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• Red Hot Poker

Gary Larson (born August 14, 1950) is an American cartoonist. He is the creator of The Far Side, a single-panel cartoon series that was syndicated internationally to more than 1,900 newspapers for fifteen years.^[1] The series ended with Larson's retirement on January 1, 1995, though in September 2019 his website alluded to a 'new online era of 'The Far Side.'^[2] His twenty-three books of collected cartoons have combined sales of more than forty-five million copies.^[1]

• 2Career

1. The Red Hot Pokers formed in 1984 and as well as working continuously as a separate entity, have worked as a backing band for visiting US blues and rock,n,roll artists. These include Lowell Fulson, Carey Bell, Lazy Lester, Frankie Ford, Big Al Downing, Nappy Brown, Big Jay McNeely.
2. I'm looking for a certain Far Side cartoon. It has sentimental value to a friend of mine, and I thought I'd try to help find it, but with no luck. The cartoon shows two sceintists standing at their miscroscopes lovingly looking at each other. A thought bubble is shared between them, and inside, instead of there being the shape of a heart, it is a human heart.

Kniphofia/Red Hot Poker Lily Planting Guide Looking for something with an exotic air? The name is a tongue twister (pronounced nee-FOF-ee-a) but these plants are easy to grow - many even say tough to kill - and deliver colorful, spiky, wand-like flowers that hummingbirds love.

Early life and education[edit]

Larson was born and raised in University Place, Washington, in suburban Tacoma,^[1] the son of Verner, a car salesman, and Doris, a secretary.^[3] He graduated from Curtis Senior High School in University Place and from Washington State University in Pullman^[1] with a degree in communications.^[4][5] During high school and college, he played jazz guitar^[6] and banjo.^[1]

Larson said his family has 'a morbid sense of humor',^[1] and that he was influenced by the 'paranoid' sense of humor of his older brother, Dan.^[3] Dan played pranks on Gary, for example by taking advantage of his fear of monsters under the bed by waiting in the closet for the right moment to pounce. Dan 'scared the hell out of me' whenever he could,^[1] Gary said, but Dan also nurtured Gary's love of scientific knowledge. They caught animals in Puget Sound and placed them in terrariums in the basement, and also made a small desert ecosystem.^[3]

Career[edit]

Early cartoon work[edit]

According to Larson in his anthology The Prehistory of The Far Side,^[7] he was working in a music store^[6] when he took a few days off, after finally realizing how much he hated his job. During that time, he decided to try cartooning. In 1976, he drew six cartoons and submitted them to Pacific Search (afterward Pacific Northwest Magazine), a Seattle-based magazine.^[6] After contributing to another local Seattle paper, in 1979 Larson submitted his work to The Seattle Times. Under the title Nature's Way, his work was published weekly next to the Junior Jumble.^[7]

To supplement his income, Larson worked for the Humane Society as a cruelty investigator.^[1]

The Far Side[edit]

Larson decided that he could increase his income from cartooning by selling his Nature's Way strip to another newspaper. While on vacation in San Francisco, he pitched his work to the San Francisco Chronicle and, to his surprise, the Chronicle bought the strip and promoted it for syndication, renaming it The Far Side.^[6] Its first appearance in the Chronicle was on January 1, 1980. A week later, The Seattle Times dropped Nature's Way.^[7] Unlike Charles Schulz, who resented the name imposed by his publisher (Peanuts), Larson had no such qualms, saying, 'They could have called it Revenge of the Zucchini People, for all I cared.' The Far Side ran for fifteen years, syndicated initially by Chronicle Features and later by Universal Press Syndicate, until Larson retired with his final strip published on January 1, 1995.

Red Hot Poker

Themes in The Far Side were often surreal, such as 'How cows behave when no human watches' or 'The unexpected dangers of being an insect'. Often, the behavior of supposedly superior humans was compared with animals. For instance, a father explains to his son that a bird song is a territorial marking common to the lower animals, while surrounded by fences and dense housing. Animals and other creatures were frequently presented anthropomorphically. One strip depicts a family of spiders driving in a car with a 'Have a Nice Day' bumper sticker, featuring a 'smiley face' with eight eyes.

