Frankie files his taxes

This is a new and probably short series of cartoons (poorly drawn); most of them focus on words and how they can or could be used.  The cartoons are quickly drawn so I don't forget what I'm doing. ;)
They will be 3 panel cartoons, shown one panel at a time so they're big enough to read.  I hope you will enjoy some of my insanity.
FRANKIE FILES HIS TAXES

This first set was drawn using the wrong pen, but I hope you get the message.

Surfs up!

Surfs Up, the Beach Boys sang it; Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks wrote it.  I wonder if this is what they had in mind.

Garrett McNamara ride a large wave. - click to enlarge
Photo: Getty Images

  Garrett McNamara is a surfer from Hawaii, always looking for the "big one", so he went to Portugal.
In the Atlantic Ocean lies the Nazare Canyon near the coast of Portugal, the 1000 foot deep, three mile wide Canyon stretches 105 miles.  The Canyon serves as a funnel when it receives swells it makes waves, big ones.  McNamara went at this time of year when waves often exceed 70 feet.  He was looking to ride a 100 foot wave, it's not sure if he found it.  He did ride one wave that was 78 feet high for sure, and maybe the big one.

Riding the 78 foot wave. - click to enlarge
Photo: AP

Ready for takeoff - click to enlarge
Photo: AP

C.C. waterback and one Tequilla Sunrise

Rum runners caught, their "crop" destroyed. - click to enlarge
Photo: www.wikipedia.org

  That title may or may not fit the subject - Prohibition, but it is about the effects of alcohol drunk by Mr. Jones and Mr. Haggard in song.
  Prohibition in the United States was brought about by a group of religious organizations, mostly Protestant Churches and also the Womens Christian Temperance League.
  As an aside when I was in the little school in North Lebanon, Maine the local WCTU women, Miss Mary Worthly and her sidekick/secretary/companion (and maybe lover) would come "teach" us a lesson every year.  Whooo-boy! Talk about boring people.  It's always been good for me to have an imagination.  In other words I wasn't impressed.
  Anyway the 18th Amendment to the U S Constitution prohibited the Manufacture and Sale of Alcoholic Beverages.  It was not against the law to drink,  the law was aimed at making it nearly impossible to drink.  There were "medical prescriptions" given by doctors to some people that made it possible for them to buy the stuff.
  The idea failed in 1933 when the "free market" took over the manufacture and sales.  Please note that during Prohibition some people who "imported" alcohol made a fortune, while other suffered the consequences.

Smashing a still in Seattle. - click to enlarge
Photo: www.seattlepi.com

A medical prescription - click to enlarge
Photo: www.wikipedia.org

Schnablerrennen

Starting the jump - click to enlarge
Photo: Getty Images

  Look at that name, I can't pronounce it either; maybe Wilbur can.  The unpronounceable name refers to a sled jump in the Bavarian area of Germany.
  The "jump" is a time honored tradition.  The sleds are either originals or copies of a design from long ago.  The object of the "jump" is distance, the winning distance is about 85 feet.  It appears from the photos to be a rough ride.

Starting to change their mind - click to enlarge
Photo: Getty Images

Fallout? - click to enlarge
Photo: AP

The area (Bad Tolz) in summer - click to enlarge
Photo: Bildagentur Huber
 

Thank God and Greyhound

A bus from the 1950's - click to enlarge
Photo: www.wkikpedia.org

  The song written by Larry Kingston and Ed Nix and made "famous" by Roy Clark sort of says things for me.  My first Greyhound trip was in 1959 from Jacksonville, Florida to Arkansas City, Kansas.
  My first experience with Greyhound in Jacksonville was before the trip.  Sort of new to town and a student at the Naval Technical Training Center, Aviation Storekeeper School I was in town one weekend day and wanted a cup of coffee.  I walked in to the bus station restaurant only to be told that I was "on the wrong side", the "white folks are on the other side".  Surprise, surprise, surprise.  Here's a kid from Maine, with 3 years in Ohio behind me and I had no idea things were 'seperate', they were.
  My first trip came after finishing that school and I was finally on my way to my first duty station, Naval Air Station, Alameda, California, with a stop in Kansas - there was a girl there, and in a couple of million other places too; but I knew this one.
  I don't know what time I left Jacksonville, afternoon I think, and it was a long ride.  Up through Alabama to Montgomery, over to Jackson, Mississippi and up to Memphis.  All along the way I looked out at, or went in to bus stations of all sorts.  In the bigger cities they would be actual bus stations but in small towns maybe part of a store or gas station.  But one thing stood out.  The "black station/waiting area" were nothing but separate.  In the small towns little more than a 3-sided lean to, or shed.  No heat or cooling, no shade or cover from bad weather.  I most remember Tupelo, Mississippi, home town of Elvis and home to the tiniest little shed with no door "black waiting area".
  We crossed the Mississippi outside of Memphis and rolled on through Arkansas to Fort Smith, and crossed into Oklahoma and headed into Tulsa before finally landing in Kansas.
  Funny Arkansas in Kansas is pronounced as Are-kansas or R-kansas (both the town and the river) but in Arkansas (the state) it's pronounced R-kansaw.  It's one of life's puzzles.
  But Thank God and Greyhound I was on my way to my first duty station, and my first Navy job.

Those were the days.  Yes suh!  the geezer says so. - click to enlarge

Does Fort Worth ever cross your mind?

  That George Strait song written by Sanger and Darlene Shafer is an apt title for todays piece.
  About two days before I got sick, three of us where waiting for McDonald's to open when a pickup truck pulled in the lot and let out two Amish young men, they were twins.  They were down from The County and waiting for the bus to Boston.  They were taking the train to Minnesota to visit family.
  That brought Paul to talk about train robberies and Jesse James, and Robert chimed in about the Dalton Gang.  That got me talking about how I thought the Dalton Gang had been caught and finished their career in Coffeyville, Kansas.  I was wrong the Dalton boys had been in that town to rob the bank, but not caught.
  Now, you're asking what does all of that have to do with Fort Worth.  Well hang on I'm getting to it.
  Thinking about Coffeyville and Kansas got me thinking about the cattle drives to the rail heads for Texas.  Then the Chisholm Trail and then Fort Worth - where the whole thing started.
  So I had to read the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and I noticed a photo gallery about a recent stock show.  Stock shows usually mean cows/cattle and I like to see nice cattle so I looked.  Here are some of what I found in the old Star-Telegram.

  Beautiful and useful animals, interesting too.  Just not cattle, but these critters serve as lookouts for herds, guards for sheep and provide fiber.  Useful indeed, and in Fort Worth.
  And by the way; those Amish men had always thought Billy the Kid, Jesse James, the Dalton Gang and others weren't real people, we did teach a lesson there, so us old geezers are useful too.

Picking a new team?

  You know, the Red Sox aren't going to do very well; at least that's what I think.  Maybe I should pick a new team.  How about one of these?

Well it won't be the New Orleans Pelicans, that may be the new name for the basketball team in that city.  Is that a good basketball name?  I didn't think so.

How 'bout them Biscuits?  This is baseball?  The Double-A team in Montgomery, Alabama is/are the Biscuits.  Complete with a pat of butter!

  The University of California Santa Cruz has teams that are call the Banana Slugs.  Probably they'd run too slow to be good at sports.  Besides there are a lot of salt shakers in the snack bar! Oh no!

  Well I can't decide, maybe it'll be the Red Sox anyway, they do have a new manager, and a whole bunch of new players (that's what makes me nervous).  We'll just wait and see; in the meantime I think I'll make a batch of biscuits.