This Week's Sneak Peek

Okay, Santa, Thanksgiving is over. You're on!

Happy Centennial, Sparky Schulz!

If you picked up a newspaper today, first of all, thanks for keeping journalism alive for another day; second, you may have noticed a lot of Peanuts references in the comics page.

Today would be the 100th birthday of Charles Schulz, Peanuts' creator.

Schulz was probably the very first inspiration sparking (wink, wink) my urge to cartoon — as he was to so many of my contemporaries. As a child, I had all the Peanuts books, including The Gospel According to Peanuts and The Parables of Peanuts — the former, autographed by its author, Robert Short. Peanuts didn't run in my local paper, but my grandparents would clip and save Peanuts from the Sheboygan Press for me every day even into my college years.

The Gospel According to Peanuts, Bantam edition, 1968, must have been my sixth Peanuts book.

So how to join in the centennial celebration of such a towering figure in our field?

Just last June, I highlighted Schulz's reference in Peanuts to a cartoon drawn by a mentor of his, Frank Wing, in the wee decades of the 20th Century. Five years ago, I celebrated April Fools' Day by featuring some of the more obscure characters he drew in Peanuts.

But for today, I decided to rummage through my own archives in search of cartoons I've drawn with a nod to Mr. Schulz.

I was a bit surprised to come up with only three.

Well, reaching back to some of my juvenalia, four. But that old, old cartoon essentially stole an idea drawn by Tony Auth and stuck Charlie Brown and a few other additions into it. It was utterly unoriginal, and I don't feel like giving that cartoon new life on the internets.

But here are the three that I don't mind bringing back today.

March, 2017

There was this caricature of Scott Pruitt, an anti-environmental activist and the Corrupt Trump Administration's first head of the Environmental Protection Agency, as Pigpen, the hopelessly filthy member of the Peanuts gang who could raise a cloud of dust ice skating.

I had hoped to find an occasion to work this caricature into a fully realized cartoon, but that never came about in the less than 17 months Pruitt was in the cabinet. When he resigned in July of 2018, he was the target of at least 14 federal investigations.

in Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee, July 5, 2005

This one from 2005 takes a Peanuts trope that long ago became a cliché in editorial cartooning. Perhaps the only other Peanuts trope we have rehashed more often is the Great Pumpkin.

Q Syndicate, January, 2014

So when I went to that particular inkwell again in 2014, I attempted to find something fresh and new to do with it.

Chris Kluwe was a punter for the Minnesota Vikings, and a vocal supporter of LGBTQ+ causes, which he claimed led to his being cut from the team. A subsequent investigation found testimony to support some of Kluwe's charges, but after getting bogged down by uncooperative witnesses, ended quietly. The Vikings settled the case by promising to donate some undisclosed monetary amount to LGBTQ+ causes.

I suppose that since I draw primarily for LGBTQ+ publications, a cartoon about young angst-ridden children isn't, well, sexy. But then, you could say that about a lot of the topics I draw about.

Oh, sure, I could easily draw cartoons in which Marcie and Peppermint Patty take their relationship to the next level. And yet that seems like cartoon blasphemy somehow, akin to drawing Snoopy with rabies, Schroeder playing bagpipes, or Charlie Brown winning the World Series.

So I didn't add to the reams of cartoons of weeping Charlie Browns and Snoopys when Schulz died very shortly after retiring the strip; the topic didn't fit either Q Syndicate's or the Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee's needs that week.

Well, let's not end today's post there. 

I started this post talking about how Charles Schulz inspired me, and generations of other cartoonists, when we were youngsters. I'll leave you today with his very first published cartoon, in the nationally syndicated feature "Ripley's Believe It Or Not," when he was just fifteen years old.

"Ripley's Believe It or Not" by Robert Ripley, for King Features Syndicate, Feb. 22, 1937

"Peanuts" by Charles Schulz for United Features Syndicate, July 1, 1972

Happy Thanksgiving!

 If you were looking for this week's cartoon, I posted it yesterday. 

"The Scoffer" by H.T. Webster, Nov., 1922

But thanks for stopping by anyway. Here's an oldie for your troubles.

