Edited to Add:

It occurred to me cartoons, even if clipped from the newspaper, are copyrighted material.  Ignorance is no excuse for using them without permission.  I could try and get permission from the authors, but it’s difficult to get contact information on some of them, so I decided to remove the images. 

I’m leaving the text in case anyone saved a link, but I will not be doing any more posts about Hartwick Joke(s) of the Week.

So, nine years have passed since I did this post . . . and what I notice is that Pinterest, Facebook, and many, many places share cartoons all willy-nilly. I’m not normally prone to do something illegal just because so many others do it (apparently, that’s no longer a virtue in today’s world and gets you incredulous looks I interpret as saying “you’re an idiot”), but, in this case, and for a good cause — laughter — I decided to restart the Jokes of the Week<<link documentation so that posterity can enjoy some cartoons that have likely passed from memory.

Note that depending on when you click on the link and read the series, there may be more coming. At the time of this writing, there are only eight published out of more than a hundred. At one a week, it might go for a while. Why, I may not even finish publishing them because I don’t know if I’ll live another 20 years.

Sorry.

<><><><o><><><><><o><><>

In my first post about the Hartwick Professionals, Inc. Joke(s) of the Week I gave a little of the history of the weekly sheet I put out for nine years before Hartwick Professionals closed its doors in 2004.  I figure I would slowly document them, at least the ones I have left.

Deviating from the last two posts, I am presenting seven.  Why seven?  I was going to do five, then I thought “Pick a different prime number”, and seven came on deck.  It was seven up, you see.

I have new subscribers who came on board after looking at my photography-related posts.  As one of them recently mentioned, I can sometime make her “blood boil”.  She was referring to my opinion pieces.  This is not an opinion piece per se, but I do express opinions in here, and sometimes none too gently.

In my experience, forewarned is often none the wiser, but at least I tried.

 You can click on the pictures below for a higher resolution of each (some may be otherwise hard to read), and they should open in a new window or tab.

Image Removed

There are two great jokes on the above . . . the first is the one about the gun.  I don’t know Joe Martin’s position on guns, but I immediately found that funny.  As a gun owner, I might be inclined to see it as an anti-guns jab, but funny is funny, period.

The other predates Obama’s Change campaign by at least seven years . . . I often wonder if he got half-way through the joke and missed the punchline.  A punchline many people are living.  No, I’m not Republican . . . I find both parties equally distasteful in their callous pursuit of power and money at the expense of those who have neither.

The quotes were inspiring when I first selected them . . . now most of those seem to mock what’s left of the dream they hint at.  The existentialist quotes are out of place.  Can’t know what I was thinking when I arranged them so, but they seem thrown in there as filler.

Image Removed

Honest, I would eat at that restaurant.

As far as quotes go, these are much better.  Many, not surprisingly, align themselves nicely to how I see the world.  And of those, the Janis Joplin quote aligns nicely with Mary Crowly’s quote.  I mean in what they touch on, not just their physical arrangement.  People who read these might not notice, but often the quotes were arranged so they sat next to each other for a reason.  Go ahead, re-read them not as two columns, but as four rows.

Not saying I always did that.  Sometime these had to be rushed out late on Sunday night, and at those times I was less particular about the greater message.

Image Removed

I only used a few favorite strips as source material, but once in a while I came across something from odd sources.  The joke on the island has a lawyer, a giant mosquito, a non-sparkling vampire, and an IRS agent . . . “almost as if the (blood) was sucked right out of him.”  . . . I felt bad for the mosquito; it has no choice of actions, and for it to be lumped in with the others is, in my opinion, malicious slander.  Luckily, it’s standing right next to a lawyer; it can sue.

The cat joke is one that twirls your mind a bit; you laugh, but then can’t explain exactly why.  Don’t worry; your mind knows.  Trust it, and laugh along.

People speak of “choosing the right path”, often linking it to either religious or political tenets they hold dear even as they fail to fully comprehend the why.  Muriel Strode voices my own views on the matter.  Mind you, I’m pretty sure my path crosses those of many, many others, and sometime even follow the same path as those who came before.

