The Israeli Family Circus
The Israeli Family Circus

Although he wasn't the most famous celebrity to pass away last week, the deaths of 60 Minutes commentator Andy Rooney and boxing legend Joe Frazier were covered more extensively in the media, the passing of 'Family Circus' cartoonist Bil Keane at the age of 89 saddened me deeply.

The Family Circus (originally The Family Circle) is the most widely syndicated cartoon panel in the world, appearing in 1,500 newspapers. The strip generally uses a single captioned panel with a round border, hence the original name of the series, which was changed following objections from the magazine Family Circle. The series debuted on February 29, 1960, and has been in continuous production ever since.

The central characters of Family Circus are a family consisting of parents, Bil and Thelma (Thel), who are modeled after the author and his wife, and their four children, Billy, Dolly, Jeffy, and P.J., who are fictionalized composites of the Keanes' five children. With the exception of P.J., the characters have not aged appreciably during the 50 plus year run of the strip.

Although Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the Peanuts gang probably get top billing on the funny pages and Garfield is the feline mainstay of the comics, I have a special fondness for The Family Circus, a wholesome cartoon depicting family life where 'kids say the darndest things'.

One classic panel has the mom, Thel, walking in the front door with her hands full of groceries, looking down at Jeffy with his hands behind his back who looks up at her innocently and says, "First thing  you need to know is, I didn't do it."

In fact, 'I didn't do it' is a common theme in The Family Circus, as it is in any real life family with small children. But the most memorable characters in the strip are not the parents or the kids, but ghosts (or gremlins), recurring characters named 'Not Me' and 'Ida Know'.

When the dad demands to know who broke the vase, Billy will say, 'Not Me'. If mom asks who spilled juice on her new rug, Dolly will answer 'Ida Know'. Meanwhile, the mischievous ghosts Not Me and Ida Know chuckle as they gleefully cause havoc.

 I used to think that Not Me and Ida Know only existed in The Family Circus, but recently these little troublemakers have appeared in our front page news stories and newscasts.



Maybe we should give them Hebrew names like, 'Lo Yodea' and 'Lo Ani'.

Last week, the Petah Tikva District Court convicted Damian Karlik of murdering six members of the Osherenko family in Rishon Letzion two years ago. During the court ruling, the judges rejected Karlik's version of events, where he claimed he was not guilty and that the murderer of the Osherenko family was a different man named Vlad. 'Not Me' strikes again.

'Not Me' and 'Ida Know' seem to be blamed for everything these days.

In an 'off the record' chat with President Obama, French President Sarkozy was caught calling Prime Minister Netanyahu 'a liar'. He is busy doing damage control trying to prove the 'Not Me' defense. Similarly, when President Obama was questioned about his unflattering remarks about Netanyahu in that same conversation, he should have just shrugged and said, "Ida Know".

As I watched the coverage of the appeal of former president Moshe Katzav last week on his rape charges, I imagined Katzav calling upon 'Ida Know' and 'Not Me' as character witnesses for his defense.

In fact, judging by the way Israeli newsmakers call on them so often; it seems that Ida Know and Not Me are pretty well connected in Israel. Maybe we should give them Hebrew names like, 'Lo Yodea' and 'Lo Ani'.

Unfortunately, we all use these phrases. How often do we fail to take responsibility ('Not Me') or simply feign ignorance ('Ida Know) when confronted with a difficult situation? I'm not saying we should get rid of Not Me and Ida Know altogether, heck, I use them a lot myself. But maybe we should try to invent some new ghosts. Instead of Ida Know and Not Me maybe we could call on their lesser known cousins, 'Yes I. Did' and 'Yes I. Will'.