Monthly Archives: March 2016

• Marco Rubio was asked why he lost. His reply: "Let's dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing…"

We may have a couple of these over the next week or two. Mark has much to do (including prep for WonderCon, weekend after next) and he (meaning me) may not be blogging as often as usual.

Kevin Drum summarizes my feeling about the current presidential gangbang election: The country is doing well and the people aren't as angry in reality as they appear to be on cable news. It's just that Mr. Trump knows how to turn it all into a highly-watched Reality Show.

I was wondering here yesterday what goes through the minds of those folks who lead the police on long car chases, running the risk of killing themselves or others with little chance of actual escape. My buddy Buzz Dixon wrote this to me…

I know Deron McBee, former American Gladiator/action B-movie actor/voice actor (and now turning into an artist), who was a deputy at the L.A. county jail prior to getting involved in show biz. I asked him once why so many guys put up a fight even when it's painfully obvious what the eventual outcome is going to be.

He said that happened frequently in jail, too (and while the guys on the street have a one in gazillion chance of getting clean away, ya gotta figure if you're already in jail, your escape options are even more severely curtailed).

Anyway, Deron said as best he could figure it, the guys knew they were going down and were determined to cause as much trouble for the arresting or detaining officers as possible, i.e., to make them pay in some way for chasing them or arresting them. Just another variation of "when you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose." They know they're in for a world of hurt, they're just determined to share it with someone.

Now, we might say, "Perhaps if you didn't steal a car in the first place the police might not be chasing you" but alas these guys are not much in the way of long term planners…

In some cases, sure…but I wonder if this view isn't making the mistake of presuming there is logic and rational thought where there is none. Seems to me a lot of fleeing drivers aren't thinking. They're just panicking and if there's any mindset at work, it's that the longer you can delay arrest, the better the chances that something unimagined but lucky can happen to you. Most people who get into trouble with the law got away with something for a time. They're like a gambler who won a few hands, then began losing and they're sure that if they can just keep the game going, they're bound to start winning again.

A guy I knew at a TV show I worked on once went to prison for swindling people — fortunately, not me though he tried — out of large sums of money. He succeeded ten or twelve times, then a couple of his con jobs went sour on him and attracted the attention of the law. Still, he had an unwarranted faith in his ability to "get away with it" since he had in the past. All he had to do was not get tossed in the pokey. If he could somehow just avoid that, he was sure his proven ability to lie and some kind of "charmed existence" he believed he had would save him. It didn't but he went down swinging, blindly trying all sorts of things that were about as stupid as doing eighty M.P.H. in a residential area, fleeing from eight cops and three overhead choppers.

There have been dozens of TV shows and news programs airing chase footage. I can't recall that many or any of them ever did little follow-up segments, showing what became of those maniac drivers and perhaps asking them, in the immortal words of Jay Leno, "What the hell were you thinking?" Might be interesting. Better still, might be a deterrent for others who'll attempt such irrational lunacy in the future.

And speaking of irrational lunacy, I have to get back to a script. Later.

A very funny exchange last night between Stephen Colbert and John Oliver. This is what talk shows are like when you put two witty people together and they aren't just attempting to replicate the pre-interview that the guest did with a Talent Coordinator. They just talk and it's very funny…

Sorry I didn't post more today. I made what may have been a mistake, upgrading my PC from Windows 7 to Windows 10. I hear from most folks that Windows 10 is so much better but so far, I'm not sure in what way. I know I had some problems getting my old desktop back and then I had to do some fancy reconfiguring to be able to connect to the 'net after the upgrade.

At one point, I was so unhappy with how it wasn't working that I tried to roll back to Windows 7…and that wouldn't work either. I phoned Microsoft Tech Support and got connected to a man who was not on this continent and maybe not on this planet, either. I couldn't understand half of what he said and he was unable to grasp the concept that the keyboard I use (an older one) does not have a dedicated Windows key. He kept telling me to look to the left of my spacebar and when I told him I don't have a Windows key, he told me to look harder.

Nothing he said helped but I suddenly thought of something I hadn't tried before. That got me connected to Ye Olde Internet and buoyed by that achievement, I ended the call with the Tech Support Guy on Saturn and eventually solved most of my other problems.

The biggest casualty of the changeover is that I can no longer use my favorite blogging software to compose posts offline, then load them to my site. I tried 'em all and the only one that worked for me was a very old program called wBloggar in which I composed probably 98% of all that has appeared on this site. Alas, its maker abandoned it long ago and it doesn't run under Windows 10…so that's not good news. (Before any of my fellow bloggers write to recommend Post2Blog, Raven, Windows Live Writer, BlogJet, WinJournal, WordPress's new offline client or any of about nine others: Tried 'em, don't like 'em.) I'm writing this in Notepad, then I'll manually upload it.

