I love chatting with my old friends; many of them are back home in Hattiesburg, or are from Hattiesburg, grew up with me, and live in other parts of the country (or world).  facebook is like a barometer. It tells me where I was three to five decades ago, and real life and even Twitter tells me to a certain degree “where I am now”.

By Londons Times Cartoons (Click To Enlarge)

I love hearing of my friends both old and new successes, overcoming obstacles and illnesses, falling in love, and sometimes even out of love because they may have found themselves with the wrong mate. It happens, and it is not a failure (to break up or divorce); in fact I imagine it is a failure not to, if one is in the wrong relationship and makes it the status quo and surrenders to unhappiness.  That saddens me.

Divorce by Londons Times c2011 (Click To Enlarge)

But nothing saddens me more than running into old friends who I know to be very bright who have gotten stuck in some political dogma and it is basically all they can discuss.  I know they don’t mean it.  I know they do not even know they are more or less in a cult.  It can be “on the far left” or “far right”.  They are so predictable.  It is like being in a physics 101 class.  You can say one thing and they say the opposite. You can agree with them, and they’ll find a way to disagree and find a monster under the bed and describe it in rapid detail because it is only seconds away from taking over America.  Usually it is somehow connected to The President, some senator or congressman, a tv network, or you name it.  The conspiracy is as real to them as the glass of bourbon they have just downed to fuel it and keep it alive.

Osama Bin Banana In His Birthplace Of Lemon

I make light of it, but it is not funny at all. I have lived and worked all over this great country and I know the ending of people who are like old 45 records that get stuck because of a big scratch.  They talk about it and as the years go by the conspiracies get more real (they find real researched blogs and books to back it up) and they describe it louder and louder.  In Los Angeles, I was at the death bed of a man who I admired but he was like that.  He told me at the end he knew he was wrong but it was “like a gang”. There was no way out.  He would have become persona non gratis in his small town. He commuted to L.A.  I told him he had enough open-minded friends in L.A. who didn’t care what he believed and he could be who he wanted.  It was too late. He died while I was there.

by Londons Times Cartoons

It was a lesson for me; one of the most valuable lessons I would ever learn.  Though I was then in my 30′s, it was time for me to get educated. I mean really educated.  That meant re-evaluating everything I learned from my teachers, my parents, my Sunday school, my college, and my experiences. It did not mean they were all wrong. It meant it was important for me to write them down and study them closely. Many of the ideas of which I hung onto are ideas I formulated decades before. Did they still serve me? Some did but most didn’t.  But that left “the great unknown”. If I let go of a lot of this political, religious and educational dogma that was no longer valid, but of which I identified myself and bonded me to my friends, and dropped it, what then.

I wasn’t getting any younger nor any happier. Nor were my friends. It was mandatory that I be honest with them.  I was changing. They may or may not like the changes but that was their issue, not mine. It took some bravery on my part, bravery I didn’t think I had.  But I had it, which led me to believe that most if not everyone has it if need be.

Nobody needs to die in their own toxic dogma.  They can change midlife.  The average college student is now in his/her 40′s and when I went back to college at 51, many of my colleagues were in their 60s-80s. As I got to know them, and my professors, I discovered they were going through healthy mid-life changes, as opposed to mid-life crises.

By Londons Times Cartoons

We never quit learning. If all we are doing is teaching, we might as well be dead.  Socrates and Aristotle even knew that.   Perhaps rethink your ideas.  Many of them may work for you, but many may no longer serve you well.  You can learn new things.  My wife and I do almost every day.

God gave us this beautiful planet to enjoy.   Yes, life can be a struggle but if all your doing is struggling, fighting, arguing, fighting, etc., I can almost guarantee you, its time to rethink your life.

Dance a bit, sing a song even if you’re alone.  Do something nice for yourself and/or someone else.  Smile.  Be yourself.  Experiment being your new self.  That does not mean letting go of  your moral or ethical principals. It is understanding and celebrating others opinions that might be different. It is re-learning tolerance. It is re-learning understanding.   It is celebrating life.  And do it often, even, no especially when you get the urge to flex your political muscles and “show them the light”.  We’ll never get perfect at it.  But we will make progress; and with that progress, love ourselves and others a lot more for it.  It’s scary at first..no absolutely frightening….then so sacred and positive, there’s really no going back.

Shirley Temple Of Doom by Londons Times Cartoons c2011 www.LondonsTimes.us

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I am a mountain man from rural Arkansas. I founded Londons Times Cartoons in 1997 and it has been Google and MSN’s #1 Offbeat Cartoon since 2005. I founded numerous stores that sell over 1/4 million funny greeting cards, tees, mugs etc.  I design unique shoes and clothes at shops like Shoes That Amuse that sell the world’s only famous love quotes shoes & Shoeshies.com which sell Sushi Shoes, Clothes & gifts.

