Author Archives: Panda in Chief

About Panda in Chief

Anne Belov paints, writes, makes prints, and is the founder of The Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire. You can find her paintings at the Rob Schouten Gallery and Fountainhead Gallery, her cartoons on The Panda Chronicles, and her new book here. She also writes regularly for The Whidbey Life Magazine, a free journal of art and culture on Whidbey Island. Her main regret in life is that there is no MacArthur Grant for Panda Satire.

Woe is me

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They say you should never explain, and never apologize on blogs, just go about your business, but with only 4 letters left to go in the alphabet, I must (I must) throw myself on the mercy of my panda fans, and tell you that I came down with the “spring crud cold” and have not been able to hold my head up to make a new cartoon. Plus I have had to cancel my appearance on a local radio show, where I was going to talk about Kickstarter.

Alas.

But at least, I can pull something from the archives to tide you over till I feel less worse. (Today is brought to you by the letter “W” for Whoops.)

From The Wizard of Wu

Keep being the bear without me. Talk amongst yourselves.
Bob T. (cough cough) Panda

I’m Very glad this month is almost over.

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Veritable verisimilitude and vice-versa, vis-a-vis this month of alphabet charms! I vacillate between vast and vacuous vacancies in my mind.

But what does this have to do with pandas? Verily, I say verbosely, these valiant bears are valuable, to the tune of a million dollars a year rent per panda pair. Well, better vamoose, before the vandals (aka the panda kindergarten) vanish with the cuppycakes!

Escape! Come with me, little cake, so we can be alone together.

There is a cake in the vicinity!

See you tomorrow, hopefully with a little longer post. Time is vanishing today!

Be the Bear,
Bob T Panda

Under the influence…

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…of PANDAS!

Ultimately, we try to understand the ubiquitous appeal of Pandas. Is it their understated and unabashed cuteness that puts us under their spell? Is it their unadorned and unadulterated style that makes them the unanimous choice of untold millions of their fans? Such unassuming bears are uncanny in their unceasing, unbearable cuteness of being.

Don’t you just hate it when your refrigerator is infested by…pandas? But it’s really cute, right?

Meanwhile, I’m making a few appearances around the interweb. You can read my post comparing art to farming over at the blog of The Little Brown Farm (the place on Whidbey to meet all your cheese-y desires).

I’ve also made a recent visit to Cordelia’s Mom, Still, to talk about the inadvisability to use the excuse, but I’m too old, to start something new.

Legalize cake today! Prevent illicit cuppycake activities.

Going Undercover! (And where did that little panda get that money?

Hang on to your hats, kids, it's gonna be a bumpy ride!

I should have posted this one yesterday, on the day of “T”, but I totally spaced it!

Keep being the bear!
Bob T. Panda

To bee or not to bee…

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Oh, wait, I used the Shakespearian pandas yesterday and though I expected a tsunami of turpitude, I was not troubled by taboos while I tabulated more ways to be tacky. It is a tribute to pandas that they are so versaTile, though rarely tactful. Occasionally they are tawdry and throw tantrums, but not terrible ones.

Today is brought to you by the letter”T” and that rhymes with “P” and that stands for “Panda”

You say sumi-e, I say Tsunami

I should tell you about Pandas around the cyber web! On Monday, April 28th, I (in the guise of my non-panda alter ego) will be on Whidbey Air Radio’s show Isle of Arts talking about Kickstarter with hosts Mary Rose Anderson and Annie Horton. The show airs LIVE at 1 PM PDST and you can tune in here. I’ve had three successful Kickstarter projects, and assisted on about twice that many.

Meanwhile, the panda kindergarten is up to their usual treachery, terrorizing poor Mehitabel…

Curse the panda kindergarten!

Run,kitty, run!

Thanks once again to the folks at the A to Z for hosting this blog challenge. Um…how many more letters do we have to go?

Meanwhile, we pay tribute to Bee the Bear, one of the cutest pandas to ever come across my desk.

Bee, the Bear

Ta Ta, and of course, today is brought to you by Bob T. Panda, with a capital “P” and that rhymes with “T” and that stands for “THE”

Be the bear!

A Salute to Pandas (What, you thought I was going to say “Penguins”?)

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Salutations! Wow, here we are, all the way to “S” on the fun and fabulous A to Z Blog Challenge. I don’t know what number “S” corresponds to, because I can only count up to four, having only four paws.

So, silly of me to suppose that a Salute to Pandas (please sound trumpet or saxophone every time I say, “Salute to Pandas” preferably with some sound effects) could be sabotaged when everyone knows that pandas are sacrosanct. I mean, it would be sacrilegious to sacrifice the Salute to Pandas by subsuming it to some less salubrious day. We sacrifice the simplistic and saccharine in subservience to the satirical and the sarcastic. We see no schadenfreude nor schmaltz as we scamper and schmooze through our schedule.

Here’s a sample:

I keep hearing the song “bears on the Run” going through my head…the ski run, that is!

And a day without the Dance of the Sugar Plum Pandas is just not worth starting.

sweet!

Schmoop!

I bet you smiled.
And what could be better than pandas recreating Shakespeare?

