I know it’s the start of the week and probably too early to be posting websites for procrastination purposes, but I thought you might enjoy this one.

Canadian cartoonist Cathy Thorne takes a humorously look at the day-to-day things women face, but while her cartoons are obviously appealing to a female audience they’re funny and enjoyable even for a red blooded male like me.

Working from her home on a quiet street in Toronto Thorne publishes a weekly cartoon “about real women” on her website ‘Everyday People‘ which is really worth look. As a guy I found myself thinking “Yeah I know how that feels” when looking at some of the cartoons, like the one which shows a woman standing alone with a captions that reads; “It’s not that I want to change him, it’s just that he would be so much better if he were different.” Or another in which a couple stand apart, arms crossed in annoyance with the caption; “I know I’ve been overly emotional lately, but that only means you should be nicer to me.”

It’s a funny site that’s well worth a visit. You can even email the cartoons, though you can’t add a message to the email unfortunately. I wanted to email a couple of them but I decided against it because on their own I was worried that it might seem like I was just being mean. But there I go again, trying to preempt what a woman would think - I guess I’ll never learn!

—

Everyday people cartoons

When I was a toddler I had a jack-in-the-box which, on account of my early language skills, I named ‘Guggla.’ I don’t really remember him that much, he was just one of the many toys that I played with as a child. He shared my room with cars, trucks, fire engines, a parking garage, action-men, lego, a guitar and a whole host of other things that accompanied me through my early years. So when my Mom recently emailed me some pictures of my young niece and nephew, Jacob & Sumalee, playing with a wooden fortress that my Granddad had made for me, I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic.

I loved that fortress. It had a draw bridge that could be extended over the gloss blue moat, and turrets upon which my knights in their painted armor would brandish gruesome weaponry and cast imaginary arrows at the invaders below. It had no switches or buttons, cord or batteries, it was powered entirely by the imagination of a child. I don’t know how many hours I must have spent immersed in that medieval world, but I imagine that the fortress served as the seed for the fascination with castles that I have today.

My Granddad created a number of great toys from wood. He built my multi-level parking garage with it’s array of ramps and tricky walls. He made my action-men a home and a base from where they planned their various adventures, one of which involved parachuting into the pond, much to my Dad’s annoyance. And then there was the scale model of our family home, a dolls house built for my sister, Louise, which came complete with action figures of the five of us. It was amazing, and I’m not ashamed to say that I think I played with that about as much as my sister did (much to her annoyance too I might add!).

Mom also sent me a photograph of my niece and nephew playing in Jubilee Cottage, a wendy house built into the space under the stairs in my sisters family home. I first saw Jubilee Cottage back in 1977, the year of the Queens Jubilee when I was just six years old. It was another one of Granddad’s creations, built into a space in my sisters bedroom. Dad had painted the outside with red tiles, and flowers either side of the bright yellow toddler sized door. Louise and I played in there for hours, cooking on the hand made wooden stove and making imaginary cups of tea served in vivid orange and yellow plastic cups.

I’s funny how when I look back, it’s not the battery powered loud toys that I remember most. Instead it’s things like the fortress and the parking garage that are embossed into my memory. Even a stuffed cartoon style bird I named ‘King’ sticks in my mind. Made by my grandmother, whom we to this day still call ‘Yogi,’ ‘King’ was an exact copy of a stuffed bird that used to look out of the window of a house we used to walk past on the way to my grandparents who lived just around the corner. I liked looking at that bird and wanted one just like him. With a little neighborly help Yogi was able to make that happen, and ‘King’ looked out of my bedroom window for years to come.

Then there was the train set that my Dad built in my brother’s room. It included a model village complete with a pub called ‘The Swan’, a police station, and a farmhouse set on a landscape of trees and hills. It was a pretty impressive train set I can tell you, but Pete wasn’t always excited about having his little brother in his bedroom, and so began my education in boundary distinctions. Fortunately my Scaletrix set, wasn’t similarly fixed and therefore my brother and I were able to play with that in relative harmony.

