I HEART R. CRUMB

Not because we secretly thumbed through his notebooks in the early 90's, when he was away from the SF home where he was staying.

Not because I met him on that same trip, hoping against hope that he'd notice my ample Midwestern legs and backside and ask to draw me (he was far more intent on figuring out how to use his calling card).

But because of this bit in today's New York Times profile of Crumb and cartoonist Aline Kaminski -- who have an open marriage:

"Mr. Crumb has calmed considerably since his early days, when he was so afraid of social interaction that he focused all of his energy on drawing. “I basically lived on paper,” he said, reclining on a small wicker couch in his study, where the shelves are packed with vintage 78 r.p.m. records, comic book figurines and back issues of Fate, a magazine of the paranormal.

"In recent years he has taken to sitting in a chair every morning and meditating for 45 minutes, following the rising and falling of his breath. The resulting inner calm has changed his vibe. As a younger man he was a gerbil-like creature with a whiskery mustache and a twitchy demeanor. Now he seems more like a small Lincoln or van Gogh, a bearded, although still bony, thinker with a certain gravity."