Even though yesterday grimly started off with a red-eye groping in Boise (totally not what you think—I took a 6 a.m. flight and was thoroughly felt up by the the TSA goons) my walk through the Portland Airport made the hell that is traveling worthwhile. In the Alaska Airlines terminal on Concourse A there's a great exhibit lining the hallway, featuring the work of cartoon maestro Chuck Jones and all your best friends from childhood, like Bugs, Pepé, Daffy, Marvin the Martian, and Sam Sheepdog. It's a collection of sketches and artist notes on loan from the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity. It's a nice sampling of Jones' cartoon and sketch work, complete with paragraphs and explanations of some of his processes. In the Sam Sheepdog section, Jones talks about his inspiration for the character—the laidback protector of a flock of sheep was meant to be the antithesis of the frantic Road Runner. Sam was a bangs-impaired creature who mostly stayed in one place and still managed to catch and decimate the scheming Ralph E. Wolf every time, then resumed his friendly off-the-clock relationship with the wolf afterward. I wasn't able to get any decent shots of the exhibit, but let's watch 1962's A Sheep in the Deep for appreciation purposes.

No need to rush out and buy an airline ticket to any old place like Sheyboygan, the exhibit's there until October 2012, so you can check it out before your Turkey Day flight.