My, My, July

We've got more stuff from the Bergetoons vault in today's Graphical History Tour. 

You'll have to pardon me for indulging in rehashing my own cartoons three Saturdays in a row; in my defense, we had two prominent Senators knocking on death's door this month, and I didn't find much inspiration in cartoons published 100 Julys ago. "Oliphant's Presidents" has already been done (although I suppose I could have tried putting an "Oliphant's Vice Presidents" thing together).  

1986

in NorthCountry Journal, Poynette Wis., July 1986

The cartoons I drew for the NorthCountry Journal directly reflected the editorials in each monthly issue. This one had to do with 44 Wisconsin conservation clubs joining with the Wildlife Legislative Fund of America, a pro-hunting lobbying group, to "defeat the anti-hunting movement before it defeats us," according to WLFA chair Jim Glass. 

The NorthCountry Journal reported that the WLFA was funded by grants from Woodstream Corporation (makers of Victor traps), the fur industry, the Mellon Foundation, and national sportsmen organizations.

The WLFA had chosen Wisconsin as the pilot program for its "Protect What's Right" campaign because "if it doesn't fly in Wisconsin, it's not going to fly at all," said Glass, a Rockwell International executive from Columbus, Ohio. Wisconsin has a very strong and long-standing hunting tradition; I don't recall it ever being a hotbed of anti-hunting legislation. 

In fact, the legislation I do recall includes a 2003 constitutional amendment guaranteeing right to hunt and fish.

1996

"Our Problem" in Journal Times, Racine Wis., July 7, 1996

This cartoon expands on an neighbors' successful fight to block a proposed halfway house for offenders who had served their prison sentence (see the unpublished local cartoon posted back in May), as well as Racine taxpayers' objection to a .1% sales tax in Milwaukee and adjacent counties to help pay for the Brewers' new baseball stadium. The stadium tax had prompted a recall of a Republican member of the State Senate from Racine, which would result in flipping the State Senate to a Democratic majority.

The upscale North Bay neighborhood was up in arms against having a home for developmentally challenged adults nearby, successfully blocking that proposal, too. Complaints against property taxes funding the public schools coming from retirees whose children had graduated has been a never ending constant as far back as I can remember.

A letter to the editor responding to my cartoon argued a distinction between schools and the halfway homes on the one hand and the baseball stadium on the other. "Homes for the mentally retarded, prisons, and schools are all public problems," Annette Richie wrote. "Baseball is a private enterprise and should not be subsidized by citizens' tax dollars."

It's an argument with merit, but without a successful track record.

By the way, every little bit of that cartoon, including the diagonal line shading, I drew by hand. So don't give me that "AI Is Art, Too" crap.

2006

July, 2006

So now we turn from the local stuff to the gay stuff.

You wouldn't know it these days, but July used to be a lull in the news cycle. I can't recall whether I drew this cartoon in response to any specific gay celebrity getting caught with his pants down, or if I came up with it when there wasn't anything current in the news to draw about.

This was before Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) got arrested for lewd conduct in a rest room at the Twin Cities International Airport, after which late night comedians were guaranteed a laugh by citing the airport or inserting the words "wide stance" in a punch line. Years earlier, George Michael's public loo escapades had been fodder for fallback punch lines.

2016

July, 2016

I drew this cartoon a little too late for most LGBTQ Pride events. A number of Pride parades in the U.S. and Canada had been disrupted by protesters from within our community who objected to other the inclusion of certain other LGBTQ subgroups.

Toronto Pride had assigned the lead spot in their parade to the local Black Lives Matter group, which returned the favor by blocking the parade, setting off multi-colored smoke bombs, and refusing to move until a list of demands was met, including the removal of police from the parade ‒ both as participants and as protection.

The subgroups mentioned in later panels have not, so far as I know, gone quite so far as to disrupt Pride parades in progress. The objections raised by Palestinian, Jewish, animal rights activist, anti-corporate, and anti-religious LGBTQ groups, however, have been real. 

The overt hostility and persecution by Republicans running state and federal government has probably tempered any such controversies this year — except for either side of the Israeli-Palestinian divide.

Not that everything went smoothly this year. Police aggressively attacked people in Philadelphia's Gayborhood during that city's Pride festival. https://epgn.com/2026/06/09/community-responds-to-gayborhood-police-presence-pride/

Dallas Pride Board officials have been accused of embezzling funds and financial mismanagement

sponsors withdrawing support https://blog.presspassq.gay/2026/07/pride-celebrations-marred-by-controversies-cuts-in-funding.html

Drawn During Dog Days

It has been a couple of months since I've featured my own cartoons in these weekly Graphical History Tours, so it's about time to rummage through my archives in search of my favorite August cartoons from years ending in three.

