Perspicuity

References - None (yet)
Merchandise

References - None (yet)
Merchandise

Shamanism is an animistic religion from the northern asia region (the word derives from the Tunguso-Manchurian word for "he who knows"), but there are similar practices and beliefs among Southeast Asia, Oceania and, even Native American people. The shaman has special powers that allow him to protect his people. These powers include the ability to heal the sick and communicate with the spirit world. (This provides the additional benefit that if he cannot save his patient, he can always apologize later.) The shaman uses these powers to protect his people. There is some argument that Shamanism is a kind of Ur-Religion, old enough and in the right place to have been the ancestor of all religions.

Mr. Whipple is the shaman for toilet paper. He uses his power and authority as store manager to prevent bathroom tissue bruising. There is some argument that Mr. Whipple is a kind of Ur-Consumer Product protector, being the forerunner of the Maytag repairman and the Dunkin Donuts baker.

The Someday Café (already mentioned in The Transformation Café) is found at the center of Davis Square in Somerville, Ma. Every morning, since March 1993, I’ve had one cap (cappuccino) at the Someday Café on my way to work (that’s over 3000 caps at the time of this writing). Great coffee, great people.

The design comes from Esphyr Slobodkina’s fantastic children’s book, "Caps for Sale." I not only fondly remember hearing it as a kid watching Captain Kangaroo, I also enjoyed reading it to my son when he was little.

This cartoon began as a series of drawings I did for my son, James, when he was 3 years old. I was in the process of redrawing the entire story of Robert McCloskey's "Make Way for Ducklings" using dromedary camels instead of ducks. A friend walked by my office, where I had a few of the pages on display, and off-handedly said, "How about 'Make Way for Dumplings’?" Bingo.

I modeled the wait staff from the children's book "The Story About Ping."

References

I did this cartoon in 1995 for Cori and my wedding program.

There’s a store near my home with a big industrial plastic sign out front. It’s the kind of sign that’s lit from within by long fluorescent lights. In big, bold letters it reads "WEDDING SUPPLIES." I always read it as "WELDING SUPPLIES."

Although I would have loved to, I did not wear a welding suit to the ceremony. If I had, I believe the nuptial event would never have occurred.

References

This cartoon is a failure.



I did it on commission for a book/tape course in Swiss-German culture. The publishers didn’t use it. I believe they thought it was too weird. Which it is. But before you judge it too harshly I’d like to say a few words about failure.

To succeed is to achieve something desired, planned, or attempted. It is the meeting of some set of goals. Conversely, to fail would be to not meet goals. Let’s look at how things can fail.

Say I have an assignment to write a paper on Benjamin Franklin, which is due on Monday. Further, say I don’t write it. That’s certainly failure. I would have missed all the goals of the assignment. Say I write a paper on Benjamin Franklin, but don’t hand it in until Thursday. Here I would have missed the deadline criterion. Or suppose I write a paper on Aretha Franklin. Even if I had written a good paper, I would have failed one of the stated goals. And there may be goals stated not by the teacher, but by the learning institution. For example, I must hand in a paper written by me, not by someone else. Or even unstated goals: the paper should generally not be written in crayon or Sanskrit. Sometimes goals aren’t clear. Say I write a paper on Mr. Franklin’s scientific contributions to society, but the teacher wanted me to write about his political contributions. Did I fail? It is much easier to identify failure when goals are clearly defined.

Trepanation (sometimes called trephination) is the surgical procedure of drilling holes in one's head for either medical or spiritual reasons. It has been found in numerous, disparate (as well as desperate) civilizations including the Mayan, the Egyptian, and the Sumerian.

There is a movement in Great Britain (dating back to the late 1960s) to reintroduce trepanation as a surgical procedure. In fact, some people have been trying to get it added to the National Health Service so that it would be covered by the government.

The Mayan civilization flourished in Middle America between A.D. 250 and 900. It turns out that there is no record of any Mayans enjoying the song "You’re Sixteen." This goes for the Johnny Burnette version as well as the Ringo Starr version. Incidentally, the song was written by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman - the same brothers who wrote a myriad of songs for Disney movies, including "Mary Poppins."

And the Mayans were still not impressed.

References

For ten years I had the pleasure of taking public transportation to work while living in Boston. That became much more difficult a couple of years ago when I changed jobs. I started working for a company in Maynard, a small town about 20 miles west of Boston, and I've been driving to work ever since. Frankly, I don't like it. I could give lots of noble reasons - both economical and ecological - as to why I don't like it, but the fact is I'm simply not a car person. I don't like to pay insurance companies. I don't like to buy gas. I don't like looking for parking spaces. I don't like worrying about getting into accidents. And I don't like driving in traffic.