Deep Dish Pizza The Story Behind This Londons Times Cartoon by Rick London

I like pizza and I like philosophy.  Not just any pizza and not just any philosophy.

I thought I liked Chicago Brick Oven Pizza until I tasted my wife Lee’s homeade vegan from scratch pizza and I know none other comes close.  A loving sharing part of me feels she should open a restaurant and its as if the devil on the other side of my shoulder says, “No, that’s just for the two of you”.

Fortunately, Lee’s run her own restaurant, and knows that if one wants to live ones golden years in happiness, at least in our case, one does not want to run a restaurant.  She used to tell me the same thing (about my Cajun dishes) and at times I entertained it, and then remembered, I’d worked in the food service business many times, and it was even a rough job in my youth, I can only imagine what it would be like today.

Besides both of us love being out in nature and waxing philosophical.

Over the years I have observed some interesting and exciting things about Lee (other than her uncanny ability to cook, particularly bake).  That part makes sense to me though she could have easily missed the gene.  One of her ancestors was a famous baker in England and there is no doubt she did inherit that gene.  I thought I knew how to cook; and spent many years in my youth in New Orleans kitchens, invited by famous chefs who “showed me their tricks”.  Of course I didn’t learn a lot, but enough to grow up to be able to cook okay, but nothing like what Lee knows how to do.

Lee is also (to me) eye candy.  I never get tired of admiring her beauty.  In the old days attractive women were titled “dishes”.  As years went by and the womens movement grew, so were men that were deemed attractive.  And of course pizza with thick crust is called deep-dish pizza.  Hence the above cartoon.

Another thing the two of us love to do is wax philosophical as I mentioned.  We can either be at our living room office desks and a topic will arise that just must be discussed at that very moment.  I used to not understand the urgency. Now I do. We’d forget the subject otherwise unless we wrote it down.

And though for the most part we both enjoy solitude and silence while hiking in the forest, both of our ADHD kicks into overdrive when we see some type of wildlife or plant/floral growth that is unique and just waiting to be photographed.  She’s been teaching me how to do that and I’ve learned to love photography.

We even love those “National Geographic Moments” that happen so fast, there’s no way to capture them in the lens.  One happened a few weeks ago; and it was funny as we’d not seen an owl in a long time.  Lee touched one of our big favorite oaks and as if to talk to the forest, asked it to show us a great big owl.  We walked another quarter of a mile and I wrote an “owl quote” about barn owls being stoked.  Then we heard a loud squawk.  We looked about 15 feet off to the left and there was a large blue jay squawking loudly on a tall rotten tree stump.  Lee started snapping photos of it.

I didn’t see the large bluejay but I saw an even larger bird, much larger on the ground.  I asked her, “Are you taking a photo of that crow? I think that might be the biggest crow I’ve ever seen…no wait, it’s got to be a hawk…too big for a crow..”. I looked again and it was an owl; am guessing between 40 and 50 lbs.  Watching it “take off” was astounding.  It had to “fly” about 50 ft along the forest ground before gaining enough wind to truly get into the air.

We were in great wonderment at the bravery of the bluejay.  Bluejays are the “warning signalers” of the forest.  They warn other birds and chipmunks etc of birds of prey.  Usually from a distance.  This bluejay was only about 10 ft. away from the large owl which could have devoured it in one gulp.

Then we remembered Lee touching the tree and asking to see an owl.  The forest responded.

Clearly, skeptical me thought it was a fluke.  Last week we were on another hike on the same trail.  We remembered we’d not seen a deer in about 5 or more months, and we used to see them all the time.  She asked the forest “for a deer”.  Suddenly there was one of the largest deer we’d ever seen right in front of us about 30 yards down the mountain.  It “modeled” for us so that we could take about 10 minutes worth of photos of it.

Nature is an amazing thing.  Since Emerson felt we (humans) were/are a part of nature, there is no reason it should not respond to our requests.  Emerson, though a college student in New England lived at Walden Pond in a home he built across the lake from Thoreau.  He loved it every bit as much as Thoreau and actually put up the money to buy it (it was not their first choice of properties).  Emerson’s parents, however had other plans and he was made to return to college.   But his love and fascination of nature never ended.

