Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for August 21, 2016

I am just as bad with names

Time to get some new lenses for your glasses.

sure is hard to keep people’s faces straight

Nancy’s nose has gotten smaller… I wonder if Luann’s will be next.

Barbara Boxer and Doris Matsui? Just kidding

I actually heard a rim shot in my head after the last panel.

So which goes first, the eyes or the memory?

Reading glasses are not what you would be wearing to see someone’s face, though. Distance glasses are worn more continuously, if you need them for driving, reading signs, etc.

At this point, I would need trifocals, but because of macular degeneration, double vision and the need for prisms, I have 3 separate sets of glasses. Always have to be using one set, though…

On the other hand, the shots I’ve been having in my eyes have so far (knock on wood) kept me from losing my sight. We didn’t have those shots back when my maternal grandmother and paternal aunt both ended up with macular, and both lost their sight altogether. So I am definitely benefitting from some progress in medical research…

There’s an old joke that goes this one better, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a form of it turn up over in “Pickles” some day..Two gents of a “certain age” meet and get involved in a long conversation about old times, what’s been going on in their lives, mutual friends and the like. Finally one of them says, “it’s been great seeing you again, Bob”. The other one answers, “I’m not Bob, Fred.” and the first one replies “I’m not Fred.”.Punchline ends up being “so we both looked again, and sure enough it was neither of us.”

Or it could have been Doris Day and Barbara Billingsley. I’m sure Barbara laughed when someone stopped her and asked her to sing “Que Sera, Sera” (♬)…

“A Switch To Scratch”“I Think…Therefore, You Are!”“A Citizen Of The Great State Of Confusion”“Blunder And Enlightening”“Who Are You? Who, Who? Who, Who? (♪)“Too Many Friends To Count”“Misplaced Nomenclature”“The Bourne Identity?”

“You Have No IDea…”“Don’t Ever Change”“Where’s Your Name Tag?”

“The Seven Year Switch”“Wait…Don’t Tell Me….”“Warm …And Fuzzy …Memories”“Mistaken Identity”“Guess Who?”or“Only The Names Have Been Changed…..”

When we had our 50th high school reunion, I was in charge of making the name tags for everyone to wear. I put their yearbook picture on the name tags so people could recognize one another!

I met a woman I hadn’t seen for a long time and actually remembered her name. I got the company we worked at wrong, LOL! Life gets confusing.

I’m 70. I use +2.50 reading glasses for reading print material and computer screens. I use trifocals for everything else except driving. I can see better down the road without glasses.

That’s what, her fifth gin and tonic today?

“Doris, Huh? ‘Doris!’ You know, I used to Date a Gal named Doris in My Freshman Year in College. (Short Pause) We used to do EVERYTHING together. Took Classes together, Car-pooled together, went for Long, LONG walks in the Park, Together.(Another Short Pause) She had Lovely Green Eyes and Long Auburn Hair. (LONG Pause This Time) You Know (Chuckles) She had the Cutest Little ‘Trick’ She used to DO with Her…..,Uhhhhhm, Ummmmm, Errrrr, I MEAN….., " -— Frank, Just Now Realizing the DANGER of "Reminiscing Around the Wife AND Thereby CONFINED to the ‘Couch’ for the Next Six Weeks.

Mordock999,Frank’s an idiot sometimes,but he;s not a suicidal idiot.

Been there, done that!

we were at dinner last evening and a gentleman came up to our table and shook my husbands hand, and spoke to him about being retired military and such, then left. I think he thought my husband was someone else and was embarrassed to say so. My husband did not know him at all. lol

Wiselad said, about 8 hours ago@Argythreeusually shows her to read at night, so either she is farsighted or she wears contacts but takes them out when she goes to bedOr she has Presbyopia which is terribly common for the age bracket that Nancy is in. It usually begins at about age 40, and is pretty much the norm.Of course, forgetting which friend was which happens when a person has not seen someone in decades, too, especially if they were not close friends but more like acquaintances, but my recollection is that these two met late in college, so the longest amount of time not seeing the friend since he calls her by name (which increases the chances that he has met her) would possibly be too short.

Or, you can just fake it.

LOL! (your actress/ character comment)

One of my most embarrassing moments was when I worked for a company where one of our Directors had left several years ago, and recently a new salesperson had been hired who looked almost exactly like that departed Director. I swear they look lIke long-lost twins . I ran into the new lady in the hall, wasn’t aware of the recent hire, and thought she was the old Director. You can imagine the stupid things that came out of my mouth next. Oy!

