I continue today with old A&J Sunday strips you won’t see anywhere but here, although I think maybe this particular strip has been shown before at arloandjanis.com. I’m not sure. This one is from 1993 and was drawn shortly after the first meeting at the seashore between son Gene and Mary Lou. No one suspected, least of all myself, how momentous that little storyline would prove.
Arlo and Janis has a lot of followers in the upper Midwest. I want to remind you that the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning gets underway today in Wisconsin. You might want to check it out if you do, indeed, live in the area. In the past, I would have posted a link for you, but unless there is something specific I want to show you it’s so much easier for everyone if I simply encourage you to “Google it.” You know what to do. If you do make it to the festival, tell ’em Arlo and Janis sent you.
211 responses to “Variations on a Theme”
It really doesn’t surprise me that those who most need to lose weight but can’t/won’t want a magic pill so they won’t have to eat properly or exercise. For the most part these days our society is one that wants instant gratification instead of having to work for something, no matter how worth it the end result.
I have found that if one must have a sauce for a steak the best one is a small pat of good herb butter. Make your own with good, unsalted butter and fresh herbs of your choice. Mine is parsley and tarragon on a medium-rare steak.
Indy Mindy, my alarm is also motion sensor-something moves, my dog barks at it. 🙂
Hi Debbe!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWjeITmDmmo
As a transcriptionist, I’ve overheard a lot of horrible and rude things said by physicians about their patients. I’m sure if most patients knew how they spoke about them, they would find a new doctor. While someone like Dr. Welby is difficult to find, there are physicians who have a least a shred of compassion for their patients and realize that everyone has some kind of problem, whether it be obesity or even a sharp tongue, that they need to learn to control.
Actually, Jackie, I sometimes get lucky without wearing a t-shirt at all. 😉 Speaking of sauces, how do you feel about Jezebel Sauce?
Ummm. Herb butter.
Lady Mindy, it’s hell to start out your day by having to take an IQ test in the form of an alarm system to deactivate, isn’t it? Especially when, if one is like me, one apparently loses about 40 IQ points while sleeping which take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes to regain after awakening.
Debbe 🙂 I know of some knuckleheads around here that basically abandon their wives and kids and go live in the woods for the duration of deer season each year. (As you can probably guess, I have a very low opinion of knuckleheads who abandon their wives and kids for any reason within their control.) Although not philosophically opposed to it, I don’t deer hunt myself. Nor am I philosophically opposed to being gifted with good venison sausage. 🙂
I hope everyone has a splendiferous day and weekend.
I have a motion sensor who weighs about 10# and sleeps against my back. He barks/thinks like a Rottweiler. Anything awry and he commences then runs and stands on mommy to either get a better view of intruder or protect me?
Long ago in Houston when we had motion sensors on my gift shop/flower shop/candy shop I would get calls at 2 a.m. from police to come down. So, one trip I got there, entire swat team there and the “intruder” was in the kitchen, they could see him moving around and head bobbing.
We unlock doors, officer goes in and kicks open half door in kitchen ready to blast suspect. Suspect came out with officer, a partially deflated helium “It’s A Girl” balloon that driver had put in kitchen after couldn’t find recipient. Big no no!
Humor is how you perceive it.
Lily, I truly understand the mentality of both anorexic and obese patients. My mother in law hid food in clothes drawers, ate full measured meals prepared by me and then filled back seat of her Cadillac with wrappers from fast food drive thru.
I have been anorexic off and on my entire life, coupled with obese, back and forth. Knowing, understanding and being compliant do not go hand in glove!! Sorry, we are all humans, flawed as it were.
Actually, my Houston surgeon friend was pre-banding. He did development of bypass surgery, real surgery and his patients were world wide, flew in to Houston. The floors he filled with patients we used to say looked like ghostly draped beached whales. Florists have graveyard humor too!
Gotta go do a grocery run. Husband is off to walk his two miles, I just gave him bad news that wellness center doesn’t have hot water until Tuesday but is open. He said “Thrills” at cold showers.
Love, Jackie Monies
OF predicted to erupt next 20 min. Peace, emb
http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/webcam/oldFaithfulStreaming.html
Bonnie, thank you! I drive 90 miles to my gp for that reason (not convenient) and 130 each way to my specialists. When I worked in hospital (horrible teaching center of horrible circumstances) it was compassion they never taught!
Love, Jackie
Mr. Ghost are you emulating Mr. Putin with the shirtless look?
sideburns I actually had a really good goats milk yogurt cheese that was low fat and healthy bought on cross country tour last month. Unfortunately it was Amish and I will never see another!
Don’t those happy California cows have goat friends? I remember picking up good cheese wandering around your state.
Or do I have you in wrong state?
Love, Jackie
Ghost, I have been called Jezebel more than once and have not had any sauce like that since New Orleans probably. I do remember it, so it must have been good. I will google recipe!
Love, Jackie
Jackie, better yet, I will post my sister’s recipe for Jezebel Sauce. She used to make it often, and it was quite good.
Just as soon as I get back from the “Sounds-like-Woes” store. The florescent light tube over my kitchen sink just gave up the ghost, so to speak.
“. . . from nurses-aides all the way up to professors.” Profs at the top of the list! Right on! In a teaching hospital, of course, most profs are likely MDs. Most of you probably know of this degree sequence; perhaps I’ve posted it before.
BS: Everyone knows what that stands for.
MS. More of the Same.
Ph.D. Piled higher and Deeper.
MD: Much Deeper.
