Works in Progress

 

The president of the Hampton Dems, who is nothing if not innovative, challenged the group of 20 or so souls who rallied for the July meeting to try to capture in a phrase and an image what Democrats should be saying to the world.

Give Me My Big Beautiful Billionaire's Bill

Some found this easier than others, and Mad Dog was astonished when some of the quieter, retiring types, who rarely say anything during these meetings, offered up some dazzling thoughts. 

Mad Dog has often despaired of the frumpy, silent, nearly catatonic types who show up for these meetings. 

His compatriot, Olivia, who shows up every time, has always laughed at Mad Dog's grumblings, telling him he simply did not know these folks.

As each offered his or her thoughts, and Mad Dog was left with his jaw on his chest, Olivia shot looks in his direction with a very satisfied, "I told you so!" look on her face.

Sitting among us were likely past winners of the New Yorker caption contest. Mad Dog has long contended that Harvard should not select its class by grades and SAT scores, which tell you how compliant and diligent on the one hand (grades) and on the other hand, who possesses a certain narrow band of competence (SAT's), but they should sit down their 50,000 applicants in exam rooms across the country and present them with a dozen New Yorker cartoon contest problems and that would make the process way easier and would select a much more talented class. For one thing, it would probably eliminate at least half the applicants, who after sitting for an hour or two trying to think of a caption would simply give up and go home and withdraw their applications. 

(The other option would be simply to put all the names in a hat and draw out 2,000 names and be done with it.)

But, Mad Dog digresses. All he is saying is there are all sorts of intelligence, and present in our Dems meeting were at least a dozen folks who possess one very important type.

Don Draper (of Mad Men fame, about Madison Avenue advertising agencies) once said, "Every one thinks what we do is so easy. But, the fact is, very few people can do it."

He was talking about creating an ad campaign.

So Mad Dog limped home with his tail dragging between his legs and tried to do a simple exercise, which is presented above. 

It's a start. Or maybe an end.

But maybe, some talents can be trained and developed.

Baseball pitchers get coached. But they need to have a certain hand/eye coordination, shoulder anatomy, baseline talent.

Hitting a fast ball is certainly something you can learn to do. For that it's not clear you need anything but persistence. Mad Dog has spent years at batting cages. At first he could not hit much of anything. Now, its just a pleasure. 

Cartooning may be somewhere in between.