I am neither recommending nor not recommending Windows 10. I am recommending to myself not to do any more major software upgrades when I have deadlines pending. It took a long time to get everything working again and it would have taken even longer if I couldn't have solved the problems I solved. Now I'm writing again…and worrying something else will go wrong.

Why we should get rid of Daylight Saving Time.

Broadway Backwards is an annual benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center. It's a concert in which male Broadway performers favor the audience with songs normally performed by females and vice-versa.

At the 2014 edition, the show was stopped by film and Broadway star Patricia Morison with a stirring rendition of a song from Kiss Me, Kate. Ms. Morison starred in the original Broadway production of that show in 1948, interrupting a stellar film career to return to the stage. Here is her performance for Broadway Backwards — an impressive one for an actress of any age but especially memorable since she was 99 years old at the time. This coming Saturday, she will celebrate her 101st birthday.

Ms. Morison is introduced by Tony-winning actress Julie White. Stay tuned after the thunderous ovation at the end to hear what White has to say…

The reporters covering the police chase that just ended kept using the word "wild" to describe it…and that it was. Somehow — and there'll be investigations about this for sure — someone stole a police car out in Covina and led other police cars on a merry, high-speed chase for about an hour. There don't appear to have been any accidents to other motorists but a lot of drivers and pedestrians had to be wondering who they were chasing.

And there will sure be an inquiry into how it ended. The suspect pulled into an alley in Glendale. It looked like a dead-end but just in case it wasn't, a pursuing police vehicle did a P.I.T. manuever to stop the car from the fleeing. The suspect then put it into reverse and looked to be heading backwards out another route. That was when a police car rammed the driver's side, disabling the vehicle. It would appear the collision also killed the suspect. (The reporters have avoided saying that but they noted that no one was taken from the car, no ambulance has arrived and no one is trying to get the driver out of the vehicle.) Folks who were monitoring police scanners are posting that they heard shots were fired prior to the ramming.

If you're like me — and if you aren't, be grateful every day of your life — you wonder what, if anything, is going through the mind of a driver like that. Did he really think he was going to get away unharmed? Did he think it was fun? A moment of power and attention? More likely, he wasn't thinking at all…but we rarely hear anything more about these drivers. I can't help but be curious.

Someone who signs his name "Kosmo" writes…

Your latest Barbara Eden post completely trumps what I was about to tell you. I figured the best way to identify the source of the "Spinning Wheel" clip was to ask Barbara Eden herself…so I did. (This weekend was only the second time in my 57 years I've been in the presence of lovely Barbara.) I told her about the on-line discussion of her "Spinning Wheel" clip on YouTube and the debate about what TV show it was from.

She said she was familiar with the clip and it wasn't from a TV show. It was a performance she did as part of her live stage act. The newspaper clipping you posted clearly demonstrates otherwise. If I can't believe 100% in something Barbara Eden tells me, then is there any point in going on living?

I can forgive her for two reasons. One is that she has done so much in her career that it's completely understandable that she can't remember everything. If she indeed did the number in her live stage act, it could easily slip her mind that she also did it once for a Bob Hope special.

That's one of the things that impresses me most about Ms. Eden. There have been hundreds (if not thousands) of attractive women who've gotten a break in film or television. I would guess there have been about half a dozen who've had careers of 50+ years and anywhere near as many major roles as Barbara Eden. This is a person who had a big part on an I Love Lucy in 1957 and a starring role in a series (How to Marry a Millionaire) that started that same year. Obviously, she was hired a lot for her looks when she was in her twenties but you don't work that much and for that long just because of your looks.

So all that's one reason I can forgive her. The other is that she's Barbara Eden. I could forgive her anything.

By the way! I'm a member of a group called the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters, a society of folks who've had long careers in the TV or radio field. Several times a year, they stage a luncheon and honor someone in the industry and in April, their Guest of Honor will be Barbara Eden. I met her briefly at a luncheon back in 2003 when they honored Tom Bosley. She looked about half her age then and I guess that's another reason she's been working for so long.

I'm watching a live car chase on TV. Out in Alhambra, police cars are chasing a stolen police car. That's got to be confusing for people who see it pass by.

Comic-Con International does not happen all by itself. It's there every year in San Diego thanks to hard-working people, many of whom contribute without recognition or applause…and some of them have been doing it since the convention started back in 1970 under another name.

