Monthly Archives: February 2005

A little counter that you can't see but I can informs me that this is my 3000th post on this weblog since I switched to Movable Type software on 4/23/03. This is a frightening statistic, especially when you consider all the constructive things I could have been doing with that time.

So I will seize on this opportunity to remind you all that I have raccoons to feed at my back door, and really odd stuff to buy off eBay…which is why I'm putting up another one of these mercenary boxes. Use it wisely and extravagantly.

Floyd Norman has worked in animation as long as almost anyone I know. A few years ago, a book about Walt Disney was discussing how white his staff was back in the fifties, and it referred to a "lone Negro" who could be seen in the hallways. That was Floyd. He was working at Hanna-Barbera when the book came out and, instantly, all the other artists in his department began whipping out cartoons of Floyd in a cowboy suit and a mask, galloping down the Disney corridors as The Lone Negro. I'm still surprised Barbera didn't sell this as a series.

Over in his column at Jim Hill Media, Floyd writes about his experiences in the industry with regard to racial concerns. And he mentions the rumor that Disney is thinking of finally releasing Song of the South on DVD. I have also heard this rumor…and from someone who oughta know. The way it goes, the film will be issued in the "Walt Disney Treasures" series. Those are the ones that come in the little tin boxes, and which are available for a limited time. There would be extra material on the DVD, in which some prominent historians and black celebrities would attempt to put the material in historical context, and this could all happen in time for this coming Christmas. Or maybe not. The person who told me this says that there's still time for someone to chicken out and cancel or postpone. I suspect that if they go ahead, there will be a brief, two-day flurry of news stories because someone will smell some opportunity to get attention by being outraged. And then, since no groundswell of objection will follow, it will all be forgotten…and before long, folks will be wondering why such a fine movie was ever hard to see or own.

The most famous delicatessen in New York is probably the Carnegie on 7th Avenue. The second most famous is probably the Stage, which is located a whopping 30 yards away from it, also on 7th. Folks like me who like delis have been known to visit both on the same New York trip — sometimes, even on the same day — and to compare and contrast. If they do this with any semblance of intellectual and gastric honesty, they realize that the Carnegie has better corned beef, pastrami and chicken soup, whereas the Stage has better potato salad, brisket and pastry. (Don't try to argue these points with me, by the way. Facts are facts.)

In Los Angeles, the most famous delicatessen is probably Canter's, which is located on Fairfax Avenue. The other local delis — Junior's, Nate 'n Al's, Art's, Jerry's, Langer's, etc. — are all some distance apart from one another, making direct comparisons a bit difficult. As far as I can tell, Art's has the best corned beef, Canter's has the best potato salad, Jerry's has the best chicken soup, Nate 'n Al's has the best brisket, Langer's has the best pastrami, and Junior's has the best pastry.

But you can't tell for sure because they're not within walking distance of each other. A few years back, the L.A. Times did a taste test of regional pastrami sandwiches by sending a runner to each to fetch samples, then bring them back to the newspaper offices downtown, where a conference room full of pastrami-tasters awaited. The jury's decision for Canter's was approximately as accurate as the first O.J. verdict, and the other establishments rightly cried "foul." They insisted — and who can argue the point? — that their products would have fared better if sampled when they were fresh, instead of after more than a half-hour of transport time.

Years ago, we briefly thought the science of Delicatessen Comparison was about to go bi-coastal, providing a better chance to finally match the best New York delis against Southern California's. Both the Carnegie and the Stage opened outlets in Los Angeles, with the Carnegie's only a block and a half from Nate 'n Al's. Alas, the only deductions that were possible — and they were pretty obvious — was that the local incarnations of the Manhattan shrines were terrible.

All of us who'd loved the Carnegie and Stage emporiums on Seventh Avenue in New York rushed to the Carnegie in Beverly Hills and the Stage in Century City, foolishly thinking they might resemble the East Coast originals. Not even close. The new, nearby Carnegie was the worst deli I've ever visited in my life, and that's including places like the one in Muncie, Indiana where asking for a "corned beef sandwich" brings you meat that's been extracted from a plastic vacuum-pak and placed between slices of Wonder Bread and topped with lettuce, tomato and Miracle Whip. (It's another of those great chicken-and-egg conundrums: Are there no Jews in Muncie because they serve food like that? Or do they serve food like that because there are no Jews?)

