Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for March 20, 2015

Oh, don’t give ’em ideas, chief.

Captain, THAT is a VERY Confusing Story.

…Well, they’ve had worse ideas thrown at them.

This “backstory” sounds just like a cross between a Jimmy Buffett song and a Jethro Tull song…as sung by the Captain And Tenille… – But it is true, a wedding is an event, and a marriage is a lifetime…

“Pier Pressure”“Knot…What I Said”“Sailor Way, Sailor Way” (♫)“Chug A Jug, Tug A Lug, Hug A Bugger”“His Tide Is High”“Go With The Flow”“Charles In Barge”“Docked In The Name Of Love” (♫)“Tug A Jug, Chug A Lug, Hug A Bugger”“Love Will Keep Us Together” (♫)“Head Above Water, Making Waves”“Two Score And Three Years”or“A Shore Foot For Sea Legs”

in terms that sound “plausible” in 1971/72, Mom got pregnant, and “bio Dad” got scared(probably high school kid, or drop out 19 years old and run away but maybe gone means died) ……………. her dad and monm could not have her without a father, and the tugboat skipper was friend of the family and ordained, and the family happened to know the sailor who usually was drunk who agreed to marry her as a way to get “monetary extra benefits in the Navy” and the kid have a last name, and the 2 ended up falling in love

Am I the only person out here that likes this arc? I like the way they banter with each other. They certainly know each other well and are having fun.

I’ve been enjoying it too. But I’m waiting for them to realize they re already at the place they need to be to hold their wedding and besides, can’t fire captains perform marriages?

I’ve seen a brass plaque aboard ships that says:“Marriages performed by the Captain are good for the duration of this voyage, only”

A captain, hey?

Would it be interesting that a certain Captain who’s pouring coffee was also legally capable of performing weddings?

whether it was at the start is moot after staying together for 43 years and still going, you need to learn to follow spirit of the law and not the letter of it, otherwise jails would be full of people doing minor things for taxes, for jaywalking, for “not true marriages” and for telling a place that today is my birthday or telling a place “I am 60” instead of the truth that they are 54 to get senior discount and so on

That means “The Love Boat” lied to me! I grew up believing Captain Steubing was a great guy, and he could marry everyone, but he was a fraud! :)

“The Office” also had a “boat wedding ceremony” (for Jim and Pam)….– But is it true that a ship’s captain can never perform a ceremony? Depends on where you are standing, and who the captain is (i.e., whether or not he has a license to officiate- his captaincy alone is not legal for officiating, and many states dictate the ceremony should be on land)…– See http://mentalfloss.com/article/23165/can-boat-captains-really-marry-people – Also, from Wikipedia:

There is a common belief that ship captains have historically and currently been able to perform marriages. In most countries of ship’s registry, this is a myth.27

The United States Navy defined a captain’s powers in its 1913 Code of Regulations, stating: “The commanding officer shall not perform a marriage ceremony on board his ship or aircraft. He shall not permit a marriage ceremony to be performed on board when the ship or aircraft is outside the territory of the United States” with the exceptions being “in accordance with local laws and the laws of the state, territory, or district in which the parties are domiciled” and “In the presence of a diplomatic or consular official of the United States, who has consented to issue the certificates and make the returns required by the consular regulations.” There are a few contradictory legal precedents: courts didn’t recognize a shipboard marriage in California’s 1898 Norman v. Norman but did in New York’s 1929 Fisher v. Fisher (notwithstanding the absence of municipal laws so carried) and in 1933’s Johnson v. Baker, an Oregon court ordered the payment of death benefits to a widow because she had established that her marriage at sea was lawful.

New Jersey’s 1919 Bolmer v. Edsall said a shipboard marriage ceremony is governed by the laws of the nation where ownership of the vessel lies.

In the United Kingdom, no merchant ship has ever been approved for marriages, although from 1854 any which took place had to be reported in the ship’s log.2829

In other countries of ship’s registry the legal situation varies. Most do not permit solemnisation of marriage by the master of a ship at sea. Filipino law, as a narrow exception, recognises a marriage in articulo mortis solemnized by the captain of a ship or chief of an aeroplane during a voyage, or by the commanding officer of a military unit.30 Japan allows captains to perform a marriage ceremony at sea, but only for that country’s citizens. Malta31 or Bermuda-registered ships may offer weddings officiated by the captain at sea; Princess Cruises has used this as a selling point for their passenger ships since 199832 and Cunard announced its intention to move the registration of “Queen Mary 2″, “Queen Victoria” and “Queen Elizabeth” from Southampton to Bermuda in 2011. 33

Some captains obtain other credentials (such as ordination as ministers of religion or accreditation as notaries public) which do allow them to officiate in jurisdictions where they otherwise would not be recognised.27 Another option is a wedding on a ship in port, using an officiant from that port.

