My Very-Own Favoriten

The thumbnails below link to my favorite posts from last year (which include my art, non-fiction, a comic strip, and creative non-fiction). My favorite month of quotes were December's Cartoon Characters. None of my fiction made this list, I (maybe always) feel they need more polish.

This year will hopefully be as good—or better—than last, for you, me, and everyone we know.




Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. — Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

Do not forget to take care of you and your friends

(Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind?)

I beli- I beli- I beli-, th- th- That's all folks! — Porky Pig

The Decade's Best Comedy Films



My ten-best comedy films of the 2000's span the sub-genres of teen, romantic, crime, adventure, and thriller.

...subtle as a hand grenade in a barrel of oatmeal. That's a joke...I say that's a joke, son. — Foghorn Leghorn

Khoda by Reza Dolatabadi


My my, what a thumping good read. Lions eating Christians, people nailing each other to two-by-fours. I'll say, you won't find that in Winnie the Pooh. — Stewie Griffin

I read last year:

...Hhhhhhh...hhhhhhh... — Muttley

Festivus For The Rest Of Us

I hate red thermometers. — Frosty the Snowman

solstice



Winter Solstice Haiku



dank and dreary might
rule this short day and long night
but wednesday is festivus


winter has begun
today earth has exactly
twenty-four months left



It's like rain...snow eave-en — Snagglepuss

Santacon - Santa Rampage


To participate in Santacon/Santa Rampage (and yes it can be referred to either way, two groups the PDX Cacophony Society and Drunken Rampage do this jointly piggy-back-style):

Get a suit.

Learn where and when to meet (don't ask me how, the truth is out there).

Call all of the hundreds of Santas you interact with Santa.

The 4 fucks of Santacon:

1. Don't fuck with children.
2. Don't fuck with the cops. (You are dressed like me.)
3. Don't fuck with security. (They will call the cops.)
4. Don't fuck with Santa.

Never wash your Santa suit and repeat (next December).

Aren't we forgetting the true meaning of Christmas...you know...the birth of Santa? — Bart Simpson

Hue, Sue, and SF Heros

Entering our current morning eating place (my dad and mine) my autonomous-system forced me to cringe when it registered that the front door bing had been replaced by a cacophonous leather belt of reindeer bells bouncing off glass. My reaction caused the owner, Hue Lee Chi, to proclaim with every one of his terrible teeth on display, “You can’t sneak up on Hue no more.”

As he unnecessarily led the way to my father’s second-favorite table, (I could see Dad’s back from the door) I toyed with the alternatives: ‘Hue can’t sneak up on you no more,’ ‘Hue can’t sneak up on Hue no more,’ or—my least favorite—‘You can’t sneak up on you no more.’

I took the seat facing my dad. Hue began to offer me a menu as he said with all his normal nodding and teeth, “Same same?”

“Yes, thank you, Hue Lee.” I pronounced it almost like Julie but with more breath around the J and almost no tongue around the L.

“Okay. Good. Good. Almost right.” He said keeping the menu and entering the kitchen.

Dad enunciated, “Hew can no longer sneak up on Yue.”

“I think I preferred the previous possibilities of being snuck up on.”

“That’s a lot of bell disdain, coming from you.”

I smiled at Dad’s snide reference to my back-to-a-wall-face-to-the-door thing and turned it into a smile and nod of thanks as Hue brought my strawberry soda and topped off Dad’s coffee.

Hue returned to the kitchen.  In the middle of Dad’s statement: “I asked about why the sleigh bells in September and Hue acted like I was the first person to mention a holiday correlation ...” the bells crashed the arrival of another customer and Hue came out of the kitchen. “... so as a year-round thing it’ll certainly take some getting used to.”

“Something’s happened to Hue’s wife. I can’t remember her name.” I said.

“Why? What makes you say that?” He turned in his seat and looked over his shoulder as if I had just witnessed something, then turned back when all he could see was Hue taking an order. When I said nothing, he said, “Oh, it’s that thing you do isn’t it?”

“Yea. It’s that thing I do.”

“Suki or Sue Kee. I recall Hue calling her Sue.”

I must have done something with my facial muscles because Dad said, “Don’t start with it.”

“What?” I tried an innocent confused look.

