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”
Jackie, I don’t think that Karen considers either one of us her best friend. She is a long time patient of The Boss Of My Life and one of the perks of being our housekeeper is she gets free medical care. But I don’t think many people are best friends with their doctor or their boss. Except for me! 😀
As for laundry, if any catastrophe happens, there is always the cleaners up the street. Before I came to live here I lived on wash and wear, going to the laundromat once a month and not bothering with anything but detergent. Use all those weird chemicals? Who would teach me how?
The Boss Of My Life doesn’t hire anybody but healthy women. Less time taken off, less whining, she says. She got her fill of that with our late billing clerk and her Hepatitis C, rest her soul.
Have to smile at the laundry discussion. Although I’m a longtime wife and mother and have washed tons of clothes, I’ve never used anything but detergent. Must admit that our town is fortunate to have lovely soft water; it comes from a lake. Some of the Villagers probably have really hard water and have to use stuff to improve it.
Interesting video that I saw based on a comment from today’s “Luann”. Interesting to get background on a cartoonist and the strip’s history. Not “our” A&J and Jimmy, but a good strip and interesting information.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37NOiZopJ0U
The Greg Evans video was interesting, David. He DOES wear plaid shirts like Gunther in the strip! That was a joke on the comments on today’s strip where he and daughter appeared to wish Luann happy birthday, did Gunther sew his shirts?
I have often wondered if JJ dresses like Arlo? I bet he does.
I sincerely would love to go to the comics festival in Kenosha, WI after reading about it. The museum exhibits sound fantastic, I looked at some of photos they had posted on their website. We usually go up there in general vicinity at least once a year for the better than Oklahoma weather and often for fall foliage. Plus we love states around the Great Lakes area and central northern area.
When we lived in Houston, there was always one day in the fall designated “open your windows and turn off the a/c” day and one in the spring also. You learn to appreciate other states’ climate!
Love, Jackie Monies
Lily, I don’t mean to insult you, but I have a question. Have you ever seen a counselor?
Somehow just read our own A and J Sunday strip! The Fantasia tribute is fantastic!
Good night all. Debbe and Mindy, let us know you guys are OK.
Love, Jackie
Today’s 9CL is a gem. Kitty logic at it’s finest.
Ref the Sunday “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” cartoon did anyone notice their clothing color flip? Arlo most always wears red and blue and Janis the earth tones. Today they are reversed. If Jimmy still colors the Sunday cartoon, I wonder if he may not be poking a little fun at the colorists who do the daily strips.
Of course, what I really wonder is why we haven’t seen Janis wearing the little yellow two-piece outfit in the first action panel. 😉
Jerry: I was in counseling for almost two years after I got out of the hospital. My counselor and I are still good friends and message a couple times a week. Why?
Only Ghost would have noticed that tiny detail! I thought you were talking about thinking the earth tones belonged to Arlo and I was going to say, “No they are ALL Janis’ clothes” when I went and relooked and of course, you are right.
I have a boating internet friend who has a signature that says in quotes and attributed, “But of course, _______is right.”
We need one and fill in the blank with Ghost’s name!
Thought this was a GREAT homage myself and well done, JJ.
How are you doing, Ghost? How is your mama? I think of you and your mama every time I get up and cook breakfast for mine. I usually eat two pieces of untoasted whole wheat multigrain bread and a Diet Coke or unsweetened tea. Cold tea.
Mama gets a full breakfast, coffee, juice, fresh fruit, sausage or bacon, eggs, biscuits or toast. Takes her about an hour to eat it and she keeps asking if we aren’t eating it too, every day
Sometimes I will eat some of it to keep her company but usually I use the time to take all my meds.
The reason I think of you is I bet you would do the same for your mama!!!
Love, Jackie Monies
I want to say that I think it is great that Jackie and Ghost take such good care of their mothers. Cause, mea culpa, if mine got sick, I would send a card and take another drink. I am a bad person, but I know better than to torture myself. Life is too short. 😛
You know what, Lily? You are torturing yourself, probably not consciously, but you are.
Mine has never been anything but a tortured relationship and I still love her. I always knew I would take care of her, whether she took care of me or not. She tried to in a twisted way and that is OK.
Wish I had a Hallmark card memory book but you go with what you have. I always just say “I don’t remember” mostly.
