Author: Tom Tomorrow

Remember, if you want a signed print in time for the holidays, you need to get your order in by the end of next week. After that, I’ll do my best, but no guarantees.

Also: offering the prints has inspired a few of you to write in and ask about the availability of t-shirts. I don’t have anything for you right now, but my friends in the band Cake have printed up a few more copies of their Unlimited Sunshine shirt featuring an old cartoon of mine. More information on that here.

Have a good turkey day. See you in a few.

According to Secrets of the Tomb, Alexandra Robbins’ book about Skull & Bones (the Yale secret society to which our President and his father both belonged), some new pledges — called “knights” — are automatically assigned traditional secret names:

“Magog,” the knight who has the most experience with members of the opposite sex; “Gog,” the least sexually experienced member; “Long Devil,” the tallest man in the club; “Boaz,” any varsity football captain; and “Little Devil,” Long Devil’s rival and the shortest knight in the club. The knights who are left over are free to choose their own names…

But here’s the fun part:

The Bonesmen who influenced George W. Bush’s life would have known him by another name: Temporary, an appellation he used because he could not think of anything else and never bothered to change it.

(For what it’s worth, George Senior was reportedly named Magog.)

“If you’re so smart, how come I’m president and you’re not?”
— George Bush Senior the First.

“I do not need to explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being the President. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don’t feel like I owe anybody an explanation.”
— George Bush Junior the Second.

President Bush signed legislation creating a new independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks Wednesday and named former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to lead the panel.

“Dr. Kissinger will bring broad experience, clear thinking and careful judgment to this important task,” Bush said at a signing ceremony in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. “Mr. Secretary, thank you for returning to the service of your nation.”

More.

I really have to remember to check in on Neal Pollack more often:

As you may have read on Friday, and should read immediately below this post, there is a new name for the new category of political thought shared by my 256,540 readers. We are Beagles! Loyal, true, and prone to howling at the slightest noise or provocation. And I have written a song that you must teach to your children. Post the lyrics on your mantle for the day when I come to visit you in your home. I will visit each and every one of you, I promise. Now sing with me:

We are the Beagles!
Long and strong and proud!
We are the Beagles!
Our voices are quite loud!
We will destroy our enemies
Like Krugman, Raines and Dowd
‘Cause we are the Beagles!
Long and strong and proud!
We will multiply our minions
With the strength of our opinions!
For we are the Beagles!
Long and strong and proud!