SlowpokeBlog

Well, how do? I know, I've been away for a spell. But lest you think I've been a shameless slacker, I've been using this time to write new Slowpokes (in between vacation-related program activities, of course). Something tells me 2006 is going to provide plenty of material. Between this domestic spying business and Alito, we're looking down the barrel of a wholly unchecked executive branch. Not that we have many checks and balances to lose right now; but still, to paraphrase a certain yuletide song, it's beginning to look a lot like China.

Looking back, 2005 was a banner year for Slowpoke, if not the national discourse. I had a blast on the "Laugh While You Can" tour with my friends Tom Hart and Tim Kreider; Slowpoke took first place in its category at the 2005 AAN awards, and the cartoon now appears in several more publications. Thanks to everyone who took the time to e-mail me. I still try to reply, however briefly, to all the polite letters I get, and apologize if I missed a few. I hope to be more frequent with the blog in the coming year; we'll see how it goes.

One last New Year's-related thought: I spent the holiday in the Rockies, and as far as I could tell, the only televised countdown in the Mountain Standard Time Zone was a two-hour delayed replay of the ball dropping in Times Square. It's really kind of sad. Perhaps one step toward reducing Western resentment of the East Coast would be to give the mountain states their own televised New Year's spectacle. I propose dropping a million-watt illuminated bison in downtown Billings.

On the other hand, kudos to CNN for covering the the Drag Queen Drop in Key West.