One of Larson's more famous cartoons shows a chimpanzee couple grooming. The female finds a blonde human hair on the male and inquires, 'Conducting a little more 'research' with that Jane Goodall tramp?' A representative from the Jane Goodall Institute thought that this was in bad taste and wrote a critical letter to Larson regarding the cartoon. Larson contacted the Goodall Institute to apologize only to find that Jane Goodall, who had been in Africa at the time of the cartoon's publication and only learned of it years after its initial publication, approved of it, stating that she found it amusing. Since then, all profits from sales of a shirt featuring this cartoon go to the Goodall Institute.^[8] Goodall wrote a preface to The Far Side Gallery 5, detailing her version of the 'Jane Goodall Tramp' controversy.^[9] She praised Larson's creative ideas, which often compare and contrast the behavior of humans and animals. In 1988, Larson visited Gombe Stream National Park and was attacked by Frodo, a chimp described by Goodall as a 'bully'. Larson sustained cuts and bruises from the encounter.^[10]

Larson's Far Side cartoons were syndicated worldwide and published in many collections. They were also reproduced extensively on greeting cards which were very popular, but these were discontinued in March 2009. Two animated versions were produced for television: Tales from the Far Side (1994) and Tales from the Far Side II (1997).^[6][11] A 2007 Far Side calendar donated all author royalties to Conservation International.^[1]

Retirement[edit]

By late 1994, Larson thought the series was getting repetitive and did not want to enter what he called the 'Graveyard of Mediocre Cartoons.'^[3][6] He retired the strip on January 1, 1995, when he was 44 years old. Since retiring from The Far Side, Larson has done occasional cartoon work, including magazine illustrations and promotional artwork for Far Side merchandise. For the most part, he has also retired from public view: 'He refuses to have his picture taken and avoids being on TV,' Time magazine wrote in 2003. To Larson, 'cartoonists are expected to be anonymous.'^[12]

There's a Hair in My Dirt!: A Worm's Story[edit]

In 1998, Larson published his first post-Far Side book There's a Hair in My Dirt!: A Worm's Story, an illustrated book with thematic similarities to The Far Side. The short book tells the story of an earthworm who feels that his life is insignificant. The main plot is told by the young worm's father and follows the beautiful (but slightly dim) human maiden Harriet, who takes a stroll across a woodland trail, encountering different aspects of the ecological world.^[6][13] She admires it but knows little about the land around her, and that eventually leads to her downfall.

The story became a New York Times Best Seller on May 24, 1998.^[14]

Other works and interests[edit]

Larson has been playing jazz guitar since his teen years.^[6] He took advanced lessons from two famous jazz guitarists, Remo Palmier^[15] and Herb Ellis. In exchange for guitar lessons from Ellis, Larson provided him with the cover illustration for the album Doggin' Around (Concord, 1988) by Ellis and bassist Red Mitchell.^[16]

Larson drew a cover for the November 17, 2003, edition of The New Yorker magazine, an offer he felt was too prestigious to refuse.^[17][18]

Larson voices himself in the Simpsons 2010 episode 'Once Upon a Time in Springfield.'

Awards and honors[edit]

Larson was awarded the Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award by the National Cartoonists Society in 1985 and 1988. Larson earned the society's Reuben Award for 1990 and 1994. Larson has been recognized for various individual strips by the National Cartoonist Society in 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993 and 1995.

On March 15, 1989, a newly discovered insect species was named after Larson by Dale H. Clayton, head of the Committee of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago. The Strigiphilus garylarsoni is a chewing louse^[1] of a genus found only on owls. Wrote Larson: 'I considered this an extreme honor. Besides, I knew no one was going to write and ask to name a new species of swan after me. You have to grab these opportunities when they come along.' An 8' × 11' (20 × 28 cm) magnification of the insect appeared in the Prehistory of the Far Side 10th anniversary compilation, along with the letter requesting permission to use his name. Similarly, an Ecuadorianrainforest butterfly was named after him; Serratoterga larsoni.^[3] The Garylarsonus beetle carries his name.^{[19][better source needed]} The term 'thagomizer', a feature of stegosaurus anatomy, was coined in a Far Side cartoon.^[6]

Eighteen years after earning his bachelor's degree at Washington State, Larson gave the commencement address at his alma mater in 1990.^{[4][20][21][22]}

Online presence[edit]

Since 1999 Larson has objected to his work being displayed on the internet, and has been sending takedown notices to owners of fan websites and users posting his cartoons.^[23] In a personal letter included with the requests, Larson claimed that his work is too personal and important to him to have others 'take control of it'.^[24][23] In 2007, he also published an open letter on the web to the same effect.^[25] Larson has been criticized for not providing a legitimate online source for the Far Side series and negatively compared to cartoonists who have embraced the internet.^[26]

In September 2019, the Far Side web site promised that 'a new online era of the Far Side is coming!'^[27][28]

On December 17, 2019, www.thefarside.com, authorized by Larson, and dedicated to The Far Side cartoon series went live on the internet.