It’s been quite a day and tonight we’re watching Ed Wood with Johnny Depp.  Lee has seen it but she’s seen now catching me up on all the films I missed when I went back to school in my latter years.  I’m 56 now and went back to school on and off through my forties to early 50’s; at times, full-time.  Much more fun in one’s youth. LOL.  I wish I’d paid more attention my first time in school in my late teens but I guess I forgot to pay attention after forgetting to listen to my dear late mom (who had a degree in education) say, “Pay attention!!!”.

Since my first job selling records at Pal’s Music Company in downtown Hattiesburg, Ms at age 12 in 1966 until the early 2000’s, I had so many odd jobs to support my “life as a writer”, I can’t even count them all.  Had a lot of false starts too.

Anyway, fast forward to June 18, 2010. I married the woman of my dreams (Lee) atop Hot Springs Mountain with a handful of guests.  It was a gorgeous indoor/outdoor nature wedding (if there is such a thing).  We had so much fun.   We still do.

Well, most people by now know that I founded my offbeat cartoons & funny gifts, Londons Times back in 1997 but I had a few near stops, real stops etc due to health, school, etc.  Then around 6 months into our marriage Lee suggested I’d probably be happier if I started a Londons Times Gen 2 cartoon reflecting all that has occurred in the world since my early cartoons, which a lot of people still thought were fine, but they didn’t reflect the changes of today. She was onto something (I later discovered).

Since I launched that cartoon came Google, blogging, 9/11, social media (Twitter, Facebook et al), med-resistant e-coli, tornadoes that went on for months, and so much more.   So I recruited a new creative team after reviewing several hundred portfolios. This new team was/is the tops. The new toons are much larger.  The text is more to the point, and hopefully the whole finished product is more productive.

We work as a team, as most cartoons you see in the newspaper do.  I write them, and do what is called “blueprinting them” which gives more detail such the expressions on the various persons faces, their body language, the pictures on the wall (if inside); what kinds of trees, dogs etc if outdoors.  I think blueprinting might be the hardest part of the process, but the most fun.  In a way it is like being an art director in a film. I’ve watched them work and it reminds me of that (only not so complex); I mean after all it’s only a cartoon.

I now have about 5000+ cartoons on my site and over a quarter million funny gifts. The funny t-shirts,  gifts & funny greeting cards by brand name sites such as Sears & Amazon.  Over 200 or the cartoons are new Gen 2 as are about 1000+ of the offbeat gifts & collectibles. Let me preface the rest of this paragraph with I dare not put myself in the same league with the master,  Gary Larson, but I remember when he took his all down from the net and demanded all others do the same. Finally he had to threaten suit and possibly sued, I can’t remember for those who would not remove them.  I loved Gary’s personality and his work.  I never understood why he had the cartoons removed (at first).  Then one day he said in an interview, “I had them removed because they are like my babies”.  I didn’t understand it at 1^st.  5000 cartoons later, I don’t understand how anyone couldn’t understand it.

Cartooning and creating merchandising is work that can be difficult or easy; but its always fun, and sadly, it is work that most people don’t see you do.   Lee sees me work, and as a fellow designer, she knows how hard I do work. It seems like I’m always working though it seems like play.  Between all the crazy jobs I had to take to get to our little piece of paradise in the Arkansas Mountains, I can truly say it was all worth it.  But what a journey!! I have learned new digital design skills and am now making the world’s only famous love quote shoes at my shop Shoes That Amuse and a line of Sushi Shoes & Gifts at my ShoeShies Shop. I’ll feature them in a near-future blog.  Meanwhile please feel free to take a look.  About 400 of the items have also been picked up at Amazon.com and I expect Sears Marketplace to carry them this year.

PS: Since I wrote this blog my beloved wife Lee & I watched Ed Wood and it was brilliant and strange. I loved it. She loved it (again); she’s seen it many times. In the middle of the film, we received a phone call on Lee’s phone from a very close special person in our lives and she couldn’t get to the phone in time.  When we checked the message, our dear friend had sung “Happy Anniversary To You” in a voice as atonal as mine; but we absolutely loved it.  (Let me add she is a most talented woman and known around the world for various advanced skills….but like me, singing does not happen to be one of them.  But it surely was fun and we surely did laugh aloud the rest of the day.   It was a beautiful day with my amazing wife Lee on our 1st anniversary and I felt the love and support from everyone who wished us well, who have supported us in our business ventures, and been there for us. It does not go unnoticed.  We love you all.

