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

Est. 1985

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Serendipity

By Jimmy Johnson

I hope you had a good Thanksgiving. It was called to my attention that the link to GoComics was missing from my Thanksgiving post yesterday. Well, it is back, and if you did fail to find your way to yesterday’s new Arlo & Janis, I hope you’ll go there today. You were in it. As for Janis’ sweater, she seems to have a strong preference for scoop-neck jerseys with three-quarter sleeves. I’ve tried to put her into other things, but she always comes back to her favorite.

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44 responses to “Serendipity”

  1. Llee Avatar
    Llee

    🙂 Thanks, Jimmy. A magnificent sculpture!
    Anyone else notice all the ads popping up today offering aspirin, antacids, vitamins and other “recovery” aids? Makes me laugh. Again. 🙂

    1. Mark in TTown Avatar
      Mark in TTown

      Zits has a funny story arc running about online ad placements and how they decide what you see.

      1. Cozmik Cowboy Avatar
        Cozmik Cowboy

        Insanity, that’s what it is.
        I bought a new snowblower Friday (not online, BTW); almost all my ads since have been for snowblowers; what part of “bought…Friday” do they not understand???

  2. Alan Avatar
    Alan

    Yesterday’s new comic had me thinking it was a block of ice in the first panel, then wondering how you raise a cloud of dust carving ice in the third – or is that a cloud of mist? – then deciding that the debris and sculpture shading made it stone, so I went back to panel one and started over. Reading the comments on GoComix this morning, it looks like the general commentership is divided between ice and stone as well.

    As for today’s heritage strip, I thought the three-quarter sleeves were from shrinkage until Jimmy set me straight. Now I’m wondering if shrinking a scoop-neck sweater makes a scoop-neck lower or higher. Extreme-decolletage or de-decolletage? I don’t have any scoop-neck sweaters to test, and my wife’s sweaters are not available for my laundry experiments.

  3. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Jimmy, have you tried putting Janis in a V-neck, sleeveless, bare-midriff sweater (after it was run through the washer and dryer, of course). That’s what I’d do, and I’m fairly sure Arlo would approve. 🙂

  4. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    For about the third year in row, I didn’t get to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade yesterday. I did run across a news article about there being some problems involving the balloons due to high winds. It mentioned that Kelly Rowland, Billy Porter, Lea Michele, Idina Menzel, T-Boz & Chilli, and the Black Eyed Peas were some of the “stars” making appearances during the parade.
    I suppose I’m just one step away from reaching peak old fogey-ism, as The Black Eyed Peas were the only one of those names I recognized. 🙁

    1. Ghost Avatar
      Ghost

      “If they had Bob Seger, The Stones, CCR, The Boss, Dire Straits, and Cheap Trick in the parade, then they’d be talking! And rockin’!”
      “OK, boomer.”

      1. Galliglo of Ohio Avatar
        Galliglo of Ohio

        Wish I had that “like” button, Ghost! Especially Seger & CLR!

      2. Mark in TTown Avatar
        Mark in TTown

        Oh yeah!

    2. TruckerRon Avatar

      I recognized Idina Menzel… she was Elphaba, the main character of “Wicked” on Broadway when it started in 2003. I’ve never seen her in the role, but she and her costar Kristin Chenoweth (who played Glinda) put on quite the show. More recently Idina provided the voice for Elsa in Disney’s “Frozen.” And, of course, she’s been in many, many more productions, films, etc., than I could list here.
       
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idina_Menzel
       
      And she is very easy on the eyes!

      1. TooFun Avatar
        TooFun

        My father used to say that he “liked to watch Dolly Patton’s voice”.

  5. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    No leftover pumpkin pie with whipped cream for me…my alma mater is playing Tennessee.

  6. Steve From Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    Jimmy our rival are the same colors as your rival. Our colors are old Gold and Black, but hopefully the turkey won’t end up blackened. War Eagle!!!

    I am ABA (Anybody But that other team that we will not mention!)

