Category: My viewpoiint

Santa’s Road Service Claim was denied on a technicality…

Santa has a problem… He, like a lot of Americans, has a hectic schedule.  It stands to reason that to get all his deliveries done in one night, he can’t take a lot of time to eat.  He has to eat fast food to get everything done in time!  A standard American excuse used by soccer mom’s everywhere…

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how he got his robust physique.  Can you imagine the conversations between the tiny reindeer assigned to pull the sleigh?  Rumor has it that they call him “Lardo” behind his back… Affectionately, of course. Continue reading Santa’s Road Service Claim was denied on a technicality…

THE MEETING OF THE BORED.

Meetings… We’ve all had to attend a meeting that wasn’t our first choice of things to do.  I spent most of my working career in insurance and believe me, most of the ones I attended fit that category.

I saw a notice on a bulletin board recently announcing the time and place for a Board Meeting.  I couldn’t get it out of my mind.  I don’t even know what the Board Meeting was about.  Continue reading THE MEETING OF THE BORED.

WELCOME TO MY WORLD !

Every once in a while I draw a cartoon that can be used in multiple ways. I drew a cartoon of myself to add to the Header for my website with the caption, “Welcome to my world !”.  It also had each of the characters of my books, Annie Oxidant, Phyto (her dog), TC Bear, Rudy Baga and Brock O’Lee, the farmer.

As I look at the drawing, I can see a lot of uses for it.  It looks like I’m telling a fish story about the one that got away.  Or, maybe, with a few lines to make it look like I’m waving my arms, it could be me saying, “Yoo Hoo!  I’m over here!”

I could be at Spartan Stadium (my college Alma mater) doing the wave or on the bow of the Titanic yelling, “I’m the King of the World!”  Put a wand in my hand and I could be parking a Jumbo Jet…. Or, Sky Diving.

As you can see, being a cartoonist is like being the Chief Executive of the Universe… We decide what it all means and what happens.  Now, I know what you’re thinking.  Why don’t I do something about the cartoon happening in Washington these days?  That’s another cartoonist’s territory. It’s out of my jurisdiction.  My Universe is pretty small…

 

 

THE KEYS TO THE UNIVERSE

This cartoon idea came from an art class.  The art instructor, Betsy, promised to give us the “Keys to the Universe”.   The class focused on getting your logical, problem-solving left brain out of the way to open up the creativity of your right brain.

I have always recognized my strong creative side but it’s often in conflict with the logical side of my brain.  I like to fiddle with stuff and try to repair things I know nothing about.  Therein lies the problem.

For example, when I was a kid living in Colorado Springs, Colorado, I had an old balloon tire bike with coaster brakes.  The brakes were a little sluggish and in Colorado that’s a problem!  Knowing nothing about bicycle brakes, I decided to take it apart and fix it.

Taking it apart was a snap… It was the putting it back together that presented the challenge.  The problem, as often is the case in my “repair” efforts, was the parts I had left over.  More specifically, were they important to the issue of stopping?  I was smart enough to try them out on level ground and… They worked!

I owned that bike for another 2-3 years.  I never got to the the place where I fully trusted the brakes.  Was it just a matter of time until they failed?  Like I said earlier, in Colorado, a brake problem is a BIG problem.  The bike eventually solved my dilemma by lying down behind my Dad’s car and getting run over in the driveway.  Stupid bike!

That brings us back to the original question.  Is being creative a hindrance when the situation requires logic?  I figure the person that knows the answer to that question invented Duct Tape to bridge the gap.  There ain’t nothin’ that Duct Tape can’t fix!  It doesn’t have to be logical.  Slap on the Duct Tape and you’re good to go… Ask any guy.

 

 

 

Who needs HD-TV?

The other day at Big Boy, we were discussing HD-TVs.  The cartoon is a result of that conversation.

Judging by the ads, HD-TV is something you can’t live without.  I vaguely remember (a re-occurring problem these days…) a saying that came up a lot to explain something that didn’t meet technological expectations.  “Garbage in-Garbage out” was all they had to say.  You knew what they meant.  The quality received was limited by the method used to get the information in the system…  You couldn’t get any better results than the level of garbage put in.

As  Senior Citizens with less than perfect eyesight, doesn’t it stand to reason the picture is not going to be any clearer than the weakest link… our eyesight?  Is “High-Definition Blurry” better than “plain old blurry”?

Having done extensive research  (I control the remote),  I’ve come to the conclusion it’s not high-definition that makes it look better… It’s the size of the screen!  They’ve figured out that Senior Citizens already own magnifying glasses… wear them, actually.  Getting them to  pay hundreds of dollars for larger magnifying glasses to watch TV was going to be a tough sell.  It was easier to make the TV’s larger and call them High-Definition than to sell us bigger magnifying glasses!  Not to mention the liability hazard caused when the Senior fell asleep watching TV and was crushed by his magnifying glass!

So, there you have it…  We’re on to them.  You can’t fool us old guys with that marketing fast talk.  We know what’s going down.  We’ll show them!  We’re holding out until they make a full-wall TV that can be viewed from three feet.  If you have to watch “HD-Blurry”, make it REALLY BIG!