Tan Lines

by

May 7, 1999

Speaking of the spring topic of swimsuits, this is an old favorite of the genre which, according to my archives, I haven’t shown here recently. If there is an example here of how comic strips should work and why they’re fun, it’s in panel three. Panel three is the climactic panel (as the third panel of four often is). It advances the action with nothing but two bare feet, leaving the rest to the reader’s imagination.

25 thoughts on “Tan Lines”

    • Or, either insultingly or merely seeming not to notice her exposure: “pardon me, sir”. The latter interpretation would be to indicate he didn’t see anything private….

  2. Re 4-13-21 real-time cartoon: Ah. Tank tops. That explains it. I thought yesterday (Monday) that Janis’s top seemed considerably more skimpy than the recent norm for her, even in the summertime.

  5. This happened to one of Elaine’s Brewster, NY high school classmates in the mid ’40s. Either Elaine or another girl woke the supine girl, but nobody knows if any passing male was just quietly appreciative.
    Peace,

  8. I first heard this joke when I was just old enough to understand. It was told by Jack Parr on his album “The Best of What’s His Name.”
    Down in Florida, there’s a little hotel, four floors high. A girl used to take a sunbathe there every day. Since there were no higher hotels near it, she would take off her bathing suit and be in the nude. So she was in the nude and she was lying on her stomach, and she heard someone coming up the steps. She quickly grabbed the towel and put it around her. The man said, “I wish you wouldn’t sunbathe in the nude up here.” She said, “You never protested before.” He said, “No, but I wish you would do it like you did before, in your bathing suit. “She said, “Why do you care? No one can see.” He said, “Madam, you happen to be lying on the skylight of a dining room.”

  9. John L French, that reminds me of Jackie’s story about sunbathing on the roof of her apartment building on a college campus. I don’t recall all the details, but it was an area that couldn’t be seen from the ground, with no higher buildings nearby. So, she was taking advantage of the privacy one day when she heard someone coming up the stairs. Before she could cover herself a group touring the college appeared on the roof, red faces all round.

  10. Mark. It was the garden club touring the historic building and floral grounds of estate where I lived on top floor in the castle’s tower!!

  12. Overheard in Bullet the SUV on the way back from Tulsa this afternoon (Jackie has been reading up on random subjects which interest her, in this cases “celery”):
    Jackie: The ancient Greeks thought that celery was an aphrodisiac. The Romans, on the other hand, used it as a funerary item. In fact, Julius Caesar’s body was laid out on a bier lined with celery.
    Ghost: So that would have been, like, the original Caesar Salad?

  13. Before the Romans, the Egyptians wove celery garlands and draped mummies. Archeologists found celery in tombs thousands of years later dried.

    • Anonymous, I don’t know if they are sad or not. My grandfather was a meter reader for Alabama Power for years. He said he never knew what he was going to find when he went to read them. Aggressive dogs, snakes in the meter box, wasps, spiders. Not my idea of fun, for sure. He never mentioned any half-naked sunbathing women.

  16. During 18th century Celery became known as aphrodisiac again. Casanova ate tons and wrote in his diary about it. !Louis XV wife/mistress bed him celery soup daily trying to have his heir.

    Celery with pimento cheese, cream cheese or peanut butter is my favourite snack. I get lots fiber ANF a hundred nutrients. No sex.

    This is Jackie not Mark. Not repaired Village.

  19. Interesting facts about the celery – thanks! Cucumbers have also had an interesting history: All of the ancient Roman writers on agriculture mention the cucumber, but the Greeks name for cucumber is sikys, meaning the plant has no aphrodisiac qualities. The emperor Tiberius had a remarkable partiality for it, and Charlemagne enjoyed it as well. It was first introduced in England during the time of King Edward III, and Columbus introduced it to Haiti in 1494. Cucumbers were planted at Jamestown in the first years of that settlement. They were one of the foods, including peanuts, okra, blackeyed peas, pumpkins and melons that were associated with African foodways. They often first appeared in the gardens of slaves who had raised them in various parts of Africa.

    Cucumbers were planted at Jamestown in the first years of that settlement as recorded in A True Declaration of the estate of the Colonie in Virginia (1610). They were one of the foods, including peanuts, okra, blackeyed peas, pumpkins and melons that were associated with African foodways. They often first appeared in the gardens of slaves who had raised them in various parts of Africa.

    I really like cucumbers, and I chose to bring cucumber salad to a luncheon with my friends, where we shared interesting facts about the origins of the food we brought. Anyone else want to share some foody facts?

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