Two folks who've been involved in every one of those cons, often donating hundreds of hours in a given year, are seen in the photo above. That's Gene and Mary Henderson and since that first con, I've seen them every year, scurrying around, doing this and that just because they loved the whole idea of the con and wanted to help make it happen. Gene has been mostly involved with archiving the convention's history, making sure the Art Show was run properly, and with coordinating the annual Russ Manning Award to recognize new talent. Mary aided him with all that, plus for many years she was the con's Guest Coordinator, arranging for guests to get there, welcoming them, helping them while they were there. Both were occasional trouble shooters when they were needed…and they were often needed.

Our sympathies go out to Gene today upon hearing of Mary's passing yesterday afternoon. I don't know how long he and Mary were married but it was a long time, probably well over a half century. They were a lovely couple, always generous with their time and energy, truly devoted to each other. Very sad news.

More important than this Donald Trump nonsense, anyway. Recently here, we were wondering about a video I linked to — a musical number with Barbara Eden performing "Spinning Wheel" on some variety show of (obviously) the seventies. We had a lot of guesses and I thought it was either from Sonny & Cher or from the series Sonny Bono did without the lovely Cher. Well, that was a good guess but it turns out to be wrong.

A couple of folks sent in the answer but the first one I received was from Bill Mullins, who sent me this clipping from the Boston Herald from Wednesday, Mar 18 1970. John Wells also sent in a similar paragraph from another newspaper…

So Mike Clark, who thought he recognized the camerawork, was right. I told you Mike knows a lot about TV production. It was indeed a Bob Hope special and I love how when I ask a question here, I get an answer. Thanks, everyone!

Jonathan Chait reverses some earlier predictions and observations — though not his belief that Trump cannot win the presidency. But he argues that even then, Trump can still do a lot of damage to the core of American democracy.

And in the same spirit, Josh Marshall says something that a lot of us have been thinking, I bet. It's that the way things are going, someone is going to get killed at a Donald Trump rally or because he is inciting his supporters towards violence. Boy, I hope that doesn't happen.

Here is the official trailer for Woody Allen's 1971 movie, Bananas. It was largely improvised with our friend Frank Buxton asking the questions…and I spoke to Frank yesterday and asked him what he recalled about this. He said it took about an hour, ninety minutes tops. He and Allen arrived at the shoot in the outfits they wore on camera and it was all improvised on the spot. Not many filmmakers could get away with doing their advertising that way but not many filmmakers are Woody Allen…

And here are some out-takes from the filming session…

President Obama is reportedly vetting Supreme Court nominees and intends to nominate one despite oaths from Senate Republicans that they will never in a zillion years consider anyone he recommends.

I keep reading articles online that say his goal is to pick a nominee who'll be acceptable to everyone. The trouble with that is that a nominee acceptable to everyone is acceptable to no one. Republicans certainly don't want a Supreme Court Justice who is acceptable to Democrats. They want someone who'll vote so consistently their way that Democrats will hate that person and jump up and down and cuss and turn the color of Heinz Ketchup.

Republicans don't like Justices like Ginsburg and Sotomayor who were nominated by Democratic presidents…but the ones they're really furious at are the ones like Roberts and Kennedy who were nominated by Republican presidents but who occasionally vote with the liberals. Remember when George W. Bush nominated Harriet Miers and Republicans (not Democrats) raised such a stink that he withdrew the nomination? It wasn't because she was a conservative. It was because they were afraid she might not be 100% reliably conservative.

And Democrats don't want someone who'll have an open, non-partisan mind and will rule on the merits on an individual case. That person might sometimes side with the conservatives. He or she might just vote to overturn Roe v. Wade or do something else Democrats dread. They want someone who you can bet the farm will look at every case, weigh the arguments on both sides, then find some way to rule in favor of their side.

Back in school, I was taught that the Supreme Court was supposed to be nine fair-minded individuals who would put personal feelings and prejudices aside and rule based on what the law and common sense decreed. I don't know if it was ever quite that but it was once more that than it is now. An open-minded, fair person ain't got a chance.

Matt Taibbi discusses the opportunists who see the Trump bandwagon as inevitable and are hopping on.

Oh — and I forgot yesterday's "Trump is a Monster" link. This one is about one of the reasons I don't think the guy can win the presidency even if he wins the nomination. Elspeth Reeve explains "Why Donald Trump Is Hillary Clinton's Dream Opponent." It's because he ain't gonna get much of the female vote.