A Toast and a Smile

I learned a piece of trivia today - have you ever looked at the signature line on your personal checks? It appears to be a line of super tiny prose. I wonder what it says. Anyone know? Maybe it's a poem.

Can't Get Through February Without Posting a Valentine

A valentine, and then some clever book titles for yet-to-be-written books, for no particular reason. Just something my brain did to kill the time in a CLE class on family law.

Thinking Inside the Box
Three Years in Hades
The Honest But Unfortunate Debtor
Merciless
Time Rich and Money Poor
Inconformability

Comics and Funnies

It's been a long time since I drew any comics. This one's new, and it didn't come easy. It happened like this: my friend Hatchet tells very funny stories about her twins. I told her she could do stand-up. Then she told me I could draw comics. I said "nuh-uh." She said "uh-huh." So I said "I'll draw a comic if you get yourself on video imitating Logan's 'the floor is made of hot lava you must pick me up right now' routine." Not to post it on YouTube or anything, just to see how it feels to be funny on camera.

It was really hard coming up with anything to say in a comic. My brain has turned to putty. Remember the "Angriest Dog In The World" comic? If you do, I'm impressed. It was basically several frames of the same angry dog graphic, with a very simple gag. I think it didn't go anywhere because frankly . . . it didn't have much to say. That's about how I feel right now.

Therefore I shall close with a quote. This is the last sentence of the Author's Note at the front of Life of Pi, by Yann Martel: "If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams."

What do you think that means?

Stupid Classroom Rules

Guilty secret - I snapped a furtive picture of a poster at a Junior High School. I couldn't resist:


I know it's a terrible picture. I know I'm not supposed to focus on the negative. I know I'm supposed to keep a positive attitude. But seriously: "I will keep your hands and feet to yourself?" "I will celebrate each other's acheivements?" Yikes.

This is what No Child Left Behind has done for us. It should have been called "No Child Left Behind Except Those Children Who Live Where Property Values Are Too Low to Provide Tax Income Sufficient to Hire Actual Professionals As Teachers."