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

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

Things Being What They Are

By Jimmy Johnson


It’s Friday, and there’s not a lot going on. This seems like the time for one of our brief commercial messages. I want to thank those of you who visit the Arlo & Janis site at GoComics.com, the online presence of Andrews McMeel Syndication. Special thanks to those who “follow” A&J, those who “share” it with others and those of you who “like” a strip, although I encourage you to be circumspect with the latter. As much as I appreciate your willingness to help, I like to know what you really like. I am thrilled to tell you, you’ve made Arlo & Janis one of the more heavily trafficked sites on all of GoComics.com. And a very special thank you to the newspaper readers! For now, you continue to pay the bills. Go, and have a memorable weekend.
Buy the new book, "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"

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32 responses to “Things Being What They Are”

  1. emb Avatar
    emb

    Here’s sign for your front yard.

    https://www.gocomics.com/ballardstreet/2018/07/27

    Peace,

  2. HyperTay Avatar
    HyperTay

    This one and today’s strip are once again so relatable! This one is us, today’s has our roles reversed. Love you Jimmy! But we are looking around for the camera hahaha

  3. Steve on the Isle of Wight Avatar

    We’ve “made Arlo & Janis one of the more heavily trafficked sites”. Quite right too!

  4. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Well, OK, then. I’ll try extra hard to find one of your cartoons I *don’t* like. Although tbh, that is yet to happen, even after all these years.

    Re today’s retro, I had a friend who used to say, “I’m in a hurry! I have things to see and people to do.” Or perhaps that was me.

  5. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Taking a break after being at it since OMG :30 this morning. We got the display windows and entryway of our new store open today, basically as a fancy kiosk to sell hats, t-shirts, tanks, etc. to the walk by traffic. The annual Whole Hawg Day is underway downtown, including smoker contestants cooking, you guessed it, whole hogs. After the judging this afternoon, the BBQ is given away to the crowd.

    We’ll be driving Black Jack, Jackie’s Mustang convertible, in the downtown parade at 7:00, with cuties on the back waving and throwing candy and beads to the crowd. While wearing cute duds from Steals & Deals, of course. Free Q, top down, cute ladies…life is sweet.

  6. TruckerRon Avatar

    Ghost, please find a way to post a video of that parade featuring Steals & Deals, of course!

  7. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Jackie will probably have to do that, TR. She’s the Facebooker in the organization. The parade was impressive…several times more entries than I suspected based on the Independence Day parade. Lots of comments and wolf whistles for the cute waitress I picked up, ah, recruited to ride with us. One thing I had wrong was that the contestants will tend their smokers overnight; be judged tomorrow; and portion out the resulting porcine goodness tomorrow afternoon.

    Perhaps I will be able to grab some Q before we have to set up the bikini sales table at the Cove prior to the contest. From what we can tell, the bikini/wet t-shirt contest* is stirring a lot of interest. I let you know what kind of interest later. 🙂

    *Don’t be too shocked. The bikinis will stay on under the wet t-shirts. Not really sure what the point of that is, but as Misti, one of our managers says, “This is Oklahoma, after all.”

  8. emb Avatar
    emb

    Elephant herd. 3 of 4 Kenya cams are live again. Am guessing they will keep 4th on “highlight”, since it’s typically least productive.

    https://explore.org/livecams/african-wildlife/african-river-wildlife-camera

    Peace,

  9. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Jimmy, you must have been looking my window when I was married. My ex and I used to have that discussion about whether up and down on a thermostat meant warmer or cooler. I say up is warmer and down is cooler, her opinion was the opposite. Over time I knew what she wanted when she said turn it up or turn it down, but I still knew I was right.

  10. Ken from Framingham Avatar
    Ken from Framingham

    From Atlantic to Pacific, hey, the traffic is terrific!

    I’m happy to traffic in comic strips, and I like liking them and sharing them!

  11. Galliglo in Ohio Avatar
    Galliglo in Ohio

    Just back from a week’s vacation in FL – and it was HOT! But… got to spend time with son and his family, AND a new great-grandchild. I did not realize how set in my ways I am becoming. Not too long ago, I was up to going anywhere, going on any adventure. Now? Not so much. As Dorothy said, “There’s no place like home.”

  12. emb Avatar
    emb

    Greater kudus, in the rain. ‘nother site has 2 Egyptian geese, also rain.

    https://explore.org/livecams/african-wildlife/african-river-wildlife-camera

    Peace,

  13. Richard Avatar
    Richard

    I will lust after a pair of Arlo & Janis bookends if they ever come into existence

  14. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Richard, the bookends would be nice, and so would a statuette of the couple leaning on the Cobra.

  15. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    I have to brag on myself since Ghost didn’t. I have lost 16 plus pounds in ten days. In my diabetic diet through the Oklahoma Heart Institute. It is highly medically supervised requiring twice weekly checkin with RN who do the diabetes education.

    It’s a total meal replacement program using HMR Diet foods, sort of like Nutrisytem with weekly classes, medical supervision and really good food.

    Mark I understand VA will cover it too, as is Medicare and private insurance.
    They have excellent record of both weight loss and diabetes control.

  16. TruckerRon Avatar

    Tonight our local sky is perfectly clear of clouds. It’s also nearly opaque because of the smoke from wildfires. I can see only 2 stars at zenith, plus the planets. When the moon rises in a few minutes, it will be a dark orange, as was the setting sun tonight.
    🙁

  17. Rick Avatar

    You are no-thingArlo when Janis isn’t interested.

  18. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    “elderly neighbors”? Arlo and Janis? Naah.

  19. Steve from Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    My wife’s grandparents had a cabin on Lake Avalon near Hillman MI and she went there every summer as a little girl. Her brother bought a place on the lake 30 years ago, but we only sporadically visited there over the years. We have rented a place a few times and this year we will be up there the weekend of August 11th.

    Hillman has always had a V-J parade every year and it is held the Saturday before August 15th (that was the date that the war’s end was announced. September 2nd was the “official” V-J Day). So this year we get to experience the parade. Her Grandpa was the President of the Chamber of Commerce and this was always his baby. In 1998, our son ran at a running camp nearby, so we drove to Hillman to see the lake and it happened to be the day of the parade.

    We plan to go there with our son and his family, including our 2 1/2 year old Grandson who loves parades. My wife thinks that it might be close to 40 years since she last attended the event. She is very happy.

  20. emb Avatar
    emb

    Mark: Of course not, but what insight into the young mind! Also a well chosen given name, like Pearl for the grandma in Pickles. A+.

    Peace,

  21. TruckerRon Avatar

    A member of my astronomy club found this “smoke map” showing the location of the major fires and where the smoke is going:

    https://www.cleardarksky.com/alerts/noaa_smoke_map.jpg

  22. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Jimmy, I don’t know if it’s just me, but this site is responding slowly since yesterday. It is taking noticeably longer than usual to fill in the blanks with the latest comments.

  23. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Can you believe this? https://www.postconsumerbrands.com/nilla-banana-pudding/

    How can they do that to a great dessert?