Check for NEW posts beginning on Sunday, September 15.
The Stamp Act
And the Celebrate Stamp Saga continues.
Are you not familiar with the Celebrate Stamp Saga? Well, it all began when I was forced to draw a “Celebrate Cats” stamp.
The recipient of that cat stamp was the nine-year-old son of blogger extraordinaire Jilanne Hoffmann. The young man enjoyed my doodling efforts, I’m pleased to say, and, as a thank you, he sent me a hilarious, hand-drawn comic book and a “Celebrate Falling” stamp.
I was impressed and grateful. So I sent him a thank you note with another stamp drawing, “Celebrate Comics.”
In response, he has drawn a few more stamps that Jilanne recently posted on her blog.
You get the picture, I think; I have just gotten myself entangled in a Celebrate Stamp Cold War. I suspect that I am outgunned.
But it aint over yet! Watch your back, Hoffmanns. A Celebrate Stamp drone attack will be coming your way when you least expect it!
***
On an entirely different note, April is National Poetry Month!
Though I am not terribly well-versed (Ha!), I do sometimes give the rhyming thing a go. For example, thanks to Vanessa Chapman and her inexplicable love of seagulls, I was forced to write an ode to head lice.
I also bang out a couple of couplets in the comment sections of other blogs. At Catherine Johnson’s place, for example I penned this little gem:
Master Sculptor, bearing chisel,
Stopped his work to take a whizzle.
And so the marble had to wait,
For Sculptor to evacuate.
Wait! Where are you going? There’s more!
This next poem is out of season, but, hey, why not? In December, Sarah Wesson hosted a contest, asking her readers to write a poem. After a little cajoling on Sarah’s part, I wrote the following to the tune of Jingle Bells. Please feel free to sing it out loud at work:
Writing Christmas cards,
To those who do not care,
Like stupid Uncle Ted,
Does his still live there?
Oh, wait, I think he died,
Killed by a crazy tramp,
Gee, that really made my day,
I saved myself a stamp!
See how I brought the post back around to the topic of stamps? Pretty good, eh? This is why they pay me the big bucks!
But, seriously, Hoffmanns, you guys are going down.
My Very First Repost: Sunday Sketches
Back in the early days of this blog, I wrote a number of posts that nobody ever saw. “Sixty-one views?” I’d say, aghast. “For the whole month?”
So, with your permission, I thought I’d pull an old post out of the pile and reintroduce it to a (hopefully) larger audience.
Feel free, as always, to comment with reckless abandon! I do so love your comments.
***
One of the ways I hoped to get my (then-three-year-old) son interested in reading was to leave him little notes at the breakfast table. After all, what could be more fun than getting a loving note every morning from your dear ol’ Dad?
But, since I am incapable of doing anything in a small way, I took my note idea to the next level. It’s always fun to get mail, so I sealed each note in an envelope; printed my son’s name and address on the front; and, for that extra dose of authenticity, drew on a stamp. (“Celebrate Cows,” was the first subject.) “There!” I thought. “That will get my boy interested in reading!”
Instead, it got my boy interested in stamp collecting. From the second note on, he carefully ripped the stamp off the envelope and stored it in a shoebox. The notes were glanced at briefly, handed to Mom to read aloud, and then discarded without a second thought. So while I’m pleased to report that my son – who is now six – reads with enthusiasm, my grand note experiment had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Hey, Look! A Writer Fellow! 