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

Est. 1985

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The Cask of Amontiarlo

By Jimmy Johnson

I was able to do a bit of traveling on the Continent back at the turn of the century. I was coming from a small town where the oldest structure was a dilapidated wood-frame house built just before the turn of the century. That other turn of the century. I constantly was struck by the antiquity of the buildings. Buildings older than the United States practically were the norm. Anything that old actually in the United States is rare, and if it exists at all it probably is in a preserved state. Not so much across the water. A thousand-year-old building isn’t unheard of, but its remnant usually stands within the bowels of a larger structure that has evolved and grown over centuries. Whether in city or village, buildings continually are remodeled and repurposed. Anyway, some such site I encountered over there, I think it was a tiny restaurant, later inspired the above. They had some great wine, too!

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32 responses to “The Cask of Amontiarlo”

  1. DaveP Avatar
    DaveP

    yup .. amazing how many converted monasteries have become restaurants /bistros over there!

  2. Mark Jackson Avatar

    “Americans think 100 years is a long time. Europeans think 100 miles is a long way.”

    1. Jimmy Johnson Avatar
      Jimmy Johnson

      That is true!

  3. Steve Evans Avatar

    It reminds me of when I had my first job out of college and I started to brag that I bought the shirt that I was wearing when I was a Freshman in High School. One of my co-workers said: “Gee maybe it’s time for you to go shopping?”

  4. MontanaPhil Avatar
    MontanaPhil

    Were your referring to The Cask of Amontillado?

    1. David in Austin Avatar
      David in Austin

      It’s a great play on words. Based on the expression on Janis’ face in the last panel Arlo may be bricked into a wall if he keeps talking about a wine cellar.

    2. DJJG Avatar
      DJJG

      So, I tried to look it up. Amontillado is a variety of sherry wine, I learned. And “Amontiarlo” I could find nowhere, not Google Earth, not the internet, not any books (Google thought it found one in a centuries-old book, but it was mistaking the book’s spelling). “Tarlo” is a woodworm, but I don’t think that that is relevant. That’s all I got.

      1. David in Austin Avatar
        David in Austin

        Edgar Allen Poe wrote a horror story about a man being bricked up inside a wall of the catacombs (where wine was often stored) titled, “The Cask of Amontillado”. The premise was that the victim was going with his associate to see and drink from the cask of old and rare wine. Of course, the associate had other ideas, with revenge in mind, and immured (literally means walled in) the drunken victim.

        https://www.poemuseum.org/the-cask-of-amontillado

        The modification is a play on the Amontillado wine and Arlo: AmontiArlo

        1. DJJG Avatar
          DJJG

          Thanks, David in Austin! I had my head so stuck in Italian I didn’t notice Arlo’s name! Sheesh, me!

          Nor do I know my Poe well at all. Well, “Annabelle Lee.”

  5. Ivan Avatar
    Ivan

    When a couple of friends and I (all from the UK) visited Austin TX, and went on a tour, the tour guide mentioned we were passing Austins oldest building, built in the mid 1800s, and my friend shouted out “my house is older than that” 😀

    My US wife enjoyed visiting old castles when she visited the UK, and I had to take her to see Stonehenge too!

  6. DJJG Avatar
    DJJG

    Admirable how Arlo is stooping in the second panel–as in Frederick Burr Opper’s “Happy Hooligan,” always with good anatomy, however cartooned. Looks good!

  7. DJJG Avatar
    DJJG

    Admirable how Arlo is stooping in the second panel—as in Frederick Burr Opper’s “Happy Hooligan,” always with good anatomy, however cartooned. Looks good!

  8. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
    curmudgeonly ex-professor

    BTW, I am quite pleased that the cartoon at the top of this page is of such a good size. ‘Tis a true benefit, Mayor.

  9. Ginger in Auburn Avatar
    Ginger in Auburn

    Be still my heart. Oh to have my own cave.

  10. Nancy Kirk in AZ Avatar
    Nancy Kirk in AZ

    Mark and Jimmy, the way I’ve heard that remark, which is also true, is “Easterners (US-type) think 100 miles is far; Westerners think 100 years is long.” H

    1. Sideburns Avatar

      I just got back from a followup with a neurologist, Nancy. It took two days because the medical center I had to visit is 250 miles away, and the nearest facility available. I wonder what Easterners think of that?

  11. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Re 2-27-19 cartoon: I agree with Arlo. As Janis has aged there does appear to be “more of her to love” or, in this case, to hug. To paraphrase what I asked regarding slow dancing (or meant to, in case that was during one of the blog “outages”), who wants to hug a rail?

    Note to Arlo: Might shoulda left off the lead-in qualifier in Panel #4.

  12. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    Steve Evans
    I still have clothes from college – 60ya – and no it is not time to go shopping -Yet.
    If it keeps me warm it is good enough.

    Wine should be kept at a constant temperature – not in the kitchen, and definitely NOT
    on top of the refrigerator. (Remember when you could not put anything on top of the fridge
    because it would slide off?)

  13. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    From last night

    I put Janis’ problem (02/26/19) down to the increase of gravity ever since they
    stopped Atomic Testing. Those born after then don’t notice the increase,
    but those of use born before certainly do!
    It is harder to get out of bed – and just look what it did to my chest.

  14. Steve From Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    Oh my. I have revealed my last name…..Of course I left Royal Oak a little over 2 years ago, I just liked the way it rolled off the tongue.

    1. David in Austin Avatar
      David in Austin

      Steve, we could make a pretty good guess on the name– I seem to recall you mentioning your wife’s writing a time or two and her last name (nome de plume?) is revealed on her website. 😀

      1. Steve From Royal Oak, MI Avatar

        Yes I understood that. I never intended it to make me totally anonymous. Before the silver filled in my hair and I wore dark rimmed glasses, my wife and others kidded me that I was Clark Kent. Now how Lois never figured out that Clark was Superman is beyond me!

  15. MontanaPhil Avatar
    MontanaPhil

    Thanks David in Austin, for pointing out the pun. I missed the juxtaposition of Arlo completely

  16. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
    Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

    Pungent: a fellow who specializes in the juxtaposition of dissimilar concepts, often for humorous effect.

  17. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
    Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

    Jimmy:

    As a former teacher of literature and eternal admirer of the Bard of Baltimore, thank you for taking us into the depths.

    Should we bring our own chains, or will they be provided?

    1. Old Bear Avatar
      Old Bear

      @rick
      If Arlo doesn’t mend his words -2/26&27 – he might find his heart under the floorboards. 🙂
      Or some sort of pendulum may be involved?
      Then again if ponders his words (at midnight?) evermore.

      1. Old Bear Avatar
        Old Bear

        he ponders

        need that edit button!

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

          I kno what you meann.

        2. Steve From Royal Oak, MI Avatar

          I agree. You don’t know how close I cam to misspelling shirt in the post above. I glanced up and fortunately added the “r”

      2. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
        Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

        Of course, he might also catch a gold bug down there in the damps.

  18. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrrIm4ozbUc&list=PLvudnxdw_da0iz7J9kWiG0q6r7uHpojQ8&index=4 From a great and not well-known album by the Alan Parsons Project.

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

      Mark:

      I have the album with the original artwork, not the refashioned one that they used to boost sales. My copy is a bit of a collectors item.