View online • Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! Shenanigating Since 2000 | 2026 Issue #28 🍩 Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where I am ecstatic and humbled to be welcoming well over ONE HUNDRED Founding Collectors to The Collector Club!🎉 Thank you to everyone who jumped in on this new adventure. The fun is just beginning! But fun was nowhere to be found when Kim and I were trying to get home from Fort Worth recently. Every single airplane was grounded by the storms...
6 days ago • 4 min read
View online • Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! Shenanigating Since 2000 | 2026 Issue #27 🏆 Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where we're down to the final days to join The Collector Club as a Founding Collector and receive the inaugural print! I'm not sure which is the bigger sell - fun mail every month or new artwork every month. Put them together & I'm sold. :) —Mary Beth Updike Twenty-five years ago, before kids, when Kim and I were living on Hamburger Helper and...
13 days ago • 3 min read
View online • Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! Shenanigating Since 2000 | 2026 Issue #26 🚜 Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where I am still recovering from the Shine On-athon. (Should we attempt that again?) Thanks to everyone who showed up and said hi! I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Adults are ruining everything. Exhibit A is the art of collecting. Take baseball cards. At the risk of sounding like Grandpa Simpson, when I was a kid, packs cost fifty cents...
20 days ago • 4 min read
View online • Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! Shenanigating Since 2000 | 2026 Issue #25 🖍️ Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where I am happy to present a new episode of Echo Base Dispatch—a brief transmission from my studio overlooking Lake Michigan—where I share what I’m working on, what I’m wrestling with, and the lessons I’m learning along the way. (Click the video above to watch it, or keep reading!) I love a fresh box of new crayons. For one, the smell is a time...
27 days ago • 4 min read
View online • Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! Shenanigating Since 2000 | 2026 Issue #24 🔌 "The Candy Maker" by Jason Kotecki. Oil on canvas. Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where my kids may think I'm old, but at least I'm not as old as America, amiright?! And thanks to everyone who joined us for the Ice Cream Social on Tuesday night. What fun! How many sleeps? The "sleep" is a standard unit of measurement in the universe of childhood. At least it was in mine. How many...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
View online • Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! Shenanigating Since 2000 | 2026 Special Issue 💌 Happy Wednesday, Reader! In our weary world, I've come to see my paintings as parables for the poor in spirit and propaganda for what really matters. My work is a powerful combination of art and story. I'm excited to share a new project that will enable me to keep doing what I do best. The Collector Club was created for people who love my art and still believe there's magic in receiving...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
View online • Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! Shenanigating Since 2000 | 2026 Issue #23 💌 Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where I'm happy to report that I received an all-clear from my colonoscopy. Thanks for your well wishes, and special thanks to a reader named Polly, who sent me a column by Dave Barry about his experience. My favorite line was about the hospital gowns "designed by sadist perverts, the kind that, when you put it on, makes you feel even more naked...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
View online • Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! Shenanigating Since 2000 | 2026 Issue #22 🖼️ Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where it's good to be home and enjoying summer in Wisconsin after a stretch of travel. Hello to all the new readers I met in Maine and Texas! What's something you love to do? Maybe it's traveling with your family. Making something with your own two hands. Or a weekly meeting with a friend to discuss the ups and downs of life over a cup of coffee....
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
View online • Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! Shenanigating Since 2000 | 2026 Issue #21 📦 Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where I'd like to talk about memories before I go off to make more. (See my P.S. for details.) I’m the type of person who’s going to ugly cry on the day of my kids’ weddings. I’ve known since the day my first child was born. But even then, I knew I’d rather cry in gratitude over all the cool memories we created than in regret over the things I...
2 months ago • 3 min read
View online • Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! Shenanigating Since 2000 | 2026 Issue #20 🧀 Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where I've got some big news to share! But first, let me tell you about an interesting note I received. A young man sent me an email looking for advice. He recently graduated from the “comfort blanket of college and chucked towards the open jaws of real life." He was hoping to receive guidance for young people in his situation to "make the world...
2 months ago • 4 min read