Arlo and Janis - change coming?
cryptoguy
http://comics.com/arlo&janis/2009-10-09/
This has had a months-long setup, and has been the central topic for
about a week now.
I think it's unlikely that JJ is going to just throw the plotline
away; we may be about to see a major shift in the strip, following A&J
into retirement - how old are they supposed to be anyway?
pt
Peter B. Steiger
> I think it's unlikely that JJ is going to just throw the plotline away;
> we may be about to see a major shift in the strip, following A&J into
> retirement
Are you saying this represents a sea change for the strip, or are you
just floating the idea as a possibility?
--
Peter B. Steiger
Cheyenne, WY
If you must reply by email, you can reach me by placing zeroes
where you see stars: wypbs.**1 at gmail.com.
ron.b...@gmail.com
wrote:
> On Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:10:11 -0700, cryptoguy sez:
>
> > I think it's unlikely that JJ is going to just throw the plotline away;
> > we may be about to see a major shift in the strip, following A&J
> > into retirement
>
> Are you saying this represents a sea change for the strip,
> or are you just floating the idea as a possibility?
I was going to nitpick the first pun based on
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/sea.html,
but since this really _is_ a "change caused
by the sea", it's a legit use of the phrase :^)
Ron
Stephen Graham
Johnson is about 57, isn't he? That's an upper bound on Arlo's age. But
I take A&J as being generically late 40s. So it's a bit early for
retirement discussion.
I think it's mostly the basic case of the curse of your dreams coming
true. Arlo's always dreamt of a boat and spending his time messing
around with it. But the actual prospect involves acknowledging the
amount of time and money that needs to be spent.
Right now I expect that they'll wind up buying the boat and enjoying the
benefits and curses involved.
cryptoguy
wrote:
>
> > I think it's unlikely that JJ is going to just throw the plotline away;
> > we may be about to see a major shift in the strip, following A&J into
> > retirement
>
> Are you saying this represents a sea change for the strip, or are you
> just floating the idea as a possibility?
Eh, whatever floats your boat.
pt
Jym Dyer
> age. But I take A&J as being generically late 40s. So it's a
> bit early for retirement discussion.
=v= He's rerunning a 1999 "series on growing older" in his blog
this week:
http://arloandjanis.com/?p=916
I suspect that Random Shermyesque Cow-orker isn't all that much
older than Arlo, and a commenter on that blog says that the AARP
sends out cards at age 49 1/2.
=v= (Comic strip time tends to run slower, of course.)
<_Jym_>
aemeijers
I don't remember- have they ever said what Arlo and Janis DO for money?
Or has it been kept deliberately generic?
--
aem sends...
Ted Kerin
"aemeijers" <aeme...@att.net> wrote in message
news:N7mdnSxO5czhE1LX...@giganews.com...
Generic?
I will award The Brass Figligee, with Bronze Oak Leaf Palm, to anybody who
knows what Ward Cleaver did for a living.
And I think it's pretty much like that. I was only recently amazed (although
I'm sure this is my fault, for laughing and kvelling at A&J every day
instead of actually paying attention, which I do better for less-funny
strips) to notice that apparently Janice has a job. (Or did I imagine
that?)
Anyhow, presumably the boat is -- initially? -- for Eugene. Some parents do
buy whole houses for their kids, but apparently the considerations here,
include whether A&J are prepared to make the schooner their home until
death. Very interesting. Especially the role-reversals in the argument,
which may or may not be strategic.
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The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
cryptoguy
> "aemeijers" <aemeij...@att.net> wrote in message
>
> news:N7mdnSxO5czhE1LX...@giganews.com...
>
>
>
>
>
> > cryptoguy wrote:
> >> A&J are contemplating a lifestyle change:
>
> >>http://comics.com/arlo&janis/2009-10-09/
>
> >> This has had a months-long setup, and has been the central topic for
> >> about a week now.
>
> >> I think it's unlikely that JJ is going to just throw the plotline
> >> away; we may be about to see a major shift in the strip, following A&J
> >> into retirement - how old are they supposed to be anyway?
>
> >> pt
>
> > I don't remember- have they ever said what Arlo and Janis DO for money? Or
> > has it been kept deliberately generic?
>
> Generic?
>
> I will award The Brass Figligee, with Bronze Oak Leaf Palm, to anybody who
> knows what Ward Cleaver did for a living.
He was an executive at a trust company.
(WIkipedia knows many things I do not).
pt
Mike B
>> I don't remember- have they ever said what Arlo and
>> Janis DO for money? Or has it been kept deliberately generic?
Ted Kerin adds:
> I will award The Brass Figligee, with Bronze Oak Leaf Palm,
> to anybody who knows what Ward Cleaver did for a living.
Topic Drift: I don't know if it's serendipity or synchronicity, but
I just read EXCELSIOR, YOU FATHEAD! last week.
Anyway, my favorite answer along these lines was proposed by
a fan of THE ADVENTURES OF OZZIE AND HARRIET: what
did Ozzie do for a living, since he was always just hanging around
the house all day? He was a world-renowned brain surgeon who
was so good he only had to perform one or two operations a year.
--Mike B.
Mike B
>> I will award The Brass Figligee, with Bronze Oak Leaf Palm,
>> to anybody who knows what Ward Cleaver did for a living.
