Ted Cruz is involved in a controversy as to whether he ever supported anything resembling a "path to citizenship" for illegal aliens. The record shows pretty clearly he did. He insists he did not. William Saletan explains the whole thing by just saying Cruz is lying and he links to other sources that agree. Even some folks you'd think would be on Cruz's side aren't buying his spin.
I don't think it'll affect Cruz's performance in this election one bit. You have Trump out there saying he saw thousands of people in New Jersey cheering 9/11. You have Carson telling tales of his past that no one believes. You have Fiorina tripling-down on that Planned Parenthood video that no one else has seen and on Obama firing that general who actually resigned during the Bush administration. I can buy that Christie's statement about being buddy-buddy with King Hussein of Jordan (who died years ago) was a brainfart or a misspeak but he's said plenty of things that just plain aren't true. They all have.
The effect of all this fibbing is that lots of folks are accepting that politicians lie so you have to vote for liars. They may even rationalize it as something that good men and women must do in order to get elected. We forgive our choices a lot. We don't fault them much for selling their souls to special interests for the money it takes to win. We don't fault them for dodging questions, the answers to which might cost them the votes to win.
My guess is that Cruz won't lose supporters because his supporters want results — in his case, because they want someone who'll treat illegal aliens and maybe all wanna-be immigrants like rabid dogs you don't want in your neighborhood. To them, Cruz looks like the candidate most likely to do that in the future, regardless of what he may have done in the past. So what if he felt he had to lie about that to win? Better a liar who'll "secure our borders" (a term which is increasingly becoming a euphemism for racial and religious purity) than an honest person who'll do all those awful, Commie/Sharia things described on the plaque on the Statue of Liberty.
They'll not only continue to back Cruz but they'll attack Hillary for being a liar. Only your guy gets a pass on that.
A whole lot of folks were truly delighted this morning to hear that Martin Shkreli was being arrested and hauled off to the pokey. (Did any reports say he'd been "frog-marched?" I've been dying to find out what that looks like.)
He was not arrested because of that deal he did where he acquired ownership of that AIDS drug that some people desperately need and jacked its price up to the stratosphere. That, sadly, is not illegal. Jordan Weissmann explains what the guy was arrested for doing. It surprised me because I didn't think there was anything one could do in the world of hedge funds that was considered unethical, let alone against the law.
Paul Waldman asks, "Can we stop pretending that Republicans care about the deficit now?" His thesis is that neither Democrats nor Republicans really care about it and that the only time either side objects to spending is when it's spending on stuff they don't like. I agree.
You want to know what it's like to be a law enforcement officer involved in a high-speed chase? Here's a POV video of a chase in Albany, Georgia that involved pursuing an armed robbery suspect at speeds that hit 130 in a commercial area. No one was injured and as you'll see, the guy gets caught. But, boy, chasing one of these criminals is not a job I'd like to have. Take this one full-screen if you can…
The only website I think is worth watching for polling analysis is Nate Silver's fivethirtyeight.com. The folks there are just about the only ones more interested in being accurate than in spinning the polls in ways that aid their personal causes.
They've been trying to figure out a way to forecast the Academy Awards and they've failed…so now they're asking readers to come up with ways to approach this puzzle. My suggestion? They're wasting their time. Not enough data is available. And not enough data will ever be available.
The folks who administer these awards want it that way. So do the folks who stand to receive one. They all like the idea that people think the voting represents a genuine consensus of Hollywood. Knowing more about who votes and how can only diminish that impression. So that's why the awards will remain largely unpredictable except by hunches and hearing "the buzz."
This is the final entry to Mark Evanier's list of the twenty top voice actors in American animated cartoons between 1928 and 1968. For more on this list, read this. To see all the listings posted to date, click here.
Mel Blanc
Most Famous Role: Bugs Bunny.
Other Notable Roles: Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Tweety, Sylvester, Pepe LePew and hundreds of other characters in Warner Brothers cartoons; Woody Woodpecker (for a while), Barney Rubble, Mr. Spacely (on The Jetsons), Secret Squirrel, Captain Caveman and many, many more.
What He Did Besides Cartoon Voices: Mel was a superstar of comedy and variety radio shows. In addition to regular appearances with Jack Benny and Abbott & Costello, he appeared on dozens of other shows and even had his own program for a time. He followed Jack Benny into television and appeared on other comedies, plus there were hundreds of commercials and talk show appearances.
Why He's On This List: Does anyone need an explanation? He was the first superstar of cartoon voicing and the guy everyone else who went into the business wanted to emulate, career-wise. And it wasn't just a matter of him being able to do a lot of different voices. It had more to do with him being a great comic actor — the kind who could hold his own in a sketch with great comedians like Benny.
