Random Dr. Who Love and Imminent Battlestar withdrawal

So while I was stuck lying on the couch with my broken foot in the air at a 60-degree angle for the last three weeks, there wasn't too much I could actually do--I'm a knitter, but I can't knit due to my carpal tunnely issues. So it was all about the book, audiobook and DVD consumption.

Now, I don't have television service, so Masheka and I generally only watch TV via DVDs or Hulu, etc. For the past 6 months we worked our way through The Wire (so good!), got started with Buffy (we're on the sixth season now, and I have to thank Barry for getting me addicted to this show) and segued into Angel (on Season 2 now). I watched a bit of Weeds but lost interest partly into Season 1. Anyway, I want to give random shoutouts to some of the things that kept me really entertained while I was horizontal:

• Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books (aka the Southern Vampire Mysteries). I ripped through all eight books available so far in about a week, half via paperback and half via Audible.com download. The audiobooks were particularly great, as the actress who reads them does the perfect Southern accent and pacing for the stories. They're fun and inventive and smart and good stuff like that. Anyway, immediately after finishing the books I watched Season 1 of True Blood, which is also fantastic but not identical to the books (a good thing, as there were still surprises).
• Veronica Mars, Seasons 1 and 2. Again, totally addictive fun with a smart and kickass heroine. (Although, as when watching Buffy, I kept wishing the star actress would eat a few sandwiches.)
• Doctor Who Seasons 1-3 (the new ones): I have to admit I was skeptical. I used to watch Dr. Who with my dad and didn't really get it at the time--I had vague memories of scantily clad women and men in scarves bumping into badly-put-together sets and not-so-convincingly scary aliens. And the first few episodes didn't really grab me. But by half-way through Season 1 I was sold, and I was way MORE sold when the bisexual immortal Captain Jack showed up and the Doctor regenerated into the fabulous David Tennant. I still think Daleks are ridiculous, but I think that's part of the fun. I plan to check out Torchwood as well. I also didn't realize when I first started watching the new Doctor Who that it was spearheaded by Russell T. Davies, the writer of the wonderful British TV series Queer as Folk.
• I also reread some old sci-fi favorites, including Octavia Butler's Fledgling and Marge Piercy's He, She and It.

Anyways, I can't wait to actually get up and use my feet again, but all this media consumption HAS been fun.

Finally, I just have to say that the last episodes of Battlestar Galactica have been great so far, especially the premiere! I am going to mourn that show in a serious way when it ends.

OK, back to your regularly scheduled political cartooning...

Toon: Historic Day

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You get the idea.

Toon: Recession-Proof Jobs

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I was trying to come up with a funny cartoon about weird jobs that would be "recession-proof", but I came up with crap. No one is safe when things suck this much. But although the economic crisis is hitting every sector, it sucks the most for people who were already living on the margins or in lower income brackets. My sympathy for unemployed bankers with offshore tax shelters to keep them warm while they scale back on private-jet travel is less than minimal.

Toon: All the Baby Bump News That’s Fit to Print!

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If this cartoon makes no sense to you, then you have blissfully managed to avoid passing within 50 feet of any magazine rack selling celebrity gossip rags.

By the way, the WSJ is actually one of the few papers that is doing quite well, I just put in in here because I wanted to make a joke about a pregnant stock index. But the Detroit Free Press actually is in major trouble, if you haven't heard--they actually stopped delivering the print paper most days of the week. In retrospect, I should have squeezed the NYTimes in here--they just had to take a $250 million loan to stay in business.

Newspapers everywhere (the ones that still remain, anyway) have been taking all kinds of drastic measures to stay afloat, including jumping on some disturbing trends--like eliminating all their comics and editorial cartoons! So this really isn't all that far-fetched. I'm so NOT in a recession-proof industry.

Finally, how sick are you of the phrases "Baby Bump," "Baby Joy" and "Celebrity Baby Boom?"

Update: I just read that News Corp. (parent company of Dow Jones) is actually having a hard time after all, and the Journal has had to make layoffs, though not as many as at other papers. Sigh...

Toon: How Health Savings Accounts Lead to Wiser Health Care Choices

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This was of course inspired by my own unexpected trip to the ER when I broke my foot while making a dare-devil attempt to... pull on my boots. Thing is, heath care is not a finite thing you can save for--like a car, or a house, etc. It's something you need insurance for, because you could suddenly and very unexpectedly need a hell of a lot of it. If I didn't have health insurance, all those X-rays and trips to the ER and the doctor would have cost... eeek!

Universal health care now! Etc.

By the way, here's another cartoon I did about HSAs after I first heard the daft idea in a Bush speech: "Too Darn Healthy", and here's one about crappy health insurance in general, "Gold-Plated Health Plans."

P.S. Yes, I'm catching up on cartoon posting, I've been quite indisposed with my borken foot--it got all painful and swollen and I had to keep it way up in the air for a few weeks, not a good position to use the computer in!

Happy New Year!

I spent the day in the ER waiting for X-rays. I broke my foot while trying to pull on my winter boots on at around 11 p.m. on New Year's Eve (I tripped and fell on my foot in a funny way, and it made a not-so-funny crunching noise). Only I thought I had just stubbed my toe, so I limped to a really good party anyway. It wasn't until I could barely wiggle the toes on my swollen black and blue foot this morning that I was sure it was actually busted. Also--since I have RSI problems with my wrists and elbows, using crutches is nearly or equally as painful as just stepping on my poor mushed-up excuse for a foot.

What a great start to 2009!