Brewster Rockit (Tribune) surprised me the other day, because there’s nothing wrong, or particularly odd, about mixing peanut butter and jalapenos. Elder son used to scoop out the seeds, stuff the raw pepper with peanut butter and choff it on down, and I’ll admit it’s a tasty snack, though I’ve got a rule about only […]
While everyone over in the political/editorial sector is waxing hostilic, I’ll take a break and indulge in some personal responses to the comics page. This Loose Parts (AMS), for instance, is funny on its own, but 30-some years ago, I was putting together a short roundup piece about changes at the local mall and referred […]
Arlo and Janis (AMS) offers some annoying truth about design over function. Granted, Arlo and I are both old enough to remember life before remotes at all, as well as corded remotes that you couldn’t lose but you could trip over. But flatscreens have done away with easy-to-use backup controls, because there isn’t sufficient depth […]
(Some thoughts about newspapers, while I take Mother’s Day off to go visit the Aged P.) Here’s the protagonist of an 1867 novel, “Ned Nevins, the News Boy, or, Street Life in Boston,” in which the plucky lad worked to rise above his grim surroundings, as plucky lads would in popular literature for the […]
This isn’t actually an editorial cartoon, except that it is. It’s one of HJ Ford‘s illustrations for Andrew Lang’s 1894 retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s “Blockhead Hans,” a story that suggested Andersen had a low opinion of the press in general and of editors in particular. There are enough editors in the world who think […]
(Mo) (Clay Jones) Two of the more engaged people I know express outrage over those who are not engaged. Jones, as is his wont, accompanies his cartoon with an essay on the topic of willful, deliberate ignorance, noting appropriately that it’s one thing for Deplorables to remain ignorant of the charges against their […]
Sunday’s Barney & Clyde reminded me that one of the pleasures of going to Manitou Springs back when I lived out West was a stunt painter who was camped out on a corner. Manitou Springs was a fun place, even if you didn’t want to climb Pikes Peak, which starts there, or take in the […]
Ann Telnaes gets it absolutely right on a level that hits me personally, and perhaps it’s a chance to talk about the system, because I’m sure tired of talking about the issue. For about a year and a half, I edited a small, twice-weekly community paper in western Maine. Back in 2006-8, Maine had two […]