If you're not busy reading Jim Toomey's irreverent 'Sherman's Lagoon,' then GET BUSY! (It's a personal favorite.)

Sherman's Lagoon first ran as a self-sydicated strip in the Escondido (CA) Times-Advocate on May 13, 1991, and has blossomed since then. (According to the website, it's in more than 200 United States newspapers and many international ones. Surely the number has grown since then.)

Asked to describe the strip, Toomey (or someone on his behalf) wrote that it's about "an undersea cartoon featuring a dimwitted shark named Sherman, his sea turtle sidekick, and an assortment of other coral reef critters who team up to battle the encroachment of civilization on their remote tropical paradise." Much of that 'teaming up to battle encroachment' centers on Sherman and his wife, Megan, snacking on a seemingly endless supply of 'hairless beach apes' (i.e., tourists). Trivia: The lagoon is "called Kapupu Lagoon technically, and it's by the island of Kapupu, in the sunny South Pacific just west of the Elabaob Islands in the Palauan archipelago of Micronesia."

For a sampling, visit http://www.slagoon.com/. There's a nice bulletin board and a decent selection of links to marine conservation websites.

Special thanks to Toomey for the book signatures, the birthday card for Rahil, and the self-portrait (and to John MacIsaac for helping out). Thanks, guys!