Q Toon: Merry Christmassacre

 

Saturday night, a young man armed with two long rifles of the AR-15 variety burst into Club Q, a popular LGBTQ+ bar in Colorado Springs, and opened fire. Two of the bar patrons heroically disarmed and subdued him, but not before five people were killed and at least 17 more injured by gunfire or in the ensuing panic.

It was an exceptionally violent week across the U.S. Prior to the Club Q shooting, a former member of the University of Virginia football team shot and killed three current Cavaliers and wounded two others on a bus returning to campus from a class field trip; someone still at large stabbed four University of Idaho students to death at their off-campus apartment.

Politicians and religious leaders from across the political spectrum expressed their varying degrees of outrage and sympathy after each of these tragedies, the Club Q attack no less than the others.

That includes Colorado Congressman Lauren Boebert — or someone on her staff, or whoever paid Elon Musk eight bucks to impersonate her — who sent out a sympathetic tweet the morning after the Club Q shooting:

Up to now, Boebert's reputation has been as an ammosexual activist (today's cartoon is based on her actual 2021 family Christmas card), a hard-core defender of all things Trump, and a spreader of Trans Derangement Syndrome. On the floor of the House, on the campaign trail, on right-wing media, and prolifically on Twitter, she has mocked others' pronoun preferences, blamed trans men for shortages of baby formula and tampons earlier this year, and accused the Biden “regime” of paying for the “mutilation of children who are gender confused.”

In August, Human Rights Campaign rated her as the #3 on their list of "the top ten people responsible for driving the 'grooming' narrative on Twitter."

Back when Twitter had rules about hateful conduct.

But if she finally wants the public to know she's now against slaughtering LGBTQ+ citizens, perhaps at least we're seeing some progress. Why, even Franklin Graham has come out against spraying weapons fire into gay bars.

Consider that only six years ago, the morning after the terrorist attack on Pulse nightclub in Orlando that killed 49 LGBTQ+ patrons, the Lieutenant Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, thought it would be a good time to tweet out Galatians 6:7: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

Faced with uproar from the LGBTQ+ community and our allies and friends, Patrick quickly took his tweet down, and his staff issued a mealy-mouthed apology that it had nothing to do with the massacre. It was just supposed to be an inspirational message from a random book off his nightstand.

Twenty or thirty years ago back before Twitter, politicians like Patrick would have responded to loss of LGBTQ+ life by proudly issuing that biblical passage as a press release. That generation of conservatives unapologetically exulted that HIV/AIDS was God's punishment of gay men for being gay, and made jokes about Jeffrey Dahmer.

So, goody for Lauren Boebert for showing some vestige of humanity this time. Those morning prayers were the least she could do, and I guess they're better than nothing at all.

But they don't get her off the hook for contributing to a culture that egged on — and armed — some murderous psychopathic loser.

This Week's Sneak Repeat

Instead of the usual snippet out of this week's syndicated cartoon, here is my cartoon published immediately after a hate-filled gunman killed 49 patrons of Pulse, an LGBTQ+ bar in Orlando, Florida, six years ago.

Meanwhile, in Non-Gump Election News

"Keeping to the Main Highway" by Gustavo Bronstrup in San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 9, 1922

I hope you enjoyed our recounting the past two Saturdays of Andy Gump's election to Congress and the recount that took his victory away. But it's time now to get serious and to catch up on what really happened in the off-year election of 1922.

Gustavo Bronstrup, with a nod to the initially victorious Mr. Gump, celebrates the Republican sweep in California that year. Friend Richardson was elected Governor and Hiram Johnson was reelected Senator, both by landslides. (Ironically, Richardson, supported by a Republican majority in the legislature, would proceed to undo several policies enacted when Johnson had been Governor.) 

The Proposition 19 straw man fallen off the back of the car represents a defeated constitutional amendment that would have granted the governor authority to create and fund a board to develop, distribute and fix rates for water and electrical energy.

"Nearly Everybody in the House Knew..." by John Knott in Galveston Daily News, Nov. 10, 1922

The California results ran counter to the national trend that year, however: Democrats gained 72 seats in House and a net gain of six seats in the Senate. 

