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

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

Storied Past

By Jimmy Johnson

October 29, 2001


Here is the beginning of a series from 2001, tangentially related to the A&J strips running currently in newspapers and on GoComics. Both series are about long-standing couples and the lives they lived before they met and the stories they tell about those lives. And don’t tell. Actually, I prefer the older treatment. Well, it’s the week of Thanksgiving, and I’m going to give you a preview of coming attractions. Did you know that when Abraham Lincoln proclaimed “Thanksgiving” a more-or-less official federal holiday, it was to be observed on the last Thursday of November? Though acceptance of this directive varied slightly among the states, it generally held true until 1939, when FDR decided Thanksgiving should be observed on the next-to-last Thursday, to give a boost to the Christmas shopping season in a nation still living through the Great Depression. This was done for a while, but it wasn’t universally popular by any means. For one thing, Republican lawmakers felt the Democratic president was “dissing” Honest Abe Lincoln, a fellow Republican. As a result, in 1942, everyone agreed Thanksgiving would be the fourth Thursday in November, which usually is the last Thursday in November, but not always. I think I got that right. Anyway, why is this a preview? I visit this tidbit of history in an upcoming comic strip.


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48 responses to “Storied Past”

  1. Steve From Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    Yes, you got it right. Although Republican lawmakers had little say during that time, I think many people liked the tradition of the fourth Thursday. The idea of spurring the economy by moving Thanksgiving was understandable, but did little to accomplish that fact.

    Today, especially this year, fewer people are actually going to stores and malls. Just a reminder to try to support the local, small businesses, especially restaurants during this period. We are not allowed to dine-in in Michigan, so even though we had plenty of food to cook with, we placed a take out last night.

    We have also decided to eat separately on Thursday with a Zoom call later in the day. I intend to go to the part and walk/run 21 times around it for my fifth marathon of the year. I have walked 1300 miles this year, walking 5 days a week except for a couple days to heal a plantar fasciitis and when I got hit by a car. When I ran a marathon every year from 1992 to 2005, I only did 3 runs a week as I was always nursing injuries. I have much to be thankful for this year!

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

    The last 5 Thursday November was 2018. The next one is in 2023. Oh the excitement.

    1. JJ Avatar
      JJ

      Palpable, isn’t it?

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

        Yes. I can hardly wait for 2028 and 2029 when it happens in consecutive years!

        1. joe d Avatar
          joe d

          lets hope we are stil here to celebrate

  3. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Halley’s Comet is due to return in 2061. Be sure to enter that on your computer and smart phone calendars.

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

      What worries me the most is that I might be here to see it.

  4. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Jackie has left a message on her FB site that she is now in hospital in Tulsa with a broken leg. No further information at this time. Hopefully Ghost will be able to update us later. Prayers for a good and fast recovery, Jackie.

  5. Jackie Avatar
    Jackie

    No further information is because I don’t know. Surgery is on hold because of blood thinners. I met the trauma and knee surgeon and he is coming back tomorrow with a plan.

    Major damage and surgery I am afraid. I went airborne from my bedroom into living room.

    1. David in Granbury Avatar
      David in Granbury

      Jackie, sorry that you were injured. Falls and leg injuries are the pits. You have both my positive thoughts and prayers (even though I dislike that phrase, because it often implies no other action!). In this case, I don’t know that there is anything we can do for you, though. :/

    2. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
      curmudgeonly ex-professor

      Indeed, sorry to hear of the nasty fall. Ghost may need to sneak you a turkey leg while you’re in a facility! Tell him to make certain it doesn’t smell TOO good, lest the staff demand more. A pocket full of cranberry sauce would be special, but a lot messier!!

  6. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Jackie did indeed become airborne…for a very short distance. If “any landing you walk away from is a good landing”, hers was a very bad one. That said, she was very fortunate; the manner in which she fell could easily have produced serious head or spinal trauma.
    I have to say, for a rural area, the medical response here was quite good. The ambulance arrived expeditiously, and it was staffed by a very competent paramedic and his EMT partner. Their service was not permitted to transport her to the Tulsa medical center where most of her docs work (probably because it would take them out of their service area too long, I imagine), but they could and did take her to a closer facility that is part of the same system, where the ER doc had her x-rayed and evaluated her and made arrangements for the “mother ship” in Tulsa to accept her (no small thing, in this era of COVID-19), and arranged for her to be transported there.
    I visited her this afternoon and found her good spirits and denying any serious pain. Not that there’s a good time to break a leg (or more precisely, to fracture one’s tibia and fibula), but just before a holiday/weekend combination is even less optimal. As she said, though, they do need to get her off her blood thinner anyway, so it’s going to take some time to get her wheel fixed and realigned.
    Updates will follow as I have them.

  7. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    The Dickens Severe Weather Alert System…
    Dickens jumps up in my lap; climbs up on my chest; tucks his head between my neck and shoulder; and begins shaking: Dickens Severe Weather Alert is in effect, and rain/thunder-bumpers are 10 minutes out.
    Dickens stops shaking and begins snoring: Dickens Severe Weather Alert has expired.

