2020 Farmhouse Greetings 2021 Calendar: Animals Inspired by Aesop’s Fables. 8½” x 11”. Twelve blockprints created by Linda Cook DeVona. $12 from Farmhouse Greetings through Etsy, Dec., ’20.
This set of blockprints lives up to its billing: blockprint is the perfect form and style for this kind of calendar. Except for January’s picturing of both the Galapagos Tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra) and the Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus) and May’s FS (Vulpes vulpes and Ciconia ciconia), each month presents one animal with its Latin title. One last exception is September, which offers a rat and an elephant in what I suspect is a variation of LM. The back of the calendar includes a link to one of the online versions of the texts behind these illustrations. Linda sent along a smaller one-page flier featuring TH and the whole calendar. I will also picture it here.
1999? Far Side Cartoon Featuring the Grasshopper and Ant.” Gary Larson. Calendar for Friday, March 20, 1999? Unknown source.
The cartoon asks what might have happened after the fable’s usual ending, which has the ant shutting out the freezing, starving grasshopper. Here the grasshopper kills the ant with his violin and marches off with a bag of grain. Is he waving good-bye? An online entry says that the cartoon was originally published in 1988.
1990 Far Side Cartoon Featuring the Grasshopper and Ant.” Gary Larson. Newspaper clippings. 3 copies, all apparently from the Omaha World-Herald. Universal Press Syndicate. Unknown sources.
The cartoon asks what might have happened after the fable’s usual ending, which has the ant shutting out the freezing, starving grasshopper. Here the grasshopper kills the ant with his violin and marches off with a bag of grain. Is he waving good-bye? An online entry says that the cartoon was originally published in 1988.
1993 Far Side Cartoon “Scenes that make a crow smile.” Gary Larson. FarWorks. Universal Press Syndicate. Unknown source.
The cartoon shows a roadkill. A viewer might need to look more closely to see that it is a fox that has been killed. The crow would be smiling because the fox outsmarted him in the fable and came away with the crow’s piece of cheese. The verso includes an offer with a coupon expiring in late January, 1993.
1993 Far Side Cartoon “Dumb Bunny Smart Ass.” Gary Larson. FarWorks. Universal Press Syndicate. Unknown source.
The ass is ready "Animal Farm." The reference here is technically not to a fable, but it is close enough! Besides, the expressions if not the cartoon led to one of the best titles I have had for a fable presentation, "Dumb Bunnies and Wise Asses."
1980? Fantastic Fables. Six Individual Aesop's Fables. Henry Honeybear and Company. With Cliff Walinski. Minneapolis, MN: Specialty Cassettes, Inc. $4.95 from Pam Wilkinson, Houston, TX, through Ebay, April, '00.
Henry and Cliff seem central to most presentations. In BC, Cliff reads the story to Henry. Further stories are enacted, with heavy dependence on an appropriate set projected in the background. Further stories include TH, "The Lion in Love," CW, FK, and "The Boy Who Wanted to Tremble."