"Shrinkage? It's a Washout" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Nov. 9, 1922

The Democrats' gain was not quite enough to regain the majority lost in the elections of 1918 and 1920, but was an impressive showing nonetheless, and set off a wave of prognostication as to where the Republican Party had gone wrong.

"Now We'll Hear the Specialists" by Edwin Marcus in New York Times, Nov. 12, 1922

One of Edwin Marcus's "specialists" is an "anti-prohibitionist" who doesn't look anything like the Mr. Dry used by every other cartoonist of the time (see John Cassel, below). That may well be because Mr. Dry looks more like an undertaker than a doctor; but it leaves me suspecting that Marcus had everything drawn before the election results were in but the labels and the elephant head.

"After the Downpour" by John Cassel in New York Evening World, Nov. 10, 1922

To the extent that Republicans were hurt by the "wet" vote, it was primarily because they happened to have more incumbents in office than the Democrats did in 1922. Prohibition sentiments pro and con crossed party lines; support for the 18th Amendment included both conservative Southern Democrats and northern progressive Republicans. Opponents included big-city Democrats and Republicans alike.

"Home Again" by John Knott in Galveston Daily News, Nov. 13, 1922

One of my disappointments in covering the 1922 election is that I was not able to turn up any cartoons by John Knott of the Dallas News and Galveston Daily News having anything substantial to say about the Klan candidate Texas elected to the U.S. Senate that year. Instead, he chose to celebrate Tennessee returning its governor's chair to the Democrats — and I do apologize for that character carrying Miss Tennessee's bags.

"The Retreat of the Lame-Duck Brigade" by John Baer, reprinted in National Leader (Minneapolis), December, 1922

Former Congressman John Baer cites a few of the ailments diagnosed in Edwin Marcus's cartoon and adds a few more: a proposed sales tax (to replace the income tax), an anti-strike bill, and a subsidy for shipbuilders.

What I was expecting to see in the National Leader was a celebration of Minnesotans' election to the Senate of the Farmer-Labor candidate, Henrik Shipstead, ousting Republican Senator Frank B. Kellogg, seated in the wheelchair in Baer's cartoon. (The Democrats' candidate, Anna Dickie Olesen, came in a distant third). The Farmer-Labor Party was the offspring of the Leader's "Non-Partisan League," after all, and the Leader had emblazoned a heroic sketch of Shipstead all over the front page of its November issue.

Front page of National Leader, Minneapolis, MN, November, 1922

Other than that, however, the Leader seems not to have found much to say about his campaign or his election.

Shipstead, a former and future Republican, would serve in the Senate until losing a GOP primary in 1947. An isolationist, anti-Semite, and conspiracy monger (Protocols of the Elders of Zion and all that crap), a senator described by the British Foreign office as "bigoted and crotchety," he is not remembered fondly these days.

"A Case for Careful Diagnosis" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, Nov. 13, 1922

But returning again to 1922: it must be noted that for all this talk of the Republican Party needing to find out where it had gone wrong, the 1920's would continue to be a solidly Republican decade in most of the United States.

"He Fits the Niche" by John Cassel in New York Evening World, Nov. 8, 1922

To wit: 1922 saw the election of one of the Democratic Party's enduring heroes, Alfred E. Smith, as Governor of New York. As the party's presidential nominee in 1928, he would lead the Democrats to their third consecutive landslide loss.

And lucky for him, too.

Q Toon: Above All, D'Oh!

While liberals (and not only a few conservatives) were celebrating the defeat of Trumpism at the ballot box last week, right-wingers were able to celebrate the triumph of Trumpism in the courts.

Trump appointee Matthew Kacsmaryk struck down a Biden administration ruling that LGBTQ+ patients were covered under Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) protections against discrimination. The Obama administration had also stipulated these protections for LGBTQ+ patients, only to have them erased by the corrupt Trump administration.

Kacsmaryk's ruling came in a case brought by a pair of doctors — medical professionals, mind you — who think providing professional medical care to transgender patients is icky; and so, backed by a right-wing legal activist group looking for any way to destroy the Affordable Care Act, they went to court.

