No sugar, just spice, and not very much that is nice

 

It is National Herbs and Spices Day, but I didn't really have a t-shirt design to go with it. It did make me think of the book (and movies) Dune and the spice planet Arakis. I read most of the Dune series and saw both the David Lynch movie and the latest versions.  The more recent movie version was probably truer to the book since David Lynch can't help but be well...David Lynch.  I always got a kick out of the way Paul Atreeides was given the Fremen name Muad'Dib in the movie with the Fremen leader dramatic stating, "We will call you Muad'Dib." I thought he was saying Moabdib and for years that was my go to password until it was compromised on the Dark Web. 

But I digress. National Herbs and Spices Day also reminds me (as if I could forget it) that I've stopped eating carbs and sugar and anything that tastes half way decent.  

Growing old sucks.

Home on the range

 

It is National Prairie Day and at first I didn't have anything in my t-shirt bag of tricks.  But that has never stopped me. I was pleased the way this design turned out. Though I imagine referring to a stove as a range is probably dated.  It works for me though. It makes a sweet t-shirt and an apron.

It is also National Drive-n Movie Day (another things generations of people know nothing about). And believe it or not I had a drive-in themed design ready to go.  

I realize these realistic designs don't seem to go over well.  It just isn't a concept that works well as a more cartoony, t-shirt design. It makes a great tote bag, too.

It was National Eyewear Day, as well. I didn't really have anything for eyeglasses, but I did dig out an old sunglasses design.

I could have dug out a related design.

I still may. But it seems to be a bit too close to the current world political climate.  Again, both of these designs are based on 1980s songs that most people probably won't recognize. But then again, if they did, I might get flack from the Intellectual Property Police.  Other than actually selling t-shirts, I sure don't miss Teepublic.

Starting over, and over and over...

 

It is National Start Over Day. I can kind of relate because each day I load several t-shirt designs on Blue Sky. And each day nothing happens. And the next day I do the same thing. It is very much like National Repeat Day. 

It is all very Sisyphian like mowing the lawn, making your bed and going to work.  

Oh well, it is something to do.

It's frowned upon

 

It is National Smile Day, and contrarian that I am, I posted a new design with frowning faces. It made me wonder why they say "Let a smile be your umbrella" when frowns look more like umbrellas. And they keep people away. After spending maybe 16 hours over the last three days in airports or on airplanes, I lean more toward frowns than smiles.

I was in Austin, Texas picking up an award for an ad campaign from my day job. It was a national award so it was supposed to be an honor. But after a three-hour awards show I was never actually asked to go to the stage to accept the award (we won a silver and not a gold) and then when I went to pick up the award afterward, they couldn't find it.  I posed for a photo with a borrowed trophy. They actual award turned up the next day just in time to put it in my carry on bag and trigger a search at the Austin Airport where they searched the trophy box lining for drugs or explosives.  The one bright point was that I saw this t-shirt in a gift shop in the airport.

Our ad campaign this year is all about aliens and their dismay at only being able to move one cow at a time. So I bought the $30 shirt only to get home to discover that, despite getting a size that normally would fit me, I look like a Kelbasa. So the t-shirt went into a drawer just in case I lose some weight.

Once again I am reminded that the gods don't like us getting too cocky about things like awards. I've got a couple of bookcases full of them at my work office for almost three decades of work and the only one mildly impressed by them is moi. But let someone in Contracts get an award for outstanding contracting and it ripples through my agency like Moses parting the Red Sea. 

I can't wait to retire and bask only in the laurels of my creative designs that seem to apeal to no one. But I did buy a couple last week (because I'm not sure a hair club member as the commercial used to tout). And I am very pleased with my D.B. Cooper t-shirts.

There is a certain amount of pleasure I take by being the only person in the world who is wearing one. 

How exclusive. 

