99th Edition

7 June 2026

I must have done more than 99 issues of this newsletter by now, but I haven’t kept track. This 99 is in honour of my Dad turning 99 today. I will not be celebrating with him because I am far away and holding out til next year. But if you know him and are in his vicinity, then you might send your congratulations.

Monday

I talked about this little adventure last week before the main event actually happened. It was interesting and moving to take part in a reception celebrating the opening of an exhibit featuring the legacy of the Japanese Canadian families that once lived on Salt Spring Island before World War II, when they all got kicked out. My Dad’s family had actually moved to Victoria before that and my Dad had fond memories of growing up there. A two-hour ferry ride from Vancouver, Salt Spring Island is a lovely place with marginal cell phone reception. I appreciated the dedication of the volunteers with the Japanese Garden Society of Salt Spring and the Salt Spring Island Archives.

Tuesday

I suppose I am exaggerating a little, but when you take a ferry out on the ocean, the conditions change rapidly with where you are and the orientation of the ship. I had to keep moving to stay in the shade, but out of the wind.

Wednesday

I know it might not look like it, but making these comics does take some concentration, particularly if I haven’t actually come up with an idea before I sit down to draw them. If I don’t do them according to my routine, it seems as though my brain loses some of its fluidity. That’s what the third panel is supposed to show, my brain turning into some kind of gloop, not a weird hair style. The last one is because I wasn’t actually sure how that expression is written.

Thursday

People seem to have very different opinions of crows. In both Game of Thrones and Shadow and Bone, “crow” was used to describe lowly characters, who took a certain pride in the label. Seeing the crow in the alley reminded me of the Gary Larson picture book called There’s a Hair in My Dirt, about how some people romanticize nature to their peril. But I suppose that is better than ignoring it altogether. Magpies are related and they are black and white, but we don’t get those around here.

Friday

I have been trying out various exercise videos on YouTube lately. Even though the video said it was callisthenics for beginners and I thought I was doing okay, I did feel sore for a few days afterward. I am not really into “no pain, no gain,” but since I’ve had the pain, I hope I somehow receive some gain from it.

Saturday

This guy was wearing a suit but seemed a bit dishevelled. His sock was over his pant leg. I had just watched a Subway Take clip in which a woman said that if you say, “Nice to meet you,” and the other person says, “Actually, we’ve met before,” that is kind of a jerk move and doesn’t help anyone. I thought if I pointed out the sock situation to the guy, it might save him the embarrassment of being seen by someone who mattered to him. But then by telling him, I would be embarrassing him by confirming that someone else has seen him look like an idiot. So I left him to figure it out on his own. In my case, if you see that I look like an idiot, then go ahead and correct me because I am not likely to realize it on my own. Though I probably will be a little peeved nonetheless.

Sunday

The continuation of my adventure in Okinawa as part of my graphic memoir in progress Not Made in Japan about my life in Japan during the 1980s when I was in my twenties. In case you are wondering, the contraption in panel two involves a tube with water in it, which we used as a level in order to measure changes in elevation along a transect on the shore. I guess it was cheaper than getting a carpenter’s level. The species I was studying was a type of stalked barnacle called Capitulum mitella, or kamenote (turtle foot) in Japanese.

That was my week. I hope you had a good one, with a better one to come.