KATHI IS.......

Via "Across the Pond" http://gigotti78.blogspot.com/   I went by this site'Googlism' http://www.googlism.com/    

Googlism.com will find out what Google.com thinks of you, your friends or anything! Search for your name here or for a good laugh check out some of the popular Googlisms below.

  and typed in my first name(since my last name yielded far too many results,being such a common word)   Googlism for:KATHI   kathi is truly a great person and i would highly recommend her to others buying or selling
kathi is humorous
kathi is the greatest
kathi is surrounded by a hazy glow kathi is available for all united states research commissions and assistance with german immigrants
kathi is the candidate i'd like to see kathi is a feminist pagan woman working in the mental health field
kathi is standing in the tidal basin in front of the mont
kathi is a dynamic and high kathi is
kathi is someone that you instantly like kathi is correct kathi is available in the glendale
kathi is no stranger to the eagles kathi is 45
kathi is married to mike and they have 4 shark's in the family kathi is an inveterate lover of books kathi is a babe kathi is worried kathi is great isn't she
kathi is available monday and wednesday from 8   These are results culled from a longer list. While some of them are spot on(I am 45, and I just 'AM',LOL.....I was interested to see I'm 'married to Mike an have 4 sharks in the family")What the heck is THAT all about! Anyway, a bit of completely time wasting fun which I thought I'd share

Another Quiz Thingy

1. First Name: Kathi

2. Were you named after anyone?The 'Chatty Kathy' doll?LOL, or was that named after ME

3. Dogs or Cats? One psychotic cat named 'Spice'(Spice #4 or 5 I believe,the kids keep using that name!)

4. When did you last cry? Last night watching the end of Armageddon,I'm a sap!

5. Do you like your handwriting? sure,just because no one can read it doesn't mean it's bad!

6. What is your favorite lunch  meat? Ham

7.  Birth Date? Oct.18,1960

8. Mountains or Beach? Beach!(Preferably Oahu)

9If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you? Yes

10. Do you have a Journal? Yes, but that doesn't guarantee that it's interesting!

11. Do you have a nickname? Kat

12. Would you bungee jump? No

13. What day is it? Sunday, 2/26/06

14. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Yes

15. Do you think that you are strong? Sometimes

16. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?Chocolate chip cookie dough

17. Shoe Size?61/2-7

18. Red or pink? Pink                    

19. What is your least favorite thing about yourself? My teeth

20. Who do you miss most? Grandma

21. What color pants and shoes are you wearing right now?Gray BENT CRANK RACING Tshirt and blue jeans

22. What time is it? 1:09 pm

23. Last thing you ate? Drank a Slim Fast

24. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Purple

25. What is the weather like right now? Sunny and cold

26 Last person you talked to on the phone? Ben

27 1st thing you notice about the opposite sex?Smile

28. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yes,she's my Mom:)

29 Favorite Drink?Iced tea

30 What is your favorite sport? I like watching basketball

31. Hair Color? Varies,currently 'reddish-brown'

32. Do you wear contacts? No

33. Favorite Food? Chili/cheese/and spaghetti

34. Last Movie You Watched? 1/2 of 'The Fifth Element'(last night after Armageddon

35 Favorite Day of the Year? Anyone's birthday,particularly mine:) 

36. Scary Movies or Happy Endings?  Happy Endings

37Summer or winter? Summer

38. What Is Your Favorite dessert? French silk pie

39. Living Arrangements? Me,April,Kyle and Spice and sometimes Tony

40. What book are you reading? The Assasins Gate

41. What is on Your Mouse Pad? It's just blue:( but I have a cool screensaver-see previous entry below!)

42. What Did You Watch Last night on TV? Already covered above

43 Favorite Sounds? Anything but opera

44. What's the furthest you've been from home? Hawaii

Geek toy

Woo hoo,Emma came by last evening and brought me a 3D Tropical Aquarium cd!and you can create your own backgrounds! Thanks,Emma.....guaranteed to make me smile

Tony said"Oh good lord, like she NEEDS something else to keep her on the computer."

And then the funny thing is...when I was checking out the part where you create your own,Tony and April were making suggestions and then Tony came over and started trying a few different things out....and the above pic is one of HIS creations, neither he nor April liked any of MY creations. After he put a few together, he said "this is actually pretty cool.....(long pause)......and then he shook his head at himself and said "I am so gay!" I was falling down laughing.

Other than that, not much else going on. There is a REASON I subtitled this blog "watching paint dry!"

The Pancake story

Emma and Ben stopped by yesterday, and apprently Emma had never heard this story. For those of you who might have questions as to whether or not I am a 'dork'..........

I was working at a nursing home several years back, and went to reheat a pancake in the microwave. For some reason, someone had re-set reheat to TEN minutes,not ONE....so when I threw my pancake in,saw a one and a bunch of zeroes and just hit start and then got called away.

Next thing I knew,the fire alarm was going off and the maintenance man came running onto the unit and yelled at us,"Can't you smell that smoke?!" and then grabbed the microwave with the now-flaming pancake inside and ran outside with it to put it out.

The fire dept. responded to the fire alarm.....and let me tell you,very few people are privileged in their lifetime to see a bunch of firefighters in full gear standing around a microwave with a blackened pancake in it, laughing their a#*es off!But I am one of those people

I worked there for awhile after that, and  EVERY time we had a fire alarm,there was always at least ONE firefighter who would see me and ask "had any pancakes lately?" and then bust a gut laughing,and all his buddies would be guffawing with him.

Goodbye,and 'Rooby Roo'

Operating under the impression that sometimes people read this...lol. I figured I should post a 'goodbye to Kyle's blue car' pic...if you read a previous post, I said he had car trouble. Well, the operation would've cost more than the patient was worth, so Kyle just bid farewell to the car and worked out a deal with Ben to buy back the van.     I told Kyle I guess everyone goes through this, this car was his 'baby' that he worked so hard for and then nailed the deer with it right after he bought it, and now this.

Then I did the 'old person's' thing of saying"I remember ....back when I was 18 "(an idea that I think one's children find inconceivable, that you ever WERE 18!:)...."when I totalled my first really cool car...a 1979 Chevy Nova....it was during a freak snowstorm in 1981, and I never forgot that car".....and of course by this time I was talking to myself, because all your children's brains turn off whenever you start out a sentence with "back in MY day"(or something similar).

That was nice of brother Ben to agree to sell the car back,and speaking of Ben.....he is working at Target and also Sam Goody(till they close) and possibly going to be starting parttime as a security guard at the mall. I told Ben he has the 'wrong Roo' on his yahoo page, because Emma had to redo her page...and so I told him to get the 'right roo'....and then it ocurred to me to say 'right roo' three times really fast!(because I have been unable to sleep since 2 am, for some reason)which made me think of Scooby snacks ("Rooby Roo").....which reminded me of when April was on the 'Scoobies' soccer team back when she was 5 and all of us parents would cheer for them by yelling "Rooby Roo".....so that's the mental pic I'll leave you with. A bunch of adults on a soccer field yelling "Rooby Roo".

shopping for the troops?

Here's some different sites I have run across, some offer military discounts or discounts when shipping to the military.

Click here: Troop cookies     Click here: Military Care Packages For Our Troops - Treat Our Troops     Click here: Big John's Beef Jerky - Taste the Legend!     Click here: Herr's Snacks For Soldiers Home Page     Click here: CarolsCandyCorner offers Old Fashioned Vintage Candy, Chocolate, Gifts, Gift Baskets from 50's, 60's, 70's.     Click here: Bulk Candy Super Store! .... Candy Warehouse     Click here: House of Jerky, San Diego jerky, beef jerky, buffalo jerky, ostrich jerky

More cooking accidents with Kathi

OK, I decided for some unknown reason last night to  make a Brown Sugar Pound Cake'.....something I haven't made in like 10 years. I mixed it up by hand(forgot I don't have a mixer!) and put it in a 9 x 13 pan and popped it in the oven. The recipe said to cook for an hour and a half.

