"I know that a man who shows me his wealth
I've been trying to find some Skippy strips to share for quite awhile. These are the only two available from the I Love Comix Archive, and I figured rather than wait for more I'd go ahead and put these up (you might check back occasionally at that link for others if you like these). Percy Crosby is one of those artists who deserves more acclaim than he seems to get, at least as far as web presence is concerned. Skippy was almost certainly an influence on Charles Schulz's Peanuts, and many other kid-oriented strips over the years. But few of them (maybe Schulz) has surpassed Crosby's masterpiece. 
"All of us have to be prevaricators, hypocrites, and 
Believe it or not, this picture was taken over four years ago. The question for you is, where was it taken? Put your guesses in the comments section (and try to be as specific as possible).
This isn't exactly a Halloween picture, but it was as close to one that I could find after a quick look this morning in a couple of my photo files. I wonder if Natalie and Tom are planning to go trick-or-treating together this year?
I was on the road yesterday and got home too late to do any posting, but I wanted to make sure I didn't neglect the usual Friday traditions. So here's a picture of Mom and Nick taken on one of our many visits to Gramma's house. Hard to believe this was thirty odd years ago!
"Music, because of its specific and far-reaching
Boy I'm glad I don't have to contend with the Terrible Tempered Mr. Bang in real life; but I generally get a chuckle out of his fuming in these brief visits to Toonerville.
"A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling like harp strings, while incense is ever flowing from the balsam bells and leaves. No wonder the hills and groves were God's first temples, and the more they are cut down and hewn into cathedrals and churches, the farther off and dimmer seems the Lord himself."
Last Saturday I spent a pleasant couple of hours at the Big Hole National Battlefield, the site of a famous clash between the army and some Nez Perce Indians back in 1877. This may have been my last chance to get out and shoot some fall colors, and I think these turned out pretty well.
As you can probably tell, the sunshine was a bit intermittent, but when it was out, the colors were quite nice.
Above and below are a couple of different perspectives on the same snow-capped mountain off to the south, the name of which I sadly do not know. I have a feeling that the by the next time I get out this way, the snow will have come to the valley as well.
"All good music resembles something. 
"Great music is that which penetrates
Nick Tosches is one of the great stylists among writers who write about popular music. His Country: The Biggest Music in America, Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis Story, The Unsung Heroes of Rock and Roll, and Dino are first rate for both cultural insight and entertainment value. So I was really looking forward to his latest, a take on the links between organized (and not-so-organized) crime and the music industry in the period immediately preceding the British Invasion, called Save the Last Dance for Satan. It certainly scores in terms of entertainment value, but I kind of miss any real insight on the topic, which is laid out in rather sketchy fashion. This may be a consequence of this short book being an expanded magazine essay, as the stories feel a bit haphazard, and there's little effort to really cover the topic in anything more than anecdotal form. To be fair, while Tosches is certainly capable of longer and deeper form narrative (Dino, his biography of Dean Martin certainly falls into that category) Last Dance seems to have emerged from impromptu conversations that may not have been intended as research, resulting in a kind of ad hoc work. Anyway, I'd offer a qualified recommendation of the book-- Tosches' blunt, even hardboiled style is always a treat to read, but it's a whole lot more satisfying when he really digs into his topic, which doesn't always seem to be the case here.
"If I were not a physicist, I would probably 
Another classic from the pen of Charles Schulz. This is almost exactly how I felt about Autumn when I was a kid (though I don't recall talking to myself about it).
"Music ... will help dissolve your perplexities 
"Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because 
Okay, time to put on your thinking caps: who did I crop out of the above photo? That is, who was with Theresa, Sally and Nick when I took this shot? Put your guesses in the comments section.
To my way of thinking, Norman Corwin was one of the greatest American artists ever. His radio work in the 1940s especially marked him as a one-of-a-kind talent, and it's unfortunate that small-minded bigots contributed to pushing this true patriot off the airwaves back during the McCarthy era. One need only listen to his World War II era broadcasts to know that this was someone who understood fully what it meant to be an American, and was proud to promote those values to a mass audience. He belongs in very select pantheon of true media heroes with Lincoln Steffens, Edward R. Murrow, Bill Mauldin and maybe a couple of others. You can listen to what was probably his most famous broadcast-- "We Hold These Truths"-- at this link. Do yourself a favor and check it out.