The summer pickings in some years are meager, so all of these have appeared here before.

UW-Parkside Ranger, Sept. 8, 1983

As it happens, I drew several cartoons in August of 1983 in spite of not having a place ready to publish them. But I really liked this one, so I submitted it when the student paper at University of Wisconsin-Parkside resumed publication in September.

August, 1993

I drew this cartoon for the University of Milwaukee student newspaper, the Post, in August of 1993. I had just returned home from having attended a church secretaries' convention in Minnesota during widespread disastrous flooding of the upper Mississippi River and its tributaries that summer. The bus from Minneapolis to St. Peter was diverted so often by washed-out roads that I ended up missing a TV reporter waiting to interview the only male secretary signed up to attend the convention.

Perhaps that missed interview was still on my mind as I started my cartoon, based on the timeworn criticism of people who rebuild in disaster zones.

Unfortunately, the Post didn't publish any issues that August, so the cartoon has only appeared on your humble scribbler's blog.

I suppose the latest home of the poor fellow starring in the cartoon might be on Maui. But really, with climate change, he'd be in danger living just about anywhere in the world.

You gotta wonder why we keep rebuilding on this planet.

Business Journal, Aug. 22, 2003

Moving on to lighter fare: The Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee had its editorial nose out of joint over a gloomy article in the New York Times about Milwaukee, which the Times characterized as being a decaying, crime-ridden small city with third-rate sports teams and no future.

The problem with criticizing the Times's assessment, however, is that crime and urban decay have indeed been significant problems for Milwaukee. The halcyon days of its Socialist mayors was followed by the Freeway Era, when superhighways bulldozed their ways through vibrant neighborhoods and promoted the flight of the Middle Class, high-paying jobs, and their accompanying tax base into the suburbs.

Milwaukee has since done a lot to revitalize its downtown, converting old factories and warehouses into attractive apartment and commercial buildings. But it still suffers from outstate hostility, exemplified by former Governor Tommy "Stick It To 'Em" Thompson, Scott Walker's Act 10, and this year's wrangling over state aid.

The four Racing Sausage mascots pictured in the cartoon, Italian, Polish, Hot Dog, and Bratwurst, have since been joined by Sr. Chorizo, reflecting most of the predominant ethnic groups in Milwaukee. (Is there any encased ground meat that could represent the Black community?)

While you can find Norwegians everywhere in the state of Wisconsin, we haven't been prominent — or assertive — enough to rate our own festival on the Summerfest grounds, and certainly not our own racing sausage.

I think I should have had the reporter ask "Which one of youse is the lutefisk," though.

Q Syndicate, August, 2013

I had been sending colorized cartoons to Q Syndicate for a year by August of 2013, but I decided that this reference to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho had to be in grayscale only.

The news story behind the cartoon was the ruling of the California Supreme Court rejecting an appeal by the antigay interest group ProtectMarriage. ProtectMarriage wanted the court to overturn an appeal court judge's ruling that the so-called Definition of Marriage Amendment passed by Proposition 8 in 2008 was unconstitutional.

Much as I dislike drawing buildings, I remain mostly pleased with how this cartoon turned out.

✍

I have to apologize here for a post consisting entirely of rerun material. (I can't even blame the writers' strike.)

But in fact-checking this post, I did run across some stuff that I have not posted before. I'm still hunting through my archives for the original artwork, and hope to have new reminiscences here next Saturday.

Too Jejune for Junes

Last Saturday, I asked what was so rare as a J.N. "Ding" Darling cartoon in June. The answer, for now, would be mine. 40 years ago, my June cartoons were rare indeed, whereas "Ding" drew nearly three dozen of them 100 Junes ago.

"South Atlantic," June, 1982

Starting out as a cartoonist for college newspapers, I didn't have anyone to publish anything I drew in June at first. But if I had an idea I really liked, I'd draw it anyway. Clearly, I had expended a considerable amount of thought coming up with this parody of "South Pacific" about the Falkland War between Great Britain and Argentina in May and June of 1982.

"Contingencywise," June, 1982

Drawing cartoons like this one about the resignation of Reagan's first Secretary of State, Al Haig, was useful in terms of keeping in practice and honing the craft. And in this particular case, beefing up the portfolio of work I would send out to newspapers who might be looking to hire a cartoonist.