The Beverly Hills Carnegie closed in a New York minute. The Century City Stage lingered a few years but now it's gone, as well. That would seem to have been the end of N.Y. and L.A. delicatessens going head-to-head…but now they've agreed to meet on neutral ground.

Not long ago, an outlet of Canter's opened in Las Vegas at the T.I. Hotel, aka Treasure Island. A Carnegie Deli has just opened next door at the Mirage…and the two are even closer than that sounds. The Mirage and the T.I. are sister hotels, owned by the same company and connected by direct walkways and a tram. It's almost like the most famous delicatessen in New York and the most famous deli in Los Angeles are now housed in the same building.

And if you want to take the comparison another step, there's a pretty decent re-creation of the Stage Deli over at Caesars Palace, which is on the other side of the Mirage. You could easily go to one of these three for your chicken soup, to another for your sandwich, and to the third for pastry. Or hit one for lunch, one for dinner and one for a late night nosh.

One of these days, I intend to try either option. I'm willing to bet I'll like the corned beef best at the Carnegie, the potato salad at Canter's and the chicken soup at the Stage. And since this is Vegas, you just know there'll be someone willing to cover that wager.

Once upon a time, imitations of MAD Magazine were about as prevalent in this great land of ours as Denny's restaurants…and you can make up your own joke about which is funnier or which tastes better or whatever you like. While you're working on that, I'll mention that we are now down to one, and it hasn't even come out very often lately.

I speak of Cracked Magazine, which has managed to be around for over 47 years, which may be longer than the combined lives of Sick, Nuts, Crazy, New Republic, Panic, Blast, and all the rest. But this century has not been kind to Cracked, which only got four issues out in 2004, the last of which — it came out in September with a Bush vs. Kerry cover — may be the most recent.

Now comes the news that Dick Kulpa, its most recent proprietor, has sold the humor mag to an Arabian concern. Here's the news item that will tell you what is known about the transaction. I gather from an e-mail I received from one of them that the publication's freelance writers and artists have been caught by surprise, and that none of them have a clue what this means. I'm guessing it means someone's going to pump a little money into the operation, maybe putting out a few more issues, trying to promote a brand-name that can be exploited for movies or videogames or other venues. I hope they do keep publishing because I'd like to see what an American humor magazine looks like with foreign owners.

My friend Gordon Kent writes to ask…

Your comment about Julie Nixon Eisenhower being Deep Throat raised a thought. I'm not nearly the aficionado of D.T. that you are — but how many women have been considered for the part (so to speak)? And what do you think the chances are that D.T. is a woman?

I don't think that's possible. When they were making the movie of All the President's Men, they cast Hal Holbrook as the mysterious informant. The story is that Robert Redford (or someone involved in the movie) went to Bob Woodward and said, in effect, "Look…we know you can't tell us who Deep Throat is, but for God's sake, we don't want to be about to release this movie and suddenly it comes out that it was a midget or a black guy or a woman or something like that." And Woodward, it is said, assured them that Holbrook was safe casting.

More to the point: Over the years, a number of things have been revealed about Deep Throat. In their book, Woodward and Bernstein refer to their friend as "he" and they say he drank Scotch and smoked, and they give a few other hints. They've said that nothing in the book is a fib to throw people off the scent. I don't think they're dumb enough to give all that info out, swear by it, and then declare that Deep Throat was an Amish woman. No one would believe them, and the rest of the news community would rip them apart. Which may happen anyway, but I can't imagine Woodward and Bernstein making it that easy.

The late Frank Kelly Freas is remembered in a way that would have amused him. (Thanks, Jerry Beck.)

David Kay was the author of a number of articles and speeches about the Iraq War that told everyone what had gone wrong, and in such eloquent and calmly reasoned manner that few seemed able to attack or answer him back. He has a new article out about what may be about to go wrong with Iran.

I awoke this morn to this e-mail from Michael Burstein…

Given the news that Deep Throat is terminally ill, your post saying that "I really hope it turns out to be someone like Julie Nixon Eisenhower or Ben Stein" could be interpreted as hoping one of them is about to die, which I'm pretty sure is not the impression you meant to give…

No, you're right. I don't hope for anyone's death…especially Ben Stein, since the world needs all the funny Conservatives it can get.

