Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for April 30, 2024

Oh, tuning out because you think you know where the conversation is going is not good. I try letting my husband know that, too.

Why not just start with the important bit?

I have seen this here at home. Take the long way round instead of just getting to the point.

Should have started telling him the last part first.

Erin will turn the house into party central.

Mentally or physically?

Ludwig would probably rather be with them than be alone with a random sitter for weeks on end. Many places, indoor/outdoor cats need to be herded in at night due to predators. Just endure a couple of road trips.

Sounds like the start of 1 of those commercials for life insurance

Poor Arlo. Janis could have started the entire conversation with what she said in the last panel, yet Arlo has to bear the cross of listening to all the inconsequential fluff beforehand.

If you have big news, start with the headline. Then fill in the story.

I thought this was going to be a Pearls Before Swine style pun.

Bill & Gloria live in Arlo and Janis’ neighborhood?

Oftentimes, if you have to ask someone if they’re listening, they’re really not.

With all of those names, I was expecting a “Pearls Before Swine” pun-type ending.

Sounds like a lot of newspaper articles now, where the writer wants to be a novelist. You just give up after reading the first sentence.

Are those the gospel singing Gaithers?

It frequently is the case that you need to move the end of a presentation to the beginning.

I usually will zone out if the conversation has anything to do with new flooring or new kitchen cabinets.

That’s the long way around the barn, Janis. You OPEN with “I may have found us a house sitter” and THEN you bore him to death with all the irrelevant details.

I wonder if the Gaither Family has many reunions.

Janis, if you want him to stay focused, try removing your top. He still won’t hear you, but he will remain focused.

Arlo missed the whole point……….again!

Mrs. Leak’s boy played for the Bad News Bears!

Who calls their two down neighbor Mrs?

Arlo, you are the one who is sick!

Not tuning out because he thought he knew where the conversation was going. Tuning out because she went on a long long long winding road before coming to the point. If she had started with "Hey honey, I think I may have found a house sitter " she then would have had his attention. I am not criticizing, just explaining the difference between men and women.

I was expecting the setup for a Stephan Pastis pun.

we JUST had this exact same conversation at our house…..k

Both a logical conclusion and a proper response, Arlo – unless you’re wrong; then you’re in for a patch of bad weather……..

Stay awake Arlo, it’s important.

Wow! I would never burden my husband with that much unnecessary information. I give him as few words as possible. I say his name first, to get his attention. Then I tell him if I am going to ask him a question, or make a statement. He often can’t tell the difference. He is in Mensa, by the way.

I know Janis likes to garden, but why is she beating around the bush?

Gals tend to circle the barn before they go through the door. In Janis’ mind it is important as to how this find came about.

It sounded like she was going in the direction of her “mother’s, brother’s, sister’s cousin’s former college roommate.”

This was exactly me and my long term partner. I miss her a lot…

I’m just glad the moving plot line is inching forward!

Its probably inappropriate to enjoy realistic cartoons, but J Johnson is good. Married 50 years this year, for many years i would be at the dinner table with my wife’s female relatives as they used this meandering discussion to identify people from their past. Knowing none of them, I would wait a while and then interject “Didn’t Erin have a red mustang in high school? Or was it a Camaro?” They discuss this for a while then one by one stop talking….and evict me from the table for messin with them

It’s not like Arlo just starts babbling about some random subject, out if the blue. / / / sssss

A co-worker’s wife once observed, after listening to us talk shop, that women speak in stories, while men speak in bullet points. She wasn’t wrong…

From reading all the comments, it shows that this is not a man or woman thing, both tend to do this and it isn’t on purpose most of the time, as I stated above my sister use to do it but she didn’t realize it until you pointed out to her. Just be kind to the other person when you have to let them know that they aren’t paying attention, you don’t want an innocent thing to start a huge fight that will turn ugly pretty quickly ( I speak from experience of seeing this happen with my parents before they separted).

Just now, my wife asked me to go out to the car (because I am dressed) and bring in from the back seat a sweater, a black cloth bag, and a Walmart bag. I asked and was told the sweater she wanted was gray, and went on my mission. She was miffed that the Walmart bag – the only one in the back seat – was empty. Sigh.

Too much backstory, don’t bury the lead