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

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

Unreal Estate

By Jimmy Johnson


Buy the new book, "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"
Speaking of comments, I’ve noticed that this site has one thing in common with most other sites that attract regular visitors. Several posters will drop in early to comment directly on the day’s material or to make a new observation. This continues, but the discussion eventually evolves into a running conversation among regulars. This isn’t to imply criticism. That’s just the way it goes, and I’m ok with that. One thing that is different about this site, and I’m not the first one to make this observation, is that repeat posters, as a rule, come to josh and visit, not to argue and insult one another. I appreciate that and hope everyone enjoys the time they spend here, regardless of how much that is.

Recent Posts

Ghost of Christmas Past

This holiday Arlo & Janis comic strip from 2022 is similar in concept to the new strip that ran yesterday. I thought the latter ...

Spearhead

I have produced a number of comic strips related to Veteran’s Day. Especially in latter years, I have tried to emphasize the universal experience ...

Dark Passage

Remember: it’s that weekend. The return to standard time can be a bit of a shock in the late afternoon, but I rather enjoy ...

What’s old is old, again

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to build a web site, but there are similarities. Everything needs to be just right, or ...

Back to the ol’ drawing board

I don’t have a lot of time this morning. I wasn’t going to post anything, but I’m tired of looking at that old photograph ...

Thursday’s Child

On Sunday, I teased you with the suggestion there are more changes coming here. There are. They will appear soon, and I think you’ll ...

272 responses to “Unreal Estate”

  1. Galliglo from Ohio Avatar
    Galliglo from Ohio

    George Jones’ The Race is On. Clicking doesn’t work, but copy & paste does.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj7ahuCHGbM

  2. Lilyblack Avatar

    I remember my grandad playing Vaughn Monroe’s “Sound off” and laughing and laughing. “The captain rides in a jeep (you’re right), the sergeant rides in a truck (you’re right), the general rides in a limosine, but we’re just out of luck.

  3. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Ghost, I remember when Giada first appeared with her cooking show I read a not so favorable I think article about her. Something about her clothing, costumes, chef’s coats being designed by her husband (?) with the intent to “push her assets” into prominence.

    The article dealt with whether she was actually much of a cook or if it was more sex being sold? I got impression her assets were assisted!

    My husband loved her and always watched her, to my annoyance. He also liked her very large mouth biting down on the one taste she took!

    Have to go Google if she was married to a fashion designer?

    Love, Jackie Monies

  4. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Yes! My senior citizen mind actually remembered something fairly accurately! She is indeed married to a fashion designer and Wiki says when she first appeared people wrote Food Network complaining they had hired an actress who pretended to cook! Etc-etc-etc.

    The photos I just googled, she still looked most busty but it was a collage of shots.

    I quit watching Food Network a long time ago about the time I found out the bizarre character on Iron Chef was an actor. Seriously, I quit for same reason I quit watching the Weather Channel, I was actually interested in the food and the weather, not the “entertainment” they went to, ditto home and garden shows. Somewhere along the way they lost me.

    Love, Jackie Monies

  5. Lilyblack Avatar

    I watch Jaques Pepin, Rachel Ray, and Julia Child. Emeril sometimes

  6. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Mark, I grew up reading Pogo by Walt Kelly and Lil Abner by Al Capp. I loved them and loved the “word play”, the political satire, the characters. Pogo was my particular favorite.

    The “bite” of these guys was pretty sharp. Reading back just now on Walt Kelly, I remembered when he attacked MacCarthy and some of his other political themes. I haven’t read them since they appeared, yet they suddenly came back to me. That is a cartoonist whose work influenced everyone.

    Love, Jackie Monies

  7. Lilyblack Avatar

    I’ve never read him, so he didn’t influence me. 😛 The only thing I know about pogo is the quote “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Which I don’t agree with, at all. I have met The Enemy and they nearly killed me

  8. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    So did I Lily but it did not determine who I am, not now or ever. If so, then they win. It is something I rarely think about or discuss, because I have moved on. It did allow me the opportunity to do something with my life that made things better for women and children, changed laws, changed policies.

    All because I lived. I view it that I won in the end.

    Love, Jackie Monies

  9. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Jackie, a quote from a guy I read on line: “I’ve been watching Giada’s show on TV for years, and I still can’t boil water.”

    Too much eye candy spoils the broth.

  10. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Lilyblack, the context of that quote was a storyline dealing with pollution and the damage we do to ourselves. It was true in the 1970’s and it is still true.
    Jackie, Pogo is one on my favorites too. There were so many good ones that it’s hard to make a list without it getting too long. I think Al Capp was the first comic strip artist to deliberately retire himself and the strip together.

  11. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Lilyblack, here is some more information for you: http://www.igopogo.com/final_authority.htm

  12. Lilyblack Avatar

    Jackie, it took me over a year in therapy to learn that. I mean really learn it so that I believed it. But I still believe they are The Enemy and not a bunch of polluters.

  13. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Lily, I do feel sorry for you. I hope it does not continue to haunt you forever. Somehow, someway I hope you find peace. I cannot honestly say I know how I did it but it can be done. Someday I hope you can realize that not everyone is The Enemy. You see, I felt that everyone I met was a friend. Then like you I met the enemy and that was taken away from me. It took a long time and a lot of therapy but it was me that found my peace, not from therapy but from within. It is funny, thinking about the fear and distrust, I cannot tell you when or how it disappeared.

    But because of me the world became a little safer place for all of us and that is something to take pride in. Good and bad has consequences that reach farther than we know.

    Walt Kelly wasn’t speaking of polluters but in general the good and bad that exists in all mankind.

    Love, Jackie Monies

  14. Lilyblack Avatar

    Jackie, I don’t regard everybody with distrust. Just men

  15. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    I hope that will change for you, Lily, as it did for me. I had an entire sex and an entire race to fear and hate. Your pain is so out there that I wish I could help. But you can only be a victim if you continue to be a victim. We don’t choose to become a victim but you can choose to stop being one. And then you are free.

    Love, Jackie Monies

  16. Steve from Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    I was driving home from “Up North” and followed this bus. Kind of scary that there is a bus full of them!

    pic.twitter.com/VrjE8owPoU

  17. Lilyblack Avatar

    Well, Jackie, I am no longer seeing my therapist, as I feel perfectly happy. I have no desire whatever to date and never really have. I don’t want children and don’t want to marry, so I see my situation as perfectly rational. I don’t fear men except to be cautious around them and to avoid them except in a professional setting. And that gets “hairy” enough, on occasion!

  18.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    GR6, ever been involved in Red Flag or Maple Flag?

  19. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Back to the comics, while reading about the Rueben’s and the recipients, I started thinking about all the “story strips” that used to exist, “Terry and the Pirates” and “Steve Canyon” by Milton Caniff were always favorites of mine. “Prince Valiant” beautifully drawn, “L’il Abner” (although that one might be a comic rather than story strip)

    I realized that with the exception of family strips like Lynn Johnston’s that follow a more or less continuing plot, these are all gone.

    If you have never done this, it is interesting reading and looking at the past winners and their strips.

    I do feel JJ deserves a Rueben but then I don’t get to vote!

    Love, Jackie Monies

  20. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    No, but I have a Red Maple in my yard.

  21. TruckerRon Avatar

    Prince Valiant is still around. Hal Foster, the original artist and creator of the strip, drew it from 1937 to 1971 as a full-page comic. He retired and it’s continued with other artists since as a half-page comic. I read it at:

    http://www.seattlepi.com/comics-and-games/fun/Prince_Valiant

  22. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Trucker, weren’t those beautifully drawn? I used to read “Prince Valiant” and knew every character, every member of his family’s names. I think I knew all the twists of the plots back forever!

    There were strips I didn’t much like, like “Alley Oop”. But I loved “Brenda Starr” and the Mystery Man. I once dyed my long hair Brenda Starr red.

    Thanks for letting me know it could still be found, PV. I have been reading Pogo strips online and they are as funny now as they were then in my humble opinion.

    Love, Jackie Monies

  23. Charlotte in NH Avatar
    Charlotte in NH

    Jackie, I am humbled at your life experiences and your wisdom. Lucky me, I’ve had a happy life with nothing bad happening to me or my family. Extremely fortunate compared to many, or most, people.

    My late husband and I had a special fondness for Pogo Possum and his creator, Walt Kelly. We bought the books of collected comic strips and still have them, rather tattered and battered. I just leafed through a couple trying to find a few lines of dialogue to quote here, but can’t extract any from context! Anyway, Pogo and his friends live down South in the Swamp … the Okefenokee I think? They row and drift around in boats a lot, and use fish poles. Albert Alligator is one character; Miss Mamzell Hepzibah is a tres chic skunk; Porky Pine is gloomy but lovable (kind of like emb here). Southern accents abound; for the nice animals … the slimy Northern politicians try to take advantage of them, but the swamp dwellers triumph in the end. Senator Joe McCarthy is one of the really slimy ones who get skewered by Walt Kelly.

  24. Charlotte in NH Avatar
    Charlotte in NH

    Walt Kelly was a Disney animator early in his career, and his drawings show a lot of the artistry of Snow White, and Pinocchio, especially; I hate to say “cute” but extremely appealing. If you could look at the strips you would see what I mean.