Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for June 20, 2023

Arlo confronts the monolith from “2001: A Space Odyssey!”

We all have our own monoliths to conquer.

Eh, loses points for no femur flinging.

“My God! The cell phone is full of stars!”

Dawn of mankind?

I can commiserate with Arlo. Have had a cell for over 15 years and still am not sure what might my number be. Leave home without it a couple times a week.

It would be more poetic if the iPhone debuted in 2001. The iPod debuted in 2001, but didn’t look like a black monolith then. Oh well.

My husband has a phone that he has had for a long time. He doesn’t know when he gets a text, he doesn’t know how to retrieve his voice mail. He never takes a picture because he can’t remember how. When he needs to respond to a text he will hand me his phone to do it for him. Don’t even get me started on adding a contact.

I like Arlo as Moonwatcher

Dmn!!! Now I’ve got Also Sprach Zarathustra running through my head.

Arlo looks like he needs a padded cell (phone).

Ground control to Major Tom….

I’m sorry, I can’t do that Dave.

Before cell phones, it was programing the VCRs. How many people had their kids do it for them?

I learned how to have mine stream my music channel while I’m on the treadmill and I can use it to make phone calls. Good enough!

Funny, but in the movie doesn’t the monolith bestow knowledge?? LOL

Reminds me of the obelisk in Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey.

That’s pretty much my wife. I believe there must be some electrical force in her body that screws up electronics so that they don’t perform correctly.

My late husband refused to learn how to work a cellphone and a computer.

I have extremely dry fingers and most of the time my wife’s cellphone will not respond to them. I have gloves that “fix” the problem.

My Lady is the same, she’s attached to the hip with that thing.

That is my remote control that has 50 buttons, 45 of which I have no idea what they do and there is no manual for it.

Some of us are still evolving.

I rarely take mine anywhere. I prefer to be left alone. My cell is used for phone calls only. Forget cruising the net, texts, photos,and games.

Darn it, Jim, I told you to stop spying on my parents! My dad would contact you to complain but he can’t get his phone to work for him.

Kids who haven’t seen 2001 won’t get it.

@Da’Dad- Not only that, but many of us despite how long we’ve had our phones, still do not know the things it’s capable of doing because we primarily use it for calls, texting and social media exploring.

If you think phones are complicated, don’t buy a new car.

Does Arlo have cell phone phobia?

Looks like a scene from 2001 A Space Odyssey…

2001 a space odyssey version gone awry.

The Dawn Of Clueless Man…

For a little bit of Kubrick: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/stanley-kubrick-explains-meaning-of-monolith-2001-a-space-odyssey/

Perhaps the monolith offers a way out; not sure about a cell phone, though:

https://www.livescience.com/space/could-earth-be-inside-a-black-hole

I’ve seen 2001: A Space Odyssey several times, and I still don’t get what the big black monolith was supposed to represent, what it was about.

Just like my wife and me.

The Old Sarge retired from the Army more than 30 years ago; he retired from Sprint in 2010. He worked in network operations for 10 years, and still spends a horrifying amount of time swearing at his phone. I’m just like Janis: “Give me that! I’ll fix it.”

In many ways I truly dislike my phone. It is too d*mn big now to fit in my shirt pocket like the older ones did. It is too d*mn big to be comfortable in a pants pocket. Unfortunately, I have to have one so I can receive the signal/code for the “Three factor identification” required at work. On weekends, I often have to have my wife call my phone a half dozen times a day because I just end up leaving the d*mn thing somewhere in the house.

They’d be more impressive if an accurate name, like pocket computer, was used.

Play Also Sprach Zarathustra

Excellent 2001 reference.

“Thus Sprach Zara-Janis”

I thought he was attacking the Monolith in 2001, A Space Odyssey.

It took me a minute to get the reference, from the opening scenes from “2001 – A Space Odyssey”. Where the so-called ape men somehow get the idea to use a bone for a weapon, and it suddenly gives them the advantage so they can kill other animals. Us trying to master our own technology is a pretty good analogy.