Happy families

As we move into this Month of Primaries, it's nice to add a touch of classy ghoulishness to the ordinary variety we're seeing: Google has noted the 100^th anniversary of the birth of Charles Addams with a daily doodle.

It’s a welcome change from the inescapable street-fighting-dressed-up-in-$3000-suits going on in New Hampshire, South Carolina and all the other states.

Product oxymoron

I don’t know how I came across this, because God knows I don’t indulge in energy drinks. I’ve never even so much as sniffed a Red Bull.

But am I the only person who wonders how you can have a decaf energy drink?

No, seriously—how does that even work?

Down with Skool--up with Searle

I was rooting around The Telegraph looking for news on the body found at Sandringham, when I came upon the very sad news of the death of Ronald Searle last Friday. The utterly brilliant cartoonist and illustrator was 91.

Searle had a wicked sharp artistic style, evident in all of his works; his wit was as sharp as his pen. In the inimitable British phrase, the guy could take the piss out of anyone and anything. As a teenager I became acquainted with his cartoons in Punch, and also his illustrations in the books on Nigel Molesworth. Down with Skool! is a classic, and I own How to Be Topp.

In case you are unfamiliar with him, Molesworth is not a recommendation for any education system. Searle seriously took the piss out of British schools in this series and the one on St. Trinian’s, a perfect horror of a girls’ school.

His title designs for the 1970 film Scrooge are gorgeous—as I was reminded when TCM ran the movie last month. The title sequence outstrips the live action in both evocative power and artistry. (I won’t speak of the musical score.) If you come across it, run through the titles and forget the rest of it.

And then, about 15 years ago, I went to the Imperial War Museum and saw his drawings of life in Japanese POW camps, where he spent three years in his early 20s. He had to sneak his sketches, because the Japanese didn’t allow any sort of documentation of the camps, and because the British officers took offense at them.

The drawings are searing, as well they should be.

That he lived so many years after that experience is a testament to the lessons he learned there—that when all your friends die around you, also in their 20s, every day is a gift.

 

Or maybe it’s that he spent the last 40 years of his life in France. The Guardian has a reminiscence by fellow cartoonist Gerald Scarfe of the friendship he formed with Searle. The established artist was generous with his attention and encouragement of younger illustrators.

And it seems that Searle just loved champagne and cats.

Really--we're all poorer for his loss; but I celebrate the wit and whimsy he brought to us.

Corpus delicti

Here’s my conundrum du jour: whether to comment on the Republican caucuses in Iowa or the female corpse found on the premises of one of Her Majesty’s royal properties. What to do, what to do?

<pause>

Nah—no contest. I’m going for the story with the lower stink factor.

It seems that a dog walker out in the woods at Sandringham (the Queen’s country house in Norfolk) on New Year’s Day found the body of a young woman. Presumably in an advanced state of decomposition, as it’s reported that she’s been dead for somewhere between one to four months. (Although there’s no word as to whether she’s been at Sandringham for all that time, or whether it was a dump job.)

Moreover, while there’s no cause of death yet, official word is that she didn’t die by natural causes or by accident.

So we’re talking homicide.

Ordinarily one would wonder at a corpse going unnoticed in the grounds of a royal estate—could this happen at Camp David? Aren’t there security patrols? But not all of Sandringham is entirely private, and the body is in an area open to the public, although apparently not very often traveled.

But you also have to wonder at someone having the chutzpah to either kill the woman or leave her corpse on HM’s doorstep. Or at least, within a mile or so of her doorstep. Was it a crime of opportunity, or some sort of political statement? And, seriously, what’s with her security force not taking a swing around the perimeter every once in a while?

Well, in “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”, Sherlock Holmes averred that “The lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.” Holed it in one, old chap.

Sign of the times 2

Oh, ya gotta love California. Where else but the Golden State would you find this:

Sadly, it turns out that two businesses must have chipped in for a single sign. You can’t count on this drycleaner using the metaphiz biz to ensure that they never lose your interview suit or your little black dress.

(If you're interested, it's on El Camino Real, in Mountain View.)

Resolving 2012

It’s the season of resolutions, and I’m working on my own program, but to get the year started out right, I’ve got conflicting guidance for you on how to go about it.

First, what you’d expect—the whole S.M.A.R.T. schmear. Note that step 3 is “make it known”—blab it to everyone you know. Blog it. Tweet it. Slap it on your Facebook wall.

And then, the counterintuitive approach: keep your resolutions to yourself.

Personally, I’m not handing out any advice to you; I’m just focused on getting my own house in order.

Banished for 2012 & ever after

I don’t wish to start out the New Year by appearing crabby, so I’ll just pass without much remark on the report of Lake Superior State University’s list of words to be banished from the lexicon for 2012.

Just a couple of thoughts: how can they limit it to ten? I’d have gone for 100.

And I’d include “transparency/transparent”—as in “the app should be transparent to the user” or (even worse) “transparency in [government] or [management]”. In the latter case “transparent” means “so obfuscated that the [taxpayers] or [serfs] won’t be able to figure out what we’re doing.”

Off with their heads!