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

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

Warning: Manure Subject Matter

By Jimmy Johnson


Buy the new book, "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"
There’s an old Harry Truman joke. (What other kind would there be!?) The press had followed Pres. Truman to his home in Independence, Missouri, where he was holding court in his rose garden. He was telling the mob of reporters the secret to growing his prize roses: plenty of manure! They couldn’t get enough of Truman’s down-home outspokenness; they were encouraging him, and this inspired him further, and so it went. Listening nervously, a young press aide to the president sidled up to the first lady, Bess Truman, and suggested, “Mrs. Truman, don’t you think it would sound better for the newspapers if we encouraged the president to use the word ‘compost’ instead of ‘manure’?” Bess looked at the young man and replied, “Do you know how long it took me to get him to say ‘manure’?” Of course, everyone here has heard that one.

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162 responses to “Warning: Manure Subject Matter”

  1. Jim in TN Avatar
    Jim in TN

    Good cartoon and EXCELLENT Truman joke! Made the co-workers wonder what I was laughing at!

  2. Crab in Grapeland Avatar
    Crab in Grapeland

    Yes, I first heard it in 1949, I believe, although the PC word used was ‘fertilizer’ instead of ‘compost’.

  3. sideburns Avatar

    If building egg shells is anything like building bones, Old Bear, the hens also need a little magnesium. I know, because I’ve got osteoporosis, and my daily pills include both Calcium with D and magnesium.

  4. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    sideburns

    There were other micro nutrients in the feed also – just like a multi-vitamin plus
    Just like soil needs a balanced Ph to use nutrients efficiently so does the body.

  5. emb Avatar
    emb

    An email from a colleague in the math dept., + my reply. Slightly edited.
    ““““““““
    Friend, No, I hadn’t, and it’s a nasty designed to separate us art critics from hoi polloi. I’m going to send this to two blind copy groups that you may be in. Thanks, emb

    From: friend F, April 17, 2015 To: emb Subj.: Literary headline

    Hello, emb. That phrase “Kain is now Able” that you sent out the other day reminded me of a caption to a photograph. It was printed in an LA newspaper in the early ‘60s, when Aristotle Onassis, looking to buy a house around there, was shown the home of Buster Keaton. A photographer was there to record the occasion and the caption in the paper the next day read “Aristotle Contemplating the Home of Buster.” No doubt you’ve heard this one.
    “““““`
    Peace, emb

  6. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    OMG! Philosopuns!

  7.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    ‘Twas “Kane”, not “Kain” .

  8. John in Richmond Texas Avatar
    John in Richmond Texas

    OK, here’s one I guess for emb or somebody. I had a dead dove on the driveway, put it in a corner of the yard to bury, forgot it and the next morning it was gone, who would have eaten it? a barred owl, a raccoon, a loose cat? I don’t think a buzzard would have come down because it’s thick with trees.. …. … just got 4 & 3/10″ inch rain in two hours, total almost ten inches in a week, my wife would have been so happy

  9. emb Avatar
    emb

    John: Scavengers: ‘barred owl, a raccoon, a loose cat?’

    I don’t know if owls scavenge. Pariah dog, red or grey fox, opossum, coyote, striped skunk, spotted skunk [if you have them]. If it happened in daylight before you got up, we’d have to add grey and fox squirrel, crow. Guess we will never know.

    Peace, emb

  10. John in Richmond Texas Avatar
    John in Richmond Texas

    calcium in chicken feed reminds how I used to see dog poop that had turned white because people used to give their dogs a lot more bones, Sarah Silverman had even done a very moving touching song in her TV series, “Whatever Happened to the White Dog Poop of the 70’s”

  11. Mindy from Indy Avatar

    Gal – That is good to hear. I will pass it along to her was well. After the initial shock, she seems to be in good spirits. We had dinner tonight, food as okay, but conversation was limited because there were no soft surfaces to reduce sound! In a small restaurant full of little league teams, it stayed loud.

    Debbe – Challenging is the word. Glad I no longer feel the need to act sane. 🙂

    Denise – I remember reading an article about embracing lessons from tough bosses. And hey, with the internet, I found it. http://www.proassisting.com/ee/index.php/blog/comments/work-for-a-tough-boss
    My old boss is the first to admit her people skills are lacking, but her accounting/business skill are spot on. My company is in a huge “qualified employee” deficit, losing her was a huge loss. My boss will likely be on sick leave soon, it is going to get worse before it gets better. I am a born diplomat, but it’s what I learned from her that has helped me more.

    Jerry – Why I love cats; they keep me humble.

    emb – 🙂

  12. Mindy from Indy Avatar

    This article might be the one I remember, but the first still applies. Especially the bit about not hoarding information and makin you smarter.

    http://www.joyamartin.com/great-boss/

  13. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Debbe 😉 A pretty good Southern voice from down our way…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdT8Tlzto20

  14. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain to remain stupid.
    Ben Franklin

  15. sideburns Avatar

    John, it’s very likely that ants and other scavenging insects did away with what was left of that dove.

  16. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    Good morning Villagers……

    Old Bear…like that adage….stupid is as stupid does (what movie did that come from?)

    Denise, you’re right….I have ‘conditioned’ three cages of birds to attack an egg when I hold it in front of them….you should see them, sometimes they miss and hit my ‘wittle’ fingers. But once they break the egg, and the yolk and shell fall into the feeding trough, it is a frenzy. I don’t tease them, I usually do this once or twice a day to all three cages.

    They do have a special blend of feed that contains oyster shells and some other ingredient with the initials PAP….must research that one. I have cleared another cage for ICU, next to the other once. I don’t like more than three in my recovery cages. You should see me, I will lift them up to get a drink from the water nipple if they are down. Gosh, I love my job.

    The last of the hens arrived yesterday afternoon. Ian had to spend most of the day counting hens in cages…..boring. I had to do that when we got our ‘brood’….almost went insane.

    Ya’ll have a blessed day…..rain coming in tomorrow.

  17. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    GR 😉 I’ll see your Southern Man with Lilly May….

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVRxdPWV3RM

  18. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    …and where has Mark been?????

  19. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    Jerry, I think it was Ruth, but have you checked out the comic strip “Breaking Cat News”? There is a cat named Elvis….I think you would enjoy it.

  20. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    re: today’s real time strip……and you wonder where our ‘spent hens’ go”?

  21. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Good morning Debbe, been busy working, not much for me to comment on either. Thanks for thinking of me. Hope you have a Saturday off today.

  22. emb Avatar
    emb

    Old Bear on 18 Apr 2015 at 1:15 am #

    We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain to remain stupid.
    Ben Franklin.
    Gonna add that to my quotes file. Won’t comment further.

    sideburns on 18 Apr 2015 at 2:27 am #

    John, it’s very likely that ants and other scavenging insects did away with what was left of that dove.
    Somewhere else, where a bigger scavenger seems to have taken the whole bird. Ants typically leave bones, feathers, and the stones in a dove’s gizzard. That’s how we learned that some dinosaurs used gizzard stones.

    Peace, emb

  23. emb Avatar
    emb

    That sounds like ants prepped the dinosaur. I believe ants showed up sometime in the Cretaceous, so may have helped finish off a dead dinosaur, but other predatory and scavenging critters or physical factors [floods, volcanic ash, disease] may have killed the beast or scavenged the beast.

    [If dinosaurs were considered beasts, they were created, along with us, both sexes, on the first Friday. Birds, which silly paleontologists think are descended from small theropod dinosaurs, were created on the first Thursday. Gen. 1:20-28.]

    Peace, emb