The Big Fix

by


Ludwig should see the cats on the Web! This, from 2012. It’s been a very busy week around here, as I’m sure it’s been at your place. I missed posting yesterday altogether, because of my holiday work schedule, but at least I’m done with that. Now it’s on to last-minute Christmas shopping. Is there any other kind?

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62 thoughts on “The Big Fix”

  1. My daughter played football for a professional woman’s league and the team won the National Championship. The next year the team put out a fund raising calendar and my daughter was Miss November. I posted on FB: ” Happiness is seeing your daughter featured in a calendar and she’s dressed in a football uniform and not something much less!”

    Took yesterday and today off. Walked 14 Miles in honor of my birthday today. It’s not sexy, but felt good. I can’t imagine fighting cancer. All these warriors have my prayers and undying respect.

  6. Nice story, Steve.

    Everyone have a great holiday. I have Christmas, wife’s birthday, my birthday, then new years and no work.
    Usually a good week of the year.

  7. c x-p:

    Our older son [currently pastor at Cascade UMC] and his wife Kandy did a comparable charitable gift [not 500# of fresh yak dung] for us and all others one Christmas decades back. Elaine, I, and his sibs were delighted. His nieces and nephew were either not yet born or to young to remember it. Don’t know what others’ responses may have been.

    Peace,

  8. Symply a Merry Christmas to all, we had a Fargone Channukah to remember, if you celebrated, hope you did too.

    May you all be at peace in all its’ convolutions

  10. Still decorating slowly and small trees. Of course we haven’t found the nine foot tree and it’s ornaments yet but there is next year!

    Merry Christmas! The frozen precipitation is moving this way from out of the West.

    Ghost is playing White Christmas on computer.

  12. Definitely cold rain out there, just above freezing, feels like 27. I am decorating tree in shorts and sleeveless tee with a consumptive cough.

    House is incredibly well insulated and cosy.

    Ghost is out in rain distributing Christmas gifts to my female friends. If it weren’t miserable he might enjoy that.

  14. Reminder:
    Starting at 0900 CST Sun. 24 Dec., MPR and affiliates nationwide will broadcast live 9 Lessons and Carols from King’s College Chapel at Cambridge Univ., UK. It w/b 1500 GMT there, with late daylight still lighting the stained glass windows [but not for long; they are farther N than Winnipeg, Can.].
    The 9 lessons [all KJV, the most literate if not most accurate translation of Hebrew Bible and New Testament scriptures] w/b read by various members of the campus and local communities, usually featuring sev. different UK accents, and the many more than 9 carols w/b sung by the KCC choir, boys whose voices haven’t changed yet, + a male student choir of former boys’ choir members whose voices have [and which, I believe, gave rise to the Kings Singers].
    The live program w/b rebroadcast at 1700 CST, and perhaps at various other times at other public radio stations. BUMC’s morning and late afternoon services conflict with both times; I w/b at our regular morning service only.

    Joyeux Weinachtsbaum

  22. Good morning all from wet Oklahoma. I woke up wanting to make ambrosia.

    Saved from Christmas pneumonia and the hospital by my plastic surgeon!

    Seriously. That man is going to get a Santa every time I go now for his collection.

    Merry Christmas or your holiday appropriate grreting. Love to all.

  24. Steve had I not loved Christmas all my life I probably would not have ended up as a professional Christmas designer. We get to create fantasy trees in so many themes.

    Still love it after all this time. I do miss the big real blue spruce fresh trees.

  25. Good morning from snowy Tulsa. Rained all day yesterday, went down to upper 20’s overnight. Started snowing before midnight, got a dusting. Most has stuck to cars but is disappearing from ground and roads. So i’ve had a white Christmas this year.

  27. Finishing up living room holiday decorating, a second small candy tree, elaborate mantel garland and a crowd ing of seasonal red, whites and crystal with candy glitz.

    Lit some candles and listening to beautiful Christmas music, O Holy Night, drinking cranberry juice.

    Looking for family photos to put in red or white frames on mantel.

    Three of my lighted mechanical gingerbread houses surfaced, maybe a fourth. I am delighted. Maybe we will find more?

    This is first time I have been happy and at peace with Christmas in many years. How odd to say while being treated for cancer I know, but. I am happy

  28. Jimmy the framed strips came today. Thank you and Reta. They are wonderful.

    Ghost and I will hang them tonight. They are my Christmas gift to both of us.

    You are the most amazing artist. Your line drawing and inking are meticulous, so perfect and flawless. I am incredulous and in awe.

  29. Jimmy, I really enjoyed the daily today. Both the Dali interpretation and how it supports the humor.

    Watched most of The Quiet Man a little earlier. Don’t remember if I commented like this last time around, but has anyone ever heard of Maureen O’Hara or John Wayne telling just what she whispered to him in the final scene before hopping across the river stones? His surprise seems very genuine.