Now, if you're a transgender person, and you're looking for a doctor, you probably shouldn't go to a doctor who personally objects to treating transgender people. It's highly unlikely that such a doctor has bothered to learn anything about the medical needs peculiar to transgender patients. You might as well ask your ophthalmologist to perform root canal surgery.

But we're talking about Texas here: home to vast, wide open spaces sparsely populated by people who think that Ted Cruz is a marvelous senator. You may not have a lot of choices when looking for a doctor there.

Texas, moreover, is ruled by a Republican Party from Governor Abbott on down who are determined to make health care for transgender persons a crime; so even if you've had a country doctor who is considerate and caring (they call that "woke" in these parts), the best she can do is refer you to someplace out of state. 

If the statehouse hasn't already made that illegal, too. 

Praising Arizona

The results are in, and Trumpster Kari Lake has been defeated in the race for Governor of the state of Arizona.

It's too bad that Saturday Night Live is on hiatus for the next couple of weeks.

I had been looking forward to a sketch in which Lake was played by Cecily Strong when filmed with a gauzy filter and by Amy Sedaris without it.

Or possibly by Andy Serkis.

This Week's Sneak Peek

 Do I have a guest cartoonist filling in this week?

GUMP DEFEATS TRUMAN

Last week, we saw cartoon character Andy Gump elected to Congress in 1922 as an Independent candidate by a razor-thin margin over his Republican opponent, Sylvester Skink.

You didn't think that would be the end of the story, did you?

The Gumps by Sidney Smith, in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 17, 1922

Before Andy Gump came along, Sidney Smith had a daily cartoon in the Chicago Tribune called "Old Doc Yak," about a talking goat and his family. Doc Yak had a house, drove a car, and did all sorts of non-goat things, until at some point, Tribune editor-cum-publisher Joseph Patterson suggested to Smith that he should draw a cartoon about an Everyman type character living an ordinary life with an ordinary wife. The sort of person Patterson called a "gump."

So, in 1917, Old Doc Yak sold the house and the car to newcomer Andy Gump, a character patterned after an acquaintance of Smith's brother named Andy Wheat, whose lower jaw had been removed due to an infection that developed from a tooth extraction.

Thus was a marketing powerhouse born. By 1922, The Gumps were appearing in animated short films in theaters, and the Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News were syndicating the comic strip from coast to coast. Universal Pictures began producing two-reel movies of the Gumps in 1923, starring ex-Keystone Cop Joe Murphy as Andy and Fay Tancher as wife Minerva.

Andy Wheat, rather than being upset by Smith's caricature of him, even had his name legally changed to Andy Gump.

The Gumps by Sidney Smith in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 20, 1922

You should, however, see the incongruity of having common Everygump Andy Gump going to Washington. The Gumps was a continuity strip, not a one-off movie like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; how was Andy Gump to maintain what made him appealing in the first place in the halls of Congress?

The Gumps by Sidney Smith in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 22, 1922

So, inevitably, after some initially encouraging returns, the recount turned in Sylvester Skink's favor. And there was nothing Gump could do to stop the steal.

The Gumps by Sidney Smith in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 23, 1922

One peculiar detail about this entire story line is that at no point did Sidney Smith allow for there to be a Democratic candidate in the race. That is only natural at this point after Election Day, having put Messrs. Gump and Skink within a few dozen votes of each other. But I find no mention of a Democrat running for Congress in Gump's district even before Election Day, 

Gump would have been prevented from running as a Democrat because the publishers of the Chicago Tribune were committed Republican loyalists; a Democratic hero on the pages owned by Joseph Patterson and Col. Robert McCormick was simply out of the question. Besides, casting Andy Gump as an Independent was more true to his origin as a typical, everyday, regular fella, and certainly not a partisan hack.

The Gumps by Sidney Smith in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 27, 1922 

The lure of public office would nevertheless prove irresistible to Mr. Andrew Gump, his promises to the contrary notwithstanding. 