@Sukie:Guess it depends on whether you’d prefer to forget what you’ve seen, or remember what you didn’t see.

I take back that the time frame may be too short for her to have confused two people. Dad was still alive when i thought some Sells family members were Harts, so doing the math that would have been around 35 years or so after not seeing them, and i know it was well before then that I was thinking of a high school acquaintance whose name i coukd not recall and realized when looking through the yearbook realized that i had melded two people who hung out together into one person in my recollections.There are studies on memories and their retention which indicate that memories are actually rather fluid, that even the normal physiological brain maintenance which occurs, and recollection itself can alter them.(BTW, being reminded by one of the Harts about who was in which family came in useful several years later because it helped me give info to a county historian which led to likely figuring out who was in an old photo that was destined for a display. Serendipity.)

http://www.medicaldaily.com/memory-selective-forgetting-brain-alters-past-every-time-we-try-remember-it-325890http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-our-brains-make-memories-14466850/Okay, i do not have time today for real searching, but – if my own memory serves – then these will be interesting and very accessible articles on how memories alter.

Oh, that would explain it.

There are actually “Fail” compilations of just that, on YouTube. (Of course there are.)

“Every one should wear name tags, that would do it.”

Or…

Your sense of humor today is wonderful! THANK YOU for that.

I had the same recognition problem not only at class reunions but even at family get-togethers. No one bothered with my nametag idea as everyone else sees each other regularly.*Thankfully, a friend stood behind people who I obviously couldn’t place and mouthed the name to me! We’ve gotten nicer as we age!

I’ve worn glasses since I was 11. I’m 60 now.For the past 17 years I’ve had two prescriptions … one for regular distance vision, the other for reading and computer work. For at least the past ten years I have been running my own home-based business and tend to wear the first pair only when I leave the house (that is to say, the reading/computer glasses are the ones I wear all the time when I am home).Last year, right before my annual vision exam, I discovered while taking the trash out that I could see clearly farther with the second pair than I used to. Sure enough, my optometrist said that my eyesight has improved as a result of my wearing the weaker glasses more, so what was my reading/computer prescription is now my distance vision and I have an even weaker prescription for close-up.He says that’s unusual but not unheard of with someone my age and he hypothesizes that I’m putting less strain on my eyes, therefore less fatigue, and I might see a little more improvement between now and age 70.And yet, the other day I was trying to remember my roommates’ names from 1991 to 1994. Couldn’t, even though I could picture them clearly in my mind (which doesn’t yet need glasses, LOL).

Just yesterday, I mistook Superman, for Clark Kent! (doh)

I almost don’t want to put a somewhat humorous tint on the comment tree today, given how its gotten into peoples memories which are important, but again I wanted to comment that this strip is another comment on the human condition, as we get older. Remember the strip itself is about a younger set of people, Luann’s group basically, while Nancy and Frank are anchors as parents who are closer in experiences to many of the commentators here. On Sunday’s when the strip arc itself is pretty tense, or rather serious, in a Luannverse kind of way, often I notice with get the human foibles break on Sunday, I fully anticipate we will get back to Toni, Shannon, Jonah, and Brad on Monday. Of course I could be wrong, but I would bet that I am right. Any takers?

Since this is Luann, the mom is just suffering a brief brain fart; were this the Funkyverse, that would be the first sign of early-onset Alzheimer’s and years of grinding misery for the readers.

nancy and frank are adorable in this today! Another home run from greg and karen with a funny strip

So, “Barbara” was really Doris, eh, Nancy?Well, if you realized that, you should be thankful it came to you, even if a bit too late. Not to worry!

I told a friend once that his morher, Irene, had gone downhill badly since I had last seen her..He said, no, she was just fine bur her twin sister, Helen, was in her final days fighting cancer..At least Irene is okay even though she now misses Sis.

Night-Gaunt49 said,“Every one should wear name tags, that would do it.”.Facial recognition apps. Done right, we could greet each one we met by name even if it was our first meeting.

from the movie “hello, my name is Doris” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3766394/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_1 and in the TV series the flying nun she was sister Beatrice

Yeah…I was wondering where the “Beatrice” reference came from; assumed Wiselad meant Bertille.I enjoyed “Hello, My Name Is Doris” quite a bit, which is a movie that has a premise that would not have been even half as good without Sally Field’s excellent performance to pull it off. She is pretty great in anything she does.

I hate being called Barb. But nobody has ever called me Doris.