Endnotes and Digressions:

1. Grey-tones for this installment by Chad Essley.

2. Cirque du Soleil’s “Varekai” continued its run in Portland through April 23, 2006, under the “Grand Chapiteau” off Southwest Moody Avenue (south of the Marquam Bridge). For more information, visit CirqueDuSoleil.com.

3. Online bonus feature: I actually hand-lettered the strip this week -- then chickened out and replaced all that work with my usual custom font at the last minute.

Did I make the right choice? Decide for yourself. (And if you feel strongly either way, let me know what you think -- by e-mailing culturepulp at gmail dot com or in the comments thread below. Here's how that debate went the first time this strip appeared online. I was pretty torn on the issue.)

Lettering too small? You can download a high-rez PDF of CulturePulp 49 right here: CulturePulp49.FONT.pdf