Some of you want to know who might have been sitting at that lunch table I mentioned on those long-ago Wednesdays. (There was also a Tuesday group composed of some of the older artists, as I recall. For some reason they came into the magazine a day earlier than our group. Maybe one of the cartoonists reading this has a better recollection of that situation).

Our Leader on Wednesdays was Jack Ziegler, who most of us would follow anywhere. Roz Chast was usually in attendance, as were Bob Mankoff, myself, and Bill Woodman. Other guests included Michael Maslin and Liza Donnelly, before they got married to one another, Sam Gross, Peter Steiner, and other drop-ins, including a few memorable visits by George Booth. (I know I’m leaving out a bunch of people, so if any of them are reading this, feel free to fire back outraged comments. My apologies in advance).

The restaurants would change from time to time at a whim or, in some cases because they went out of business. We were a little boistrous and in some places got disapproving looks from nearby diners and staff. (I recall one day when a pat of butter was launched across the table by one of our number, either by design or accident, and landed on the lens of another guest’s glasses. Not something likely seen among the wits at the famous New Yorker Round Table of yore). When a favorite restaurant went under, I often wondered if we had in any way contributed to it’s demise.