Best first sentences: Terry Pratchett leaps over the fence and onto the track

Fine. I blame myself for being so distanced from delightful writing like this.

By way of background, I later railed (safely in absentia) against my high school and undergraduate literature teachers for never giving me a clue about the likes of Jane Austen -- although it's not like I gave even the very best of them anything that could reasonably be called a sporting chance or even a conversational opening.

Ahem.

Pressing ahead: I tip my pointy hat with a scorched brim and the iffily-spelled word "WIZZARD" embroidered around the crown to Lance Mannion et fili whose good judgment got me into the game. So far I've listened to the unabridged audiobooks of Interesting Times and The Last Hero. I prefer IT, partly because of the audiobook reader and partly because Rincewind is great fun,

But as far as opening sentences go, those stories are but neverwozzers next to Night Watch:

Sam Vimes sighed when he heard the scream, but he finished shaving before he did anything about it

Now seriously: Can a tee shot like that go anywhere but high and 375 yard down range?

And, not surprisingly once you get the hang of it all, Sam Vimes seems to be one of the good ones. Great fun.

(Extended) Quote of the Day: Grieder's four facts

William Grieder lists four facts the press refuses to report about Social Security:

Opponents of Social Security are deliberately confusing Social Security with Medicare; they are distorting reality. There are simple facts that should be reported: 1) Social Security never contributed a dime to the deficit; 2) Social Security softened the impact of the Reagan deficits by building up a surplus; 3) the federal government borrowed the money and spent it on other things; 4) the federal government has to pay this money back because it really belongs to the working people who paid their FICA deductions every pay day. The elites in both parties know the day is approaching when the federal government has to come up with the trillions it borrowed from the workers. That is the crisis the politicians don’t want to deal with, so they create a phony argument that slyly blames working people for their problem. That’s the propaganda they want the public to believe.

(Emphasis added. H/t to Batocchio's characteristically thorough post on the topic. The full CJR interview with Grieder is going in the long-neglected p3 Readings list.)

Initiative 17: From the finest minds of the 15th-to-19th centuries

Say, here's some good news:

First came the Oregon House's idiotic Concurrent Resolution 14, which would adopt "The Code of the West" as the standard for legislative deportment. It's a shot in the arm in these difficult economic times for the state's spittoon manufacturers, of course, but the rest of us can only hope that the State Senate will have the good sense to bury this silliness quickly and deeply.

Now, hot on the heels of that bit of legislative foolishness comes news that Initiative 17 -- among whose chief petitioners are those Torquemadas of the Oregon initiative process, Kevin Mannix and Wayne Brady -- has been received at the Secretary of State's office, aiming for the 2012 ballot.

Its purpose is to enshrine the so-called "Oregon Castle Document" in state law.

A measure designed to preserve Oregon's rich heritage of medieval architecture?

You wish.

Section 1. In order to guarantee every person the right to be secure in his or her home or business without having to retreat from any intruder, and to ensure the peaceful enjoyment of land without concern as to trespassers, the People adopt this statute as the Oregon Castle Document.

Section 2. An owner of any land is not liable for any injury, death or other damage suffered by a trespasser on the land where such injury, death, or other damage is caused by any condition of the land or its fixtures. The only exception to this section is the following: this section does not protect an owner from liability for placing a spring gun, or other device, which is placed intentionally for the purpose of injuring a person.

Get it? It would establish an Oregonian's home as his castle (or "her castle," but I suspect they're mainly thinking "his" -- the whole scheme just has too much of the Y chromosome about it).

I have to admit that implementing the "Oregon Castle Document" would be a cheaper option than, say, adequately funding police and public safety in the state. No need to raise taxes if all a homeowner has to do is open fire on strangers.

("That's right, officer -- He didn't know who won the 1951 World Series, so I commenced a-blastin'.")

But honestly: It's as if Republicans are no longer even trying to pretend that they're aware of the problems of America in the 21st century, much less that they're interested in solving them. In a way, the candor of it is almost refreshing.

Watch for initiatives restoring Lèse Majesté and Droit de Seigneur, coming soon to a ballot near you.

