Cartoonish

Most people who work in a lab put up cartoons or other such nonsense. It was a chance to show off how clever we all were, add some variety to your lab, make the place more user-friendly. I loved checking out what other people would hang up. It gave me a little peek into what they were like. Far Sides were always good, but a bit predictable. Lou always had great ones: articles from the Weekly World News ("Your Coworkers May be Aliens!"), weird exercise programs, altered letters from our CEO ("See you at the club!")

I favored one-panel cartoons. I had a series of Toledo-themed cartoons that were surprisingly easy to find. I had two joke recommendation letters from co-workers posted (the one from Jim had statements followed by what he actually meant: "She would be a tremendous asset to any laboratory [she has one of the largest cd collections I have ever seen]; Chol's just got right to the point: "I am confident she will destroy all of your research objectives.")

My favorite of all time was from my former roommate Krista. She was looking for the perfect cartoon when we were living together: "I need the 'Little LuLu' or maybe 'Nancy.'" Excuse me? "I'm looking for the least funny cartoon ever. One that is just stupid." Uh, why? "Well, people always come by, expecting really great cartoons. They'll read mine and they'll feel like they have to laugh, but it won't be funny at all. And then I can laugh at them." She wanted to make everyone really uncomfortable. And that is why she is my hero!