In fiction, ship captains have performed marriages in various media including the 1951 film The African Queen, and episodes of The Love Boat and various Star Trek series.27

they still exist? I always get the blues instead of snow, and I still remember the old times where the "closed for the day channel had the “tests screen” and the buzzing sound https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kGusVliGoI

LOL!

“Sea captains being able to marry people is a Hollywood invention”

Not quite: novels were doing it before the movies. I’ve seen comic strips and other pop cultural snippets from the 1920s which indicate that the notion was already widely believed. But it is true that most maritime services forbade their captains from doing it.

“Yes, but how many drunk sailors do we know?”

Actually Reallybad, they have agreed on one thing. Neither of them like the venues that they have shopped so far. My bet is that they finally agree to get married at the station.

I’m hoping that tomorrow’s strip will be about the Captain offering the firehouse as the venue (or Brad/Toni asking him for that). And, if the Captain has the state authority to marry them (i.e. Notary Public, Licensed clergy, etc.), that he will do it.

Cracks me up how people get so serous about comics.

Instead of getting hitched by a boat captain, think of…Getting hitched by the captain (chief) of…

It’s dangerous territory when you give the one gay character in the comic strip that kind of back story.-Why?

@ QueenofAmerica, yes I agree. …All this heavy ’ serious analysis ’ – I thought comics were for fun! (of course I have my analytic side too) but I am back w Luann (after 10+- yrs hiatus) because it’s fun, cute, a lighthearted adventure, contemporary, a little fantastic (ie, sort of another planet) and they are funny and likable, w foibles we can relate to. Oops — analysis! But happy analysis. Keep going, Greg!! & take some risks! Look @ 9 Chickwood Lane (by Brooke McEldowny) and his fabulous characters & vocabulary – stellar. But yea, nice to come back 2 you, Greg… & Luann!

“They can’t perform marriages at sea (or on dry land) by virtue of their maritime license alone, and no state has enacted a statute…”

I assume this is right, but it would not have anything to do with a maritime license—if anything it would be a matter of common law, as in the case of common law marriages, going back centuries I assume. In any case an officiant does not actually “marry” anyone, but rather presides officially over a contract between the consenting parties. The point of this in today’s strip is to let it sink into Brad that the ceremony itself need not be some huge big deals. Let’s see if he comes around to Toni’s point of view. “Try to see it my way; we can work it out.” John Lennon, I believe.

How do you know he’s gay?

ORMouseworks just posted this last weekend. Still resting and doing some things…

She’s not the only one, and what we have here seems to be a small and shrinking group.

Got it! So – where can Toni find a drunk sailor?

for the gay queston-

Good Grief! No nit is safe from being picked in ANY comments section anywhere.

Your use of the words “no state” tells me you are thinking of american ship captains. What about ship captains from other countries?

“Blissfully”. Boy, just wait til he sobers up!

HEh heh

oh yeah, the bold extra OH! was the “safe way” Greg decided to slide the Captain being gay, in itself the having the name Tony Gale is not 100% proof that Tony is gay, Toni for a girl is much more popular (rank 200 something out of 4500 possible usual names) than Tony for a girl ( rank 1500 something out of 4500 usual names) -—- Tony for a guy is ranked 100 out of 2500 usual names for guys BTW -———— Greg has a history of getting facts in a very subtle way -—- during the Bern at the bookstore storyline, Greg put in a very subtle way that Ann Eiffel was “romantically interested in Bern”, and not in Zane (given the Brad working at hot dog place storyline ……. don’t know if Greg has made her bi or lesbian, all I can say is that he confirmed that she was indeed interested in Bern in both his blog at the cartoonist site that sadly was closed and by his respond by email to me

this was his reply to me about 4.5 years ago -—————- What a memory! Yes, Ann was interested in Bernice.(Greg respond)-———————

On Sep 24, 2010, at 10:24 PM, my email addy wrote:

> something I was wondering about one of the plots on the past, on June 2002, more specifically on June 18th and 19th, just before Ann Eiffel got moved to Tokyo, I don’t know if it was intended, or if it was unintentional, but lot of us readers saw a lot of “possible romantic interest” from Ann toward Bernice. did some of us readers got the wrong assumption? or that was your intention(to show that Ann was actually interested on Bernice, and not Zane)

she wanted make Brad miserable which is a different “interest” than she showed toward Bern, and was more of what she showed to Zane ……….. TJ? possibly, there was more of a hidden romantic undertone between them, kind of almost like early seasons of “moonlighting”

the “second OH!” of Toni when the Captain told her his date was Tony Gale is what basically confirmed Tony is a guy, “not the name Tony in itself”, and Brad is drunk with love, and Toni has a niece ;)

