The name game

This cartoon makes me laugh whenever I see it. It just really makes me LOL.

I know “Hugh” is pronounced with the “Hush” sound, but it seems to work here.

I redid it, adding “Em” to the group, as a reader suggested that. I also seemed to have left out Mr. T and CeCe. I guess it’s turned into a word game, which I like. And one person in a comment said, “Casey” which is KC, which I like.

I was watching tv one day and the guy says his name is Jay. And thought does he mean the letter J. like people use or does he mean Jay, the actual name. I thought to myself, “It’s confusing when people are named after letters,” and of course that how that came to this cartoon.

I started thinking of the alphabet and the various names that sound like letters and one thing lead to another.

Another way of doing this could have been the actual letters in a bar and have the letters say, “Hello D, hello, B, etc. But I don’t usually like doing inanimate object cartoons and I think it works well the way it is now.

On Reddit, I got lots of comments, many nasty. Apparently people don’t know Bea is pronounced BEE and Hugh is mispronounced U, but that seems to be a U.S. thing, because the cartoon was put down for being “an American thing.”

Other rude people on Reddit didn’t like the drawing style or that it was one panel. And apparently, this gag has something to do with Men in Black, which I’ve never seen.

Some comments from Reddit:

“It’s a shitty premise being in a shitty exposition box, but then it goes and gets greedy with Hugh.” Not sure what an exposition box is, maybe a single panel.

“Hugh has a brother, Double Hugh.”
“Nah, his twin brother would be UE.”
“Hugh is a stretch but passable.”
“What about multiple letter names like Petey and Emilee?”
“I suppose Elle is pronounced L?”
“My friend Ivy is named after two letters?”

And it goes on and on. But people seem to be very hung up on “Hugh” being “U.”


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Sharon Stone, artist

CBS Sunday Morning did a profile on Sharon Stone, the actress. But it was all about her artwork. She’s a painter/artist.

I love her work, some of it is on display in a gallery in Greenwich, CT these days, which I would love to see. Maybe when the weather gets warmer I’ll check it out.

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Seeing celebs

I saw this random picture on Facebook the other day – Carol Channing, Ethel Merman, Ann Miller, and Lauren Bacall, and I realized I saw two of these ladies in person – in real life situations.

Carol Channing was in front of me in Gristedes once, in NYC and Ann Miller was leaving her Broadway musical called “Sugar Babies.” With Ann Miller, I was walking down the street and a door opened and two white poodles ran out the door, across the sidewalk and into a waiting limo, and right behind them was Ann Miller. I hadn’t seen the play, I was just walking by.

With Carol Channing, I didn’t realize who she was until she opened her mouth and I recognized the voice. I didn’t say anything to her, she just did her thing and left.

I was watching Beat Bobby Flay the other day and Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Carla Hall were guests. Here they are with Bobby. And oddly enough, I’ve seen all three of them in person. Not together, but I’ve seen them.

I saw Bobby coming out of store a few years back, I saw Jesse in a one man show on Broadway and I saw Carla at the Union Square Green Market a few years ago. All three in NYC!

Another supermarket person I saw was Mary Wickes who was in front of me in line at a Grand Union in Miami some years back. She spoke to me, mentioned something about what I was buying, just small talk. The thing about her was that we usually picture her with jet black hair, but it was snow white that day.

I was thinking of all the people I’ve seen in person, you know, people from tv and movies, but what about everyday people? How many thousands of people do we see in our lifetime (millions?) and we just pass by them? But when we recognize them it’s a whole different experience. But so many people we pass are probably so important, but they aren’t celebs, so we don’t notice them.

We might have passed and brushed elbows with guy who is on the verge of curing cancer, or an astronaut who may go to the moon soon or someone who invented something that we use every day. It reminds me of those old American Express commercials – “Do you know me?” Where you know the name, but not the face.

I’ll tell you about the time I had a mini traffic altercation with Madonna or the experiences I would have almost daily with the Burn Notice guys, who filmed the show in my town. And some others . . .

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The name game

This actually happened. Not the kneeling part, but the barista calling out, “Neil! Neil!” for his coffee. Of course my mind got to working when I heard that and I came up with this cartoon.

One time in Starbucks in NYC, there were four of us in there waiting for our orders. It was about 8:00 pm and they were getting ready to close down. All four of us customers were men.

They called out, “Tom!” And I went to pick up the order, but it was for another Tom who was there. And the same thing happened a couple of other times – there were four Toms in Starbucks waiting for our orders. No other customers in there, just the four Toms.

That was some sort of Universe message or something. Not sure what but I’m sure that will never happened again anywhere.

Every time I pass that particular Starbucks at 26th and Broadway, I think of that Tom incident.

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“Annoying photos

A friend posted this on Facebook: “Annoying in the moment but everyone is grateful afterwards.”

She was referring to a quote: “Take pictures of everything and everyone. I don’t care who I annoy by constantly taking pictures, in the end they will be all we have left. Every photo is a memory – capture it.”

I had to laugh because for years I would take pictures of everything – with a camera. This was before cellphones. So it was with an actual small camera that I carried around.

