Hitting It Right

Tuesday, December 29, 2020 (2 more days….)

Just a couple of days, but who’s counting? Well, me, I am.

For a month I’ve stared at the cover of Gary Larson’s “The Far Side 2021 Off-The-Wall Calendar“, a fat desktop with tear-off cartoons–daily absurdities from Larson’s weird humor. He drew ridiculous and wildly popular “The Far Side” cartoons for fifteen years (1980-1995), before leaving cartooning and pursuing other interests.

This calendar isn’t of new Larson cartoons but of his vintage work. It happens that the days and dates of 2021 are exact matches to the days and dates of 1999. This “new calendar” is a reissue of The Far Side Theme-A-Month 1999 Off-The-Wall Calendar, but updated with post-1999 holidays.

Long ago as a young woman, I worked in a giant corporation. Its staid and conservative environment triggered my rebellious side. Along with many others, I felt a kinship to Larson but really zeroed-in on his work with this cartoon, still one of my all-time favorites.

I reflect that, if I could have seemed more sheep-like, my career could have reached a greater height. But my mind, wanting to fly and create, perhaps like Larson’s, kept me slightly off-the-wall.

I’m not peeking ahead at the January 1st cartoon, hoping to enjoy a surprise. Maybe that first cartoon and those in days following will remind me (now with delight) of a “past me”. Oh! how mightily I struggled to appear to conform!

Dear Friends: George Booth, in “The New York Magazine”), always, too, was spot-on. Diana