View online • Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! Shenanigating Since 2000 | 2026 Issue #30 ⚖️ Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where I recently stopped at a lemonade stand, because that's my rule. They also had freeze pops for sale, and I bought one because it had been years since I had one. As I was enjoying it, I was reminded of this painting, and thought it would be worth sharing the story behind it this week, because it's a reminder we all need to hear every so often....
6 days ago • 4 min read
View online • Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! Shenanigating Since 2000 | 2026 Issue #29 ✈️ Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where I can hardly believe it's August already! Yesterday, August 8th, was Escape Adulthood Day. You won't find it on any calendar, unless it's a Celebrate Everything calendar (the 2027 edition is coming soon!) We invented it because the idea that you can't make up your own holidays is a rule that doesn't exist. It coincides with the launch of our...
13 days ago • 3 min read
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...
20 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...
27 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...
about 1 month 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...
about 1 month 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 2 months 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 2 months 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 2 months 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....
2 months ago • 5 min read