It's National Clown Week, proclaimed by Richard M. Nixon in 1971. We won't even go there.
We think clowns are kind of scary, but not as scary as ventriloquists' dummies. We're talking the wooden kind with the hinged mouth. If you want to see something spooky, check out the International Ventriloquists' Association web site. Yeesh.
National Clown Week also reminds us of a remark made by Bart Simpson to his dad when Homer expressed an urge to attend college: "Barber or clown?"
Here are our two favorite clown-related items in the Mudd: the electronic book Careers for Class Clowns & Other Engaging Types and Herb Gardner's play A Thousand Clowns.