Let your light so shine

One of my neighbors threatened to just plug in a big ball of lights in the middle of his front lawn as his Christmas decorations. It may not be that bad of an idea.

Close encounters of the cupboard kind

We were cleaning up one of our food storage shelves the other day when we discovered a can of pears that had somehow seeped out of their can. It was kind of creepy.

Monday Sketchbook: Wonderfulness

I swear almost this very thing happened to me last week. We had a storm come in with wind gusts up to 90 mph that blew down more than 25 trees on Oregon 18, which caused us to close the road for almost an entire day. Meanwhile the rain in Portland was flooding parts of the freeway (you can see the photos on our Flickr page). We also have several radio stations that seem to be in competition to be The Christmas Music Station, so they start playing Christmas songs long before Thanksgiving. Oftentimes it seems they don't pay that close of attention to the songs that follow the news broadcasts, so after once such gloom and doom news report, they came on with a happy, jolly holiday song. I would have laughed had I not been stuck in traffic!

Honor thy father

Remember when the ward clerk used to sit on the stand during sacrament meeting? I think my dad may have been partially responsible for changing that. When he was the ward clerk, as soon as he'd finish taking the attendance, he'd settle in and take a good long nap for the rest of the meeting. Occasionally there was a speaker or a musical number that would rouse him, but -- as he told me -- he'd learned to sleep in a foxhole during the Korean War; it was going to take something more than a sermon to disturb his slumber.

When he was released from being ward clerk, they made him chorister. That meant he had to stand up and wave his arms at the congregation at least three times every meeting. I wonder if there was any correlation between the two calls?

Did you find your place, Matt?

No offense to the Ensign, seriously! We have kids who do like to use the Church magazines as reading material at breakfast; that's where this came from!

When Black Friday Comes

Usually I schedule my cartoons to post long before most people around here are out of bed. I don't think that will be the case today!

BTW: My wife gave me this idea as she was planning out her Friday activities. Just sayin'.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We all have things to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!*

*or belated Thanksgiving if you're Canadian!

Two by two

Do you ever wonder about menus aboard the Ark? Suppose Mrs. Noah came up with a great recipe for a certain animal dish that proved to be really popular -- what would have happened then?

Securing the borders

Monday Sketchbook: It's all about family

A lot of folks have the tradition of playing a game of football on Thanksgiving Day. The Frankenstein family is no exception.

Relativity

I used to be all upset as a teenager when I still had to sit at the kid's table at Thanksgiving (even though I was one of the youngest of the cousins). But I can just imagine how it would have been in Old Testament times -- you could be stuck at the kids table not just for decades, but centuries!

In the good ol' slumbertime

OK, I admit this one probably should have stayed in the sketchbook. It almost did, but I wanted to see how well I could do making a graffiti tag. Now I know.

But if you think this one is bad, there are some sketches that won't make it onto this blog at all -- like the tatted turkey who overdid it with the turkey timer piercings. Ain't gonna see it. You can thank me later.

A fistful of bird seed

A few years ago, I did a cartoon of a turkey hitchiking to Mexico. I thought I should take that just one step further and figure out what he'd do once he got there. I kinda like how this guy looks like a cross of Clint Eastwood and Zorro. At least he was wise enough to avoid getting involved with the drug cartels!

Who could it be now?

Traditions start somewhere

The original sketch for this had a big ol' pterodactyl carcass in the background. That was a little too graphic, so I toned it down a bit. Pterodactyl with stuffing...Mmm! Mmm!

What's in a name?

I have a friend who is a BYU fan in a big way -- not to the point of being pathological, but extreme nonetheless. He and his wife just had a little baby boy. Although he was sorely tempted, he knew better than to try suggesting this name to a woman who had just given birth.

Monday Sketchbook: The cost of Thanksgiving

The electronic world is full of thanks right now. People are facebooking their gratitude lists, blogging about their blessings and tweeting their thanks. Amidst all that, I saw a little news item from the American Farm Bureau Federation sneak across the wires:

According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, the retail cost of turkey and all the trimmings, such as stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie, increased about 13 percent in the past year.