The Gumps by Sidney Smith in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 28, 1922

In two years, partisan hack or no, he would throw his hat into the presidential ring — and continue to do so again and again election cycle after election cycle...

The Gumps by Sidney Smith in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 29, 1922

... setting a precedent for future comic strip characters from Pogo Possum to Snoopy to Zippy the Pinhead.

The Gumps by Sidney Smith in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 30, 1922

Q Toon: Red (or Pink) Carded

This is the week when I have to draw a cartoon before Election Day that won't get published until after Election Day, so its topic is far afield from the narrowly averted (or at least briefly postponed) fascist take-over of the U.S. government.

News reports last weekend warned that LGBTQ+ fans attending the World Cup in Qatar might risk arrest and prison if caught kissing in public. Homosexuality is still a crime there, and officials caution that one must be "respectful" of local mores.

I generally try to have inclusivity in mind when drawing these cartoons. Setting this cartoon at the World Cup certainly opened the drawing up to a multicultural cast of characters. I wasn't sure, however, if the Qataris would allow female fans to sit in the same section as male fans. And of course, there's the whole matter of how covered up any women in the stands would be required to dress in the desert heat.

So maybe the Swede in the back is a woman. Or not. Or possibly yes now, but not from birth. Go ahead and write your own back story for every character shown. Last time I checked, it's still a free country.

But you might want to confirm that for yourself.

Since drawing this cartoon, I've seen reports that Qatar is promising not to imprison same-sex soccer fans caught sharing a little peck, or holding hands, or even waving rainbow flags. 

Which still leaves open the risk from ticking off a bunch of Saudi hooligans, and you might want to steer clear of brick walls and piles of stones.

This Week's Sneak Peek

Meanwhile, over on Twitter, I'm seeing most of the sensible people rushing for the exits, and I'm wondering whether I should grab my coat.

Oh, sure, if Twitter is just going to become another Truthiness Social, there won't be much point in hanging around. But are we all just supposed to retreat to our own corners, with a liberal internet over on this cloud and a fascist internet over on that one?

And where do the sensible people run to when another bastard with more billions than he knows what to do with buys up Mastodon and Bargain Counter Social?

I'll bet Al Gore is sorry he even invented the thing now.

Andrew Gump Elected Mayor of Congress

Return we now to the pivotal election year of 1922...

Detroit Free Press, Nov. 8, 1922

...in which a cartoon character was elected mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan.

Or not.

Either the Detroit Free Press headline writer didn't skim any further than the first paragraph of the article beneath it, or was a victim of autocorrect nearly a century before it was invented.

Or maybe John Wallace and H.C. Plass missed out on reporting the real news out of Hamtramck in favor of their own attempt to match wits with Chicago Tribune cartoonist Sidney Smith.

I haven't found any serious reporting that Andy Gump beat the flesh-and-blood candidates to be elected mayor of newly incorporated Hamtramck in 1922, although he did receive at least one vote in the race for Senator from Michigan that year, and no doubt a smattering of votes in various other contests around the country.

The Gumps by Sidney Smith, in Chicago Tribune, Sept. 5, 1922

For months, the titular character of Sidney Smith's syndicated comic strip had been waging a congressional campaign in the cartoon. Here's how the Detroit Free Press reported the results on Election Day: 

"Andy Is 100 Proof," Shout Supporters, "And He Don't Wear a Collar"

A citizen of Hamtramck who appeared at Gump headquarters during the evening proved himself slightly mixed on the issues of the campaign. This gentleman evidently had in mind Mr. Gump's declaration that he was 100 per cent for the people and wore no man's collar. "I voted for Gump," announced the Hamtramck citizen, "because he is 100 proof and don't wear no collar." Mr. Gump invited the caller into the rear room. He emerged, cheering loudly for Gump.

BY JOHN T. WALLACE & H. C. PLASS.

At 1 o'clock this morning the returns so far received in the great Gump congressional race gave:

• Andrew Gump, Independent, 30,906
• Republican candidate, 30,904
• Democratic candidate, 30,901

Feverish activity was evident at Gump headquarters. Mr. Gump's campaign manager remarked it would be advisable to make a round of the downtown precincts to see how the count was going.