  30. So glad to hear of your happy mental state, Jackie. I send my very best wishes for happy days to all of my Village friends. Love from Nancy K in AZ.

  31. Morphy, from IMDB: At the film’s conclusion, after the credits, we see Kate and Sean standing in their garden waving good-bye. Maureen O’Hara turns to John Wayne and whispers something in his ear, evoking a priceless reaction from Wayne. What was said was known only to O’Hara, Wayne and director John Ford. In exchange for saying this unscripted bit of text, O’Hara insisted that the exact line never be disclosed by any involved parties. In her memoirs she says that she refused to say the line at first as she “couldn’t possibly say that to Duke”, but Ford insisted, claiming he needed a genuine shock reaction from Wayne. The line remains a mystery to this day.

  32. And a Merry Christmas Eve to my Village friends…

    Sandy Paws stopped at the post office…had a key to big box #5…whoa, I thought, this is gonna be big…..

    I rushed home to open the taped, brown paper box, and I mean taped :), then the wrapping paper…and a kitteh Christmas card (with glitter too)……finally got the box open without cutting myself 😉

    Oh.. my.. cat,there were several pairs of socks with kitteh on them in every color, a hot pink ball with kitteh ears (Ian said they looked like lil horns on me), and a black stocking cap with crystal jewels as kitteh ears, a lovely brooch and necklace….thank you Sandy Paws. You made my day bright.

    Have to run to CVS later, I’ll be wearing my black tobaggan with the crystal kitteh ears 🙂 I love it.

    later…..

    oh, do you hear what I hear? https://i.chzbgr.com/full/9106558208/h76F3E6D2/

  33. Jackie, thank you for the smiles and happiness you’ve shown us here in the Village. You, lady, are truly inspirational.

    love and hugs to you both

    GR 😉

  35. So happy it arrived in time! Giving makes me feel fuzzy. !like a purring cat in my lap. I KNEW you’d love the black cap with rhinestone ears!

    Ghost is sitting on the west side of Hooterville drinking hot chocolate. He has a sign in kitchen that says “Hot chocolate is like a hug from inside.” It will stay up permanently. He drinks out of giant French chocolate mugs.

    most made cherry pie for us and that is what I am having for breakfast!

  36. Thank you for today’s strip Jimmy. I love the sense of peace and the quiet that comes with snow and your strip captures that idea perfectly. Merry Christmas to all. Just finished watching a film version of A Christmas Carol that I hadn’t seen before, a British version from 1935. I still prefer the 1951 version with Alastair Sim, though.

  39. TR. I hit your name instead of the link to this blog….you should really blog more often…so how many of you remember George Carlin’s seven words you can’t say on TV?

  42. Mark, thanks for the followup on Maureen O’Hara. I guess I’m still hoping to hear the tale one day. It is mystifying how three people could share a secret, especially in Hollywood. A real credit to the kind of people they are.

    Patrick Stewart is known for starring in some pretty nerdy roles, that is roles recognized by nerds and geeks. But I have long thought he has some real actor’s cred. I missed that he had made a version of A Christmas Carol in late 90’s. Saw it on the schedule, but didn’t record. Wondered if you had seen that one to compare.

    I also enjoyed Bill Murry’s Scrooged. It’s form of humor fit my life at the time. And I very recently recalled a laugh-line from it. There was a discussion I overheard about BreatheRight strips, the usual ‘clean your nose with alcohol’ advice, and usual response. When I heard an exasperated ‘have you tried KrazyGlue?’ I was immediately reminded of Bill’s frustrated advice to the prop manager having difficulty getting antlers to stay on the trained field mice’s little heads: “have you tried staples?!?” Carol Kane had some good bits in there also. And Karen Allen had a nice understated role as the love interest recovered.

  44. Debbe, George Carlin and Gallagher were two of my favorite comedians for a long time, and influenced my ‘look at it from a different angle’ attitude. Robin Williams and Steve Martin were good too, but didn’t make me gasp for breath as much. Later I found Steven Wright’s deadpan observations about the contradictions in life really insightful.

    Saw a recent Late Late show where Dennis Leary told of starting in standup after seeing Steven Wright do an entire set looking upstage with his back to the audience. Leary figured if his shy friend could do it, it should be a cinch. I think Dennis has stretched the truth a few times in his career, and this may be one of them.

    One of the fun things about watching Steven is to see him struggle to maintain a total deadpan face. And then find yourself wondering if even that is part of the act. There’s nothing funnier than seeing a straight man break. See the number of times Tim Conway gets Harvey Korman. Steven is the kind of guy that would do it on purpose. Just for the laugh.

  50. Jackie, I know some parts of your daily experience right now are not desirable. But you still find a way to paint a domestic scene that warms the heart. Well done.

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