"Isn't It a Shame..." in Quayle Quarterly, Winter, 1992?

Skipping ahead one decade, here's a cartoon I drew in June of 1992 that wasn't published for months later. It happens to be the only cartoon I drew in June of 1992 in spite of freelancing for the Racine Journal Times. Perhaps there were no local issues of interest that month.

Instead, I offered this to a national magazine, The Quayle Quarterly, devoted to the wet-behind-the-ears Vice President of the United States, J. Danforth Quayle. Quayle had spoken out strongly against Candice Bergen's TV sitcom "Murphy Brown" for a plot arc about the title newscaster choosing to become a single mother.

Given the Republican Party's committed opposition to abortion, those of you too young to remember 1992 might have expected Mr. Quayle to have applauded Ms. Brown's decision to carry a pregnancy to term. But those of us with a few more birthdays under the bridge remember that the abortion issue to the religious right was never about when a fertilized egg becomes a human. 

It was always about sex. Sex outside of marriage = always bad. Shame, shame, shame on you, Murphy Brown. And your little bastard, too.

With no other cartoons from June, 1992 to show here, let's now leap ahead another decade.

"Mixed Marriage," for Q Syndicate, June, 2002

To balance the drawing vs. publication discrepancy of my Dan Quayle cartoon, this next cartoon was actually drawn in December (hence the 2001 copyright tag) for release in June.

As helpful as it may be to have some ready-drawn cartoons on hand for those occasions when I wouldn't be sending a fresh new one for syndication, it is nearly impossible to predict what topics and issues will be a propos in the future. Routine events such as Pride Month, Thanksgiving, and Christmas only go so far, and might not coincide with a vacation, health crisis, or everyday writer's block.

Continuing the topic of trying to stay in the closet:

"Out to the Ballgame," June, 2002

Now, I don't remember whether there was some ballpark that observed Pride Month with a Cross-Dressers Get In Free Day in 2002. But this cartoon does remind me of the time a guy pretended to be Front Row Amy at a Milwaukee Brewers game some years back. 

Front Row Amy is a Milwaukee institution of sorts. For years, this young lady has had season tickets in a front row seat behind home plate. She always pays rapt attention to the game, keeps score, and applauds every pitch that goes the Brewers' way. You never, ever see her having refreshments of any kind.

She favors — exclusively — very low-cut tops that highlight her impressive cleavage. In tight TV shots of left-handed batters, you can't miss that cleavage in the background. These days, she always wears a facemask, but Brewers fans would recognize her anywhere.

She doesn't attend each and every home game; her seat may be empty, but there's usually somebody else more than happy to fill such a prime spot. And for one game, it was some dude who showed up in a long-haired black wig and a top that was as low-cut as any of hers.

Until a later inning when he switched to a Batman costume.

Finally, I could have drawn this Pride Month cartoon six months early, but I didn't.

President Obama had rescinded the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy back in December, 2010; and yes, military recruiters did start showing up at Pride events to enlist new recruits. 

The homophobic Right has since dropped the word "recruiting" in favor of the apparently more ominous sounding "grooming," so this cartoon doesn't work as well as it did ten years ago. I mean, this guy could be telling Darlene that he spied a hair stylist's booth or a dog show, but do you even find that sort of thing at Pride events? 

So, no, it doesn't make sense as an editorial cartoon with groomers instead of recruiters. But fear not: there are still opportunities for parody.

Some enchanted evening
You may see a groomer
With a sense of humor
across a crowded room.
You'd better decide
to hang up the phone
And leave any briders or groomers alone!  

Remembering Richard Guindon

Daily Cartoonist passed along the news yesterday that Dick Guindon has died at the age of 86.

"Guindon" in Minneapolis Tribune, Jan. 15, 1978

His eponymous cartoon panel in the Minneapolis Tribune (later Star Tribune) was something I looked for every day when I was in college, and which I missed after I graduated and returned to Wisconsin. Because I saw his cartoons nowhere else until the internet became a big deal, I've always associated his off-beat sense of humor with Minnesota.

"Guindon" in The World According to Carp, 1983

"Guindon" in The World According to Carp, 1983

So, several years later, when I wanted to include a Minnesota native in a cartoon for the Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee, did I draw Mary Richards Tyler Moore? Garrison Keillor? Al Franken? Prince? 

No.

