I blew $10 at Kinko's and got 200 cards printed up. On one side, a cartoon. On the other side, a little something extracted from the Cottage Groove #1 notebook.

I've been distributing these each day since -- mostly under windshield wipers. They look great under windshield wipers because they appear to be puzzling over the blade which bisects their tummy.

When J__ and K___ and I went to the mall we left a few here and there... one in a rack of earrings, for example, another at the automatic teller.

Just before we left, we lined eight or nine of them up on the ledge of a large planter. It was a musing to see the row of little cartoon men, all looking down in vague dismay at the 'freckles' on their bodies.

Then we atched from a short distance at all the shoppers who walked by the display, oblivious. At last a little girl came by. The cards were at kid level, a bit low to be noticed by adults. The girl noticed them -- she was about to take one -- but then she turned away. We grumbled under our respective breaths.

But suddenly she was back! She picked one up -- and then another! She gave the second card to a little boy, her brother perhaps, and they trotted off after her parents.

We all laughed.