You’ll be happy to know that the strip transcription process is starting in earnest. The Grammarians and I have started to tuck in on transcribing each and every Sheldon comic, with the goal of being able to search the entire archives using a word, phrase, punchline, character, location, prop, etc.

In keeping with today’s strip, for example, I typed in “spider”, and got these two strips, clearly showing that this is not the first time that Arthur has encountered bugs.

Try out the search function here, and bookmark for future use…as it’s getting more and more useful with every day.

(A fun word to start with is “eat”….it brought up some funny varieties when I tried it.)

How was your Presidents Day? Did you celebrate with the traditional family meal of veal cutlets and asparagus in a white-wine reduction? Did you play the traditional Presidents Day holiday games, such as “Uno: Travel Edition” and “Trivial Pursuit: The 80’s!”? Did you sing the traditional Presidents Day songs, such as Mel Torme’s Greatest Hits, Volume 2?

Ah, Presidents Day traditions…they warm the heart, do they not?

Also: my apologies for the late toon today. I was so wrapped up in my Presidents Day traditions, I made a mistake in how I uploaded the day’s toon.

Heads up Northwesterners! Heads up Canadian Southwesterners!

The very cool Emerald City ComiCon is a ‘Con I’ve been looking forward to attending for years. And this year, I finally get to go! I and the lads from Blank Label have been invited up, and we’ll be signin’, sellin’, and sayin’ hi at booth #306. Make your plans now to drop by: March 31-April 1!

Some of my favorite cartoonists will be there, including: brother-from-another-mother Kris Straub, Scott Kurtz, Gabe & Tycho, Bill & Gene, Brad Guigar, Howard Tayler, and roundin’ out the cast…super cartoonist-chef Greg Dean.

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Also, I should clarify that I’m not going to New York Comic Con this year. Last year was an absolute blast…but in the midst of setting up the new Sheldon studio this week and next, my time is a little too crunched for travel.

But! Two of my favorite cartoonists in the world with be there, Brad Guigar and Paul Southworth…plus the lovely lads of Dumbrella…so it’s definitely a show worth goin’ to!

Giving someone the ol’ whack-a-doo in croquet is quite possibly the most satisfying thing one can do in life. There’s such a delicious “ka-rack” sound associated with it, that it becomes almost Pavlovian.

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Also, a quick request to my friends in show business: Whatever it takes, however it happens, we need to get this guy a recording contract with EMI Records.

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Questions to ask yourself after watching the video a few times:
1.) Are there more than 7 words used throughout the two-minute song?
2.) How many suit changes can you spot during the video?
3.) Can you pinpoint the moment in the video where he clearly gets tired of dancing?
4.) On a scale of 1-10, 10 being very difficult, how tricky is the “Flea Market Dance”?

I’m excited to announce that Sheldon has joined the Project Wonderful ad network.

As you know, my philosophy with Sheldon is to give away as much as possible for free. Free strips, free RSS, free daily e-mail delivery, free archives, and more.

But all that free stuff relies on your direct support at the Sheldon Store (thank you, by the way), and advertising.

Project Wonderful is a whole new way to advertise. It let’s normal folks like you, or businesses big and small, advertise cheaply through a bidding process. You don’t have to buy some unnecessarily large block of time, or pay for advertising without knowing the number of pageviews or visitors.

Here’s the Project Wonderful tower ad. —————->

See the little price at the bottom? That’s all you pay to advertise on Sheldon for a day!

I think it’s great, as it gives other small businesses the chance to advertise in a way they might not normally be able to.

Thanks, Project Wonderful!

Forgive me if I’m slow to reply to your e-mails or forum posts this week: I’m moving office, to the new Sheldon studio.

You know how it is…you set up the computer, but can’t find the mouse. So you dig through three boxes to find the mouse, only to realize that you don’t have a chair. So you move the three recently moved boxes OFF your chair, only to realize that you’ve misplaced the dang mouse again. Ad infinitum.

Good times.

Anyway, I’ll be stumbling around in the dust bunnies and the barely working internet service for the next few days…so please bear with me.

Also: did I get Sunday’s toon wrong? Is that line not in the book? Have I committed the gravest sin in nerdly life? I hope not! Let me know in the forums if I did.

But be kind if I did…’cause, um, I’m unpacking. And I probably can’t find my mouse.

Clearly, my brain has fixated on
this line from Dune.

We have seen Comrade Steve and Yuri before, have we not? Allow me to direct you to one of my favorite Sheldon strips: featuring our favorite, rarely-appearing astronaut/cosmonaut team.

And, for those following along, here are the 1,2,3,4,5,6 previous installments of our Saturday-only, super-space-extravaganza storyline. The verdict so far? Half of you love it, half of you don’t. I’m enjoyin’ it, so I hope you’ll bear with me.

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Also, congrats to Timothy S. of Buck Creek, IN….you’ve purchased the final Artist’s Edition of the Pugly book. Hopefully the extra-cool sketch you’ll receive inside will make up for the fact that your town sounds uncomfortably like “Butt Crack”.

I joke! I joke! I lived in Indiana for four years! I love the place!

And for everyone else: free U.S. shipping ends Sunday night at Midnight, pacific-standard time! (Make sure you click the option with free shipping when you order.)

Tania from Alaska sent in word of this weird pug story. Make sure you click the “More Photos” link on the right…poor little guy doesn’t know what hit him. Which, in this case, is a playful, 120-pound black wolf….

Sidenote: are Pugs OK with living in Alaska? Everyone I know that owns a pug is terrified of them getting “cold” (which, in California, means 68 degrees F). Are Californians just wussies with their pugs?

Just checked the store inventory, and there are only 5 copies left of the Pugly Artist’s Editions. If you were hoping to get one, this is just fair warning.

Also: I’ve been fascinated for a long time with the “haunted” Winchester Mansion, which relates to today’s strip. It’s just a fascinating tale of money mixing with madness. (There are a few modern-day pop stars for whom this correlates, probably.)

Anyway, read more about it. It’s fascinating.