Originally published in the Grand Rapids Business Journal, December 12, 2005.

So it was getting to the end of the year, the holiday pressure was turning up, I was trying to wrap up projects, cross things off lists, fit five days of work into three, that sort of thing. And as an editorial cartoonist for a Michigan newspaper, I needed to come up with *another* comic on the Michigan economy. Bloody hell!

I'm so sick and tired of drawing about layoffs and plant closures and budget cuts and political bickering and everything that has been Michigan for the past couple of years. For this week's comic I just stared at the blank piece of drawing paper taped to my board, filling with bile and thinking I would explode. (Fortunately, the big benefit of living in Michigan at this point is that you're so exhausted from the constant snow removal efforts that you really don't have the physical capabilities of doing damage to yourself or others.)

And then our Governor, Jennifer Granholm, popped to mind, and I thought, "she's gotta be about done with all this, too." What's worse for her is that she's Canadian! In coming to the U.S., she had 50 states to choose from and she picks Michigan! There has to be at least some regret there.

I still wasn't all that enthused, but at least I had a topic. Now if you'll excuse me, it's time to got rake the roof again. (If you don't live in Michigan, just be happy you don't know what a roof rake is.)