My current one saved my life a year ago this past April with two stents.  Three of my four main heart arteries had blown out; and the only one holding things together was one that was put in a stent back in 2001.

I had gone to the hospital because edema had set in and I noticed my feet swelling.  I thought I’d get a diuretic and go home the next day. It was not to be. It required two separate procedures.

Now every 6 months, I go see (“Surfer Dude”). That is what my wife calls him (my cardiologist) as he is young, good looking and always tanned and in good shape and wore a pooka shell neclace in both surgeries; a bit discomforting at 1st but I adjusted.  A little over a year later, today, he did an EKG and checked my weight, blood pressure etc.  Everything was perfect. I explained to him that my wife Lee has been watching out for my health prodding me to eat better and exercise more. I go hiking with her every other day. I drink 1/2 gallon of our “magic 2000 year old thermal water” every other day.  I eat salads, sushi, and other health foods.  Salt has virtually disappeared from my diet.

But my blog is not about heart disease and I rarely bring it up.  But its been a little over a year and but for the grace of God I have cheated death yet again.  Don’t get me started on all my near-death experiences…there have been quite a few more than the two heart attacks; most having to do with accidents, etc.  I am a klutz as well.

Today, I wore one of my cartoon caps to Surfer Dude’s Office. I think I’ve worn it there before but he never brought it up. He was rather chatty today and aske me where I got it. I told him the story of Londons Times Cartoons and gave him one of my business cards and then asked me if I had any medical cartoons. I assured him I do (in fact probably several hundred). That’s what happens to your psyche when you are klutzy all your life and later end up with heart disease.  But I digress.

I have always heart that attitude is half the battle and taking care of oneself is the other half. I am a nonsmoker and nondrinker.  Lee and I hike 2-4+ miles depending and they are mountain miles which means you can just about double that as far as the aerobic value of it.  Plus the miles are in the middle of the most beautiful National Park in America, Hot Springs National Park, which, like the water, is very healing.  It is impossible to be suspicious of a turtle, silly to feel hatred toward frolicking squirrels, and impossible to be angry at an affectionate mockingbird who is following you just for a collaborative melody. In other words it is a safe healing place.  And I’ll be damned if more often than not, I can look at all the beautiful wildlife and flora which surrounds us, and an idea for a cartoon doesn’t pop up. So I keep a pen and paper in my pocket on every hike (though that is not why I go).

My hope is to encourage everyone, especially younger people to take care of themselves *now*; in other words it is never too early to prevent heart disease. Eat right.  If you smoke, stop. If you’ve stopped and started back, not to worry. Stop again, and again, and again. It is that important. For many it takes 10+ times. It will finally make sense as you learn to re-enjoy the taste of fresh air.

Look at your diet.  Simple is better. Fresh fruit and veggies.   Less or no salt.  The lower the sodium the better.     Exercise!!!  If you are immobile you can still exercise.  You can learn tai chi on the Internet.  Lee & I do Tai Chi before every hike.

I hope I don’t sound preachy.  If you are reading this, chances are you are probably a Londons Times Cartoon & Gifts fan and I’d like you to be with us a long time.  Plus to be honest, I don’t want you to have to go through what I’ve gone through because you truly don’t have to. It is a choice.  Seems complex but it is simple.  Choose to be healthy.  That does not mean perfect; it means conscious of healthy things vs unhealthy things from food to emotions to exercise to career.  Choose what feels healthy and the younger the start, the faster habit becomes lifestyle.  Cheers, Rick London

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Rick London is a writer, entrepreneur, designer, and outdoorsman.  He founded Londons Times Cartoons & Funny Gifts which have been the #1 offbeat webcomics & gifts on the Internet (MSN & Google ranked) since 2005.  He has founded numerous online shops which feature his cartoon images and also others which are unique fashion such as the worlds only love quote shoes, Shoes That Amuse, and ShoeShies.com, Sushi Shoes & Gifts.

A few weeks ago, an old childhood friend asked me how I can always “be funny” & added “You are #1 on the Internet.  You live on a ridgetop mountain paradise. Do you ever feel empathy or sadness?  There are different types of humor and though it all “comes from the same place, different events or visuals might trigger it. Do I feel sadness and/or anger or grief.  Of course and often lately with all the world tragedies. Just because we are somewhat buffered does not mean we don’t care what happens in our world.  What happens five thousand miles away, affects us. We all now live in a global village called “earth”.

