Cartoons, cartoons, cartoons.... John Crowther's Cartoon Odyssey

I think of it as The Fool's Journey. I've been asked who the "fool" is. It's me, but in the classical sense of the court jester. Only the fool was allowed to tell the king of his follies. All cartoons are available as prints or originals, framed or unframed, through my website or e-mail. For mugs, t-shirts, and other products visit my gift shop at www.zazzle.com/jcrowtherart* (be sure to include the *).

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Fish or Cut Bait

What could possibly be a better activity for a retired person than fishing? Except I hesitate to call it an activity. Oh sure, you have to get yourself to where the fish are, and afterward get yourself home. But once there, and you've done whatever you need to do to prepare, like baiting hooks or tying a lure onto the line, then you do, well, nothing. Oh sure, you see fishermen pretending to do something, moving the line back and forth gently, staring intently at the water as if engaged in psychological warfare with their intended victims, but it's window dressing. The fisherman wants to look as if he's doing something, after all. The problem is that once he's caught a fish there's a flurry of really unpleasant activity, clubbing the poor helpless creature to death with the ferocity of an Abu Gahraib torturer, removing the hook from it's mouth, and then slicing it open and scooping out the guts. Genuinely nasty stuff. The best part is still when you're doing nothing. Now that I think about it, it's not the perfect retirement pastime, not when there are things like televisions and surfing the Net that allow a person to appear as if they're doing something without even the pretense of mental or physical exertion.

11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great observation John...

We came upon a bunch of people by the side of a flooded road the other day... at first I thought there must have been an accident by the number of cars stopped. But no... there they all were fishing in the floodwater! Now that's dedication for you!

2:51 PM  
Blogger John M Crowther said...

Wow, now if only they could have barbecued their catch at the base of an active volcano.

3:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

John, Don't you eat fish?

Fishing is an industry in Florida and considered a "sport" by many.
If that is all you have to do in retirement, I agree with you. But to do it well you have to know something about it.

I have one son that loves hunting and fishing and does it in all of his spare time and is an expert at both. He found his love for fishing when he was a kid when we lived in Pompano Beach and he fished from a pier there. Went on to working on party fishing boats on weekends while he was still in school. He married a gal whose father was retired Navy and became a "waterman"... fishing for a living.
But, my son does it for sport...he will not eat fish and releases everything he catches. For this recreation he bought a house on a river (with a dock and boat lift) that runs into the Cheaspeake Bay (about a mile) and bought a fancy, expensive, fast fishing boat with all of the new gadgets to see the schools of fish under water and depth sounders.....that new gadget that tells you where you are and how to get home....LOL He can fish in the dark and get back up the river with that GSP or whatever it is and never run into a sand bar. Fortunately, his wife likes fishing also, but has her own boat.....her speciality is soft shell crabs.

Katherine

9:11 PM  
Blogger John M Crowther said...

Whew, Katherine, doesn't sound like a level playing field to me. The poor darned fish doesn't have a chance against gazillions of dollars worth of technology. That's a sport? Remember the lowly drop line when we were kids? [grin]

I once spent a summer in Alaska fishing for salmon, out in open boats with every tide, four times a day. Little chance to sleep, lots of work!

9:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

[Wow, now if only they could have barbecued their catch at the base of an active volcano]

Back at the end of the last ice age they could have... didn't you read my blog? Hey... life was simple then...[smile]

12:29 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Could not get this cartoon to come up on my screen, no idea why. Will try again later as it certainly sounds interesting from everyone's comments.

9:53 AM  
Blogger John M Crowther said...

I have been reading, Jean, I promise. And honest injun I wasn't cribbing from you. [grin] I even wetn back and looked fr the reference but couldn't find it. Old eyes, maybe.

11:29 AM  
Blogger John M Crowther said...

And in case anybody missed it previously, Jean's blog can be found at www.jeanburman.com.

11:33 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for the plug John... I know your topic was fishing but I truly ruly wasn't "fishing" for comments! (((LOL)))

'Twas only your reference to active volcanos that jerked my thinking back to the ice age theme... :-)

2:35 PM  
Blogger Lee said...

I knew there was a reason why I never wanted to go fishing besides hating the buzzing bugs. I prefer my fish to be civilized. waiting patiently in the butcher's display case without scales, head, or tail, thank you very much.

First, I look at the expressions on the faces of the charactors, great ones in this cartoon, by the way, then I look at the composition which leads me to immediately know that I need to continue studying, then I read the text. All of this makes these great cartoons, John C. They come alive for me. Excellent commentary by the way.

8:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Have to agree with you John, that it makes fishing too easy. I, too remember the bamboo pole with line. But it did not interest me.

bye the way, it was not my son that you met when I was in LA.

10:01 PM  

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