Sketchbook: One Sunday in Middle Earth

This was a lot of work for very little joke.
 

Christmas in July: Not the kind on the shelf

There are so many brands of elves that it's hard to keep up!
 

Light the World: Christmas Stories

 

We had a discussion at the office the other day about what constitutes a Christmas movie. Is it about Christmas? Does it take place at Christmastime? Was it released at Christmas? 

It was also pointed out that Die Hard and Home Alone are essentially the same movie — the protagonists are just different ages.

There and back again

Today is Tolkien Reading Day, an obscure commemorative day to encourage reading, specifically reading of the works of JRR Tolkien. At the Oregon DOT, we've seized upon this as a day that we can geek out and share our transportation-related messages.

This year we're focusing on alternative transportation — biking, walking, riding the bus or the train. And who better to exemplify this than the Hobbit himself, Bilbo Baggins? In his many adventures he used all sorts of transportation modes. So grab a book and hop on a train and enjoy the day!

It's the memes!

We made a lot of memes this year, many of which won major awards (seriously!). Here are a few of my favorites.

The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars series were the award winners.

We took an obscure day — Tolkien Reading Day — and turned it into a news event, plus we got our message out about highway safety. And it wasn't just local: it got national attention. The Tolkien folks were thrilled to get the attention, and our folks were happy to geek out on some of their favorite books!

The Star Wars memes ran on May the Fourth (be with you). May is Work Zone Awareness Month, and we were able to newsjack the routine "May the Fourth" and Jedi social media posts with our series of work zone safety messages. And our folks were happy to geek out on some of their favorite movies!

Some say we jumped the shark with our "Safetymon" Pokemon messages. Maybe. But we found a good way to get our back to school safety messages to stand out from all the other back to school stuff.

And, hey! Any day I can draw cartoons for work is a good day!

Read all about it!

Yes, once again it's Banned Books Week! It's an annual event to celebrate the freedom to read. Some of the best books have been on the chopping block, ranging from Captain Underpants to Catcher in the Rye to the Holy Bible and other religious texts. In fact, some of my favorite books have scored high on the lists! One thing that some people don't understand is that as soon as you try to ban a book, it soars in popularity!

Celebrate the ability to read this week!

Where the shadows lie

Thank you for indulging me. The road does, indeed, go ever on and on.

Smaug

Frodo

Gollum

Boromir

Pippin

Something to celebrate

Did you know that tomorrow, March  25, is J.R.R. Tolkien Reading Day? It's an event that encourages reading, particularly reading Tolkien's works.

To commemorate the event, we at the Oregon DOT made these ads/memes to run on our social media accounts.

Here are a few of the finalists.  Check back periodically through the day, I'll put up some more every couple of hours.

And on your birthday, even!

Yes, it's that time of year again when I get on my soapbox to promote freedom of the press! This is Banned Books Week, in which we celebrate the ability to read.

I'm always surprised at what shows up on the lists of books that have been challenged or banned. One of my favorites that's also a perennial favorite on the banned books list is The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien (No. 40 on the banned and challenged classics).

In case you didn't know, yesterday was the birthday of both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. I wonder if that's why they chose this week to celebrate Banned Books Week?