Recent Comments

1. 5 days ago on One Big Happy

   Man I bet its been 40 years since I had a sloppy joe, will have to check Costco

2. 7 days ago on The Other Coast

   Had a Jack Russell for 17 years. Bit people, me included, looked like a perpetual puppy, wasn’t. Had a water dish next to a big rose bush. Would hide behind a chair, charge a drinking bird driving it into the thorny rose bush where he would catch and kill them. But in terms of intelligence. One christmas he jumped onto the dining room table when we were gone and ate half a gingerbread house the wife and kids had made…but the kicker was he pulled the tablecloth from the other end of the table and carefully and smoothly covered the evidence of the crime. No one spotted the crime till the next day, it was a week before my wife finally blamed the dog…she was sure it was me.

3. 8 days ago on The Other Coast

   I’ve read that certain breeds approach the IQ of a 7 year old child. I believe it

4. 8 days ago on Pluggers

   If you have eyesight that runs out of gas around your knees and are diabetic and on blood thinner….and the inside of your loafers look like an ax murder crime scene (blood stains all in the toe area….)…give it up its time for your first pedicure. If it seems too much, cut your own hair and give your feet to a pro. Was hard for me at 73, but a great decision.

5. 8 days ago on Cleats

   1964 in the Northwest Oklahoma wheat country (say Enid) two incredible culture bombs shook the food world of the youth of Enid. First, not one, but two pizza places, one was Yosemite Sams, can’t remember if Shakeys was the other. Then came a Mexican Food Taqueria! (Not all that Mexican, ground beef with Velvetta on a tortilla). But suddenly Teen food in Enid expanded far beyond Dairy Queen. Monumental

6. 9 days ago on Pluggers

   Had an International Scout that had a separate vaccum line for each wiper. My dad bought it for me for $300. Came from a mine in Kentucky, actually used underground its whole life. A slant 4 engine which was the left hal of a pontiac v8 engine. Pontiac used the right half in a compact car. At college I didn’t use it much but it still headed South rapidly. The starter crapped out, so I only parked on the tops of hills facing down. The headlights only worked for 30 minutes before the battery was drained (if you are wondering, the cause was the ground cable was painted and couldn’t ground to the body). The gas tank filler neck collapsed and I had to use a piece of hose and a gas can to fill up, and of course I couldn’t turn it off at the station (no starter). I was beyond stony broke trying to make it to Christmas break to go home to Memphis. Had an expired gas company card to a rare gas brand (Fina?), luckily the night manager let me buy two sanwiches and a coke and call it gas or I would have gotten very skinny by break. Muffler fell off. So I headed home to Memphis from Central Oklahoma, left at dawn. As the engine got more and more tired it began to shake and roar at idle. In North Arkansas I had to hunt for old rundown gas stations staffed by very old men or teenagers. Who wouldn’t notice the expiration on the card compared to a highway department orange Scout ($30 Earl Scheib paint job, thanks Dad!) shaking, rattling and roaring at their pump, while I wrestled a hose and a gas can to fill up. I think they wanted me out of the station before an explosion, didn’t even look at the card. Scout seemed to be on its last legs when I reached the Mississippi River Bridge at dusk (no headlights), when a traffic jam trapped me at the top of the bridge as dark descended. If there had been a gap in the railing I would have driven it into the river and took my chances. Finally freed from the jam. In my folks driveway at hard dark. Monoxide headache.

7. 12 days ago on Arlo and Janis

   I’m glad that this is one strip where there is nothing about work – jobs for Arlo and Janis….just keep it on the home front, don’t need to see her teaching or him at the insurance agency. The fear is of irrevocable loss…ten years later “honey do you remember the time we spent sitting around that little kitchen table in our second home? So nice”….each time you move you are gambling that you’ll have new good memories that equal or exceed your old good memories….life is a series of blind bets.

8. 16 days ago on Arlo and Janis

   My Dad worked for the railroad his whole life. We moved every 2 years until I was in high school. Made friend fast, but kind of had to view them as expendable and replaceable…..no lifelong friends. She lived her whole youth in same town with broad range of friends and relatives she still visits. I did the right thing and moved us to a small suburban town when the kids were in 2nd grade and kindergarden. Stayed for 32 years. They made lifelong friends, some they went to college with. I’m glad I did it.

9. 18 days ago on F Minus

   I’m a former builder later banker from Texas now living in a house from 1958 in Dallas in a neighborhood of crawl space homes. First, soil conditions drive decisions. Fat clay soils shrink and swell, and are often ten feet thick. They break all but the most complex and expensive concrete foundation designs. Repair is difficult at best. Plumbing within the concrete can be damaged by slab movement and go unnoticed and do terrible damage. Not to mention the destruction of any tile flooring in the house. Crawl spaces are more expensive to do well (to make the rodent and bug proof). But offer some advantages. Repairs are relatively simple with hydraulic jacks lifting everything back level and plumb. Plumbing is accessible for any repairs. And remodeling is an open palette to change bathrooms kitchens etc.. fat clay soils run from the texas coast to Northern Oklahoma, nearly 900 miles of expansive soil conditions.

10. 21 days ago on Arlo and Janis

    I think she’s making a face because she saved the tough question she was dreading for last. I knew a chinese man who bought six rent houses along a cul de sac. Three pretty girls wanted to lease 2 homes. One in nurse scrubs, the other two secretaries. He took a vacation. When he came back he swung by the homes. There were sixteen motorcycles , and more cyclists all from a local gang. Point is its the boyfriend question that is the toughest one.