I told part of this before once but I didn't do it justice and need to expand on it…

When I was working on the Garfield and Friends show, I became close friends with a brilliant, out-of-his-mind-in-a-good-way actor/comic and performer of cartoon voices named Howard Morris. We really liked each other and through Howie, I met Aaron Ruben and his wife, the actress Maureen Arthur. Aaron was, as explained in this post, a writer for Caesar's Hour — a show that featured not only Sid Caesar but also Howie. He went on from it to a stellar career in television, producing The Andy Griffith Show and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and many more.

Aaron and I did not become close friends but we exchanged a few phone calls and letters, and I ran into him at various gatherings. He was a smart, funny man and I liked him a lot.

The last time I saw him was at the Memorial Service for Howie in May of 2005. A lot of great comedians and TV stars were there but folks couldn't help but notice the absence of two gentlemen who'd worked an awful lot with Howard Morris: Sid Caesar and Mel Brooks. It was whispered around the gathering that Mr. Brooks was not present because his wife Anne Bancroft was very ill…and, of course, everyone understood.

After the ceremony, I was standing with Betty Lynn and Andy Griffith, and Aaron came up and said sadly, "We're going to be doing this for Sid any day now." He said he'd seen Mr. Caesar a few days earlier and the man was in such bad shape that — and this is a near-exact quote — "I'll be surprised if he lasts two weeks." Andy bowed his head a bit and said something about how sad it was. We all did.

Well, Sid Caesar lived for more than two more weeks. This was in May of 2005 and he outlived Aaron Ruben, who passed away in November of 2010. He also outlived Andy Griffith, who left us in July of 2012. Sid Caesar finally died on February 12, 2014. That was just short of eight years and nine months since Aaron Ruben said Sid couldn't possibly last two more weeks.

I've had this experience on any number of occasions. I knew two comic book fans, both in their fifties, who asked me for Carl Barks's phone number because, as one so delicately put it, "We wanna go meet him before he croaks." Both of those fans died before Carl did. Carl was about 80 when they said that and he made it to 99. That was not a very good prediction.

There was a very wonderful comedy writer named Pat McCormick who spent his last years in the Motion Picture Country Hospital, unable to speak. But if you went to see him, Carl would motion to a guest book he had and insist you sign it. The last time I visited him, I signed it right below his two previous visitors, who I believe had come at different times — Johnny Carson and Buddy Hackett. I'm sure they both assumed it was the last time they'd ever see Pat…and it was. But he outlived both of them.

I'm not telling these stories to be morbid…quite the opposite. My experience is that when non-doctors assume someone's soon to die — including themselves — they're wrong an awful lot of the time. I can't say it's most of the time but it's often enough that they shouldn't make or believe those predictions. Not without the say-so of a doctor who's actually examined the person in question. Fate has a way of surprising us.

In his Not-the-State-of-the-Union address, Trump said something about how Stacey Abrams — a lady he does not like — "somehow got her hands on nearly $2 billion" that was part of an energy initiative. This, of course, is not true as Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post explains. I suspect everyone of any prominence who has ever opposed Trump on anything will eventually be at least vaguely accused of some heinous crime.

Dale Herbest asked me this question which a lot of people have sent me…

Even just from brief snippets, did you watch enough of the Oscars to be able to judge Conan as host?

I would never presume to judge anyone from "brief snippets," especially hosting a show that I really don't like much, no matter who hosts it.

My ideal Oscar host would be someone who came out with all the envelopes and said, "All right…tonight, no monologue, no presenter speeches, no musical numbers. I'm going to open all the envelopes in rapid succession and if you win, run up here to thank whoever you want to thank but keep it under ninety seconds. Someplace in there, we'll stop and run the "In Memoriam" reel, which we're going to make three minutes longer so we can honor thirty more people than usual. Then we'll open the rest of the envelopes and be out of here in ninety minutes! The first award is for Best Supporting Actor and the nominees are…"

But of course, that's not what anyone wants. The network wants a long show so they can sell a lot of expensive commercials. The studios want clips and a lot of talk about the product they sell. The stars want hours of attention on them and a lot of endless praise for themselves and their profession. The current way of doing it services all those wants and I still don't think it matters much who the host is.

Sorry there wasn't more on this page yesterday. My power went out for several hours and when it returned, there were more pressing things that needed to be written. I'll make it up to you in the coming days. Personally, I think it was all Trump's doing.

And it's about time Randy Rainbow posted another video…

In addition to the Fact Check that CNN posted last night on Trump's speech to Congress, we have FactCheck.org fact-checking the speech, Politifact fact-checking the speech, The Washington Post fact-checking the speech, The Associated Press fact-checking the speech, N.P.R. fact-checking the speech, The New York Times fact-checking the speech, The B.B.C. fact-checking the speech, NBC News fact-checking the speech, ABC News fact-checking the speech, CBS News fact-checking the speech, Steve Benen over at The Maddow Blog fact-checking the speech, The Guardian fact-checking the speech, Al Jazeera fact-checking the speech…and there are probably a few others I missed.

Interesting how much these different journalists agreed upon, how many some of them missed that others caught…and how little truth matters to low-income people who think President Trump is going to make their lives better.