Went out to play Trivial Pursuit with Kyle and April in the living room. After awhile, Kyle kept saying 'is something burning?"

Yes, something WAS burning! My batter had risen up over the sides of the pan and was dripping onto the bottom of the oven.

Darn it....now I need oven cleaner. and I of course didn't get any brown sugar pound cake!

And I started cracking up while I was trying to clean up the bottom of the oven some, and dumping the hideous batter......because Kyle said'well, you just know Mom is gonna blog about this!'

Kites!

Here's something to think of.....saw a posting on Anysoldier.com by a "LTC Richard Peterson"(you can do a search for his specific name on that site) and he said their unit is trying to get 200 kites to give to an Afghani village's children in March.

He mentioned the book "The Kite Runner" which I keep meaning to read.And the unit he is with is made up of Airmen stationed from Japan.

If you can't send a kite,just maybe think of dropping these folks a card:)

Seussical

Last night Emma and I went to see 'Seussical", the musical at HHS. Very cute!!!'Young'Bryan was in it,did a nice job.Think April and I might try to go next week to see another area high school do 'Fiddler on the Roof'.Ape is going to see Seussical with Ken and Lynn either tonight or tomorrow night.

Tony is doing work for Kris his landlord on another one of Kris' properties.Guess I might not have mentioned before that Tony lost his job at Riddlebergers a few weeks back?But we are doing OK so far, all us 'unemployed' :) 

Poor Kyle had his car break down yesterday, and it is in the shop right now.....hopefully it will be something not too expensive.

I spent yesterday updating my resume and since the printer is working again(for now,this printer seems to have a mind of its own)printed out some copies and some cover letters and mailed those off.

With so many birthdays this week, I hit upon the idea of making someof those Photostory slideshows for the birthday folks....had a blast doing that!

April has a 4 day weekend....teacher's workday today and Monday off for President's Day. Tony's brother Chris stopped by last night, always nice to see him.We fed him before he took off and he complimented my cooking.....which cracked me up, that doesn't always happen!(that someone compliments my cooking:)When I hit the kitchen ,there's always a chance that something can go horribly wrong!(anyone remember the story of me setting the pancake on fire in the microwave at work several years ago??)

Got the nicest letter this week from a young man that I had been sending cards/letters to while he is in basic training...picked him up off the Soldiers' Angels TLC board. What warmed my heart and renewed my spirit was when he said..."it really makes my day on mailcall to hear my name called." That's  exactly why I keep doing this....to try and make someone's day a little brighter,and let them know we care:)

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Feb.17,2006

Ok,now it's happy birthday to Dad!

Happy Birthday,Jake!

Happy Birthday to my nephew,Jake.

This just in.....

Just heard from a nice sailor that I corresponded with during his last deployment....he's going back!for 6 months.Please keep him(and all the rest of our troops) in your prayers.

Belated Valentine post

Belated Happy Valentine's day. I guess I wasn't feeling very 'valentinish' yesterday, having stayed up till 1:00 a.m. the night before to finish typing a paper April had due yesterday.(long story, involving printer and ink mishaps and woes.)and then got up at 6:30 am to be sure she got it printed out ok,etc. and gave her a ride to school.

I actually had a very nice Valentine's day....got roses from Tony, and orchids from Ben and Emma. Mom sent a card(thanks,Mom)and sister Sue started a 'war' via talking e-cards with my brother,lol.They are both insane(my brother and sister)

I wasn't going to do anything for Valentine's day for any of 'my' soldiers,but then found American Chopper Valentine's,which I just thought was way cool and so I bought a box and sent them out with letters,etc. I know it's cheesy as heck, but the most important thing is that they know we're thinking about them right?(even if in a cheesy fashion?)

and somehow I never got my ducks in a row in time to get the traditional (oh my gosh, not ANOTHER ecard from Kathi)ecards sent. and then April came home from school and was like'darn,Mom,I thought I'd get that stupid redneck ecard you always send!" so, I went ahead and sent them somewhat belatedly.I won't inflict the traditional redneck card on y'all that makes my family groan....but here is a link to what has to be one of the best Valentine's ecards I've seen:)

http://www.hallmark.com/ECardWeb/ECV.jsp?a=2313131732993M98518432Y

 

So,anyway, for Valentine's eve,Tony rented "Saw2"(yes, the traditional romantic chick flick movie????!!!LOL)which sucks....do not rent!The original was way better.

