Three Nights in Paris!

No, I haven’t left Anna for a weekend with hotel heiress Paris Hilton. Paris won’t return my phone calls. Actually, I’d be afraid if I got too close to her Paris might fatally stab me with one of her shoulder blades anyway.

Nope. As a gift for Anna’s 40th birthday (and our 18th anniversary) I arranged a long weekend trip to Paris just for the two of us. We’ll be dining at some incredible restaurants, seeing some museums and famous sights, and hanging out with long-time MAD artist Rick Tulka, and his wife Brenda. Rick and Brenda moved to Paris over 10 years ago from New York and never looked back. Rick’s got on board at MAD at a time when it was almost impossible to get in… Bill Gaines was still in charge and he did not like new artists. He preferred to keep those in the ‘family’ as busy as possible. Rick’s breaking in to the magazine at that time says a lot about the appeal of his work and style. His work is very unique, using a very soft lead pencil to create dark lines and textures, and his drawings are halfway between cartooning and a more design orientated and graphic approach. His caricatures are quirky and often laugh out loud funny. In the latest MAD (#472) Rick illustrated an installment of “6 Degrees of Separation Between Anyone and Anything“, and his caricature of Bob Barker in it cracked me up. On our last visit to Paris we got together and had a lot of fun. Anna and I are really looking forward to it. Here’s a caricature he did of me that appeared in MAD:

Since my internet access in Paris is going to be limited, and have no desire to spend any of my time typing on a computer keyboard when I could be seeing the Champs-Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe, I won’t be blogging when I’m gone. However, once again thanks to the miracle of post-dated blogging, there will be the usual daily blather here. I’ll post about the trip after we return, and no doubt those interested can read about our gastronomic adventures on Anna’s Foodie Review blog. I know I should feel sorry for those ducks force-fed grain to engorge their livers to make all the Foie Gras I’ll be eating… but it’s so damn GOOD. Besides, we are at the top of the food chain… so sorry, Daffy!