October 9, 2004
Going up the hill to Flag this morning to deliver Tomcat's Strokes poster. He is going to hang it in a prominent place in his living room. Can’t wait to see his expression when he sees the sucker. It's huge.

Speaking of huge, watched the second presidential debate last night with a room full of flaming, female liberals. Kathy's friend Lou Murphy came by with salads from the Bad Donkey (ironic, eh?) and they opened a bottle of California Zinfandel (Ravenswood, great logo!). They hooted and clapped every time Kerry opened his mouth. In spite of the senator's superior debating skills, I had to laugh when Bush, accused of having interest in a logging concern, looked incredulous, gave Kerry a "Where the hell did you come up with that?!" look, turned to the audience and said, "Need any wood?" Now that's down-home humor and the girls didn't enjoy it that I laughed out loud and then observed, "That's how he connects with middle America. They just like him for being an average guy. One of them." Or should that be, one of us?

Frankly, I was proud of the debate because it shows how free we are to engage in heavyweight, opposing ideas in a civil, yet, no-holds-barred way. It really was a slugfest, two heavyweights duking it out, toe to toe. I think both of them gave as good as they got.

This week's New Yorker (yes, I’m a faithful subscriber—great cartoons and great writing), nailed the contest with—what else?—a cartoon. It shows Bush as a modern day Sgt. Bilko with a golf club and a slouching, smirking look, while Kerry, as a pompous admiral, is looking down his nose at the frat boy who is in charge of getting the kegs. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, leave it to a cartoonist (Yea! That’s my team!) to win the day with a few lines on paper.

"Relax folks. It’s just lines on paper."
—Robert Crumb, underground cartoonist extraordinairer