“You were gonna do a how-could-I-recall-calling-her-Sue routine or somesuch. Don’t change the subject. What did you discern?” He skewed the word discern in such a way that it sounded like he was both skeptical and proud of that thing I do.

“The bells; his past body posture, facial expressions, and routine movements—compared to today’s; and his continued use of a verbal patch.”

“Patch?”

“The bit about not being able to sneak up on him. He used it with you, me, and them.” I motioned with my head at the people who had just given their order.

“People use familiar words or phrases over-and-over to patch over gaps. Sometimes the gap they think needs patched is merely a pause so they’ll use umm, or ya know, or like. Other times the gap patches-over the truth. I think Hue is using the sneak-up bit so he won’t have to explain the real reason bells are there is because he has to spend more time in the kitchen, which means Sue is not back there.”

“So, maybe, she took the day off. Why do you think something bad happened?”

“His smile is turned up an extra watt or three. He is carrying himself stiffer. Some of the reasons are not easy to put into words and when I do they sound flimsy all naked and alone by themselves.”

Hue’s arrival with my dinner of short ribs, rice, steamed vegetables, and tofu with a side of kosher pickles, and Dad’s sausage omelette with extra-crispy hash browns and side of muffins breakfast, paused the conversation.

After eating for a while, Dad said, “Are you going to test your theory?”

“Not a theory,” I explained. “A fact which you don’t have sufficient evidence to believe exists yet.”

“All right smart guy. How bad of a something do you think has happened?”

“Hospital bad.”

“This food tastes and looks the same as Sue’s.” He said.

“Just means Hue’s insuring everything goes out the same.”

Hue returned to top off drinks and I said, “Jue-lee, when will your wife return from the hospital?”

Hue’s smile crawled back inside his mouth as he said, “How you know? Food not good?”

After we assured him it was great, he said, “Suke’s mother have a stroke. She be back after couple days I hope. But, my nephew he cook good. You still notice different though, hunh?”

“I didn’t notice any change in the food. The food is great. I could tell from your behavior. You put loud bells on your door so you could be in the kitchen more.”  I pointed unnecessarily at the door.

“Oh.” His face seemed to relax back into it’s normal explosion-smile of terrible teeth. “I get it!” He nodded with exuberance. “You doing that hero thing.”

I looked at my dad. His confused-expression indicated he hadn’t previously said anything about that thing I do to Hue.

Hue continued with, “Why hero always eat at Asian restaurant?”

I decided hero was not the word I was assuming it was, and in order to get out of my confusion I replied with, “I don’t know...why?”

“I dunno either. But Bladerunner, he eat Asian. Fifth element guy...Bruce Willis: Asian. Name a ess eff hero who doesn’t eat oriental food.”

I got it—weeks ago, he and I had talked about my love of old films—and I smiled. “Well, the guy from Dark City: he ate at an automat.”

“Ahh” He waived the idea away, walking toward his kitchen, “Noir don’t count. Noir always gotta eat at a diner. You find an ess eff hero that eat something besides Asian, you tell me.”

The way I run this thing you'd think I knew something about it. — Bugs Bunny

The Decade's Best Horror Films



Spanning the sub-genres of monster, boogie man, vampire, slasher, and zombie—these are my ten-best horror films of the 2000's. (Actually, they are all monster films, aren't they?)

What for you bury me in the cold, cold ground? — The Tasmanian Devil

The Decade's Best Animated Films




Covering the techniques stop-motion, rotoscoping, traditional, and CGI—these are my ten-best animated films of the 2000's.  The film genres represented are:  Fantasy, Superhero, SF, Documentary, Action/Adventure, Mystery, and Comedy.

We cartoon characters can have a wonderful life if we only take advantage of it. — Heckle (or Jeckle)

gameboard


                                                1. Begin in the proximity of the birth square.
                                                2. Move according to the pips on your die.
                                                3. Avoid as many bad spaces as possible.
                                                4. Stop when you land on a death spot.

— Pogo Possum

 

evaluate the artist by comparing this 2010 artwork to:

2021 January artwork

2021 March artwork

 

Zonk Won't Hike Frozen Ground


I gotta have a bird! I'm weak, but I don't care! I can't help it! After all, I am a pus-thy cat. — Sylvester the cat