I had a wonderful time signing books at the Cartoon Art Museum this past weekend. My thanks to the Cartoon Art Museum and ASIFA San Francisco for the great turnout.

posing at the museum with Summerlea, Steve Segal, and ASIFA Prez Karl Cohen. Interestingly enough, behind us is the animation camera that the Jay Ward Company used to film the first animated TV show Crusader Rabbitt in 1949.

San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum is a wonderful place with a great collection. Currently they have a great show of New Yorker cartoons that were rejected for publication for questionable taste. Hysterical! If you are in the city by the bay, drop in and have fun!
http://www.cartoonart.org


Also I had a chance to make an appearance at the Academy of Art and hold a childrens workshop at ZEUM, the Childrens' interactive museum near the Moscone Center.

With Zeum coordinator Michelle Hlubinka. I wish I had places this cool when I was a kid! www.zeum.org

Thanks to all for making me feel welcome, Pat and I had a great time.

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Birthdays: Robert F. Kennedy, Maya Plisetskaya, Gene Tierney, Dick Smothers, Bo Derek is 50, Sean Young is 47, Richard Dawson, Estelle Parsons, Barbera Hendricks, Duane Allman, Joe Walsh, Chester Gould the creator of Dick Tracy, Alastair Cooke, Newly re-elected Senator Robert Byrd is 89, Ming Na

1718- " Fifteen men on a Dead Man’s Chest, Yo-Ho-Ho and a Bottle of Rum! Even though he knew the British Navy was going to attack him tomorrow, violent buccaneer Blackbeard spent this night drinking and partying with his crew. Someone asked Blackbeard that if he died did his wife know where he had buried his treasure? Blackbeard laughed" No one but me and the Devil himself knows where it is, and the longest liver can have it all!" It was said Blackbeard actually enjoyed being a pirate. In the thickest of hand-to-hand fighting amidst the blood and mayhem he could be seen smiling. Ultimate job satisfaction. Another time he made his officers sit with him in a locked cabin with smoldering pots of choking, sulphurous brimstone. He told them as they were all going to Hell ,they might as well get used to it now..

1783-In Paris Benjamin Franklin is in the crowd watching the first humans go aloft in a balloon designed by the Montgolfier Brothers. For 25 minutes Piastre de Rosier and the Marquis d'Arland flew 500 feet over the Seine, sipping champagne.

1820- In the Pacific Ocean the Nantucket whaling ship Essex was sunk by an enraged sperm whale. The whale's nickname was Mocha-Dick. Only six men survived floating on driftwood for ninety days, resorting to cannibalism before being rescued. This incident is thought to have been one of the inspirations for Herman Melville to write his novel Moby Dick.

1947- The longest running television show in history- Meet the Press, premiered. And it is still on today.

1994- Rock & Roll star David Crosby received a new liver.

1998- Several state governments and the US tobacco industry reach a landmark settlement arising from lawsuits over smoking illnesses. The trial also killed off once and for all ads featuring The Marlboro Cowboy and Joe Camel, a cartoon character that at one point was as recognizable to children as Donald Duck.

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Congratulations to Happy Feet. Wow, $40 million and beating out Casino Royale? Like Sally Field used to say, They Like me, they really like me!