And how old are Arlo and Janis supposed to be anyway, that she’d want to look fifty years younger?
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I think she is trolling our current societal obsessions.
The face looks like something a three-year-old would make, so perhaps she’s in her early 50’s. My guess would be she’s around Jimmy Johnson’s age.
Arlo makes that comment that he “won” the Vietnam draft lottery. While there were lottery drawing up until 1976, the last lottery which resulted in induction into the service and possible service in Vietnam, was conducted July 1,1970 for men born in 1951. Therefore, the youngest Arlo could be as of now is 66 (if his birthday is in late November or in December). I’ve always had the impression from the strip that Janis is approximately Arlo’s age, so she’s 61 to 70 years old.
I agree with the overall opinion. If they are former hippie boomers, as they appear to be, they’re about my parents’ age — mid-sixties to pushing seventy. They had Gene later than my parents had me — and, of course, time in the strip isn’t completely accurate, as Johnson has said — but I figure Gene is in his late twenties, early thirties. A&J are grandparents, of course.
Comic time has really caught up with them. If Gene is still in his mid- to late 20s, A&J really can’t be much older than their late 50s and Arlo would have had to be a really late baby for his dad to have fought in WWII. But Janis’ comment here would seem to put her in her mid-60s, meaning they had Gene really late.
If Arlo in the background were giving her bunny ears, it would make him look 50 years younger.
Not really, billybob: there were a lot of bunny ears in photos at my 45th high school reunion last month: we looked immature, but not really younger.
Which MAYBE Is Janis’s point?
@ Demetrios X – my brother will be 70 next April but his son will still only be 23 (true, the boy’s mum is only mid-50s now). (I used to work with someone – well, a pair of twins – who were in their mid-late 20s but their dad was 80 (not sure about their mum)).
I am 60 now; my father was 40 when I was born (and almost 42 when my younger bro was born) and he was in the RAF in WW2, from 1941-1946. It’s only when researching stuff for my school’s 40th anniversary reunion that I realised that few of my classmates had fathers old enough to have fought in WW2; most of them were born ten or more years after my father and still teenagers at school themselves.
We seem to have quite long generations, at least in the paternal stairway of the family down which my surname slinkied; my grandfather was born in 1887 and his father, my great-grandfather, was born in 1844, which is 114 years before me.
Comic time doesn’t just mean characters age slowly, it also changes history. Arlo said he won the lottery 20 years ago and it was true twenty years ago when he was in his late 30s and the lottery was thirty years earlier when he was in his twenties. But now that it’s 20 years later and he’s in his mid 40s, it can no longer be true.
If Janice is acknowledging that looking 50 years younger is possible then no one can be surprised about Ashley or Britney or whoever checking on them in hot weather.
My first paragraph was tongue in cheek but I think the 50 years was an attempt at the cartoonist to be realistic and admit his age and time. However it doesn’t work because like most comics this *needs* comic time. It simply falls apart and can not exist in real time. Janice simply can’t be in her 70s. … even though she is… It just doesn’t work.
Hey, did anyone every read Rutherford’s novel “New York”? That was a really bad case of novel/comic time. Yes it’s theoretically possible for the kid born in 1908 to have a baby boomer son who has a 15 year old daughter in 2010 but… come on. Basically from 1865 to the present there where only four generations.
I was in the lottery, and my kids are in their mid-to-late 20s.
And I have younger cousins whose father fought in WW2 (whose children are younger than mine).
“If Janice is acknowledging that looking 50 years younger is possible then no one can be surprised about Ashley or Britney or whoever checking on them in hot weather.”
Not really: It’s likely Ashley has no real sense of ages past 40, which explains why an Ashley gave me a senior citizen discount when I was that age (and did not particularly look older).
Back in college, one guy in the room next to mine had a father who was older than either of my grandfathers. My grandfather had my father when he was about 24 or so; my father had me when HE was about 24 or so; Jason’s father had him when he was a over sixty. One of my grandfathers was in WWII; the other was in dental school for WWII, so got a deferment, but served in Korea (at a base in Tokyo, as a dentist, which, if you’re going to serve in the Korean war, is probably about the best option). HIS father DIDN’T serve in WWII, because he was old enough to not be subject to the draft.
