Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for May 01, 2012

I thought it was " M’aidez". (Second-person imperitive.)I could be wrong. I’m sure some smarty-pants will set me straight on this.

Apart from the fact that it’s ‘imperAtive’ ;-) I think you’re right.

(Sorry, this smartypants couldn’t help himself there…)

Typical…

Today would have been my dad’s birthday… :-(

What you want and what you get aren’t always the same thing, Janis.Isn’t May 1st called May Day, or just the First day in May.

May I have the day off?

What about the flower baskets on door knobs?

it is also called Beltane. and was/is the reason for June weddings. since it is the Day of Fertility Rites.the baskets in the past were given by hopeful males in hopes of getting a gal to saying “yes” to finding a place to “have relations”. by June, weddings occurred to make sure the couple was married. since by then, they knew that the gal was fertile and was expecting.

Is May Day the day you may do what ever you want?

Whether it is “m’aider” or “m’aidez” depends on how you view the original expression. “Aider” is the infinitive form, so if it was part of a larger sentence, “Please come help me,” it would be “m’aider.” If the entire sentence was the short imperative, “Help me,” then it was “m’aidez.”

I’d always been told “m’aider,” even before the advent of personal computers, much less the marginally reliable Wikipedia.

@ Sangelia:Hooray, hooray, the first of May, outdoor … begins today!

Hey a Joe is always ready to celebrate something.

Tomorrow’s strip: the origin of the radio calls “securite” and “pan-pan.”

The date bin Laden chose for the 2001 attack was because 911 is the Emergency Phone Number, at least in the US. Maybe some have already written about it (I’m too lazy to look it up), but I wonder if the date for his death last year was chosen specifically because of what’s in the first 2 panels — could answer Janis’ question in panel 3.

@sangelia"…..since by then, they knew that the gal was fertile and was expecting."

Very true.. in that era, there was no use in childless, thus “un-productive’” marriages, so it had to be proved that a woman (or for that matter, a man, to be PC) could generate offspring, thus propagating the labors of ‘family’.. Later, it got ‘religious’ and ‘lawful’ for Mr.Sperm to be societally introduced to Miss Egg and after many stirrings in evolution, we finally arrive at glitzy Hollywood Weddings, The Kardashians and TMZ., all in wide-screen HDTV.Yay.

m’aidez, c’est “m’aidez”

Reposting Arianne’s list of “Janis in a bathtub” strips from yesterday, but in a clickable format.July 19, 2001Nov. 8, 2001Mar. 29, 2002Nov. 14, 2003Jan. 14, 2004Oct. 25, 2005Oct. 3, 2008May 15, 2009

Thanks for doing that, CoBass! : ) Also, I put them in a Shared Collection under the title A&J: Tubtime.

The infinitive is used for impersonal commands to an unknown audience, as in warnings, instruction manuals, and recipes. It is used in place of the vous form of the imperative.

This smartypants is sending a late reply. “M’aidez” is incorrect, it would be “Aidez-moi”. For a case of distress, “au secours” would be actually used, since “aider” is used in the sense of “helping out”. So Arlo’s comment is pointless.