The Terrifying World

Jack Handey characterized the frankness of children thusly: "The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face." But frankness in childhood expression doesn't stop with speech.

The thing I enjoy most about finding uncommissioned artwork my children have created is how surprising it can be. Unlike the feeble gimmicks commonly called shock art, these pieces shock and arouse adults with an honest portrayal of reality from a child's perspective, even when the subject matter is derivative and the talent undeveloped.

The world contains terror alongside beauty and innocence, and Charles Schulz would agree. His comics are full of the fantastic such as Charlie Brown's clothes being removed by a line drive or Snoopy flying atop his doghouse. Being somewhat familiar with these famous images, I was nevertheless unnerved by my 11-year-old son's interpretation of a rather helpless Charlie Brown being terrorized by a Lucy who is twice his size and relentlessly pummeling him with a sound-cloud of insults.

"Stupid, dope, wishy-washy, lame, weak, dumb, lousy, wimp, idiot!" I asked my son about the picture; I said "Wow, this looks more like child abuse than a Peanuts comic. I've never felt so bad for Charlie Brown. Is she actually picking him up?" He just sort of smiled and calmly explained that Lucy is indeed picking Charlie Brown up, shaking him up and down, and yelling those names at him.

Lucy isn't just a mean, bossy girl here. She's an evil thug with ugliness to match. Charlie Brown isn't just the neighborhood loser. He's a victim of violence....

His sketch probably suffers a bit from insecurity and girl-fear in his 11-year-old mind, but probably not an abnormal amount. He recently played Charlie Brown in his school's production of A Charlie Brown Christmas, and perhaps his artwork was his way of helping himself relate to the character. I hope I'm worrying too much about his state-of-mind, fear of bossy girls, etc. and I'm fairly sure I am. My world is full of surprises, and I'm much more hopeful for my 11-year-old son than I am for Charlie Brown.

Here's to good surprises in the New Year.

End of year guilty pleasure is...

Squirrel Bait with Kick the Cat!



Lyrics:

It's a harsh toke buddy but you're messing with your life when the sun's shining hot the devil's beating your wife you can take to the window to see where she's at you can do all this and kick the cat I was feeling too good it wasn't right at all and it smelled like gasoline and it smelled like exhaust I need to get my head on straight so I can screw it up all the better next time the heap the home the bed whatever you'd say it's been it hold the smell and you won't soon slide back in you can take to the roof to see where she's at you can do all this and kick the cat.

And so it will be Bush v. Clinton in 2016*

Mitt Romney tells supporters he will not run for president in 2016

In the meantime, like tween girls at a slumber party, we can discuss our dream dates.

* Having Bush as the likely Republican nominee now will be both the greatest motivation for Hillary to get off her ass and declare and for the Democrats to subsequently consolidate behind her.

* To argue it will actually be Walker v. Clinton in 2016 you have to explain why both Jeb and his money will migrate to Walker.

Yay!!

Cleveland gets the GOP convention.

Okay, Cleveland, don't screw this up.

Maybe I'll gate-crash it.

2016: Obama's America

Here's the official website.



This movie looks good. I heard an interview with the producer, Gerald Molen, yesterday. The great thing about it is that they got interviews with tons of people close to Obama, like Rev. Jeremiah Wright for example, and they use his recorded book for his own words. Wright said that the last thing Obama ever said to him was something like "I envy you because you have to tell the truth." Amazing substantive stuff, and no wacky theories about where he was born or whether he is the Twelfth Imam. I can't see it this weekend, but I'm going to try to catch it next week.