I might as well take the tiger by the horns. From 1995, here’s an old strip on a familiar theme, Arlo pining for a sailboat. That’s your cue to chorus, “So, what happened to Arlo’s boat that Gus gave him?” The scientific answer would be, Nothing, because I haven’t let anything happen. Yet. The reality is more complicated. Probably, it was a mistake to give Arlo a boat. The perfect analogy is Charlie Brown and the football. The story and the humor were in his desire and frustration. Kick it, and the tension would be gone. Now that Arlo, in theory, has a boat, what happens? Obviously, I could do a lot of boat gags. It would be easy! Forty people who follow the strip would love them. I know; I”m one of them. Everyone else would get bored. However… I’ve tried to explain before, comics don’t exactly move in real time. This isn’t to say the boat won’t reappear. Certainly, we can talk about it.
Saleboat
By Jimmy Johnson
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73 responses to “Saleboat”
I think Arlo and Janis stayed on it during the wedding festivities and Janis loved it, talked about how cute everything was. Or maybe that was just ahead of Gus giving it to Arlo?
I have more trouble with real time than comics time!
By the way, our schooner is living in Pensacola, FL now with a happy owner who loves her.
She spent some time in Penobscot Bay in Maine and in the Caribbean. None of it with us.
You see, I know the story of my Arlo’s schooner, I know what choices he made, so I want to learn more about Arlo’s. Consider it JJ looking through our windows at us.
Love, Jackie Monies
Blinky, that is a really funny story and one I had not heard.
Love, Jackie Monies
Blinky, that was hilarious
There’s always the “be careful what you wish for” angle. Owning a boat is much more complex than merely WANTING one.
In keeping with my resolution to be “on topic” at least once a week, here is a cartoon question. Did Jimmy hand-draw panels 1 and 3 in this cartoon?
http://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2013/05/18#.U3EKT_ldWa8
“A man’s reaqch should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?” -Robert Browning
Love that edition, Ghost!
I took the bait, Ghost … sure made me smile! Very clever idea, Jimmy.
{The below comment disappeared (twice), so I’ll try again. If it shows up later, I apologize for the duplication. Also, I’ll post the link separately to see if that helps.}
Jackie, from your comment that you only started lurking here a couple of years ago, you may not know about Jimmy’s “Cartooner Schooner”. I’m not sure of the dates of his ownership, but I believe it ended pre-Katrina and well pre-A&J-blog-in-its-present-form. Of course, there are probably a number of folks around here who, for one reason or another, don’t date back that far. Heck, Lily was probably still in elementary school. 🙂
The link is kicking out the comment, no matter how I format it. If you want to see the Cartooner Schooner,try googling “cartooner schooner”.
Or perhaps you can click on this:
http://www.arloandjanis.com/Johnson-schooner.jpg
Yay!
Thank you, Ghost! Yes, I knew about the Cartooner Schooner and figured Arlo’s schooner was based on Jimmy’s. But I could NOT find a photo of her anywhere. I tried Googling her name, nothing. I knew Jimmy had donated her to one of the nautical museums down in Florida panhandle, so I tried writing some, still no results.
I was terribly afraid she had been lost in one of the hurricanes. Believe you me, I check on the health of “our” schooner all the time, as much as I can. Boats, especially these kind are not to be parted with lightly.
Jimmy, would it be rude to ask about the fate of the Cartooner Schooner?
Does Arlo’s boat/schooner have a name? The procedure to change the name of a boat is so complicated many do not do so. I mean, it is the offerings and prayer to all the gods of the sea and wind and compass points, not to mention the libations flung into the water and all the attending guests.
Love, Jackie Monies
Jackie, some have been threatening for years to organize a get-together of sorts for the Villagers, or the A&L Irregulars, or whatever we decide to call ourselves. A symbolic re-christening of Arlo’s schooner would certainly seem to be a perfectly good (or at least adequate) excuse for doing so. 🙂
Rechristening a boat also requires the wearing of a costume that looks rather papal, some long prayers (often read) and copious amounts of consumable fare, both liquid and solid.
And music! Which depends how seriously and dignified you want your service to be. I generally favor boat music and boat drinks. I cannot remember if we actually broke a bottle on any of our boats or not. Lately we just pray for the paint to be dry before we launch them.
Love, Jackie Monies
Off topic, but wouldn’t this have read better with possession of inserted between the two last words?
Man arrested for Ecstasy
Headline from a Tennessee newspaper.
I love really bad headlines.
Love, Jackie Monies
Mark here is another for you. When I came to Oklahoma the first week to house hunt the local newspaper had a banner headline:
“Bumper Marihuana Crop Predicted For Year”
I go “Have they legalized production here already?” This was 20 years ago, so no.
Love, Jackie Monies
Schrödinger’s Boat
It is and it isn’t – all at the same time
Jimmy:
In terms of humor, whatever floats your boat is fine.
Thank you Ghost for providing the link because when I googled Cartooner Schooner I once again got about a thousand unrelated links!
There is a reason of course. When a boat designer or marine architect draws the original profile drawing of a boat he is designing (or thinks he may design) it is a black and white pen and ink called a “cartoon.”
Often that is as far as it goes and the real design and specifications is never done. Prolific designers like the late Phil Bolger (think the boats you saw in “Master and Commander” the movie which were his designs) often drew hundreds and hundreds of cartoons which exist only in that form today, no plans.
Love, Jackie Monies (I noticed that Jimmy labeled her a project boat-I know that term!)
“Project boat”, as in “boat” meaning “Break Out Another Thousand”?
Jackie, do a search for funny wedding announcements. Some of them had me laughing till I nearly cried. Not all safe for family reading so I won’t post a link, but they aren’t hard to find. And yes, I get a kick out of typos and unintentionally funny headlines too.
The most unintentionally funny headline I’ve seen on an actual newspaper was:
“Boring Woman Dies in Highway Crash”
The full article in the online paper is at:
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/january052008/fatal_boring_1508.php
I showed it to my kids and reminded them that it’s important to be interesting.
Jackie, I have both these books and they are hilarious. Not only headlines but also some combinations of serious headlines which the newspapers put with photos that made a joke out of it.
http://www.amazon.com/Red-Tape-Holds-New-Bridge/dp/0399514066