When I was a naturalist for the Forest Service in the 1990s one of the more peculiar “other duties as assigned” I was assigned was to help restore Heceta Head Lighthouse Keeper’s House. I can tell you stories about all the keepers and their families who lived and worked at Heceta, I can explain how a Fresnel lens works, and I can list every fact, figure, and date that has any relevance to Heceta, but the only thing people ever ask me about is the ghost story. So here it is. Continue reading
Category Archives: humor
Recreational Vehicles: The Bane of Coastal Summer Life
It used to be that if you needed to make room at the adult table you put grandma and grandpa on an ice floe.
Now with global warming, there aren’t that many ice floes anymore and what ones there are, are reserved for polar bears.
Instead, we set Grandma and Grandpa adrift in humongous recreational vehicles on Highway 101, RVs the size of the USS Enterprise. Continue reading
Excerpts from a Fire Fighter’s Journal
Fire season is upon us and that got me thinking about my days as a forest firefighter.
It was one of my “other duties as assigned” when I was Siuslaw National Forest’s head naturalist at Cape Perpetua. These are excerpts from a journal I kept over the years. They first appeared in Backpacker Magazine.
“Concerned crew boss: ‘If you get hurt, be sure to tell me immediately so I can start the paperwork.’” Continue reading
Flying Refrigerators
In a blog I posted a few days ago I mentioned that most everything in my house is going kaput.
One thing that’s going strong is my refrigerator. This is really amazing when you read a letter I wrote about it to Montgomery Ward in January 30, 1994. At the time I was building a cabin while living in a leaky trailer without electricity or running water.
Dear Appliance Gurus:
Did you know that you can advertise that your refrigerators fly … although they do crash land? Continue reading
Happy Fourth of July
A few American history cartoons to celebrate Independence Day and the reasons why we celebrate it.
WHEN in the Course of human events,
it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. Continue reading
Hackers May Take Over Our Toilets
We now have to worry about computer hackers taking over our toilets.
Seriously. When I heard this this morning I thought for a moment that I was listening to the Onion’s Radio News, but no, I was tuned to NPR’s real news show, Here and Now.
Smart Toilets? They exist. How did I miss this trend? Even more important, how can a cartoonist make a living when real life is now more absurd than anything I can dream up? Continue reading
A Mailbox Fit For Rejections
For years while building my house in the boondocks of Oregon I lived in a leaky trailer with no electricity and the only running water was rain that leaked through the roof. I finally moved into the house about twenty years ago. That means that many things in the house are 20 years old and are falling apart and/or breaking down almost simultaneously. The joys of home ownership. The latest thing to give out was the black locust pole I used to hold up my extra-large mailbox. You know you lead a dull life when installing a post for your snail-mailbox is considered a major event. Continue reading
A Medical Breakthrough I Want: Brain Transplants
I had my physical and everything checked out. Dang.
I was hoping to be recommended for some experimental surgery akin to a full-body transplant.
Once when I was giving blood the nurse asking questions to screen out folks with possible diseases asked … well, I can’t remember what she actually asked, but at the time I thought she asked, “Have you had a brain transplant in the last six months?” “No,” I said, but do tell me more.” No doubt this proved in her mind that I had mad cow disease. Continue reading
The Doctor Wishes You’d Come Sooner
Tomorrow I’m having my first physical in I don’t know how many years and I have this image stuck in my head; Medical cartoon 7659: A doctor taking the pulse of a skeleton sitting on an examination table. He says, “I wish you’d come to me sooner.”Here are a few more of my favorite Doctor Cartoons. They make great posters for waiting rooms, posters which coincidentally can be purchased at my Cafepress store. Remember, laughter is the best medicine, and these cartoons can be had over the counter for a lot less than most drugs. Continue reading
Splurge on Cheap Cartoons
Dang. I missed celebrating National Splurge Day yesterday.
To make up for it I’m having a sale on all my already way-too-cheap cartoons until June 25th.. You get 25% off your order by typing “ha ha” in the “Apply Coupon” box.
If you’re reading this after June 25th, don’t worry. Email me and I’ll make a special coupon for you. Continue reading