Morty Comix # 2627

Morty Comix # 2627 was slid behind a decorative panel on the entrance to a now defunct restaurant in Tumwater, Washington. Since I placed this Morty Comix, vandals have torn off the panel on the left. In fact, it seems pieces of this building are destroyed on a daily basis by marauding gangs of defunct restaurant destroyers.

This particular building has a place in Washington State history. It was the headquarters of Jazz musician Red Kelly and his OWL (Out With Logic - On With Lunacy) Party, which ran for all the statewide offices in 1976.

Bezango: Running For Elected Office the Absurd Way

From Olympia Power & Light, December 30 2009-January 12, 2010.

One reader wrote in, a bit confused. His memory mixed up Greene's 1972 Republican campaign with a later absurdist run for the same office, when the 1976 OWL (Out With Logic, On With Lunacy) Party ran Don "Earthquake" Ober (1922-1979) for Commissioner of Public Lands. A rather easy mistake to make in a state that draws so many colorful characters to the ballot.

The OWL Party didn't exist in 1968. No. Greene ran, hilariously, as a Republican. The fact he went under the radar and won the Republican primary is actually more subversive than running as a third party candidate.



Above: Greene's official entry as a Republican candidate for Commissioner of Public Lands, from the 1968 Official Voters Pamphlet for Washington State.