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

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

Reason in the Sun

By Jimmy Johnson

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.

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108 responses to “Reason in the Sun”

  1. Jerry in Fl Avatar
    Jerry in Fl

    Cools’m all? Clever. I take it that no one knows the Guy Fawkes connection?

  2. Jerry in Fl Avatar
    Jerry in Fl

    Whoa! Lots of weather coming from Mississippi.

  3. Steve From Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    Jerry, I think today’s strip explains yesterday’s strip.

  4. Evan Avatar
    Evan

    …and the Bumpus hounds wreak havoc again. Curious, as their usual MO was turkeys.

  5. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Otis, this is Jackie. Jackie, Otis.

  6. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Yep, Meg will be a good CEO. “Employees? Oh, you mean ‘resources’.”

  7. Lost in A**2 Avatar
    Lost in A**2

    My thought was a quote from Shakespeare: “My daughter! My ducats!” Someday, I should read that play.

  8.  Avatar

    Well, I did think the same thing, hello Otis. However the Village has more nudists or naturists than one might think. The code of the clan is one does not out anyone unless they do themselves.

    So, hello Otis. And hello the rest of y’all too, I look forward to meeting you in person someday.

    Does this mean what I think? JJ has fans who would have Arlo and Janis sunbathing together? Whoa!!

  9. TruckerRon Avatar

    How are naturists dealing with the threat of drones today? My wife and I have decided to keep certain activities strictly indoors now despite our fine fence.

  10.  Avatar

    Some of us don’t care. But I might consider shooting one just on principle. Why would anyone want to do that?

  11. TruckerRon Avatar

    Voyeurism: Taking sexual pleasure from watching the activities of others because they are too immature or incompetent to be involved in an adult experience with someone themselves

  12. emb Avatar
    emb

    Well, I had the right family, Canidae, but the wrong genus, Vulpes. Turns out it was Canis lupus familiaris. Speaking of feathers as evidence, I sent this msg. to my blind copy biology group:

    “Those two black feathers at the edge of the nest are Anhinga tail feathers:

    http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/46/Great_Horned_Owls/

    Yesterday or Mon., the full tail was there. Thousands of visitors have probably seen them, so don’t rush to publish.” [G.H. Owl = Bubo virginianus; Anhinga = Anhinga anhinga.] Peace,

  13. Blinky the Wonder Wombat Avatar
    Blinky the Wonder Wombat

    I’m a naturist! I enjoy walks in the woods, observing little critters scurrying in the woods, watching birds in flight, the sound of a babbling brook… wait, naturists enjoy what? Are you sure?..Oh, never mind then…

  14.  Avatar

    That is true. I forget about those kinds of people
    No phones, tablets or cameras of any kind at resorts and clubs. I just thought people looking for evidence, like in divorces.

    Once when I was living in New Orleans and nine months pregnant I appeared in a dIvorce report because Mike’s boss let me use his suite at Royal Orleans to change clothes for a dinner there. I wonder what that detective was thinking?

  15. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Don’t know about back then, Jackie, but there seem to be so many kinky people around these days, that could be a thing now.

  16. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Not to by any means defend the inappropriate use of small drones, but before you shoot one down for trespassing over your private property you may want to ask yourself if you actually own and control the airspace over that property. If you don’t, you are likely about to commit a crime yourself.

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/drones-boom-raises-new-question-who-owns-your-airspace-1431535417

  17. sandcastler™ Avatar
    sandcastler™

    GR6, yes drones are a new legal issue. Like with most new technology, the implementation shows the weaknesses in existing laws, forcing new regulations.

    IMHO, drones and advances in electric and autonomous vehicles will not live up to current hype. Still too many unaddressed topics. I view it more like the space mania of 50 years ago; there is still no space tourism and no human has gone over ~250 miles above earth.

  18.  Avatar

    Well, I have good hip bones so that’s not the problem. Have to have MRI of those pesky lumbar vertebrae and it will mean a new specialist. And those torn rotator cuffs aren’t going anywhere, along with knees, until one year post open on carotid surgery.

    She said at least get a cane since I insist on keeping active.

  19. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    That’s good news on the hips. Good luck on the rest.

  20. Ruth Anne in Winter Park Avatar
    Ruth Anne in Winter Park

    Debbe has educated us about avian flu. Good to see the NY Times spreading the word. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/magazine/the-looming-threat-of-avian-flu.html?_r=1

  21. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    This story is based on actual events, as reported in an entry on the local gaol booking log…

    “Got my meth? Check.
    “Got my weed? Check.
    “BAC over .08 percent? Check.
    “Open container of alcohol in hand? Check.
    “Got my driver’s license? Naw, already suspended.
    “Now what can I do? Oh, I know…I’ll jump in this car that belongs to some else, the one with the expired tag, and go joy riding! And when I get stopped, I’ll resist arrest! Well, got my evening planned.”

    Who says there’s nothing to do at night outside the major metropolitan areas?

  22.  Avatar

    This has been a day. Have to go donate blood fasting, ie. Lab work in morning. If they found me an open MRI machine I have to go have that done.

    Dickens got groomed, found out he can go to Petsmart anywhere we travel, good to know. He is a big love bug charmer, got four toys including chicken, alligator, bunny Peeps, a beaver and what may be a second alligator?

    I wanted the Spoiled but Not Ruint tee-shirt for him but they only had large sizes left.

  23. Burns Fisher Avatar
    Burns Fisher

    Jimmy, tell us you planned today’s strip to (almost) coincide with Beverly Cleary’s birthday, and that the chicken (or the dog)’s name Ramona was not a coincidence!

  24. Mark in Boston Avatar
    Mark in Boston

    I haven’t been here in a while but I had to ask with regard to today’s strip: Is she actually getting 33 cents per egg wholesale? Or did Ramona lay a dozen a day?