Meanwhile, Initiative 17 would need 87,213 signatures to get on the 2012 ballot. The secretary of state's office is taking comments on the initiative through April 18th.

"An oddity, chiefly useful in saving lives"

Flammable. An oddity, chiefly useful in saving lives. The common word meaning "combustible" is inflammable. But some people are thrown off by the in- and think inflammable means "not combustible." For this reason, trucks carrying gasoline or explosives are now marked FLAMMABLE. Unless you are operating such a truck and hence are concerned with the safety of children and illiterates, use inflammable.

Strunk and White,

The Elements of Style,
3rd Edition

Sunday morning toons: Those violet eyes

(Updated below, with link repair and political clarification.)

Today's toon selections feature real kinetic cartooning action!^TM They've been rigorously identified and picked out of the rubble from this week's political cartoon no-fly zone at Slate, Time, Mario Piperni, About.com, and Daryl Cagle:

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Nate Beeler, Pat Bagley, Mike Keefe, Adam Zyglis, Tom Toles, John Darkow, Jeff Danziger, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best in Show: Steve Sack.

p3 Legion of Merit: Milt Priggee.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium (tie): R. J. Matson and Michael Ramirez.

p3 Certificate of Harmonic Toon Convergence: Tom Toles and Clay Jones.

And the eyes have it: p3 Certificate of Completely Understandable Harmonic Toon Convergence: John Sherffius, Steve Breen, John Deering, and Bob Englehart.

p3 World Toon Review: Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland), Jeremy Nell (South Africa), Ingrid Rice (Canada), and Michael Kountouris (Greece).


The Ann Telnaes site at the Washington Post wasn't working last week. Now it's back with a new format . . . and no permalink to this week's animation about South Dakota's 72-hour waiting period for abortions. (Slightly farther down the page, they've also misspelled Mike Luckovich's name on the link to his syndicated cartoons. Come on, WaPo -- shape up!)


But Mark Fiore's latest animation, Even Smarter Bombs, is working just fine!


This week's eerie and hypnotic video from Taiwan's Next Media Animation notes the end of a Hollywood era.


Pearls Before Swine has a little fun with a character whose transition into the cell phone age might be more difficult than you would think.

"Vi -- Vi -- Vibrations"? Really? Here's Comics Should Be Good's choice for unintentionally dirty panel of the day. It almost puts the "X" in "X-Men!"


Tom Tomorrow reminds us once again: If you believe that the voices inside your head control the world, you belong in a mental institution, but if you believe that an "invisible hand" controls the world economy for the better, you belong in a conservative think-tank.


You can't really blame him, but Keith Knight's just a tad bit nervous.


Tom the Dancing Bug presents the exciting adventures of Recap Man . . . almost.


Red Meat tells you something you'll wish you'd known in Sunday school.


The Comic Curmudgeon, like many of us, sometimes finds himself disappointed by the false promise of insane violence.


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman reviews the 2012 GOP primary race so far.


"They were supposed to come to life, but the experiment failed, somehow." Wait . . . "Somehow??" You mean, otherwise it shoulda worked? "The Mummy Strikes" (1943), the 14th of 17 beautifully rotoscoped Superman cartoons by Famous Studios (and prior to that, by Fleischer Studios) has the whole package: A suspicious murder, the tomb of an ancient Egyptian boy-king, scientists meddling in things scientists were never meant to meddle in, nosy reporters, and . . . say it with me . . . a dreadful curse. Directed by Dan Gordon, animated by H. C. Ellison and the magnificently-named Orestes Calpini. Musical credit shared by Fleischer/Famous stalwart Sammy Timberg with Winston Sharples (who went on to compose for the inferior King Features Popeye cartoons of the 1960s, plus such minor classics as "Milton the Monster" and "Tennesee Tuxedo"). Clark/Superman is voiced by Bud Collier, who kept that gig from the original radio serial all the way through (I hate to even utter the name) "Superfriends." (Update: Embed link fixed. Also, there's no truth to the story that, when the governors of Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin heard "The Mummy Strikes," they said "Then we'll cut off his food stamps!" That's just an malicious rumor.)

