I picked up this week's copy of my local newspaper on Saturday. I like to get a print copy of my political column for the archive -aka the bottom shelf of my bookcase. And there it was: the ugliest stereotype of a cartoon hippie, which has apparently become my avatar for the newspaper column. Sunglasses, a headband - the very caricature of a late sixties radical as filtered by some artist raised on Family Circus. I have never, ever worn a headband, and I was nine years old when Woodstock was held. I rarely wear sunglasses, although the optometrist encourages me to do so. This dreadful image seems designed to reduce my opinion pieces to a viewpoint written by some burned-out flakey monster-woman.

I spoke to the editor this morning. He was surprised, of course, by my rant. The worst part is when he informed me that this was not his design; he was simply using the same artwork that another paper runs on my page in every issue up in Macon.

Good Lord. Apparently I need to drive through Macon more often and watch what the folks are doing with my column elsewhere.

On today's to-do list: a) finish this week's column; and b) give up, take a photo of myself, and replace that awful hippie cartoon.

NTD