One More for Vacation Week

I finished up one more cartoon for vacation week so I could feel better about missing last week's entry. Pretty good. I think I'm getting faster at these things anyways...

So the whole hullabaloo in Wisconsin has inspired this little one panel tale. Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker (R) has decided that the only way to balance the budget is by taking out some sort of personal vendetta against the unions (who apparently hurt his wittle feelings at some point in the past). Even though the unions have said they will give in to the financial demands he is making of them, that's not enough. Apparently the whole fiscal well being of Wisconsin lays on the shoulders of the unions right to use collective bargaining which Mr. Walker has decided needs to go. Which I feel will lead us full circle to this:



Who would ave thought that the GOP's call for a return to "good old fashioned values" meant a return to indentured servitude and possibly "prima nocta"? (That last bit is just an assumption on my part.)

PBS (and Facebook) Anger

So the proposed government budget has passed the House of Representatives and is under consideration in the Senate. This bill completely cuts funding to Public Broadcasting as well as many other (woefully UNDERfunded, by the way) programs that are VERY important to all Americans educationally and culturally. The bill cuts funding for things that are actually a very small portion of the budget while ignoring the giant slice of the pie which goes to the defense budget. Now I’m not saying to cut our military but all this talk about “the system is broke” sure doesn’t seem to come into play when it gets down to fixing the “system” of military contractors milking the hell out of the government cow and spreading the profits around to Congress members who “see things their way”.



And the thought of Boehner running around like Christian Bale in American Psycho with an axe is pretty funny to me.

If you want to get involved, the website is www.170millionamericans.org or become a fan on Facebook.

That’s the good part of Facebook. The bad part is that the new photo viewer on the stupid thing cuts off the lower portion of your pictures! Apparently Zuckerberg had a traumatic experience with the bottom third of a photograph when he was a child and now he’s taking it out on all of us.

Birthday Giftings...

So my best friend of many, MANY years has officially become the hardest person to shop for in my life. Whatever he wants, he goes and gets and I just can't think of anything he would want or need. But...I have one ace up my sleeve. He loves his Jack Russells more than...well, more than most people on this planet. And I can work with that.



So, I got his birthday. I still don't have anything for Christmas. Eh, I've got a little time.

Edward Gorey

I have officially fallen down on my New Year's resolution. I have not posted a drawing every week. I would feel guilty but I was working WAY too hard last week to even give it a thought. My regular job sometimes has to come first so I was just exhausted and couldn't get to it. Oh well. Snow week had a couple of extra drawings in it and this week probably will as well. On to today's post!

A few years ago a friend told me about the Gashlycrumb Tinies, a book by the artist Edward Gorey. The book is an A-Z book about all the different ways these children meet their terrible ends.



It is...well, it's actually very funny and amazingly cute (No, really. It is.) Little Neville is my favorite.



A couple of years ago a friend gave me this Christmas card designed by Gorey...



Sorry for the small size of these. I couldn't find any bigger versions. At least in the three minutes I looked.

The reason for this post on Gorey is I found this article on NPR that interviews a friend of Gorey's and I just found it interesting. He was a fascinating man and I wish I had a chance to meet him.

Four Wheeler Poker!

So I decided to do an ad for my parents fire department's upcoming fundraiser. I can't actually donate money to the volunteer fire department but I try to help out in other ways. Lady Paintmonkey has made cupcakes and the like for bake sale type things and I do this:



I participated in the first poker run last year and it was a lot of fun. You ride to different check points and pick up a sealed envelope with a card inside. After five checkpoints you head back to the fire station and they open up your envelopes and see what hand you've got. Best hand wins a percentage of the pot and the rest goes to the fire department. I don't even think I had a pair last year but it was a load of fun! If you would like to participate check the Paintmonkey facebook page and there will be more information about this little shin-dig.

I also cannot find the term "Shuffle Up and Ride!©" anywhere online so I am copyrighting it in the name of my parents fire department!

Open Season

I am growing older and as such, celebrities are starting to all blend together for me. Red carpets are just a mish mash of bobble headed "celebrities" who I couldn't tell you who are to save my life.

Which brings me to today's offering.



A few weeks ago, the Foreign Press Association held the Golden Globes and for the second year Ricky Gervais hosted the affair. And he ripped the celebrities apart. And it was glorious. Honestly, how many awards shows for your profession do you need? When they start making such a large fuss out of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, maybe I'll change my mind about this silliness.