Labor Day Muses

Frank Mariani

Frank Mariani is seasoned (but young-at-heart) artist with over 40 years of experience in the visual arts. Like many of his colleagues, his roots go wayyyy back to childhood where his creativity revealed itself not just in art class, but in the margins and odd free spaces of notebooks, much to the chagrin (and sometimes scolding) of his teachers. When the muse strikes, the hand draws!

Frank Mariani

Some food for your picnic today.

This cartoon presents a little history, stretched a wee bit, mind you, and some humor to mark the second bookend of the summer, better known as Labor Day, September 2, 2024.

Let’s go back 207 years to the roots of Labor Day. Robert Owen was the hippie of his time, advocating communal living and other social utopian ideas.

Only 40 years ago we met good old Clara Peller on TV. She was great!

Where’s The Beef?

A few other actors uttered the famous line before Clara, but I cannot find any videos of them. In particular, I liked the old guy (and now I’m that old), but Clara took over and became THE phrasemaster.

This year marked only the second time I had a Labor Day cartoon published. After all, I’ve only been in the editorial cartoon arena since mid-2020. My cartoon for Labor Day 2022 was not a history lesson but a comment on the employee shortage that plagued many businesses.

I submitted a rough sketch to my newspaper for approval.