EVIL IMPUTED IS EVIL BETRAYED

When accusations fly, keep your peace, focus on the accuser, fasten on his words.  What he charges will be a guess as to the contents of your mind, a dead certainty as the contents of his own.

THAT'S RIGHT, OLLIE.

We all have learned that the world and its oceans were navigated and conquered by Hardy Seafaring Men.  It was the evident absence of Laurel Seafaring Men that depresses me.

BLAME

If you are experienced and qualified, if you have tried and fought and triumphed, if your life is distinguished with achievement – you are to blame for something.

9/11 AND SHORTLY THEREAFTER

I was thinking not long ago about the oddness of, well, just everything – everything in life being indisputably odd at the very least, and capable of escalating to horrific at the very most.  I was thinking this because of two 9 Chickweed Lane cartoons that appeared in the week following the massacre of 9/11.

These are the two cartoons, the first published September 15th, 2001, the second September 17th.

(click these to see larger versions.)

Both of these drew strong commentary when they appeared.  You can probably remember the mood at the time, particularly if you lived in the U.S.  The first one prompted an eruption of letters from people who either took it to be a tasteless joke at the expense of all those who died in the attacks four days earlier (which was understandable) or a tearful memorial (which I couldn't understand at all).  The ire the first one roused was ferocious.  The second was taken to be a mini-sermon with a questionable gag line.

I spent quite a while sending out letters to explain that daily cartoons for my syndicate were composed and submitted four weeks prior to publication (that's the odd part – a silly little gag, by dint of coincidence, turns into a big, tasteless jape).  A lot of readers did not want to believe me, and called me a liar.  As I say, a horror had taken place; and even my explanation of the lead time for publishing cartoons did not mollify everybody.  They just needed to be angry.

When I look at these cartoons now, I'm amazed.  I remember hastily reviewing all my other submissions, as yet to appear over the next four weeks before my lead time caught up with 9/11.  I hoped I wouldn't be stepping heavily into the tragedy anymore.  I've never asked around, but I wonder how many other cartoonists found themselves in the same boat.

IF THIS IS LILLIPUT, IT MUST BE FRIDAY

I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.

                                                         --Jonathan Swift

I SIT IN THE SMALLEST ROOM IN MY HOUSE. I HAVE YOUR CRITICISM BEFORE ME. IN A MOMENT IT WILL BE BEHIND ME. --Max Reger

Criticism tends to be self-portraiture.  And the harsher and more pitiless the criticism, the more monochrome the self-portrait.

JENNY KISSED ME

Jenny kissed me when we met,
   Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who love to get
   Sweets into your list, put that in!
Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,
   Say that health and wealth have missed me,
Say I'm growing old, but add,
   Jenny kissed me.

                                      --Leigh Hunt