My younger sister has two nephews who are older than she is. Not quite time paradox story level, but mildly amusing to us.
I also never know how to answer the “are you the oldest or the youngest or the middle or whatever” child questions. I have a much older half-sister, who was already herself married and living elsewhere by the time I was sentient; I had another older sister who died in infancy before I was born; then there’s me; and then a younger sister, with whom I did grow up in the family household. So am I the older of two; the third of four; the third of three and a half; or what?
I have an aunt who is just 3 years older than me (she was the youngest, whereas my mother was the oldest of seven kids).
A friend’s FATHER and GRANDFATHER were in the same nursing home at the same time for several years. Never did understand the reason behind that and didn’t ask; just thought it kinda strange . . .
“Not really: It’s likely Ashley has no real sense of ages past 40,”
Yes, that was why it was a *joke*. But if Janice actually *is* in her 70s then … it’s not actually a joke. She *is* the person the newscasters are saying to look out for.
I am older than than parents of most of the people I play trivia and games with (except for the second oldest guy who is thirteen to twenty-two years younger than his sisters) so sure, they could be younger boomers [*] in their sixties pushing seventy and had their kid late in their late thirties or early forties.
But they aren’t.
We know they aren’t. We’ve been reading their strip for years. We know exactly who they are. The are post free wheeling baby boomers who are now approaching middle-age. It doesn’t matter that that’s physically simply not possible. That’s who they are anyway.
[*](although older than *me*– *I* am technically the in the last three years of the baby boom and I am *significantly* younger than most folks considered lat bloomer. The draft ended with the Vietnam War when I was thirteen– and registration but not the draft itself started up again after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan when I was eighteen– How can you tell you are generation tailender: when *NOBODY* remembers the most significant and important events of your life.)
“except for the second oldest guy who is thirteen to twenty-two years younger than his sisters”
A truly bizarre coincidence was when it was discovered I had met his sister when I was in grad school and I met his childhood cat when it was a six week old kitten. He would have been five at the time.
In my (fairly close-knit) family, for a variety of reasons, my children’s generation spans 40 years — and it’s gotten worse since.
When you have cousins older than your parents, the whole “generations” thing becomes meaningless.
Andréa, as lifespans get longer, I can imagine it’ll become more common for parents and their children to be in nursing homes together.
Family discount plans?
Singapore Bill – He could have been lucky if the lottery ended just before his year also – perhaps even if he was a year or two later. Lucky that it ended.
20 years ago could also be a rounded off number.
Andrea – well, if they were in different ones it would be harder to visit both of them. :-)
One large difference is based on when people marry (or today, when they get together as a couple and have or don’t have children.
My parents were well into their 20s when they married, as were Robert and I. If each couple married at 18 then children of ours (which are only, sigh, theoretical) would be years older at any point – to explain how my mind works – If my parents married in 1947 when mom would have been 18and they had me 3 years later (born 3 years after they married) and I have a child at 18 the child would have born in 1968. I was not even out of high school until 1971 and not married until 1979 – so if I had a child right away it would have been 11 years at a minimum.
So a couple that follows my parents and us – if we had a child right away when married – would have a grandchild at least 11 years younger than than a matching couple who marry at 18 and their child marries at 18 and has a child right away. Similarly couples who marry in their 30s would have younger children compared to someone who married in their 20s and someone who married younger than 18 would older children.
And while it does not apply to Arlo and Janis – there are men who have children well into their 60s or 70s.
Oh, and I went to school with children from a family which had a large number of children (of more or less my parents’ age). I went to school with two girls who were aunt and niece.
And it was definitely easier for them to visit each other!
Comics I Don't Understand 
I think she is trolling our current societal obsessions.
The face looks like something a three-year-old would make, so perhaps she’s in her early 50’s. My guess would be she’s around Jimmy Johnson’s age.