In high probability, I may not be blazing a new trail; but it is my trail, and I walk on it with eyes fixed not on finding an already-traveled path, but on the horizon.  I have the confidence to try, the resilience to bounce back if I fail, and the wisdom to accept the possibility I will not always find the easiest or best way.   One thing I will not have . . .  regrets for having followed someone else.

Image Removed

The first joke is a little dated; these days it would be about Apple,  and whatever latest incarnation of iSomething they are peddling.  The second joke is another favorite.  Again, difficult to say why, but the initial response is to laugh.

And, of course, the Mark Twain quote says it all.  I don’t know what experiences of Mark Twain’s would lead him to make that statement.  Perhaps, like me, he observed that when it comes to humans, the good is vastly overshadowed by the bad.

By the way, I should point something out . . . when I write these commentaries, they are a stream of consciousness thing; unlike regular posts, I don’t go back and edit to change what I wrote (other than spill chick).  Too much of a bother, you see.

Image Removed

I consider these all very funny cartoons.  The first one resembles my food intake and attitude.  The second one reflects another of my observations; most people are so not ready to have kids.  They have no idea what it entails.  The reason we don’t have kids is because we both had a very good idea of what it entailed.   We like kids, but . . .no, thank you.

The third jokes just has me grinning from ear to ear, and wrapping a bit past one of them.  The left, I think.

I like these quotes, but found them unnecessarily complicated in their language and structure.  A couple of them more need more than one read before gleaning what they might mean.  Penn’s quote is such, and its message could have been more clearly stated. Then again, I tried to paraphrase it, and it does seem to me it looses something in my translations.  

But that’s why we like quotes, isn’t it?  They voice an idea we ourselves can’t quite put to words.  We read the words of someone else putting their thought into words, and we immediately recognize, rightly or wrongly, the echo of our own thoughts.  

Image Removed

I like Dilbert.  Not all, but some, like the one above, score a direct bull-eye and lays bare the absurdity of large corporation . . . and the quiet resignation, with a hint of rebellion, of the employees that suffer under them.  And of course, the last cartoon is timeless . . . if appealing to an ever diminishing minority.

Two of the quotes stand out for me . . . I have met people who know a whole lot about all sorts of things, but that never offered me any more than data.  I can get data on my own; what I need, what we all want, is fresh ideas stemming from that data.

The Seneca quote is one I take to heart; I do a lot of introspection with regards to my behavior toward others.  Much more of my time is spent thinking about what I might be doing wrong, than worrying about what others are doing wrong.  

I like the Alexander Pope quote, except that friends, much like foes, seldom give you honest feedback.

Image Removed

The first joke is simply precious . . . I’ve spoken to people like that.  And the joke ties in well with the quotes.  Once again Mark Twain comes through in spades, and we must remember that’s from over a hundred years ago, and it is still true today.  We may have swapped bones and sticks for iPhones and iPads, but in matters of superstitions we have not advanced one iota.

I like Luther’s quote, although it seems ironic considering the source.  That points to something else I learned early on, and a friend recently repeated; the same quote can be used to support  completely differing positions.  Without knowing the context of the original quote, one sometime can be led to a meaning completely opposite from the original intent.

Quotes, including the ones in these JotW pages,  are chosen based solely on whether it fits one’s viewpoint or not, not necessarily the viewpoint of the person who originally spoke or wrote the words.  Although I try and match the two, sometimes the original text is difficult to find.  

That said, I think there is a broad commonality of human experiences; we are not the first to have any of the thoughts that hit us like sledgehammers, nor will we be the last.  

When those thoughts, those revelations, those seemingly “eureka” moments happen to us, we need to remember our understanding is not unique, not special, not original, and possibly only applicable to us as individuals.  But it’s not likely to keep us from wanting to spread the word, as it were. 

Thanks for visiting, and thanks for reading.

<><><><><><><><><><o><><><><><><><><><o><><><><><><><><><>

Note: to those who may click on “like”, or rate the post; if you do not personally hear from me, know that I am sincerely appreciative, and I thank you for noticing what I do.  

About awards: Blogger Awards         About “likes”:   Of “Likes”, Subscriptions, and Stuff