Fun Fact: At one point in the fifties, Mel did one line voicing a cartoon pig in a TV commercial for Paper Mate pens. The commercial ran hundreds if not thousands of times and Mel, who was paid for each usage, collected more money for it than he'd been paid for all the Warner Brothers cartoons he'd done to date. For years, he held the record for the highest payment ever received by an actor for performing one line.
Bill Carter has an article about how Jimmy Fallon is way out ahead of everyone in late night. That's true but I have the feeling that's not going to last.
The other day, I posted a link to a video of TV cooking expert Alton Brown lecturing us, as he tends to do, about the right way to run one's kitchen. As I said, he always convinces me I have no business even trying to prepare a meal. I suspect if I watched him on a more regular basis, I'd even feel unqualified to phone to have a pizza delivered. A few readers challenged that or want to know why I feel as I do.
I enjoy watching Mr. Brown. He's clever, he's informed and I'm sure he's generally right about the "right" way to do things. I'm also sure that I will never in my life have a kitchen as well-stocked as his or that I will have nine hours to spend making a blintz. He can have that kind of kitchen and devote that kind of time because he makes his living as a chef and cooking teacher.
He can say things like, "Add a spritz of Worcestershire sauce" because he has cooked so much, he knows how much a "spritz" is. He also has a bottle of Worcestershire sauce. If I wanted to attempt a recipe that required it, I'd have to go out and buy one and over the next few years, I'd probably use up about three spritzes from it and wind up throwing 95% of it away.
He complains that people clutter their kitchens with "unitaskers" (devices that do only one thing) but he presumes we have every known spice and ingredient available and that it's practical to have them there because we use them often. In my kitchen, a bottle of Worcestershire sauce would be a unitasker.
I want to make clear: I admire Mr. Brown's skill. But I don't watch him to learn how to make what he makes because I'll never be able to replicate any of that. I watch him the way I watch champion athletes do other stuff I can't accomplish. Seeing him make spaghetti sauce is like watching that guy from Italy who did the Boston Marathon in 2:24:37. I ain't about to attempt that, either.
Consider: I used to make one of the simplest things to make in this world…a grilled cheese sandwich. I melted some butter in a pan. I buttered both sides of two slices of whatever bread I had on hand. I inserted whatever kind of cheese I had around. I put it in the pan, flipped it now and then and within about five minutes, I had what I thought was a pretty decent grilled cheese sandwich.
It tasted great and I was proud I made it myself. Then I watched the Alton Brown video that told me I did it all wrong. In fact, let's watch it together and see what I should have done…
Sounding very much like a college prof who thinks his students are lunkheads, he starts by telling me my grilled cheese sandwich is not a grilled cheese sandwich.
Apparently, my stove is of no use in this process. I have to go out in my backyard and light charcoal in my barbecue which I don't have. Years ago when I did have one, that took a little while to do and I never thought to go to all that trouble just to make two grilled cheese sandwiches. Then again, I didn't have my own cooking show.
So let's say I buy a barbecue and charcoal and all the things you need to get a proper fire going like a chimney starter and mitts and tongs. I mean, I sure don't want to disappoint Alton or attract his scorn.
He doesn't approve of my bread so I'm going to have to buy a whole loaf of "a good, hearty country-style bread" which I probably won't use in full before it goes stale on me. I do have butter and olive oil, even if I don't have a sprayer for the oil. He doesn't approve of my cheese or even that I use but one kind. I need to buy two kinds that I probably also won't use all of, and I don't dare buy it already-grated so I either need to find my grater or buy one of them, too.
I need a teaspoon of dry mustard. I don't have any so I'll need to buy a jar of it and use one teaspoon full. I need half a teaspoon of smoked paprika. Again, I don't have any so I'll need to buy a jar of it and use even less of it. I do have black pepper and a grinder so at least there, I'm equipped.
But I don't have two grill spatulas so I'll need to buy them. Then I'll need to take foil (I have that) and shape it around the spatulas to make little shallow trays with just a little bit of lip and…well, I've taken this far enough. I've made my point. What I haven't made since I watched that video is a grilled or even a griddled cheese sandwich. I can't do it his way and now I'm ashamed to do it my way. I take slight consolation in the fact that my method might be better than his when it's raining.
Let me say one last time that I like Alton Brown. He actually gets out there and demonstrates the art of food preparation, whereas most cooking shows now seem to be contests where they get a bunch of chefs together, give each one a hamhock, a bay leaf, a jar of Maraschino cherries and a live squirrel and tell them they have six minutes to whip it all up into a souflé that the judges will love. That doesn't relate to anything I might ever do in my kitchen either.
From now on, I may try nothing in my kitchen more complicated than Campbell's Soups. I sure hope he doesn't do a show about the proper way to do that. I'll probably have to buy a backhoe to open the can, import the water from Zurich and let the whole thing simmer over a smoldering volcano. And he'll tell me it isn't even Bean with Bacon like I thought.
