Mustaches For Kids Update 2

Mustache growth continues apace as the Mustaches For Kids Challenge nears its halfway point. I have so far stayed my hand and ignored my razor, knowing that generous donations from readers of this blog have helped to fully fund three projects in underprivileged classrooms. Please give a little if you can.
Thanks again to my former donors, and to my folks. You are the wind beneath my mustache.

John Hodgman

Weeks ago I discovered that I'd be presenting my new book at Politics & Prose in DC on the same day that John Hodgman would be presenting his (More Information Than You Require, in stores now), albeit eight hours apart. I didn't have eight hours to kill, but I did elect to leave Mr. Hodgman a signed copy of my book, featuring a mole-man sketch. I flattered myself that it might be the sort of kids' book he'd like, or I hoped so.
Today, via my Aunt and Uncle Papenfuss, I learned that Hodgman had reviewed Frankenstein Takes the Cake in The Week magazine. The review can be read here.
And above you can see my hastily drawn caricature of Hodgman, sketched in my sketchbook and held up to my laptop's iSight camera.

New Shirt in my Shop

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Mustaches For Kids Update 1

Well, look at that. I think my mustache is...is really...it's...
Oh God, who am I kidding. Look at it. It's like I can see my future, and my future is Freddie Mercury. I mean...I mean MY GOD!
Please help me resist the temptation to shave by donating now to help underfunded schoolkids. Do you have a spare ten dollars? They could use ten dollars.
Big thanks to donors Kim Baker, Stephen Wood, Jason Michels, Israel Sanchez, Bernie and Laurie Thompson (in honor of Connor Thompson), and Douglas Florian.

Smeksbury

A while ago, while preparing material to put on the National Time Capsule Project site (aka The True Meaning of Smekday website), I sketched out this fake Doonesbury strip. The idea was that this was an installment of Doonesbury that actually appeared in newspapers at the time of the alien invasion that takes place in my book. I wrote to Gary Trudeau, asking for permission, never got a response, so I never inked this thing or posted it on the site. I forgot about it for a while. Then I remembered it after re-watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas recently.

So if Trudeau's people want to send me a cease-and-desist letter, now's the time. If I don't hear anything, maybe I'll ink it and put it on the Smekday site in time for the book's paperback release in May.

Mustaches For Kids

Here's a picture of me, taken today. You're probably thinking, Look at that Adam Rex. What a big mustache he doesn't have.
Well, in keeping with the rules laid down by international fundraising group Mustaches for Kids, I will spend the next 30 days growing a mustache, possibly a very bad mustache, and enduring the public ridicule and haunting personal doubt that follows. To stay strong I need your pledges–any dollar amount will help–and you'll feel good knowing that your donation is going to help underfunded classrooms.
I promise to keep checking in with mustache progress shots twice a week, if you promise to pledge. You can go to my pledge page HERE, or through the sidebar on the right.
And I know I'm asking for money again pretty soon after that 5K I ran. Sorry about that, I didn't plan it this way.

Hmm.

There's an interesting experiment going on at genderanalyzer.com. They claim their AI can analyze a blog's language to determine if it was written by a man or a woman. They think I'm a woman.

So I'm going to see if this post makes any difference, football beer boobies football.

FOLLOWEEN

No ghosts are seen on Halloween,
except for kids in sheets.
No zombies ring for anything
apart from tricks or treats.
Though people say today’s the day
when bogeymen come out to play,
November 1st is when the worst
of monsters hit the streets.

And in disguise the dead arise
to sell us magazines.
In ties and slacks they hand out tracts
as fine, upstanding teens.
Just like the kids the night before
these horrors go from door to door
with vacuums, mops, or other props,
and boring sales routines.

It might feel mean on Folloween
to just ignore your door.
“A Girl Scout troop is on my stoop,”
you’ll mutter. “Nothing more.”
You want a snack so bad it hurts,
but trust me–those are ghouls in skirts.
With that in mind you’ll find
you’re not so hungry anymore.



From Frankenstein Takes the Cake, in stores now.