Doodling, Doting & The Derby

Another dose of Tug time

“I think the worst sort of time travel is how the clock speeds up when I’m on my break.” - Joyce Rachelle

You may or may not have noticed that I haven’t posted anything on substack for a few days. Grandpa Tug took some time off this past week and traveled to Minnesota to visit my daughter, son in law and newly doodling granddaughter Keira. I missed Keira’s first birthday a couple of weeks ago and so my daughter suggested that I come up this past weekend to visit and attend their inaugural Kentucky Derby party. I’m not really a big horse race fan, but it didn't take too much arm twisting to persuade me into making the 10 hour drive north.

While there I spent a lot of time dazzling Keira with my godlike ability of throwing one of her toys 2 feet into the air and catching it before it hit the floor. She was absolutely delighted and amazed. I also jumped in and helped to get things ready for their party. My daughter is very organized and she handed me a to-do-list shortly after I walked in the door. Cleaning, vaccumming, some yard work and a number trips to the grocery store and beyond. In between chores I played some golf with my son in law, took a few strolls through the neighborhood and generally just took a short break from the world of politics.

One of the other highlights of this short break was to meet up with my friend and brilliant editorial cartoonist Steve Sack and have brunch. This profession of ours is mostly done in solitude so I always relish the chance to get together with another cartoonist and talk shop. I think we spent about 2 hours sharing stories about our backgrounds, families and how we ended up in this amazing, yet struggling profession. The days of newspapers with editorial cartoonists on staff are basically over, but we still feel extremely fortunate to have our journalistic voices and the ability to create.

In conclusion, the Derby party was a success. Everyone was dressed up with a Mint Julep in hand and had a great time. The race itself was also pretty exciting. I returned home last night and I’m back at my desk as chairman of the drawing board. I probably took about 3 dozen photos while I was away and I’ll post a few if you don’t mind. As always, thank you all for your support. You’re a big part of my survival and I appreciate all of you for having my back.