Posted on Wednesday, December 16, 2015 at 11:12 AM
David Letterman is interviewed by a reporter from a small town magazine — the kind of small town which probably has a newspaper from which Dave used to quote inane items for "Small Town News." Refreshingly, the interview has very little to do with show business and everything to do with retirement and coming to terms (or not) with one's advancing age.
Fred Kaplan summarizes what the Republican candidates had to say last night about foreign policy and fighting terrorism: A lot of double-talk that revealed they know just about nothing about the topic. But some of them sure sounded tough when they failed to say what they would do that the current administration hasn't done.
Today (Wednesday), Stu Shostak offers up his Annual Christmas Gift-Giving Show with five guests who are each pushing an item you might want to buy for a loved one — and remember, that loved one can be yourself. Author Tim Hollis will be talking about Toons in Toyland, a fine book I've been meaning to recommend here. It's lots and lots of photos and info on toys of the past featuring your favorite cartoon characters. Then there's the DVD documentary, The Green Girl: The Life of Actress Susan Oliver, all about one of the prolific actresses ever. Stu will be chatting with the film's writer/director, George Pappy.
Author Adam-Michael James will be discussing his new Bewitched Continuum, all about that favorite sitcom of the past. Author Vince Waldron has gift suggestions relating to The Dick Van Dyke Show. And wrapping it up with be a visit with the MADdest of the MAD magazine writers, Dick DeBartolo, aka "The Giz Wiz." Dick will offer a look at the greatest 'n' goofiest gadgets and gizmos you might consider purchasing, plus Stu says Dick has a couple of MAD magazine stories you won't want to miss!
Stu's Show can be heard live (almost) every Wednesday at the Stu's Show website and you can listen for free there. Webcasts start at 4 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM Eastern and other times in other climes. They run a minimum of two hours and sometimes go to three or beyond. Shortly after a show ends, it's available for downloading from the Archives on that site. Downloads are a paltry 99 cents each and you can get four for the price of three. Plus, check out Stu's new V.I.P. Listener program for a way to make Stu's Christmas merrier.
I didn't watch the Republican Debate tonight — live, anyway. I've decided to take my own advice — dispensed often lately to friends who shudder at the concept of Trump in the White House. Or Carson in the White House. Or Cruz or…well, just about any of them. I wonder if a lot of folks aren't overthinking this riddle of why Trump has his commanding lead. Maybe it's as simple as the concept that most Republicans think the other candidates are less appealing and/or less likely to beat Hillary. No, Trump doesn't seem very presidential but neither do the rest of them.
So the advice I give is to stop paying so much attention to what's going on. It's a long way to the election and so much will change that we may well look back on the current standings the way we look back at when Herman Cain or Newt Gingrich were in the lead.
I did watch a lot of clips and my impression from them was that Ben Carson looked hopelessly clueless, Rand Paul looked irrelevant to the proceedings, Chris Christie looked like he was trying to convince people he could be the baddest ass on the stage and Jeb Bush looked like someone gave him a lot of one-liners and he was desperately trying to find places to slip them in. And does Ted Cruz really think we can do saturation bombing of whole villages, kill all the bad guys and leave the young, ill and innocent unharmed?
Someone will get a bump in the polls but that's meaningless. The second and third debates (I think it was), Carly Fiorina got large bumps in her numbers and now she's polling at the same percentage as the butterfat content of low-fat milk. Winning the Iowa Caucus is only slightly more significant.
I see pundits trying to predict which candidate will be the next to drop out but it seems to me that decision is usually based on facts that are not available to the public. Candidates don't quit this race because their poll numbers are low. Candidates quit because their wealthier donors are moving their money to other candidates. We don't know who's going to learn soon that staying in the race is no longer cost-effective.
And that's as much attention as I'm going to pay to this election for a while. I hope.
NBC has announced there will be no more episodes of Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris. This was the show they kinda advertised as a variety show but it was really a jumble of games, stunts and hidden camera tricks. I wonder if at any time they thought of turning it into a variety show.
Okay, how about a hoary burlesque sketch? This one dates back to the days of Minsky's and it's performed here in a 1979 cable special by Claude Mathis and Dexter Maitland, who also dated back the days of Minsky's. Mathis was what they called a First Banana — the lead comic in a show. Maitland was a straight man — and for my money, one of the few masters of that profession. I used to see him in Vegas and Reno when he was in burlesque shows with another Minsky's survivor, Irv Benson. They were both great and I got to hang out with them backstage and hear great stories.
You may remember Dexter from the movie, The Night They Raided Minsky's. He played — what else? — a burlesque straight man. He got to sing "Take Ten Terrific Girls" and also acted as a kind of technical advisor to the picture, making sure his old place of employment was portrayed with at least a g-string of accuracy. Here he is with Mr. Mathis…
