A Garfield Renaissance

I really wanted to buy this official “standee” from Paramount, a 4 food tall cardboard cutout like they have at the movie theater. Imagine seeing this thing every morning while drinking coffee. Sets the tone for the day.

It was a different time, the 1980s. Every morning, the Contra Costa Times, our local newspaper, was thrown onto our front doormat and while we were eating breakfast before school, my sister and I would flip to the page with comic strips like Calvin and Hobbes, the Far Side, Luann and Garfield the Cat. I would not say that Garfield was a favorite comic strip back then - dude had a bad attitude and I kinda didn’t still don’t care what’s going on with Jon and Odie. I mean I was familiar with the premise but I never had any merch or anything back when I was in grade school. Boy how times have changed.

Garfield loves lasagna, hates Mondays, has no regrets and somehow mastered learning by osmosis but back then, I didn’t fully appreciate his no B.S. energy. Don’t pee on his leg and tell him that it’s raining.

Over the last 40 years, Garfield has randomly popped up now and then like when the mystery was solved why a container ship of Garfield phones washed up on the beach in France or this very weird article from the New York Times.

Called “Going Down the Garfield Rabbit Hole” this NYTimes article includes a description of a YouTube series called “Lasagna Cat” and a link to a frame-by-frame re-creation of a Miami Vice episode called “10/20/1984” with the Don Johnson part played by somebody in a Garfield mascot costume and Philip Michael Thomas played by someone in an Odie mascot costume.

In 2024, when this article came out, I clicked on the link to this “Lasagna Cat” video and the music was the real Phil Collins classic “In the Air Tonight”. I imagine for licensing reasons the music in the video is now a homejob rendition of this song but the sheer bizarreness of it all, the attention to detail and really pro production value make it one of the wildest things I’ve clicked on from the New York Times.

Anyhow back to Garfield. Remember I have celiac disease so I have very limited experience with lasagna but last fall I saw this recipe on Instagram from Giada deLaurentis for a sheet pan lasagna. Easier to prep, less time to cook, more “pizza’d” cheese on the top. Let’s do this.

Barilla, the pasta company, makes some nice gluten-free noodles now and they have a “gluten-free oven ready lasagna, no boiling required”. I did a beta test on my own and then we made the gf lasagna in December when I was back home with my family and I think everybody liked it. I got some nice Italian sausage from Lunardi’s, and delicious cheese and ricotta, high quality marinara sauce … all the ingredients were good so it makes sense that the end result was great.

My friend Katelyn and her cricut machine rose to the occasion and actualized my dream of linen napkins with Garfield’s shit eating grin iron-ed on. My sister has 6 and I have 6 so we are always always ready for Garfield night.