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Weak XXV|

26 June 2025

No. 1,929 (cartoon)

I love you completely.

Buy me a drink!

I don’t love you that completely.

27 June 2025

Sebastian Haffner’s New Old Work

Sebastian Haffner, née Raimund Pretzel, is at the top of the charts in Germany, oh yes he is. That’s quite a feat for anyone, even powered by aggressive publicity mercenaries. Now here’s the curious part: the author, who died a quarter century ago, wrote the bestseller ninety years ago.

It’s a nice story, but one I’m a tad reticent to share since I don’t want to support the “My genius will be recognized after I’m dead” fairy tale. It goes like this: Vincent only sold one painting during life, and so I have I, and I too will probably be celebrated and revered after the worms have consumed me.

It’s an old story. Some of the same people who recognize the statistical improbability of the hopeful ghetto kids dreaming of eight-figure salaries as professional athletes also fantasize that their work, like Haffner’s novel, will be recognized after they’re dead.

I’m reasonably certain that I’ll be quite dead after I’m dead, so who cares?

28 June 2025

Fun with the Dictionary

One of the first things a young student does with a new dictionary is to look up the dirty words, including “feces.” That was a very long time ago, so I’m amazed to discover a new word: the singular form of feces is “faex.” I can’t imagine going over half a century without ever hearing that before today.

29 June 2025

Artist Trophy

I’ll skip the details since they’re irrelevant, but Kurt just got a trophy—a trophy!—for his volunteer work. That was the first time I remember hearing about a trophy since junior high school, and it gave me an idea.

I know I’m too slothful and frugal to ever do this, but I see there’s a place on the Internet that sells a delightfully tacky artist palette trophy for thirty dollars including free engraving. I think I’ll go with, “Artist-to-Artist Lifetime Achievement Award.”

I’m sure the cheap trophy is mostly, if not entirely plastic, which is what makes it so great. That and the little squiggles of paint on the palette that are supposed to be tabs of oil paint from a tube but look like fresh cat diarrhea in a litter box.

I’d send out the kitschy awards to a few select artists I admire and call the piece completed. Yep, that definitely sounds like a project for my Things I’ll Never Do folder.

30 June 2025

In the Groove

The year is half over and I’m in a creative groove that I can’t describe very well. It might be fair to say that it’s like a rut, only better.

1 July 2025

A Cat Named Warren

Mindy sent me a brilliant photograph of her cat Warren and her feet. I especially appreciated the engineer(s) who programmed her camera phone to focus on the cat’s anus, not its eyes. That’s a great little trick for making better photographs.

I asked where the kitty’s name came from, and she said that all she knew was that someone paid five hundred dollars to have the cat named Warren when he was up for adoption. By auctioning off the cats’ names, the shelter has an innovative source of funding. I’m generally not interested in money or business, but that’s certainly an idea worth stealing.

Coming next weak: more of the same.

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©2025 David Glenn Rinehart