Put up your Dukes

 

The National Day Day people seem to be running out of National Day Days. Today was National Paper Airplane Day aNational Blueberry Cheesecake Days. I couldn't work up any inspiration around either of those days. So I turned to the OnThisDay webpage for inspiration.  Today is John Wayne's birthday. Or it would have been, because the Duke died in 1979 and for years there was this urban myth that an autopsy found a 40 pounds of impacted fecal matter in his colon that was attributed to his manly ingestion of lots of meat. In reality he died from stomach cancer and there never was an autopsy conducted.

Despite the fact that the legend of his colon was a myth I remember going to a large restaurant chain many years ago called the Claim Jumper. Their menu came in a larger binder and contain page after page of menu items chock full of excessive amounts of meat. I asked the server why they didn't have an item on the menu called, "John Wayne's Colon" and she just stared at me blankly.  This is a look I'm quite familiar with.

Today is also the day in history when The Beatles' album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was released and went to #1 for 22 weeks in the UK and 15 weeks in the US. I'm sad to say that while there were many famous Hollywood stars in the background on the album cover including Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, W.C. Fields and Laurel and Hardy,  neither John Wayne nor his colon was featured.

This is not an actual cover of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." It is an imaginary band I dreamt up a year or two ago called The Big Beats. They were a Beatlesque band made up of Big Foot individuals. As with all of my obscure t-shirt designs, the several I did for the Big Beats never caught on.

And on this day in 1910, U.S. General George S. Patton married Beatrice Ayer in Boston, Massachusetts.  I don't believe he was a general at the time or was wearing the pearl handled 45 caliber pistols.

That's the way it is and was, Tuesday, May 26, 2026.

Mambo King

 

I was in a bookstore yesterday looking for signed editions. It is kind of my latest obsession.  I try to sell them on my ebay store, but part of me is just fine with keeping them.  Anyway I was looking for books by Oscar Hijuelos. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1990 (the first Hispanic writer to do so) for The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. It wa later adapted into a movie starring Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas. The movie didn't quite capture the book. They rarely do.

I loved the book. I read some of his other books, like Our House in the Last World and Mr. Ives' Christmas. But as with other authors I really admired like Tom Robbins, I lost track of his work (mainly because I stopped reading much).  So I was looking for his books in the book store hoping to find a signed one but there was nothing. I asked ChatGPT if he was still alive and it informed me he died in 2013 at age 62 after suffering a heart attack while playing tennis in Manhattan. 

And just like that another of my favorite authors was gone without me having a clue. I felt this same loss that I felt when I learned Tom Robbins was dead.  When I found out he was dead I started looking for signed editions by him and got one. It was kind of my way of having something he'd touched in my life. 

I started looking for signed Oscar Hijuelos books on ebay and I was kind of shocked at how low the prices were. I was assuming that since he had passed and wouldn't be signing any more the things were be worth alot. Apparently not.  It is like everything in life. New generations come along and they sprint past the past to their own futures.  So Tom Robbins and Oscar Hijuelos mean little to current generations. I imagine it is the same with Hunter Thompson and Douglas Adams.

But still, they left behind amazing books that will continue to amaze...if someone bothers to look for them.

Snailed it

 

It's National Escargot Day. And just in case you forget that they are snails, they are served up in snail shells with lots of garlic so they taste like chicken. It's not something you find at most of your local restaurants. The only time I ever ate them was on a cruise. And in reality, they weren't half bad.

It was also National Family Fun Day. No joke.

And it was National Scavenger Hunt Day so I scavenged some old designs for National Yucatan Shrimp Day (recycled the Sea Monkeys are Brine Shrimp stuff) and National Wyoming Day (dug up my Gyros Have Always Been Cowboys design). 

I passed on Brother's Day and Aviation Maintenance Technician Day.  Even I have standards.

Sail on

 

It is National Maritime Day, and despite having never actually captaining a ship, I used to go on lots of cruises. And the times I helped people who actually owned sail boats, I felt like it was way too much work. So I'm not truly a seafaring man. But I've always been fascinated with the Titanic.

Today is also National Road Trip Day.  I have been on quite a few road trips in my day and I think I prefer cruises.

It is also National Buy a Musical Instrument Day. So I posted several of my guitar designs.

