Lemming Tracks: Thanksgiving, Cartoons, and a Look at the Lemming

If you're in America: Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving isn't until tomorrow: but odds are pretty good that you'll be doing something holiday-related tomorrow. So, the Lemming figured that getting holiday greetings in 24 hours early might be prudent.

Happy Day-Before-Thanksgiving-Day: or, not

If you're not in America, that first paragraph may have been a complete waste of time.

With that in mind, the Lemming cobbled together a list of previous posts - some almost related to cartoon design, or something else. Actually, the Lemming wound up with three lists. A few about Thanksgiving and other holidays snuck in, too.

"Snuck in??" "Sneaked in?" Never mind.

The Lemming introduced two turkeys last year, in another blog:

• "Happy Thanksgiving! And a Little Dark Humor"
  Sauk Centre Journal Blog (November 25, 2010)

Somehow, they seem to have survived. And appear to be involved in a vast conspiracy to change America's eating habits. Particularly the habit of eating turkey around this time each year.

Beware the Gobblers?

Before someone stockpiles survival rations and cranberry sauce, and warns the neighbors that turkeys are controlling our minds - the Lemming categorically states that to the best of the Lemming's knowledge: no turkeys have conspired to make humans think eating meat is bad, or much of anything else. They're turkeys.

Come to think of it, that assurance, coming from an outsized, bipedal, flannel-wearing Lemming, may not be all that reassuring. After all, the Lemming may be part of the conspiracy!

Or, not. The Lemming's posted about this sort of thing before. If, for some unguessable reason, you're interested, check out the posts in "Conspiracy theories and how to not sound crazy," under "Vaguely-related posts."

One that didn't make the list is:

• "Verboten Numbers: The Lemming Snaps II"
  (January 5, 2009)

Art, Humor, and a Lemming With a Deadline

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
Douglas Adams (English humorist & science fiction novelist (1952 - 2001))

Deadlines

Unlike Douglas Adams, the Lemming doesn't love deadlines. The Lemming doesn't even like deadlines. However, the Lemming thinks deadlines are a great help to the creative process.

There's nothing quite like seeing a clock inexorably changing its numbers: registering the hours, minutes, and seconds left before something absolutely must be ready for posting. There are quite a few things that are more pleasant: but not many that prod the imagination more effectively.

Without a deadline, the Lemming might have tinkered with that cartoon indefinitely: and might not have come up with anything better. With a deadline, at least there's something to show today.

Humor

Humor is nothing to laugh at. No, that's not what the Lemming meant. Try again: Humor is very serious. Wrong again. Time for a quote or two:

"Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious."
Peter Ustinov (English actor & author (1921 - 2004))

"The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself."
James Thurber (US author, cartoonist, humorist, & satirist (1894 - 1961))

Art

The Lemming takes art seriously, but not fanatically.

This is where the Lemming could start discussing the esoteric end of art.

Like the Golden:

• Ratio
• Rectangle
• Section
• Whatever

It's one of those interesting mathematical relationships that, like logarithmic spirals, crop up at a crazy range of scales. And that's another topic.

But that deadline is approaching, fast. There's time for a couple more quotes, a picture, and not much else.

"Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere."
G. K. Chesterton
(English author & mystery novelist (1874 - 1936))

There's a lot to that, in the Lemming's opinion: What gets left out of a picture is at least as important as what gets put in. Distractions - well, they distract.

The Lemming, trying to figure out what to do for this year's Thanksgiving cartoon. (November 22, 2011)

Finally:

"In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous."
Aristotle
(Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC))

Vaguely-related posts:

• Cartoons
  • "Cartoon Character Design: Six Steps"
    (October 26, 2011)
  • "Happy Thanksgiving! And a Little Dark Humor"
    Sauk Centre Journal Blog (November 25, 2010)
  • "New Yorker Cartoons: If You Don't Get the Magazine, or If You Do"
    (September 3, 2010)
  • "Santa's Workshop, Pip, and a Disturbing - or Disturbed - Image"
    (December 28, 2009)
  • "A One-Size-Fits All Consumer Warning"
    (April 9, 2009)
• Tofu turkey and other oddities
  • " 'Cancer Causes Cell Phones!' - or, not"
    (July 18, 2011)
  • "Cheeseburger Bill: Minnesota's Shocking Attack on Contemporary Values"
    (February 22, 2011)
    Particularly
    • Big Cheese is Victimizing You!
  • "Lemming Tracks: '8 x 8' Water Rule, Real Research; Beer and Pretzels"
    (November 27, 2010)
  • "Silly Season"
    (August 24, 2010)
  • "Tofu Turkeys, Genetically Altered Foods, and the Evil Eye"
    (November 14, 2009)
• Conspiracy theories and how to not sound crazy
  • "How to Not Sound Crazy - or - THE PARANOIDS ARE AFTER ME!!!"
    (June 12, 2011)
  • "Nuclear Weapons, Space Aliens, Conspiracy Theories, and Getting a Grip"
    (September 24, 2010)
  • "Why is it So Hard to Find a Comprehensive History of Blotting Paper?"
    (March 2, 2010)
  • "Haiti's Earthquake Caused by - You Guessed it - Yankee Imperialists"
    (January 21, 2010)
  • "Want to be Paranoid, but Just Can't Find the Time?"
    (August 27, 2008)
• Living in a universe of marvels
  • "Earthquake Data Inspires Techie Art"
    (November 2, 2011)
  • "Beauty, the Scientist, and Dog Vomit Slime Mold"
    (March 27, 2011)
  • "African Art, Photos, and a Whacking Great Generalization"
    (June 21, 2010)
  • "The Aye-Aye: Very Strange Primates In Madagascar"
    (January 7, 2010)
  • "The Naked Mole Rat: Ugly, but Weird"
    (August 24, 2009)