Cartoon Saturday

And away we go ...

In preparation for the Republican National Convention coming up in August, the city of Tampa, Florida, will ban water guns ... but allow concealed handguns in the vicinity of the convention site - and the Tampa police department is scheduling extra officers to pry squirt guns from the cold, dead hands of Republican gun enthusiasts; the largest moon of 2012 - a so-called supermoon - will be visible tonight as the moon makes its closest appearance to the earth at nearly the exact moment it enters its full phase; in an apparent face-saving end to a messy diplomatic scrum, Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng may be allowed to leave China if he applies to study outside the country; killers from a drug cartel have left the beaten, tortured bodies of nine people - five men and four women - hanging from a bridge in Nuevo Laredo; and the evidence has been recovered (don't ask) in the case of a hang-gliding instructor who swallowed a memory chip that may contain video evidence in the case of one of his students who fell 900 feet to her death in a tragic accident.

For Pete's sake, bring on Cartoon Saturday so we can forget about this stuff!

We lead off with the traditional Ghastly Pun Cartoon of the week ...

You no doubt remember that the world will come to an end in 2012, because the ancient Mayan calendar supposedly runs out this year. Oh, and it's an election year. Here are a few Mayan calendar cartoons in honor of the occasion ...

And ...

And the real reason the Mayan calendar stopped at 2012 ...

Have you ever seen an author sitting in a book store*, surrounded by piles of his (or her) unsold books** and waiting bravely for someone to come up and buy one? Yes, many authors dread such meet-the-author events, which - for unknown authors - can be a form of torture. Here is a pair of relevant cartoons ... 

And ...

This one is so obvious I don't know why I haven't seen it before ...

Sometimes it's hard to bring back just the right thing from your travels ...

... if, in fact, anyone from out there would really want to come here for any reason ...

And finally for today, we're all familiar with the standard comment of the politician that he (or she) is "quitting to spend more time with my family." If (when) the Republicans shoot themselves in both political feet in November, Mr Romney will probably drive to the concession speech site with his wife (wearing one of those thousand-dollar blouses) in one of their Cadillacs to deliver the real speech ... after which he'll take some time off to do other things ...

And that's the way it is for another week. Today I need to pick up some books at the library, get my hair cut, mow the lawn, and generally try to make myself useful around the house; tomorrow, we'll be attending the engagement ceremony and party for our son-in-law's brother^†. Be sure to get out and see the supermoon tonight, and see the long-awaited season two premiere of Sherlock on PBS tomorrow evening.

Have a good day and a great weekend. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* A place where books used to be sold.

** Objects consisting of sheets of paper bound together and imprinted with symbols in ink; popular before the advent of electronic reading devices.

^† I'm sure there's some obscure genealogical term for that relationship, but I have no idea what it is.