Digital tools being as they are, this 2008 cartoon would have been an excellent opportunity to draw the first panel and reproduce it three times in the subsequent panels, pasting in dialog and the cat in the final panel. A cartoonist doesn’t want to get lazy and overly dependent on Photoshop, but it would have worked well in this case because of the “wait for it” nature of the gag. In this case, however, I did not. I diligently redrew each panel. I’d like to offer myself as a martyr for artistic integrity, but I’m not sure I qualify. I was using a felt pen which is a speedy medium, and I suspect it simply was easier to knock out each drawing than it would have been to involve a lot of computer chicanery. That can often be the case with me. Oh, that felt-tip pen thing I was going to talk more about. I have not forgotten!
165 responses to “Door No. 1, etc.”
Dear c x-p, sounds good! I will try it after lunch, when I’ll first get on the desktop computer. On my iPad right now, no keyboard.
GR6, safe travels. You seem to bring cheer wherever you go. A rare talent. Your friend will be happy to have you. Glad you could do it for them. We’ll be looking forward to anything you share.
David, that’s a reason I find etiquette should be more pliable. I prefer to escort a woman from what ever side lends itself to the occasion. A young woman shared her prize tickets won from a radio spot to a local music festival. We were in the standing area of the main stage, and everyone had fun during the opener, milling around, exchanging pleasantries.
When they dropped the banner serving as a curtain, the surge began. Later she was miffed that I had stood behind her the entire show. She felt ‘left alone’. I asked if she noticed she was the only one out of several hundred nearby that wasn’t touching five other people. I had thought I was doing the favor of enforcing a personal space for her.
Our styles didn’t mesh, and we moved on.
Well Direct TV just left after getting satellite reinstalled. For better or worse I have let the bug eyed monster back in my home. But not in bedroom or kitchen. Those two are gone so no watching all night or during meals. Thank you, no snakes crawling through dinner or O’Reilly in bed.
Got up to have a toasted cheese sandwich and glass of tea, along with meds. Came back to find Spotty, one of the feral cats from Alabama, asleep right in middle on bottom sheet. He refuses to move over and is purring at my hip.
Didn’t take much to go from feral to house cat. And middle of my bed.
I imagine O’Reilly is quite pleased that snakes are not crawling through him, whether or not in bed!
Jackie, Spotty was in training as a house cat at my mom’s, in hopes we could find him a position as one. Glad you took him in. Thank you.
I was thinking, while it might be interesting to debate O’Reilly across a pub table on even ground where he doesn’t control the mic; I wouldn’t want him near my bedroom either.
Jackie, sorry girl, but assuming you are home. WHY ARE YOU GETTING BACK IN BED?
Everyone deserves time to relax, just thought you needed a nudge.
Bad headache and vertigo today. Still there unfortunately. Think it is sinus pressure, I know they are bothering me.
Autoimmune diseases carry a large component of tired blood type symptoms but I don’t usually stop for those. The dizziness gives me pause.
As it should, sorry if I pried. Just enjoyed your lively words following a renewed gym membership. Didn’t want you backsliding already. Recoup and move on. Best wishes.
Rick, in the realm of ‘if you don’t know, then it’s not you’, ferroequinoloy was a new term that brought a smile. My first thought was of motorcycles, then it clicked.
While I do not have a knowledge base for it, there is a strange attraction to the subject. Railways as trails traversing forgotten geography are a favorite of mine. But really any facet of the subject can keep me cross-referencing through links far longer than it should.
I appreciate Eisenhower’s (great name for the subject) efforts for our infrastructure. But I think it caused us to believe everyone should have a car. Then when rail was no longer profitable, should became must. The inexpensive long trip, where someone else took care of things, became expensive and your on your own, buddy. Good luck. I do tend to the nostalgic.
A town I know, at one time had a network of electric trolley lines that serviced passengers and orchard freight over a twenty mile expanse. I have no idea how many miles of rail were involved in the various lines. I know it is a smaller scale than your interest. It serviced the needs of far flung, frankly poor, people at very little or no individual cost. It was supported by the business enterprise that made it possible. When the last line was removed because it made the pavement difficult on a major artery, schoolkids stopped getting a biannual treat of local history.
