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.
Unreal Estate
By Jimmy Johnson
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”
I think they should just leave it DST all year long. I hear that when the “Spring Forward” comes, there is an increase in traffic fatalities
“Adequate sufficiency” makes me think of another term which is used differently by NASA: nominal.
Lily: And most of those fatalities are children walking to school in the dark… when it had been daylight just a few days before at that time.
Good cartoon? Mythtickle by Justin Thompson. Sometimes bad puns, but good art, and well thought out. On gocomics, only check it out if ya wanna get addicted to it.
“Only the Government would have you believe that by cutting a strip off the top of the blanket and sewing it onto the bottom of the blanket you will then have a longer blanket.”
Well worded, but I don’t think ‘the Government’ argues that, though I’m sure one can find a quote that can be so construed. If it had the power, a Government could decree that all opening, closing, meeting, and events hours be moved, but monitoring that would be horrendous and more intrusive than simply turning clocks forward or back.
Because many of us retire and rise +/- by clock time, DST provides an extra hour of daylight when we are up and about. During WWII, we had ‘War Time’: DST instead of standard and double DST instead of DST. I was a preteen and teen, and I loved it. Sounds like Lily might agree.
Jean, I find the schoolbus issue very confusing. I encounter them every morning: in our neighborhood, on the streets, and lined up at various schools. I need add, we have three overlapping school districts within two miles of our house. However, Starbucks is full of parents who drop their kids and then uptake their caffeine. My guess is some little darlings can’t or won’t comform to ridership or, they are controlled by helicoptering parents. All of this is good for gasoline sales, traffic congestion, and Starbucks’ profits!
“Adequate sufficiency” is a repetitive redundancy.
My granddaughter in Houston walks to school with her dad. If I understand correctly she lives too close to be bused or driven. I believe anyone driving children to school have to be issued permits? otherwise children are bused from further away. If I understand rationale, the kids from immediate neighborhood must ride bikes or walk. The congestion is bad at the schools and they try to control it as best they can. I don’t believe you can just decide to drive a child instead of a bus or walking.
Heck, when I was a kid there was almost no control, students came and went, rode the bus, caught a ride, left campus. That can’t happen in today’ world.
Love, Jackie Monies
emb: I always heard that as “Only the white man would have you believe that by cutting a strip off the top of the blanket and sewing it onto the bottom of the blanket you will then have a longer blanket.”
Debbie, I have no way of knowing your age, but I can assure you that at 64, I still feel it if I don’t get enough sleep, with six hours being the bare minimum. Last night was rather bad, as you can tell by the posting time; less that 20 minutes after I woke up. And EMB, I agree with you that getting my cataracts removed changed night driving from a nerve-wracking experience back into something I could enjoy. Considering that I also have adjustable augmented hearing (My new hearing aids came in late last month.) I like to tell people that I’m a bionic man or, when I’m at my SF club, a bionic fan.
I realize that this is completely off any regular topic here, but this is D-Day weekend, and Jimmy has frequently had comics about Arlo’s father, WWII, and Memorial Day.
In that light, I offer a brief piece of nonfiction that I wrote this past March.
I titled it “Empty Helmet.”
A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I walked through a consignment/craft store in Logan, and seeing a WWII-era Army helmet hanging upside down by its leather straps took me back 52 years.
I grew up on James Road here in Lancaster, and I don’t know of any father in our neighborhood who had not been in WWII or Korea. Not all fathers fought, but all served. Seeing men in Lancaster who were disfigured or crippled by war was a common sight, and we all took it as a matter of course. We were taught that they were men deserving of great respect.
One of the fathers on my block saw Hell, and he came back with shell shock. He was usually okay, but sonic booms were hard on him. However, as he said on occasion, he came back. The real heroes did not.
I always thought about that whenever I was at my friend’s house on Clayton. An Army helmet hung upside down by its leather straps underneath the carport. His mom planted flowers in it. His dad didn’t come back from Korea.
NK, “Adequate sufficiency” fits the Villages repetitive redundant lifestyle. 😉
Debbe, I sleep just fine for my age. Of course should you like to monitor my sleep, Loon is out of town starting Monday. Always willing to contribute to scientific knowledge. 🙂
Nice, Rick. If this was FB, I would have “Liked” it
sandcastler™ …did you and GR come from the same egg 🙂
You’re both are such ‘daags’ 🙂 ….anyone recall the movie “Snatch”, with Brad Pitt….the second time I watched it, I had to put on the subtitles…….well, slut puppies is much cuter.
So, NK….where would “responsible decadency” fall….I do my best to be responsible when decadent 🙂
OK…Belmont preliminary is on…..hum…..CC, could he be in a tight race with Wicked Strong, or would “Riding with Curlin” be a contender????
…back in a while with my “Debbe’s picks”……
Rick, that is so very beautiful. I have visited Lancaster many times, had a friend from boarding school from there. Pennsylvania is a state where the sacrifices for freedom are all around you.
Love, Jackie Monies
Debbe, males of a certain age…
Males of all ages 😛
🙂 in my line of work….I’ve seen a lot of double yolks
OK…let’s see if I can come up with at last 2 out of the four fiinishers…
I’m a sucker at heart ( 😉 ya’ know who are….
California Chrome, Wicked Strong, Tonalist and Commander Curve…
It would be so cool to see CC win…been a long time, and he comes from such humble backgrounds…and so do his owners. The jockey, remember War Emblem? Stumbled, stuttered, or whatever, out of the gates, and the jockey has carried that ‘curse’ since then….would be good to see a triumph….
Rick, my sister met a man in his 30’s yesterday who thought that D Day meant “National Doughnut Day.” It was only after she prompted him with hints about 70 years ago, Normandy, WWII that he realized how wrong he was. “Oh,” he said, “I guess I don’t know much about history, do I?”
Debbe 😉 This is a bit we used to recite when I was young, and I mean very young…
“And they’re off and running! Its Toupee going on ahead, Long Underwear has fallen
down behind, and Toothpaste is being squeezed on the rail.”
Somehow, I want to think it was related to a Spike Jones song. When I have time, I’ll look it up.
“Riders up!”
Many years ago on Armed Forces Network in Germany, someone penciled on the Veterans Day programing schedule to run a VD film. Guess what the viewers were shown? A veneral disease training film!
Ghost, that sounds like it was inspired by the Spike Jones version of the William Tell Overture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tell_Overture_%28Spike_Jones_version%29 because it had such lines as, “Apartment House has plenty of room…”
Huh, fir once I’m interested to follow a musical link and it’s a Wiki article
Is that the one that goes “Well, it’s over hill and over dale,we’re always on the dusty trail?”
Lily, do you mean the WWI marching song the US Army adopted as its official song, “The Caisson Song”?
Over hill over dell we will hit the dusty trail
As the caissons go rolling along.
Up and down, in and out,
Countermarch and right about,
And our caissons go rolling along.
For it’s hi-hi-hee in the Field Artillery,
Shout out the number loud and strong.
Till our final ride, It will always be our pride
To keep those caissons a rolling along.
(Keep them rolling – keep them rolling)
Keep those caissons a rolling along.
Of course, any Air Force pilot can tell you there’s rarely any dust at 35,000 feet. 🙂