Stephen Himes

That is Steve with his hero, Al Franken. Steve doesn't just admire Al Franken because he got to play Paul Tsongas in an "Saturday Night Live" sketch, but because he's a comedian who "tells it like it is" — which means that whenever he wants to make a boisterous claim he can't properly back up, he just hides behind his comedy and calls it "satire." A brilliant racket that Steve wishes he could dip his hand in. Like a giant pumpkin pie.

When not flailing away at movies for the fine folks at Flak, Steve morphs into some mysterious, multi-headed boogeyman known as "Mr. Himes" at a small southwest Missouri high school, where he spends his time convincing children that "y'all" isn't actually a word, but if it were, it would probably be the equivalent of "vosotros" in Castillian Spanish.

— Stephen Himes (stephenhimes@hotmail.com)