That's the ticket! Because the answer to what's better than selling a cartoon in the afternoon is selling two to the same place! A little happy time in this Covid nightmare.

I shall celebrate with just a few drams of scotch, I think.

What's worse than a watched clock? How slowly the time goes by. What's needed is a clock that provides the proper perspective:

Amazon's online order status just informed me that my package was recently "handed to a resident". Funny, there's nothing in my hands. Let's open the front door. Ah ... looky there, an Amazon delivery.

Who agrees that Amazon needs a new delivery category?:

"Tossed onto the front porch".

Oh maaaaan. Tell me it ain't so. Years back I purchased an Aeropress, a device that lets you make coffee that's guaranteed to not be bitter or acidy and you can use it at home or take it on trips. Only requirement is a way to heat water for it. Worked great.

So what happened? Somehow it got lost. And thus I bought another. And then found the first. Great. Two identical devices. Oh well, at least I had one when I wanted it, right?

Except that we then decided to move out of my home. Packed everything up and put it in storage awaiting the finding of "our new forever place". Buuut, Covid. So we're stuck in a holding pattern in a small temporary living spot. And what don't I have? An Aeropress. 

Sigh. And then there were three. Anyone want to bet I won't need a fourth before this comedy ends?

What's that? You say you'd like a Crowtoon as well? Well, sure!
​

Have you all watched The Princess Bride? I hope so but in the event you haven't, please take my strong recommendation to do so. It has everything one needs in a movie.

And especially, it has the noted swordsman and shrewd observer of life, Inigo Montoya. I'd like to quote him here. "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

How appropriate for this day. In that horrific riot at our nation's capitol, where the American flag was removed and replaced with a T**** flag, where violence was done, murder accomplished, and desecration spread, what were the words that stuck out to me?

Christian and Democracy. Those insurrectionists defiling the very seat of our government dared to call themselves Christians and claim their actions were in defense of Democracy. I am sure, very very sure, that those words most definitely do not mean what that mob thought they mean.

I can only hope that in the days to come those poor delusioned fools might actually open the Bible and the Constitution and spend some quality time learning what those words REAlly mean. It will be worth their effort. 

No matter your profession, attack the day with gusto!

Well, that was fun. Have you ever read those posts where someone engages with a scammer and leads them on? I've always wanted to have a go at it. And today I got my chance. I'd posted onto Instagram and noticed a like and comment from someone whose name was similar to someone I know and follow. The person is Jerry Scott, noted cartoonist and oil colorist. However the comment wasn't from the Instagram account I already knew but from ScottJerry330. Weird. I decided to look at it and there were very few connections but all the photos were clearly Jerry's. Since no cartoons were there, I thought maybe he'd set up a dedicated oil painting account. So I said hi via comment.

Next thing I know there's a chat initiated. Weird. Even the initial message seemed slightly off. So I replied normally but guardedly. Almost immediately it became clear - scammer. 

So, rather than just shut it down, I decided to play. And, of course, recorded the results for all my friends. Enjoy!

Hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please click LIKE so I know! And sharing it is always appreciated. Be sure and come back to crowdensatz.com in the future. I'll be posting musings, cartoons, fun science, and all the fixin's. Thanks for reading!

​And now in a break from the political dissolution of our country ... today's cartoon by my pal Nick Galifianakis. He's one of the few cartoonists whose work I don't just like but actively admire and draw inspiration from. He has a masterful control of all 256 bits - the full grayscale gamut.

Okay, I lied. Unless he's gotten with the program he's still an antediluvian slinger of that old fashioned cartooning medium - ink, pen and brush. Which means rather than just 256 bits of grayscale value he's going for infinity. The modern world beckons but he rejects its siren call.

One of the things I especially like about his work is how he draws figures that are close enough to anatomically correctly proportioned to look "real" and yet retain full cartoon qualities. It's a tough line to tiptoe down. 

I invite you to notice the scribbly background that sets the scene but doesn't distract from it, the boldly inked foreground figures, the wonderful textural rendering of the clothes and the expressive faces captured with just a few spare strokes.

Oh, and there's the gag too. That's pretty good as well!

​More early morning rambling. 

As every educated person realizes, the human race is 99.9 percent the same in behavior and outlook to a bunch of apes roaming the plains of Africa. Or mooching through the forests. Whichever. The point is - evolutionarily we're just apes who have become slightly less attractive. 

And ... if you examine tribes of apes what you'll notice is that they generally act pretty well. Just go about their day picking lice off each other, eating some fruit, etc. The big strong males dominate the weaker ones and get more lovin'. And unless they're bonobos they'll get into a bit of clan warfare. 

Like I said - we are them.

However there's a postiive point to the musing. In each ape group there ISN'T a 50 50 divide in which each half regard the other as devils incarnate. They're all pretty much just folks.

HENCE the same is true for us. So why is it that we have this insane overlay? This idea that Republicans are evil fascists and Democrats are looney Communists? Why?

Well, the answer is clearly that there's a part of our brain that's primed to fall down that fatal rabbit hole and unfortunately it's been discovered that it's profitable to push us down via social media being controlled in such a way as to create a destructive feedback loop. "Hmmmm, you liked that article? Here's another just like it. And another. And another."

Our brains aren't wired to resist. In nature, all the apes bump into each other and SEE that the others aren't devils. They learn about alternative points of view. Just like WE did for centuries. 

So -  I'm not suggesting the solution. The problem is close to intractable. All I'm doing is suggesting that whenever you hear someone say or think for yourself "They are MONSTERS!" consider the fact that your outlook might very well have been manipulated and that, just as all your neighbors seem pretty normal, so must it likely be for most everyone else.

Except for those one or two actual monsters, of course. ;-)