Forbes Magazine picks the 15 richest fictional characters. They say Richie Rich can buy and sell Uncle Scrooge. As someone who's written both, I'm here to tell you they're wrong.
[UPDATE: The above link is wrong. It goes to their 2002 list. Here's the link to the 2005 list.]
One of the great things about the Internet is that you can use it to listen to BBC radio. Let's all do that on Wednesday, December 7 when BBC Radio 4 broadcasts an interview/performance of my hero, Stan Freberg. Here's the info but I'll remind you of it when we get closer to the date.
In the meantime, you can listen to a half-hour biography of master humorist S.J. Perelman on this page. It's narrated by some guy named Woody Allen and that link won't be good for very long so don't dawdle. There's also a series about Woody's stand-up years and you can hear the first part from this page.
This article on the Reuters news service says that newly-released documents from 1964 say that U.S. officials lied to justify escalating the Vietnam War. It's one of those things that you'd like to believe didn't happen but it probably did.
Almost as a P.S. to the preceding link to a Michael Kinsley article, I'm linking to this article in The New York Times. There's a potential avalanche of scandals looming in Congress over lobbying and pay-offs and influence peddling, much of which may get jarred loose by the trials 'n' tribulations of Jack Abramoff. That link will take you to a good overview of the situation.
Michael Kinsley on corruption in the hallowed halls of Congress.
Last night, on an episode that remains as-yet-unwatched on my TiVo, David Letterman had Oprah Winfrey on as a guest. Oprah had told interviewers for some time that she'd never set foot on the Letterman stage again…a vow she kept until it seemed like a good way to promote her new musical, which is playing a block from where Dave tapes. I gather from this morn's Internet chatter that the event was rife with polite conversation, whereas some viewers were hoping for The Morton Downey Jr. Show to erupt. I'll watch it later.
What I wanted to mention now is that the early ratings suggest Dave got a monster tune-in — one of his highest-rated shows ever, if not the highest. That was expected…and good for Dave. Putting on shows that people want to watch is what the game is all about. What wasn't expected was Leno's rating. In an article last week, TV critic Tom Shales predicted, "Leno might as well air a rerun. Only the TiVo machines will be watching." This morning's Nielsens say otherwise. Jay got his usual Thursday night rating, which ordinarily would beat Dave by a point or so. Just as many people as ever were watching him. There were just more watching Dave and Oprah kiss and make up.
A friend of mine who analyzes ratings for a living told me some time ago that we are long past the point where anyone is pondering if they prefer Dave over Jay or Jay over Dave. "There are no Undecideds in this election," is how he put it. There are those who opt for Jay, those who prefer Dave, and those who can go either way, depending on the guest list. This last group, he said, is smaller than you'd think.
Jay has been consistently winning in the ratings for two reasons, only one of which is that his partisans are greater in number. The other is that they tune in more often and stick around longer. The Jay fans watch 4-5 times a week and are more likely to stay 'til the end of the show. The Dave fans watch 3-4 times a week and tend to go to bed or check out HBO before that show is over. That's an oversimplification but the principle is correct, at least for average nights. On an "event" night — Dave returns from heart surgery, Dave has on Hillary Clinton, Jay has Jerry Seinfeld after the last Seinfeld airs, etc. — all of that host's regular viewers tune in at once, plus a lot of viewers who rarely watch either late night show. Last night, Dave stole away a few of those who normally watch Jay but not enough that no one was watching Leno. Mostly, all the folks who like Dave but who feel his show has gotten repetitive thought, "Ah, tonight it'll be different." So they watched, and you also had the folks who ordinarily don't care about late night. They just thought something eventful might occur. Add in the Oprah fans who watched just because they love her and you have a huge rating…but not at Leno's expense. Tonight, Dave has on Luke Wilson and a rodeo champ, Jay welcomes Ebert and Roeper plus Tyra Banks, and things return to normal.
Lots of people remember that the first time Leno passed Letterman in the ratings was the night Hugh Grant came on The Tonight Show for his first public appearance after being arrested with a hooker. Some of Dave's fiercest loyalists still try to insist that Jay's 10+ year dominance in the ratings is only due to that; like America was tricked into watching that one night and all their remotes got stuck. In truth, Jay was gaining on Dave in the weeks before and would have passed him soon, even without Grant. His show had a remarkable bounce-back after trailing Letterman for a while and has since demonstrated great, unacknowledged strength. Even the excuse that he was just beating Dave because NBC had a stronger prime-time line-up has since collapsed now that the Peacock Number is flirting with fourth place and Jay still wins.