That's life in the fast lane here, have a nice February, I can just never get into celebrating 'President's Day',so guess the next fun holiday is St.Paddy's day....Faith and begorra!!!

Happy Birthday,Kyle!

HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY,KYLE!!!

Monday

Church WAS cancelled,so we laid around like slugs yesterday, watched movies("Waiting' was cute)and Tony made French Toast and sausage for breakfast. (brunch)Here's a pic from the local paper.

Prior to the snow, I went to Food Lion and got....milk and bread! LOL. No,really, we NEEDED milk and bread anyway....but why is it that people always rush to the store and buy milk and bread prior to a snowstorm?I remember the blizzard of '96 partly because of bread, I had been out of bread right before the blizzard. So our family was introduced to 'Hawaiian Toaster Bread' because when I finally made it to the store that was all that was left. Due to the obligatory run on milk and bread prior to a snow.

Further reviewing the DVD's we picked up prior to the snow....finally saw War of the Worlds.....ok. Legend of Zorro sucked, another movie that got ejected before the end....In Good Company was April's pick, and also a pretty cute movie. And some weird horror movie that I picked, which turned out to be a FRENCH horror movie, with English voice overs and subtitles (why has no one learned by this point NOT to let ME pick out movies?)It was fun in that it was sort of like watching old Godzilla movies....you get hung up on watching their mouths and listening to the dialog and they don't match. For the life of me I cannot remember the name of this movie, but once you got past the dialog thing, there was actually a plot twist and oh yeah, it was pretty gory.

Kyle bought a paintball gun and went out to shoot with Morgan's brother. April went sledding(or 'sleigh riding' as they call it here in Virginia...almost 30 years here and some of their colloquialisms still flip me out....like they call snow hats 'toboggans' and growing up in MI we always RODE toboggans)

Had a nice surprise this morning....got a thank you email for one of the Christmas care packages that we sent to a Virginia unit in Iraq. :) That was a nice way to start the morning.

Did another 'photostory' yesterday....only because April has been playing the 'move it' song from Madagascar OVER and OVER and it was stuck in my head. I always have fun putting together the pics for those.:)

And once again, life in the 'watching paint dry' zone....have a great week!

Feb.11,2006

Yay! It's snowing,it's snowing!I've missed snow this winter! You can tell I don't have anywhere to go today, can't you.....lol.....and poor Kyle is out at the 'Wal-Mark'(as some of the locals say) pushin' those carts!Am sure he is not quite as happy as I am about the snow.

April went to a birthday party last night. She got her hair cut yesterday, will have to get Kyle to get a pic,but she got it shoulder length and parted on the side and it looks fantastic. She also said she got invited to another birthday party next weekend.

My day yesterday was .....different. Had gotten a call Thursday from an online application froma place over in Charlottesville(hour and a half from here) the woman said she knew it was last minute, but was leaving town next week....could I come over Friday for an interview?

So, when I show up for the interview.....she's NOT THERE. I heard she 'forgot' . Well, I wasn't too thrilled about  that! Didn't leave me with a very good impression of the place anyway...if you're too disorganized to remember on Friday an interview you scheduled on Thursday, I have serious doubts about whether I want to work for you. They did ask me to 'wait an hour' till she came in....sorry, not happening, I went home via a way where I could stop at several other places along the way to put in applications.

I did run into someone I went to nursing school with there. Boy, THAT sent me back!This girl and two others made my life and that of several other people in nursing school a hell while we were in school. One woman's son tried to commit suicide while we were in school...we had folders where our papers were returned, and I left her a note in her folder saying"Keeping you in my prayers"...that's how we found out those 3 girls were going thru the folders during lunchtime, to look at others grades. Because the openly MOCKED the note, they'd look at each other with sickly sweet smiles and say"I'm praying for you" and smirkand snort and laugh. They also openly mocked one of our instructors,during class....a person who I think is one of the most likely candidates for sainthood I've ever met.