Even though there was very, very, very close to zero percent of the Beej readership who would have the remotest glimmer of an off-chance possibility of recognizing her, I drew my Minneapolitan in the style of Dick Guindon.

in Business Journal, Milwaukee, March 24, 2005

To one of my all-time favorite cartoonists: rest in peace, sir. We'll fly the carp at half-staff in your memory.

Hammerin' Hank

 “God put you here for a reason. And the reason he put you here is not for you to stand still. He put you here to make you understand that ... you gotta do all you can to try and make things better for other people.” — Henry Aaron

Bernie Brewer

I had to come back for just one more.

Five Toons in Search of a Theme

Having dealt with Stonewall, the end of World War I, and the start of Prohibition over the past couple weeks, this edition of Surveyback Saturday rummages through my own cartoons from 1989 for the Racine, Wisconsin Journal Times.

in Racine (WI) Journal Times, February, 1989

Most of my cartoons for the JT were about transient local issues and local persons, but here are a handful for which I guess you didn't have to have been there. I don't remember how the furor over Health: Choosing Wellness turned out, but you can probably easily imagine how the story shaped up: educrats select a sex ed textbook that accomplishes teaching kids important information about sex, vs. religious conservatives who don't want their kids learning about sex until their wedding night.

There was sex ed in Racine before 1989; I remember my dad taking me to what was called "Sixth Grade Boys' Hygeine" one evening, where the school showed us a film strip about (among other things) how babies are made. I also remember that I came away from that evening with a completely erroneous understanding of how babies are made.

in Racine Journal Times, April 7, 1989

1989 was the year Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds was accused of gambling on games in which he played or managed. For those of you younger than us baby boomers, my cartoon riffs on a series of TV commercials for a brokerage firm.

in Racine Journal Times, June 2, 1989

I drew these last three cartoons to accompany editorials the Journal Times announced ahead of time and invited readers send in their comments to be printed on the same day as the editorials. "Training wage" was one of those Republican counter-proposals to raising the minimum wage, the idea being that employers could offer new employees a less-than-minimum wage for some set period of time.

The Democratic proposal at the time was to raise the minimum wage, then at $3.25/hour since January, 1981, to $4.35 per hour; the 60-day "training wage" was supported by President George H.W. Bush and Governor Tommy Thompson. But as one letter-writer pointed out, why wouldn't "unscrupulous employers hire unskilled people at the lower training wage, retain them for a few weeks and then fire them when they are eligible for an increased wage and fringe benefits. Then these employers hire another group of unskilled workers at the lower, training wage"?

Bush and Congress agreed to raise the minimum wage to $4.25 in stages over the next two years, with a training wage of $3.35 in 1990 and $3.61 in 1991, restricted to laborers aged 16 to 19.

in Racine Journal Times, July 20, 1989

In July, the Journal Times invited readers' opinions of Wisconsin's child support law determining what non-custodial parents are expected to provide to custodial parents in cases of divorce. Responses were numerous and strong; the JT quoted one non-custodial father who showed up at the newspaper office in person but who didn't want his name used: "All I need to do is say how I feel about it and my ex-wife will haul me back into court faster than you can imagine."

in Racine Journal Times, July 4, 1989

Since it's a long Independence Day Weekend for many of you, how better to close today's installment than by resurrecting the 1989 controversy over flag burning. The Supreme Court had ruled that burning the flag in protest was protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution, so Bush and the GOP proposed adding another amendment to criminalize that form of protest.

That amendment never got very far; it was far more effective as an issue to whip up the Republican base than as actual legislative policy. And they soon found railing against gay people was more effective still.

Which is why you would be free to burn your Betsy Ross Flag shoes from Nike, but tossing them at Colin Kaepernick can get you charged with assault and battery.

And wearing them might also be illegal.

Q Toon: Beanball

Milwaukee Brewers relief pitcher Josh Hader has been very impressive this year: so much so that he made it onto the National League All-Star team in July. Uncharacteristically, in his eighth inning appearance in the All-Star game, he gave up four hits, including a three-run home run.

And that was the good news.

During the game, someone was publicizing disgusting homophobic and racist tweets Hader had tweeted in 2011 when he was 17 years old.

