Nothing Illegitimate About Cartoonist’s Work

To the editors:

“Yahtzee.” Surely you’ve heard the term by now—several cartoonists give birth to the same idea, usually all at once. Your cartoonist seems to have jumped on board a slow train to Yahtzee-ville with her depiction of Kim’s mushroom cloud hair-do.

I encourage you to forgive this error. There are obviously mitigating circumstances at work which seem to afflict even seasoned professionals. Errors are the fertile fields from which learning grows. By the way, I didn’t find that quote out there anywhere—in that form, anyway. But a quick search for “learning from your mistakes” indicates that a few minutes with a simple thesaurus yields a phrase pretty similar to mine.

As long as we’re tossing out trite clichés, remember this one: There’s nothing new under the sun. Neither this cartoon theme, nor this problem is original to your cartoonist.

Teach her how to speak with her own voice. Expecting her to sound like other cartoonists will inevitably result in similarities. How can this be a surprise? Don’t punish her for giving what has been asked of her.

I wish you well in your continued pursuit of excellence.

JOEY REED

Hazel, Ky.

October 31, 2006