BFFs

My eldest daughter, Krapuzar, visited me in Brooklyn last week and brought with her the new man in her life, a gentleman who calls himself simply, "Sneetch."

They both assured me that he is not this guy, but I still don't know if I believe them. It was a lovely visit one that we will all remember for weeks. Along with being a damn fine human being, Krapuzar is also a righteous violinist and played onstage with me in the last tour of The Bizarro Baloney Show, back in 2005 or 6 or something.

In other news: I've been in Raleigh/Durham all weekend at an animal rights convention. I did some comedy on Friday night for the troops in attendance, then a book signing at a local store on Saturday. Much fun and success all around.

I also got to meet a young cartoonist with whom I have been emailing for three years. His name is Victor (or was it Vance? I don't know, something with a V). He began sending me his work when he was 14 and I have used a total of 13 of his ideas in Bizarro to date. His hometown paper, the Raleigh News and Observer, recently published an article about our collaborations. As I recall, the headline was, "Hometown Boy Not Completely Useless," or something like that.

He and his ma (Denise? Dorothy?) came to see my comedy show on Friday night, and on Saturday night I went to his family's home for dinner. Not knowing much about vegan food, they prepared oatmeal and dry toast, but it was delicious.

After dinner we played Pinochle and listened to Jack Benny on the wireless. Good, old-fashioned family fun was had by all. Later, I passed a bottle of Scotch around and we took turns telling stories about the strangest place we had ever been naked in public. In all modesty, my stories were way more interesting than any of theirs.

All went well until I lit a cigar in their living room, scaring the cat who then knocked over a lamp and started a fire. They took this opportunity to drive me back to my hotel. I asked them to drop me at a bar, but apparently they all close at 3am there so none were open.


Thanks again to Vernon and the Rodriquez family (Reynolds? Ruiz?) for a great evening. We're all BFFs now.