Arlo makes that comment that he “won” the Vietnam draft lottery. While there were lottery drawing up until 1976, the last lottery which resulted in induction into the service and possible service in Vietnam, was conducted July 1,1970 for men born in 1951. Therefore, the youngest Arlo could be as of now is 66 (if his birthday is in late November or in December). I’ve always had the impression from the strip that Janis is approximately Arlo’s age, so she’s 61 to 70 years old.
Correction, the last lottery drawing was conducted in 1975 for induction in 1976. https://www.sss.gov/About/History-And-Records/lotter1
The last lottery that lead to induction was conducted in 1970.
beckoningchasm: She’s doing the “duck face,” which I associate primarily with girls in their late teens or early 20s.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=duck+face&qs=n&form=QBIR&sp=-1&pq=duck+face&sc=8-9&sk=&cvid=2976374D809F4BFA86DD5E9007B4C638
I agree with the overall opinion. If they are former hippie boomers, as they appear to be, they’re about my parents’ age — mid-sixties to pushing seventy. They had Gene later than my parents had me — and, of course, time in the strip isn’t completely accurate, as Johnson has said — but I figure Gene is in his late twenties, early thirties. A&J are grandparents, of course.
Comic time has really caught up with them. If Gene is still in his mid- to late 20s, A&J really can’t be much older than their late 50s and Arlo would have had to be a really late baby for his dad to have fought in WWII. But Janis’ comment here would seem to put her in her mid-60s, meaning they had Gene really late.
If Arlo in the background were giving her bunny ears, it would make him look 50 years younger.
Not really, billybob: there were a lot of bunny ears in photos at my 45th high school reunion last month: we looked immature, but not really younger.
Which MAYBE Is Janis’s point?
@ Demetrios X – my brother will be 70 next April but his son will still only be 23 (true, the boy’s mum is only mid-50s now). (I used to work with someone – well, a pair of twins – who were in their mid-late 20s but their dad was 80 (not sure about their mum)).
I am 60 now; my father was 40 when I was born (and almost 42 when my younger bro was born) and he was in the RAF in WW2, from 1941-1946. It’s only when researching stuff for my school’s 40th anniversary reunion that I realised that few of my classmates had fathers old enough to have fought in WW2; most of them were born ten or more years after my father and still teenagers at school themselves.
We seem to have quite long generations, at least in the paternal stairway of the family down which my surname slinkied; my grandfather was born in 1887 and his father, my great-grandfather, was born in 1844, which is 114 years before me.
Comic time doesn’t just mean characters age slowly, it also changes history. Arlo said he won the lottery 20 years ago and it was true twenty years ago when he was in his late 30s and the lottery was thirty years earlier when he was in his twenties. But now that it’s 20 years later and he’s in his mid 40s, it can no longer be true.
If Janice is acknowledging that looking 50 years younger is possible then no one can be surprised about Ashley or Britney or whoever checking on them in hot weather.
My first paragraph was tongue in cheek but I think the 50 years was an attempt at the cartoonist to be realistic and admit his age and time. However it doesn’t work because like most comics this *needs* comic time. It simply falls apart and can not exist in real time. Janice simply can’t be in her 70s. … even though she is… It just doesn’t work.
Hey, did anyone every read Rutherford’s novel “New York”? That was a really bad case of novel/comic time. Yes it’s theoretically possible for the kid born in 1908 to have a baby boomer son who has a 15 year old daughter in 2010 but… come on. Basically from 1865 to the present there where only four generations.
I was in the lottery, and my kids are in their mid-to-late 20s.
And I have younger cousins whose father fought in WW2 (whose children are younger than mine).
“If Janice is acknowledging that looking 50 years younger is possible then no one can be surprised about Ashley or Britney or whoever checking on them in hot weather.”
Not really: It’s likely Ashley has no real sense of ages past 40, which explains why an Ashley gave me a senior citizen discount when I was that age (and did not particularly look older).