My problem when I volunteer at the local hosp. is former students and others who call me “Dr. [emb].” I urge them not to in the hospital. About all I can sometimes cure is inflated ego’s and misuser’s of apostrophe’s.
That OF blow was pretty good, but it’s a grey rainy day out there, and the eruption was largely obscured in its own fog. [Good apostrophe lesson in previous sentence.] About 10 onlookers, raingear, umbrellas. Peace, emb
i live across the street from a grocery store. at one time they installed an alarm with an external loudspeaker. loud robocop type voice repeating endlessly that police had been called. went off about 2am and still going in at 3. i looked up the owners phone number and called it. woke his wife. told her if i couldnt sleep neither could he. alarm was shut off in 15 minutes.
eMb, I hope you purposely wrote that sentence with 4 errors as a teaching tool!
My favorite salad, taught me by The Man In My Life, is a four-lettuce salad with balsamic vinaigrette sprinkled with crumbled Chevere and lots of ground pepper. Delish!
Well, shockingly my local grocer had gorgonzola from Statesboro, GA cows and I bought some to support a small cheese factory and to encourage them to carry stuff like that. The cow on the cheese was cute too! And heavy blue veining in the cheese, so hopeful?
Found another hopeful block with mango and chile pepper added to an artisan white cheddar, so cheeses looking up. Produce department looking good too. Produce manager transplanted here from California.
Normally I grow every kind of lettuce I can buy seed for from seed internet services, plus miscellaneous stuff like oriental greens, European greens. Then I found out my mama only eats iceberg lettuce!
Off to look for hostas.
Love, Jackie
Hosta la vista! 😀
I am sure I have mentioned I live in a town of about 3000 on a lake that only has much business during summer months when the city people come out to their camps/trailers for the weekends.
It is a hard town to be in business in, so I try to give them every $$ I can and refuse to shop in Tulsa or at chain stores , thank them for their services and when they sell me stuff, introduce myself to their employees.
Having said that, I am going to see if “Woes” wants to pay me to haul some more of their unsold plants away, as a nursery no longer exists here.
Love, Jackie
Finally back from “Sounds-like-Woes” and “Sounds-like-Ogre” stores after battling my way through traffic dominated by what seemed to be maniacal ‘toon cars; TV tuned to Aggies/Hogs game; and hunting my sister’s self-published cookbook for the Jezebel Sauce recipe.
Freshly ground black pepper is one of my secret ingredients in many dishes. Balsamic vinaigrette over a simple salad of torn Romaine leaves, red grapes, coarsely chopped walnuts and crumbled blue cheese ain’t too shabby either.
Haven’t watched much TV lately, but I see car commercials seem to be deeply back into one of their periodic “extremely annoying” cycles, with idiotic dude-bro feuds (lookin’ at you, Dodge Dart), highly irritating background music (at you, too, Acura), etc.
I did, however, like this one quite a bit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbwYY8KFJqY
Okay, trying again:
are having guests for dinner, so The Man In My LIfe and I have been working all yesterday and today, shopping, chopping, mincing, tearing, marinating, and roasting. My poor apron is all stained and soggy, and I have sharpened my chef knife three times. But, finally, the roast is ready to go in, the pork tenderloins are likewise, the salads are tossed and ready to be plated, the potatoes and the onions set to go, and the dessert is all mixed. We are taking a breather and a refreshing cuppa. He is reading in a cookbook and making notes, and I am typing away. I hope everybody else has a great Saturday night.
Ugh! The only fruit I what in my vegetable salads is tomato. Then again, I am not like you guys; I am not a foodie/frustrated amateur chef/gourmand. I can cook, and quite well if I try, but I have little to no patience for cooking. During my family’s annual cookie baking marathon/sweat shop cookie factory, I make one variety of cookie, and I annoy everyone in the process. I dump in the ingredients in the order I choose, and stir. Everyone else is “whisking,” “folding,” “cutting,” or “stretching.” I point out my “dump it all in and stir” process has never ruined a chocolate chip cookie. If a recipe is so fussy it can’t handle my mixing, someone else is making it. This method also frees me up for critical tasks like icing, freeing up bakeware, and “quality control.”
Would you believe I STILL lost to the appliances at work today?!
Bonne appétit, Munchkin! Sounds wonderful.
Ghost’s Sister’s Recipe for Jezebel Sauce
Ingredients
1 (10-oz) jar apple jelly
1 (10-oz) jar pineapple jam
1 (5-oz) jar prepared horseradish
¼ cup dry English blend mustard
1 tsp dried crushed red pepper or coarsely ground black pepper
Directions
Process all ingredients in a food processor until smoothly blended. Store in covered glass container under refrigeration for up to 3 weeks. Best if given a minimum of 4 hours before serving to allow flavor to fully develop. Yields approximately 2 ½ cups.
May be used as a garnish for pork, chicken and boiled shrimp, or as a dip for chicken nuggets. To use as a glaze for grilled pork or chicken, brush on meat during last 3 minutes of cooking. To serve as an appetizer, bring sauce to room temperature; pour over softened cream cheese; and spread on your favorite crackers.
Yay, quality control! Uh, that does mean “tasting”, doesn’t it?
That’s OK, Lady Mindy. “Speed cooking” can work, too. I am, however, beginning to wonder why appliances and electronic devices seem to hate you. 🙂
Ghost – I am convinced if I had enough time, I could somehow accidently destroy the universe. I think the electronics and appliances are just barriers against total chaos. I am just about convinced I carry an electrical charge of some kind, and occasionally, some how, interfere with the current and/or circuits.
And yes, quality control is a yummy job, and I am willing to do it. 🙂