New Yorker Rejects #3

In high school, I had a wonderful poetry teacher who told us we would all be failures. On one of the walls in the classroom, hung form rejection letters for poems he had submitted to journals and magazines. To the right of that section was a much smaller group of personalized replies. Still rejections, but there was some feedback or encouragement from a human on the other end. And on the far right side of the wall, a little cluster of acceptance letters. I can't remember the exact numbers, but it was at least an order of magnitude regression between sections. I doubt he got paid for any of the poems that were accepted, but he made a point to tell a story from left to right of the process of success: toil, toil, toil, toil, sometimes something gets through as long as you're still toiling.

So far though, my story with The New Yorker has been 100% rejection! It's all good, the journey is still fun.

In other news: my wife did something that would have scared the crap out of me, but didn't for her. She went on a three day silent meditation retreat and had some wonderful experiences gardening literal and mental weeds. I have hurt myself a surprising number of times virtual boxing in my basement. I came across phenomenal web comic that stirred memories of my older brother sneaking me into see Terminator 2 when I was eight years old (I thought I was going to see Milo and Otis 2). And I'm currently trying to illustrate a children's book, write a graphic novel, compose a screenplay, storyboard a musical, watch the entire Curb Your Enthusiasm series, and read most of the short stories of Anton Chekov, while simultaneously not fail as a father, husband, veterinarian and teacher. It may seem like a lot, but you can actually slice a pie chart into as many pieces as you want to, they just won't be very substantial! I'm starting to believe the news about an ADHD epidemic.

Okay, onto the cartoons!

I've been realizing lately why ChatGPT doesn't have any good friends.

Then again, if you try too hard to be funny, it just turns everything into work.

So don't be afraid to just do something really stupid every once in awhile.

Look at anything around you right now, anthropomorphize it, and something messed up will come to mind. Or maybe that's just me.

A sense of humor is the most attractive quality, in my opinion.

I swear I did this one before watching Curb Your Enthusiasm.

I should have had a sign above the gentleman in the suit that reads, "Big Pharma". Really, it's "Big" anything. Corporations really do love profit.

You know, sometimes human phrases would be taken literally, amongst other species.

I assume this crayon never got used to writing "e" correctly.

It's awfully easy to get into a negative mood when you're stuck in traffic, and start seeing everything negatively. I hope the lanes are clear for you, and all the jerks are working from home. Enjoy!