Side note, in looking up how broadly Ferroequinologist was used, I came across Gongoozeling. And have to admit I’ve spent an afternoon doing nothing but munching snacks at a picnic table in Sault Ste Marie, wishing my windbreaker was lined.
No prying Morphy. I just don’t talk about illness if I can help it and try not to let it define me.
I feel like an excited kid each time something I’ve ordered is delivered to the house. I don’t like shopping in a store much. Since I seldom do it, I feel frustrated and cranky when I have to; I never know which store might carry what, or where in the store it is. Being able to find things I need online and order them gives me such a sense of freedom. (I’ve always disliked shopping. Dad and I would sit in the car and read while Mom shopped.)
An afterthought on continental travel, a treasured memento my sister keeps.
My sister landed a position with what had been at the time a very respected Big Eight accounting firm, and moved to the Bay Area straight out of college. The grandmother I’ve described as of lesser health was so thrilled she gave my sister a framed postcard.
My grandmother had worked the war years in administration at a minor factory involved with the war effort. Which meant she and Grandpa, a farmer, led different lives. From their stories they loved each other, they certainly were devoted through some bad times, and never would have divorced. But they did find recreation in different ways.
In the postwar years Grandma would take vacation time, and not much money really, and a few of the gals would head west. Back then professional photographers did not feel the need to get permission from every tourist who might appear in a profitable photo. I do not know how often the girls made this trip, but on a subsequent one they hit every postcard stand they could find. A popular card, widely distributed, showed a fiery redhead captured mid-stride exiting one of San Francisco’s famed cable cars.
Now I only knew my Grandma later, but have often wondered if this hadn’t been pre-war. I’ll have to sneak a peek to refresh my memory next time I’m out to visit. Because the story of traveling freedom restored after the war doesn’t quite jive with that rail-thin woman in the postcard, who by then must have been a very fit version of the eastern farmer’s wife, mother of four.
A little family crowing, but my point being there was a time before hitchhiking. When it was a simple matter to cross a continent in relative comfort without costing two months salary just in travel. And it was catered.
Y’all can put me down as someone who loves the freedom personal autos bring. Because I live in an area of low population density (about 2,700/sq. mile), our public transit system is woefully inadequate. To get to my little job as a proctor at a community training college takes 91 minutes on the buses + a mile of walking. Add the return trip and I’d be on buses for about 3 hours and hobbling those 2 miles (sciatica from unloading my truck too many times)… and my shift is just 4 hours per day. Or I can drive directly there and back, 20 minutes each way.
It was all quite different many years ago when I contracted with General Data to update installation manuals for their Oracle team in the Bay Area (Redwood Shores). I lived in a rooming house, traveled on Caltrain for about 10 miles to the San Carlos station and caught an Oracle employee shuttle the rest of the way. I did my grocery shopping by taking a bus back along El Camino Real to a store about a half mile uphill from my rooming house. And I’d fly home every 2 or 3 weeks for a 3-day visit.
Here in Utah, there’s no question that mass transit doesn’t work for well over 90% of us, but that doesn’t stop the politicians from building things (Bus Rapid Transit project over $160 million) that we don’t and won’t need for decades to come. Some folks enjoy pointing out the nearly empty trains and buses to our visitors.
TruckerRon, I would never give up my personal vehicle either. But it is most useful locally, just like you describe within your radius in Utah. My fear of the unknown, unforeseeable incident 2,000 miles from home — caused by some criminal who will not be held liable for damages — is reflected very well in the experience of two friendly villagers. That fear can, rather was, easily mitigated when it was profitable to provide service to large groups of people traveling in the same direction.
In your case, and I’m sorry I’ve forgotten which part of Utah you reside, you would happily use your private conveyance to the nearest station. Pay a trustworthy man making a buck to look after your property for an agreed time. Hop on a privately owned, profitable service, by rail or by magic, doesn’t really matter what the infrastructure is. And enjoy the catered service while someone else worries about getting there. When you arrive in a new location, rent a car you haven’t owned yet, or hire another young person who needs money as a driver because having a guide is a good thing.
