Announcing the Final Ten Boats!

This elephant is very pleased to announce that beginning May 29th we will be counting down our LAST 10 BOATS en route to our final destination, the release date of Jonathan and the Big Blue Boat (June 7th). The top ten will include greatest hits from some of my absolute favorite stamp sets. So come on back on the 29th. You won't be disappointed!

I Find Myself Filled With Contempt

I find myself filled with contempt for Godaddy CEO, Bob Parsons, who recently videotaped his vicious killing of an elephant while on vacation in Zimbabwe. He then posted the video on the internet and bragged about his accomplishment on Twitter. Ugh. This world is full of ugliness—so much so that we become immune to it. But this action has filled me with disgust to indescribable degree. So what can we do? I doubt shame will have much of an effect on Mr. Parsons. Sociopaths have trouble with shame. But we might just be able to hit him where he actually feels something—his wallet. As of today philipstead.com and erinstead.com are no longer hosted by Godaddy. If you happen to have a website hosted by Godaddy then I would urge to transfer to another company as well. It's cheap, it's easy, and it's worth it. Godaddy competitor Namecheap.com is even offering a transfer deal in which 20 percent of the profits go to Save the Elephants. Act now and stand up in some small way for kindness and intelligence—two things this world could use a little bit more of.

Philip Stead

This is Not a Boat #9, A Celebration Day for Amos McGee

I'm very pleased to announce that A Sick Day for Amos McGee, illustrated by my wife, Erin, has been named a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of 2010. Ten books are selected annually. You can view this year's entire list here. To celebrate I thought we'd take a break from our regular scheduled boat countdown and spend some time getting to know the animal characters from Amos McGee—an elephant, a tortoise, a penguin, a rhinoceros, and an owl. I'll have to dig deep into my stamp collection to find some of these animals. After all, not many countries have penguins! I'm sure I'll find some though.

This Thai elephant is great, don't you think?

And this set from Laos is one of my all time favorite. Fantastic!

And here of course is Erin's elephant from Amos.

One last elephant before I go. This elephant is from Jonathan and the Big Blue Boat. For those of you new to 365 Boats, Jonathan will be published this coming June. A certain amount of plagiarism happens in the studio between Erin and I. My elephant here definitely bears a resemblance to Erin's.

Thanks for stopping by 365 Boats. Come back Monday. We'll be celebrating tortoises!

P.S. - Notice the stamp in the elephant's back? It's the Thai elephant (in a different denomination) from the beginning of this post.

This is Not a Boat #7, Gambia - And Thus Concludes Elephant Week

And thus concludes our first Elephant Week.

This is Not a Boat #6, Cameroon - Elephant Week (continued)

This is Not a Boat #5, South Africa - Elephant Week (continued)

This is Not a Boat #4, Poland - Elephant Week (continued)

This is Not a Boat #3, Burma - Elephant Week (continued)

This is Not a Boat #2, Angola - Elephant Week (continued)

This Is Not a Boat #1, Czechoslovakia - Announcing the Beginning of Elephant Week, and the Extension of the 365 Boats Countdown

When I first began the 365 Boats countdown I was anticipating an April 1st release date for Jonathan and the Big Blue Boat. Since then the release date has been pushed forward (or backward, depending on your point of view) to June 7, 2010. I know, I know, we're all a little disappointed. But I say, why not take advantage of a little extra time? I thought we'd use the extra days to highlight some great non-boat stamps, stamps with themes that pertain to Jonathan in other ways. Jonathan picks up a number of new friends on his voyage—a mountain goat, a whale, a yes, an elephant. So this week I thought we'd take some time out of our regularly scheduled boat countdown to focus on some of my favorite elephant stamps.

This one reminds me quite a bit of this illustration from Jonathan: