I came across the above tidbit this morning while I was looking for material for a rare Monday post. I often am asked if I lock horns with my syndicate editors over some of the content in Arlo & Janis. My unsatisfying answer inevitably is, “Almost never.” The above comic is a rare exception. I was asked to change the original punchline from “To think there was a time I wanted to sleep with you more than anything.” My handlers thought that might be a bit much. We settled on the above. I don’t think it is as clear and effective as the original–of course! I think it confuses the wordplay, such as it is, and introduces an out-of-character tension. Also, I am not sure to this day how the change cleared up my editors’ concerns, but there it is. When then-young jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald was being introduced to a general audience via radio and television, she was asked to change the title and lyrics of her hit “Roll with Me, Henry!” to “Dance with Me Henry.” I am in good company, and her song was a lot better than my cartoon, in either form.
14 responses to “Sleep Clinic”
Maybe it’s just a tad less lustfull, as the Arlo that comes to mind wanting to sleep with Janis is a little more jacked-up than the Arlo who already slept with her. Because of course he was married by then, authorized by God and The State. ?
Where is his Cpap machine?
Today my first thought after laughing was “Arlo, she’s saving your life!” When it was published back in 2002 I just would have laughed. The difference, of course, is I’d never thought about sleep apnea back then when neither of us audibly snored. Today, when we travel, we carry with us a power strip so both our machines can share an outlet in a motel room.
Now that brings up an interesting thought: you can tell how old a hotel or motel is by the number of outlets in the room. Here in Colorado, the building code requires at least one on every wall, and they can’t be more than twelve feet apart, at least in residential buildings. I don’t know about other kinds of buildings or how far back that bit of building code goes.
Arlo!
Etta James sang Roll With Me, Henry/Dance With Me, Henry, not Ella Fitzgerald.
Also, the part of Henry was sung by Richard Berry, the guy that wrote “Louie, Louie” and “Have Love, Will Travel”.
Then there was the time “The Rolling Stones” had to change their lyrics to “Let’s Spend Some Time Together”, when they performed on the Ed Sullivan show.
Good Company indeed!
A Peregrine is back from the South at the Great Spirit site. Web cam has been following it around.
https://explore.org/livecams/birds/falcon-nest-cam
Just watched a MT Long-eared Owl swallowing a mouse, w/ great difficulty, w/ a magpie in attendance in case the owl gave up? [cam set on IR; still dark in MT.] Can’t post 2 URLs at once, but you can scroll down from the above site.
Peace,
This MNDNR site is not an Explore site. A new pair of adults is using the site & it now has 3 eggs. Livecam itself now has an incubating adult [both sexes incubate]. Scroll down from that to watch clips of actual laying of eggs 1 & 3. PG13. Am guessing that dad may be nearby since mom may be vulnerable during egg-laying, but that may be wishful thinking. [There’s a good theological ABC book entitled Wishful Thinking.]
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/features/webcams/eaglecam/index.html
Peace,
Cannot tell if this N Decorah eagle is incubating or not.
https://explore.org/livecams/birds/decorah-eagles-north-nest
Peace,
Not. Peace,
And yet, the “having trouble getting into (Janis’s) pants” cartoon apparently sailed right past the syndicate editors. Unless perhaps there was an earlier version of that one that was red flagged. 🙂
Don’t remember that one. Think censorship triggers are mostly particular verboten words, including more than a half dozen Brit relatives of our Black-capped chickadee.
“On a tree by a river a little tom t*t / sang willow, t*t willow, t*t willow.” Chickadee wouldn’t scan. Know what would happen if I misspelled cant; wonder how they’d respond to snatch.
Peace,
A&J apparently aren’t the only couple w/ issues. Cannot remember who Bacchus is usually paired with, but here she is.
https://thatispriceless.blogspot.com/
Peace,