Great Moments in Editing and Signage

Let's send November out with a good collection ...

I guess it would save time and paperwork ...

I appreciate the truth in advertising, but I'll pass on the carrot cake anyway ...

I'd love to know the story behind this Fresno city ordinance ...

He's probably not running very fast ...

And if that flasher doesn't run away fast enough ...

At that price, get two. Of whatever ...

And with good reason ...

Free duck! Supply your own orange sauce ...

It's that time of year again ...

Specialized catering ...

And so we say goodbye to November, 2018. At least we know who can cater the party.

Come back tomorrow for the first Cartoon Saturday of December ... you know you need it. More thoughts then.

Bilbo

Poetry Sunday

As we leave the Thanksgiving holiday and head into Christmas, I think about all the Thanksgivings past and the changes that come over our families and our loved ones with time ...

First Thanksgiving

by Sharon Olds

When she comes back, from college, I will see
the skin of her upper arms, cool,
matte, glossy. She will hug me, my old
soupy chest against her breasts,
I will smell her hair! She will sleep in this apartment,
her sleep like an untamed, good object,
like a soul in a body. She came into my life the
second great arrival, after him, fresh
from the other world—which lay, from within him,
within me, Those nights, I fed her to sleep,
week after week, the moon rising,
and setting, and waxing—whirling, over the months,
in a slow blur, around our planet.
Now she doesn't need love like that, she has
had it. She will walk in glowing, we will talk,
and then, when she's fast asleep, I'll exult
to have her in that room again,
behind that door! As a child, I caught
bees, by the wings, and held them, some seconds,
looked into their wild faces,
listened to them sing, then tossed them back
into the air—I remember the moment the
arc of my toss swerved, and they entered
the corrected curve of their departure.


Have a good day, and enjoy the rest of a safe and happy Thanksgiving weekend. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

Cartoon Saturday

We are in Dayton, Ohio, celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday with our extended family. Thus, the usual bad news summary won't appear this week ... but don't despair - there's still plenty of bad news to go around, whether I report it or not. Let's get on with the cartoons, this week featuring - of course - Thanksgiving ...

Happily, it doesn't apply in our family ...

Yes ...

Sometimes, the fortuneteller calls it right ...

A useful thing to have, if you're a turkey ...

Oh, oh ...

Understandable ...

Sometimes, the other side wins ...

The dramatic television version of Thanksgiving ...

It's looking bad for the turkeys, especially with the GOP push to get as many deeply conservative judges seated as possible ...

Oh, dear ...

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are enjoying the holiday weekend in your turkey-induced comas. Come back tomorrow for the final Poetry Sunday of November ... more thoughts then.

Bilbo

The Left-Cheek Ass Clown for November, 2018

It seems somehow wrong to select an Ass Clown awardee in the same week in which we celebrate the things for which we can give thanks, but that's just the sad reality of this year's November calendar.

I gave serious thought this time to revoking Donald Trump's lifetime achievement award so that I could recognize his relentless undermining of our national institutions and international relationships, but I decided that other ass clowns need recognition, too. With this in mind, I have thought long and hard and decided to present the award for

The Left-Cheek Ass Clown for November, 2018

to

White House Press Secretary

Sarah Huckabee Sanders

(Third Award)

It is not easy to put a rational public face on an administration as far off the rails as the current one, but Sarah Huckabee Sanders did her best for a long time before gulping the Trumpian Kool Aid and becoming the condescending and dismissive face of a White House utterly uninterested in truth and accuracy. Uninterested in upholding the First Amendment rights of the press and willing to spout the most ludicrous explanations for otherwise indefensible administration actions, Ms Sanders has turned the important position of White House Press Secretary into a useless generator of white noise*.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, Sarah Huckabee Sanders receives her third Ass Clown award, as our Left-Cheek awardee for the month of November, 2018.

Well deserved, indeed.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow, when Cartoon Saturday looks back at Thanksgiving.

Bilbo

* Defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as "a constant background noise; especially, one that drowns out other sounds."

Thanksgiving, 2018

Happy Thanksgiving!

I've been writing this blog for more than 12 years, and some of you - masochists that you are - have been reading it for almost all of that time. You've learned many things about me over the years, one of which is that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. In a crazy world in which we too often focus on fear and negativity* and the material things in life, it's good to have a day on which to sit back and reflect on the things for which we can be truly thankful.

We’re living in a time when it’s easy to be distracted from things for which we can be thankful, because there is so much going on that is awful. For me, this year the awful things included:

A presidential administration and its unquestioning partisan supporters that continues to ruin America's standing in the world, coarsen our political discourse, and undermine the health, safety, and security of the American people;

The horror of realizing that many Americans accept routine mass murder as an acceptable price to pay for the unrestricted right to own and carry firearms; and

An administration that relentlessly works to undermine our legal system, our voting rights, and our fundamental institutions of government.

