Semi Truths A highly irregular weblog dedicated to Truth, Justice, and American Cheese…!

In 1992, I got my first email account, I discovered something called Mosaic and the World Wide Web, and I read my first THIS MODERN WORLD cartoon by Tom Tomorrow. In short order, both the world and my head exploded.

Tom Tomorrow’s targets are, well, just about everything we deem precious. You’ve seen THIS MODERN WORLD, even if you don’t remember. It’s the the unabashedly left-leaning cartoon with the talking penguin not named Opus. The look is very retro-fifties, with a sharp contemporary wit and iconoclastic style. Imagine Roy Lichtenstein meets Kurt Vonnegut.

Long time readers (all three of you) just might recall that my very first SEMI TRUTHS column was titled This Modern Life, a sly tribute to this strip. If I could draw, I’d want to be Tom Tomorrow. Hell, if I could write, I’d want to be Tom Tomorrow. Fortunately for us all, he already does both very well and you can see the results for yourself at the THIS MODERN WORLD website and weblog.

At the site you will find his current panels, a generous archive of past cartoons, and a frequently updated and entertaining weblog of his own thoughts on current events, links to news stories, and input from his many readers. This site is worth reading well and visiting often.

Go back to the future with THIS MODERN WORLD.

Dan Rosenbaum is a friend of mine.

He is also, as luck would have it, a great thinker, an excellent teacher, and an engaging writer.

By the time I met him, some time in the late 80’s, he was already an accomplished author, editor, and columnist. Dan’s favorite writing topics these days are politics and technology.

He is a new father, and our wives are the best of friends. And he has a hell of a singing voice.

Really, the parallels between Dan and I are awe-inspiring. (Well, except for the second paragraph. And, um, most of the third. Oh, and I can’t sing…)

Dan also introduced me to Radio Userland, and is therefore responsible for making my wife a weblog-widow.

He keeps a fine and dandy weblog himself called OVER THE EDGE, and it is well worth your time to visit there regularly.

Just tell him Semi sent ya’…!