All in all, they were the least compassionate and most ugly-spirited people I'd ever met. It still horrifies me to this day that any of the 3 of them wanted to be nurses!I would not have let them take care of my DOG.

I particularly remembered this girl because we had a vote before graduation on whether we would do a choral reading of "A Nurse's Prayer' poem, and she was extremely ANGRY that we voted 'yes'....was quite irate that it was not a written anonymous vote,said she was 'intimidated' by the fact that it was a show of hands vote and so didn't feel she could vote 'no' ,but the lasting impression I have of her is that she was highly OFFENDED that we were going to read anything with the word PRAYER in it.

So, it was somewhat surrealistic to run into her at that job interview yesterday, and have her seem so 'excited' to run into me...she was tellling everyone"I know she's a good nurse, cause we went to school together'(Tony was falling down laughing when I told him, he asked 'how does that necessarily follow?)Let's just say that if God wanted to send me a message that this was NOT a place for me to work, He couldn't have chosen a better way than for me to run into this person:)

Well, that's life in a nutshell right now. Have a good weekend!

I got Tagged

I got 'tagged' by sister Tracy

http://emanoff-china.blogspot.com/2006/02/tag-tracys-it.html     oh golly, my first time! Hope I'm dressed right,lol. Anyway, here goes:   Four jobs I've had: 1. 6 months in a poultry plant cutting off chicken wings, did not eat chicken for 2 years afterwards! 2. LPN in numerous nursing homes over the last 12 years 3. LPN in a psychiatric state hospital for a year. 4. Desk clerk at the Holiday Inn   Four movies I can watch over and over: 1. The Replacements 2.Drop Dead Gorgeous 3.Princess Bride 4. The first Matrix movie   Four Places I've lived: 1. Clearwater,FL (first 3 years of my life, do you have to REMEMBER living there?:) 2. Ft.Eustis,VA (I DO remember that, Dad was in the Army) 3. Middletown,OH 4.Parchment,MI   Four TV shows I love: 1. LOST 2.Invasion 3.Law and Order(the original) 4.CSI(the original)   Four Places I've vacationed: 1.Oahu!!!Best vacation ever,for my brother's wedding in 2003. 2. Evergreen,CO    went tubing in the South Platte River 3. Homosassa Springs,FL(Grandma lived there) 4. Upper Peninsula,MI and Mackinaw Island   Four of My Favorite Dishes: 1. "Chili,Cheese, and spaghetti"--Mom's old dish to use upleftovers is our family favorite. 2. Taco salad 3. Sweet and sour pork 4. Meatloaf(only because growing up, we only ever had it for my birthday, because everyone else hated it)   Four sites I visit daily: 1.Mudville Gazette 2. Blackfive 3. Soldiers Angels message boards 4. US Dept of Defense official website   Four places I would rather be right now: 1.Oahu 2. Lake Superior(Minnesota's North Shore) 3. Hong Kong(to see my brother's daughter that I've never met yet!) 4. At WORK,since that would mean I had a JOB again!!!!   Four bloggers I am tagging: 1.Mom, so maybe she'll do her 360 page 2.Ben,so he can ignore it. 3.Kyle,so he'll START a blog 4.Trish,since she just started hers

Injured at Church! and other adventures in life

In another steller example of why I am a 'dork'.....I injured myself at church yesterday!!!

It was the end of the service , and I was sitting next to my aunt. April is now singing in the choir, and the choir had been sitting in the front of the church. I was attempting to see her, and also trying to stand up at the same time, and also talking to my aunt,Lynn. (Clearly,one sees something awful about to happen just from the information that I was trying to do 3 things at once.lol!:)

Well, I spied April, and quickly leaned over to give Lynn a kiss good bye on her cheek....and managed to somehow bump my backside against the corner of the pew,Man!those things are sharp!!!!and they hurt!!! Who knew church could be so dangerous!!!

