4
Sep 2008
Posted in Books by Rob Smith, Jr. at 12:06 pm | No Comments »

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Tim Dorsey and Serge Storms returns! This is Dorsey’s best book in a few years. Hilarious and very well written. Lots of chills, thrills and laughs!

Though it may seem an odd segway, reading ‘Obama Nation’ just before had me more aware for Dorsey’s signature literary twist and turns. As ‘Obama Nation’s author Corsi had the reader put the pieces together, so does Dorsey. You have to pay attention to laugh even harder.

Four more months to installment #11!

2
Sep 2008

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We went from Kathy Wolf’s to meet up with old friend, Rob Labby, for breakfast. The original idea was to to do that near his home in Century Village in Deerfield Beach. However, Vice-Presidential candidate Joe Biden was giving a campaign speech next to the restaurant. After circumnavigating the Secret Service, it was decided to head to Denny’s. A Denny’s coffee pot is to the left. Later we headed to his home and he showed us a 1988 short he did with actor Bill Daily for Brevard County tourism. It was a great visit with Mr. Labby and we look forward to the next!

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On the way home we made many stops at the Jupiter Lighthouse, the House of Refuge, The Desert Inn, etc. We ended up at The Catfish Place for dinner. The wrapped silverware is to the left.

1
Sep 2008

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Still out in the Big Cypress Swamp! Here is another sketch made while in the swamp. It’s a lone cypress knee.

Below are more caricatures I drew today.

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31
Aug 2008

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Out in the swamps drawing caricatures!

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30
Aug 2008
Posted in Florida Outdoors!, Sandra by Rob Smith, Jr. at 12:12 pm | No Comments »

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I helped Sandra take crowds out through the swamps of Big Cypress for the annual Muck-A-Bout. I did some sketching while out in the swamps, as to the right .

30
Aug 2008
Posted in Books by Rob Smith, Jr. at 11:40 am | No Comments »

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While in the swamps, I finished ‘Obama Nation’ which I think is a fair overview of Barack Obama’s life. Author Corsi has made his way into the dark and murky waters of Obama’s past. Since he has accomplished so little, you can see how Corsi struggles to find out just what a Barack Obama is. At first I didn’t like his sources being other publications. That is until I realized that the sources were The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune. Usually non-conservative publications that have unveiled a very scary portrait of the secretive Obama.

This is very well written and leaves alot for the reader to figure out. Some of the figuring out is remembering what was written earlier in the book and realizing what the two elements means. That’s a great writer!

28
Aug 2008
Posted in Florida Restaurants, Sandra by Rob Smith, Jr. at 11:05 am | No Comments »

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We headed south to be a part of the Clyde Butcher Muck-A-Bout. We took backroads to get there. A stop we made was at The Cool Place, an ice cream shop in Bartow. There Sandra and I had sundaes (See above).

For dinner we stopped at the 75 year old Flora and Ella’s in LaBelle. I had great Southern fried chicken and Sandra loved the chicken and dumplings. We also finally found pecan pie. we’ve been looking for a year and a half for home made pecan pie throughout Florida and during our trips to North Carolina, New Orlenas and throughout Arkansas. All of the restaurants we stopped at had pecan pie provided by a store of food service. Flora and Ella’s has folks come in at 4:30 every morning to make new pies. It was great!

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Above is one of the antique cash registers and adding machines at Flora and Ella’s.

We later settled in Everglades City to get ready for swamp trompin’ Friday.

26
Aug 2008
Posted in Editorials by Rob Smith, Jr. at 8:36 pm | 1 Comment »

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It is absolutely staggering how MSNBC is delivering information. Through a prism of near hate of everything but the Democratic nominee a non-stop commercial for Obama continues on MSNBC. Shame on the National Broadcasting Company.

24
Aug 2008

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I saw the Illustration Friday word ‘routine’ and at the time sharks were being talked about on Glenn Beck’s program or Laura Ingraham or some such and this cartoon popped into my head.

23
Aug 2008
Posted in Various by Rob Smith, Jr. at 1:48 am | No Comments »

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I spent a good part of the day at McCain HQ putting together a ton of signs (See above) and various other chores.

22
Aug 2008
Posted in Cartooning by Rob Smith, Jr. at 2:06 am | No Comments »

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I was busy at the cartooning board and the computer keyboard today finishing off many a project. One that I can show is this illustration I made of Jose Delbo for an event of our National Cartoonists Society Florida Chapter in a couple months. In That Jose draws lots of super heros, I posed him in a mix of that and the duties he and his wife Mabelle so kindly offered for our gathering, an Argentinian cookout. Jose will be cooking up a storm.

22
Aug 2008
Posted in Editorials by Rob Smith, Jr. at 12:12 am | No Comments »

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Taylor and Jacob haven’t made an appearance in awhile. Here they return figuring out their real estate holdings.

20
Aug 2008

2008-0820-book-badgirls.jpgI’m not nutty about two page chapters and this book is pretty much all two page chapters. Something else I don’t care for is pretty much figuring out what was going on and who-done-it within a few chapters (or pages, as it is with this book). I think the story is very humorous and fun about mysterious deaths near a tiki bar somewhere near southwest Florida. It’s just very light on giving you a strong sense of setting, preferring dialogue take its place.

The book surrounds a well known former attraction, Tiki Gardens. Click here to learn more about that. What surprised me is the lack of writing about the location and really defining the Bad Girl’s Bar and Grill as a place. I never could envision the bar while reading the book, so I envisioned the actual Tiki Gardens instead.