My how the days have flown by. Was it not just last week I posted the fun for October? Here we are into another new month, and I am here to remind you to stop, take a moment for a deep breath or a little chuckle, or both. There are great health benefits to deep breathing and laughter.   This first bit of frivolity is from One Big Happy by Rick Detorie. Ruthie is working on a homework assignment, completing several proverbs:      Seeing is … something you do with your eyes.      If you can't stand the heat … move to the North Pole.      A man who is his own lawyer …doesn't have to send himself a bill.      It's never too late to …microwave a snack.      The squeaky wheel gets ….on your nerves.      If you make your bed. ..be sure nobody's in it.      Give the devil …a firecracker and RUN!      No news …is b...

Once again fellow toilers in the wacky world of writing, it's time for a chuckle or two to relieve some of the stress of lonely days clacking away on a keyboard. I would be lost without the comics, or "funny papers" as they used to be called. We should go back to that reference, I think. Much more descriptive, wouldn't you agree? To start us off, here is one from the strip Crankshaft : Crankshaft is sitting in the living room and his daughter, Pam steps up to the couch next to him. He says, "I spent $75 of my own money replacing the lottery tickets I lost." "So, did you hit the jackpot? "Naw… we hit the jack squat." I found this one on One Big Happy: Ruthie and her Grandpa are taking a walk. He notices her sour expression and asks, "What's wrong Ruthie?" In her most dramatic Ruthie-way, she says, "Everything grandpa. I tried to make friends with ninja Kitty. To rescue her, but that dang...

As some of you may know, Wednesday is Hump Day, and if we get over today, we sail on to Friday and the end of the work week. For some bloggers, like my friend LD Masterson, it is a good reason to offer some humor to help folks over the hump. How appropriate, that it is Wednesday and my turn to blog here at BRP, so here are a few funnies to help you through the day. First up is something from Pearls before Swine . In the first panel we see a bunch of lemmings at lemming's leap. One of them says, "Okay guys. It's time to end our little lemming lives. Bob you start us off." Bob says, "All right,Fred." (but the word is spelled alright.) Fred says, "Wait, wait! You yelled alright in that speech balloon but that's not a word Bob. It's all right - two words - ask anyone." As Bob is falling off the cliff he says, "Oh crap really?" Fred says, "It's a shame to go out on a grammatical error."   F...

Here we are looking at the middle of another month and it seems like just last week I posted something just for fun. This week, I found two comic strips that seemed worth sharing. The first one is from Pickles: Earl is busy plunking away on an old typewriter when Opal comes in and asks "What on earth made you decide to write a memoir, Earl?" "I just thought it would be a shame not to put down on paper all the wisdom that I've acquired over my long lifetime." "So how much longer do you think it'll take you to put all that wisdom down on paper?" Earl pulls a page out of the typewriter with a flourish. "All done!" "Wow, almost a whole page." What Opal doesn't understand is that sometimes a whole page is a major accomplishment, isn't it? This other one is from Pearls Before Swine: Goat and Pig are having coffee and Goat asks, "What are you doing, Pig?" "Reading this text from my neighbor Bob. He...

Here we are again at our first Wednesday of the month feature. Enjoy! From Pearls Before Swine : Rat says to goat, "I'm expanding pig's vocabulary. Today's word was 'defenestration' which means the act of throwing someone out a window." The next panel show a broken window. The third panel has rat saying, "Learning can be a painful process." From Pickles: Earl and his friend are playing checkers. Earl says, "It bugs me when people say "I could care less. What they really mean is  'I couldn't care less'. Meaning they have no interest in whatever it is. But if they say I could care less,' it means they have at least some interest in it. Pretty stupid, don't you think?" His friend responds, "I could possibly care less, but I doubt it." This next one from B . C. isn't about writing or books, but it's funny, and those of us who have tried to write around kids at home...

I've been finding comic strips that have funny jokes that connect loosely to writing or promoting and thought I would share a few today. Sometimes we just need to sit back and have a good laugh. This first one is from the strip, Bizarro   by Dan Piraro.  It is a single panel strip showing the Disney character, Elmer Fudd, running from a big blue bird. Fudd is yelling, "Retweet, Retweet." (If you visit Dan's site and click on his blog you can see the cartoon. Much funnier to see it that try to imagine it from my description.) This next one is from Get Fuzzy by Darby Conley. Bucky Kat has gone on and on for several panels justifying a video game that he created that is not fit for Rob to buy for a nephew. Bucky tells this long story about a vacationing prude who ends up on a nudist beach by mistake and is horrified to see a naked man who has fallen asleep on the beach. He picks up the book and "placed it over him where the sun shouldn't be shining." ...

Some writing tips from the funny papers.... From Sherman's Lagoon : Turtle: And what's young Ernest up to this fine day? Ernest: Writing. Turtle: Isn't that refreshing? A youngster using his brain for creative purposes. These days we see way too many kids just playing video games. What are you writing? A short story? A poem? A song? Ernest: Computer virus. And a whole series from Pearls Before Swine: Goat: What are you writing, Pig? Pig: A romance novel. But I'm struggling with the main characters' names. So far all I have is the woman's name... Juliet. Goat: Well, Juliet's a great name. Harkens back to the most beautiful romance of all time. "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare. What's the man's name? Pig: Bean Dip. Goat closes his eyes in disbelief and Pig says, "Really kills some of the intimate scenes." The next day, Rat is trying to get his share of the millions earned by authors: Goat: Hey, w...