Driving home, I said to April "I hurt my backside at church'. When I related the story to her,she asked"how are you going to tell Dad this story without him laughing at you?"  I replied"Honey, I don't see how to tell anyone this story and NOT have them laugh at me!"

I am now the proud owner of a huge and vicious bruise, and it sort of hurts to walk or sit.

We went in the afternoon to visit Tony's brother,Chris, at his new place, and while relating the story to him, Tony commented "Really not surprising, considering that she almost fell down the other day just trying to get up off the couch!" I said "Hey! My foot got caught in the bottom of my robe!"

Continuing with the theme, Tony was deep frying shrimp before the Super Bowl last night. For some reason, the breading did not 'stick' to the shrimp. After he took the first batch out, he said'the only thing I can think to do is wash all this off and start over.' I said,'Hey, let me do it !I have experience at that!" (See Dec. 16 entry about chicken nugget washing)

I wonder what normal people's lives are like?

Mis-Adventures in Computerland

Arghhhh! OK, here's a tip....DON'T download AOL instant messenger's Triton Beta! I did that yesterday, since Kyle uses AIM a lot.....and somehow managed to wipe out a bunch of stuff for Kyle, and most of my AOL address book!!!!

Fortuantely, I had most of the same addresses in my Yahoo address book, so I was able to rebuild it. So, that is what I have been doing this morning....UNinstalling the Aim Triton, and REinstalling the previous version of AIM. "Dorks R Us' meets Geekland,lol.

Other than that....the job hunt continues. Went to a friends' daughters' basketball game last night(they were playing Dustin's high school) and couldn't find the friend! I stayed about an hour and watched the JV game, and then left. Kyle went to Morgan's game, and they lost,sigh.

Tony and I came home and played poker with Little Miss Las Vegas card shark(April:)She had gotten a poker set for her birthday that she hadn't used yet,so we broke that in with Texas Hold 'Em. Tony, of course,won.

Today, Tony is doing a job for his landlord at someone's trailer, Kyle is off so of course going to hang out with Morgan, and April is going to a friend's house to play video games this afternoon.

I had a nice surprise from Yahoo 360 last night. Logged on and had a message from a girl who used to live in Harrisonburg, now lives in Alaska and is married to a deployed service member. She had come across my page, and sent me this message:

I just came across your yahoo 360 page and wanted to thank you for supporting our troops. I am a miltary spouse with a deployed husband and I know that soldiers really appreciate all that people like you do for them. Thanks again!

What a nice message to get!!!!

The Post Responds

Well, the Post printed the Joint Chiefs' letter...and then this article below, which I certainly don't view as an apology!

Joint Chiefs Fire At Toles Cartoon On Strained Army

By Howard KurtzWashington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 2, 2006; Page C01

In a protest with an unusual number of high-level signatures, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and each of its five members have fired off a letter assailing a Washington Post cartoon as "beyond tasteless."

The Tom Toles cartoon, published Sunday, depicts a heavily bandaged soldier in a hospital bed as having lost his arms and legs, while Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, in the guise of a doctor, says: "I'm listing your condition as 'battle hardened.' " Toles said he meant no offense toward American soldiers.

The letter to The Post, signed by Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the vice chairman and the service chiefs of the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force, said: "We believe you and Mr. Toles have done a disservice to your readers and your paper's reputation by using such a callous depiction of those who have volunteered to defend this nation, and as a result, have suffered traumatic and life-altering wounds . . .

"While you or some of your readers may not agree with the war or its conduct, we believe you owe the men and women and their families who so selflessly serve our country the decency to not make light of their tremendous physical sacrifices." The letter, which a reporter obtained from the Pentagon, is being published today.

The cartoon is based on remarks that Rumsfeld made last week. In rejecting warnings by a Pentagon-sponsored study that the Iraq war risks "breaking" the Army, he said the U.S. military is "battle hardened" and an "enormously capable force." At the bottom of the cartoon, in smaller type, Rumsfeld says: "I'm prescribing that you be stretched thin. We don't define that as torture."

In an interview, Toles called the letter "an understandable response" but said he did not regret what he drew. In thinking about Rumsfeld's remarks, he said, "what came soon to mind was the catastrophic level of injuries the Army and members of the armed services have sustained . . . I thought my portrayal of it was a fair depiction of the reality of the situation.

"I certainly never intended it to be in any way a personal attack on, or a derogatory comment on, the service or sacrifice of American soldiers."

As for the Joint Chiefs' letter, he said: "I think it's a little bit unfair in their reading of the cartoon to imply that is what it's about."

Fred Hiatt, The Post's editorial page editor, said he doesn't "censor Tom" and that "a cartoonist works best if he or she doesn't feel there's someone breathing over their shoulder. He's an independent actor, like our columnists." Hiatt said he makes comments on drafts of cartoons but that Toles is free to ignore them.

Asked about Sunday's cartoon, Hiatt said, "While I certainly can understand the strong feelings, I took it to be a cartoon about the state of the Army and not one intended to demean wounded soldiers."

Dave Autry, deputy communications director for Disabled American Veterans, said he was "certainly not" offended by the cartoon.

"It was graphic, no doubt about it," he said. "But it drove home a point, that there are critically ill patients that certainly need to be attended to."

Toles, who won a 1990 Pulitzer Prize for the Buffalo News and joined The Post in 2002, said he expected criticism for drawing the quadruple amputee, as he does for about two-thirds of his efforts.

"It is the nature of cartooning that someone can read an analogy a cartoon uses to mean things other than what was intended," Toles said. "The only way to avoid that problem is to draw cartoons that have no impact."

An Offensive Cartoon

The above is a completely tasteless, and highly offensive, cartoon that was in this past Sunday's Washington Post.

The cartoon led the Joint Chiefs of Staff to write the letter below to the Post:

The following virtually unprecedented letter was sent yesterday by all members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the managing editor of the Washington Post:

We were extremely disappointed to see the editorial cartoon by Tom Toles on page B6 in the January 29th edition. Using the likeness of a service member who has lost his arms and legs in war as the central theme of a cartoon is beyond tasteless. Editorial cartoons are often designed to exaggerate issues -- and your paper is obviously free to discuss any topic, including the state of readiness of today's Armed Forces. However, we believe you and Mr. Toles have done a disservice to your readers and your paper's reputation by using such a callous depiction of those who have volunteered to defend this nation, and as a result, have suffered traumatic and life-altering wounds.

Those who visit with wounded veterans in local hospitals have found lives profoundly changed by pain and loss. They have also found brave men and women with a sense of purpose and selfless commitment that causes truly battle-hardened warriors to pause. Where do we get such men and women? From the cities and farmlands of this great Nation - they serve to be a part of something bigger than themselves. While you or some of your readers may not agree with the war or its conduct, we believe you owe the men and women and their families who so selflessly serve our country the decency to not make light of their tremendous physical sacrifices.

As the Joint Chiefs, it is rare that we all put our hand to one letter, but we cannot let this reprehensible cartoon go unanswered.

Sincerely,

PETER PACE, General U.S. Marine Corps, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

EDMUND B. GIAMBASTIANI, JR., Admirial, U.S. Navy, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

MICHAEL W. HAGEE, General, U.S. Marine Corps, Commandant of the Marine Corps

PETER J. SCHOOMAKER, General, U.S. Army Chief of Staff

MICHAEL G. MULLEN, Admiral, U.S. Navy, Chief of Naval Operations

T. MICHAEL MOSELEY, General, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff

If you'd like to send your own opinion of this 'cartoon' to the Post, the email address is:  letters@washpost.com  

and the snail mail address is:Letters to the Editor
The Washington Post
1150 15th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20071

I have sent a letter of my own today, suggesting that an apology by the Post would be the only decent and honorable course of action for the paper to take regarding this cartoon. And I will no longer continue my practice of buying a Washington Post every Sunday.