Many of the tweets are from late 2011 and early 2012, shortly before the Baltimore Orioles selected Hader in the amateur draft. The then-17-year-old – who currently tweets under the moniker “Josh Haderade” – used the n-word repeatedly in reference to himself and others. “I don’t give a damn, i’m a triply n—er, f⸺ my lungs, f⸺ my liver!” Hader tweeted on October 25, 2011. That same month, Hader wrote, “hahahahahah to [sic] bad i’m grounded n—er can’t do shit.” But the racism didn’t stop with the n-word; over the course of five months, Hader tweeted a reference to the “KKK,” a white fist emoji alongside “white power lol” and, in response to someone who tweeted “i hate all the black people,” Hader wrote, “lmao i tried to tell her about em she just laugh at me.”
Hader also tweeted an assortment of homophobic and sexist comments, from “I hate gay people” and “gay people freak me out,” to “Need a bitch who can f⸺, cook, and clean right.” 

As the resurrected tweets spread through the stands, Hader fans were seen turning their jerseys inside out, and even his family switched to attire without his name on it. A chastened Hader told reporters after the game that he regretted and disavowed his youthful indiscretion, and would accept whatever sanction Major League Baseball, the Brewers, and the fans would impose on him.

That turned out to be some required sensitivity training, and, from the fans, a standing ovation at his next home mound appearance.

That ovation shocked many around the sports world, and not just a few at home. Milwaukee Seventh District Alderman Khalif Rainey issued a strongly worded condemnation:

"What occurred during Josh Hader’s first appearance since those tweets surfaced is most troubling. Thousands of fans gave the pitcher a standing ovation. This frankly is an embarrassment to the world. The boisterous manner of standing to show support for Hader is nothing less than a dismissive stance against problems of race affecting an entire community: a community dealing with the effects of hypersegregation, economic disparity and police harassment.
The act of crowd members rising to their feet to cheer Hader ignores these very issues that NFL players seek to highlight while kneeling in silent protest during the national anthem. I am deeply concerned that President Trump continues to castigate those football players, recently recommending suspension for those who do not stand “at attention, hand on heart.” Although it seems cynical, I cannot help but think it comes down to skin color."

Retired football player Shannon Sharpe was more succinct:

"Kneel against injustice, get booed. Tweet racial, homophobic slurs, get standing O. Huh"

Hader was roundly booed the first time he took the pitcher's mound at an away game, July 26 in San Francisco. By chance, that is where Colin Kaepernick had been playing when he began his protest against questionable police killings of Black citizens. The quarterback, however, received as much pushback from hometown fans as he did at away games. I have seen no reports of Brewers fans burning their Hader jerseys.

He may be safe at home, but Mr. Hader should probably expect his teenage hubris to be called out at every away game for the rest of the season.

This Week's Tease

Yes, I did notice the story about a minor-league baseball player coming out as gay over the weekend. He plays, after all, for one of the farm clubs of our local Brewers, so the Milwaukee media have been on the story, after a fashion. (Since Mr. Denson plays for the team in Helena, Montana, where none of the Milwaukee media have reporters, much of the coverage has been of the variety where a reporter solicits reactions from passers-by.) And I read about Britain's first openly gay rugby star, as well.

But with the early, disappointing end to Michael Sam's career this week, it hardly seems like a good time for a Hooray For Gays In Sports cartoon. So it's back to that tired old topic of resistance to marriage equality.

Breaking Local News!

A propos of nothing in particular, here's a cartoon from my archives -- July of 1999, to be exact -- about TV news coverage of a big local tragedy. The reporters can't tell you much: the firefighters are still trying to put out the fire, the gunshot victims are still on the operating table, police have cordoned off the structural collapse, or authorities aren't letting camera crews anywhere near the plane/train/ship. But the folks at the TV station are staying on the air, determined not to be scooped by the folks at the other TV stations...

The names in this cartoon are of Milwaukee local anchors and reporters at the time, but I'm pretty sure this cartoon could be about local TV stations just about any time, anywhere. I believe that the particular story which inspired this cartoon was the Big Blue crane collapse during the construction of Miller Park, which killed three construction workers.

The long form address of my now defunct Geocities page on this cartoon won't take you anywhere, incidentally. Geocities got bought up and shut down by Yahoo!/SBC Global/AT&T years ago. Oh, and that thing the guy in the cartoon is staring at is what televisions used to look like.

A Brief History of Wisconsin Recall Elections

Now that the 2011-2012 spitstorm of Wisconsin recall elections is over, our elected representatives in Madison (the Republican ones, anyway) have promised to rewrite the state Constitution to make recalls more difficult -- requiring a charge of official malfeasance. They will probably move pretty quickly on that idea, too, while resentment of the recall process remains high.

But before that happens, let's take a quick look at previous recall elections in Wisconsin.

