At Least It's This Century

My mom sent me this photo of me and my sister. I bought that shirt in the UK so I'd have something to wear on the QE2 in 2001, so this photo is pretty old. 

What, Should We Sleepwalk?

It's been five years already since writer Mark Russell and I attended a staged reading of Snagglepuss at the Tennessee Williams Festival in Provincetown. It was incredible, a highlight of my time in comics (others being the theme park opening in Kuwait, and stealing back the office in Cairo).

I was grateful to my then-bosses for indulging me by covering my costs to allow me to attend, as well as for how strongly they supported and advocated for Mark's vision of Snagglepuss, and before that, The Flintstones (with Steve Pugh) and Prez (with Ben Caldwell).

I remember when one of our most legendary artists came into my office and said "I heard this was the most woke comic out there" about The Flintstones and I hadn't heard the phrase "woke" yet. I laughed and laughed. What a ridiculous and belittling term for people doing relevant and smart work. (Spoiler: Usage of the term only got more belittling over time.)

But then I remember the same sneering in college years with the term "PC." Same shit, different terms. I don't have the energy for culture wars. We all do the best we can, and I've worked on a lot of good and bad comics, then sometimes we get to do something like Exit Stage Left.

Powerless

The Jersey City house cleaners clicked off the power strip to my router a few weeks ago, and I haven't been able to remotely spy on the raccoons and opossums since.

I had no idea how much I depended on this.

I Might Be Slower

I have no idea how Meta chooses what books to put into their AI training. I wonder who will write my next book first, me or this software.

(Obviously, I did not give permission but having been on social media since 2008, I might have been compromised long before they noticed Stalking the Wild Dik-Dik.)

I Didn't Even Know She Was Kinky

I'm told Typhoid the comic is in an LA museum!

Eco Horror

I took my empty supermarket plastic clamshells to the farmers market, and filled them with berries. I got away with acquiring no new plastic! But I did get strawberries, blueberries, grapes, plums, and apples.

But I drove my car instead of taking the bus. Can’t win.

Fist Full of Dinars

I got my visa for Algeria! Woo!

Everyone else: "We didn't know you were applying for an Algerian visa."

True. The idea is I am going to Stockholm Con in early November, so I'll fly to Europe a week early and go see some Roman ruins and stuff.

I'm not going south, don't worry. Perfectly safe. I'll fly LAX-LHR Wed-Thurs, then stay overnight by the airport, then fly to Algiers on Friday morning, returning from Constantine to Marseille.

Pottery Fail

Win some, lose some.

Backyard Drama

I keep an eye on the yard cam to see how often Bernie the tuxedo cat stops by…no Bernie tonight but plenty of other action!

Unexpected Dilemma

Remember I surprised us all (mostly surprised myself) and bought a used Prius?

Well, turns out California is in some kind of simmering insurance crisis. I have questionable short-term car insurance, but I've been essentially on hold for weeks with my regular insurance company, which I've had various forms of property or car insurance with since 1992.

This week, I'll have to go to one of the agencies (AAA, for example) known for still doing business in California if the underwriter doesn't get a move on. It's confusing and weird, and there are a few articles about it, but mostly, people aren't really talking about this. To know about it at all, you'd have to be either in the middle of switching or you'd have to be applying after not having car insurance for a while (or being a new driver, or maybe moving here from out-of-state).

Anyway, it's annoying. I'm sure eventually I'll be fully insured and I can drive my hybrid with wild abandon, drag race on the 6th Street viaduct, pick up large groceries, that sort of thing.

We Call It Rub & Smell

I've been trying to convince my editorial team to do a fart scratch-and-sniff cover, but no one seems interested. 

I have clearly lost control of the troops.

But Is It My Legacy?

My job isn’t backbreaking hard but it can be challenging in unexpected ways, sometimes wildly unexpected ways. Sometimes exhausting ways.

And then there are days of unbridled fun at putting out books full of creativity by staff and talent.

Stand and Deliver

Here is my Wednesday work poem.* 

Blue Prius
Thin Lizzy
Look the Mystery Machine
Gotta go to P3
I'm late for Looniversity**

*I got a lot of mileage out of saying everyone else had to write a work poem too, but only Editor Katie stepped up.

***For the uninitiated, I bought a used blue Prius, the Mystery Machine (x2) lives in the parking garage at my office building, and the Looniversity is the school attended by Looney Tunes characters, also in my office building. Thin Lizzy? I figured out how my car stereo streams my phone.

Remote Viewing My Backyard in JC

Riding piggyback!

Touring Panama City

Here are the last photos from my stopover in Panama City.

Mostly old city ramshackle buildings, a few bus tour shots, and some near my Casco Viejo hotel.

Panama Canal

Check out some of these Panama Canal photos. I'd been to Miraflores Locks back in 1996, but I didn't really have an understanding of how the canal worked.

I was more interested in how one could put toilet paper into the commode at the visitor's center after we'd just been in a bunch of countries where we'd been instructed to put it into wastebaskets.

Anyway, the canal is a kind of water elevator for ships. I want to go through the Panama Canal on a container ship one of these days. I don't think we're allowed to--it's a bit too high security for civilians. But maybe I'm wrong and I won't have to settle for a cruise ship.

Nostalgia

The year was 1996. I was in Panama with a group of 22 tourists, mostly Brits but some Aussies and Kiwis too, and two driver/guides and their orange-and-white overland truck. There were supposed to be 23 tourists, but one had disembarked in Belize to spend her life there (she came back after I left).

Most of the group was on an expedition from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but I was just testing the waters for a month by joining in Antigua, Guatemala, and disembarking in Panama City.

This sort of rough travel was new to me in 1996, and I struggled with the lack of privacy, sleeping in tents, the infrequent opportunities for warm showers, and the slow pace of getting so many people moving, stopping for meals, putting up camp and breaking it down. I remember signing off in Managua and meeting the group again in San Jose. I couldn’t hack four weeks of constant company back then. I probably couldn’t now, but I did pull it off for eight weeks in 1998 on the Kathmandu to Damascus trip.

Anyway, we cruised into Panama City after a night spent camping in a muddy softball field (I slept in the dugout), and I remember the drivers telling us we’d have to unload fast. Our hotel was in an old part of town with nowhere to park the truck, and they’d have to go store it somewhere safe.

Mi Sombrero

Q: Should I buy a Panama hat?

(I know they aren't really from Panama. I read a whole book on how the best the researcher could find is they originated in Ecuador. Still, they look cool.)

Fun Spanish Tricks

Have you ever asked the wait staff for la Cuenca? 

I told you I got up early.

The Agony

I’m on a plane to Panama at 4:40 a.m. 

What idiot booked a 5:13 departure? (Points at self.)

Day Trip to Suchitoto

I spent the day in the colonial town of Suchitoto, which isn't that far from San Salvador, but takes more than an hour on the bus because of the constant stops for passengers to hop on and off.

Starting in Kaleo Hotel, I got an Uber to the bus terminal where I caught the #129 to Suchitoto. Traffic in San Salvador is beyond shocking, and sitting in the diesel plume of a bus hasn't gotten any better in all the years it's been since I last encountered one.

In the Uber, we passed a man juggling in an intersection. Another man selling steering wheel covers car to car. People improvise, do what they can to survive. In some ways, San Salvador feels like Manhattan in the 1980s.

But then I'd get a glimpse of corrugated steel, of chickens and stray dogs, and a whiff of damp air, the smell of sweat and dirt and vegetation mixed with the diesel. 

Long Weekend in El Salvador

Good morning! I’m on the 129 bus from San Salvador to Suchitoto to see what I can see. How’s your Saturday shaping up?