January 18, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 7 Ridgewood Margulies speaks at public library Jimmy Margulies by John Koster Nationally syndicated cartoonist Jimmy Margulies hit several home runs with his lecture and cartoon slide show at the Ridgewood Library last week. The biggest homer was a depiction of Sarah Palin telling Massachusetts voters she remembered reading about how Paul Revere had ridden through the streets of Boston warning the Puritans that the Japanese were about to attack Pearl Bailey. Gales of laughter and warm applause followed Margulies’ reading of the caption as he projected the cartoon on a screen behind him. Another winner: North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il beams as the North Korean people purportedly honor him with a bevy of prizes including the Oscar, the Emmy, and the trophy for the Kentucky Derby. Third winner: Joseph Lieberman, 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate, admits that even Lieberman, the first Jewish vice presidential candidate, cannot make Bill Clinton “kosher” after the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Clinton is show as a pig wallowing in the mud nearby. Margulies, a resident of Paramus originally from Long Island, drew laughter as he showed Tony Soprano, protagonist of “The Sopranos,” shaking his head at the mailbox and observing that politicians were “giving Jersey a bad name.” A highway tollgate labeled: “Welcome to New Jersey: Slez-e-Pass” also evoked laughter. The cartoonist received some mild applause and sympathetic chuckles when he depicted Albert Einstein at a blackboard showing the equation for the Theory of Relativity, saying, “But don’t ask me to explain the Medicare drug benefit program.” Digs at President Obama were generally accepted with mild chuckles. Wall Street split the difference. A cartoon of a sinking ship labeled Wall Street being abandoned by rats labeled CEO and carrying bales of loot won some grumbling approval. A cartoon showing Wall Street types looking out a window at swarms of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators and saying that Wall Street might have to give the protestors jobs aroused little laughter or applause. The Middle East proved to be an expansive minefield, and the cartoons celebrating the deaths of Islamic leaders were greeted with near silence. As a personality, however, Margulies was completely accepted. He said he had decided to become a cartoonist because he had enjoyed Vietnam War and civil rights protest songs growing up in the 1960s, but found out that drawing was his real métier. Several people said they were inspired by his cartoons and respected his art. Margulies had started the lecture with a segmented cartoon showing how he prepares for a cartoon, including one (continued on page 14)