From 1941 – 1943, Theodor Seuss Geisel worked as the chief editorial cartoonist for the New York newspaper PM. During this time he drew over 400 political cartoons. The cartoons are displayed on this site in chronological order.
Some of the drawings will look surprisingly Seussish. Others… will not.

Eight cartoons by Jacqueline Kennedy were auctioned off earlier this month at the Wright Auction House in Chicago. The First Lady apparently completed the drawings as she waited to be interviewed for the July 4, 1961 issue of Look magazine. Here is one of her noticeably uncaptioned images. I think you know what to do.

•Last week's results. •Rules and tips.

First Place:
"I think the guy on the roof farted." —The Confidence Man

Second Place:
"You should keep your eyes on the road. We didn't even remotely secure that guy."—t.a.m.s.y.

Third Place:
"Look, no matter what the joke is, there's no way it's going to explain the fact that I haven't shaved in 3 days and am sipping a fuckin' frappuccino."—Phil G.

"Explain it to me again, Vince - why does the guy on the roof get windshield wipers for his eyes, but our car doesn't have any?"—narcoleptic

"Thanks, most folks won't stop for a hitchhiker with a giant ironic chess piece."—David John

"Hey, remember the time we ran out of big buckets and we had to use those tiny, incongruous pails? Oh, never mind, that was the weekend of your jawsectomy."—t.a.m.s.y.

"Woah. That's a nasty-looking accident."—Rubrick

A spokeswoman for the Commerce Department said Friday that initially plans were made to only visit Brazil, but Sanford asked for extra meetings in Argentina.

Sanford said the trip was legitimate but he put the agency in an awkward spot "based on what I did in terms of eating dinner down there."

On the other hand this could be bad news, since none of them have actually, formally accepted the invitation. Including the guy who's supposed to be handling the anticaption contest. If it doesn't show up here, I'm sure you'll be able to find it somewhere.

Either way, when I return I should have more time for blogging that I have in a while, so whether it's tomorrow or after July 13, this blog's best days are ahead of it.

Possibly.

Here's the cover of The Post New York Post, a 1984 parody about how the tabloid would cover a nuclear holocaust. It was edited by, I believe, Tony Hendra and Robert Vare and Lewis Grossberger with Kurt Andersen and Warren Leight. I remembered it today for obvious reasons, and not finding an image online I dug it out of my closet and took a few pictures with my iPhone. And not the new iPhone with the decent camera, sorry.

Excerpts and images from the cover story after the jump.

OK, so the joke doesn't sustain very well past the cover, which is funny largely because it's a joke about the Post, not Jacko. Who, note, was not yet called Jacko. The best bits in the article involve Jackson's brother: "'Jermaine just keeps reliving the entire horrible nightmare,' said someone. 'He sits in Michael's media room and screens the video tapes over and over.'" And later: "Witnesses to the tragedy report that Jermaine grabbed a fire extinguisher and sprayed the head of his rapidly disappearing brother. The action, while courageous and quick thinking, failed to help Michael in his greatest moment of need."

And there's a coda that will seem awfully familiar to anyone who's read today's newspapers.

For Michael, death was the worst blow to date in a life marred by tragedies ranging from blazing hair to fierce family squabbles over how best to extract every dime from his fabulous talent -- all of which had caused him to retreat ever further into a childlike world filled with toys, games and persistent denials of homosexuality.

Ironically, Michael... may have realized he was living on borrowed time. 'He was walking around knowing that at any moment a nuclear blast could take him out, yet he kept up a brave front for his fans,' said Michael's closest friend, the Post Post's Lisa Robinson.

Now those fans, conservatively estimated to include everyone in the world still alive, struggled to cope with a lost of staggering proportions. In every country of the globe, rich and poor, celebrities and the insignificant alike joined together as one in an unprecedented orgy of weeping, so intense that in many areas flash floods resulted, killing thousands.

[h/t]

Update:

If it's ever not made sense to you what the big deal was, this is what the big deal was. This performance, in May 1983, was, in its time, probably almost as significant as the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.

A lot of this stuff — all this regrettable, awful stuff with him over the last 20 years or so, and the continuing fascination with it, has roots in this moment.

They shut down the Internet. They arrested the reporters. They beat us in the streets. But they will never overcome our sleeve faces.

[h/t Frank K.]

More here, there, and everywhere.