Thanks again!

You could probably get in touch with the chamber of commerce of Neodesha and someone could possibly help you locate his brother.

http://www.neodesha.com
Neodesha Chamber of Commerce at 620-325-2055

Im not certain but I believe that both parents are deceased but his brother might still be living.

Obviously that’s rubbish, but what was more interesting was a discussion on the Time To Change facebook page about a comment in the article that people “wanted” to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder (because it was glamorous). I thought part of the reason for that was that bipolar disorder is seen as something that people understand–you can tell your family or boss that you have manic depression, and they’ll both know what you mean and take it seriously. Whereas yer common-or-garden depression, now, that’s pretty much par for the course, isn’t it? Buck up, maybe try getting some exercise, you know? We still expect you at your desk at 9 every morning.

Describing it as the common cold of mental illness is perfect, given the prevalence and how mundane it feels, but in some ways it’s more like the flu; everyone who has a cold thinks they have it, but it is SO MUCH WORSE than that when you actually have it.

So props to Catherine Zeta Jones for being honest, and I don’t want to take away from how difficult that must have been for her and how valuable it is to visibility, but I wonder how many artists (in particular) see “standard” depression as something ubiquitous they just need to struggle through. It seems so prevalent in interviews and yet there are comparatively few serious news stories (Hello! etc doesn’t count) about people being treated for less “glamorous” mental ilnesses. I was so impressed with Michael Yardy for leaving the England cricket squad on ground of being depressed–not citing any additional mitigating circumstances, just saying that was enough.

Diesel Sweeties – http://www.dieselsweeties.com/

Dinosaur Comics – http://www.qwantz.com/

The Laugh-Out-Loud Cats – http://apelad.blogspot.com/

Unshelved – http://www.unshelved.com/ (warning: sometimes funny only to librarians)

And some approximately-weeklies:

Dicebox – http://www.dicebox.net/

Family Man – http://www.lutherlevy.com/

Octopus Pie – http://www.octopuspie.com/

hyperbole and a half – hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com

a softer world – http://asofterworld.com

buttersafe – http://buttersafe.com

basic instructions – http://basicinstructions.net

http://newadventuresofqueenvictoria.com/

and Wondermark

http://wondermark.com/

and of course I love to read old Bloom County cartoons

http://www.gocomics.com/bloomcounty/

(It’s loads of fun to remember where I was when I first read the best of them…and to realize how many of the punch lines and sayings embedded in my brain came from Breathed’s.)