I’m glad that my parents were able to hold on to some of the things of our childhood. Sure, they’re different now as I look at them through the eyes of an adult. But there’s something of that child in me that can still recall the wonder of these things. So when asked recently, I couldn’t resist an invitation by Sumalee to join her inside Jubilee Cottage for a cup of imaginary tea.

As for Guggla, my old jack-in-the-box, he wasn’t discarded either. When I grew tired of his wobbly ways he took retirement in a storage box where he remains to this day, quietly hoping perhaps to make a few encore appearances and once more feel the warmth of the sun on his wooden face before he’ll ‘guggle’ no more.

—

Grandparents
So long Granddad

Sometimes I fall asleep on the couch. That’s not entirely an easy thing to do on my uncomfortable Ikea couches, but with my legs stretched out across the corner of the coffee table and a cushion propped behind my head I can just about float away like a twirl of cigarette smoke and disappear to napland.

I’m not big into napping; I’m a snooze button man myself. In the morning when my alarm tells me it’s time to get up I give it a wallop with an outstretched flailing arm and return to my dreamtime. I like morning dreams the best, you can wake up hit snooze and if you’re quick enough you can get right back to the dream. For example, yesterday I stirred to hit snooze then got right back to deciding if £1m cash-back at the supermarket automated checkout would take to long to collect or not.

As it happens, it turns out that my sleep pattern isn’t all that good for me. According to a recent article in the Boston Globe we would all be better off if we took a twenty minute power-nap in the afternoon. Apparently doing this would enhance our alertness and concentration, elevate our mood and sharpen our motor skills! Drink a cup of tea or coffee before you take that nap and you’ll wake feeling extra alert too because the caffeine will be kicking in just as you emerge from your micro-slumber.

In a recent study of 23,000 men a women by Harvard University and the University of Athens Medical School researchers found the participants who took regular naps of 30 minutes or longer at least three times a week had a 37% less risk of dying from heart disease. Those who took shorter or less regular naps, maybe once or twice a week, lowered their risk of heart disease by 12%.

So, maybe I’m reading this wrong, but does that mean that instead of hitting the gym four times a week and working up a sweat pointlessly rowing or running to nowhere on a machine, I could be just as healthy if I took a nap and perhaps dreamed of the gym?

Maybe I’ll try a semi-scientific study and take afternoon naps instead of those morning snoozes. Though wait a second, has anyone studied the effects of a combination of long morning snooze sessions and afternoon naps? I think I might just have to try that, in the name of science of course. It’s a tough challenge I know, but I’d like to think that I might just be a good candidate for this most selfless of tasks.

—

Boston Globe’s guide to better napping
Nap time
Napping benefits

So here’s a question you can ponder for a moment. If you could be granted an opportunity to have a conversation with three people from anytime in history, including the present day, who would you talk to?

I gave that question some thought when it was put to me a while back. I can think of a great many people that I’d like to have a conversation with. But how would those conversations go, what would I ask?

I’d like an opportunity to ask Jesus Christ if he’s happy with the things that are done in his name. I would search his every sentence and expression looking for proof that he was a normal guy and not the perfect virginal religious super-hero character of stain glass windows that seems absolutely unapproachable to me. “Are you happy with the way it’s all turned out Jesus?” I might ask.

Mahatma Gandhi is unmistakably one of histories most recognizable figures of peace, famous for his non-aggressive protests against the British in India. He was assassinated in January 1947 for essentially believing that no-one was better than anybody else. His is truly a David and Goliath tale and his influence on the world would surely make him a compelling man to talk to.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Said Martin Luther King, Jr. But had he not been shot and killed I think that history would likely look upon this man very differently. I’ve read and listened to many of King’s speeches and find him to be profoundly inspiring. “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.” I can pull these quotes from memory because I have at times leant on these words myself. “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” I’d be fascinated to have a conversation with the man who said, “Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”

There would be others if the list were longer. The Dalai Lama, Elvis, Tank Man (from Tianamin Square), Amelia Earhart, Henry Ford, even Hitler, if only to see if his dangerous lunacy is apparent in conversation. There are many more I could name, but I think the three I chose might not change for a long time. So given the opportunity to choose three people, who would you talk to?