  8. Oldbear Avatar
    Oldbear

    Prayers Jackie
    .
    Momma Bear took a header also – she said takeoff and flight were uneventful, but landing was a doozy.
    Fortunately no surgery – but wing in a sling, so lots of stuff takes 3 hands. {^!^}
    .
    There will be a place at our table for you and Ghost if he is good – (other wise he will have to sit with the kids. LOL)
    There is a place set for all that can not be with us.

  9. Oldbear Avatar
    Oldbear

    This is so real – All old stories are new if never heard before (by a new audience).
    .
    I wish I could hear my father’s stories – even ones he told many times.

  10. Sideburns Avatar

    My parents were married on THAT Thanksgiving, so their anniversary could never land on Thanksgiving.

  11. Jackie Avatar
    Jackie

    I am getting lots of new experiences. I will let Ghost entertain you if he can compose better words.

    Most of my care team have had COVID-19. SEVERAL HAVE WORKED on floors. I want no one to deny this disease. I have nothing but respect and gratitude.

    My nursing team is male and female, all colors of skin, speak many languages, native of many nations. All Americans and the gentlest, kindest souls. Give thanks they chose medicine and health care. I do.

  12. emb Avatar
    emb

    As I said at a banquet where I accepted a posthumous alumna award for Elaine, “There are more Elaine’s out there than there are Nurse Racheds.”
    Peace,

  13. emb Avatar
    emb

    Strupid apostrophe! Even Homer nods.

  14. Jackie Avatar
    Jackie

    I wish I could tell you of latest hospital equipment.. it is bizarre.

    They are keeping my pain controlled with same drugs I have been on. That’s good.

    Food is mediocre. Not holding out hope for Thanksgiving dinner. No pie on menu.

    1. Galliglo from Ohio Avatar
      Galliglo from Ohio

      Awesome! When I lived in Florida, we had a pyracantha tree that dropped its berries before the robins came south for the winter. When the robins got there, the fruit had fermented. Drunken robins can do a lot of loops!

  15. Jackie Avatar
    Jackie

    We had a large flock of drunken birds in New Orleans in the Garden District once. I don’t recall berries or type bird. Back yard was lined with trees, froze, fermented. Birds passed out all over yard.

    I cut trees down.

  16. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
    curmudgeonly ex-professor

    Re: today’s {No 25} A&J: If Janis modeled for an “advanced figure drawing” class, wouldn’t use of a costume or drape tend to negate the avowed purpose of the class? Sure, if she stood there (as today) in a toga, the students could draw her hands or feet or face. The students could just as easily draw her hands or feet or face if she remained clad in her ordinary attire, so why the toga? Same idea for a costume.
    .
    I do admit that I have zero experience in such art classes, so, perhaps, I am totally missing some point. How about it, JJ? For that matter, if any Villagers have been in such art classes, speak up with thoughts.

  17. emb Avatar
    emb

    Happy TG from another strip. [Small gathering, as my nomination for Person of the Year suggests.]
    https://www.arcamax.com/thefunnies/dustin/
    Peace,

  18. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    cxp: Certainly not an artist (and never attended an art class), but I suspect that togas and costumes are used so that the students may learn how to draw the drape and folds of material and clothing, something that seems to me to be as difficult to render realistically as human features and body parts.
    Re 11-25-20 real-time cartoon: Those “some days” of Janis’s modeling gig may explain this…
    https://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2001/11/28

    1. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
      curmudgeonly ex-professor

      Your point is well-taken, BUT, learning how to draw drapery, etc., is not what I’d expect in an “advanced figure drawing class”. I’d expect drapery drawing to be covered in some other earlier class.

  19. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Happy Thanksgiving to all!
    They did manage to do Jackie’s imaging study late yesterday afternoon, but it still remains to be seen if the surgeon will get back to her today with his surgical plan. We shall see.
    I’ll be headed that way as soon as I hear from her. Perhaps there will be some news by the time I get there.

  20. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Re 11-26-20 real-time cartoon: Yes, I’m sure that those students were so serious about their artistic pursuits that they looked at 100% naked * Janis the same as they would have any other still-art prop.
    *I didn’t have to do any math.

    1. TruckerRon Avatar

      It’s interesting how our brains process what we see given circumstances. The same EMT who gets no thrill from seeing exposed female chests when administering CPR or using an AED reacts differently when seeing them in other situations.
       
      https://japantoday.com/category/national/man-revives-woman-with-aed-but-branded-pervert-for-removing-her-clothes-to-apply-electrode-pads

      1. Ghost Avatar
        Ghost

        Seems somewhat as though the driver was wanting to get rid of his passenger. But I’ll be charitable and assume he bumped his head in the accident and was possibly concussed.

  21. Jackie Avatar
    Jackie

    Ghost gave correct answer. I typed same answer and erased it. I can draw naked people easier than clothed.

    In eay 1960s no one got nude for any reason in college, art or photagraphy. Grounds for expulsion.

  22. Oldbear Avatar
    Oldbear

    That is why we have “Good Samaritan” laws in this country.
    .
    Many people would rather the victim die rather than be exposed.
    .
    Happy Thanksgiving All
    .
    Prayers Jackie