This is a followup to yesterday’s comments on the moron flight attendant that made a doofus of himself — and quit his job in THIS economy! — by yelling obscenities over the plane’s PA. Then grabbed some beers, deployed the emergency chute and exited his career. You heard about all that of course.

My notes included this:  He’s likely to go to jail. So probably not such a good move.

But it is way strange — at least to me — that suddenly the guy is a HERO?? What? He was not even man enough to speak to the passenger directly, stand his ground and state his case like an adult. With maturity one can make any point without obscenity. It is a hell of a lot more professional.

Okay. So here’s my not-nearly-finished rough straight out of the sketchbook. I have dropped in some digital text to try and make it clearer.

Good morning everyone!

Wow, what a summer for NEWS.

Along with the genuine tragedies of wars, killings and accidents we have had lots of bizarro celebrity weirdness to entertain us, from Mel-madness to Lohan in the jug and others. Now comes the dumbo flight attendant who gave up his entire career for the sheer pleasure of cursing our an idiot passenger on the plane’s PA system, deploying the emergency slide and bailing out.

Oh, and he gained a beer or two. Maybe that made it worthwhile.

Uh, no. He’s likely to go to jail. So probably not such a good move.

But it is way strange at least to me that suddenly the guy is a HERO. Really. A hero to all the other dweebs that want to quit their jobs.

What? This guy was no hero. He was not even man enough to speak to the passenger directly, stand his ground and state his case like an adult. He had to hide behind the microphone and give up a decent job for that indulgence. Idiot. With maturity one can make any point without obscenity. It is a hell of a lot more professional. And you usually get to keep your job.

Hero? Please. The real heroes are you and all the faceless others that will grit their teeth today and get through it all to provide for their families and themselves. You won’t find them on the news, though, or turning viral on FaceBook for being adults and making the right choices.

So here’s to you. You have at least one fan out here.

I confess, this is not a new drawing. It came up today when a lady asked about a sign-in board for a 90th-Birthday Party involving a catamaran. The drawing was done early this year via photos and email order; I never met this gentleman.

Looks like it would be a nice spot to be in, given the blazing heat and insufferable humidity in Dayton right now! What do you think?

August? Already???

Man, this is scary. When I was young I kept hearing how fast time was going. What? That’s stupid. How can it speed up?

Well, at this stage of life, believe me, it DOES. The days can be long but the years are very short. And somehow in the course of that long day I seem to get very little done. Frustrating. Life is precious, as we all know, and we need to make the most of every minute; we don’t get them back. No redos.

There is no real point here, I am just thinking about the fleeting nature of it all. A couple of years ago I had a sudden health crisis — lost a lung, three months of stress and pain — and I found what really bothered me was surprising. Lying in the hospital, worried about the people I love and how little I could do for them if this was the end of me. Somehow that passed. I knew that all would be well after a bit. No, what bothered me was this — I have achieved so little.

Since then I have worked hard at getting some of my long-term goals accomplished. Precious little has been successful, God knows, but I am really trying. I have done five presentations on my Licensing work, offering new ideas to industry. Zip. Not a dime.

But so what? I am TRYING, and that is the big thing. Failing is no dishonor, but it is a sin not to make your very best effort. I will not face that final door and reflect that I might have done more if I had not been so wrapped up in flipping through the channels and sucking beer. Not me, baby. I will be able to tell myself I gave it all my best shot.

That is important. We owe it to ourselves. One of my favorite writers, Colin Wilson, postulates that the only real satisfaction in life is overcoming tremendous odds and achieving success against true difficulty.

Gotta go. The day is getting away from me and there is a LOT to get done. Thanks for reading and have a Super Day!

Dennis

I was recently invited to exhibit and sell my celebrity drawings in a really neat art gallery. But the issue of licensing came up. As in, do I have any right to make a buck, even a small buck, from selling prints of my drawing of a celebrity? After some digging, it seems NOT. Thanks to Tad Barney for pointing me to the excellent article (linked here) by our pal Tom Richmond, now a bigshot MAD Magazine artist.

Caricature and the Right of Publicity- Reblog | Tom’s MAD Blog!