Posts Tagged ‘Funny cartoon’
Comics, Cartoons and Caricatures Exhibit
Who doesn’t love a good cartoon? “Just Bea” will be on exhibit alongside Dave Coverly (Speed Bump), BK Taylor (Odd Rods, National Lampoon), Bruce Gerlach, Phoebe Gloeckner, Carl Lundgren, Tony Miello, Mike Pascale, Nate Pride, Jesse Rubenfeld, Harley Schwadron, Mike Vosburg, Aaron Warner and Gale Williams.
Come hang with us!
Exhibit dates: Feb 28 – Mar 23, 2013
Artists Reception: March 1, 5-7pm
Gallery Hours: Thur-Sat 3-8pm and Sun 1:30-4pm
Green Up Your Gown.
When I dropped my wedding gown for donation at The Brides Project, it was bittersweet. That, and thinking – wow, I really fit into that dress? But that’s another story.
I DO(nate)
Walking into the cozy shop, you’ll be taken in by beautiful wedding gowns that hang on hand painted hangars with mission statements with like:
I will help children cope with cancer
I will build community
I will promote healthy lifestyles
I will improve quality of life
I will strengthen families
Knowing that 100% of the proceeds from the sale of these dresses donated from around the country goes to Cancer Support Community of Greater Ann Arbor (and surrounding communities) which helps people with cancer or families that are touched by it, you’ll be taken in even more. And BTW, who hasn’t been touched with someone with cancer?
If that doesn’t pull at your heartstrings and you’re all about the bargain, where else can you find a Vera Wang couture gown for 1/2 off?
At any given time the shop is host to around 400 dresses. You can even find brand new ones tucked into the rows and rows of silk and taffeta which have been donated by bridal salons clearing out last season’s inventory. Again, all of which are available at 1/2 off.
Already have a dress? Some gowns become flower bouquets, headbands, ring-bearer pillows or flower girl dresses. See what can be created at BeautifulAgainBridal
The Cancer Support Community of Greater Ann Arbor is all about living with cancer. It offers support groups, education, workshops, nutrition, and a special place for kids, too. Barb Hiltz, Executive Director “wants to make it a good experience for friends & family.” Hiltz goes on to say “It offers hope. It’s a home away from home.” A place where people can meet in the living room or belly up to the kitchen counter and bond over meals.
The Brides Project is completely run by volunteers, even the storefront is donated. When you donate your tax deductible dress, be sure to include a special note written for the new bride.
Don’t have a dress to donate? There are other ways to help. Your time and talents are welcomed. Things you may have around the house, like hangers, rugs, shelves and storage are items for the showroom are needed, too.
Who knew that one dress could do so much. For an appointment or to donate, get in touch with the Center and see your gown dance another day.
Info on donating: http://www.thebridesproject.org/donate
Info on purchasing a gown: http://www.thebridesproject.org/buy/make-an-appointment/
Volunteer info: http://www.thebridesproject.org/support/volunteer.
See more of what “Just Bea” and gang have got going on at www.facebook.com JustBeaCartoon
Snowzilla
Naming snowstorms now? Maybe it’s a better idea for your snow shovel, you’re gonna be on a first name basis!
Yellow Pages Gardening
The Yellow Pages. A very useful tool. Not only for locating a local pizza joint, but quite possibly use as a booster seat. Some make raised beds for herb gardens. And, on occasion Zoos actually give primates old books to interact with for enrichment – many even find them tasty.
No monkeying around.
Even though the Yellow Pages are made from recycled paper and lumber sawdust, you may not get as excited as the apes. If you’d prefer to let your fingers do the walking on the keyboard rather than on paper, you can easily choose not to receive the book at YellowPagesOptOut.com.
Rather than sending the Yellow Pages straight from the doorstep into the recycle bin, now you can be even more environmentally conscious. Just opt out.
Opt In To Learning With Green Living Science.
Rachel Klegon and Mary Claire Lamm of Green Living Science are up-cycling Yellow Pages in a very cool way. Find out about it in their guest blog below!
“Green Living Science is partnering with YP to provide a phone book recycling competition, Project ReDirectory, with fifteen Detroit Public Schools. This competition challenges students to collect phone books to win the first place prize of five hundred dollars. Schools will decide how to spend the prize money but some have already established that they will have a field day event while other schools will give pizza parties!
Green Living Science will be using some of the phone books collected to make a raised bed for herbs in the Lincoln Street Art Park. Those classes participating in Green Living Science’s in-class lessons will be given a free field trip to visit the Recycle Here facility and Lincoln Street Art Park. When students come to visit they will see how phone books can be reused to make neat new projects!”
Back To More Monkeyshines.
Interested in seeing apes interacting with the Yellow Pages? Click on these links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RacMM6bROPs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJO6c9rWdws
See more of what “Just Bea” and gang have got going on at
www.facebook.com/JustBeaCartoon
Cheers to the New Year!
Here’s hoping it’s a blast!
Gotta Love A Parade!
Detroit has been coming together for 86 years to celebrate Thanksgiving and kick off the holiday season with a Parade. Did you know America’s Thanksgiving Parade is one of the oldest and second largest in the country?