Personal life[edit]

In 1987, Larson married Toni Carmichael, an anthropologist. Early in their relationship, Carmichael became his business manager. 'She's my pit bull, but she's a nice one,' Larson has said.^[1]

In The Complete Far Side,^[29] Larson says that his greatest disappointment in life occurred when he was at a luncheon and sat across from cartoonist Charles Addams, creator of The Addams Family. Larson was not able to think of a single thing to say to him and deeply regretted the missed opportunity. Addams died in 1988.

Larson is an environmentalist. 'Protecting wildlife is 'at the top of my list,' he says.'^[1]

Larson as of 2019 lives in Seattle.^[30]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcdefghijklWeise, Elizabeth (November 22, 2006). 'Larson drawn to wild side'. USA Today. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
2. ^Gustines, George Gene (September 17, 2019). 'The Far Side Teases Its Return'. nytimes.com. Retrieved 2019-09-17.
3. ^ ^abcdeFerguson, Kelly. 'A Walk on the Far Side: The Life and Times of Gary Larson'. 2006. Mental_Floss Nov.-Dec. 2006, 59-65.
4. ^ ^abOlsen, Ken (April 24, 1990). 'Larson to give '90 WSU grads unusual sendoff'. Idahonian. (Moscow). p. 1A.
5. ^Angier, Natalie (28 April 1998). 'An Amateur of Biology Returns to His Easel'. Science Times. The New York Times. 147 (51, 141). p. F5.
6. ^ ^abcdefghiMcCarthy, Susan (December 21, 1999). 'Gary Larson'. Salon. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
7. ^ ^abcLarson, Gary. The Prehistory of the Far Side: a 10th anniversary exhibit. Kansas City, MO: Andrew and McMeel, 1989. ISBN0-8362-1851-5
8. ^Jarvis, Zeke (2015). Make 'em Laugh! American Humorists of the 20th and 21st Centuries. ABC-CLIO. p. 51.
9. ^Larson, Gary. The Far Side Gallery 5. Kansas City, Missouri: Andrew and McMeel, 1995. ISBN0-8362-0425-5
10. ^Hartley, Aiden (2002-06-29), 'Me rodo, you Jane', The Spectator, archived from the original on 2010-01-13
11. ^Gary Larson on IMDb
12. ^Stein, Joel. 'Life Beyond The Far Side,'Time (September 29, 2003).
13. ^'New book rides wave of Viagra jokes'. CNN. July 29, 1998. Archived from the original on October 2, 2012.
14. ^'The New York Times Best Seller List - May 24, 1998 Fiction'(PDF). The New York Times. May 24, 1998. Retrieved 18 February 2011.
15. ^'Interview with GARY LARSON cont'd'. Fresh Air. NPR. April 30, 1998.
16. ^Mancini, Mark (November 28, 2016). '11 Twisted Facts About 'The Far Side''. Mental Floss.
17. ^Online edition of The New Yorker, 17 November 2003, featuring the cover drawn by Larson
18. ^Cook, Rebecca. 'Gary Larson revisits 'The Far Side', Associated Press, The Lawrence Journal-World, 30 November 2003.
19. ^Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature: Etymologies
20. ^Sorensen, Eric (May 13, 1990). 'Dare to be weird, Gary Larson tells WSU grads'. Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). p. B1.
21. ^Wickline, Michael R. (May 13, 1990). 'Wishing you weirdness'. Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). p. 1C.
22. ^Olsen, Ken (May 14, 1990). ''Far Side' creator tells grads: be weird'. Idahonian. (Moscow). p. 12A.
23. ^ ^abMarshall, Rick (March 7, 2008). 'Gary Larson and Our 'Far Side' Cease & Desist | ComicMix'. www.comicmix.com. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
24. ^'Gary Larson sent me this email'. Archived from the original on August 29, 2000. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
25. ^Larson, Gary (February 9, 2007). 'A Note from Gary Larson'. creators.com. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
26. ^'Dear Gary Larson: Your Kids Go Out At Night; Let Them Be'. Techdirt. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
27. ^https://www.thefarside.com
28. ^Gustines, George Gene, The Far Side Teases Its Return, The New York Times, September 16, 2019
29. ^Larson, Gary. The Complete Far Side. 1st ed. Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel, 2003. ISBN0-7407-2113-5
30. ^Sailor, Craig (December 18, 2019). 'Gary Larson went from Tacoma to 'The Far Side.' Now he's back, but on a new format'. The News Tribune. Retrieved December 18, 2019.