(Note to Facebook friends: If you're reading this in FB Notes, you'll need to click View Original Post, below, to see the video.)


No p3 Bonus Toon: Jesse Springer's on vacation. Here -- browse his site. Just don't touch anything until he gets back.


Test your toon-captioning mojo at The New Yorker's weekly caption-the-cartoon contest. (Rules here.)

Saturday morning tunes: "She never was afraid -- of goons and ginks and company finks and the deputy sheriffs who made the raid"

Well, wasn't this a noteworthy week in America?

Item: General Electric, which posted $14.2 billion in revenue worldwide ($5.1 billion in the US) in 2010, paid $0 in US corporate income tax for 2010. (In fact, it got a $3.2 billion refund. This was, of course, all perfectly legal* -- whose people helped design Administration policy for the last decade?)

Item: The Tea Party governors and Republican legislators of Wisconsin, Ohio, and Michigan continued their holy war against their state's workers -- unionized or non-unionized.

Item: And just to ice the let-them-eat-cake, five US House Republicans even went so far as to re-introduce a provision that would starve out uppity workers by denying food stamps to families with a member who's on strike (it's actually a long-time favorite of the corporate right).

Finally, yesterday was the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire -- or, if you prefer, The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Massacre:

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York and resulted in the fourth highest loss of life from an industrial accident in U.S. history. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers, who either died from the fire or jumped to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent Jewish and Italian immigrant women; the youngest were two fourteen-year-old girls. Many of the workers could not escape the burning building because the managers had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits. People jumped from the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.

In the memory of those women -- those who died and those after, who would not let those deaths be meaningless -- here's Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie singing "Union Maid" (written by Arlo's dad).

--------------
^*See Kinsley's Law.

The unforgiving minute: Remembering Trump

Donald Trump, on The View, explaining why he thinks Obama still has to produce a birth certificate:

The other thing -- if you go to my first grade, my kindergarten, people remember me. Nobody from those early years remembers him.

Donald, for heaven's sake -- they remember you because you were the only five-year-old in the room with a comb-over.

Minute's up.

Five things I learned from reading the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" trilogy

1. In Sweden, all consumer products come from one of six places: Ikea, Apple, Nokia, Erikson, Scandia, or McDonald's. The only known exception to this rule is bottled mineral water, which never has a brand name.

2. In Sweden, ill-tempered, workaholic, out of shape, middle-aged, commitment-phobic men get offered all the sex they could ever want, by women from every conceivable walk and station of life. They are not required to show gratitude or offer apology for this.

3. In Sweden, everyone is required to dress in black trousers, T-shirt, and a leather jacket.

4. In Sweden, when one enters any structure -- e.g., a shed, living room, condo, conference room, or abandoned factory -- one must immediately estimate the available square footage.

5. In Sweden, no form of human social interaction -- including casual conversation, business meetings, sexual intercourse, kidnapping, torture, and political assassination -- can take place until coffee has been served.

(Image via, with modifications)

Once more, we escape winter by the skin of our teeth

Spring officially arrived a few minutes ago, at 4:21pm Pacific Time. This gratifying event was first reported by Mrs. Dorothy Stetson of Freeport, Long Island, who promptly telephoned the Mayor.

The Society for Affirming the End of the World at once went into a special session and postponed the arrival of that event for TWENTY-FOUR HOURS.

All honor to Mrs. Stetson for her public spirit.

Sunday morning toons: The Equinox, the SuperMoon, and the End of the World as We Know It

And, for your apocalyptic convenience, all rolled into the same week.

Today's selections have been carefully chosen from the week's political cartoon pages at Slate, Time, Mario Piperni, About.com, and Daryl Cagle, and stored under a case of potassium iodide tablets:

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, J D Crowe, Rob Rogers, Clay Bennett, Joel Pett, John Darkow, RJ Matson, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best in Show: Steve Breen.

p3 World Toon Review: Tom Trouw (Netherlands), Cam Cardow (Canada), Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland), KAL (England), and Ingrid Rice (Canada).


Ann Telnaes's web page seems to be on the blink at the moment. Maybe we can make something happen later.


Mark Fiore reveals the latest monster movies coming soon to a mall near you.


Taiwan's Next Media Animation calls for your support for the Fukushima Fifty.


Merciful Minerva! Last summer, we saw the got our first look at Wonder Woman's new costume in the DC comic; here's how that's being adapted for the forthcoming Wonder Woman TV series produced by David E. Kelly (should we be grateful he didn't put her in one of Ally McBeal's outfits?).


Tom Tomorrow asks: Who is that spectral presence hovering in the Oval Office?


The K Chronicles points out the most frightening aspect of Japan's earthquake/tsunami/nuclear accident.


Ruh-roh! Will the Mystery Wagon arrive in time to save the poor and the middle class? Tom the Dancing Bug has the answer.


At Red Meat, Ted Johnson shares the first rule of parenting.


The Comic Curmudgeon tells you where to find real, honest-to-goodness terror in the comics.


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman is carefully monitoring the latest meltdown following the earthquake/tsunami in Japan.


You mean a poor little teensy-weensy itsy-bitsy defenseless little boid? "A Tale of Two Kitties," directed by Bob Clampett, is notable for several things. First, it marks the first appearance of Babbit and Catsello, the WB parodies of Abbot and Costello. Second, it marks first appearance, catch phrases and all, of the character who (when he finally was given feathers) would become Tweety Bird. (Catsello and Tweety were voiced by Mel Blanc; Babbit was voiced without credit by WB all-arounder Tedd Pierce. And the bird wasn't named yet, although in production he was referred to as Orson.) Third, it only takes one glimpse at Catsello to know where Sean Hannity got his classic look. The "Hays Commission" joke is one of two that made the censors nervous.

(Note to Facebook friends: If you're reading this in FB Notes, you'll need to click View Original Post, below, to see the video.)


p3 Bonus Toon: Jesse Springer's a little worried about the level of preparedness in the Beaver State.

Test your toon-captioning skills at The New Yorker's weekly caption-the-cartoon contest. (Rules here.)

Saturday morning toons: There's a girl in New York City, she calls herself the human trampoline

Today -- seriously -- is the 53d anniversary of Elvis putting the downpayment on Graceland.

Six years ago in p3: The NYTimes' David Brooks wouldn't know a paradigm shift if it bit him on the ass

Well, or words to that effect.

There's a nice monograph waiting to be written, cataloguing the ways that Thomas Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions has been read wrongly--and the political patterns that emerge from that misuse.

Wonk out!

Sunday morning toons: No sense of decency?

[Updated below.]

This week's post title comes from John Sherffius' best-in-show toon, below.

Today's selections have been carefully culled, by the same law firm that handles Newt Gingrich's prenuptial agreements, from the week's political cartoon pages at Slate, Time, Mario Piperni, About.com, and Daryl Cagle:

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Drew Sheneman, Mike Thompson, Stewart Carlson, Pat Bagley, R. J. Matson, Steve Sack, Bill Day, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best in Show: John Sherffius.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium (tie): Mike Luckovich and David Fitzsimmons..

A Very Special p3 Certificate of Harmonic Toon Convergence: Steve Breen and . . . Steve Breen!

p3 World Toon Review: Hajo (Netherlands), Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland), Aislin (Canada), and Cam Cardow (Canada).


Ann Telnaes watches Obama take a dive (without a net).


Mark Fiore shows you how to be a political pundit. It's easy 'n' fun! (Best part: Never admit a mistake.)


Taiwan's Next Media Animation are at their most ineffable in this report on American teens delaying sex.


Alternate Realities, Part 1: Tom Tomorrow brings this important intergalactic update: the non-acquiescers of the northernmost plains are at it again!


The K Chronicles notes that some stories just transcend language barriers. (Cool!)


Alternate Realities, Part 2: Tom the Dancing Bug Nobody screws with our national security!


