The Sorensen Monologues

This Week’s Cartoon: “Better Babies Through Chemistry”

Nicholas Kristof had a good column the other day about the President’s Cancer Panel report, which declared that we need more testing and regulation of chemicals used in industry. Few people seem to be talking about this, as far as I know, but I’d say it’s one of the more admirable steps the current administration has taken. The fact that babies are now born with over 300 pollutants in their bodies is a sign of a diseased society, both literally and figuratively speaking.

A technical note about the second panel: PFOAs are a synthetic chemical used in the production of fluoropolymers, which lend special properties like nonstick and waterproof surfaces to a variety of products. So a baby stuffed with PFOAs, which are persistent toxins in the environment, would probably not have nonstick properties, although I’m thinking one coated with a thick layer of fluoropolymers might. I couldn’t explain all that in the cartoon, but you probably didn’t read that panel as scientific realism anyway. At least, I hope you didn’t.

I’m sure the toddler lawyers at Baby Rights Watch will be contacting me any day to condemn the treatment of tots in this strip.

Sunday Outing

The cartoonist hard at work avoiding a deadline.

In an unusual move for me, I celebrated Mother’s Day and the 50th anniversary of The Pill by going to my first-ever Seattle Mariners game. While the Phillies will always be my first love (sorry, Seattle, but that moose mascot can’t hold a candle to the Phanatic), I enjoyed watching the Mariners end their losing streak by trouncing the Angels. I’m sure it was my presence that did the trick.

This Week’s Cartoon: “More E-holes”

Didn’t have time to blog while I was in New York, but better late than never. If you’ve ever been in email or Facebook contact with me, rest assured that with this cartoon, I am not talking about you. It’s all completely hypothetical, of course. Except for whoever is tweeting under the handle OprahWinfrey.

I don’t begrudge people for getting excited about the iPad or their iPhone, but I’m put off by the expensive data plan, and kind of surprised so many people are willing to sign up for it. I’ve literally saved thousands of dollars by using a cheap-ass cellphone that costs me less than $10/month. And I just seek out free wifi for my netbook when I travel. Of course, I’m a frugal cartoonist, and if I had a high-paying job in a cubicle farm, I might treat myself to an iPad too.

Same Great SlowpokeBlog, New Location!

Welcome to the proto-neo-SlowpokeBlog. I’ve been busy with deadlines and am about to leave for New York, so I haven’t had time to work on design at all. Rest assured, it will eventually look more interesting than this. And yes, I’m allowing comments. We’ll talk more about that later. So, bookmark this space and — well, I’m going to set up Feedburner soon, so you might hold off on subscribing for now. I’ll keep you posted.