External links[edit]

• Gary Larson on IMDb

Kniphofia/nɪpˈhoʊfiə/,^[2] also called tritoma, red hot poker, torch lily, knofflers^{[citation needed]} or poker plant, is a genus of perennialflowering plants in the familyAsphodelaceae, first described as a genus in 1794.^[3] It is native to Africa.

Description[edit]

Herbaceous species and hybrids have narrow, grass-like leaves 10–100 cm (4–39 in) long, while evergreen species have broader, strap-shaped foliage up to 1.5 m (5 ft) long. All plants produce spikes of upright, brightly coloured flowers well above the foliage, in shades of red, orange and yellow, often bicoloured.^[4] The flowers produce copious nectar while blooming and are attractive to bees and sunbirds. In the New World they may attract sap-suckers such as hummingbirds and New World orioles.

Etymology[edit]

The genus Kniphofia is named after Johann Hieronymus Kniphof, an 18th-century German physician and botanist.

Cultivation[edit]

Several species of Kniphofia are cultivated as garden plants, valued for their architectural properties. These include K. galpini, K. northiae, K. rooperi and K. thomsonii.

In addition to the species, many named cultivars of mixed or uncertain parentage have been selected for garden use. The following have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:-^[5]

• 'Bees' Sunset'^[6] (yellow)
• 'Brimstone Bloom'^[7] (sulphur yellow)
• 'Buttercup'^[8] (clear yellow)
• 'Nobilis'^[9] (evergreen, orange and yellow)
• 'Royal Standard'^[10] (red and yellow)
• 'Samuel's Sensation'^[11] (tall herbaceous variety, scarlet flowers fading to yellow at the base)
• 'Sunningdale Yellow'^[12] (orange-yellow)
• 'Tawny King'^[13] (cream/brown)
• 'Toffee Nosed'^[14] (cream/brown)
• 'Wrexham Buttercup'^[15] (yellow)

Species[edit]

There are about 73 described species.^[1][16]