Opus creator, artist Berke Breathed, hasn't been seen much here at the p3 Sunday toons since he ended the story of our favorite flightless waterfowl a few years ago. Comic Riffs catches up with him, and explains the significance of the crucial "broccoli scene" in the upcoming Disney 3-D treatment of "Mars Needs Moms." (Anyone else think it's no coincidence that the scene includes a cat yakking up on the floor? Didn't think so. Oop! Ack!)


At Red Meat, the exchange between Mister Wally and Papa Maoi takes an unexpected turn.


The Comic Curmudgeon asks, with some alarm, "'Trading wood' isn't a thing now, is it?"


Here's Barry Blitt's illustration to accompany Frank Rich's valedictory NYTimes column. Rich, as you may know, is leaving the Times to write in some capacity for The New Yorker [see below] (where Blitt's work is also a regular treat); p3 fans of Blitt will still find him here on Sundays.

[Sheepish update, via tactful email:

Your readers probably know this, but don't look for Frank at The New Yorker. Frank has always had more Norman Mailer in him than Dorothy Parker.

Yup. FR is going to New York Magazine.]


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman presents Thirty Seconds over Madison.


Graceful, isn't it? That's a take-off on a standard gag line by 1930s-40s radio comedian Jerry Colonna -- making his second appearance here at the Sunday morning toons. (There's another, similar line, later in the story.) "The Wacky Worm" was directed in 1941 by Fritz Freleng, voiced by Mel Blanc (Blanc probably did Colonna's voice, too; it would be cheaper that way), with musical direction by Carl Stalling (all uncredited). Oddly, I can't track down any information about the song ("All night long, I'm day dreaming . . . ") the worm sings when he first appears. Musical director Stalling mostly ransacked freely from the Warner Bros. own music catalog for the Loonie Tunes and Merrie Melodies, so it should be easily found, but . . . ?

(Note to Facebook friends: If you're reading this in FB Notes, you'll need to click View Original Post, below, to see the video.)


p3 Bonus Toon: Jesse Springer sees an ominous sign for Oregon's barely-detectable economic recovery (click to enlarge).

Test your toon-captioning skills at The New Yorker's weekly caption-the-cartoon contest. (Rules here.)

Saturday morning tunes: Before we called it "A New Hope"

As I remember the story, John Williams actually had this magnificent anthem written and in the trunk before he was brought in to compose the unforgettable score for "Star Wars."

Bonus points if you can hear the tonic-and-down-a-third move that was part of the main "Star Wars" theme and also the villains' march in "Superman, The Movie."

And also, just for the record:

The Han who didn't shoot first at Greedo was the one who would have come back to help Luke at the Death Star.

The Han who shot first at Greedo under the table would never have come back to help Luke at the Death Star.

That was the point: Han Solo grew.

Lucas didn't even understand his own characters.

The campaign theme song for Gingrich 2012: "It's like we're doing it for Disneyland!"

Here's traditional values supporter Newt's most recent attempt to mount (heh) a defense of his serial adultery:

There's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate," Gingrich told CBN's David Brody, in an interview taped at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition and posted online Tuesday night.

You see, it wasn't that Gingrich was cheating, per se, on his wife (context makes it unclear which wife, and which mistress, he's specifically referring to here). It's that he was driven by how passionately he felt about this country and things got a little, you know, out of hand. (It's easier than you might think.)

It's a new variation on an old ploy: If you didn't want to go all the way, you shouldn't have got me feeling so patriotic.

Here at p3 we urge the disgraced former speaker, purported intellectual, and eternal presidential campaign tease to turn lemons into lemonade by adopting this as his 2012 campaign theme song:

Let's do it for our country,
The red, white and the blue.
Its Uncle Sam who's asking,
So your mother will approve.
Tomorrow I'll be fighting and I'll win this war for you.
Let's do it for our country --
Our country wants us to.
Bullets are exploding --
They'll soon be at the door.
It's something to America you never gave before.

Yeah, let's do it for our country --
The red, white and the blue.
If the president were standing here,
I'm sure he would approve.
I'll be a mighty soldier before this night is through.
Let's do this for our country --
Our country wants us to.

All honors to Morgan for the idea, and h/t to longtime p3 friend and correspondent, proud Doctor Beyond, for passing it along.