I would take pictures of us on the subway or on a bus, or in the middle of the street and one of my cousins, who I was always with, would get embarrassed and annoyed. He would always tell me to stop it, but in the end, he would always ask for a copy of the picture(s).

Every once in awhile he brings that up and we laugh.

Even today, with my cellphone I still embarrass people at times, even though everyone is constantly taking pictures all the time. I’ll say to a stranger who we ask to take our picture if they mind, “We are from Kansas, we aren’t used to all this city stuff,” I’ll say. I think the person knows I’m joking.

I read once that in this age of non-stop picture taking, we are losing something that in the old days was a part of it all – the scrapped pictures – which have a life of their own. But these days I assume most of us take a bunch of pictures and only save the ones we like, deleting the ones we don’t like, losing those scrapped, interesting pictures for good probably.

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Mind over weather?

I laugh every time I see this cartoon, not just because it’s mine, but because it’s true.

I was recently in New York and Boston and I saw it, and every winter/fall, there is some guy in shorts and t-shirt running or just standing in the city while everyone else is bundled up.

Is he showing off or does he not feel the cold?

He’s probably from a cold climate and 30 degrees is not cold to him. Maybe he’s from Alaska or Canada or some northern European city.

I know that when I’m home in Miami, when it gets to 70 degrees, I need to wear a hoodie or jacket or something, but when I’m in NY, I can go out in a t-shirt in 50 degree weather and when it’s been 39 degrees and sunny, I can walk with an open jacket and t-shirt in NY and not feel the cold. I think it may have something to do with the humidity in Miami and maybe lack of it up north. It just feels colder down south when the temp drops.

I remember one year, it was 19 degrees at the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade in NY and I was fine out there. I was bundled up and dressed for the weather and I think only my nose was cold. But I was bundled up, I wasn’t in shorts and a t-shirt.

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What year is it?

This recent cartoon is not really correct – the hieroglyphics are not numbers.

The ankh, the cross symbol is an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol meaning “key of life,” used to represent the word for “life” it’s a symbol of life itself.

And the eye symbol – the Eye of Horus, in ancient Egypt, symbol representing protection, health, and restoration.

Numbers are shown here, as an example you can see the year 2765 is written as shown above and here are the Eye of Horus and the Ankh, the cross symbol.

But the Egyptians didn’t count the years as we do. The ancient Egyptians counted the years starting at the year a Pharaoh started his reign (called Regnal Years). So back then they started over every time they had a new Pharaoh.

Other than all that, I think it’s a cool cartoon.

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Happy 2024

I wrote last week that the week between Christmas and New Years was one of my favorite weeks. But I think the days and probably the whole week after New Year’s Day is also my favorite. I like when everything goes back to normal.

Things start off slow and ease into the New Year, which is a big change from the chaotic period between October and December, which I also love. But when it’s time for the chaos to end, it’s nice that January comes just in time. Of course by the end of February, I’m ready for something to happen, I feel that the months between January and maybe April, are boring.

I never make resolutions for the new year, not sure why, I just don’t. Guess I’ll just start taking the Christmas tree down and boxing up Mariah Carey, Home Alone and the leg lamp (yes, I have one, it was a gift a few years back).

Happy New Year!

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2023 Hail and Farewell

CBS Sunday Morning had a nice tribute to the people who left us this year. So many people it seems.

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The week between Christmas and New Years

I think this is my favorite week of the year. We don’t have a name for it, though. What could we call the week between Christmas and New Years?

For many years, I was a bit worried, related to business. Each year, business would come to a complete halt. Two weeks before Christmas, up to New Years, business would just cease and I would get worried. And each year, my mother would say, “You say that every year! Don’t you remember, it’s like that each year?” And she was right. Business picked up right after the new year.

Now I don’t care. I learned to just take things as they come, or don’t come. And now I enjoy the lull in everything. I honestly keep forgetting what day of the week it is!

It’s funny, because right before Christmas, it’s very hectic with all the preparations and then it just stops on December 26.

I’m enjoying see all the hecticness at the airports this week on tv, and knowing I’m not part of that mess. I last traveled at Thanksgiving time, but it was during the off-days, so it wasn’t hectic. While it’s a big tourist time in Miami, I don’t live in a tourist area, so it doesn’t affect me.

I have a friend who has always loved New Year’s Eve and the new year. I guess it was all a fresh start for him, and now I appreciate that. I think these days my favorite Holiday is Thanksgiving. For many years it was Christmas, as I am sure most kids enjoy the most, then it was Halloween. Now it is Thanksgiving.

My mother always loved July 4th. One year for her birthday, I bought her all sorts of July 4th things – it seems weird, but it was great. I got decorations and big serving platter, lots of U.S. Flags and things like that. She really loved it.

While I love this time of year, I also enjoy my time in New York in the summer. I already made my plane reservations. I have six months to go and I have already started the countdown. I would like to go somewhere in Europe in the Spring, too. Still thinking what to do about that.

So for now I’m going to enjoy New Years Eve and Day and the new year. Hope you do, too.

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