
Peace,
We in the church do need to pray for those who are hurting, who need comfort and consoling during the days and weeks to come.
So besides going back in time to hear the Righteous Brothers this Thursday, we are going to eat in one of Route 66 most famous diners, Clanton Cafe in Vinita, Oklahoma. I have never eaten there but they were on Diners, Drive ins and Dives, Southern Living, Gourmet magazine and lots of other magazines and newspapers.
Here’s link. Read menu about calf fry. Clanton’s Cafe
319 E Illinois Ave, Vinita, OK 74301
(918) 256-9053
https://g.co/kgs/A9r9Lt
If it was on Triple D, Jackie, I’m sure that it’s the Real Deal, and off the hook.
Miss Charlotte, so sorry for your family’s loss. As a kidney transplant recipient, I am so very grateful for the individuals and family members that choose donating. Please tell his parents how much the kidney I received means to me, my family, and friends. The gift saves lives and changes lives of many more. It is a gift I can never repay.
I tried to donate anything of Mike’s body that could be used but they told me the widespread cancer and chemo, radiation made it unacceptable. So sad when people choose not to donate. So wonderful when they do.
Worried about Debbie so called to check on her. She was out driving her dad around in her jeep for his outing. Spoke to her son. Her computer is down again.
Virus infections run rampart in her house it seems!
Jackie, thanks for the Debbe update…now I can picture her and her Dad cruising!
Tell Debbie to download free version of Malwarebytes when she can get online. Free version is not proactive in stopping virus but works well to catch and remove.
Darling Mark, Debbe has no computer savy or skills and Ian has far, far less than he thinks he does in my opinion.
The two surf that computer endlessly albeit in differing realms of viral contagion.
Jackie, that assessment seems accurate from a distance. It’s why I didn’t chime in on Ian last time around, I think the lad tries to do right more often than not.
For Debbe’s use I think a Chromebook or Chrome as an Operating System might be most helpful. Geeks don’t like having less control, but these get good reviews for protection and recovery that doesn’t demand specialized user knowledge.
That would leave Ian without the Gaming setup he would like. Compromise is difficult.
Economy at my house used to mean a new system around four years time, keep old ones as long as useful for the house at large. But times change, this one is now near seven years old, the spinning hard drive is on borrowed time according to some who give advice, but hasn’t caused problems yet. Think I’ll go check my backup schedule though.
Meant to add, it is difficult to enjoy any form of entertainment on the interwebnets without catching something. It’s not the user. It is the bad actors identifying target rich areas, not individual targets. Being a theatre lover doesn’t blind me to the dangers of midtown Manhattan.
Ghost and I think Debbe needs an Android tablet to use, giving Ian his use of the old laptop and his PlayStation to game. It is the computer that is source of infection. We think a tablet should have less viral infection so long as Debbe used it for herself and let’s Ian have computer.
Anyone else have a better idea?
I circled back on another thought and read yours, Jackie. That would also make sense. With the added benefit of something good for all young men, being left to further your education by your own means. He will learn more about his own system if he is the only user experiencing problems. Reduces finger pointing.
My thought was to acknowledge what kept me from cloud based protections in the past. If your ISP service is lacking then ChromeOS becomes unusable quickly.
Your solution works if Debbe is not wed to a physical keyboard, but you both know that learning curve and how it turns out well with use.
The last item is the common choke point in the house, the router/modem. Not just in the capacity issue of multiple users, but that of the different threats they may pick up all go through the shared doorway.
This last one is also answered by your solution, *if* the ISP is a wireless carrier and the tablet is it’s own 4G connection to the wider world. However, if it uses local WiFi to save money, we come back to the shared router above.
I’ve gotten pretty good at outlining problems, solutions work best when the end user decides.
Get a tablet and a bluetooth keyboard.
Mark, I saw a cute one a while back when hipsters were making everything old cool again for a limited time only, until everyone remembered why progress happens.
Any way, it was built exactly like an old high-rise keyboard of a 1940’s or earlier typewriter. The tablet was held, securely propped up as if you were using stout cardstock for paper. I thought it was a great idea on many levels, not the least was raising the level of view to reduce neck fatigue and providing a firm, secure base for charging and prevent dropping. In my imagination, I thought a word processor app that combined a moving carriage, with text that appeared in time with a lurching movement to the left, complete with bell and auxiliary return lever would really have been cool for an afternoon. But all this flies in the face of the primary utility of a tablet, portability. Still pretty neat item if you have the space though.
To your point though, the keyboard is handy to aid transition for the reluctant. Usually cast aside from inconvenience once the touchscreen is learned better. I still curse at mine.
If you have large fingers, on-screen keyboards are one of the banes of your existence. When you search on Amazon, for example, you can find combination case/keyboards for many different tablets. Since I use mine mostly for reading, I really don’t need one. If I was using it to communicate, I would most likely buy one to save annoyance.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/13/15794508/solar-eclipse-simulator-tool-app
Is this the keyboard you saw, Morphy?
https://www.amazon.com/Qwerkywriter-Typewriter-Wireless-Mechanical-Integrated/dp/B01KM6EJOY
It had been a long while, Mark, so I’m not sure it is same. But certainly suggestive of same idea. I remembered it being taller like older typewriters, and I had the carriage return on the other side in my head. But that must be suggested by today’s QWERTY keyboard, because logic tells me the physical return had to be on the left and too much time has passed for me to recall correctly.
I used to practice my young version of hunt and peck on my mother’s secretarial that clamped into it’s own carry case for what is laughingly called portability. Laughable by today’s standards I mean. By the time I had a class for it, it was still called typing, but it was an IBM selectric that you couldn’t jam the keys on. And the return KEY had already migrated to the right pinky.
I did see pictures of old typewriters that had been converted into tablet stands, too. Maybe that is what you remember since some of those were adapted to work as keyboards with the tablet.
I started using a manual typewriter in high school, then was taught to use a teletype in the Navy. In college I took typing and used an IBM Selectric. That paved the way for me to be able to use computer keyboards as they came into use. When I took my medical office courses I was able to finish the program early. I was able to hit 60 wpm with two typing courses left to go.
Food alert! Ghost grilled T-bone steak for dinner which we had with leftovers from lunch, corn from garden, squash from garden, cucumbers from garden, cornbread with bacon and cheese added. Seems there was something else? Tomatoes sliced.
We have decided either we like same kinds of food or one of us is doing a really good imitation of liking it.
We have leftovers, grilled sausage and pork chops needing to be eaten. Plus new potatoes, peppers, onions from garden. I am going to do a stir fry of that and get Ghost to pick some large green tomatoes to fry up with some squash slices. Plus more corn.
Ghost went to Tractor Supply with me, a new experience for him. He found a denim shirt to wear over his weaponry that gives him a farm look.
If he finds snake in garden he can shoot it. He is adjusting well to country life.
My first electric: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f7/Teletype_Model_28_KSR_Keyboard.png
My dinner seemed adequate at the time, but somehow T-bone and fixings makes my mouth water. First time this city boy wandered around in a Tractor Supply, I was amazed at the range of goods in a store not much bigger than a grocery or neighborhood hardware, makes a lot of warehouse stores seem wasteful.
Mark, on the teletype I noted the height variance in key rows. Was that ergonomics to match a relaxed hand, for speed? Or did those keys have linkages that required a long ‘throw’ and likely resulted in hand stress?