  7. emb Avatar
    emb

    Screech Owl [not sure which sp.] on post by osprey nest. Ospreys S for the winter. Often see magpies there during day.

    https://explore.org/livecams/birds/charlo-montana-osprey-nest

    Peace,

  8. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    Now if you had said:
    Mel Torme
    Kate Smith
    Dion
    Annette
    Then I would know about whom you were talking. 🙂

    1. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
      curmudgeonly ex-professor

      At least I have heard of them, unlike the previous posts’ contents! Was there more than one “Dion” or do you refer to the Belmonts(sp?)? Annette: the late Funicello or a different person?
      I’d add the Platters, Harry Belafonte, Bing Crosby, the Kingston Trio and a few more which don’t come to mind at the moment. Hmmm…. Pat Boone – who was nice enough to write a personal letter of encouragement to my first girlfriend more than 60 years ago – and Larry Hooper, the basso profundo with Lawrence Welk.
      I am vintage 1940, for reference purposes.
      Anyone else want to list some?

      1. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
        Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

        Do you recall the Hilltoppers?

  9. emb Avatar
    emb

    Kenny Baker [Dennis Day’s predecessor on the Jack Benny show]. Believe he was also Nanki Poo in the ’30s movie of “The Mikado,” much truer to G&S than the ’80s Broadway remake of “The Pirates of Penzance,” and a better light opera to start with. Kay Kaiser, Bing Crosby, Phil Harris [don’t know that he sang often or ever on the Benny show, but he did well on an LP, “That’s what I like about the South.” His “St. James Infirmary Blues” is priceless. Chad Mitchell Trio was good. We had one LP.
    Maurice Chevalier in the ’30s & earlier, but I didn’t get to know of him until the ’50s. Singer/standup comedian Stanley Holloway made several LPs once he’d become famous as Mr. Dolittle in “My Fair Lady.” He was also Bottom, the Weaver in the Lawrence Olivier version of “A midsummer night’s dream” and Alec Guinness’s cohort in “The Lavender Hill mob.” Don’t think he had a role in either “The Captain’s Paradise” or “The Man in the White Suit.”
    Actually, paid little attention to popular music during my JHS-Stuyvesant HS-Cornell years, when everyone else did. G&S is another matter. Have been a Savoyard since the mid-’40s. Martyn Greene is still unsurpassed in the First Lord of the Admiralty, Koko, Bunthorne, Lord Chancellor, Grand Inquisitor roles. He was Koko in the movie, no?
    Peace,

    1. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
      curmudgeonly ex-professor

      Groucho Marx as Koko is the one I remember.

  10. Tom (formerly) from the front range. Avatar
    Tom (formerly) from the front range.

    Wooo, Wooo! Big Tiger Smile!

  11. TruckerRon Avatar

    “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.”
     
    — Albert Einstein (or so the Internet claims)

  12. emb Avatar
    emb

    Martin Green* did Koko in the ’39 movie, Groucho in the ’60s remake. I should watch that if I can. *The extra e in Greene, above, is my goof. Peace,

  13. emb Avatar
    emb

    “Using the G.I. Bell, he majored in voice at the prestigious Juilliard School … .” That’s the one they put on display when the Liberty Bell has the day off. Peace,

  14. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    emb, maybe you’ll like this. Just ran across it on YouTube and thought of you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT-h6BDiV50

  15. emb Avatar
    emb

    Mark:
    Thanks. Pkg. arr. once /a BSU biology grad, a peccary skull from the desert SW. She wrote that every time she sees a skull, she thinks of me. It is heartwarming to realize that my “children” are out there, nation-wide. The skull, of course, is in the BSU collection, in the EMB Vertebrate Museum [that cost me, but it’s an appropriate memorial].
    Peace,

  16. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
    curmudgeonly ex-professor

    Of more recent vintage, but still probably 25 years ago, I enjoyed the renditions of the young Charlotte Church (Welsh). Some of her best are “Panis Angelicus” and “Men of Harlech”, better known as “The March of the Men of Harlech”. What a perfect voice she exhibited – and held her own with a chorus of about 50 men, too. Worth seeking out on you tube….

  17. Steve From Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    I went over 100K views on a You Tube video featuring my singing. I was both surprised and humbled. So just because some is “popular” does not make it good. And vice versa.

