The Cartoon & Poem Supplement

"ALPHA"

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Poems:

“Izzy Kasoff” by Robert Pinsky: A ridiculously elegant memory poem in supremely graceful near-iambic-pentameter. (“I don’t know why he spent the hour-long drive / lecturing a twelve-year-old about the faults / of Peggy Lee, whose singing he denounced.”) Everything builds to the ending punch. I’m sort of amazed Pinsky has any more memories to recount that aren’t about, I dunno, waiting in the airport while being the poet laureate. (That sounds like a terrible poem, but Pinsky could probably pull it off.) Pretty placid, won’t rock your world – but it’s right in the pocket.

“To Sew A Freedom Suit” by Danielle Legros Georges: Really sad that Georges’ first time in the magazine is posthumous, as this is perfectly tailored (though you can certainly tell Georges was an academic – everything is about asking the right questions to unveil hidden histories, and besides, it’s taken from a collection called Acts of Resistance to New England Slavery by Africans Themselves in New England, which I’d think was academe self-satire if this poem wasn’t so elegantly serious). It transcends its pun (“freedom suits” weren’t this kind of suit) through careful attention to rhythm and punctuation – some of the best use of periods I’ve seen recently. If I say this one’s in the pocket, too, should I add that the pun is intended?

Cartoons:

Here's where to find the cartoons, with credits, in order.

Cover: Not exactly blistering, but I don’t mind it.

Pg. 11: Awfully thin material, but it certainly isn’t helped by all the overdrawn faces. (Does he really have to be scratching his chin in puzzlement? We get it!!)

Pg. 13 [Sketchpad]: Half an idea.

Pg. 16: I’m so down for Hundreds of Beavers 2: The Musical.

Pg. 19: Feels like it’s straining to be understood, between the punchline and the mirror. Maybe it should just be “You aren’t rakish.”

Pg. 24: A great visual, and the caption clarifies it without entirely removing its inexplicability. Best of the Week.

Pg. 31: Excellent drawing. Still have to call it an MPJ, though, which today stands for Makes Person Jilted.

Pg. 33: Suggests that Shakespeare included a skull in Hamlet because he had one on his desk, which is a bit of Mrs. Doubtfire idiocy far funnier than the actual joke told here.

Pg. 38: The husband’s Crocs are much more compelling than the joke.

Pg. 40: Why is every Adam and Eve joke “what if they were a regular couple”? It strips the whole scenario of exactly the thing that makes it compelling.

Pg. 45: Tortured and overwritten, in service of very little.

Pg. 47: Very “kids say the darnedest things”, but I did smirk.

Pg. 48: The zany meter just cracked.

Pg. 50: We might need a moratorium on the men/housework jokes. (Although they seem to go viral every week.)

Pg. 53: A nullity.

Pg. 57: Another nullity! Yowch!

Pg. 63: Lots of character in those snails. (Less so in the joke.)

Pg. 68: I like the little guy’s uncomprehending gaze.

13 Years Ago Today

i just

went blank