This year’s terrifying Halloween costume.

Chris Matthews just now: “There’s an old adage in politics, don’t pick a fight with someone who owns a barrel of ink.”

Actually the phrase is “someone who buys ink by the barrel.” But, you know, I’m staying away from that guy with the single barrel of ink too. He might spill it on you or something.

State of Arizona looking to privatize its entire prison system.

So I’ve been really, really hoping to get one of these displays from Target for my own personal collection, and thought I had some time — the Target employees I talked to last month said they’d probably be up til Christmas. Actually, not so much — turns out while I was busy this week “working” in my “studio,” every Target in my immediate area was throwing the displays away to make room for the next new thing.

Arrgh.

Anyway if you work at a Target, or know someone who does, or whatever the case may be — if you can get me one of these, I will trade you something so incredibly cool and rare, it will knock your socks off. I’m at tom-dot-tomorrow-atsymbol-gmail-dot-com.

Here. Longtime readers will recognize this one as a sort of sequel to “Outrage Overload” from 2003.

Final update: all gone.

Thanks to everyone who bought one of these. They’re really beautifully printed, in a way that the photos don’t even begin to show — I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. (And don’t worry — I am packing them each with great individual care.)

Also — I know it said 4-6 weeks, but that was mostly me be extra careful. Hoping to get at least half of these orders out by the end of the week.

More brick and mortar sightings:

–The Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee
–Politics & Prose, Washington DC
–Orca Books, Olympia, Washington

The book has previously been seen at:

–Powell’s, Portland Oregon
–Moe’s, Berkeley
–City Lights, San Francisco

I’ve been a customer and/or a speaker at four out of six of those stores myself, and they are among my favorite bookstores in the world.

Meanwhile on the internets, the five-star reviews are piling up on Amazon:

Our 4-year-old has totally fallen for this book - requesting it nearly every night since we got it a couple weeks ago. She almost knows every word by heart now - we watched her “read” it to a younger friend and she hardly missed a single word. Great message, silly story and Tom Tomorrow’s wonderful drawings and sense of the absurd. It is not preachy or didactic at all…just all around good advice to speak up when something doesn’t make sense, told in a lighthearted manner.

* * *

I ordered this book for my almost-four-year-old and she absolutely adores it. When it is time for bed, my daughter picks out the book that she wants mommy and/or daddy to read to her. I read The Very Silly Mayor to her when I first received it and since then, she has picked that book more than any other. Last night when she picked The Very Silly Mayor to read at bedtime, she said she likes it because it “really makes me laugh a lot”. She loves Blinky, the very nice dog who always has something nice to say or he doesn’t say anything at all, and of course, how can you not love Sparky?

This is not a political book but it does introduce young minds to the concept of governance as it deals with a mayor that has some very silly ideas about how to govern his medium-sized city (putting out fires with peanut butter?!). It deals with peer pressure and the overarching lesson from the book is that just because everyone seems to think something is a good idea doesn’t necessarily mean that it is. It encourages critical thinking and speaking your mind even if you think people might laugh at you. It also encourages the idea of questioning authority, all of which are lessons that I hope my daughter will take with her.

I can only hope that this is the first of many Tom Tomorrow kids books, I will buy them all. I cannot recommend this book enough, it is a fun book with some great lessons that don’t include a princess waiting for her prince.

The idea of Obama.

Have I mentioned how strange this all is?

It is very strange.

I’ll be putting my Chicago posters up for sale Wednesday at noon EST in the Posters For Sale section. This is a signed and numbered edition of 100, with 90 posters actually for sale (I’m setting aside the rest for friends and family). Cost of the poster will be $70, with $10 flat rate postage, including mandatory insurance. (These are domestic postage rates– overseas customers, go ahead and purchase at this price, with the understanding that you will receive a second invoice for the balance of actual postage costs.) Limit one per customer. Shipping will probably take 4-6 weeks — I’m a one-man band, and there are only so many hours in the week.

… forgot to mention, these are 9-color silkscreened posters, not standard offset litho.

… also, I have absolutely no idea what to expect for sales here — I may end up with a big stack of these things sitting in my flatfiles for years to come — but I’m told there’s at least a chance they’ll sell briskly, for whatever that may be worth.