Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for September 19, 2013

The text in the last panel is confusing to me. I’m no grammar expert (nor Nazi), but I’m reading it as future tense — something that they’ll do in the future will land them in the fire from the frying pan.

Did Mr. Johnson perhaps make a mistake? To my mind, if the text were changed to either “Gus said we’d be jumping …” or to “Gus says we’re jumping …”, then it’d make more sense.

Not a big deal, but it caused me mentally “trip” and get distracted from what I expect was intended to be the punch line.

This is what happens to any small farmer that dares to defy Monsanto.

Tesla Roadster – I think it might mean “We would be jumping from the frying pan into the fire” – if we switched to the restaurant business. (That’s what I thought when I read it anyway!)

Seems to me it means if they switched from the restaurant business which they are in to farming they would be jumping into the fire.

Tesla Roadster 181.. if you’re asking about the tense change, in the present, Gus says to them, in reference to a future event (they would be jumping…) The expression is an old one meaning going from a hot frying pan (on the stove) into the fire of the burner heating it … sort of like going from bad to worse, but certainly not to better.

P.S. I’m from Chicago, too.

Gene looks like Shaggy from the Scooby Doo cartoons.

Yeah, I think he was talking about going back in the restaurant business……And I think Gene looks great…..What’s wrong with a beard and long hair?

Manhunt, Chicago is a great town…..

Mad Hat Manhunt, Chicago is a great town…

of course nothing can be done about the weather but there is a wealth of information to be found about farming on line at at various colleges that deal with agriculture or even talking to actual farmers! but there is no getting around the fact that farming is hard work.

Tesla: Yes, ol’ Jimmy mixed tenses in the text in the last panel. It’s not “a Southern thang”, it’s poor grammar…

Also, am I the only one who thinks that Gene looks more like an anthropomorphic cartoon dog than a cartoon human?

In panel three, gardening isn’t the only thing that’s hard.

I was an English teacher, too, am of Southern extraction, and didn’t notice anything amiss in the last panel. This was probably because I wasn’t paying attention to the tenses (or “not studying” them, as us [sic] Southerners would say). As for the farm failing, I do believe that the southwest is undergoing a drought/flooding phenomenon that is atypical (so far).

@Gokie; “As for the farm failing, I do believe that the southwest is undergoing a drought/flooding phenomenon that is atypical (so far).”~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I do believe that ‘the kids’ are somewhere near the Florida/Alabama “Guf Coast” (sic) and it has RAINED this summer enough to drown a carp.

Well, I AM a grammar geek (Nazi if you like), and the usage is correct. “Gus says” using the present tense because it is something that Gus does, has done in the past, and (likely) will continue to do in future, so the present tense is used to indicate the “eternal”. “We would be jumping…” because Gene and Mary Lou, if they were to leave farming and go back into the restaurant business (they are farming now, not working in the restaurant)—likely a future event—would be jumping from pan to fire in the future.

I would have guessed Mary Lou and Gene were in the farmlands of Massachusetts or Vermont, and Gus’ restaurant is on the New England coast. It would be interesting to find out from Mr. Johnson exactly where he’s placed them.

From an ex “beatnik” looking boy (back when I was a “boy” and had enough hair to look “beatniky”) I like Gene’s new look. It perfectly fits his “back-to-nature” lifestyle.

What’s Gene looking at in panel 3?

The grammar in the last panel is too confusing to make any sense.

I read the strip to imply that between Gene’s comments in panels 3 and 4, Janis made a comment along the lines of “well then, why don’t you go into the restaurant business?”, which would support Gus’s reported comment in panel 4 being a reference to a possible future event…

Johnson often has one of his characters responding to a statement that was apparently made by another character but which isn’t actually shown in the strip – the reader is expected to make the inference…

Robert Pratt: The agribusiness giants who control our food supply don’t force farmers to buy their seeds? What do you call it when they contaminate an established crop with their frankenfood, and then they sue the victim for using their genetic garbage without permission? In Texas, it is a felony to damage someone’s crop, but they don’t enforce it if a corporation is doing the damage.

Over-analyzing. I get the frying pan/fire intent.

Tandembuzz, that’s what I said lol