"But I will need a little change for taxicab fare and other expenses," said the manager.

Immediately thereafter Mr. Gump was seen writing out a check.

"It's all in," stated John A. Schaufer.

"What do you mean, the bankroll?" inquired Roy Latham.

Schaufer dignifiedly explained that he meant Gump was a winner because he had carried the seventeenth ward.

The Gumps by Sidney Smith in Chicago Tribune, Oct. 18, 1922

Newspapers which have opposed the candidacy of Mr. Gump, reviling him from the outset of his campaign, stated in their early editions that if he won, his victory would be due to the lavish expenditure of the money he received by compromising the famous breach of promise suit the Widow Zander brought against his Uncle Bim.

"Gump," declared one of these anti-Gump sheets, "has tried to corrupt the electorate."

"Let 'em rave," said Mr. Gump when he was interviewed at his headquarters at the Hotel Dresdemona. "I am 100 per cent for the people. The final returns will show me the winner. I have vanquished the special interests. I wear no man's collar."

"Your collar is wilted," spoke up the Widow Zander, who had been in the campaign headquarters since early in the evening. "Let me run out and get you a fresh one."

"Oh, Min."

"You needn't bother," said Mrs. Gump, coming forward. "I have one in my bag for the congressman."

"Oh, Min," exclaimed Andy Gump.

The Widow Zander melted into the throng.

Just then, a courier brought in the returns from the second precinct, first ward, of Hamtramck. They gave Gump 217; the Republican candidate, 13; the Democratic candidate, 21.

"Mayor [Peter C.] Jezewski seems to be delivering the goods," was candidate Gump's only comment.

The Gumps by Sidney Smith in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 2, 1922

―

Andy Gump has just departed hurriedly from home for his headquarters, having received word from his campaign manager that the election boards in some of the river precincts are counting him out. He showed great excitement, but refused to talk to reporters.

―

After reaching his headquarters and listening to his manager's report of crooked counting in certain precincts, Mr. Gump said, "I care naught for my own political fortunes, but the sanctity of the ballot box, the palladium of American liberties, must be preserved at all hazards. I would just as sternly demand that a crook who stole a vote for me go to jail as one who stole from me."

―

Candidate Gump has just been in telephonic communication with the chief of police. He demanded that chief immediately send officers to the polling places where tampering with the count is said to be in progress. The chief listened attentively to what Mr. Gump had to say and promised to investigate the matter within the next few days.

The Gumps by Sidney Smith in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 6, 1922

―

The Widow Zander has arrived at Gump headquarters. She was cheered loudly by the crowd gathered in the street as she alighted from her car. An intoxicated individual, however, caused the widow to blush by shouting, "How's Uncle Bim?"

―

Little Chester just called up headquarters. "Is my papa elected?" he inquired. Mr. Gump went to the phone. "Go to bed now, Chester," he said. "You will never grow into a great man like your father unless you get plenty of sleep while you are young."

―

The first precinct to report gives, Andrew Gump, independent, 102; the Republican candidate, 103; the Democratic candidate, 101. Mr. Gump looked serious as he scanned these returns. Then he retired to his room, took a flat object from his hip pocket, and closed the door.

The Gumps by Sidney Smith, in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 8, 1922

―

Shortly after the polls closed, Andy Gump, Independent candidate for congress, 100 per cent for the people, cabled to Uncle Bim Gump in Australia, "The battle is over. I stand at the parting of the ways. One leads to the capitol, the other to the poorhouse."

His friends and admirers pointed out that their candidate had always been for preparedness.

―

Gump's campaign manager, after a survey of the first returns that trickled in, announced: "Indications are that Gump wins by a neck."

Those in the room glanced at the candidate's neck, and broke into wild cheering.

"A landslide for our candidate!" they shouted.

―

Early returns from the silk stocking district along the Boulevard indicated that Gump had been snowed under there. Candidate Gump's only comment was, "Oh, Min!"