Love, Jackie
Heh, Jackie, maybe yours tried to but mine, didn’t. I was in the hospital for three weeks before she visited me, and then it was eight weeks later before I saw her again, Not that I wanted to. 😛
Okay, I kinda tripped going up the stairs to my room. I have been rescued (“”Crap! Ooh! Ah! That hurts. Oh thanks…”) So now I am propped up in my bed with both knees wrapped and prooped u and my puppy standing guard. Somebody is taking my laptop. Good nght…Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Jackie, my Mom is still self-sufficient in many ways, but yes, I do look after her and provide for her those things she cannot…transportation, grocery shopping, appointment scheduling, etc. And I will continue to do that, and anything else she needs, for as long as she lives. Why wouldn’t I take care of her at the end of her life, since she took care of me at the beginning of mine? One of those Great Circle of Life things, no?
That said, she is doing remarkably well. She has had minimal adverse effects from her radiation therapy. Getting out and going for her treatments five days a week has actually strengthened her, both physically and mentally. And most importantly, she has taken herself off pains meds and is still pain free. Actually, a case could be made that she is doing better than I am, as she has ten fingers that work properly rather than my nine. 🙂
My thoughts and prayers are with you, Jackie. Only those who have been in the position of a caretaker, especially for a parent, can understand how heart wrenching and draining, both physically and mentally, it can be.
Love, Ghost
Good morning Villagers……
I was MIA, and now back….took a while to catch up on the above.
Jackie, thank you for your concern….and yes, I live “a hop,skip, and a jump” from Mitchell. Lived there the first few months of my life. Mom has always said that was the reason she went into labor with me….she ate too many persimmons at the festival. Lot of work goes into persimmon prepping pulp…I would say it is a dying art among the younger generation. We have a couple of persimmon trees out there, but I don’t pick them any more.
The ‘ladies’ at work sure have started popping out eggs….even getting large, double yokers…which of course I treat myself to. The Boss made me take yesterday off, and I did just that…..nothing.
Jerry, you sure don’t beat around the bush, do you?
GR 😉 doing so, so 🙂
later……….
https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/8330005248/h6D624286/
….and then my lights went out 🙂
I know that I don’t comment much, but I do read! And I do care… Ghost, Jackie, Debbe, Mindy… and so many others… the love and concern you show makes my heart warm… Luv yah!
Good morning, Villagers! Wonderful run this morning. IN the high fifties and not a cloud in the sky. Back at the office after a nice rounds and even the Front Office Girls are in a good mood. Two minutes and we open the front door. Let me at ’em *snort*
In Jerry’s defense, he only spoke what the rest of us must have thought at some time or other.
Some of us can heal and go on, some cannot. Most of us never really heal completely but we can limp along.
If you are strong you remain the person you were and that cannot be taken from you. Some are not so strong and lose their souls I think as well.
Lily, I think the convent is you seeking a refuge and shelter and it may be that but it also places great demands on those within. is there a particular reason you feel God has called you? I ask because my housekeeper left hers because she did not feel she had truly been called.
All of us have a calling and I decided I did not know mine, so I have tried to live as though each person I meet or touch might be that reason. Not to convert but just to touch them.
Love, Jackie
I don’t know about callings, Jackie, I just know that if I had to leave my current berth I would just want to live for Christ and a convent seems the way to do this. Seems a shame that I can’t swallow all the Mariolatry or I probably would have become a Roman Catholic long ago. And, I have been to several Roman Catholic services, and it just doesn’t seem to fit me. But the idea of withdrawal from the world and a life of contemplation seems to have its attraction. I wouldn’t go into a teaching order or a nursing order – I can do that out on my own – but one like I read about in the Brother Cadfael novels, where you work in the fields and come in to have your meals and chant the Mass – that I could get into. I would be Brother Cadfael’s assistant and help him grind the herbs. But I can’t swallow all that about the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception. THere is a Protestant kernel in me that won’t go away.
Oh, and by the way, I was released from counseling. My counselor say that if she could make all her patients as happy and content as I am, she would be out of the job. 😛
Today’s TIP.blogspot is an old example of double meaning, but the lady’s pose is just right. TIP site is identical.
http://thatispriceless.blogspot.com/
Peace, emb
OF to erupt at 11:32am ± 10 minutes.
http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/webcam/oldFaithfulStreaming.html
Brother Cadfael is a wonderful fictional character I enjoy too. But it is fiction.
I have to go, we are swamped and so far behind, trying to get stuff cleared out and cleaned and apparently stone mason’s back is out again or he is working another job! Trying to get front of yard sprayed with Round Up to kill any remaining grass.
Husband got his schedule disrupted and is unhappy. Chemo does that I understand. Or he could have underlying anility. Hope that is right word, profs!
Today’s A and J is hilarious, by the way. Jimmy just keeps hitting those home runs out of the ball park.
Love, Jackie
Yeah, that is the trouble with fiction. It is fictional. Or else I would have been living in Middle-earth a long time ago!