>
> He was an executive at a trust company.
>
> (WIkipedia knows many things I do not).
But wouldn't an official Leave It to Beaver FAQ trump Wikipedia?
>> 4) What did Mr. Cleaver do for a living?
>>
>>Again, the produces decided to keep this one a secret too. Ward
>>works in downtown Mayfield. Ward’s main job seems to be writing a
>>lot of reports. He has a secretary, and sometimes records into a
>>dictating machine. Ward mentions the "the Thompson deal" and "the
>>Miller audits". There is a branch office in Mexico City, and a
>>main office in New York. Ward attends sales meeting and works
>>with the company’s marketing department. Occasional, Ward travels
>>to a company conference.
>>
>>Some speculate Ward is was an Accountant. This would be a logical
>>deduction, but certainly not foolproof.
>>
>>A LITB fan wrote to me: " I believe he was an executive in either
>>a construction or an architectural firm, .... first, he was in
>>the SeeBee's, so he would have had a background in construction,
>>second, in one episode before being interrupted by a call from
>>June he was heard reading the riot act on the telephone to what
>>seemed to be a contractor (project was behind schedule), third,
>>in an episode during which Ward was looking at old pictures from
>>his service days he commented on one of the guys: "Would you
>>believe he's now the best architect in Chicago?" .... now while
>>that could be interpreted as rhetorical, an argument could be
>>made that Ward would know how good the guy was because he had a
>>knowledge of the business .... while individually these clues are
>>not overly compelling, I believe together they provide a
>>reasonably good argument"
<http://www.leaveittobeaver.org/faq.htm#What%20did%20Mr.%20Cleaver%20do%20for%20a%20living>
Or <http://tinyurl.com/32ownm> and click #4.
Blinky the Wonder Wombat
Wasn't it established (perhaps it was on the radio show) that Ozzie
was a bandleader that performed at night? There was no attempt to say
that the Nelsons weren't playing anybody but themselves during the
show.
Ted Kerin
"Mike B" <M1...@yahoo.NOSPAM.com> wrote in message
news:hau8at$k0e$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
Good one. Wicki notwithstanding, the Ward Cleaver thing is a trick
question. I have a very thorough book about The Beav, which compiles all of
the clues about Ward's job -- an interesting exercise but they do not add up
to any definite, single answer.
__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 4499 (20091012) __________
Mike Peterson
> Or <http://tinyurl.com/32ownm> and click #4.
This is a pretty good breakdown, not only of Ward's career, but of the
depth in which the show actually discussed it, considering that,
unlike that of Darren Stevens or Oscar Madison, it wasn't a plot point
-- except in that he would never have hung out with Fred Rutherford if
they hadn't worked together. (By contrast, I think they made a
conscious effort to avoid contact with the Haskells, who they only
knew as Eddie's parents. Their impatience with the Rutherfords was
part of the comedy in the show.)
There is an unfair meme that the Cleavers were depicted as an
unrealistically cheerful, trouble-free, middleclass family, when a
fair observation of the show indicates real conflicts and some
relatively gritty moments. Ward came from a more blue-collar or at
least modest background than June, whose upper middleclass background
was occasionally a source of conflict. He tended to be tougher on the
boys and to shoot from the hip, but she could be something of a
control freak about minor things they did, and, again, there were
conflicts. When the boys befriended some less fortunate schoolmates,
Ward gave them a lecture about how lucky they should feel to live with
the privileges they enjoyed.
As for Ozzie, I think the confusion is between the original series,
which was played straight, and a remake that came along later, in
which he played with the Wonder Bread image of the original and made a
lot of those "what do I do for a living?" jokes.
Mike Peterson
http://nellieblogs.blogspot.com
www.weeklystorybook.com
www.weeklystorybook.com/dana
John Duncan Yoyo
<nos...@hereplease.net> wrote:
>
>"Mike B" <M1...@yahoo.NOSPAM.com> wrote in message
>news:hau8at$k0e$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
>> Cryptoguy wondered:
>>>> I don't remember- have they ever said what Arlo and Janis DO for money?
>>>> Or has it been kept deliberately generic?
>>
>> Ted Kerin adds:
>>> I will award The Brass Figligee, with Bronze Oak Leaf Palm,
>>> to anybody who knows what Ward Cleaver did for a living.
>>
>> Topic Drift: I don't know if it's serendipity or synchronicity, but
>> I just read EXCELSIOR, YOU FATHEAD! last week.
>>
>> Anyway, my favorite answer along these lines was proposed by
>> a fan of THE ADVENTURES OF OZZIE AND HARRIET: what
>> did Ozzie do for a living, since he was always just hanging around
>> the house all day? He was a world-renowned brain surgeon who
>> was so good he only had to perform one or two operations a year.
>>
>> --Mike B.
>>
>
>
>Good one. Wicki notwithstanding, the Ward Cleaver thing is a trick
>question. I have a very thorough book about The Beav, which compiles all of
>the clues about Ward's job -- an interesting exercise but they do not add up
>to any definite, single answer.
>
>
It was just a cover he was whatever you call an international man of
mystery who never leaves home. Sort of the Mycroft Holmes to Maxwell
Smart's Sherlock.