IF: Pioneer (142-143)

Pioneer...Last night on the Kennedy Center Awards, Carl Reiner referred to Mel Brooks as a pioneer. He also referred to his "genius mind and unsensorable mouth." I have a tough time deciding whether I like Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein more, but for this Illustration Friday theme, it seemed that the Western was more pioneerlike. "Work, work, work, hello boys, I miss you."

I try to make light of this theme because every subject that I could think of as a pioneer was really not true. Although we credit the pioneers for their western surge in this country, they were closely observed by the people who were already living there. There were other examples where the history book that we read as children called people pioneers in this or that when in fact they were following in some other person's footprints. So Mel Brooks as a pioneer seems to work for me.