Ramblings and webcomics from LeEMS
Before there was an Uncle Sam, the original thirteen colonies that made up a young U.S. were known as Brother Johnathan. He was a rougher version of the U.S., elaborated on at Atlas Obscura, that was balanced by the compassion, liberty, and pride of Columbia.
Columbia (above) hasn’t really been in circulation since the first World War, but her message and presence is more welcoming, compassionate, and nurturing. She was, like the Statue of Liberty, a welcoming beacon.
Happy Independence Day!
This year, I was determined. I was going to direct sow seeds into the garden beds in my back yard and grow something. I watered them every day and was rewarded, after an inordinately long time, with tiny little sprouty things. I planted nasturtiums, lemon balm, and lemon grass. I received nasturtiums and tomatoes.
Pretty amazing, right? Almost magic. After some head scratching and wondering if the seed company had somehow got it hilariously wrong I realized something. Besides the lemon balm and lemon grass seeds that didn’t sprout, I had unwittingly sown tomato seeds into the bed fresh from the compost heap I raided to amend the dirt.
I have fuzzy memories of watching a Martha Stewart episode, or some such, that talked about how to harvest tomato seeds for your own garden and it involved rotting the gelatinous protective shell of the seeds before they could be planted. Well, in a compost heap this happens naturally right? Now, I’m just as lazy a composter as I am a gardener, so I’m probably not doing something right, like creating an environment where a lot of heat is generated. I just throw fruit and vegetable waste on the heap and cover it with the leaves and grass clippings that are also on the heap. Nature does the rest. So now, I am half expecting random tomatoes in every amended bed. It adds some randomness.
Like everyone does, every now and then I Google myself. It’s good to keep track of the image of me that others find, but I also do it to scope out other LeEttas. Most recently my search turned up a result for a babyname database, babycenter.com. Though the entry for LeEtta isn’t fleshed out a meaning, provenance, or variations (of course) it did have an awesome graph of the name’s popularity over time. It seems like 1938 was the most popular year for LeEtta with 15 babies in a million having that name. By 1989 it’s only 2 per million.
I had some time on my hands a while ago and input the Leetta/LeEtta results of three different census, 1860, 1900, & 1940, into Google Maps. Both the increase in names and the progression west must correlate to population increase and migration, though I haven’t tested for either.
Still slowly and surely working on author voices and found a wonderful gem:
I am currently studying how intellectual property laws can be used to protect Traditional Knowledge – because of course I am – but there was something amazing in my lesson the other day: Quipus or talking knots. Quipus were recording devices made of thread or string and knotted to portray meaning and value. Based on a base ten positional system calendar information, taxes, census records, military organization and more could be recorded and read off of something that looks more like a necklace or body ornament. Similar systems were used by the Inca, the ancient Chinese and native Hawaiians.
Posting now on the Drawing Board is my short comic: The Wedding Party. When I had originally added the idea to my lists as something that I needed to draw I was calling it the smile jaw monster comic. Like Nightmare (the 25hour comics day comic) it was inspired by a dream that I had. Nightmare was actually several dreams stitched together. A Trip to Weeki Wachi may have also been inspired by a dream, or a memory that got mixed up with a dream, anyway. All you jungians now have ample material with which to analyze me.
Anyway, go check out The Wedding Party and tell me what you think, or, just enjoy it, you know. It’s up to you.
I know it’s been longer than I let on it would be, but the time has finally come: Levi Levi is posting on Thursdays again!