The Gumps by Sidney Smith, in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 9, 1922

―

Arrival of returns from the Widow Zander's precinct caused a stir in Gump's headquarters. The caller read: "Republican, 44; Democratic, 41; Independent, 0." Gump leaped on the table.

"The double-crossing, two-faced hussy; not even her own vote!" shouted Gump. Just then the caller yelled, "Hey! A mistake in the transmission — Gump gets 100; Democratic, 41; Republican, 44."

"I always said," remarked Candidate Gump, "that Henrieta Zander was one of the finest women in the world. I knew she would deliver her precinct strong."

―

Mr. Gump has just received the following cablegram from Australia: "Hope you are winning; kindly take $100 from remains of your campaign fund and purchase some suitable gift for Mrs. Zander. Will wire bank draft to reimburse you. (Signed) Uncle Bim." Immediately after reading the cablegram, Candidate Gump was seen in deep conversation with his campaign manager. The manager was overhead [sic] to say, "That's all there is; there isn't any more."

―

"It seems to be nip and tuck," Andy Gump's campaign manager remarked to him as the returns began to filter in. "That being the case," the candidate responded, "we might as well have a little nip ourselves." They retired to a rear room and closed the door.

The Gumps by Sidney Smith, in Chicago Tribune, Nov. 10, 1922

―

Candidate Gump was greatly cheered by a telegram from Shady Rest, where Andy used to fish with Old Timer before Old Timer was married. Old Timer's wife sent the message, collect. It read, "We know you have won. You can't keep a good man down. I'll bring Old Timer to visit you in Washington."

―

A delegation of prohibition advocates arrived at Gump headquarters, and expressed the hope that Mr. Gump, if the returns finally put him in congress, would stand for the strict maintenance of the Volstead act. Mr. Gump replied, "Gentlemen, I wear no man's collar." There was thunderous applause.

―

Andrew C. Baird, Wayne County Democratic chairman, admitted shortly before midnight that Andy Gump had a good chance to defeat the Democratic candidate for Congress. "Anyway," said Mr. Baird, "Mr. Gump's Christian name is the same as mine, and I think he will lne up with our party instead of with the Republicans. We also have other tastes in common."

―

"I wear no man's collar," Mr. Gump remarked when informed of  Chairman Baird's statement. "Nevertheless I will call around to Mr. Baird's office and see what he has to offer."

―

At 11:45 p.m. Dave Gordon, deputy county treasurer, claimed the election of Andrew Gump by more than 100 plurality. The Republican and Democratic candidates were said to be preparing to apply to Judges Harry J. Dingeman and Thomas W. Cotter for orders to impound ballot boxes pending a recount.

―

Shortly after midnight, marching clubs from the Anti-Saloon league and the W. C.T. U. headed by a big Gump campaign banner swept cheering into the Hotel Desdemona and into Parlor A, where tea, ice cream, sandwiches and lady fingers were served.

Soon afterward, a marching club from the Society Opposed to Prohibition, with a Gump banner at its head, marched into Parlor H. Hall boys were kept busy carrying ginger ale, mineral water, and seltzer into Parlor H. One of the local prohibition enforcement officers stood outside the door, as a guarantee to Gump's temperance friends that no liquor would be seen taken into the room.

Q Toon: Mistakes Were Made

A Russian judge denied WNBA star Brittney Griner's appeal of her drug trafficking conviction last week. Arriving in the country to play on a Russian women's basketball team, Griner was arrested at a Moscow area airport in January with a small amount of cannabis oil in her luggage, something she claimed to have had for medical purposes and had forgotten to leave at home.

Days after her arrest, Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, incurring the condemnation of the Biden administration and the U.S.'s principal allies. Instead of expelling Griner from the country, Russia held her in jail for months until her trial, which ended with a guilty verdict and a sentence of nine years at a labor camp. 

Since then, America has tried quiet diplomacy to get Griner free. We offered to trade a Russian arms merchant for her and another jailed American. We sent Bill Richardson. We even sent Dennis Rodman.

I mean, c'mon, man!

One thing we absolutely should not be sending any more are WNBA players to beef up Russian basketball teams.

It's difficult to imagine anyone desperate enough to go, anyway.