Peter Steiner, whose cartoons have graced every SCRAPBOOK since the first issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD has decided to go out on top. We can't count the laughs he has provided, and our sadness at seeing him go is proportionate. In the coming weeks, we will be easing your withdrawal symptoms (and ours, too) with some "Classic Steiners" from years gone by. Here are a few to begin with. And now we cede the floor to Peter:
Dear Readers, Politicians come and go. Regimes, even nations, are here today and gone tomorrow. But humor lasts. Does anyone remember which bills were before the senate when Aristophanes was writing "Lysistrata"? And when Swift was suggesting that eating poor Irish children could relieve famine and poverty, who was prime minister? Who was emperor or king or whatever the French had at the time when Daumier was doing his wicked drawings?
About thirty years ago I enlisted as a foot soldier in the humor army led by those great generals, and, following their example, I have done my best to strew the field of history with rude drawings. I like to think my work has sometimes annoyed people who needed annoying.
Thanks to THE WEEKLY STANDARD for printing them so nicely for the last eleven-plus years. Thanks, Dear Readers, for looking at them and being amused when you could be. And if you were not amused, I fervently hope you were at least annoyed.
Peter Steiner