A Family Vacation sketch with the Brummet-Curran and Hokit-Roberts families

By Jack Brummet

A "sketch" I did about fifteen years ago on one of our many joint vacations to Mexico, Idaho, Winthrop, the San Juan and Gulf Islands (Canada) with the Hokit-Roberts clan. This was done on newsprint, now stained and crumbling and on its last legs, so I scanned it. The funniest thing about this is the utter lack of artistic progress, despite drawing continually for 40 years. But hey, it's consistent. Pictured here, in roughly chronological order, our wonderful joint family for a week or two every year: Jack, Dave, Mo, KeeKee, Tim, Claire, Andy, Colum, Delaney, Ellen, and Willie (RIP). 

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Ex-Governor Romney backs down, weasels, retrenches, stonewalls, bobs and weaves, and dissembles

By Pablo Fanque, ATIT National Affairs Editor

Illustrations by Jack Brummet

OK.  The Ex-Governor came out on top in a couple of polls today.  But he did not get there by standing fast or holding his ground.  He arrived there by weaseling, backing down, retrenching, and dissembling.

In a handful of key zones, Mitt Romney has begun to position himself as a centrist.  He doesn't have to worry about the Tea Party anymore.  They are going to hold their collective noses and vote for him.  But as for the rest of us:  

1) He now says he won't deport young illegal immigrants given a chance to stay in the United States by Obama...kind of weaseling in sideways to The Dream Act..  

2) Mr. Romney is also playing catch-up on the Affordable Health Care Act; far from his earlier stance of running as rapidly and far away from it as he could, he is now playing up the health care program a/k/a RomneyCare (with its individual mandate) that was his biggest accomplishment as governor of Massachusetts.  

3) Rhetorically, he's backed down from his own tax plan.  In the first debate, it was hard to analyze the difference between his and BHO's tax plan.  Honestly, it's hard to tell just what his plan is now, but it's a fine one, he says.  "Trust me."

4)  He even admitted in the debate that government regulation “is essential.”  "I mean, you have to have regulations so that you can have an economy work,” he told us. The way he stated it in the debate implied, "Oh you silly people, this is what I had in mind all along."  And, 

5)  After all the bobbing, weaving, and stonewalling over the last couple of weeks, the contrite Ex-Governor told Fox News last Thursday that his comment about the “47 percent” of the electorate he wrote off as moochers, freeloaders, and just flat-ass lazy, when he met with campaign donors, was “completely wrong.”  You said a mouthful Governor. 

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Rose In Mosaic Tiles

by Jack Brummet

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Faces No. 317 - Professor Jenkins

By Jack Brummet 

 [left: hand drawn with steel nib on Masonite India-ink scratchboard; right: image digitally reversed in Paint Shop Pro X4]

click to enlarge

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Republicans and Democrats broken down in plain English

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor

The provenance of this joke/story is unknown, but this has been making the rounds for a few years.

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.

"She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be an Obama Democrat."

"I am," replied the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Republican."

"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it's my fault." 

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Game night

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Abraham Lincoln Mosaic

By Jack Brummet

[100% digital - digitzed library of congress photograph, with tile effect and digital frame added in Paint Shop Pro X4]

click to enlarge

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The crisis of modern society

By Mona Goldwater, Social Mores Editor

You don't even need to read the mimeographed screed. He's not just whistling Dixie.  Five words that have probably rung true across the milleniums (millenia?).  

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The Vice-Presidential Debate October 11, 2012

From 2012 Election Central:

Topic: Foreign and domestic policy
Air Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time
Location: Centre College in Danville, Kentucky (Tickets)
Sponsor: Commission on Presidential Debates
Participants: Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan
Moderator: Martha Raddatz (ABC News Chief Foreign Correspondent)

The debate will cover both foreign and domestic topics and be divided into nine time segments of approximately 10 minutes each. The moderator will ask an opening question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the question.

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Faces No. 317 - The Circle K Night Manager

By Jack Brummet

[4'x6" scratchboard, and same image digitally reversed]

Click images to enlarge

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an 1897 recording of N.R. Wood imitating barnyard animals

This is an 1897 recording of the performer N.R. Wood as he imitates various animal sounds heard during the early morning, including sheep, cattle, cock, hens, guinea hen, turkey, hawk, crow, and other birds. The recording was made on August 5th, 1897 in Washington, D.C. by Berliner Gramophone.

 

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Faces No. 316 - Uncle Joe

By Jack Brummet

[4"x6" scratchboard on right; image digitally reversed on left]

click to enlarge

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