(By the way, with this post I'm officially launching a new content label: GOP secret playlist.)

Quote of the day: The new fifty percent

Steve at No More Mister Nice Blog isn't confident that Scott Walker, the Wisconsin Republicans, and the Koch brothers have awakened a sleeping giant:

Yeah, yeah, yeah -- Walker and the bill itself are well below 50% in the polls. But surely you've noticed: for Republicans, 40% is 50%. For Democrats most of the time, not even 60% is 50%.

Read the whole thing, and -- as he says -- prove him wrong. If you can.

Quote of the day: Quid pro quo

Here's Robert Reich on Clarence Thomas selling out (the early years):

Back in 1991 when Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court, Citizens United spent $100,000 to support his nomination. The in-kind contribution presumably should have been disclosed by Thomas.

Separated at birth: When nine hundred years old you reach, look as good, you will not

One is the once-mightiest of a band of failed guardians of order in the galaxy, now aging and driven into exile -- and the other is a revered Jedi master.

(Images: Newt and Yoda.)

Quote of the day: Threat assessment

Steve at No More Mister Nice Blog on whether apocalyptic rage is becoming passé on the extreme right:

Wingnuts have had a really hard time deciding whether they're personally threatened more by the status quo or by those challenging it.

Sunday morning toons: Let March Madness begin!

[Update: Link to video clip below was finally fixed. I think.]

I mean, where do we even start?

There's Fred Phelps, who took time out from insisting the only purpose of the First Amendment is to create a Christian theocratic government in the US to insist that the only purpose of the First Amendment is to let him spew more anti-gay, anti-troop poison. (The First Amendment won, but unfortunately so did Phelps.)

There's Wisconson's Governor Scott Walker, whose popularity is circling the drain even as his assault on unions seems to be cracking at the edges (to mix my metaphors).

There's Muammar Gadhafi, who clearly doesn't quite get which way the wind is blowing in north Africa.

There's Newt Gingrich, who may or may not launch a (wildly unsuccessful) bid for the 2012 GOP nomination, as he's threatened to do every four years since 1996.

There's the Congress, that has managed to postpone a full-blown federal shutdown -- for a couple of weeks.

There's the onset of the NCAA basketball tournament.

And, of course, there's Charlie Sheen just being Charlie Sheen, only a little more so.

Today's selections were chosen by a complex, computer-generated series of brackets, weightings, and rankings from this week's political cartoon pages at Slate, Time, Mario Piperni, About.com, and Daryl Cagle:

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, R. J. Matson, Mike Keefe, John Darkow, Jerry Holbert, Stuart Carlson, Nick Anderson, Mike Thompson, Steve Sack, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best Toon in All Creation (this week): John Darkow.

p3 Best of Show: Pat Bagley.

p3 Naked Truth Award: Jim Morin.

p3 Certificate of Massive Harmonic Toon Convergence: Cam Cardow, David Fitzsimmons, John Cole, John Darkow, Dave Granlund, Chris Britt, Bob Gorrell, Steve Kelly, and John Koterba. (And there's more -- keep reading!)

p3 World Toon Review: Tom Trouw (Netherlands), Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland), Ingrid Rice (Canada), Victor Ndula (Kenya), Cam Cardow (Canada), and Pavel Constantin (Romania).


Ann Telnaes detects a rare instance of the GOP remembering a lesson from history. (Hey, WaPo: I get that you have to have ads, but is it too much to ask that the ad not be twice as long as the Telnaes animation? Hm?)


Mark Fiore brings us Susie Newsykins and what she learned about budget cutting. Ponies: yes! Broccoli: No!


Taiwan's Next Media Animation has some recommendations concerning the launch of the iPad 2.


Love among the sea cows: I can't explain exactly why this Bizarro comic is so funny, but it is.


Hey, look over there! In today's America, says Tom Tomorrow, it's all you need to know.


Keith Knight gets his p3 Massive Harmonic Toon Convergence Certificate a little late, but it's still from the heart.


