John Whitmarsh and the wall

John Whitmarsh has a studio near my office, so I often walk past it on my way to lunch, or as I come in around 8 am. I've long admired his old red pickup. Last year he shingled the wall next to his parking lot with painted cardboard; eventually it got soggy and he took it down. This week, he had something new up.

Here's his explanation, on a small card mounted on the same wall.



-- Rachel Holmen

Droodles and Roger Price

In my long-ago youth, I remember being vastly amused by a set of books with the title "Droodles". These were odd drawings whose witty captions convulsed me.

I was trying to remember a few of my favorites -- I recall a single vertical line in the center of a frame (all droodles had a thick black line around the outside) and two tiny triangles joined at the point. Most droodles had several alternate captions. The idea was to look at the picture, puzzle a few minutes, and then read the captions.




This one was either "single strand of spaghetti, gift-wrapped", or "man with bow tie stuck in elevator".

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So anyway, it's now the day of the internet, so I Googled "droodles", and found a wikipedia page about Droodles and their author, Roger Price. He had written for both Mad Magazine and for comedian Bob Hope, but after Droodles were a hit, he and a friend founded a book publishing company. You can read the whole thing yourself here, and see the Droodles website as well.

Me, I'm going to buy the Classic Droodles and track down a used copy of the first Droodles book, then share them my with 14-year-old nephews.

-- Rachel Holmen