Yesterday’s Arlo and Janis. Free beer tomorrow? Why not today? Is June 30 some sort of free beer holiday I’m about to miss?
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The point of “Free beer tomorrow” is that it’s always tomorrow. So, like “the best time was 20 years ago”, it’s not achievable. June 30 is not significant.
Agreed. Arlo seems to be giving us a variation on the “jam tomorrow” trope from “Through the Looking-Glass” — if your local bar posted a permanent sign saying “Free Beer Tomorrow” you would never collect the benefit of that offer. It’s not precisely parallel to Janis’s saying, but you can see how he could be led to think of it.
A good resemblance to the “plant it twenty years ago” advice is one of the patterns of humor in “Country Cooking” by Harry Mathews, American member of OuLiPo. Along with an outrageous abundance of ingredients, and complicated or absurd procedures, he gives steps whose execution now depends on preparation hours or days earlier, and which are only getting mentioned now. Searching the text at Google Books for “will have”, page 21 “Earlier in the day, you will have anointed the lamb, inside and out: inside, with fresh …”.
But why would that make Arlo think of free beer tomorrow? And what is the word Arlo had in mind in the third panel?
Mitch, and we’ve all done that with recipes, I’m sure: started in and realized we missed a time-dependent step. I was at the store this weekend and they had a kind of fish we’ve been looking for. Texting with my wife, she found a recipe she liked, and I was just about to buy the fish instead of what we had planned for that evening when I saw that it requires two days of marinating. So I bought both, and we’ll be enjoying the rare fish tonight!
Usual John: Good question, I’d glossed over that. Maybe “Tired”?
In the 3rd panel the word he is thinking is “old”. Just as he is not going to see free beer tomorrow he won’t see a tree he planted today in 30 years
There is also that they are planning a move.
I’m sure JJ’s jokes ‘sound’ great in his head, but sometimes, something is missing when the cartoon is complete.
phsiii –
Husband will decide he wants something for dinner when I ask that involves more time that I will have – such as something large has to be defrosted and we will be eating dinner in an hour to hour and a half. I can generally figure out how to solve the problem and have dinner done and ready on time – even it involves adding a first course of canned soup to take up time.
(I have learned that best, quick way to defrost is to put the food in question in hot water in a pot while leaving it in its packaging and let it sit there – changing the water periodically to keep it hot. Defrosts it – food may be wet, but it will not have cooked in the defrosting process.
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The point of “Free beer tomorrow” is that it’s always tomorrow. So, like “the best time was 20 years ago”, it’s not achievable. June 30 is not significant.
Agreed. Arlo seems to be giving us a variation on the “jam tomorrow” trope from “Through the Looking-Glass” — if your local bar posted a permanent sign saying “Free Beer Tomorrow” you would never collect the benefit of that offer. It’s not precisely parallel to Janis’s saying, but you can see how he could be led to think of it.
A good resemblance to the “plant it twenty years ago” advice is one of the patterns of humor in “Country Cooking” by Harry Mathews, American member of OuLiPo. Along with an outrageous abundance of ingredients, and complicated or absurd procedures, he gives steps whose execution now depends on preparation hours or days earlier, and which are only getting mentioned now. Searching the text at Google Books for “will have”, page 21 “Earlier in the day, you will have anointed the lamb, inside and out: inside, with fresh …”.
But why would that make Arlo think of free beer tomorrow? And what is the word Arlo had in mind in the third panel?
Mitch, and we’ve all done that with recipes, I’m sure: started in and realized we missed a time-dependent step. I was at the store this weekend and they had a kind of fish we’ve been looking for. Texting with my wife, she found a recipe she liked, and I was just about to buy the fish instead of what we had planned for that evening when I saw that it requires two days of marinating. So I bought both, and we’ll be enjoying the rare fish tonight!
Usual John: Good question, I’d glossed over that. Maybe “Tired”?
In the 3rd panel the word he is thinking is “old”. Just as he is not going to see free beer tomorrow he won’t see a tree he planted today in 30 years
There is also that they are planning a move.
I’m sure JJ’s jokes ‘sound’ great in his head, but sometimes, something is missing when the cartoon is complete.
phsiii –
Husband will decide he wants something for dinner when I ask that involves more time that I will have – such as something large has to be defrosted and we will be eating dinner in an hour to hour and a half. I can generally figure out how to solve the problem and have dinner done and ready on time – even it involves adding a first course of canned soup to take up time.
(I have learned that best, quick way to defrost is to put the food in question in hot water in a pot while leaving it in its packaging and let it sit there – changing the water periodically to keep it hot. Defrosts it – food may be wet, but it will not have cooked in the defrosting process.