Word of the financial crisis reaches the Lazarus compound. Evidently, he owns a television.
Hey, who put this coffin in the middle of the forest? Better move along, Mary and Toby, before the glacier in the second panel runs over you.
Mary Worth fans anticipate a nice display of pompous douche-baggery from Ian when Toby finally tells. Like many times before, Karen Moy will fail to deliver the goods. Yet, we keep reading.
According to Paul Simon, there are 50 ways to leave your lover and it looks like we will see all 50 in Mary Worth. In panel one is Mary using the throw pillow as a shield? Three days since Mary asked Jeff to leave. I thought my family had long goodbyes. Sheesh.
Since Jeff has not left yet, today's Kelrast rating is a 3.
Sonja should be grateful that the law prevents her children from simply killing her.
Last night, I attended my final meeting as a board member. June 1, I become a common member. All my Thursday nights will be free.
I received an earnings statement from my new title. I talked to Walter about the possibility of sharing the difference between my last check and the first check under the new title with the church in celebration. Our church has started a tradition of celebrating birthdays and anniversaries with donations to the church. Two weeks ago, Walter and I gave a check for 14 dollars in celebration of our anniversary. We hope the checks will get bigger in the future. The synagogue from which this idea was taken also celebrate other occasions with donations - occasions such as receiving tenure. This is a big deal in a community with a big ass state university and the UU church has its share of academics. I wanted to make a donation in honor of my title change (not tenure - I'm not faculty) hoping others would follow. I've not told anyone of this idea besides Walter and you folks reading this blog. I received the new earnings statement and the difference is quite large. This is causing me to question my original idea. I'm grateful for the raise and new title and feel a certain amount of pressure to live up to it. It is easy to be generous in theory but practice is causing some anxiety. There are questions about class issues, sensitivity to people in less certain economic situations, and my motives. We are a generous congregation, is it really my place to spur more? I could just state that this is a donation in celebration of a job title I've wanted for a long time and not say anything else. I miss the book of joys and sorrows because some things are worth celebrating but not stating.
I will give but the how (public or private) and how much I will work out later.
A sign of the apocalypse - an amusing Drabble. I personally find pancakes more comforting than waffles. Probably stems from the love my grandmother put into making hers. She made pancakes in the shapes of animals. Her most impressive shape was a crescent moon with sharp points. A neat trick to perform with a semi-viscous liquid poured from a giant measuring cup.
Unlike Drabble, a non-amusing F Minus would signal the apocalypse. I so want to use that line but I never have an occasion to make a sandwich for a child. Please, someone use this line on my behalf if you encounter someone complaining about a sandwich with just the heels. I feed my bread heels to the dog. He never complains.
At least Francis managed to keep his bitterness at bay until he got out the door. He may have punted Momma before coming outside or used his huge feet to step on her.
Day 31 - one full month of Mary Worthless Mary Worth. Drew, use caution when pressing your hand into your face. You're distorting your face.
How to make the Vera hallucinations stop? Drew, you could make it to Nevada in about 8 hours and enjoy the services provided by one of the legal brothels. It may not heal the heartache but it will provide a distraction for you and the readers. Badly drawn sex has to be more interesting than this plot. Or move this thing indoors so that readers can at least look at some shifting backgrounds.
Come on, Mary Lou, quickly straighten out one leg and your problems will disappear.
The sun shining through my window and brightening my office prevents me from getting too depressed about the fact that I have brain space devoted to the names of Sonya Hobbes' children. Oh, god, I know Momma's full name!
Cats dominated today's comics (excluding the cat-oriented strips, 9 comics featured cats). Two dealt with using cats as tools.
I have lots of recipes from SparkPeople in my e-mail archives that I have not tried. One could probably fit the complete works of Shakespeare in that amount of space.
Went to the dentist today. Got a clean bill of dental health. My blood pressure is 104/51 and pulse 54. Apparently, my dentist has hired someone to converse with while poking around in my mouth. Nothing like inane conversation to make the dental experience more pleasant.
I find this Momma comic strip creepy. As I thought about this Momma comic strip, the fact that I spent time thinking about Momma caused a small part of me to die, not with a scream and a fight but a resigned whimper. I would curse Mell Lazarus but because of the clouds and Monday, I cannot muster the strength.
I suspect the little bits of selves that Mell Lazarus kills with his comic strip sustains his life beyond his allotted years. Somehow Mell Lazarus has developed the technology to capture those little bits of self for his own use. Multiply the number of papers and the number of readers plus the online readers and it is like receiving a single penny from everyone in the world. (Someone else can delve into the implications and irony of Mell's last name.)
Momma, Cathy and other crappy comic strips that still take up space in the newspapers - proof that the invisible hand of the market does not work.
Better than 9 inch nails. Ba-da-bump!
Momma hoped her youngest son is a drag queen?
As a Star Trek fan I'm obligated to point out Trek sightings in the comics page. A very poor caricature of young William Shatner.
I received the above postcard today. I saw the image and initially thought, "It's just two chairs stacked on top of each other! Where's the talent?" but upon further inspection I noticed that the artist, Mike Womack, created an optical illusion with paint. Now, that's talent. The piece is titled Cloud. Maybe this year's exhibit will have some more examples like this.
I have visited previous exhibitions of New American Talent and have wondered why did this curator choose these pieces and what are they seeing that I am not. One year, a piece with a title that I do not remember (probably untitled complete with the pretentiousness of all lowercase), was simply a roll of toilet paper on a holder bolted to a wall and part of the roll was carefully rolled out and laid out over a couple of steps. The Stark Gallery marketing people featured this piece on the post card advertising the exhibit.
Some people wonder why the public does not support the arts to the extent that they feel the public should. Others wonder why non-commercial artists are not taken seriously.
Does the toilet paper roll artist really have talent? Talent worthy of being placed in a gallery? Talent greater than say, Thomas Kinkade? Which one is the hack - the commercially successful Thomas Kinkade or the toilet paper roll artist? I think the real talent was the person who convinced a curator that the carefully laid out toilet paper roll is art worthy of being placed in a gallery.
I wonder how much of a curator's criteria is determined by the merit of the art rather than other factors? Curators are human beings with all the foibles. Would a truly talented artist with poor representation have the same chance as a so-so artist with a great agent?
Changing subjects: in the third panel Momma realizes that her own death would make her children happy. The one thing I'm certain about the nature of God is that it has a sick sense of humor when it comes to answering some prayers. Momma knows it, too.
My father-in-law is still in the hospital undergoing treatment for cancer. The drugs and toxins have had a weird effect on him. Walter successfully convinced his father that the people at the VA hospital were not trying to kill him, they did not kidnap him, and most importantly, they are not trying to sell him a car. The third item took Walter the longest to explain. Odd the fears that come forth in an altered state of mind.