This is spreading resources, and profit, where it can do most good for most people; instead of isolated islands of local travel. Trying mass transit in an area where everyone runs in different directions will fail every time, because that’s a poor allocation for resources that does not allow for profit. The first time I rented a car as an adult, I was astonished how cheap it was. In today’s world, in the U.S., the communal trust has evaporated. But if everyone were doing this form of travel, and relied on it. Bad actors would have a tough time of it. To many eyes on the process. Just like your days in the Bay Area.
If a local businessman wants government to provide a service, that means he has already decided it would not generate a profit.
That alone defines government wasteful spending.
If it made sense, some one would make cents [and therefore dollars] doing it.
Of course sometimes the government decides it should be the one running or providing a service… and the original private parties generally don’t fare well in the process. We’ve had that happen with some private bus companies trying to serve the local college students in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. And we see how well cities have coped with the idea of Uber and Lyft, with the existing taxi companies trying to get the cities to regulate those upstarts into bankruptcy.
Two branches to follow; can’t do both. Uber more exciting, so…
My very liberal minded sister was so excited to share her Uber experiences early on before things started getting dodgy. I found that hilarious. Follow the history. Allow me to act older than I am while I tell you about hiking to school in 20ft snow uphill *both* ways.
There was a time where any guy who cold harness a horse to an axle held together with baling wire would turn a buck giving rides from A to B for money. There is a reason we tend to call makeshift or underhanded methods ‘hacking’. Bad actors did bad things. Populace cries ‘help me’ big government. Register these bad mans, license them, put regulations and fees on them so we can trust them, make it so they cannot clear a profit and we still hate them.
It gets so bad we have to create a new service that doesn’t have ANY of those ‘protections’ so that we can afford it.
Then we are shocked, *SHOCKED* say to see bad activities happening.
Here’s an idea, let an honest man make an honest buck, and he will treat you with honor. Treat him like a working animal, and he will be a brute.
I have a good friend named Pat Johnson who is on a long train trip across America and blogging about it right now. They are staying in places that are the lodging equivalent of Uber. I think they use Uber or public trave.el when they get somewhere.
He has impressed us all.
Morphy:
Here in Shermantown, we used have to horse-drawn and then electric trolleys. Hard to believe, but the rails are still there, buried beneath inches of pavement.
Speaking of trails traversing forgotten geography, I also enjoy finding out about forgotten railways. You might enjoy looking up Roseby’s Rock.
We have one such railway just a little ways from my house, way up a hillside, curving around the Forest Rose Cemetery. When my son was little, we explored a bit up there and found “C.W. & Z” carved into the sandstone wall above what was to be the railbed. The C.W. & Z was one of the early railroads here. The initials stood for Canal Winchester & Zanesville. As far as I know, the railroad decided not to use the path around the hilltop that they had carved out.
This area also used to have many canals. Back then, you could have spent much time Gongoozeling in a grand way.
Actually, I think that circles back to Gene and Mary Lou those two would never intentionally shortchange, poison, or otherwise cause any harm to a customer. But because many other people who they’ve never met have done those things, they lose profit until they meet all the regulations of ‘the man’. Poor white folk. Maybe it has nothing to do with race.
Rick, I could spend hours just saying gongoozleling. It’s kinda fun.
But on your point, yeah, if the rails don’t make profit then converting to trails and promoting healthful recreation is a pretty good thing.
Rick, I don’t remember if the rails were recovered in my example. I would prefer if they were. Reduce reuse and recycle and all that. But it would not be surprising that was not cost effective, and really asphalt is not real great either.
But you gotta think big scale. The little pollution of asphalt yields a traffic surface that demands *much* less in energy from the vehicles, and costly maintenance on them, than heaving, cracking, caving concrete. Or worse an unpaved road of any style.
Besides, that crazy looking guy who pulls his spaceship over to stretch his five legs out, in 50,000 years can start a new research arm into the history of what he found.
Change of subject, Oklahoma leads nation with 26% of our drivers uninsured, followed by Florida 24% and then Mississippi with 23%.
Not due to race or immigration but poverty according to study I just read. They said almost same percentages exist for health insurance not carried as auto insurance. They said states with highest numbers of citizens on Medicaid and poverty duplicate statistics in many categories.