Monday
I had seen Canadian comedian Brent Butt do stand-up and I had seen some episodes of Corner Gas, which I enjoyed, but this novel Huge is something else again. It is an interesting example of pivoting. The premise involves stand-up comedians on the road, but becomes a dark psychological thriller. Come for the comedy, stay for the killing. Brent Butt actually retweeted my comic on X and then it ended up getting thousands of views instead of a few dozen.
Tuesday
Cars, like people, tend to have more problems as they age. I had just had my snow tires swapped at a different garage, because I was tired of driving to the next city where our original dealer was. But a week later, I had a warning light come on, which had something to do with the tire pressure system. I suspected the garage that had changed my tires, but they claimed it was probably because the batteries in my tire sensors were worn out. I had not even known that my tires had sensors. This explanation seemed plausible, but upon further investigation turned out to be irrelevant.
Wednesday
I suppose this should really be under the category of just being more careful and paying attention. But you can’t pay attention to everything. I grabbed the nearest container of tomatoes with a variety of tomatoes in them. Only when I got home did I realize that grey and fuzzy was not a variety.
Thursday
This is the time of year when the horse chestnuts on our street drop their sticky bits. If Cookie gets them on her paws, she will spend her time at home trying to lick them off and then leaving them around that we have to clean up. So I try to head out by our alley to avoid walking along our street for a month or so.
Friday
I happened to come across this article which suited my taste. It reminded me of Mindless Eating, a book by a researcher named Brian Wansink. He became quite well known, but some of his research was later discredited. I’m not sure if he was intentionally deceptive or just incompetent, but he ended up quitting his job. It almost made me wonder if the fast food industry had something to do with his demise. His ideas about portion control still seem relevant, and I’d be happy to help out with further studies on eating, as long as I didn’t have to be in a control group that didn’t get anything.
Saturday
In case you haven’t heard of IKEA, it is a Swedish company known for furniture that you assemble yourself. As a cartoonist, I appreciate that they rely on drawings in their instructions. I had thought Scandanavia was socialist, but IKEA seems to have capitalism figured out. I kept imagining a museum set up like IKEA, with artefacts or maybe replicas with interpretive tags on them.
Sunday
Cherry blossoms are in full bloom in Vancouver. I recently saw a print called Waves of Petals by Shiro Kasamatsu, whom I had not heard of before, but liked the idea of the different levels of imagery. Also I was reminded of the reflection in the Puddle by M.C. Escher. I do not claim that mine is any good, but I thought it was amusing to have, instead of calm koi, something waiting to eat you beneath the cherry blossom petals floating on the water.
That was my week. I hope you had a good one with a better one to follow.
I think it's a sign that they are taking over the world.
I have been hearing a lot the name ‘IKEA’ recently. Is that a sign from the universe?