It’s OK to get a Big Head
This Parade has a big head. Well, actually over 300 big papier-mâche’ heads. The heads are one of the oldest Parade traditions and “it is probably the best collection in the United States today,” says Tony Michaels, The Parade Company president and corporate executive officer. Hudson’s originally purchased them from artists in Viareggio, Italy in the 1940′s, and rather than destroying the heads as they did in the “old country”, the heads were re-used and cherished here in Detroit.
Detroiter Carly Strachan will be wearing one for the first time this year. “Some date back to the 30′s” she says “and the money that we pay to be part of the Big Head Corps is used towards maintaining and restoring those historic “big heads.” $200 gets you in the Corps and from the sounds of it, it’s first come first served. But, Strachan says sometimes it’s not that simple. You have to try on the head and see if it fits, if it’s too heavy or too tall, and make sure you are able to see out the spy hole to see where you’re going. Basically, she says “you need to feel comfortable walking in it for over a mile”. But the money goes towards more than just being able to wear the costume on Thanksgiving Day, it goes towards restoration and maintenance and also attending fun activities and events with the Big Head Corps throughout the year.
All 150 Big Heads will be marching together as a group in the parade this year. Sparky Anderson is a new addition to the cast which includes Henry Ford, Joe Louis, Diana Ross, Tom Selleck, Bob Seger, Rosa Parks, Gerald Ford, Walter Reuther, Aretha Franklin, Charles Lindbergh, Father Cunningham, Elijah McCoy, Father Casey and Hank Aguirre.
Gotta love a parade!
Not only are the heads reused from year to year, but so are the floats. Floats have about a 3 year life-cycle, and according to Tony Michaels, floats are taken apart and try reuse everything that can possibly be reused. That includes the infrastructure, plywood and steel, too. The characters and other artistic items are also used for inventory and props and are rented for usage throughout the year.
This year the Charter One float, Michaels goes on to say, is mostly made up of recycled products. Not what you’d imagine – it includes recycled pop bottles!
So, this Thursday morning bring along a thermos of hot cocoa and continue on with the smiles and tradition along with hundreds of thousands of your closest friends and neighbors
Pure Fun.
Caption by Pure Michigan contest winner Sue Bartlett
Who doesn’t remember going to the fair during the hottest month of summer vacation? Did that stop the anticipation of carnival rides, elephant ears and the lure of winning the big banana at the ring toss the on the midway?
This year the big kids even had a chance to win a pretty cool prize at the Upper Peninsula State Fair. A souped up Pure Michigan Roush 2012 Mustang.
Big Bananas. Pure Local Fun.
But the local fair is more than prizes and rides. It’s learning about livestock and witnessing the miracle of life. It’s learning about the environment. The UP State Fair even has a Green Forester Exhibit that teaches the significance of trees in our ecosystem. You can also interact with an exhibit on how important farming and agriculture is to Michigan.
The Fair. It’s about community. Where neighbors meet each other and cheer on their favorite pie in the baking contest. Or, marvel at the butter sculpting exhibit. Where family and friends can remember a summer day of chainsaw carving, lumberjack shows and tummy-aches from too much cotton candy and deep fried pickles.
Be sure to savor your summer. Look back fondly with time spent with your family and friends. Be a part of Michigan’s heritage.
As I’ve outgrown my childhood years, the lure and excitement still lives in my spirit – except for maybe the “guess your weight and age” game. Especially after a day of corn dogs and funnel cakes.
Time To Make The Donuts
Donuts. Not the kind that leave colorful sprinkles all over your desk. Not even the kind that Homer Simpson loves so much. But mulch donuts.
Too mulch love.
Over-mulching ranks right up there for the top reason newly planted trees die. That’s why mulch donuts are the way to go. According to Arborist and forester Brian Colter, a protective layer of mulch around the base of your tree is a good thing but, he says, more mulch isn’t necessarily better. Never “volcano” the mulch right up to the trunk were the chips press against it because after a period of time the tree will rot and die. Not only that, mice and insects may hide in there and feed on parts of the tree.
This is where the donuts come in. Form the mulch into the shape of a donut by keeping it away from the trunk and the rootball of the tree. Not only is mulching good for the soil and root growth, but it also helps keep lawn mowers and weed-whackers from damaging the bark of a tree. Open wounds are a bad thing. Truth be told, that’s the number one reason newbie trees perish.
Donuts. Maybe not the kind with colorful sprinkles on top, but trees like them too. And most probably better for them than for us.
Spring Mills Elementary Caption Contest Winners!
Congratulations to Jacob S. and to Zakary K. for coming up with the winning captions for this Earth Day cartoon! Such smart and funny thinking from these up and coming writers and cartoonists!
Table Of Bees
Middle School. The awkward years. I flashed back as I was carrying my box of my “Just Bea” Cartoon display stuff down the long locker lined hallway. What to expect. What will the kids think of my cartoon. Will I get the ‘ol stink eye?
Kids in the hall.
