Friday, March 29, 2024

MDLinx Comic Consult #18

It's time for our office visit. The MDLinx Comic Consult is a caption contest open only to physicians with a sense of humor, or at the very least an NPI number. Prizes are a $100 Amazon gift card for first place, and $50 gift cards for up to four runners up. I've won three $50 gift cards for contests #12, #13, and #14, and I am eager to see if I can get back in the game with #18. In this contest, it's just another day in the exam room with an eccentric patient. Five entries are permitted; you know I wouldn't submit any fewer. The MDLinx cartoon, as always, is by Jonny Hawkins.

"I am too taking your complaints seriously."
"There's clearly no need to test your gag reflex."
"All we have to offer here are lollipops."
"I see it's time for your annual April 1st visit."
"My practice is limited to fuddy-duddies."





April 6, 2024 Update:  The Winner









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Monday, March 25, 2024

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #890

It's date night in the cosmos and in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #890 from the issue of March 25, 2024. My caption is shown below. The drawing is by Lars Kenseth.

"I just can't get my arms around this relationship."






April 6, 2024 Update:  The Finalists






April 12, 2024 Update:  I voted for the caption from West Hartford.


April 27, 2024 Update:  The Winner







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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Glen Baxter: The Advent of Spring

Glen Baxter's original artwork from 1992 is currently listed with Chris Beetles in London. Right now it seems as timely as it's ever likely to be.


Glen Baxter
Chris Beetles listing accessed January 14, 2024






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Monday, March 18, 2024

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #889

Two salmon board Noah's Ark in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #889 from the issue of March 18, 2024. My caption is shown below. The drawing is by Mads Horwath.

"We're just going upstream."







March 31, 2024 Update:  The Finalists








April 6, 2024 Update:  I voted for the caption from Center Cross.



April 12, 2024 Update:  The Winner






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Sunday, March 17, 2024

Heinrich Kley: The Towers of Munich Frauenkirche

An original watercolor by Heinrich Kley (1863-1945?) depicts the towers of the Munich Frauenkirche. The German seller of this piece, Kunkel Fine Art, dates the work to 1910.


Heinrich Kley
AbeBooks listing accessed March 17, 2024

English translation

Price in Euros


There's a more contemporary view of the church posted on Wikipedia. The photograph was taken in 2006 by David Iliff from the Peterskirche tower, no doubt Kley's own vantage point.
Photo by David Iliff. License: CC BY-SA 3.0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frauenkirche,_Munich#/media/File:Frauenkirche_Munich_-_View_from_Peterskirche_Tower2.jpg








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Monday, March 11, 2024

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #888

A cactus suddenly sheds its needles in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #888 from the issue of March 11, 2024. My caption is shown below. The drawing is by Christopher Weyant.
"Is it allergies?"






These captions didn't hold water:
"Have you tried multivitamins?"
"Are you drinking enough water?"
"Gesundheit."









March 24, 2024 Update:  The Finalists





March 31, 2024 Update:  I voted for the caption from Redwood City.


April 6, 2024 Update:  The Winner









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Saturday, March 9, 2024

William Steig: The Welton's Restaurant Menu and Wine List

The menu and wine list covers, front and back, for Welton's Restaurant of Worcester, Massachusetts, circa 1947, are designed by none other than cartoonist William Steig. Such a menu would no doubt be hard if not impossible to find today. Nevertheless, a giclee print reproduction can readily be had for $25 from Vintage Menu Art.



The patrons shown are exclusively balding white men in business or formal attire. The "menu and wine list," at least on the two pages of it we are given, show no food and not all that much wine. The imported Bénédictine pony is 75¢, but the domestic is a bargain at just 45¢. The cognac, at 75¢, is also marked imported to explain the expense; of course, all cognac is imported.
"No extra charge for ginger ale or soda highballs.
Coca Cola 5¢ extra."

William Steig
Website accessed January 20, 2024

William Steig
Item description



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Friday, March 8, 2024

MDLinx Comic Consult #17

The MDLinx Comic Consult is a caption contest open only to physicians with a funny bone and an NPI number. Prizes are a $100 Amazon gift card for first place, and $50 gift cards for up to four runners up. I've won three $50 gift cards for contests #12, #13, and #14, so I am eager to see if I now can get back in the game. In contest #17, we find a witch in a hospital bed with a staffer and some others in attendance. Five entries are permitted; you know I wouldn't submit fewer. The MDLinx cartoon, as usual, is by Jonny Hawkins.

"I'm sure I just sent in a team of specialists."
"Visiting hours are over."
"I thought the medical students were taller."
"Well, they don't look familiar to me."
"Our treatments are all-natural."






March 16, 2024 Update:  The Winner











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Thursday, March 7, 2024

Blog Post No. 4600: Anatol Kovarsky's A Midsummer Night's Dream Scarf for Richard A. Farrar

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. 
As You Like It


These, of course, are the opening lines of a famous Shakespeare soliloquy spoken by the character Jacques. Those words run frieze-like around the border of today's subject, a Shakespeare-themed scarf that was designed by New Yorker cartoonist Anatol Kovarsky (1919-2016) and produced by Richard A Farrar in the 1940s or, more likely, the 1950s. The scarf depicts scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream and so bears the play's title on the central pediment. Nevertheless, the "All the world's a stage" lines properly belong to As You Like It.
Photo by Wendy Powers

An entire line of Farrar's scarves were designed by New Yorker artists. Charles Addams, Sam Cobean, Helen E. Hokinson, Anatol Kovarsky, Mischa Richter, Otto Soglow, William Steig, and James Thurber were all recruited for the project. Kovarsky himself created no fewer than three scarf designs in this series. Here he evocatively captures the mood of Shakespear's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Kovarsky proves himself the perfect choice to illustrate the classical Athenian setting. We experience music, romance, and fairy magic. The play's three couples are shown framed by the atlantes columns. We also get a parade of energetic goings-on in the dark. Incidentally, Bottom can be seen wearing the donkey's head at center left. Snout the tinker is dressed as a wall at center right.

Photo by Wendy Powers

The scarf was printed in at least two color schemes. The first is blue and red (plus black and white). 
Photo by Wendy Powers

The reverse:
Photo by Wendy Powers

Strictly speaking, the yardstick belongs to Measure for Measure.
Photo by Wendy Powers

The other known color scheme for the A Midsummer Night's Dream scarf is green and brown, again on black and white.

The Richard A Farrar tag:




Note:  My thanks to Wendy Powers for sharing photos of her beautiful scarf, the one in red and blue. The photos of the Kovarsky scarf in green and brown come to us courtesy of the artist's daughter Gina, to whom I am also grateful.

There are now a great many scarves by Richard A. Farrar designed by a number of New Yorker artists in a variety of color schemes to be found in the blog archives here. I am always eager to add new designs and color schemes to these posts. The elusive scarf by the wonderful Helen E. Hokinson remains sadly undocumented. James Thurber's scarf depicting dogs with falling leaves has yet to be seen here in any of its five colors.



The Attempted Bloggery Centennial Posts ðŸ’¯
Blog Post No. 100
Blog Post No. 200:  A Shaggy Dog Story
 


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Wednesday, March 6, 2024

William Steig: Home Restaurant Service

Cartoonist William Steig, throughout his long career, saw his style reinvent itself time and again. Nevertheless, his illustration of a home restaurant doesn't seem typical of Steig's work of any period, although it does seem to belong squarely to mainstream 1950s magazine illustration.


The ink shows evidence of bleeding.








William Steig's signature



William Steig
New York City Estate Auction listing accessed January 20, 2024


Sold!





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