Back in college, one guy in the room next to mine had a father who was older than either of my grandfathers. My grandfather had my father when he was about 24 or so; my father had me when HE was about 24 or so; Jason’s father had him when he was a over sixty. One of my grandfathers was in WWII; the other was in dental school for WWII, so got a deferment, but served in Korea (at a base in Tokyo, as a dentist, which, if you’re going to serve in the Korean war, is probably about the best option). HIS father DIDN’T serve in WWII, because he was old enough to not be subject to the draft.
My younger sister has two nephews who are older than she is. Not quite time paradox story level, but mildly amusing to us.
I also never know how to answer the “are you the oldest or the youngest or the middle or whatever” child questions. I have a much older half-sister, who was already herself married and living elsewhere by the time I was sentient; I had another older sister who died in infancy before I was born; then there’s me; and then a younger sister, with whom I did grow up in the family household. So am I the older of two; the third of four; the third of three and a half; or what?
I have an aunt who is just 3 years older than me (she was the youngest, whereas my mother was the oldest of seven kids).
A friend’s FATHER and GRANDFATHER were in the same nursing home at the same time for several years. Never did understand the reason behind that and didn’t ask; just thought it kinda strange . . .
“Not really: It’s likely Ashley has no real sense of ages past 40,”
Yes, that was why it was a *joke*. But if Janice actually *is* in her 70s then … it’s not actually a joke. She *is* the person the newscasters are saying to look out for.
I am older than than parents of most of the people I play trivia and games with (except for the second oldest guy who is thirteen to twenty-two years younger than his sisters) so sure, they could be younger boomers [*] in their sixties pushing seventy and had their kid late in their late thirties or early forties.
But they aren’t.
We know they aren’t. We’ve been reading their strip for years. We know exactly who they are. The are post free wheeling baby boomers who are now approaching middle-age. It doesn’t matter that that’s physically simply not possible. That’s who they are anyway.
[*](although older than *me*– *I* am technically the in the last three years of the baby boom and I am *significantly* younger than most folks considered lat bloomer. The draft ended with the Vietnam War when I was thirteen– and registration but not the draft itself started up again after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan when I was eighteen– How can you tell you are generation tailender: when *NOBODY* remembers the most significant and important events of your life.)
“except for the second oldest guy who is thirteen to twenty-two years younger than his sisters”
A truly bizarre coincidence was when it was discovered I had met his sister when I was in grad school and I met his childhood cat when it was a six week old kitten. He would have been five at the time.
In my (fairly close-knit) family, for a variety of reasons, my children’s generation spans 40 years — and it’s gotten worse since.
When you have cousins older than your parents, the whole “generations” thing becomes meaningless.
Andréa, as lifespans get longer, I can imagine it’ll become more common for parents and their children to be in nursing homes together.
Family discount plans?
Singapore Bill – He could have been lucky if the lottery ended just before his year also – perhaps even if he was a year or two later. Lucky that it ended.
20 years ago could also be a rounded off number.
Andrea – well, if they were in different ones it would be harder to visit both of them. :-)
One large difference is based on when people marry (or today, when they get together as a couple and have or don’t have children.
My parents were well into their 20s when they married, as were Robert and I. If each couple married at 18 then children of ours (which are only, sigh, theoretical) would be years older at any point – to explain how my mind works – If my parents married in 1947 when mom would have been 18and they had me 3 years later (born 3 years after they married) and I have a child at 18 the child would have born in 1968. I was not even out of high school until 1971 and not married until 1979 – so if I had a child right away it would have been 11 years at a minimum.
So a couple that follows my parents and us – if we had a child right away when married – would have a grandchild at least 11 years younger than than a matching couple who marry at 18 and their child marries at 18 and has a child right away. Similarly couples who marry in their 30s would have younger children compared to someone who married in their 20s and someone who married younger than 18 would older children.
And while it does not apply to Arlo and Janis – there are men who have children well into their 60s or 70s.
Oh, and I went to school with children from a family which had a large number of children (of more or less my parents’ age). I went to school with two girls who were aunt and niece.
And it was definitely easier for them to visit each other!