You Might Be From Texas if...

You may have noticed in last week's edition a new featured cartoon of the week for the Howe Enterprise The cartoons are from a book entitled You Might Be From Texas If which is a publication full of cartoon drawings by Nick Anderson of the Houston Chronicle

Anderson cannot remember a day that he was not drawing The youngest child of 11 bought his first book in cartooning in fifth grade

"My dad was a biochemist and I just loved drawing I told my dad I wanted to be a cartoonist and he laughed and laughed and laughed. I got my first laugh talking about cartoons, not actually from an actual cartoon " Anderson joked "He told me ' there's as many people that could fit in a phone booth that is drawinig editorial cartoons in this country' I was never good at math so I decided to do it anyway"

Anderson did editorial cartoons for his high school newspaper and his college newspaper at Ohio State

"I lucked out and I got a job right out of college and I've never had a real job and I plan to keep it that way" said Anderson continued on page 11

Cartoon

continued from page 5

Anderson got his start with the Courier Gazette in Louisville, Kentucky where he stayed for 15 years before moving to the Houston Chronicle a little over 10 years ago

Being in Texas for over 10 years has given him the true experience of the title of the book "I couldn't have done this in the first two years I had to be here a little while Even then I had to enlist the help of some natives

Anderson said that he had to completely learn about Texas during that time and that one of the biggest shocks to him were the high school football homecoming mums and the gargantuan sizes of them

"The first time I saw them, I thought,'what the heck is going on there '" Anderson laughed

He says his favorite cartoon changes from day to day but right now seems to be, "You might be from Texas if you're gun collection is larger than the pentagon's " and about 60 percent of these are completely mine and 20 percent are ideas that friends gave me and about 20 percent are ideas that were out there already We didn't want to leave those on the table We wanted this to be a pretty comprehensive list of things about Texas So basically I just illustrated it and I think the drawings really do add to the content It really does crystallize the idea and make it funnier"

"One thing that I've found in my research is that there's a handful of these things floating around out there " said Anderson "There's a few lists of "you might be from Texas if..."

Anderson is currently working on cartoons for the presidential election and says that the circus that it is makes it really easy to draw

"I tend to lean to the left and when I got the job offer here in Houston, I was like, 'have you seen my cartoons?'" said Anderson "You want me to come to Texas? Are they going to run me out on a rail?"

Anderson does get a lot of feedback and people will email him and tell him how "stupid" he is "That just means I'm just doing my job I was thrilled to get James Baker to write the forward. He's one of the old-style Republicans that I really respect " said Anderson

There could be a follow-up second volume if this one is successful "The population of Texas is sure big enough to support it, but we'll just have to see if it catches on." said Anderson.

Howe ISD Board of Trustees

Meeting

October 17 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Howe I S D Administration Office, 105 W Tutt, Howe, TX

Howe Lady Bulldogs

JV2/JV1/V vs Whitewright*

October 18 @ 5:00 pm

Howe High School

Gymnasium, 200 E Ponderosa Rd , Howe, TX

Howe City Council Meeting

October 18 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Howe Community Center, 700 W Haning St , Howe, TX

Howe Lady Bulldogs

V/JV1/JV at Leonard*

October 21 @ 4:30 pm - 5:00 pm

Leonard High School, #1 Tiger Alley, Leonard, TX

Whitesboro Bearcats at Howe Bulldogs

October 21 @ 7:30 pm

Bulldog Stadium, 709 N Denny St , Howe, TX

Peggy’s Porch

October 22 @ 9:00 am - 11:00 am

Peggy’s Porch, behind City Hall, Howe, TX