  18. Ruth Anne in Winter Park Avatar
    Ruth Anne in Winter Park

    So many comments I’ve wanted to make, here and elsewhere, in the last week that I had to forgo due to computer issues. My tablet has lost its ability to connect to the internet; there doesn’t seem to be a quick fix and the holiday required my attention instead. Not really sure it’s worth the effort anyway given the tablet’s age and its increasingly inefficient battery. It’s easier to type longer comments on the desktop computer (like now) but the tablet is really nice for just reading email, Facebook, webcams, etc., and for traveling obviously. Any suggestions or recommendations for a new Windows tablet? Yes, I know there are other, possibly better, platforms but that’s what I’m used to and so that’s what I want. 🙂

    1. Mark in TTown Avatar
      Mark in TTown

      I would suggest Android rather than Windows tablet. I use an 8 inch Samsung myself since I mostly use it for reading books. I do my email, facebook and the like on my desktop pc.

      1. Ruth Anne in Winter Park Avatar
        Ruth Anne in Winter Park

        I’ve been using my Samsung phone for FB, etc., for almost everything this week. Using it now, in fact. There are things on my old tablet that I want on a new one that I don’t think would work on Android.

        1. Mark in TTown Avatar
          Mark in TTown

          What brand tablet do you have now? Unless it’s an Apple, it is probably running Android. I don’t think there are many that use a Windows system. https://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/tablets/windows-8-tablets-release-date-specs-and-prices-916134

          1. Ruth Anne in Winter Park Avatar
            Ruth Anne in Winter Park

            It’s an ASUS that I’ve had since 2014 and it’s definitely Windows. Can’t remember what it had to begin with but I upgraded to Windows 10. Since I share the desktop PC with my husband (and our desk chair is not the most comfortable seat in the house), I have really enjoyed using this one. It even has a detachable keyboard for when I get tired of waiting my turn or for when we’re traveling and I’m feeling wordy or want to download pictures from my camera.

  19. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    Can’t help RA 🙁

    Mitch Miller
    Ink Spots
    .
    Phil Harris was just on rebroadcast of Jimmy Dean Show where he did
    Harold Hill ‘s Trouble in River City, He was in Music Man at the time (& F Troop)
    .
    I used to con the baby sitter into letting me watch Your Hit Parade with Snooky Lanson
    & Gisele McKenzie.

    1. Old Bear Avatar
      Old Bear

      My error It was Forest Tucker that was on Jimmy Dean and in F Troop
      .
      Phil Harris was Baloo The Bear in Walt Disney’s Jungle Book
      .
      Doris Day
      Gogi Grant – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cQUVtbztEs
      Patsy Cline
      Rosemary Clooney
      Bill Black’s Combo – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VD5cLnDYGU

    2. Galliglo of Ohio Avatar
      Galliglo of Ohio

      Oh my gosh! I haven’t thought of them in YEARS!

  20. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    A whole post disappeared
    .
    It was Forest Tucker that was on Jimmy Dean Show & F Troop
    .
    Doris Day
    Gogi Grant
    Patsy Cline
    Bill Black’s Combo – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VD5cLnDYGU

    1. Old Bear Avatar
      Old Bear

      It was 2 links that killed the post

      Gogi Grant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cQUVtbztEs

      1. Old Bear Avatar
        Old Bear

        Rosemary Clooney
        .
        Tex Ritter Ranch Party Show 1957- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCVdHFHpFBg
        with Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, & others

        1. TruckerRon Avatar

          I’d bet the farm (if I had one!) that my dad watched that Tex Ritter Ranch Party Show. He went to Dyess High School with Johnny Cash and sometimes took us kids backstage at his concerts in Memphis.

    2. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
      curmudgeonly ex-professor

      I recall most of those names, too.

  21. emb Avatar
    emb

    Trucker: There is a conspiracy among cartoonists to fix in the public’s minds a distorted picture of astro telescopes, even the standard 20th C giants. No, they are not just oversized spyglasses that you look through the back end of; no, the scope, when in use, does not stick out through that slot in the dome; no, if a spider dangles in front of the scope, it is not clearly magnified 100x. Yech.
    Peace,
    Incurable elitist scientist.

    1. TruckerRon Avatar

      I wonder how many cartoonists actually have looked through a telescope? Or even visited a planetarium? Do they all look at a reference book of stock drawings? Or do they just stick with the public’s idea of one so there’s no question that it’s a telescope?
       
      One exception is John Hambrock. His “Edison Lee” has a nice refractor or catadioptric telescope:
       
      https://www.seattlepi.com/comics-and-games/fun/Edison/2019-11-25/