WE Blog

On the subject of plagiarism, Hunter Thompson once said something to the effect of "You’re not really in trouble until you start plagiarizing your own work." By that standard I am in deep doodoo. Did this past week’s caption contest cartoon look a tad familiar to anyone? Maybe that’s because I DREW THE SAME DAMN CARTOON ALMOST EXACTLY A YEAR AGO! As Charlie Brown used to say, "AAAIIIGH!" I could mumble some lame excuse about how when you draw 225 or so cartoons every year over the course of 30 years it’s bound to happen, or something like that, but the sad truth is, this happened practically within the same year! Alert reader and sometimes-contest-winner Roger Neugent of Haysville is the one who shook me out of my stupor. The first cartoon pictured here is this week’s winner, Brad Allen’s caption. Then take a gander at the March 19, 2006 contest cartoon, also pictured.Same drawing, almost exactly. Sheesh. Roger gamely suggested "That ole dawg, Rufffin, just keeps pullin’ for a jackpot!" as caption for the repeated drawing. Then he suggested my dog, Al, say "Deja vu," which I used this week. That kind of makes Roger a partial winner and I’ll send him a print of the toon. My apologies to you all for wasting your time with a warmed-over repeat. As I told my editor, Phil, this just proves I need a vacation.
Oh, well. On to the other captions which came close to winning this week. Teresa and Rick Claiborne almost won with "That’s not Toto and this can’t be Kansas." Arkansas City’s Don Bennett also had a good one with "Listen again — It’s not ‘ruf-ruf.’ I think he’s saying ‘Ruffin – Ruffin.’" We especially liked the inventiveness of Jeffrey King’s caption: "The mailman gives him $20 in quarters every Monday. Says it saved him three pairs of pants this week alone!" Mark Meredith of Harper tied it into recent headlines with "It must have something to do with his food." Wichita’s Bruce Cole submitted, "Isn’t that our preacher’s dog?" Karen Wallace, also of Wichita, went for clever wordplay with "All dogs go to seven?" From John Reisch of Wichita came "Looks like a ‘Rover takeover’ in the county!" Belle Plaine’s Richard Julius sent in "If that grin gets any bigger, Phil Ruffin’s teeth will fall out!"
That’s it for this week. I’ll try to be mindful of what I’ve drawn and not repeat myself so blatantly in the future. Thanks again for the nudge, Roger. Now, I’m taking off the rest of the day to contemplate the advice of Hunter Thompson.