おもちゃの自動販売機

I have an extremely talented friend named Paul who also happens to be very good looking.  As is the case with many good looking people, he has found something to obsess on about his looks in order to deny the truth that he is indeed a good looking man.  Years ago he confessed to me in a moment of vulnerability that he had thought his head was getting larger.  look, said he, pointing to his early twenties photograph on his drivers license while comparing it to his early thirties work id photo.  "My head is getting wider.  I had at that moment the two choices to make:  the sympathetic conciliatory "oh no, Paul, you're head's not getting wider, that's just a trick of the lens" or the other which would be to take that moment of vulnerability and make him pay through his ever widening nose for it (after all, the nose does have to widen to keep up with his broadening face...

He informed me today that while cleaning out his office he found a stack of drawings about four inches thick of various Paul head drawings from over the years (I disagree,  it can't be that many, when would I have gotten my work done?-- two inches maybe, but not four)  At any rate, to that pile I add yet another.

Paul for his job is going to Japan for research.  For some reason a group of us started talking about the fact that the Japanese sell various things in vending machines (underwear) Things  that you couldn't imagine .  Of course I mentioned Paul heads.

now before you feel badly for poor Paul and his enormous head (not quite as bit as a mardi gras walk around--yet)  Let me add that for the same amount of time Paul has drawn me in various cartoons depicting me in hapless situations.

this is what cartoonists do when they love and respect each other.

So for my lovely talented friend Paul.

Have a nice trip to Japan

おもちゃの自動販売機 means toy vending machine

ポールヘッド (Pōruheddo) means Paul head