It is a philosophy that speaks in another language, yet one we all understand.  We are humbled and honored to be a part of it.

Deep Dish Pizza is available on all sorts of gifts and collectibles.  To see more view or……

 

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Rick London is an author, songwriter, cartoonist and gift designer.  He is best known for Londons Times Offbeat Cartoons which he launched in 1997 and his funny gift shop Rick London Gifts.

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It’s High Time To Laugh by Rick London (My New Line Of Watches) How? Why?

Before much recorded history, there was “fun fiction” called Greek mythology. 

 

      One of the most read and famous stories was the one of Narcissus. 

      He was the son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Leiriope, was an extremely good-looking Greek youth. His beauty ultimately led to his death…if I remember my Greek mythology studies in college I believe he was staring at his reflection in a pond fell in and drowned. 

      I only mention that because, to me, today’s new narcissism is the blog.  Not as intense, but let’s face it.  We humans have a little bit if not a lot of vanity.  We buy products that make us appear younger, unless we are under eighteen and trying to buy beer.  But those fake mustaches look rather silly, and really not worth the trouble. 

     We also now blog.  When I started on the Internet, we all shared our thought’s and opinions on forums and in chat rooms owned and managed by others.  But it gave us our “vanity fix”.  We got the word out, at least our humble opinions right into mainstream media. Ok maybe right into Yahoo! Chat but it sure seemed big time.

      Now I’m like Narcissus staring into an empty page that tells me its a humor blog called “RickLondonSyndication”.  Now tell me that’s not impressive 🙂

     I used to blog a lot and then got busy designing products and writing cartoons and could never seem to find the time.  The other truth is I could never seem to find anything interesting enough to share publicly.  Though it may seem to others that what my very talented nature photography wife Lee Hiller-London and I do is quite glamorous, we are much more often running errands and spraying Deep Woods Off Spray on us before hiking because we tend to get bit a lot.

     But she told me I should blog about some of my cartoons and/or products (cartoon watches in this case)  and I like that idea, even though I don’t know that I will always be accurate as the impetus/motivation of a lot of them come from a series of events, and some from just sitting there, or even meditating in the bathtub.

     Last week she told me one of our main manufacturer/dropshippers “Zazzle” had added a number of new products and one of them was beautiful humorous unisex watches.   Lee and I had just experimented with stopping wearing our watches last month, and I was beginning to miss mine.

     Several events led to the end of my wearing a watch.  I like to buy cheapies because I tend to break or lose watches whether they are Timex or Piaget.  So WalMart watches it was. For awhile anyway, until I went “wrist-naked”.

      Then I saw what I could do with the vintage mens/womens watches provided by Zazzle.  I can add my cartoons on some, my love quote graphics and quotes on some, and even add some to my famous wisdom quote shop.  This could be hot.   So I was off to the races last week, creating at least 10-15 watches per day (I digitally design them on my pc and Zazzle provides the software).

      So here I am hyping myself, my watches and my talent as if it is something I just take for granted.  Please note that I believe God has been very very good to me. I live in a town that is paradise.  I have a wonderful wife.  My businesses make a living.  I’m fifty nine, but I’m not in bed all day.  I work, I hike in the mountains, I admire the beauty of nature and commune and actually talk to the animals in the forest.  But yesterday we were in the forest on a mountain far, far away, and I realized, “Hey Rick, no watch”.  Then I thought, “Rick, you could buy one of your own”.

     “Whoaaa, I thought to myself.  My watches admittedly look good (sticks toe in reflecting pond)….but would WalMart ever let me forget that I bought one of mine and not theirs?

      Does it really matter?  Am I the only person on the planet who feels guilt that long ago I told Walmart I loved their watches and would always buy them there.   Do I think they will now go under because Rick didn’t buy his next watch there?

     I hope you like my new Rick London watch I will be buying next week.  I will post a photo of it, but shhhhh….please don’t tell WalMart. 

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Rick London is an author, musician, designer and cartoonist.  He is best known for launching Londons Times Cartoons in 1997 in an abandoned Ms. tin shed/warehouse.  LTCartoons.com has since become Google and Bing’s #1 ranked offbeat cartoons and funny gifts