Cartoonists vs. reporters

"Reporters labor under the terrible requirement that what they report must be true. Opinion writers need to endure the less stringent demand that what they opine be at least plausible. Nobody ever expects what cartoonists do to be either true or even plausible. That's why we're happy as larks."

--Robert Grossman, quoted in his obituary written by Neil Genzlinger, NYT 3/20/2018

Reinhold Niebuhr

"Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness."

--The Irony of American History by Reinhold Niebuhr

Public Works in Mink River by Brian Doyle

Cedar and Worried Man have lunch together every day. "They are, collectively, the Department of Public Works. They have publicworked together for more than forty years, in various jobs....Other towns and cities use their departments just to fix roads and sewer lines and streambeds and such....We are prey to what I might call a vast and overweening ambition. I mean, really, to preserve history, collect stories, repair marriages, prevent crime, augment economic status, promote chess, manage insect populations, run sports leagues, isn't that a bit much? We even give haircuts."