The other day, I came across this clip on YouTube. It's Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the 1936 movie Swing Time, introducing the song, "Pick Yourself Up." I don't recall ever seeing the entire movie but this scene triggered a powerful flashback memory for me. I'm about 99% certain that I was remembering seeing this scene when I was four or five years old. I remember the old black-and-white TV set we had in the living room at our house, I remember this scene on it, I remember singing the song over and over again for a few days after…

…and that's all I remember. But it's one of my earliest memories…

While we're at it, I came across this fragment of a Sammy Davis/Jerry Lewis special that I never saw before but in the first few minutes, they do their version of the song. I liked Fred and Ginger better…

Paul Boross is a speaker, comedian, business psychologist and former pop star whose Humourology podcast has much to teach you about Funny — what it is, how to create it, how it can improve your life. As you might guess from the spelling, it's British-based but sometimes, he has on funny people from this country…and next Tuesday, his guest is our pal Shelly Goldstein, who knows a thing or two thousand about Funny. Tune in, learn and laugh.

The Fact-Checkers have their work cut out for them on Trump's speech to Congress this evening. There's plenty there to write about, starting with what the crew at CNN found to be erroneous. There will be more of these along shortly.

Last Sunday, I turned 73 — a number that amazes me. If my knees didn't keep reminding me otherwise, I'd swear I was in my twenties. Oh — and another thing that reminds me I'm not that age anymore is how often people I think of as my contemporaries talk about their physical problems or die. I've written obits and/or attended memorial services for too many of them. I've even done that for folks significantly younger than I am.

I attended my first Comic Book Conventions in 1970. The cons of that decade were swarming with people I wanted to meet and maybe interview because they'd created the comic books I read when my age was in single digits or early teens. In the eighties and for a few decades beyond, I would host Golden Age Panels of writers and artists who'd made comic books in the nineteen-forties. Now, I go to comic book cons where there's absolutely no one who did comics in the forties or fifties and maybe/sometimes, one or two who did them in the sixties. This amazes me.

I am occasionally the only one on the premises — or one of but two or three — with credits dating back to when comic books cost fifteen cents. This too amazes me.

I met Jack Kirby in 1969 when he was 52 years old and I thought of him as an old-timer…and why not? He'd been in comic books almost since they began and he'd fought in World War II. I am now twenty-one years older than he was the day I met him. Also amazing to me.

Not counting my recent broken/almost healed ankle — which could have happened to anyone of any age — I am in relatively good health. I have things that are wrong with me but they're all the kinds of things that are quite fixable by good doctors and I have good doctors. It seems to have helped that I have never indulged in alcohol, recreational drugs or the smoking of anything.

A friend tells me that I should add never marrying to that list but I've been in enough relationships that somewhat resembled marriage that I don't agree that's a factor. I am in occasional touch with my third-ever girl friend. She is now a grandmother…another one of those chilling reminders of time gone by. I may live to see her become a great-grandmother.

I do think it helps that I do not operate under the assumption that my life has a firm expiration date. As I've written here in the past, I've known a lot of people my age or older who kept talking endlessly about their impending demises. They hit a number like the Big Eight-O and decided that death was but moments away. Some of them, I think, made it arrive sooner as opposed to later with that attitude.

If a wizened physician — someone who studied medicine at a real medical school and not YouTube — told me I had X months to live, I might (might!) assume he or she knew what they were talking about. But I have seen enough self-diagnoses proven wrong that I regard them as about as certain as a World Series prediction. A little later today or tomorrow, I'll post one story — of many I've witnessed — where Tom said that Harry was in horrible shape and was not long for this world…and then Harry outlived Tom. And often, it's been by a decade or more.

Steve Benen, over at the Maddow Blog, deals with the constant claim by Trump and his reps that crowds that protest his actions must always be "paid protestors." In a country where every single major poll shows Trump's disapproval rating exceeds his approval rating, you don't need to pay money to find people who object to so much of what he is doing.

A lot of our elected officials or their appointees are arguing about proposed budget cuts and what they'd do to Medicaid and/or Medicare. Each side is accusing the other of lying so we need to go to the fact-checkers to even begin to get some sense of what's true and what ain't. The folks over at FactCheck.org take a stab at it.

Well, the Original Pantry restaurant has closed and no one seems to know if or when it will open or if anyone wants to buy the place. I would guess that if someone did and could make it more like it was in the seventies, it would be back to having lines out the door like it did back then. Then again, the emphasis then was on big, thick hunks of broiled beef and maybe that ain't as commercial as it used to be.

We don't have the ratings yet for last night's Oscar Telecast and I can't think of any way in which they might matter much. I watched a smidgen more of it and I thought the opening infomercial for Wicked was pretty good. I also caught a particular cringe moment: They brought out representatives of the various agencies that fought the big L.A. fires for a well-deserved ovation, then turned it into a bit by having a couple of them read not-very-good jokes about the disaster. Remind me not to watch even that much next year.

John Oliver devoted most of his show to problems involving Tipping. I'm sure most everything he said about it was valid but a big change I would make is to let folks who are expected to tip have a better understanding of where the money goes. Does that great person who served you expertly keep all of what you leave? Do they share it with other service workers on the premises? Do they share it with Management? I sometimes feel I have overtipped or undertipped because I didn't know what became of a gratuity I paid…or maybe should have paid in cash.

Lastly for now: I'm prepping for WonderCon later this month. I'll be hosting six panels and appearing on one other. One that may interest some folks will involve Mark Waid and myself answering questions about the world of comic books, the premise being that if neither of us knows the answer, it's likely that no one does. Another will involve me (who wrote the most-read book about Jack Kirby) sitting down with my pal Danny Fingeroth (who wrote the most-read book about Stan Lee) and trying to clear up some of the misconceptions about both men. And there'll be a Cartoon Voices panel and some others. Full details to follow. Tickets for WonderCon are still available.

A piece about Johnny Carson…and about a recent book about him that I didn't care for. I'll tell you why one of these days…