New Year Hope (1996)

1996. Ten years ago. Like now, we were then welcoming a New Year.
As usual Mr. Shuldig is optimistic and Doobie, his dog, is realistic.
I love the old cartoon tradition of showing the New Year as a baby. I've used the device often.

I've always thought it funny the way some people "jiggle" babies to keep them quiet... So I showed Mr. Shuldig "jiggling" the baby New Year.

* * *As I write this, the news has just broken that Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon has suffered a second, more serious, stroke... Making the New Year of 2006 that lies ahead of us even more unpredictable.

* * *News updates about Sharon's condition are beginning to sound bleak. The country is glued to non-stop TV and radio News reports from the hospital. Clearly I'm going to have to "pull" the cartoon that I had sent in for Sunday's Jerusalem Post newspaper. I post it below. A cartoon which now won't be published in any newspaper. And if the cartoon commented on the gravity of the situation before the Prime Minister's latest, massive stroke... how grave is the situation now?!?
And how even more unpredictable the coming year?!
* * *