Still updating by hand while I wait for the "automatic update" functions of this weblog to be fixed. It's outta my hands at the moment but I didn't want you lovely folks to think I'd forgotten you. I feel like I'm in a house without plumbing or electricity: The Search function isn't working, the Permalinks are out of commission, and new postings are not scrolling off onto the Archive pages. But I am here for you.
The news about Julius Schwartz all seems good. Harlan Ellison's Message Board is the place to go if you want to read more.
Given the limitation of emotion it is possible to convey in an e-mail, several of you managed to seem uncommonly aghast at the fact that veteran character actor Charles Lane is still alive. Last I heard, he was. He will be 99 years old in about six weeks.
And while we're at it, let's all throw our voices to wish a Happy Birthday to the world's greatest ventriloquist, Paul Winchell, who turns 81 tomorrow. That still seems rather young to me when I recall that the last time I saw Paul in person was at a birthday party for the great Señor Wences, who was 100 that evening. In fact, Paul introduced me to the guest of honor by saying, "I'd like you to meet a ventriloquist older than me."
But enough about old guys. I've posted a column of mine that was originally published in March of '00. It summarizes some thoughts that I had at the time when I would occasionally mention a current political situation in a comic book I was writing and people would react like I'd slipped in a few mystic Voodoo Hex symbols guaranteed to cause paralysis of the genitalia. Here's the article and obviously, I'm posting it because I think some of what it says is still relevant.
Back with more when things are fixed here in the spiderhole. And isn't it cute how swiftly that noun joined our collective vocabulary?