1. Kniphofia acraeaCodd - Cape Province of South Africa
2. Kniphofia albescensCodd - Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal
3. Kniphofia albomontanaBaijnath - Lesotho, South Africa
4. Kniphofia angustifolia(Baker) Codd - KwaZulu-Natal
5. Kniphofia ankaratrensisBaker - Madagascar
6. Kniphofia bauriiBaker - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Province
7. Kniphofia benguellensisWelw. ex Baker - Angola, Zambia
8. Kniphofia bequaertiiDe Wild. - Zaïre, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda
9. Kniphofia brachystachya(Zahlbr.) Codd - Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Province
10. Kniphofia brevifloraHarv. ex Baker - KwaZulu-Natal, Free State
11. Kniphofia bruceae(Codd) Codd - Cape Province
12. Kniphofia buchananiiBaker - KwaZulu-Natal
13. Kniphofia caulescensBaker - Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Province, Free State
14. Kniphofia citrinaBaker - Cape Province
15. Kniphofia coddianaCufod. - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Province
16. Kniphofia coralligemmaE.A.Bruce - Limpopo
17. Kniphofia crassifoliaBaker - Limpopo
18. Kniphofia drepanophyllaBaker - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Province
19. Kniphofia dubiaDe Wild - Zaire, Tanzania, Zambia, Angola
20. Kniphofia ensifoliaBaker - South Africa
21. Kniphofia × erythraeaeFiori - Eritrea (K. pumila × K. schimperi)
22. Kniphofia evansiiBaker - KwaZulu-Natal
23. Kniphofia fibrosaBaker - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Province
24. Kniphofia flammulaCodd - KwaZulu-Natal
25. Kniphofia fluviatilisCodd - South Africa
26. Kniphofia foliosaHochst. - Ethiopia
27. Kniphofia galpiniiBaker - KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Mpumalanga
28. Kniphofia goetzeiEngl. - Tanzania
29. Kniphofia gracilisHarv. ex Baker - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Province
30. Kniphofia grantiiBaker - Zaïre, Tanzania, Zambia, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Malawi
31. Kniphofia hildebrandtiiCufod. - Ethiopia
32. Kniphofia hirsutaCodd - Lesotho, Cape Province
33. Kniphofia ichopensisSchinz - KwaZulu-Natal
34. Kniphofia insignisRendle - Ethiopia
35. Kniphofia isoetifoliaHochst. - Ethiopia
36. Kniphofia latifoliaCodd - KwaZulu-Natal
37. Kniphofia laxifloraKunth - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Province
38. Kniphofia leucocephalaBaijnath - KwaZulu-Natal
39. Kniphofia linearifoliaBaker - Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, South Africa
40. Kniphofia littoralisCodd - KwaZulu-Natal
41. Kniphofia marungensisLisowski & Wiland - Zaïre
42. Kniphofia mulanjeanaS.Blackmore - Mt. Mulanje in Malawi
43. Kniphofia multifloraJ.M.Wood & M.S.Evans - Swaziland, South Africa
44. Kniphofia nanaMarais - Zaïre
45. Kniphofia northiaeBaker - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Province
46. Kniphofia nubigenaMildbr. - Sudan
47. Kniphofia pallidifloraBaker - Massif de l' Ankaratra in Madagascar
48. Kniphofia paludosaEngl - Elton Plateau in Tanzania
49. Kniphofia parvifloraKunth - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Province
50. Kniphofia paucifloraBaker - KwaZulu-Natal
51. Kniphofia porphyranthaBaker - Lesotho, Swaziland, South Africa
52. Kniphofia praecoxBaker - Cape Province
53. Kniphofia princeae (A.Berger) Marais - Zaïre, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi
54. Kniphofia pumila(Aiton) Kunth - Zaïre, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea
55. Kniphofia reflexaHutch. ex Codd - Nigeria, Cameroon (endangered)^[17]
56. Kniphofia reynoldsiiCodd - Tanzania, Zambia
57. Kniphofia rigidifoliaE.A.Bruce - Mpumalanga
58. Kniphofia ritualisCodd - Free State, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal
59. Kniphofia rooperi(T.Moore) Lem. - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Province
60. Kniphofia sarmentosa (Andrews) Kunth - Cape Province
61. Kniphofia schimperiBaker - Ethiopia, Eritrea
62. Kniphofia splendidaE.A.Bruce - Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, northeastern South Africa, Swaziland
63. Kniphofia strictaCodd - Cape Province, Lesotho
64. Kniphofia sumaraeDeflers - Ibb Mountains of Yemen
65. Kniphofia tabularisMarloth - Cape Province
66. Kniphofia thodeiBaker - Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal
67. Kniphofia thomsoniiBaker - Zaïre, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia
68. Kniphofia triangularisKunth - Lesotho, South Africa
69. Kniphofia typhoidesCodd - Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Mpumalanga
70. Kniphofia tysoniiBaker - KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Province, Swaziland
71. Kniphofia umbrinaCodd - Swaziland
72. Kniphofia uvaria(L.) Oken - Cape Province; naturalized in Mexico, North Carolina, Spain, Oregon, Turkey, Washington State, St. Helena, California
73. Kniphofia vandewegheiFischer & Ackermann - Rwanda

Gallery[edit]

• Yellow Kniphofia

• 'Shenandoah' Red Hot Poker

• Kniphofia foliosa in Simien Mountains National Park, Ethiopia

• Kniphofia along the Ohlone Greenway trail in El Cerrito, California

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abKew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
2. ^Sunset Western Garden Book, 1995:606–607
3. ^Stevens, P.F., Angiosperm Phylogeny Website: Asparagales: Asphodeloideae
4. ^RHS A-Z encyclopedia of garden plants. United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. 2008. p. 1136. ISBN1405332964.
5. ^'AGM Plants - Ornamental'(PDF). Royal Horticultural Society. July 2017. p. 57. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
6. ^'RHS Plant Selector - Kniphofia 'Bees Sunset'. Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
7. ^'RHS Plant Selector - Kniphofia 'Brimstone Bloom''. Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
8. ^'RHS Plant Selector - Kniphofia 'Buttercup''. Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
9. ^'RHS Plant Selector - Kniphofia 'Nobilis''. Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
10. ^'RHS Plant Selector - Kniphofia 'Royal Standard''. Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
11. ^'RHS Plant Selector - Kniphofia 'Samuel's Sensation''. Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
12. ^'RHS Plant Selector - Kniphofia 'Sunningdale Yellow''. Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
13. ^'RHS Plant Selector - Kniphofia 'Tawny King''. Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
14. ^'RHS Plant Selector - Kniphofia 'Toffee Nosed''. Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
15. ^'RHS Plant Selector - Kniphofia 'Wrexham Buttercup''. Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
16. ^'A New Species of Kniphofia from Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda'. Novataxa. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
17. ^'Kniphofia reflexa'. Redlist.org. Retrieved 2012-05-13.

External links[edit]

• Dressler, S.; Schmidt, M. & Zizka, G. (2014). 'Kniphofia'. African plants – a Photo Guide. Frankfurt/Main: Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg.