When I saw the headline, Gaddafi’s Creepy Love Den in The Dailyt Beast, my first thought was a remembrance of a Peter Arno cartoon in which a stuffy matron, reading the newspaper that says Mayor caught in love nest and looking up at her equally dignified husband, says “What is a ‘Love Nest’, dear?” Of course, I remember it because I didn’t know, at about ten, what a Love Nest was either; I’m sure that my mother’s explanation was in good taste. “Love Nest” is just not a term you hear these days, but – then – neither is “Love Den”. I hope they are both coming back.
When I was at an impressionable age, my family had three joke books that helped shape my sensibilities. There were other books and – I’m sure -other joke books, but the three that stick in my mind are the aforementioned Peter Arno book, a James Thurber book with a name I can’t remember, and Up Front by Bill Maudin. They all three had a sort of whimsical sarcasm that I like to think is in my DNA.
Hi. Would have emailed you, but found no link for that, so hope you read these. Two of your books (Mauldin — BTW you slipped and left the “L” out of his name — and Thurber) also shaped my own sensibilities at my impressionable age (late 50’s). Of course Mauldin WAS funny, even though it was all about the horrors of WW II.
I’ll bet the Thurber book you couldn’t remember the name of was The Thurber Carnival, on page 326 of which appears the Seal in the Bedroom cartoon you reprint above.
My third book was different, however, although I did see Arno’s cartoons from time to time. It was The Incompleat Pogo by Walt Kelly. (And FYI, I found your blog when I googled Peter Arno’s name to be sure I had completed today’s LA Times crossword correctly – 28 down.)
Clay
Clay, you are right, it was The Thurber Carnival. We did see Pogo cartoons every once in a while and my mother was very fond of the quote, “We have met the enemy and it (he) is us. Thanks for the comment, Steve