AFBF's 26th annual informal price survey of classic items found on the Thanksgiving Day dinner table, released earlier this week, indicates the average cost of this year's feast for 10 is $49.20, a $5.73 price increase from last year's average of $43.47.

The largest increase was in the price of turkey. That somehow reminded me of the attitude of the French aristocracy just before the Revolution; hence the sketch. And need I remind you of the fate of much of the French uppercrust as a result of the resolution? We won't be eating pork this year!

Women of Virtue

A few years ago, my wife and I made a series of bookmarks for our Primary class. There were two sets: Follow the Prophet and Women of Virtue. The Women of Virtue proved very popular, due in part to the fact that sometimes women don't get quite as much ink in the scriptures (to use some PR jargon). Deborah was one of the favorites among the girls as she not only was a leader, but a warrior and a prophetess as well.

Today is a special day for my own Deborah, so it seemed appropriate to run this today.

When holidays meet

There are those who say that turkeys are some of the dumbest animals on the planet. I don't believe it for one minute!

Veteran's Day

Normally I don't run comics from my other strips two days in a row. However, with today being Veteran's Day, it seemed like this would be appropriate to have both here and in Zarahemla Times. I hope you don't mind.

Happy Veteran's Day! Thank a vet.

Ida Know

The world lost another wonderful cartoonist yesterday. Bil Keane, who drew Family Circus for nearly forever, passed away. It only seemed fitting to use one of his conventions, Billy's dashed line, to show his path to the clouds in Good Heavens.

Once again, this is a sneak preview of Sunday's strip, so don't tell.

I can't figure it out either.

A friend of mine offered up the idea that we should be able to take the time we save with Daylight Savings Time and use it on days we need the extra time. Wouldn't that be nice?

Sleigh bells ring -- wait, what?

We have this conversation every year. We tend to start early with the music, but the lights don't go on until the day after Thanksgiving.

Monday Sketchbook: In memoriam

My uncle passed away last week, and I had to make a quick trip to Utah for the funeral. As with most funerals, they said a lot of good things about him. Some of the stories showed a little bit of his other side as well.

When he and my aunt decided to get married, they planned on eloping. But my uncle, being a responsible man, checked in with his father first. My Grandpa gave his permission, but had him help with getting a few things done before he could run off to Vegas.



He served as a bishop, worked in the temple and served on the high council for many years. He was a principal and an educator. Their home was always open to visitors and guests. My aunt was a big fan of Diet Coke, while he went in for Diet Cherry Dr Pepper. They had one fridge stocked full with their sodas. They also kept cases of other flavors of pop for visitors -- so that they didn't have to share their stockpile!



He loved being a principal and hanging out with kids. I don't think he ever thought of himself as being old. He was also all about service. A lot of people called him a "sweetheart." After my aunt died, someone suggested that he go in to Meals on Wheels -- which he did.


One of the things that he was well known for was his memory. He could tell you not only the family history of most people in town, he was also working with the local cable company to create a show on "house genealogy," the life stories of local historical homes.

His favorite question, however, was this:

Change can be a good thing

In most of the United States (except for you, Arizona!), it's time to set your clocks back. If you're lucky, not only can you get a little extra sleep, you can be early for church as well!

Power in the word

In the missionary lexicon, "fetch" is about as bad a word as you can use. It's worse than "flip," "dang," or "heck." It's best to avoid it altogether.

They're seasoned

...and that's another reason why they like to have dinner appointments!

Let your lights so shine

It may be different in some places, but it's certainly true in our neck of the woods!

Out of the mouths of children

One great thing about teaching a Primary class is that you get to know waaay more about the kids' families than you ever wanted to.

It's art

There's a reason this "eyes follow you" gag comes on the heels of all those Halloween zombie cartoons, and it isn't pretty. I thought of a set of eyeballs trailing a zombie might be kind of cute using the same "notice how they follow you" line, but this version seemed more family friendly. Don't be too surprised if I use it next year, though!