On the whole, though, it’s been a pretty good year. Although there have been negatives, I have to consider myself a lucky man for a lot of reasons … such as:

The love of a beautiful and endlessly talented wife;

Three loving and successful children of whom I am proud beyond all measure;

Six adorable, intelligent, talented, and loving grandchildren;

A large and loving extended family;

A comfortable retirement**;

A roof over my head***;

Good health^†;

Good friends;

The good fortune to be able to live in the United States of America - a country which, for all its faults, gives me the opportunity to enjoy all of the above;

The ability to write what I wish in this space without worrying about government censorship^††; and,

The ability to enjoy the good things of the world that would be denied by those whose harsh and intolerant worship of a jealous and angry God ignores the beauty and possibilities of the present in favor of rigid belief in an imagined paradise in an unknowable future.

I have many things to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day, and it's only proper that I should take a few minutes to acknowledge that I am, as ever, most richly blessed.

I wish all of you, Dear Readers, Friends, the very happiest and safest of holidays.

Have a good day. Give thanks for the good things you have and the bad things you don't. And stay out of the stores tomorrow ... you'll thank me.

More thoughts tomorrow, when we name the Left-Cheek Ass Clown for the month.

Bilbo

* Yes, Mr Trump and the GOP, I'm talking to you.

** So far, anyhow.

*** As long as we keep up the payments.

† Until the GOP succeeds in gutting Medicare, anyway.

†† Yet. Given Mr Trump's attitude toward the First Amendment, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Musical Sunday

Yesterday we celebrated the birthday of Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, and so it seems appropriate that today we should feature one of his biggest hits on Musical Sunday ...

Have a good day, and enjoy the rest of your weekend. More thoughts later.

Bilbo

Cartoon Saturday

Oy, vey ...

CNN prevailed in court over the Trump administration in an initial decision over whether or not the president can pick and choose which reporters he wants to allow to cover his administration from the White House; the Department of Justice has pushed back against criticism of Donald Trump's appointment of Matt Whitaker as Acting Attorney General, arguing that the appointment is, indeed, Constitutional; A Norwegian warship remains half sunk after a collision with an oil tanker and a botched recovery effort; House Republicans have selected Representative Kevin McCarthy to replace Paul Ryan as their minority leader in the next Congress; and no one has yet stepped forward to claim the $1.5 billion Mega Millions lottery jackpot announced on October 23rd.

This week, as the horrifying caravan of deadly foreigners draws ever closer to our wall-less borders, we offer cartoons about ... aliens ...

What's the alien version of Yelp? ...

We're number glorblax!! ...

Even in UFOs, form follows function ...

Do you suppose aliens have conspiracy theories, too? ...

Looks to me like he came from a zip code with a lot more than five digits ...

Well, given the cost of health care, that would have been my first worry ...

Yes, do your reconnaissance carefully ...

It's an understandable mistake ...

True! ...

I think that would be the more appropriate way to ask the question nowadays ...

And that's it for this week's out-of-this-world collection of cartoons. Be sure to come back tomorrow, when Musical Sunday honors Gordon Lightfoot, whose birthday we are celebrating today. More thoughts then.

Bilbo

Great Moments in Editing and Signage

The election is sort of over, and you know you still need laughs ...

Some words just lend themselves to marvelous headlines ...

As I was saying ...

That should keep the children happy ...

This, too ...

Be sure to read the package carefully ...

Well, he was in the right place ...

One wonders what they found ...

American Idol it's not ...

True, dat ...

If no answer, call the coroner ...

And there you have it! Keep your chin up, your nose to the grindstone, and your brain alerted to the dangers of political BS.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow, when Cartoon Saturday returns.

Bilbo

Poetry Sunday

Today is November 11th, the date once known as Armistice Day to mark the end of World War I - "the war to end all wars." Nowadays, we in the United States observe it as Veterans' Day, a day set aside to honor those who have served in the nation's armed forces. Memorial Day, celebrated in May, honors those who have died in the nation's wars. This classic poem by John McCrae honors the fallen.

In Flanders Fields

by John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe!
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.


Have a good day and a great holiday weekend. Take a moment to thank a veteran for the freedoms you enjoy, and say a prayer for those who didn't come home.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

Cartoon Saturday

We're still on the road, so there's no bad news update this week, but the cartoons continue! Since tomorrow is Veterans' Day here in the US of A, I thought that some military-themed cartoons might be appropriate ...

It works for youth teams ...

As true as it gets ...

I think it's probably accurate ...

Awww ...

Not too many of those being given out in this administration ...

It's probably a lot cheaper than the original SDI ...

What more can I say? ...

When you don't check your uniform carefully after playing with the children ...

When the Trump administration finally succeeds in driving away all our allies, this will be a lot truer than one could fear ...

Good question! In England, at least, there's an explanation ...

To all my loyal readers who are Veterans, my hat is off to you on this day we share to show respect for our service.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow, when Poetry Sunday walks through Flanders Fields. Be here.

Bilbo