Personally, as I've said before, I think both shows could and should be a lot better and less prone to recycling. If the right host were on ABC opposite them, I think both Dave and Jay would be in a fair amount of trouble and might have to ditch some of their easy, dependable bits and put in a few more hours a week. But the Letterman fan who writes me every month to try and convince me that Dave is about to be Numero Uno again is wasting as much bandwidth as the people who tell me I've won the International Lotto and just have to send my bank account number in order to collect millions. Dave will win nights when the show is all about a spectacular guest or a monumental event in The Life of Letterman. But Jay wins any night that's just about Dave and Paul playing "Will It Float?"
So I was thinking about how it was a shame that some comic book characters will never make it to postage stamp stature, and I decided to whip up four examples. I also wanted to note that my Alfred E. Neuman stamp prompted quite a few correspondents to make the same joke. Here's Kim "Howard" Johnson…
I don't think we'll see the Alfred E. stamp for at least three years. George W. Bush will quash it, thinking that someone is making fun of him…
Here's Jackson Togyer…
My understanding is that the Postal Service can't issue a stamp in honor of President Bush until he passes away.
Here's Rudy Panucci…
I hate to tell you this, but I don't think the Post Office could release the stamp that you proposed in one of your recent items. Usually a person has to be deceased for ten years before their image can be used on a stamp, although an exception can be made for a former president. However, our current president is still alive, and aside from that, I don't know why Time Warner would want to put him on a stamp, anyway. NewsCorp, I could see, but not Time Warner. So your idea of a stamp feature George W. Bush just isn't appropriate. Even with the price reversed.
Alfred E. Neuman? Oh, never mind.
And so on and so on. I don't see the physical resemblance but there is a certain similarity in the "What, me worry?" attitude.
Governor Bob Taft of Ohio has achieved something remarkable. If this poll is to be believed, he currently has an approval rating of 6.5% and no, I didn't misplace the decimal point. This bests former Illinois governor George Ryan who once notched a 7% approval rating.
Now, as it happens, this is not a poll I particularly trust but let's pretend for a minute it's accurate. That would have to be quite liberating for Mr. Taft. I mean, it's not like he's sitting there, fretting how to get his poll numbers up. It's over. The guy could go out and start selling methamphetamine to pre-schoolers and it wouldn't harm his popularity that much. The 6.5% probably represents people who profited over the governor's financial shenanigans and they're not going to abandon him over a little thing like that.
Do you realize how low 6.5% is? My state recalled a governor named Gray Davis when he hit 25%. That's almost four times as popular as Bob Taft.
I don't know what the current number is but a few years ago, 9% of all Americans told pollsters that either they or someone in their family had had contact with beings from outer space. If that's still the case then more people think they've met Martians than believe Bob Taft is a good governor. You know how bad this guy is doing? If he were to run for re-election, Alan Keyes could beat him.
Bob Taft is in his second term. There are people who voted for this man twice.
Several folks have written to inform me that the Batman image on the forthcoming DC stamps is from a cover by Jim Lee and Scott Williams. And almost all who wrote wondered why I didn't mention that the Green Lantern image was by Neal Adams from the first of the famous Green Lantern-Green Arrow issues. I don't know why I didn't do that.
Also, Kurt Busiek informs me that the post office press release (which I hadn't seen) says the art on the Plastic Man stamp is by Dick Giordano. I'm pretty sure it's from that eighties style guide I mentioned, where most of the art was by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and/or Dick Giordano. Maybe that drawing was just Dick but at that size, it's hard to tell.
By the way: Last evening, I called Paul Norris, the co-creator of Aquaman, to say howdy and to tell him that his character's going to be on a stamp. Paul, who is now 91 or thereabouts, was quite pleased to hear the news.
Warner has had the connections/clout to get the WB characters (Bugs Bunny, et al) on stamps and now the DC heroes. How long do we think it'll be before we see this?
Countdown with Keith Olbermann is MSNBC's highest-rated program. Admittedly, this is like being the classiest guest on The Jerry Springer Show but someday, someone at MSNBC will figure out that no one wants a news channel with no identity. Maybe, just maybe, they'll notice that what Olbermann's doing is working and try a little more of that.
I continue to be amused at Olbermann's occasional shots at his competitor, Bill O'Reilly. Yesterday, a batch of funny ones came in Countdown's daily selection of "The Worst Person in the World." Here's a link to a Windows Media Player file of the segment, courtesy of the website, Can O' Fun.