Hubris

My Very Favorite Mark Addison Kershaw Cartoons

Boleman Herring Banner 2019

“I nag Mark Addison Kershaw. Every month. I nag all of Hubris’s Contributors, but I single Mark out for special attention. Because he makes me smile, always, and, many times, he makes me laugh. An aeon ago (in 2007, back when our daily demons seemed less numerous and toothsome), Stephen Colbert wrote: ‘Not living in fear is a great gift, because certainly these days we do it so much. And do you know what I like about comedy? You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time—of anything. If you’re laughing, I defy you to be afraid.’ Which is why I nag Mark, and why I am so happy, so wreathed with smiles, when his cartoons land (eventually, late) on my virtual desk.”—Elizabeth Boleman-Herring

Hapax Legomenon

By Elizabeth Boleman-Herring

Addison-Line Art

“I’m struck by how laughter connects you with people. It’s almost impossible to maintain any kind of distance or any sense of social hierarchy when you’re just howling with laughter. Laughter is a force for democracy.”John Cleese, The Human Face, BBC Television (2001)

2019 Boleman-Herring Weekly Hubris

PENDLETON South Carolina—(Hubris)—February 2024—I nag Mark Addison Kershaw. Every month. I nag all of Hubris’s Contributors, but I single Mark out for special attention. Because he makes me smile, always, and, many times, he makes me laugh. An aeon ago (in 2007, back when our daily demons seemed less numerous or toothsome), Stephen Colbert wrote: “Not living in fear is a great gift, because certainly these days we do it so much. And do you know what I like about comedy? You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time—of anything. If you’re laughing, I defy you to be afraid.” Which is why I nag Mark, and why I am so happy, so wreathed with smiles, when his cartoons land (eventually, late) on my virtual desk. In a time of such horror and anxiety, Mark brings me a lady on a park bench with a sack of peanuts she has brought along to feed . . . the birds. Thing is, an elephant has materialized before her, not pigeons. This surprise turns up the corners of my lips. I look at each cartoon Mark sends me carefully. I study it. And then, I smile, or I chuckle. For the duration, I am not afraid. 

This month, the second in our brand new year, I have made a selection of Mark’s cartoons, picked from the bouquet he’s been sending me (though not often enough) since December of 2018. Each and every one of Mark’s cartoons is, for me, a hapax legomenon (which, discerning readers may have noticed) is the name of my column here on Hubris. 

As per Wikipedia: “In corpus linguistics, a hapax legomenon . . .  is a word or an expression that occurs only once within a context: either in the written record of an entire language, in the works of an author, or in a single text. The term is sometimes incorrectly used to describe a word that occurs in just one of an author’s works but more than once in that particular work. Hapax legomenon is a transliteration of Greek ἅπαξ λεγόμενον, meaning ‘being said once.’”

A hapax is utterly unique, as is each and every one of Mark’s cartoons. As is Mark, himself. A one-off, as it were. So, this February, Hubris opens with a sampling of some of my favorite Addisonian cartoons and goes on to reprise six other monthly cartoon portfolios from months and years past. So, scroll on, Beloved Readers, and fear not, for the duration.

Addison, look easy.

Addison-mermaid

Addison-bells

Addison evolution.

Addison-oh-la-laAddison-sirens

Addison-Kitty-Sweet

Addison-Become-A-Cat

Addison butterfly catcher.

Addison-time

 

 

 

 

To order Elizabeth Boleman-Herring’s memoir and/or her erotic novel, click on the book covers below:

Elizabeth Boleman, Greek Unorthdox: Bande a Part & a Farewell to Ikaros

Elizabeth Boleman Herring, The Visitors’ Book (or Silva Rerum): An Erotic Fable

Elizabeth Boleman-Herring, Publishing-Editor of “Hubris,” considers herself an Outsider Artist (of Ink). The most recent of her 15-odd books is The Visitors’ Book (or Silva Rerum): An Erotic Fable, now available in a third edition on Kindle. Her memoir, Greek Unorthodox: Bande à Part & A Farewell To Ikaros, is available through www.GreeceInPrint.com.). Thirty years an academic, she has also worked steadily as a founding-editor of journals, magazines, and newspapers in her two homelands, Greece, and America. Three other hats Boleman-Herring has at times worn are those of a Traditional Usui Reiki Master, an Iyengar-Style Yoga teacher, a HuffPost columnist and, as “Bebe Herring,” a jazz lyricist for the likes of Thelonious Monk, Kenny Dorham, and Bill Evans. Boleman-Herring makes her home with the Rev. Robin White; jazz trumpeter Dean Pratt (leader of the eponymous Dean Pratt Big Band); and Scout . . . in her beloved Up-Country South Carolina, the state James Louis Petigru opined was “too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum.” (Author Photos by Robin White. Author Head Shot Augment: René Laanen.)