Local illustrator C.F. Payne brightens the back page of this month's Reader's Digest with his take on Santa's workshop.

Payne juxtaposes the traditional with contemporary American culture.

In this case, Mr. Claus' workshop is a cubicle where he is multitasking on his phone and computer.

"Everything is dot-com this and dot-com that. You can even do your banking over the Internet," says Payne.

"What this means for Santa is that he can take in orders over the computer, log them into the system then order the presents from L.L. Bean."

Payne pays attention to details, and they are very funny. "His origin is Scandinavia, so you have the dot there on the map over his desk," says Payne. "And he has his Finnish coffee cup. There's a cat at his feet. Santa seems to be a cat kind of guy to me."

Marilyn Bauer