Notes - Sun's day / a probability always understood

         Breakfast and the Sunday paper. Carol is on the phone with Linda this mid-morning. You have nothing to say because nothing is going on in your head. This can be a good thing, boy. “What? Me worry?” – Amorella

         0941 hours. Alfred E. Neuman, icon for Mad magazine gone way back.

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History

Since his debut in Mad, Neuman's likeness, distinguished by jug ears, a missing front tooth, and one eye lower than the other has graced the cover of all but a handful of the magazine's 500 issues. His face is rarely seen in profile; he has virtually always been shown in full frontal view, directly from behind, or in silhouette. Harvey Kurtzman first spotted the image on a postcard pinned to the office bulletin board of Ballantine Books editor Bernard Shir-Cliff. "It was a face that didn't have a care in the world, except mischief," recalled Kurtzman. Shir-Cliff was later a contributor to various magazines created by Kurtzman.

It is highly probable that the Mad icon was at least inspired by a real actor appearing in an early, "turn of the century" comedic short-film made by Thomas A. Edison's studios. The youngish comedian first appears as a mischievous employee in an office, attempting to get himself dismissed for the rest of the day in order to "attend" a pro baseball game. At the game he sits atop a telephone pole near the stadium, observing the game, with all due antics, through a telescope that he has brought.

In November 1954, Neuman made his Mad debut on the front cover of Ballantine's The Mad Reader, a paperback collection of reprints from the first two years of Mad. The character's first appearance in the comic book was on the cover of Mad 21 (March 1955), as a tiny image as part of a mock advertisement. A rubber mask bearing his likeness with "idiot" written underneath was offered for $1.29.

When Mad switched to a magazine format starting with issue #24, Neuman's face appeared in a central position on the illustrated border used on the covers, with his now-familiar signature phrase "What, me worry?" written underneath. Initially, the phrase was rendered "What? Me worry?" These borders would be used for five more issues, through Mad #30 (December 1956).

The character was also briefly known as "Mel Haney." In Mad #25, the face and name were shown together, on separate pages, as both Alfred E. Neuman and Mel Haney. The crowded cover shot on Mad #27 marked Neuman's first color appearance.

When Al Feldstein took over as Mad's editor in 1956, he seized upon the face: "I decided that I wanted to have this visual logo as the image of Mad, the same way that corporations had the Jolly Green Giant and the dog barking at the gramophone for RCA. This kid was the perfect example of what I wanted. So I put an ad in the New York Times that said, "National magazine wants portrait artist for special project." In walked this little old guy in his sixties named Norman Mingo, and he said, “What national magazine is this?” I said “Mad,” and he said, “Goodbye.” I told him to wait, and I dragged out all these examples and postcards of this idiot kid, and I said, “I want a definitive portrait of this kid. I don't want him to look like an idiot—I want him to be loveable and have an intelligence behind his eyes. But I want him to have this devil-may-care attitude, someone who can maintain a sense of humor while the world is collapsing around him.” I adapted and used that portrait, and that was the beginning.”

Mingo's defining portrait was used on the cover of Mad #30 in late 1956 as a supposed write-in candidate for the Presidency, and fixed his identity and appearance into the version that has been used ever since. In November 2008, Mingo's original cover art featuring this first "official" portrait of Neuman sold at auction for $203,150. Mingo painted seven more Neuman covers through 1957, and later returned to become the magazine's signature cover artist throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Mingo produced 97 Mad covers in total, and also illustrated dozens of additional cover images for Mad's many reprint Specials and its line of paperbacks. Frank Kelly Freas rendered Neuman for Mad from 1958 to 1962. Current contributor Mark Frederickson has become the second-most prolific Mad cover artist, with 80 covers as of 2013.

Since that issue, and continuing to the present day, Neuman has appeared on the cover of nearly every issue of Mad and its spinoffs, in one form or another, with a small handful of exceptions. Two such departures were Mad #233 (September 1982) which replaced Neuman's image with that of Pac-Man and "Mad" #195 (December 1977) which instead included the message "Pssst! Keep This Issue Out of the Hands of Your Parents! (Make 'Em Buy Their Own Copy!)." Even when Neuman is not part of the cover gag, or when the cover is entirely text-based, his disembodied head generally appears in miniature form. The most notorious Neuman-free cover was #166 (April 1974), which featured a human hand giving the profane "middle finger" gesture while declaring Mad to be "The Number One Ecch Magazine." Some newsstands that normally carried Mad chose not to display or sell this issue.

Selected from Wikipedia  ‘History’ – Alfred E. Neuman

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         0952 hours. I read quite a few of those early editions of Mad. You brought this up though, why?

         You had nothing going on in your head so I popped in a couple of words to remind you that though nothing was going on it was all in the periphery. Now, don’t get a big head over this but think of where ‘nothing’ in your head is as space and what else in your head is as planet Earth with one orbiting Moon. This will do for most everyone by the way. Being empty-headed can give a one a view of one’s self from a distance. The sun’s out looks like it is going to be Sun’s day. Later, gator. Post. - Amorella

       I have a great NASA photo of an active sun to go with this headline:

     Now here's a concept for you. This is much better than a cartoonish light bulb coming on when one has an idea, don't you think? You can better understand the dynamics of how this is in the human mind, at least from my perspective. - Amorella

       1011 hours. When you enlarge this, wow! Look at the flames. Most awesome.

         2104 hours. We spent four hours attempting to tear out 25 by 4 feet of thick ivy about a foot tall that we attempting to kill two weeks ago. It is mostly dead but getting rid of the vines is not so easy. I would say we are half done. Later we watched last week’s “Suits” and most of a PBS show titled “Last Tango in Halifax”. We had Papa John’s, our favorite local pizza, for supper watched the news, worked on trash to the street as well as bags of dead English ivy. These are good cool days to work in the yard so that is what we do. I have not had time to edit and again I am tired.

         Carol wants to walk in the park early tomorrow morning. After that more work on the ivy vines and roots and clearing the dirt and debris from the last tree trunk. You also mowed the southwest section of the yard and trimmed. Carol has been watering the yard because of the upcoming aeration on Wednesday. Carol also wants the house and yard cleaned up because Kim, Paul and the boys are coming for a visit this next weekend. This means she wants help working in the basement for trash for a week from tomorrow. We will work when it is appropriate relative to the circumstance. “Go with the flow, boy.” Post. – Amorella

         I feel like I should be on a time schedule Amorella.

         Everybody’s on a time schedule boy, it comes with being born and ends with dying. Not much anyone can do about it. – Amorella

         2121 hours. What kind of schedule are you on, Amorella?

         A friendly one my young man and this is very fortunate for you. – Amorella

         I apologize and take a few steps back. – rho

         You recognize the possibility and even the probability that I am more than I seem. – Amorella

         I recognize the very low probability, but any possibility puts me into a respectfully polite frame of mind.

         It goes deeper than that, boy. Your 'unconscious' respect comes from heartansoulanmind, from your human spirit; otherwise, I would not be here at all. – Post. - Amorella