Then maybe that’s why so many here perceive of TJ as having no interest in either gender, since he has reported that his Dad was in jail…

during the bookstore era, we only knew 1) she was interested in Bern 2) Ann though guys were scum …………. now TJ ………….. can mean she liked how he is almost a male version of herself, in a funny way it was a cat and mouse game were both were trying to be manipulative toward each other but at same time being straight forward to each other when it was convenient ……………. doing a background of how she got to be who she is could be interesting IF GREG decided to do that, but Ann can easily be a new Elwood, that appears when is convenient for a storyline, or be now a Diane that has basically gone poof, and won’t appear again

please, I know you like to be the one who chooses the view most people do not choose, but he was attracted to her beauty initially, during the EMT classes, but got to know her better during the paramedic classes and liked who she was as a person, and I feel he would have given her up if he had seen Dirk being a nice guy to her, and not a jerk ………… he even tried to suggest to him that he should be nicer and treat her with respect and not as his property

“Of course, the state also has to allow marriages to girls who are under 18 years old without parental consent. Right now, I don’t think there are any states like that. In other words, the fire captain’s story is a little suspect.”I am an ordained minister, who has officiated marriages in six states. I always get a chuckle when people assume the laws regarding marriage in their state is the same as in every other state. There are 30 states in the U.S. where the age of consent for marriage is 16, in many states it’s lower with the consent of a parent. So that part of the story stands up, unless you are in one of the 20 states in the minority.

My wife and I were married by a captain, but he was also licensed to perform marriages. Beautiful day on the San Francisco Bay, exchanging vows as we passed under the Golden Gate Bridge, and all for less than $1,000 including drinks and food for the guests on the vessel.

interesting, I guess that means Ann is 4 or 5 in the Kinsey scale

Although I do recall the Brad at WeenieWorld vs. The Evil Ann Eiffel Saga (LOL), and the sequel, TJ Brings Down the Eiffel Tower, I missed the details in the strip regarding “the bookstore”, Bernice, Ann Eiffel’s attraction to or interest in Bernice. Could anyone tell me when that occurred, post a strip, anything? Thanks so much!

I also wonder if I missed anything definitive about TJ’s sexual orientation, or lack of interest in either sex. Of course, besides there not being any romantic interest paired with him in the storyline. Thanks also for this!

Maybe they can’t marry people, but they can hand out “learner’s permits”

Hey, who tuned off the <font> tag? I can;t do colors or size changes, etc. etc., I can still do bold or italic etc, but nothing else.

???

perhaps the firehouse people of station 3 and 4 help out put things together at the theater, Captain performs wedding and TJ gets free help from Firemen to put building up to code?

Todays strip left me sith a ‘wtf’ sense o wonderment!

Yes, on July 15, 2002, Brad and TJ had just passed the EMT course… TJ barely passed, he said, and then he exclaimed that he wanted babes and bucks… http://www.gocomics.com/luann/2002/07/15#mutable_656630

Fire Station Wedding… ’Nuff said

They’re getting married at the fire station – we all know that.By the way- he’s a lieutenant not a chief, judging by the uniform.

What shall we do with the drunken sailor, what shall we do with the drunken sailor early in the morning…

The point is not “a tugboat captain married them;” the point is “they had no wedding but their marriage has lasted.” And I now know more than I’ll ever need to know about laws related to ships’ captains officiating marriages! ;)

In reply to Mordock999: What does this have to do with the price of tea in China?

The wedding is just signing the enlistment papers. The first 5 years of marriage are the Basic Training. After that it is just like combat, (read in-laws) you either survive or you don’t. Or, you could be wounded so badly that you get discharged (divorced). Either way, somewhere along the line you will suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome.

before the industrial era began and made women part of labor force, an extremely high percentage of women never went to college, and most women were considered old maids if by 17 they were not married yet, the age of consent at the late 1800s was usually 10-12 years of age and In Delaware it was SEVEN!

Bah, humbug! You two marry each other. The Church and/or State provide a witness for purposes of Law. The Wikipedia article wedding is succinct enough.Do it, Brad and Toni!

you assuming the parents did not consent, there was no statement in the strip saying if consent was given or denied

My supposition is that they turned it off on purpose…

“Head Above Water” is from Hall and Oates, a relatively obscure hit from them. Combined with "..making a wave, when you ca-an…” (♫), from the “Good Times” theme…

spoiler-————looks like most over here got “their wish”, kind of

Please, no one try to talk about tomorrow’s! It’s much better for this one if you are “surprised”!!

in the morning I posted a plausible more elaborate version that would encompass the captain’s short version, people like to make their tales “more interesting” instead of revealing the whole truth and making it kind of dull

finally a man with common sense.