And it is National Cooler Day, so I got deep with my designs.

Finally, it is National Solitaire Day and I urged people to stop playing within themselves and play with these instead.

I think my future is written in the cards.

Don't Stream It, Be It!

 

It is National Streaming Day, National Be A Millionaire Day, National Juice Slush Day, National Rescue Dog Day and National Sugarbee Apple Day. What a day. 

Since National Day Day doesn't seem to like my postings anymore, I am getting the sense they don't appreciate my humor.  For example, National Sugarbee Apple Day seems a stretch for a National Day to me (especially since I've never heard of a Sugarbee Apple. But I have heard of Road Apples.

National Juice Slush Day just seems random. But I tried squeezing a t-shirt out of it anyway.

National Be A Millionaire Day doesn't seem relevant anymore since everybody and their dog are now billionaires. But living is living.

And speaking of dogs, I think every dog should have their day, especially rescue dogs.

Oh well, those were the days.

Did you ever dance with the Devil's Food Cake in the pale moonlight?

 

It is National Devil's Food Cake Day and I asked ChatGPT to give me a transparent background of my "Did you ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?" design and it spit out the above image of me as the devil (which gives you a hint as to how the ChatGPT image creator feels about me).

That takes the Devil's food cake. 

Regardless, I used the opportunity to try an hawk devil themed t-shirts. 

It is also National Roadie Day and I just shamelessly used the opportunity to try and sell some 1980s crew passes on eBay. 

People do collect these. I sold one for a Robert Plant concert backstage pass just the other day. 

It's a hell of a thing.

Don't forget about it

 

It is National Visit Your Relatives Day. And we all know that some families require more attention than others.  At least that is my theory.

I have to admit, that I have no desire to visit my relatives. My mother had 12 brothers and sisters and I had more cousins than I could shake a stick at (and believe me I shook a few sticks at them). One group of cousins we rudely nicknamed "the Martians."  To my brothers and I, they looked like they were from another planet.  In all fairness, I imagine my brothers and I looked like Martians to them.

Needless to say I have almost no contact with any of my relatives...at least on my side of the family. I don't really have much contact with my brothers because they both act as if they are from another planet since they support the invasion of our democracy by the Orange Menace.

But I digress.

It is also National Cheese Souffle Day and the best I could do to commemorate it was post my Egg Yolks design. Because you can't make a souffle without cracking a few yolks or jokes.

As you can see, I still crack myself up.

The Rat Pack

 Technically, it is National Pack Rat Day. But I couldn't resist joining my buddies in the Rat Pack (though they left my name off from the Sands reader board).  I suppose I would more appropriately be part of a groups called the Pack Rats.

I pulled out all the stops (and every design related to rats that I could find). The Hoard Sweet Hoard design just came to me today.

I was thinking of my brother when I came up with it. I view myself as less of a hoarder and more of a collector. And at least I try and turn over my hoard on a regular basis on eBay. Aren't hoarders technically supposed to not be able to let go of anything?

No one on Blue Sky seems to have acknowleged by Pack Rat video.  I was thinking today that perhaps instead of trying to sell my ideas as t-shirt designs I should just think of them as cartoons and featur a new one each day. Maybe then I could even sell ads on my blog and capitalize on the hoards of people who visit my blog. I wonder if Bots buy things from ads?

It was also National Idaho Day. I learned from TikTok the other day that Idaho was a named made up by an Idaho politician when they were trying to become a state. He told the Feds that Idaho was a Shoshone word that meant Gem of the Mountains. It was actually something he pulled out of his ass.  So the state is named after a lie. We all know that Idaho really is a Shoshone word for Famous Potatoes anyway.

I posted this t-shirt design in honor of my birth state anyway.

Manley's was an iconic cafe in Boise that was famous for major portions of fried chicken and pie ala mode. My parents always called it Manley's Rose Garden because it used to have roses growing around it. I ate there once as a kid and it was basically a dive. But it was an iconic dive, one you might find in a state named after a politician's BS.

Rats.