I got my Peter Arno cartoons!

[Rilchiam]

So I’ll post this anecdote one last time:

I once left two magazines and a collection of Peter Arno cartoons in the coatroom at my first college. When I returned a few hours later, they were gone. Now, this was not like leaving them on a table in the coffee shop or something. This was a depository, where people would leave coats, books, and even backpacks, secure in the knowledge that they would be safe from light fingers. No one else reported stuff missing that day or afterwards. A leather jacket and several pocketbooks with god knows what in them were left undisturbed, but my magazines and book were tempting beyond endurance.

I think the reasoning is that magazines, detergent, condtioner and the like don’t count as “property”, because they didn’t cost much. Or because the second two are to be used up, and not everyone hoards magazines, as I do. But this is bullshit. They’re important enough to take, but not important enough to get upset about if they’re taken from you?

I eventually found used copies of the magazines, but I was never able to replace the Peter Arno. You wouldn’t think the kind of person who would like Peter Arno would be a thief, would you? It was probably just the kick of taking something, anything. And, as I said, the thief didn’t fear being run to earth and charged with an offense, as they would be for a leather jacket.

“You and your rapierlike wit!”

And now the story has an ending! I found the very same collection for sale in Amazon Marketplace about a year ago, but the price was always astronomical. Recently, though, it was offered at a reasonable price, so I ordered it, and it arrived today! The very same! So, after almost fourteen years, I have closure!

Now I just have to find that green corduroy jumper…

[RealityChuck]

“Oh, well. Back to the drawing board.”

[Satisfying_Andy_Licious]

*Originally posted by RealityChuck *
**“Oh, well. Back to the drawing board.” **

RealityChuck, I opened this thread specifically to ask about that line.

I was browsing through an anthology of New Yorker cartoons and came to the one with the scientist whose rocket has crashed, and he utters that line. I didn’t get it. I mean, that’s what you say when something goes wrong. Then it occurred to me: the cartoon was funny only if Arno had just coined the phrase.

Is that line his, then?

Rilchiam, are you talking about a collection of originals or reproductions?

(One of my favorite Arnos: The disinchanted woman looks at a satyr and says, “Oh, grow up.” Also like the proper gentleman in the strip club who says something like, “One rarely sees bowler hats these days.”)

[Rilchiam]

Andy, I don’t know if Arno coined the phrase. But to me, it’s funny because it’s such an understatement. A buttload of money just went down the drain (although fortunately, the pilot was able to bail out), and it’s terrible publicity for whoever financed the project, but the designer shrugs this off, ready to draw up another set of plans.

Anyway. Yes, reproductions. An anthology, IOW. Among my favorites are “Well, of course they float. What did you expect?” and “But Mary Lou! You mean you’re not coming back to Bryn Mawr ever?” And the aformentioned “You and your rapierlike wit!”

[Rocketeer]

I remember my parents had a Peter Arno collection: Man in Shower. The title cartoon had a woman coming into the bathroom to find her husband treading water in a shower full of water, pointing frantically to the door handle.

[Satisfying_Andy_Licious]

*Originally posted by Rocketeer *
**I remember my parents had a Peter Arno collection: Man in Shower. The title cartoon had a woman coming into the bathroom to find her husband treading water in a shower full of water, pointing frantically to the door handle. **

I remember reading that someone – might have been Harold Ross himself – objected to that cartoon on the grounds that shower doors don’t go all the way to the ceiling, so the man couldn’t be in a sort of fish tank. I’m glad funny won out over accurate in that case.

Rilchiam, it really sucks when someone takes something like that. You figure the person must have enjoyed the same thing as you do, so you have something in common, and if you met the person you probably could have a good chat – except they just stole from you. Ugh.

[Rilchiam]

Andy: Yes…I have wondered more than once, “What kind of person would steal Peter Arno?”