As I made it to my destination, I glimpsed that the Anchor Bay Middle School students had made a huge drawing of the “Table of Bees” cartoon from the Caption Contest entry form for my display table at the Family Science Night. Then I looked up – hey wait. That’s a drawing of a different “Just Bea” cartoon. Then I spied another one. Then another. That’s when it sank in. The hall walls were filled with student’s renderings of various “Just Bea” cartoons. Not only that, turns out Ms Wiles’ students were using the cartoons as a study aid for their science class! Some students even chose to do extra credit projects using “their” cartoon. Emily chose “Earth Movers” as her cartoon and created an edible earthworm landscape that included gummi worms and even chocolate chip “worm poop.” I hope she got lots of extra credit points for that one.
The kids had fun filling out the talk bubble for what they thought Buster might be saying as he’s studying the honeybees and why they could be disappearing. Olivia Z. was the winner of the “Cartoon Caption Contest” you see in this posting! To see the honorable mentions, photos of the wonderful drawings, projects and Emily’s fun worm farm, too – be sure to go to www.facebook.com/JustBeaCartoon www.facebook.com/JustBeaCartoon
It ended up that I had nothing to fear. The kids were great and my “teenage” angst soon disappeared when I got looks of surprise, seeing the kids proudly present their work and even hugs at the end of the night. I hope they had as much fun with it as I did.
Birthday Green
Green has always been my favorite color. Various shades, forest, gray green, lime. But come to think of it, I’ve never had a green or “green” birthday party. Not that I can remember.
I have, although, wrapped gifts in the Sunday comics because it was fun and reused gift bags and bows because it made sense, but until now never considered that to be green.
Birthday Green. Now we’re talking.
When I found out it was greeningdetroit.com‘s 2nd birthday it got me to thinking. What would make for a more sustainable birthday party?
Some posts I read encourage no gifts for the birthday honoree – but I don’t see that going over so well with a 6 year old. So here are some other ideas.
Possibly skip the paper invitations and send personal emails, set up a Facebook event, or use an online invitation site like Evite.com instead.
For kids, colored pencils are a fun party favor that can be used over and over and are much less likely than a plastic toy to end up in the bottom of the toy box and worse – the landfill.
Another way is to green up the party is to eliminate paper and disposables. Rather than using paper plates, plastic cups and plasticware, what works quite nicely are re-usable plates, flatware, and napkins. Did you know that during an average year, an American uses approximately around six paper napkins each day. If everyone in the U.S. used one less napkin a day, more than a billion pounds of napkins could be saved from landfills each year. Same goes for special occasions. Just sayin’.
Let’s give it a try, how about we start by clicking on greeningdetroit.com and give a them big paperless birthday wish. And while you’re there under the “big green umbrella” maybe you’ll find more ways to make your next birthday party a little bit greener.
Got Worms?
My significant other had never come across a tomato worm before. You know, the big fat green worm with horns? Now he had one in his very own garden and didn’t know what to make of it. So, while poking around on the internet on how to get rid of the vermin, I ran across a natural deterrent. Dill. Yes, dill weed.
Got Worms?
If you do, then need to know this. The worms love dill even more than the tomatoes themselves. It seems that if you plant dill near the tomatoes, the worms will gravitate towards the dill and away from your prized, red juicy fruit.
I found another way to get rid of the critters organically is by sprinkling cornmeal around the plants. The idea is that when the worms eat the cornmeal then drink water, they swell up and burst. I opt for the former “dill weed” pest defense, myself.
In the meantime, it seems like everyone has a good tomato worm story. My friend Stefanie shared one with me (see below) and I hope you will too!
Who’s Afraid of a Little Worm?
When Birgit told me she was creating a strip about tomato worms, the first thing I said to her was my mom chased me around our backyard with one when I was about 8. Maybe I should explain.
I grew up with vegetables. My parents always had a garden. In fact, when it wasn’t a cool to grow your own produce, my dad plowed up a quarter of the backyard of our house in the suburbs to plant vegetables that always included a wide variety of tomatoes. Picking the “crops” was an everyday occurrence for my whole family and I never minded it until my first up close and personal visit with a tomato worm.
In my opinion, tomato worms are some of the nastiest looking pests you’ll ever find in a garden. They are green and plump and they stick themselves to tomato leaves and feast. Since those little munchers are the same color as the plant you don’t see them until you’re right on them and that’s exactly what happened to me. Hello ripe tomato, I’ll put you in the basket. Hello, wait, what’s that?! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!! (It’s hard to know how many explanation points to use, I believe the entire neighborhood thought I was on fire.)
My mom was also in the garden. She came over, told me to stop yelling, broke off the leaf with the offending worm and (now here’s where the story becomes a bit cloudy) chased me around the backyard with the wormy leaf. That’s my version. I called my mom to get a little insight before I outed her to the world as someone who would chase her child with a worm and she told me a much different story. Apparently my mom hates tomato worms too, but as a mom, she saw it her duty to protect the crops and set an example for her children. Like she would be afraid of a worm? So she worked up enough courage to break off the tomato leaf and tried to show me it was no big deal. But when she raised the leaf toward me, I thought she was going to touch me with the worm and the screaming chaos ensued.
Thanks to Birgit, my parents will now be planting dill near their tomatoes.
