That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for March 25, 2012

And it’s tickling him no end. Love his pleased look.

Although I think that he might enjoy ‘Calvin’ even more.

That must be the Large Print version.

Sword & Fantasy author, who sold book rights to HBO, chortling over schoolmates who called him nerd & geek. Though most of them are dead by now. . ..

He’s reading a hidden issue of Sex to Sexty.

That paper looks thicker than a Sears catalogue.

Enlarged (use your browser zoom to enlarge more) available from here.Perhaps @Joe can provide a better translation of the German painting Description, of what’s inscribed on the back of this small painting, than Google did in my here link. This image (with the detailed inset) comes from here (again Google translated).So far, only (click the image there and use your browser zoom to get perhaps a better quality enlargement) work by this artist to appear in Mr. Melcher’s blog.

Brother Gregory reading the REAL “Land’s End” catalogue from 1490.

I also did not care for Garfield (always more of a bird person than cat). In the 9 years I worked at Zenith, our department had a secretary who LOVED garfield and the color purple. Her filing cabinets were all painted in shades of purple and just about everything in sight around her was Garfield or purple. When I left, I strung her a necklace of various color and shaped beads of real amethyst.

@ Fritz, thanks! Our secretary probably read good ones as she was my elder.

Back in 1979 or ’80 I made and painted signs for Garfield & Company that had Garfield, Odie and the teddy bear coming out of a globe with wings. They sold school supplies, I was told, but I never saw a store.

Thanks, Mabrndt for the links, but although I understand no German, I do indulge in Calligraphy and illumination; some of my friends have even gone to the trouble and expense of real leather parchment and mixing their own pigments. I go for the best effect and as an amature artist I enjoy using the style of those old manuscripts in my own designs, Usually with Carolingian or Celtic scripts. There were may Bibles and Books of Hours (prayer books) which were very heavily illuminated. I have many reproductions of those and links online to more for my research. This is titled the Reader, so he may have been reading aloud to a congregation, as there were even some communities of religious with unred brothers. Most religious monks WERE educated and were the ones to make copies of those manuscripts before printing was invented.

Even for those who could read, there was often a “reader” at meals to keep everyone’s mind on religion and away from their food (much as most of todays people do with TV without such a positive purpose)

“Inquisitions For Dummies”

@mabrndt @fritzoid

I think Fritzoid meant James Garfield, U.S. President (clever!). 1889 was also little Adolf H——r’s birth year (unfortunate!), and he died in Davis’ birth year. Coincidence? Of course!!!

…dude needs a trim.

Despite his cowled robe, this guy may be a rabbi given the apparent cut of the beard in 2 points. Or not… I also am no fan of Garfield, so I want to think he is reading a compilation of “That is Priceless.”

Baslim, the similarity between Pikant in German and Piquant in Eng./French is deceiving. Some German synonyms are prickelnd (piercing),scharf (sharp), kraeftig gewuerzt (powerfully rooted), and anzueglich (well-suited). In the case of Lektuere, it means striking or well-suited. This man is reading scholarly material which especially strikes him – and is reacting emotionally despite his ascetic training.

@Baslim the beggar PS – looks like an illuminated manuscript to me, he may well be appreciating the illuminator’s colorful handiwork.

I think I can safely observe that “spicy” is far from the “anzueglich” interpretation here. This aged scholar has spent a lifetime on avoiding “worldly” delights. To my mind, the painter’s purpose was to convey to us that nobody can completely subdue the natural impulse to enjoy – even the avoidance of pleasure can be a pleasure of sort.

Context is important here – my Wahrig German-German dictionary gives Pikant special meaning when applied to Lektuere (readings): anzueglich is one of 2…and it means well-suited. I wrote my translation without a dictionary, and tried to get a close meaning with a natural flow in English.

@Baslimthebegger – I’ve grown too fussy in my pursuit of perfection. Here’s a loose one I should have started with: “The aged hippie muses fondly over his treasured Whole Earth Catalogue”

This strip is repeated here.

Brother John enjoying his autographed copy of The Bible.