At first I thought back to the BP Oil disaster in the Gulf Of Mexico. I grew up on that Gulf and it was magic to me as a child even up into young adulthood.  I loved everything about it. I swam there, fished there, skied there, flirted with girls there, ran with my dogs there. It was my life in many ways. In the blink of an eye it was destroyed, and though the oil is out of sight, out of mind, we all know things are not okay but a lot of chemicals; oil and dispersants have sunk to the bottom or halfway down.  Baby porpoises are floating to the beach. Sperm whales are nowhere to be found.  I created a Tony Hayward  BP cartoon which has become popular.

I had been thinking about starting Londons Times Generation Two Offbeat Cartoons, and funny gifts, but the oil spill was the only thing on my mind.  So I made a pledge to write a parody song regarding the oil spill every day until it was plugged; and I did. If I could have found a band to record them, the funds were to go to various Gulf animal and environmental causes.  Sadly, I was unable to recruit a band on spec who could do song parodies. But I was able to purge, in a jaded sarcastic way, humor, as angry as I was. Anyone who knows Lee knows how angry I was, and I could not shake it. The songwriting helped.  Posting them on my popular well-visited blog helped even more.

Then I mellowed out a bit after a number of nature hikes with Lee and though I never forgot the event, and never will (both of us have pledged never to buy gas or other BP-owned products), we have in our own way, moved past it.  Lee is from Oregon and has never seen the Gulf and all its natural beauty.

Then came the uprising in the Arab world. Though I occasionally do socio-political cartoons, it is not the norm. Most are offbeat in the spirit of, some critics have said, The Far Side, which I consider a compliment, though my goal from the start was to attempt to continue Gary Larson’s absurd spirit, but create it with less text and a more “fine-art” look. For the most part, that has worked out fine.

So I decided to create ideas about the dictators which is always fun. It gives one a chance to be iconoclastic without hurting anyone but lampoon those who has not hurt many others.  A few of the cartoons landed in a major newspaper in the Middle East and though I find nothing about nations in turmoil funny, again, I was able to find comedy in fear and anger and it happened.

Finally, there was the tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan and a lying company called Tepco.   I can’t explain how much it felt like watching the oil leak from Deep Horizon and Tony Hayward saying things weren’t so bad, and when busted by the media added, “I just want my life back”.  It reminded me of Yogi Berra’s great quote “Just like deja vu all over again”.   Now the citizens of Japan, one of our greatest allies if not our greatest, and good friend, was being destroyed, first by a natural disaster, which I know from Katrina can eventually be fixed, but then by a firm “Tepco” which seemed to play the game exactly like BP.  The sad thing is that the Japanese media seemed to go along with it; basically reading Tepco’s press releases as news, until evidence began showing what was being released as news, was not what was really happening.  Radiation was leaking everywhere.  Tepco was insisting it was not so bad.

Meanwhile radiation was covering the planet and it has now been found in nearly every country on the planet. It will go down in history as worse than Chernobyl.  My team created a two-headed frog cartoon lounging by the leaking plant reading a newspaper. The headlines read, “Nuclear Accident Safe, No Worries”. One frog head says to the other, “Looks like the media is telling us the truth. Nothing to worry about”.

Some mistook my jaded reaction to making fun of the event.  It was anything but that.  It was a message to Tepco and the complicit media that they have no right to hide the truth from their citizens (any more than BP had a right to do all they could to hide their disaster from us).    Again, there was nothing funny about this event, and it felt like BP was happening to them this time.  I was enraged.  But from that rage I was able to find a bit of humor. It was angry humor but humor nevertheless.

Then came the flurry of tornados. One hit our hometown of Hot Springs about 7.8 miles from us and we lost some of our Arkansas citizens.  This was a very sad time and even out of anger or fear, I found nothing funny, so I just stared at the news and went on hikes when I had the energy. I created a few items, but no cartoons.  It was a time of grief as the warnings kept coming and tornados were hitting ground and destroying cities and killing people and other living creatures.  I was too sad to get much done, but I allowed myself to be that sad.  Lee understood as she too was sad.

Neither of us had ever experienced anything like it, and I grew up outside of New Orleans, tornado and hurricane alley and went through the worst of them. It had been a way of life growing up. Now with global warming and climate changes, the tornado behavior was/is too.  All I knew is we were lucky to be surrounded my mountains, and though there is always a slight chance of one landing inside such a geographic area, it is very rare.  That did not take away the sadness I felt and still feel watching the people hit in Kansas, Alabama, Mo, etc try to pick up and put their lives back together.  No way to create cartoons (or much of anything) when you know people are experiencing such a tragedy.

I don’t enjoy creating cartoons out of fear or anger. To me, they are not as funny nor do they have the same feel of professionalism as do those that come out of my head when the world feels a bit stable and I am hiking/communing with nature.

