illustration

Penny Postcard

February 9, 2018

(Click image to enlarge.)
(This is a re-post from 2017.)

This poetic Valentine’s Day card was postmarked Perry Ill., 4 p.m., Feb. 13, 1911. The man who mailed it could expect that his beloved, “Birdie,” would have it in her hand the very next day—Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day. In those days, first-class mail was delivered morning and afternoon and postcards required only a one-cent postage stamp. Note also that in this case the card was mailed and delivered sans street name or number. Small town—everyone knows everyone else—therefore, no street address required. What ever happened to that wonderful postal system? Well, for one thing, Time happened.

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Posted by Jim

Today’s Quote

September 15, 2017

By James Thurber When the little girl opened the door of her grandmother’s house she saw that there was somebody in bed with a nightcap and nightgown on. She had approached no nearer then twenty-five feet from the bed when she saw that it was not her grandmother but the wolf, for even in a nightcap a wolf does not look any more like your grandmother than the Metro-Goldwyn lion looks like Calvin Coolidge. So the little girl took an automatic out of her basket and shot the wolf dead.

Moral: It is not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be.

“The Little Girl and the Wolf”

Fables for Our Time and Famous Poems Illustrated, 1939

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Posted by Jim

Today’s Quote

May 2, 2017

CLICK ESSAY TO ENLARGE.

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Posted by Jim

Today’s Quote

February 13, 2017

Design copyright 2017, Jim Sizemore

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Halloween Poem

October 14, 2016

The Physics of Pumpkins

By Florence Newman

“The top’s too heavy, too much space below,”

my neighbor says. “’Spect she’ll start sagging soon.”

He’d lugged the massive thing out front for me.

I realize with horror that he’s right.

I’d carved my share of pumpkins through the years,

protected them from predatory squirrels,

from Mischief Night marauders: hubris had

at last undone me. A slightly wider grin,

an extra tooth or two—I should have known

the plan was flawed, the architecture tenuous.

Before too long the carriage will collapse,

sides slump, rind pit and wrinkle, pulp dissolve

and putrify. The oblique eyes, the arching brows,

isosceles nose are doomed to droop and molder.

Look on those overweening teeth, ye mighty,

and descry their graying edges fold and sear,

like the striate skin of a stitched cadaver.

Now soon a press of princesses, pop stars,

pirates, pixies, vampires, ninjas, sprites,

enchanters, supermen, and bumblebees

will throng the street, importunate to take

their turn, while my poor jack-o-lantern, claimed

by gravity, sits rotting at the door

before I’ve even got the candle lit.

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Posted by Jim

Cartooning Tip #6

June 13, 2016

Click image to enlarge. This cartoon tip originally appeared in the January-February 2016 issue of The Cartoon!st, the newsletter of the National Cartoonists Society. All series images and texts are copyright © 2016 by the artist.