Update on boyfriend, cartoonist interview, my latest obsession
September 12, 2021
In This Issue:
Update on Claire's Ex-Boyfriend
Interview With Ali Solomon
My Latest Obsession
Top Cartoons
Update on Claire's Ex-Boyfriend
As you may recall from the last issue, my 15-year-old, Claire, grew a boyfriend.
She put him in a bowl of water, he expanded a bit, and then we dried him off. He had a quiet demeanor and impressive abs, but Claire lost interest in him immediately. So I was left to deal with him.
I named him Clay and put him in a larger bowl of water, to see what would happen.
Two days later I checked back, and he had expanded to fit the larger bowl! By this time, he was probably five times larger than when he’d came out of the package.
It got me thinking, “Does this guy just expand to fit whatever body of water he’s in?”
Excited by this prospect, I put Clay in the pool, hoping for this:
Alas, the next morning I found him floating among some debris. He’d shrunk, and the pool water wasn’t doing his complexion any favors.
I felt bad for Clay. First Claire dumped him, then he was left to fend for himself in a pool all night. To make it up to him, I told him he could stay in Kate’s room after she leaves for college this week.
Until then, he’s hanging out with the Hedger Corp crew. I will, of course, keep you posted on what happens.
Interview with Ali Solomon
My friend Ali Solomon co-created a great book, so I interviewed her for this newsletter!
Ali is a cartoonist and writer, and her cartoons regularly appear in the New Yorker, as well as other cool places. She also teaches art at a middle school in New York City. She lives in Queens with her husband and two daughters, ages 7 and 9.
The book is called I Am “Why Do I Need Venmo?” Years Old, and it started as a post for the humor website McSweeney's Internet Tendency. The post went viral, and it led to the book! Janine Annett wrote it, and Ali illustrated it.
Each page has its own “I Am ____ Years Old” premise. Here are some of my favorites:
It was so fun to read because every time I turned to the next page, I was like, “YES! So true!” And I just kept saying that over and over.
If you want to laugh about aging, get the book for yourself and/or give it as a gift!
Here’s my Q&A with Ali:
Me: How did you create the art for this book?
Ali: I love working by hand with traditional materials. I drew the black lines using soft-tip brush pens on cardstock paper. Then I used black watercolor to add the grayscale color. I touched up all my mistakes in Photoshop, a modern-day white-out.
Me: What did you enjoy about this book project?
Ali: The project was a lot of fun, start-to-finish. It was great collaborating with another writer, bouncing ideas off each other, brainstorming, seeing what makes the other laugh. Janine and I were very much on the same comedic wavelength.
Me: What was the hardest part?
Ali: I think I grossly underestimated how long it would take to draw, ink, edit, and paint over a hundred drawings. I did learn that I can work well under a major time crunch, and also that I can survive on very little sleep.
Me: Artist to artist, I’m wondering if there are things you find hard to draw? For example, I struggle with shopping carts.
Ali: I use visual references for certain drawings, but I always struggle with cars. Their shape and details always look off when I draw them. I'm also not a huge fan of drawing people with their arms or legs crossed; it usually takes me several tries (and a bunch of edits in Photoshop) to get them to look human.
Me: Did you have a favorite “I am ____ years old” from the book?
Ali: Ooh, this one's tough, since so many of these were pulled directly from my life. I loved Janine's wording on "I am 'You know that actor? What's his name? He was in that thing?' years old" since I've used that exact phrase pretty much every day.
The one that seemed to resonate with others the most was "I am 'ooh look at that bird' years old." Apparently at a certain age something switches on in our brains that makes us aware of yellow-throated warblers.
Thank you, Ali, for answering my questions – and for co-creating such a fun book!
On a Related Topic...
I've become obsessed with birds. So basically, that's me there in Ali's cartoon.
I've always loved birds... watching them, wondering what they're up to. But lately I've become especially interested in pictures of birds.
Things really took off when Twitter, noticing that I kept liking bird pictures, asked if I wanted to follow the "birdwatching" topic. I answered "Yes" and boom! My Twitter timeline became 50% pictures of birds.
I could not be happier about this. But it's becoming a bit of a problem because I keep taking screenshots of the bird pictures and saving them to my camera roll. To what end? I don't know. I guess to show other people?
It killed me not to include all my favorite bird photos here.
After much agonizing, I picked four:
Pictures of birds totally amuse me and definitely cheer me up. If you're looking for some bird-picture accounts to follow, here are some I can recommend:
On Instagram: Tarik of the North (a very talented friend of mine!)
On Instagram: John Rudzinski
On Twitter: Dr. Nick
On Twitter: Jocelyn Anderson Photography
And if Twitter asks if you want to follow the "birdwatching" topic, the answer is YES.
The Bowl Game
In case you missed it, here are this month's Bowl Game cartoons, where I pull random words out of bowls, then draw whatever it says:
I think this was my favorite scene from this month's batch of Bowl Games. I liked the idea that this cake pop was eager to try roller skating, even though he has no way of pushing forward. You don't know if you like something until you try it, right?
Most Popular Cartoons
You can find my cartoons on Instagram, Facebook, and on my website. So follow along!
These cartoons were the most popular over the past month. First, this one, basically showcasing everything I do when I text.
Then we have these two cartoons from the archives, so perhaps you've seen them before. I reposted them this month, and people could relate!
And that wraps it up for this time!
Stay tuned to see what happens when Clay takes over Kate's room. And if you know of any good bird-watching accounts, let me know!
More Hedger Humor
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