So I founded Rick London Designs which include Sushi Wear (I kid you not) and love quote gifts (again no joke).  I don’t have to feel funny to create these gifts and collectibles.  I love sushi and I love shoes, so I make shoeshies (sushi shoes) at my ShoeShies.com. These are fun creation, but I don’t have to “be funny” to create them, yet I have a wonderful outlet.

The love quote gifts and sushi items also just got picked up by our main manufacturer who is not a traditional POD but a private organization who chooses talent they want (creators cannot simply sign up with them), which means they are already beginning to show at Amazon and should soon be at Sears online and other outlets. Some of the sushi gifts at Amazon can be seen here.  The famous love quote gifts on Amazon can be seen here.

This makes me not feel angry, but that life is good.  And it is.  The world is a good world.  We live in a very good place.  Lee and I get to create for a living and she gets to hike and take photos and design products. I get to design products and think up cartoons and make gifts that make people laugh.  I can’t think of anything for which we would trade our lifestyle.  And as you can see, we still are a part of the world, feel sadness, happiness and all the other emotions persons in Metropolis feel.

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Rick London says he’s a semi-pro blogger, a designer of sorts, a cartoonist who doesn’t draw well, and a professional twitterer who doesn’t like social media all that much.  He and his wife Lee enjoy hiking, outdoors, nature and wildlife and they live in the heart of the gorgeous Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas.  Lee is a professional wildlife and nature photographer who runs the popular blog HikeOurPlanet.com. She designs beautiful designer shoes, gifts, clothing and home decor at her Lee Hiller Designs Gift Shop.

Click To Enlarge This Is Me

I bet I read 200-300 or more (mostly self-serving articles designed to get the readers to follow the author), but I started getting the idea of how it worked and as William Wordsworth once said, “To begin, begin”.  He always put a guilt-trip on my system of procrastination.

On the first day I think I managed to round up eight followers and I may have even doubled that my second.  People were posting messages to me, and I felt like I knew them; or at least the icons they portrayed to be them next to their name. I was told later most persons icons were ten to twenty years old and a lot of senior citizens were still tweeting away with their college sophomore yearbook pics.  That turned out to be true.

I also discovered that though many of Twitterers were interesting, and I still believe that, I was not only out of my league, I was out of my category, and a lot of that was my fault.  Though I had been posting for several months as an offbeat cartoonist who loved animals, that was about as much as I had in my profile.

When someone presents oneself in such an unfocused way, they are bound to attract a lot of unfocused people with unfocused agendas.  And agendas flew left and right and it would not be unusual to wake up one day and be “hated” by someone who “loved” you the day before, simply because you were friendly with someone who “done them wrong”.

My then friend Lee Hiller, now my wife Lee Hiller-London was quite a bit more savvy, more than slightly ahead of the learning curve than me.  She suggested I change my background which she happened to know how to do. I still have the same one up she installed, a wall of Londons Times Cartoons. She suggested I focus my short bio (Twitter allows about once sentence) and I did.

Click To Enlarge (Please Meet My Dear Wife Lee)

A month or so later three Twitterers opened accounts with my name claiming to be the founder of Londons Times Cartoons. That is my website and has a high visibility on the Internet. It has been Google’s #1 ranked offbeat cartoon since 2005 and MSN #1 since 2008 and remains so on both engines. It has had 7.8+ million visits.  At this time, Twitter was offering nothing aggressive to correct that, but did finally come up with a “verification system” that they provided for (mostly film, tv, and business celebrities) but also those with high-profile websites that could easily being cloned.

I filed my complaint and within three weeks, I woke up with a little blue Twitter verification next to my name.  This did not prevent “the clones”, but it did help my friends and fans to know who “the real me was and is”.

Then Lee, at that time my fiance, was building her own brand and a well-known Twitterer, not verified, used her good name to enable him to use it in his own complicated scheme.

Her brand was then at its very early vulnerable stage; not yet a few months old, but we could not provide the kind of proof (he had deleted it after we wrote him a scathing tweet), so she has continued without verification, but fortunately has such a huge following; nearly 25,000, people know they are really dealing with her, plus, she is a professional nature photographer and shares during her daily hikes the wildlife and flora that she encounters. So now, if someone tried to do a copycat scheme, they would have to re-create links to photos and merchandise she creates at her Lee Hiller Designs Shop that is distinctively part of the Hot Springs National Forest. Unless they live or move here, most would know they were “the wrong Lee Hiller-London”.

Below are some recent photos Lee took while hiking in Hot Springs National Forest for her Hike Our Planet Nature Blog. She is also a very talented gift and clothing/shoe designer where her nature pictures and original graphics appear on countless Lee Hiller Brand Products.

