lagniappe, n. lăn'yəp: an extra or unexpected gift or benefit

Last week I ordered a random original comic strip art from one of my faves, Barkeater Lake. It came yesterday.

And I got a lagniappe: enclosed in the package was a free pair of Toby, Robot Satan, socks, size men's 10-13. I can wear them on those cold winter nights.

Queen Victoria weighs in

Thank you, Chuckbert, for introducing me to The New Adventures of Queen Victoria. You'll need to click on the images to enlarge them.

A sure-fire crowd pleaser or death on a cracker? You decide!

Even the mere mention of Velveeta imitation processed cheese-like food product gives BobBIE the All-Overs. This concept, featuring Agnes and her best friend Trout, might send her right over the edge.

Does it bother anybody else that Velveeta is not refrigerated in the grocery stores?

"Niagra Falls" redux

Here's another one.

Comics coincidence? I think not.

Comics are the topics in Chuckbert's and Izzy's recent posts. I love comics and cartoons so much. I have all the Doonesbury books, all the Foxtrot books, both Agnes compilations, Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County, and the complete cartoons of New Yorker magazine. I subscribe to two email comix lists.

What are your faves?

What, besides Cathy, do you hate? I hate Mallard Fillmore.

Bloomsday!

Today is Bloomsday! We can't do a pub crawl in Los 'Mos (go to the Canyon Bar and Grill, hoist a pint, leave). At the store we're playing a recording of Ulysses (I figure we can get through 10 of the 44 hours required to read it) and having cake.

For those who haven't read Ulysses, here's the synopsis from The Five-Minute Iliad and Other Instant Classics: "June 16 came and went in Dublin."

Back again after work. Here is the cake we served before our staff and customers scarfed it up.


Mmmmm! White cake with raspberry filling and buttercream frosting.

"Could you read the part where Stephen envisions life outside Dublin again?"

I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it

One of my favorite cartoons from The New Yorker is this one one by Carl Rose, with the caption by E. B. White. The kid brooks no nonsense and is not fooled by the adult. The pithy observation has become a part of the language. Three things happened this week that reminded me of the cartoon. First, my kid friend Niccolo is now in second grade. He hates conflict of all kinds and will go to great lengths to avoid it. His mom told me about a playground fight when Niccolo was in kindergarten. The two combatants wouldn't stop their fight, so Niccolo took decisive action to divert attention from them and to stop the fighters: he mooned them.

Naturally, the playground cops nabbed him and marched him to the principal's office. His mother was summoned. His mom said she and the principal delivered a serious talk to Niccolo about their appreciation of his efforts at peace-keeping and the necessity of keeping one's pants on, even when the situation seems dire. After he went back to class, the mother and the principal loosed their clamped-in laughter.

The second instance occurred when I was at the counter in the store and was idly reading the message pad while I was on hold with a phone call. One of buyers had bought gummi Mexican dinners, and another staffer had sampled one. His note on the pad read, "The gummi tortillas taste like urinal cakes."

The third instance happened when I was working with Perry Thursday evening. He said that a customer came in and was so delighted with his service during the Christmas season that she had to come in and tell him. He admitted that he didn't quite recall her, so she refreshed his memory. She had come in and said, "I need To Kill a Mockingbird." Perry told her several ways she could kill one, and by the time he finished, they were both laughing hysterically. He said she told the story to all her friends, and now they all want to meet Perry.