W. B. Park: Delay of Game

There's not a lot of action to be seen on the baseball diamond in an original illustration by W. B. Park. The several spider webs are apparently a commentary on the slow pace of some baseball games. Park died in 2021, but this watercolor may have appeared decades before the advent of the pitch clock.

W. B. Park's signature

W. B. Park
eBay listing ended April 30, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204871090360?_skw=%22W.+B.+Park%22&itmmeta=01K0X707V7BY38PS5KGPD4MX0R&hash=item2fb344c0b8:g:QEoAAOSwgBBmh2mh&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA0FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1ffhgd%2BZSzgKguu3JcQlui72P9oJl4diQjwdf4RRszns3U7dbl7PS3QN8mC73PzxP4WQYpN5KdnbIhaRx%2Bp6Goid5AP2ibsdtWYr2ZL%2FXJk0cpk7Z4ChCcucZgwl6Tm0rwr0eoVNkUlGyUcPZrfK3iM9vMe9xU%2FhPMia0shOlvydMdckMd2J39BX4oReIsB7xJibIw7HkWSmjbQMSy7zlXL7QHkzZThgVoeUX42sceZAhjXl9dXCeMjmW8ONiQjxcQ%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR9j9gKeHZg

W. B. Park
eBay item description 

Note:  If you should know where and when this was published, please come forward—and don't balk.

05011

Edward Sorel: Dining Al Fresco

An original Edward Sorel illustration created for Reader's Digest is currently listed with the Chris Beetles Gallery. It salutes the tradition of outdoor grilling. Safety first, everyone.

Edward Sorel
Chris Beetles listing accessed July 22, 2025

https://www.chrisbeetles.com/artwork/2603/dining-al-fresco

05010

The CartoonStock Cartoon Caption Contest No. 195

In the CartoonStock Caption Contest number 195, a woman confronts her husband with a superhero suit.

The rules of the monthly cash prize contest have not changed (and neither has my description of them): Five dollars buys up to three entries. Real cash prizes are $500 for first place and $100 for each of five runners up. As of this writing, I've put $200 into the first forty pay-to-play contests and this forty-first challenge brings my total cash outlay up to $205. Having achieved runner-up status with three previous entries, thank you, I've collected $300 from CartoonStock, so I'm very much playing with the house's money. In fact, so few contestants enter that the odds may generally be considered favorable even for us less-gifted caption writers. My three entries are shown below, above the break. The cartoonist is Ken Levine, who is new to me and thus new to the blog.

"And is there a Wow Woman?"
"Tell me again why it takes you three hours to pick up milk."
"This explains our dry cleaning bill."
* * *
"Shall I hang it in the mancave?"
"You shouldn't have given Alfred the day off."

August 1, 2025 Update:  The Winner

Not one of the judges selected any of my captions.

The Judges Deliberate

Video added July 27, 2025

05009

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #952

In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #952 from the issue of July 21, 2025, a human couple shares drinks with a male and female crash test dummy. The male dummy speaks. My entry appears below. The drawing is by Paul Karasik.

"We always drink and drive."

I didn't exactly do a bang up job on these:

"But we don't want to steal your jobs."
"We never worry about the market crashing."

August 1, 2025 Update:  The Finalists

August 10, 2025 Update:  I forgot to vote. I think I would have gone for the caption from Easton.

August 16, 2025 Update:  The Winner

05008

James Thurber's Copy of Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh

Black Mischief, Evelyn Waugh's third novel, was published in 1932. Humorist James Thurber's copy has his signature penciled in above The New Yorker's office address, then 25 West 45th Street. In 1935, the magazine moved out of its original office and went to 25 West 43rd Street where it remained until 1991.

Evelyn Waugh
AbeBooks listing accessed July 19, 2025

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Black-Mischief-Evelyn-Waugh-Farrar-Rinehart/32229802762/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook_low

Evelyn Waugh
AbeBooks item description

05007

Jarrett C. White's Copy of One Man's Meat by E. B. White

E. B. White's essay collection One Man's Meat was published in 1942. Washington, D.C., architect Jarrett C. White was fortunate enough to have his copy personalized by the author in the year of publication. White, the architect, died in 1947. I do not believe the two men were related. 

"For Jarrett C. White.   
with thanks for the
business.              
             E. B. White
1 August 1942"       

White's compelling prose makes me want to turn the page and keep reading.

E. B. White
AbeBooks listing accessed July 20, 2025

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/MANS-MEAT-SIGNED-White-E.B-Harper/32244997803/bd

E. B. White
AbeBooks item description

05006

Louisa Kennedy's Copy of The Elements of Style by Strunk and White

The 1959 edition of The Elements of Style was the first to include contributions and revisions by E. B. White. The original style guide had been written by White's Cornell University professor William Strunk, Jr., for use in his classroom. A copy of the third printing was inscribed to Louisa Kennedy by White in the year of publication.

E. B. White
AbeBooks listing accessed July 19, 2025

https://www.abebooks.com/signed/Elements-Style-Strunk-William-White-Revisions/32215194113/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook_high

"Signed by E. B. White on the front free endpaper and inscribed in chicken scratch . . . "

05005

Thomas Nast: Enter the Elephant

Among his many accomplishments, cartoonist Thomas Nast was largely responsible for establishing the elephant as the symbol of the Republican Party. He first introduced a pachyderm labeled "The Republican Vote" in a Harper's Weekly cartoon from the November 7, 1874, issue. The parable of "The Ass in the Lion's Skin" is from Aesop, not Shakespeare.

The Third-Term Panic.
"An Ass, having put on the Lion's skin, roamed about in the Forest, and amused himself by frightening all the foolish Animals he met with in his wanderings."—Shakspeare or Bacon.
Thomas Nast
Harper's Weekly, November 7, 1874, p. 912

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States)#/media/File:NastRepublicanElephant.jpg

Two weeks later, he revisited the idea, showing the hapless Republican elephant "Caught in a Trap—The Result of the Third-Term Hoax." Nast, a Republican, was reacting in both cartoons to unfounded speculation that Ulysses S. Grant would run for an unprecedented third presidential term in 1876. Argosy Book Store has a copy of the November 21 page in its inventory.

Caught in a Trap—The Result of the Third-Term Hoax.
Thomas Nast
Harpers Weekly, November 21, 1874, p. 960

Thomas Nast
Argosy Book Store listing accessed May 29, 2025

https://www.argosybooks.com/details.php?record=328173&jump=1&pkd_source=_newarr&utm_source=website&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=emaillists

05004

Stan Hunt: Operating Room 3

In an undated ink drawing, cartoonist Stan Hunt reveals the secret of Operating Room 3.

It's all linework; there is no shading.

Stan Hunt's signature

Stan Hunt
Allure Auctioneers listing of July 13, 2025

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/209726956_/?from=alert&utm_source=LA_SavedAlert&utm_campaign=SearchAlert_20250627_B&utm_medium=email&utm_content=item

The item details for this lot provided by Allure Auctioneers identify the artist as Stanley Richard Hunt (1929-2006), a newspaper cartoonist, but this framed drawing is clearly the work of magazine cartoonist Stan Hunt (1912-1990?). The information seems to come from Stan[ley Richard] Hunt's Wikipedia page.

Stan Hunt
Allure Auctioneers item description

Previously, the lot was offered on eBay:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/226298113191

Note:  I am grateful to Michael Maslin for helping me to disambiguate—a Wikipedia term—the two Stan Hunts. I would be pleased if someone would start a Wikipedia page for the magazine cartoonist Stan Hunt.

If anyone knows where this cartoon was published, please inform the management.

05003