Meantime we Tweet along.  Our agent and syndication Great Southern Writers Syndicate @GSWSyndicate,  tweets famous quotes, and the occasional plug of one of Lee’s or my shops or Lee’s nature blog HikeOurPlanet.com. I have somehow accumulated 12,000+ followers (Lee and I call them my friends because actually they are).

Below are a few Lee Hiller Brand Products which she designed. Please click To Enlarge:

Today we are more focused.  We let our work and our products speak for us for the main part. We do work hard. We don’t just sit and tweet. It is very different than when we started on Twitter. We use a pre-scheduled Twitter client to get out information of our promotions and specific products and shops. It works, and leaves us time to create products and personally tweet with those with whom we prefer.

If someone is inappropriate, creepy, or both, (or shows signs of hate or bigotry),  we simply block them (we usually talk about it first and there has to be a very good reason). We try to give everyone a second and sometimes third chance if they “done wrong”.  Please don’t get me wrong. Most who tweet are normal people trying to get by in life, make a living and/or friends, and make a contribution.

Below are a few of my Londons Times Cartoons. You can see these and about 5000+ other full color cartoon at our main offbeat webcomics site.

Since joining Twitter I have branched out to open various types of online shops. My funny gifts shops also remain Google & MSN’s #1 ranked offbeat cartoon gift shops and have been since 2005.

All in all, Twitter is very fun. But it can be very hard work.  One has to create their own strategy for whatever reason they are there; whether it is to make friends, money, or find spouses.  Actually Lee and I were not there to find spouses. We were both promoting our Internet businesses.  We ended up spouses and glad we did.

We both have strengths where the other has a weakness (and vice versa).  Two heads, truly can work better than one, and get a lot more done, on or off Twitter.

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Rick London is an Arkansas-based writer, cartoonist and designer living in the beautiful Ouachita Mountains where he regularly hikes with his wife Lee and is an avid wildlife and nature lover and active in those causes (including environment).  London founded the #1 offbeat cartoon on the Internet in 1997 titled Londons Times Cartoons.  He later founded the world’s only famous love quotes shoes, Shoes That Amuse, featured on APWire and in USA Today.  He has created four funny gift shops featuring his licensed cartoon images on gifts with an inventory of over 1/4 million sold by Google Shopping, Sears Marketplace, Amazon, and many other shopping channels.  London recently founded his own line of Sushi Shoes (ShoeShies.com) and has now expanded to sushi fine art gifts and clothing as well which he calls ABoyNamedSushi.com. To see Rick’s sushi gifts click here.

Though sushi has been a part of civilization longer than one might imagine, it was not always in the current form in which we are used to devouring. It started as a simple “fast food” dish in 2 A.D. in China and was an excellent way to preserve food (there was no refrigeration then). In the early days chefs fermented rice, placed raw fish on the rice, threw the rice out, and ate the fish when hungry.

By 7 A.D. sushi made its way to Japan, where seafood is a staple entrée. However they started making the rice a “side order” with the fish. About 1600, Matsumoto Yoshiichi of Edo (now known as Tokyo) began experimenting with flavors such as rice vinegar and selling this “new dish”. By doing this, they created the world’s first “fast food” and it was more often than not eaten immediately.

Below is a wonderful short YouTube video by my very talented wife Lee Hiller London.

The majority of “sushi” eaten in American restaurants is nigiri (finger sushi) and California rolls, almost no resemblance to the original Chinese food known as “sushi”. An ethnic food that swept the world by storm was developed yet further by the artful experimental restaurant entrepreneurs of north American creating a fusion of food and art.

So not all, but a good deal of the history of my favorite food was familiar. Also familiar was my limited knowledge of design; that is, the best design often reflects the vision of a culture; a modern trend if you will.

Though pizza, hamburger, etc all have their “beauty”, I was not inclined or motivated to purvey the beauty of thousands of mg of trans-fat artery-clogging foods.

But sushi was and is a different story. I started with shoes (mostly womens) but now make mens too. I named the store ShoeShies.com. Then I started designing aprons, mouse pads, mugs, postage stamps, key chains, caps, and just about everything else showcasing dishes of sushi and sashimi and its all available now at Shoeshies.com. I am loving doing it and it has “recharged” me to continue to make cartoon products for Londons Times Cartoons and my love quote Shoes That Amuse…and eat more sushi.

But now, when all the sushi places are closed at 2am and I have a hunger for it, I can look at the sushi mouse pad next to my pc and drool…or drool on my shoes; knowing they will lead me to the nearest sushi bar….tomorrow.

