Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Large Small Dog


Boy with Appropriately Sized Small Dog:
(Could it be "Small Dog Syndrome"?)

My younger son desperately wants a dog. I might have mentioned this a few dozen times before. I do feel myself weakening on this issue, but his slightly dog-allergic father is firm.

But our son and I discuss the hypothetical dog that we might have if Dad relents....well...pretty much every time we pass a dog on the street.

And since we live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where there might be at least two dogs for every human, that means dog discussion is a constant.

My catchphrase for dog criteria is basically "small, quiet and washable." My son is not very convinced that smallness and washability are desirable characteristics. Mostly what he wants is something big and furry...Or a Pug.

Every time we pass a dog, he asks me to assess that particular dog's viability...Is it too large? Too hairy? Too poorly behaved?

The fact that I might have just told him that a beagle we recently passed was too large will not stop him from asking me about a much larger, furrier Husky one block later.
I'll admit that I often feel myself running out of patience for this hypothetical dog conversation, particularly as he is always lobbying for more size and more fur on this animal that we can't have anyway.

I suppose I should be grateful that the tone of the conversation is mostly civil. He and his brother have been fighting loudly and bitterly about a hypothetical PlayStation for months. Who will get to play what game and when on this device that we don't own...

And Dad might prove to be allergic to the PlayStation also....

(The dog on the napkin is a "Chug" a combination of a Pug and a Chihuahua...a dog that might be small enough...but still be a pug, sort of.)

Saturday, September 17, 2016

Batman and the other Men

 

For #BatmanDay2016 :

The Dark Knight surrounded by other aspiring men:
Clockwise from top right: Ratman, Fatman, Gnatman, Catman, Spratman & Flatman.

Here's a link to last year's Batman Day napkin... arguably more successful...

Monday, September 12, 2016

Usagi Yojimbo and Predator with Bunny Ears



The latest three issue series of Usagi Yojimbo, Stan Sakai's long running Rabbit Ronin comic featured a bad guy wielding Predator-like claws. This was of course very exciting to the kids at our house.  They were big Usagi fans in past years.  We have every one of the various paperback compilations. And there are many.  Usagi was somewhat out of favor for a while, and I even started to consider letting our subscription to the comic lapse.

He seems to be popular again, however, even if there wasn't a really Predator in feudal Japan.  I am relieved, as I enjoy the series myself.

Usagi has fought aliens and has had crossover issues with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so the appearance of aliens with blades in the comic is not totally out of the question.

Friday, September 2, 2016

Couch Potatoes with WWE Custom Avatars



School starts next week. In view of this impending doom, our sons' preferred activity is holding down the couch while staring at a screen. While I am philosophically against extended periods of this sort of thing, knowing that they will soon be unable to drive me crazy with the excessive watching of utterly inane youtube videos has mellowed me out a bit this week.

They have also been testing the limits of my sanity with the WWE 2K16 game on the X box. Let's just say that being able to bash one's brother repeatedly on his virtual head with a metal folding chair prompts excessive glee.

Much time was invested (when they should have been getting ready for bed) carefully crafting their avatars, which are rather appropriate for each of them.

They were pretty enthusiastic about me drawing their WWE 2K16 avatars... But definitely not interested in interrupting their viewing of YouTube videos long enough to pose with them.