Dan Winkelman, a park ranger who lives on Angel Island, is collaborating with cartoonist Phil Frank to do a spoof of the presidential campaign. Dan appears regularly as a character in Phil's comic "FARLEY" in the San Francisco Chronicle. The cartoon character is running for president on the Peace and Quiet party platform with a hand puppet for a running mate. The real Dan Winkelman gives campaign speeches and puppet debates (the other major candidates didn't show up for the debate, so Dan debated his puppets). For more information about the Peace and Quiet party, see Dan's WEB page at http://www.angelisland.org/ranger.htm where many of the comics are reproduced, or Phil's WEB page at http://www.sfgate.com/sf/farley/winkelman.html. A group of BASK kayakers stumbled onto the puppet debate when paddling around Angel Island recently and had a great time. Penny Wells was one of those kayakers and she called me up and suggested that BASK should break with our no-politics tradition and recommend a candidate for president this year!
I announced our support for Dan Winkelman at the next BASK meeting and sent a press announcement to Phil Frank's email address at the San Francisco Chronicle. A few weeks later the following comic appeared in the paper:
I like to think that the guy holding the kayak under his arm is me!