Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

Nicola Barbatelli, a medieval historian, discovered a 24x17 damaged portrait of Leonardo da Vinci that experts have dated to the 16th century. Barbatelli said the painting could be a self-portrait, since the words “Pinxit Mea” are written on the back of the canvas in reverse, which was one of Leonardo's trademarks. The word Mea translates to "me", and Pinxit "was painted by".

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Andrew Keen's Book "The Cult of the Amateur, How The Internet Is Killing Our Culture" hypothesizes that Web 2.0, where content and information are increasingly being controlled by amateurs, is a very dangerous step backwards for our culture. Where in the past, information was disseminated by learned people who had to go through a screening process of acquiring degrees, convince a publisher or being hired by a publication, now anyone with a computer (yes, even I'm doing it) can start publishing their thoughts. Sites like Wikipedia, where the content is written and edited by amateur volunteers are often filled with grammatical errors, misstatement of facts or even vindictive slander. The more polarizing the subject the more policing/editing the topic will require. That's where 53 year old software developer, Johnathan Shilling comes in. He's the unofficial, unpaid, overworked volunteer watchdog of Wikipedia's, Senator Hillary Clinton Biography Page. If someone inserts the words lesbian or communist, or the phrase Murdered Vince Foster, he's there to delete it. Armed with a slew of books he uses as reference, he approximates that he's made 1,600 edits to the Senators Bio page. He can't tell you how many hours he's dedicated to keeping the page factual, "I do it in the morning when I get up, I do it in the evening when I get home. Sometimes I stay up late at night."

While Andrew Keen's book is thought provoking, I think that freedom of speech trumps his gate keeper to knowledge argument. Yes, there are loonies on the web, but Keen doesn't take dedicated people like Schilling into account. This guy is doing yeoman's work in the web 2.0 world, helping to keep respectability for the rest of us in the blogisphere.

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Ted Key, creator of Hazel, Mr. Peabody and Sherman cartoon characters passed away at age 95. His cartoons ran in the Saturday Evening Post and Collier's before I was born, but I spent hours of my youth watching Hazel in syndication and Mr. Peabody and Sherman on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

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Everyone on the pro tour has skills, but on Sunday it's the golfers nerves not their skills that are tested.

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I think investing in the intelligence of our future generations is probably the most important expenditure for securing peace and economic strength as a people. I'm going to give ten dollars to Miramax. Not just because I'll probably enjoy a movie of, by and for smart people, but to stimulate more of the same and maybe raise the level of culture.

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Today I had two photo shoots for book covers I'm working on. That means a commute into the city. I think New Jersey Transit coaches might have the worst suspensions of any moving vehicles still in operation. Besides making it challenging to read a newspaper, it makes it very difficult to draw a picture...but not impossible. I did this doodle on the train. You have to abandon all hope of placing the pen down and moving it exactly where you'd like, in short, forget about line and think like a painter scribbling in mass and form.

After my shootings I stuck around and went to see James Gurney Lecture at the Society of Illustrators. This is the second time I saw him lecture at the society. He is a perfect cocktail of talent, intellect, imagination and dedication,...and I'm not just saying that because he was gracious enough to sign my book and add a doodle of his own. Thanks James!

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There's still hope that Jon Corzine's legacy as New Jersey's Governor will be that he balanced our wasteful, corrupt government's debt, but more likely it will be to remind us all to buckle up.

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After I graduated from Parsons I started to get book cover work from Simon and Schuster. I loved going there to drop off work. Before the digital age, art departments were filled with racks and racks of original art by all of my heros in the business. But while I loved looking at the work, I also realized I needed to step up my game if I wanted to stick around in this field. So, even though I was keeping busy with commissions during the day, I started lugging my french easel up to the Art Students League at night. Forty years earlier, before he got his break in films, Charlton Heston was an artists model at the League. I'm no fan of the NRA, but you could see why the camera loved him. He had great chiseled features and I would've liked to have been around forty years earlier to paint him.

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