Croaked Frog

When you reach my age (56), it is not unique that one remembers things that happened 50 years ago; but can’t remember what day it is. That’s me.  The one thing I will never forget is how and why I started collecting things. Let me warn you ahead of time, this story will not appeal to “greenies” nor “animal rights activists”. I should know, I am both. But at age four, when I was just beginning to explore the great outdoors, I found what became my new favorite animal, besides my beagle “Buster”.  That animal was the frog.  And since I lived near the woods, I knew I could count on my new friend, the frog, to virtually jump into my hands and into the great big jar full of grass and all kinds of marshy things I put together. It was tall enough to need no top so it generally lived a long time.  I tried to get 3-4 a night so as they could keep company and “tell frog stories”, as I imagined frogs often did.

Unlike my two siblings, my parents made a bedroom for me out of the attic of the home. This had its advantages and disadvantages. One advantage was the ability to hide frogs, even though the croak sort of gave them away. One croak was so loud, Mom ran upstairs, ran past the closet they were in, and to me. I was rubbing my tummy telling her I felt it was gas.  She gave me more Milk Of Magnesia than any human should be aloud to ingest and the croaking continued.

Mom was no dummy, even though at times I thought she was.  She asked, as I rubbed my tummy, “Where are the frogs”.  I took her to the large jar.  She let them out into the woods and explained to me that was their home and where they were happy. I readily agreed and begin collecting insects in jars.  She gave me the same lecture and we let them go.

Finally it occurred to me that I could be creative, make things, and nobody got hurt. I even begin collecting stamps.  Well into elementary school, creative writing became my love and nobody ever got hurt, except for those forced to read it.  However as time went by, I fared well at it, won a few contests and kept at it.

After college came “time to get serious” and there was not much time for creative ventures.  A funny thing happened though. Those creative ventures were still in my heart, and, when the work day was over, I would continue on creating as I pleased.  As time went by, I enjoyed 9-5 work less and less and creative endeavors more and more.  Playwriting took me to book writing, and book writing took me to screenwriting, and screenwriting took me to cartooning which is where I am now.

My cartooning began as a hobby. I had been taking care of a dying Mom and it was something to keep my mind busy.  Never in a million years would I have believed that this little hobby would grow into a business of 5000+ color cartoons and 200,000+ funny gifts & collectibles.  My cartoons are now my own little collectibles. They have replaced frogs, insects, stamps and a multitude of other items that did not serve me well (or vice versa).  Thirteen years of cartooning is a subtle hint that I might be on the right path. With Google & MSN rating my cartoon number one for 6 years, is yet another, subtle hint, this is the right thing for me to “collect”.   Anybody got a big jar?

Place Is Bugged (Click To Enlarge)

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I am a writer, designer and cartoonist who used to collect frogs, insects, stamps and other such items.  Cartoons seem to fit me better. I founded Londons Times Cartoon in 1997 which are the #1 Google & MSN ranked offbeat cartoon on the Internet. I launched several online stores that sell my funny gifts and even have my own line of designer shoes featuring graphics of famous philosophers and poets and their most famous love quotations.

Woodchuck Physics by Londons Times Cartoon (click to enlarge)

Oddly enough, a friend asked me that question yesterday. At first I thought it was a rhetorical question so I waited for her to talk again, but it was not.  I asked her for more detail regarding her question.  She said, “Well you write, you create, you do this cartooning thing, you spend half your life on Twitter and facebook, and I’m wondering if that is some kind of escape from the real issues of the world.

It was a good question, but not a very thought-out question. I became a home-office worker in 1997. At the time, we represented about 10% of the workforce in the U.S.  Today we are the majority.  That is correct. More people work in their home office than in corporate skyscrapers.  There are still plenty in corporate skyscrapers but they are dwindling rapidly due to the economy. It is more economical for a large corporation to hire an independent contractor from home who is “internet-wired” than provide an office, desk, office supplies, coffee, and an assistant.  I saw that coming long before it came.

My friend then asked, “Doesn’t the work world need you? I mean we are working for peace on earth as much as we are working for money. This question very much confused me.  I do my part with blogging, Twittering, creating cartoons, and much more, many of which I would never be allowed to do in Corporate America. I do them at home. And quite successfully I might add. I have the ear of many major news publications and people who read them, that I would never have in my once plush office in a good downtown neighborhood.

And what about the pay? My pay is much less than it was when I worked at the top of my field in corporate America.  But there is a trade off.  My stress is down to near zero on a daily basis. My living expenses are a mere fraction of what they were living in “the right neighborhoods” of America.  My wife and I live on the ledge of a National Park which we hike all the time.  A trip to the grocery is five minutes or a few dollars gas, and grocery prices are a fraction of what they were in New York or Washington, D.C.  We don’t have to take that many vacations because we live in a place where millions come annually for vacation just for the beauty.  We like to vacation, but often all we have to do is drive a few miles to somewhere we’ve not seen, rent a cabin and throw out a fishing line or write a blog or start on a book and enjoy the quiet beauty around us.  Nature is the most amazing vacation.