I'm going to stick with the recalls in my lifetime -- the ones I've drawn cartoons about -- starting with the recall of George Petak in 1996. Republican Petak represented Racine County in the State Senate.Republican  Tommy Thompson was Governor, and Republicans held a one-vote margin in the Senate. The Milwaukee Brewers wanted to replace County Stadium, and wanted Wisconsin taxpayers to chip in big time for the proposed Miller Park Stadium.

Instead of hiking taxes on the entire state, Thompson and the Republicans came up with the idea of imposing a .1% sales tax on Milwaukee County and the four counties which border it. Opposition to the tax in Racine County on Milwaukee's southern border was strong (not helped by Thompson's telling the rest of the state to "stick it to 'em"). Petak opposed the tax plan as well, but Senate leaders kept bringing their plan up for votes again and again, late into the night. Finally, at 4:00 in the morning, Petak changed his vote, and the tax plan passed.

Racine citizens started the recall process almost immediately. The Wisconsin Democratic Party claimed at first to have no part in the "No More Petax" drive, although that charade lasted about as long as the pretense that Petak and the Republicans had no connection to "push poll" telephone calls attacking the Democratic candidate, Kim Plache.

Plache, however, won the election, and Democrats gained the majority in the State Senate. Twelve years later, that .1% sales tax is still in place, and the recall is still a sore point with Wisconsin Republicans. It's also not a good idea for Racine residents to identify themselves as such at Brewer home games or Milwaukee sports bars.

The next year, right-wing religious groups, led by Family Research Council chair Gary Bauer and "Virginia Citizens for Reform" (and supported by presidential candidate Steve Forbes) launched a recall effort against Wisconsin's two Democratic U.S. Senators, Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, based on their support of women's right to choose. The drive was unsuccessful, and was ultimately ... aborted.

Which brings us to the recall of Milwaukee County Executive Tom Ament in 2002. Ament was a reasonably popular County Executive -- at least, the Milwaukee Business Journal, for whom I was drawing at the time, and the Journal Sentinel liked him. Then the lucrative pension system for Milwaukee County employees and its capacity for bankrupting the county came to light and all hell broke loose. A group calling itself Citizens for Responsible Government mounted a recall drive against Ament. And they would have succeeded, too, if Ament had not resigned from office (thus saving his own $87,000 pension). Seven county supervisors lost recall races over the scandal.


An election to elect a new County Executive was held that summer, and the victor was none other than one Scott Kevin Walker.

Update: And if you perceived a link between the Milwaukee County pension scandal and the Republicans' 2012 attack on unions, give yourself a hand. Bruce Murphy has the best post mortem I've read yet on the bipartisan creation of the scandal and how unions are now paying the price for it.


There has also been a recall of the mayor of Sheboygan earlier this year -- a sordid affair involving public drunkenness and sexual assault. I haven't drawn any cartoons about it, but I bring it up because it is the only one of these recalls that involved "official malfeasance."

From the Vault: Another Brewers Toon

Of all the cartoons I've drawn about the Milwaukee Brewers, I think this is my favorite.

When Miller Stadium first tried out its new retractible roof, there were some kinks to work out. It screeched loudly, for one thing, and rain got through some areas. I only imagined this problem, however.

From the Vault: I Sense a Theme

Randy Wolf got the Brewers' pitching back on track last night, so there is new hope for the Brew Crew. Fans might even excuse a couple of losses if it means winning the division title at home (but not of the 12-3 variety!).

Anyway, here's another Milwaukee Brewers cartoon from my days at the Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee; this time the editorial had something to do with team owner Mark Attanasio's interest in determining what it is that draws fans to a ballpark.

I suspect that he found that the answer has something to do with a winning record.

The Minneapolis lady, by the way, is a tribute to Minneapolis Tribune cartoonist Richard Guindon. Apparently, there is some connection in my mind between baseball and lutefisk.

From the Vault: Meaty Issues

If I were really, really, really, really optimistic, I could save this cartoon for Game 7 of the National League playoffs. But unless the Brewers manage to overcome their hitting and pitching slump, I'm afraid Milwaukee's racing sausages have had their last run in the nationally televised sun for the year. But having included lefse in yesterday's cartoon, I thought I'd haul out this one to continue the theme of Norwegian cuisine.

This 2003 cartoon (predating the chorizo guy) was drawn to accompany a Milwaukee Business Journal editorial critical of a New York Times article which had portrayed Milwaukee as a decaying, crime-filled rust belt wasteland with third-rate sports teams and no future. I guess the Times also mentioned the racing sausages. The BJ editorial sniffed that the Times reporter didn't know whereof he wrote.