You know how some well-established magazines and websites
sometimes publish letters from their readers? Well, I don’t get very many of
those, so I’m going to milk this one for all it’s worth and make an entire blog post out of it. I would love to say that I’m going to make this a regular thing, but
if the past is any indication of the future (and in this case, I think it is),
I won’t get another fan letter for at least nine months. And once every nine
months can hardly be considered a regular thing, unless you are the Duggar
family.
I recently received an email from a gentleman by the name of
John Hofacre, The message began with him telling me that he had stumbled upon
my blog because its title is similar to that of his website: The Running Joke Cartoon.
Clearly, this man had good taste, so I felt compelled to
read on. Also, I’m a total sucker for praise of any kind, and I wanted to see
what else he had to say about me.
Turns out, John is an age-graded regional class runner,
which with some help from The Google I determined to mean that compared to
other old guys, he’s pretty freakin’ fast. This piqued my interest because I
decided a while ago that since I have probably reached my peak as a regular
runner, I should start focusing on my career at the master’s level. I figure
that if I am able to maintain the speed and fitness that I currently have, I will
be a top-ranked athlete by the time I’m 40. So watch out, master’s running
scene—in 15 years I am going to rock your world!
So anyway, since John and I both enjoy poking fun at the
sport of long-distance running, and since we both have goals of beating other
old people, I started to develop a sense of camaraderie with him.
Further down in the email, he said something along the lines
of, “You really should check out my book, The Running Joke Cartoon Book. I’m pretty sure it will be the second-best thing
you’ve ever read, after your own blog of course.” (OK, so maybe that’s not
exactly what he said, but remember, I’m paraphrasing.)
At this point, I was extremely intrigued and decided to
follow the links to his work that he had provided for me. And it was good
stuff. I mean, really good stuff. It was
like he took things that I could spend an entire blog post blabbering on about
and made them into one small, simple, colorful, laugh-out-loud package.
In fact, it kind of made me jealous. I once spent an entire
afternoon sketching the stick-figure chicken for my title art (see top of
page), and John has the kind of genuine artistic talent that I, tragically, was
born without. (Other talents I tragically was born without include but are not
limited to: gardening, baking, getting off of ski lifts, playing stringed
instruments and singing songs other than “Fergalicious,” which I can karaoke
the crap out of.)
You can check out some samples from John’s book on his
website. You can also “Like” his Facebook page to see new cartoons as he posts
them. One of my favorites is a cartoon showing an alien spacecraft hovering
over a pack of runners. The top caption reads: “Buzz 'em again if you want, but
I still say it’s not intelligent life.” Ha!
The other really cool thing about John’s book is that all of
the proceeds support an endowed scholarship honoring his sister, Susan, who
died of cancer in 2005. So if you’re looking for a last-minute Christmas gift
for your best running buddy, it’s pretty much a win-win purchase.