Tomorrow is my sister-in-law Eileen's birthday, and I want to be among the first wish her many happy returns! I hope you have a really great day!
"Because children grow up, we think a child's 
It turns out the tradesmen of Toonerville are every bit as idiosyncratic as the rest of the town's inhabitants.
"A picture is a thing which requires as much
It's starting to get cold in Montana, so my mind is wandering to warmer climes. About a year and a half ago I visited the old Spanish mission at San Juan Capistrano down in southern California, and it was definitely warm there, so I'm posting a few of the pictures I took.
As you can tell, it was a brilliantly sunny day when I was there, and the gardens in the Mission were bursting with color.
I suspect things weren't always so lush-- that some of this magnificent gardening came about to attract tourists. But so what. It's a lovely place and I hope I get a chance to return (like the swallows) some day. In the meantime, these pictures remind me of a wonderful day out in the sunshine.
"No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No 
"In our time all it takes for evil to flourish 
I think that The Guard might be the most purely entertaining movie I've seen in a long time. All the elements clicked, contributing to a full package that combined action, comedy and drama in a most original narrative. It's a story about a member of the provincial guard who represents the law in some small coastal town in eastern Ireland. His district is so remote, that it attracts the attention of a gang of drug smugglers who think they can operate there without detection. But the provincial cop is more canny than they suspect, in fact more canny than his superiors or colleagues suspect. Brendan Gleeson plays the lead with a sly goofiness, which disarms the audience as much as his adversaries in the film. Don Cheadle makes a great foil, playing an American FBI agent collaborating in the effort to nab the bad guys. Director John Michael McDonagh employs a visual style that reminds me of Bill Forsyth's early effort That Sinking Feeling, which also shares a thematic link with this film: that moral lines are often subject to negotiation. What makes these movies special is that they don't allow their main characters to drift too far over the line. Gleeson's character is no anti-hero, just a guy who refuses to allow what others think to inhibit his own actions, either personal or professional. Recognizing that corruption touches on everything, he's able to shrug it off when the effects are inconsequential or even beneficial, but becomes duly enraged when something important is at stake. The movie is the opposite of preachy, but in the end manages to make a statement about the importance of doing the right thing, and that combination is rare. Check it out if you get the chance.
"A thing is not proved just because no one has ever questioned it. What has never been gone into impartially has never been properly gone into. Hence skepticism is the first step toward truth. It must be applied generally, because it is the touchstone."
When I was a kid, I always enjoyed the adventures of Ferd'nand by Mik, not the least because I could "read" it before I could read. Here are a few examples of the great pantomime strip, courtesy of the I Love Comix Database.
"Doing what little one can to increase the general
"Any experience, however, trivial in its 
There are a lot of questions I could ask about this picture (like, what's the deal with Ben's hair? his expression? his pose?), but the official question this week is: whose blue jean clad knee is that just below Ben's left fist? Put your guesses (you can take a shot at those other questions too) in the comments section.
My friend Steve invited me to join him on an airport run to Missoula the other day, creating a rare non-weekend out-of-town dining opportunity. I had a fantastic pork chop sandwich (a transplanted Butte specialty), but the soup was only average. It was black bean, which I usually like, but this version was a bit too spicy hot, so much so that it overwhelmed the creamier features of the soup. In fact I had to do something that I rarely resort to: I dumped in a whole bunch of oyster crackers to dilute the heat. To be fair, this was a sports bar on Monday night, so I'm sure the clientele was inclined to favor the spicier fare, and maybe it wouldn't have bothered me if I was there to watch football too. But we were visiting (Steve's friend Chandra is a Nepali outdoorsman in the US to promote his wilderness leadership institute), and so a burning tongue was a bit of an impediment. Oh well, the company was good (even better than the sandwich).
This is a "rescued" picture of Tom and Sara-- taken at the family reunion in Pennsylvania a few years ago. The original was much larger, and considerably busier. In cropping in on these two, I had to blow up the image, creating substantial fuzziness. After applying a couple of filters, I think it turned out okay-- but what do you think? Did it turn out okay?
Maria and Helen at the Fantasy Island water park back in the summer of '08. It seems like only yesterday... but then we all were there this past summer too.
The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding. On the whole men are more good than bad; that, however, isn't the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance which fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. The soul of a murderer is blind: and there can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clear-sightedness.