Tom the Dancing Bug presents Hollywood Tales. (Spoiler alert: TtDB comes very close to getting a piece of the p3 Massive Harmonic Toon Convergence for himself this week, too, but at the last minutes the p3 judges ruled against it.)

Google is using their logo doodle this weekend to celebrate the anniversary of uber cartoon artist Will Eisner, often called The Father of the Graphic Novel.


Johnny Depp has been calling it "the worst regional theater we could possibly be doing" -- and he means it in a good way! Comic Riffs has the scoop on why Rango could be the cool animated film of the season without making you pay an extra eight bucks for throw-away glasses. (Also, Roger Ebert likes it a lot, and you should read why.)


At Red Meat, Milk Man Dan multitasks. (Warning: Don't read this while you're drinking milk, but not for the usual reason you're probably thinking.)


The "scourge of mef" has come to Hootin' Holler, and The Comic Curmudgeon brings you the sordid details.


Frank Rich is off this week at the NYTimes, so there's no Barry Blitt illustration to upstage it. While we're waiting for things to get back on track there, I urge you in the strongest possible terms to go to Blitt's web site, click Whatnot, and find his multilevel-funny New Yorker cover from October 6, 2008.


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman reminds us that political extremism can be a complicated business.


Another age, when the performance-enhancing substance of choice in baseball was spinach: Here's Popeye's baseball story (apparently obligatory for all cartoon stars at the time), the 1937 "The Twisker Pitcher," directed by Seymour Kneitel. (Hey, why don't Bluto's arms do strange morphing things after he eats the spinach?) [Update: Link fixed to correct video clip. Sorry.]

(Note to Facebook friends: If you're reading this in FB Notes, you'll need to click View Original Post, below, to see the video.)

p3 Bonus Toon: Jesse Springer starts here:

News Item: Because global climate change has made winters shorter and warmer, the Western Bark Beetle is surviving each year in greater numbers, decimating stands of forests across the west. Scientists predict that the lodgepole pine could be completely gone by 2080.

. . . and ends up here:

Test your toon-captioning kung fu at The New Yorker's weekly caption-the-cartoon contest. (Rules here.)

Saturday morning tunes: Changes - la vem meu trêm

There are certain artists who, if you're going to cover their music, you really need them to be dead first. They own and inhabit their music to such an extent that antemortem covers are almost destined to fail.

Which is partly why Seu Jorge's performances of David Bowie tunes are so amazing.

No matter whether you love, hate, or never saw The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, it's less of an accomplishment without Jorge's music. So there.

Also: Not sure, but pretty sure that this is the second time in 6+ years I've quoted Portuguese lyrics at p3. If I track down the other one, I'll update.

The unforgiving minute: Academe/Academy

These entries from Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary are dedicated to the University of Oregon:

ACADEME, n. An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught.

ACADEMY, n. [from ACADEME] A modern school where football is taught.

Minute's up.

The exquisite pain of the First Amendment

Scott Lemieux reminds us of a long-standing p3 maxim: If defending free speech doesn't hurt, at least a little bit, you're probably not doing it right:

To its substantial credit, in an 8-1 ruling today the Court held that the civil suit against Fred Phelps violated the First Amendment. It’s hard to celebrate any victory for Phelps and his band of bigots, but that’s the point — you don’t need the First Amendment to defend popular speakers.

Thus is actual free speech in America distinguished from what Sarah Palin thinks it should be, which is speech that is free from ever being subjected to criticism. I'm as astonished as anyone that the same court that declared contract-based corporations to have the same free-speech rights as carbon-based citizens actually got this one right, but there's no denying they did.

(Bonus quote from Lemieux:

You’d think that ["Strip Search Sammy" Alito's lone dissent in] this case would kill of his wholly unearned reputation for moderation, but it seems as durable as Newt Gingrich’s wholly unearned reputation as an intellectual.

Heh.)

Quote of the day: Exactitude

C&L's Gaius Publius on the Bush-era appointment of "[a]n anti-gay Republican who allegedly retaliated against the whistleblowers in his own whistleblower-protection office and got busted:"

Sometimes it seems that Republicans aren't just generally perverse, they're exactly perverse; it's that mathematical.