There's only one funny entry in this week's cartoon caption contest, for the drawing of the scientist dressed as a very large rat (in incongruous shoes; see below). I shouldn't have to tell you which one it is, but it's the middle one: "More important, however, is what I learned about myself." (Writer: NYC's own Roy Futterman, who's possibly the ad director for Criticas magazine—if true, it makes sense.) The other two, with all due respect, are not too funny. You still have time to refresh your memory of the picture and vote now to ensure that Mike Twohy gets the caption his drawing deserves. Voting ends at 11:59 P.M. E.S.T. this Sunday the 8th, so make haste.

I'm a little surprised nothing better came of the first round—the third finalist, "Well, it was just easier than making a thousand tiny lab coats," is intriguingly nuts but awkwardly worded—but perhaps people will be so perplexed at the current options that they'll come up with something genuinely good for the new drawing. It's of a man (lots of men as central actors here, I note without comment) much the worse for wear, crawling toward a fully staffed phone bank whose sign reads "Emergency Hotline." A woman (reacting) shouts down at him—what? Only you can decide. Let's pull up the level a bit here, people.

By the way, a very fashionable person here in Williamsburg's Atlas Cafe and I have just conferred about the abovementioned shoes of Twohy's super-rat. I've known many scientists, and those who didn't wear dress shoes to the lab usually wore sneakers. None wore shoes like this whiskered fellow's; they look (according to Alexis the barista) like reinforced-toe work shoes, as you might wear on a construction site, or possibly orthopedics or hiking boots—Doc Martens, perhaps, or Timberlands. I would even venture to say that if I didn't know better, I'd think they were those Mary Jane-ish shoes with thick soles and chunky heels that it was once necessary to own. In the days of Harold Ross, this kind of thing would send a cartoonist slinking from the art meeting back to the drawing board, tail between his legs (so to speak), but in this case it seems to have escaped notice. The footwear of the other scientist (and that of the somewhat Quentin Blake-ish rats) is not visible.

Categories: NYer, Cartoons, Contest, Ross