Today's cartoon is to highlight one of our job hazards at the library. Thankfully this hasn't happened to me yet (knock on wood), but I've had a couple of close calls. Mainly through my own fault...trying to shelve a book up above that's slightly out of reach and a row of precariously placed novels come cascading down, narrowly missing any unprotected body parts.

As they used to say on Monty Python, "And now for something completely different..."
I decided it was high time to work on another of David Elsey's poems. Only in this case, instead of picking a library themed poem, I chose another of my favorites. At first, I tried to illustrate it as a cartoon, but with the limitations of MS Paint and my own drawing skills, I wasn't able to do it justice. Then a co-worker of mine suggested I take photos and insert my cartoon characters onto them...but for some reason, it still didn't quite work. So after taking pictures around my neighborhood in southeast Portland, I thought they could stand on their own with the words to this poem. My one fear is that poetry is mostly for the reader's imagination, and posting photos with it would only take away from that experience...so I hope this doesn't diminish it in any way. Thanks to David and N.B. for their help and encouragement!

After working at a library for a while, I've smelled some pretty harsh smells. You might even say I've built up a bit of a tolerance compared to the average person. Sometimes books smell, sometimes patrons smell, or the origination of the smell can't be ascertained. There are smells that leave when a particular patron leaves...other times, they linger for a few minutes, even after said patron vacates the area. Understandably, not everyone has access to health services, or chooses to take advantage of them for one reason or another. I'm not a social worker, otherwise I'd probably have more answers.
Anyway, this cartoon came about after recently experiencing a smell that can barely be described...I literally had to keep a 15 foot distance from the source or else my gag reflex would start to kick in. A character building shift for sure. Okay, enough ranting...many thanks to R.K. for his idea help and have a great week everyone!

This is from an actual exchange between two patrons at our library. B.C.M told me how he overheard it during one of his shifts in Humanities and I decided to turn it into a cartoon.
For some reason I thought coming from royalty meant awareness of etiquette and manners...but that sure doesn't seem to be the case here. :)

A little late on posting this because of the holiday. This cartoon came about after talking with D.T., a co-worker of mine. We were discussing the fact that a lot of companies seem to be jumping on the "green" bandwagon these days...which I suppose is a good thing.
Hope everyone has a great new year!