Because this is a cartooning blog, let me share a cartoon related example of how great my mother is. At the suggestion of a retired magazine cartoonist that I met in the late 80’s, I started to ink my cartoons with a brush - which of course required a bottle of ink. To this day, there are faded ink stains in the carpet of my old bedroom floor from knocking the bottle off the desk. I remember, after the first spill, feeling petrified of how my mother would react when she found out. As best as I could, I blotted out as much ink as possible, but it was impossible to clean up. It was one of those afternoons where I died a thousand deaths waiting for her to come home from work. When I showed it to her, she merely shrugged her shoulders and said that things like that happen and left it at that. I was shocked, but very grateful that she didn’t ban the bottle of ink. I think she knew how important it was to me to learn the art of cartooning.

So, Mom, I love you very much. Happy Birthday. Thank you for always being supportive of everything I do and please don’t be too embarrassed that thousands of people now know how old you are. :)

The Palm Beach Post food critic, Charles Passy, has written up a review of his recent experience eating there.

But the real appeal of Dagwood’s may be its signature Dagwood sandwich. It costs $9.69 - more than anything at Subway, I’m sure - but it’s worth every penny. The chain calls it a “skyscraper” of a meal and they’re right: the fillings include hard salami, pepperoni, cappicola, mortadella, deli ham, cotto salami, cheddar and provolone cheeses, red onions, green-leaf lettuce, tomatoes, fresh and roasted red bell peppers, mayo, mustard and the chain’s “secret Italian olive salad” Oh, and it’s held together with a giant “olive skewer.”

The thing is more than enormous. It’s ginormous! But quantity isn’t taking the place of quality - the meats are all top-of-the-line and the whole thing holds together beautifully, even if it’s a little hard to get your mouth around it. But isn’t that the point of a Dagwood sandwich?

The sandwich web site has a video of what to experience at the restaurant chain. There are currently three shops that are open with 10 more that are opening this summer.

Editorial: In light of this new information, I think Savarino is a victim of injustice. Cartoon statues should be able to take the stress of crazed huggers and Savarino should be praised for finding the flaw before Garfield’s head could fall off and crush a little wheelchair bound 4-year old boy or girl. Okay, so maybe he did try to cover up his crime by taking the head and throwing it away near a reservoir (next time, take a cue from any mob movie and put the head INTO the reservoir tied to a rock or something), but I’m sure that small act when, compared to what MIGHT have happened had he not discovered the structural mal-integrity, is inconsequential. People should have the right to hug their favorite cartoon character without the fear of its heading popping off. I suggest an independent counsel look into the Judge’s background and find out if he is a secret Garfield fan and may have had a personal conflict of interest.

Here is the pertinent post regarding his support for a Gates candidacy.

I think that in an election cycle or two you will see an atheist business leader emerge as a legitimate candidate for president. And his name will be Bill Gates.

By then, Bill Gates will have done so much good for the world through his charitable works that combined with his business success he’ll appear more qualified than any other candidate. His early bachelor life and some of his business practices will come back to haunt him if he runs, but he can still win with this simple slogan: “Who would you rather have on your side?” He’ll confess to all of his past imperfections and say that presidents are poor choices for role models. He’ll advise you to look to your parents for role models while you let him run the country.

I doubt Bill Gates is considering a run for president right now, largely because it’s so hard to make a difference from that job. His charities will have more impact. But I think he’ll someday realize that the world needs a rational thinker in the top spot and no one else can win.

At least you’d know he wouldn’t be in it for the money or to speed up the Rapture. He has my vote.

He’s followed up that post with another extended explanation of why Gates would be a welcomed leader of the free world.

Forget about whatever Bill Gates did in the past that made you curl up with your free copy of Linux and cry. In his first week in office he’d probably link Microsoft Virtual Earth to the government’s spy satellites so you can look for Osama yourself. I’ve always felt that terrorism is a technology problem disguised as a political problem. Bill Gates can fix that.

For my president I want a mixture of Mother Teresa, Carl Sagan, Warren Buffet, and Darth Vader. Bill has all of their good stuff. His foundation will save more lives than Mother Teresa ever did. He’s got the Carl Sagan intelligence and rational mind. He’s a hugely successful businessman. And I have every reason to believe he can choke people just by concentrating in their general direction. You can’t tell me that wouldn’t be useful at a summit.

As I said, the topic is getting some attention among other bloggers - especially of the tech variety. See comments from Brier Dudley, a tech columnist with the Seattle Times.

My take? Next time you have to reboot your Windows machine, think - do you really want this guy in charge of the free world?

This is slightly off topic, but easily justifiable as it is artwork that appears in the newspaper. Randy Glass, one of the illustrators at the Wall Street Journal, does that amazing stipple art portraits was mentioned yesterday on the Drawn! blog. I’ve been so impressed with stipple art that I had to pass along the link. Randy has a great portfolio of not only the Wall Street Journal headcuts, but pencil and water color work. Definitely worth the time to visit his site.

To learn more about the stipple art, I’ve had these sites bookmarked. The National Portrait Gallery tells how the stipples are made; NPR interviews Noli Novak, one of the artists at the WSJ.

A 25 second trailer has been showing in theaters before Ice Age 2.

I’ll link to the trailer should it appear online.

UPDATE: Looks like it’s more of a teaser and it’s up on the Apple Trailer site.

The competition pays homage to late cartoonist Rube Goldberg, who specialized in drawing extremely complex machines that performed very simple tasks. This year’s challenge is to build a mechanism that will individually cut or shred five sheets of 20-pound, 8-by-11-inch paper.

About eight university teams are expected to participate in the competition, which is free and open to the public. The Saturday event will be held at the Purdue Armory in West Lafayette, Ind., beginning at 10 a.m.

I’ll try to find some video of the event. Please send me a link if you find something first.

Marvel Comics is continuing in its bid to steal the word “super-hero” from the public domain and put it in a lock-box to which it will control the key. Marvel and DC comics jointly filed a trademark on the word “super-hero.” They use this mark to legally harass indie comic companies that make competing comic books.

A trademark’s enforceability hinges on whether the public is likely to associate a word or mark with a given company — in other words, when you hear the word “super-hero,” if you think “Marvel and DC,” then Marvel will be able to go on censoring and eliminating its competition.