A little fun with silhouettes from 1997. Once our idea of a good time was to lie around in the sun literally for hours and see who could get the deepest tan. It’s a wonder we aren’t all dying of melanoma. Many of us are. When I think about why skin cancer is a scourge now more than, say, the 19th century when working outdoors was the norm, I’d have to guess it’s because most cultures until recently did not condone stripping virtually naked and doing nothing but lie around all day. With enough beer and the right company, it was fun!
I’ve gotten myself into something of a corner. I’ve been teasing you with promises to discuss what happened to Arlo’s boat. You would be within your rights to expect an elaborate and entertaining yarn. However, there isn’t one. What you see in the strip is what there is. Arlo’s boat just… disappeared! A boat is a lifestyle. Believe me, I know. A boat would have taken over the strip. That would have delighted a few hundred boat enthusiasts and bored everyone else to tears. Most readers, I think, hardly miss it; an active few won’t let me forget it. I view that storyline as a misstep on my part. Having said that, it always is possible with a little comic-strip hocus pocus that the boat might rise again. I have defended myself in the past by pointing out that a comic strip typically covers maybe five seconds of the protagonists’ day. Given that, it hasn’t been years since the boat’s appearance but mere days! Are you buying it? Anyway, I do think that one way or another the coast people will return more regularly. If the boat should reappear, expect several days of jokes about scraping, scrubbing, stench, stinging insects and misery.
108 responses to “Reason in the Sun”
My Uncle had several boats….and a plaque in each of them that said “A boat is a hole in the water into which money pours”….How true that was. It’s probably why my boat is limited to a molded plastic kayak to paddle around in. Not a lot can go wrong with it…unless I capsize it.
While A&J is a crown jewel in the diadem of comic strips, it is still, when all is said and done, a comic strip. It is its own universe and subject to its own natural laws. Many have commented upon the aging of cartoon characters… well, it is its own universe there, and it is not odd that Beetle Bailey, Blondie and a host of others have not aged while Skeezix is now a geezer, it is just how it happens normally in that universe.
Two thoughts:
1) Clearly “the boat” is in what the fans have dubbed “Hammerspace;” the explanation as to how Bugs Bunny can pull a hammer from seemingly nowhere and bean someone. It can re-appear out of nowhere at any time without the need for any sort of maintenance in the meanwhile.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammerspace
2) One should not overthink certain things. From the wisdom of “Mystery Science Theater 3000”:
If you’re wondering how he eats and breathes
And other science facts,
Just repeat to yourself “It’s just a show,
I should really just relax.”
😀
I think that the sailboat may offer some exciting story lines in the future. A week or two during the summer months wouldn’t be too bad.
So, I will quit annoying JJ about the schooner. It has gone to Pensacola to live, just as our schooner did. Sooner, schooner!
The three feet of bubbles are gone from the jacuzzi, by the way. Good morning.
Boat? What boat? You mean the boat that Arlo never learned to sail? The boat Janis liked because everything in it was so little and “cute”? The boat they never even named? The boat for which they didn’t have to pay marina fees after The Dock was sold? The boat that never required any maintenance or upkeep? The boat that didn’t eat their 401k accounts? Oh, that boat…the fairy tale, uh, I mean the cartoon boat.
Just maybe, Arlo could get a flying boat and Jimmy Buffett could return for a guest spot.
Ah, Jimmy, I assume by “virtually naked” you mean > 90% naked. Now you see why I like to do the math.
Bought a real bikini yesterday so I conform to motel bathing suit requirements. Why oh why does the largest top size still “need” padding? I don’t.
Decided to quit worrying about my less than perfect body. If I am willing to be a public nudist, why worry about what I look like in bikini? I declare it a bikini body henceforth.
My tans come mainly out of a tube with SPF protection and moisturizer but not all.
I just assumed they occasionally stayed on the boats for weekends away.
The thing about the boat was, Arlo had been dreaming of it for so long, in that non-serious kind of way that people do. And then suddenly, one was practically dropped in his lap! He wasn’t even that enthusiastic about it, as if deep down he knew it was more about the dream than actually having one and having to deal with the responsibility. Except, that wasn’t really dealt with at all, probably because there wouldn’t have been much humor in it. I suppose I just assumed that he sold it “off-screen”. You know what they say, the two happiest days in a boat owner’s life: when he buys the boat and when he sells it.
Jimmy, I thought that was a well written post that makes perfect sense to me. Of course you could have Rodney Dangerfield drop his anchor on Arlo’s little boat if you want closure.
Nice to “see” new or returning faces, y’all. Welcome.
I need to order that Southern girl tee shirt with that y’all on it.
Not just yawls.
One of my favorite aspects of A&J is Arlo’s indulgence in fantasy, whimsy, or daydreaming – and “Arlo’s Sailboat Fantasy” has long been a staple of the strip.
Far from taking over, I would have thought that “Arlo gets a sailboat” would provide the singular opportunity to tell stories about what happens when dreams meet reality!
You’ve already alluded to the grim and gritty reality of boat ownership. I would expect that to be part of it! But a harsh awakening is only the beginning. Does Arlo know how to sail?
Or, what happens when youthful wanderlust meets the sober contemplation of risk? Will the boat ever leave sight of land? Does Arlo’s job interfere with fantasy-turned-reality?
Does Arlo envision himself the ancient mariner, while the rest of the world sees him as Gilligan? What would growing self-awareness lead to, in that case?
Or does Arlo go into The Boat Project eyes wide open, mature, confident, eager and well-prepared, only to have to grapple with the effect of this new obsession on family, hearth, and home?
I dunno. Of course you don’t want A&J to become a boat strip, but I would have thought there was a rich vein to mine here, in the very best spirit of the characters and the strip.
I now return to poking computers, and leave the storytelling to the artists. 🙂
Computer pokies??
Jackie, your Tales from the Tubâ„¢ reminded me of this prime example of a “does this mean what I think it means?” A&J cartoon.
http://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2006/01/19
I remember when my wife and I rented a cottage down in the Keys some years ago. It came with a 21′ sailboat. We were given 5 minutes of instructions by “Doobie Dave” and we were off. We learned how not to put up the sails, how to misidentify islands, how to get off sandbars when we were on the wrong islands, and more! We actually had a great time and learned a lot that week. I could only imagine what kind of mischief Arlo could get into.
I, for one, am perfectly happy to leave the boat wherever it may be. It strikes me more as a possible source of soap opera than as a source of JJ’s typical subtle marital/familial humor.
That is because Dan and Don get it and you don’t ex-prof. I for one hate kid strips which seem popular with a lot of the Villagers, along with rest of the comics reading world. I detest Family Circus, hated Dennis the Menace et. al.
Guess that makes me a curmudgeon too, I find Meg less than enchanting but gardening is ok by me, along with chickens.
Dan that was a fantastic summary, don’t stay away, come back and visit more.
I suspect that most of us in the Village grew up knowing relatives from multiple generations, an experience which is less common for many families today. I wonder what answer our younger selves would have given to this question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYdNjrUs4NM
Surprise! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWqg6B-taUg
Ruth Anne, who here is old? We have just been seasoned and tempered by an abundance of experiences. Come back in thirty-five years, I might have an answer.
In case you missed my post just before JJ posted, my step-son finally married his fiancé of approximately 14 years and we are so happy. Re the boat it was always a fantasy and, as such, it can appear occasionally with Arlo and the Janisnauts or whatever.
Would someone explain today’s strip please?
It seems that Guy Fawkes is unhappy.