But you know, I kinda wonder about this rumor that D.T. is very ill. Why would Woodward, who has zealously avoided giving anything but the slightest hint for decades, now reveal to anyone that it's someone who is now terminally ill? If the source is one of the two dozen or so popular suspects, there are going to be reporters on his porch, demanding to know if he's dying so they can rush back and say, "So-and-so is dying so he must be Deep Throat." That's probably not what the mystery man wants to endure in his final days of life. And there's nothing in it for Woodward, especially if his source continues to deny it on his death bed. You have to wonder if this is just another false lead.

We may be about to find out the identity of "Deep Throat," the informant who tipped off Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to certain facts during the Nixon/Watergate drama. According to this article, D.T. is ill to the point where Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee has already prepped the obit, which would presumably reveal the secret. Todd Draper, a reader of this site, notes: "This would seem to contradict the George H. W. Bush theory, as he seemed perfectly healthy during his Super Bowl pre-game appearance tonight."

So it could be any day now, or this report could be wrong. If I were a betting man, and there were anyone around willing to cover bets on this, I think I'd lay a few bucks on it being former FBI assistant director Mark Felt, and maybe make a side wager on Fred Fielding, who was Nixon's deputy counsel, just in case. Of course, I really hope it turns out to be someone like Julie Nixon Eisenhower or Ben Stein, but I'll settle for just about anyone at this point.

Earlier today, I linked to an excerpt from a song and challenged you to guess what was familiar about the tune. Most of you probably got it, but for the benefit of those who didn't…

That was an excerpt from a song called "It's Really Love," which appeared on Annette Funicello's 1959 LP record, Annette Sings. It was written for her by Paul Anka, who was recycling a song he'd written years earlier called "Toot Sweet.

In 1962, shortly before Johnny Carson took over as host of The Tonight Show, he and his manager ran into Anka on 57th Street in New York. During a brief conversation, Carson happened to mention that he was looking for a theme song. Anka scurried off to come up with something and decided to reuse the tune one more time. He was doing work then at Bell Sound Studios and he put together a demo record there and shipped it off to Johnny, who by then was down in Florida for a combination vacation and strategy session. Carson heard the song and liked it, but ran into some opposition from his newly-chosen bandleader, Skitch Henderson. Apparently, Skitch was looking forward to writing a theme song and collecting the royalties every time it was played.

There are two versions of what happened next, depending on who you ask. One version is that Johnny insisted on Anka's song and, out of gratitude, Anka named it "Johnny's Song" and put Carson down as co-author, which meant that they split the royalties. The other version is the opposite: Anka named it that and designated Johnny as co-author so that Johnny would insist on that theme. Either way, it wound up being played to kick off every The Tonight Show for 30+ years. For each of those years, Anka and Carson split somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000. Not bad.

Didn't watch.

If you're sick of all that movement in your cartoon shows, have we got a DVD for you! In fact, we have two sets of them. Scheduled for release in late March are two DVD collections that, between them, will give you every damn episode of Clutch Cargo, plus a whole batch of extras and bonuses. Of special interest will be the features on the making of the syndicated 1959 "animated" series…and you'll notice that I put that word in quotes because, mouth action aside, these things moved about as much as the Breidamerkurjokull Glacier.

But hey, they had clever scripts and terrific graphic design and good voice work, and the weird "Synchro-Vox" process by which the lips of human actors were superimposed on the faces of the characters for dialogue purposes. That was just creepy enough to hold my interest when I was seven, and Sheriff John was showing these between Bosco commercials on Channel 11. Since the DVD sets are an incredible bargain (each set has eight or nine hours on three discs for under eleven bucks), I'm going to advance-order them here and here. You might want to do the same. That is, unless you're the kind of snob who expects animated characters to actually be animated.

Thank you for all the suggestions of e-mail programs, most of which are Eudora Pro or Mozilla Thunderbird. I appreciate the quick response.

This is for a friend. He's looking for a simple PC E-Mail program that does two things. One, which most of them do, is to enable him to filter incoming mail and send different messages to different folders. The other, which I've never heard of, is a feature whereby a message is somehow marked or flagged once he writes a reply to it.

My e-mail program of choice is Forte Agent, and it's quite wonderful, especially in its handling of newsgroups. But I can't see that it does what my friend wants, which is to be able to look at a message he's received and say, "Oh, good. I already answered this." Does any program do this?

I usually wouldn't be found reading, let alone linking to a sports blog. But my friend Bruce Reznick called my attention to this post on one. It's by a comedian named Scott Long, describing his experiences last year doing a corporate gig during Super Bowl week and I found it interesting.