Finally, and I get this question all the time, “With all the violence and war in the world, how can you think funny? How can you create cartoons?”  It actually is a good question, especially for those without any sense of humor.  One HAS to have humor to a certain degree to get through this chapter of the world in which we are enduring.  It may seem horrible and much of it is.  But whatever it is, it is something that has been put in front of us from which to learn, and if we don’t, well perhaps we’ll learn how to handle it next time it comes around….let’s hope/pray we’re smart enough this time. Perhaps we can dig through our history lessons, spot something similar, see how it was handled properly, and follow suite.  If not, create one that makes sense.

That does not answer the question of humor and cartoons. They are necessary.  If all we are focused on is blood, guts and war, that is how we are going to think about the world, and that is not ALL of what the world is about.  Some of us, in fact the majority of us, wish it did not exist but it is in our face.  We do what we can to divert it, to forget about it. Musicians play music, dancers dance, writers write, and cartoonists and humorists make us laugh.  What are you doing to make the world a better place, especially during these trying times?

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I am a writer, parody songwriter, cartoonist, and create designer shoes.  I am active in animal and children’s rights, love hiking, nature and the outdoors as well as my wife Lee Hiller-London. Lee is an amazing writer and gift designer.

Don’t you just love blog etiquette? Do it this way…no that way, wait, you’re gonna fail, no my mistake you may succeed and leave me behind, do as I say, not a I do. Help I don’t know what I’m’ doing? Why didn’t I simply collect disability instead of call my self a lifecoach and suck money from those who have it?

All those notions crossed my mind because, as I spend my time and observe what happens on Twitter (to a certain extent); I see that it is an acceptable practice. I see “life coaches aka THE VERY worst kind of swindlers” post beautiful quotes that look familiar. Life coaches are in more of a bind than there used to be.  Their “sport” used to be to find positive quotes on the net, take of the title of the person who wrote them, and add their own.

The authors caught on and now there is a software with algorythms that will decipher if it is the same quote with the wording changed around, a few words emitted, etc (soon to be released). I guess that will be the end of “the life coach industry”, that is, unless they learn how to produce a creative thought (many times in a day); which I doubt, given the many I’ve met.

I have a software that untangles that and 9 out of 10 the times they have been lifted from the writer of origin and re-written in a way that nobody can decipher the originator. Nobody until now. Now even the descendants of Mark Twain are in the game.  Along with my offbeat cartoons and funny gifts, and I also create the world’s only love quote shoes with quotes by famous people; Twain being one of them. It is rare that when something is in the public domain that a family goes after someone. The problem was, people only assumed Twain’s quotes were in that category. They were not. I immediately took my Twain love quote shoes down out of courtesy.  As in real life, social media has it’s often large share of arrogant folks who are certain they are above the law.  They think that until the here the clink of handcuffs. Please folks (not everyone but the few who do this); this laws for you to. It is not only to protect the artist/writer, but to protect you from hurting you and those around you. Let’s all play by the rules. End of sermon.

But go to Twitter and other social networks and you’ll see his quotes all over the place (often even uncredited). There are thousands of unlicensed items floating around via Twitter & Zazzle or Cafe Press or wherever which will always be for sale.   These naive people believe they won’t get hit with a summons but guess what.  At least 20-40 people are getting hit per day by the Twain family.  If a Twitterer is smart, he/she will take Twain quotes out of his/her scheduled tweets.  The Twain family has attorneys there looking on for such copyright infringement. Admittedly, it is rare. Most pre-1900 authors and poets are in the public domains and it is relatively easy to tell by seeing their images on prints, coasters, tees, and other licensed items not being sold by the Twain family.  If a family is smart, who has a great writer or artist within that family, they will go to to an attorney or courthouse and keep control of the images.  However things were not as sophisticated back in he 1800′s.  I miss selling my Mark Twain items at my Shoes That Amuse, the world’s only famous love quote gift and shoe shop. But there are plenty more and I’m happy with that.

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I am a writer, inventor, musician, cartoonist, and animal lover. I created the #1 ranked offbeat cartoon on the Internet, Londons Times Cartoons. I founded the world’s only famous love quote shoe in 2008. I love to Twitter @RickLondon and play around with facebook where you can fan our cartoon and gift page .  Lee Hiller-London is the love of my life.  I love her nature/wildlife blog at Hike Our Planet. We’re getting a cat soon.  I’m sick in bet today. Am sure you’d like to know this pertinent info.