After all, the playings the thing….

And of course, pandas have their secrets!

The secret lives of the wild panda!

And last, but hardly least, who could resist the Scottish Panda Kindergarten!

Save some pie for me!

Stay tuned for tomorrows A to Z installment!

Be the Bear,
Bob T. Panda!

Enjoy these Rabble-Rousing Pandas…

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…while I rack my brain for recollections of words that start with the letter “R”

While ragamuffin rabble rousing renegades run rampant raising hell around the panda kindergarten classroom, I request that you recall your favorite reads of childhood. Do you remember rambling tales of ransomed rascals? Stories of rebels rebounding through rebirth and revelation? Recall recalcitrant renegades rebuffing requests to rebuild? Rah Rah!

The letter “R” rejoices for the panda kindergarten!

The panda kindergaten knows where you live.

to repeat…

Evilness is one thing, but there must be snacks! An episode of “The Wizard of Wu”

Look out Mehitabel! here comes the panda kindergarten!

But sometimes, there is redemption….

Today, you are a bear.

Thanks again to the A to Z blog challenge for hosting all of us and bringing new readers to our shores, even if it is mostly each other. Huzzah!

Be the Bear, Right?

Bob T. Panda

Happy Easter from the Panda Chronicles!

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Today is an off day from the A to Z, but I always (okay, most of the time) post a cartoon (a new one, no less) on Sunday and Wednesday, and today is no exception.

I did leave a wedding party early JUST so I could get home to post this. Oh wait, “M” day (for martyr) was last week. Anyway, I did want to post my salute to Easter today, a holiday celebrating chocolate, and some other stuff as well, which, were I not a complete heathen, I would know about.

A tiskitt a taskitt , a great big wheelie basket!

I’ll be back tomorrow with more alphabetical atrocities.

Be the Bear,
Bob T. Panda

Pandas: Bears of Quality

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Not to be confused with koala-tea (which mercifully is not strained) quality is something pandas have lots of. They are the quintessential perfect house pet because they are so quiet. They do not quack, quibble, nor quaffle through quagmires. Rarely quarrelsome, unless they are queasy; when questioned they are quick witted.

Today is brought to you by the letter “Q” Thanks to the folks at the A to Z! You guys are the bears. Today, we feature Mr. Wu as he goes off on a quest! Want to read the whole Wizard of Wu saga? Get The Book of Wu or one of our other collections of The Panda Chronicles!

where happy pandas eat bamboo, oh why, oh why, can’t…Wu?

The wicked cat of the west attacks Mr Toasty

That cat is pure evil!

Have a happy saturday everyone!

Be the Bear
Bob T. panda

It’s P-P-P-P-Panda day!

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I have been waiting
so.
very.
long….

for today…this peripatetic population of pandas, these paragons of pageantry, pandas at parties, pandas in pairs, panda panda panda! Pandas with their palpable need to pampered, pandas in pursuit of pomp, pandas having pancakes while participating in panicked PANDAMONIUM!!!!!

What’s a little pandamonium among friends?

Princess Pinky, that paradigm of >Poof< , never paranoid nor parochial, permanently partaking of pop-overs, pretty as a picture.

Pandas….brought to you by the letter”P”

Never say “No” to a Pinky!

Pairs of pandas in pajamas…

Sweet dreams, little bears! (editors note, this cartoon was drawn before Pinky poofed the Cublanta twins and turned them into girls.)

…pandas partaking in pursuits of the poetical….

The cake abides….

and last, but hardly least, perky panda pirates!

An explorer’s work is never done.

Thanks again to the A to Z for hosting this monthlong panda-thon, not to mention Cordelia’s Mom, Still for inviting the pandas over for a guest post. (I swear I’ll have the carpets cleaned. Sorry about all that frosting and the picture window.)

And have I mentioned that “P” also stands for Pandamorphosis? Just sayin. (stay tuned for news as it appears!)

Keep Being the Bears!
Bob T. Panda

“O” is for Optimism

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Let’s face it, despite all the opposition that pandas face, they are pretty optimistic, or at least that’s what I observe. Some obdurate oafs opine that if pandas have such a hard time reproducing, they should just be allowed to go extinct. O-contraire, I object! I feel obligated to oppose such an obtuse viewpoint.

Consider: a grizzly bear will eat you as soon as look at you, and probably use your toothbrush to scratch places a toothbrush has no business being. Whereas upon meeting a panda on the trail, he will share his lunch, give you directions to the nearest coffee house and offer to carry your pack. OK I may be overstating the out of this world wonderfulness of pandas. But still, as the song says, We do not eat hikers in the woods, I don’t think a panda should! Is it any wonder I am OBSESSED with pandas?

Occupy your inner panda!

Just how hard would it be…

…to embrace your inner panda?

And Bob, ever optimistic, tries to rehabilitate the panda kindergarten.

Nothing like a bit of the great outdoors to straighten up the panda kindergarten.

…if I were a panda, yadda dah dah da- da- da- AAARGH! I can’t stop!!!!!

Todays post was brought to you by the letter “O” courtesy of the A to Z Blog challenge! My pick of the day is Goldfish Stories. head on over and check it out.