Monthly Archives: August 2017

• Praying for folks in TX is nice. So is keeping them in your thoughts. But donating $ might actually do some good. http://www.opusa.org/

Earlier today, I found an odd message on my iPhone. I have blurred most of the phone number but otherwise, it looked like this…

I have not and will not respond but what do we think the deal is here?  "+49" is the country code for Germany.  I'm not sure I know anyone who would have a German cell phone but if I do, it is certainly not someone who would address me as "Baby."  My first thought is that if I reply, I incur some sort of ghastly charge and that's the end of it.

If that's not it, then I'm guessing I get back some sort of text from a person who claims to have a yearning for my body but has some reason to need my credit card number before they can meet with me.  Something like that.

A quick online search showed me nothing about the scam or the phone number.  Anyone here have any idea what they're up to?  That sure is a cute little bear…

My piece on Jerry Lewis when he died aroused some controversy, especially among folks who believe that when someone dies, you must only say nice things about them for 24 hours or 48 or the first month…or in some extreme cases, forever. I would suggest that there's a sliding scale and it has something to do with how nice and civil the deceased was in life. If an ax murderer who killed twenty people dies on Saturday, I shouldn't have to wait until Monday to mention that thing he used to do with the axes.

Paul Fitzpatrick, who I really only know through e-mail correspondence, wrote a much nicer piece about Jerry on his blog. Perhaps if I hadn't seen the nasty side of Jerry in person, I would have written something more like Paul did.

Several folks wrote to ask me why, in my piece on Jerry, I didn't mention the first time I encountered him back when I was a toddler. Answer: I wrote the piece on Jerry's passing in a hurry and to tell that tale would have made it too much about me. I also didn't want anyone to think I held that against him because I honestly didn't. But if you want to read it, it's here.

And if you do read it, this may interest you. I mention seeing Jerry's movie Don't Give Up The Ship at the Paradise Theater in Westchester, on Sepulveda right near where LAX wasn't then but is now. The Paradise is now an office building and a few months ago, my friend Roger sent me then-and-now photos of it. Here they are. I'll let you figure out which is which…

I love fact-checking websites like Politifact and factcheck.org and am sad that more folks don't. Some people seem to treat them as great annoyances or even weapons in some conspiracy to rewrite history. I keep imagining a scenario that goes something like this…

1. Someone has long had a hate on for Whoopi Goldberg. He doesn't like her comedy or doesn't like her face or doesn't like something she said or doesn't like black women named Whoopi or something…
2. Someone else posts on the web a story that says Ms. Goldberg was "humiliated, handcuffed and dragged out of the TV studio," arrested for operating an illegal puppy mill." The originator of this story probably doesn't believe this for a minute. I mean, he knows it came from his imagination. Maybe he wants to see how many suckers he can get to believe it. Maybe he just wants the clicks on his site. As I related here, I was once asked to write for a movie gossip magazine by an editor who didn't care if her headlines were true, just so long as they caused people to buy the magazine.
3. But that Whoopi hater loves the story. He clicks. He spreads his joy to others.
4. A fact-checking site debunks the story pretty thoroughly but then — and this is the amazing part to me —
5. The Whoopi-hater doesn't retract or decide he was hoaxed. He likes the story too much for that. He still believes it because he's fantasized a lot of things about Ms. Goldberg and decided that she's just the kind of despicable human who would run an illegal puppy mill.
6. So any source that says it ain't so has to be lying, covering-up, part of the conspiracy to hide the truth, etc.

Too often these days, we see situations that are like the old joke line, "My mind is made up. Don't confuse me with facts!" I suppose people have always been this stubborn but the increase of online social media and "news" channels like Fox News have given these people a greater, louder voice.  I don't like it when reality has to be sacrificed in the quest for some supposed greater good.

I occasionally have a few beefs with fact-checking sites, one being that they sometimes seem to not differentiate between bad phraseology or merely being wrong and a deliberate lie.  Another is the idea that we can "score" lies like this…

That's the one on Trump and it usually gets touted as saying something like, "84% of all Trump statements" are either Half True, Mostly False, False or "Pants on Fire."  No, it doesn't.  It's a measure of the Trump statements that Politifact chose to examine.  Last week when Trump said "I love chocolate ice cream," they didn't score that.

The man makes 77-minute speeches and in a 77-minute speech, he probably says several hundred things one could evaluate as fact or fiction.  They choose to evaluate five or ten of them…the ones most likely to turn out to be untrue.  The final score has a lot to do with which ones they decide are worth an analysis.

This is not to say I don't think Donald Trump lies his ass off every chance he gets.  I'm just suggesting the measuring system is being represented as something it's not.

Also, all untrue statements are not equal.  Politifact just cited columnist David Frum for saying, "No president in history has imposed larger personal lifestyle costs on the taxpayer than Donald Trump."  They say that's Mostly False because all the data on that isn't in yet.  Politifact adds, "Although Frum didn't include this qualifier, he might have meant at this point in Trump's presidency. Trump does seem on pace to outstrip previous presidential spending by the end of his term."

In other words, it's looking like Frum will be proven right but he hasn't been yet.  That's a lot different from the other kinds of things Politifact rates as Mostly False, like Trump claiming there are things in a health bill that aren't in there or saying "Gas prices are the lowest in the U.S. in over ten years!" when they aren't.

All that said, I'm glad we have these fact-checking sites and I haven't seen one yet that didn't strike me as a lot more accurate than the people they cover. My problem isn't really with them. It's that too many people in this country don't want to believe what they don't want to believe.

Still more hummingbirds…

My lawyer tells me I don't have to pay Ken Levine a royalty if I answer questions on a Friday. Here's a bunch of short ones, starting with the one from Joel O'Brien…

When a TV program is squeezed so much to allow the greatest possible number of commercials, the end credits will be run at breakneck speed and in microscopic size. Sometimes, the credits for the program just run are airing as the next program has already begun. I imagine it has something to do with legal agreements with the writers and producers? Please, Mark. Tell us what you know.

The new practice of rushing through credits as fast as possible is because of a belief that if you have long credits, then commercials, then the start of the next show, you create the ideal interval for viewers to pick up their remotes and see what's on other channels. To prevent that, networks rush the credits…but they can't rush the credits of workers in unions that have negotiated how their credits must be displayed. The folks in unions that haven't gotten that in their deals — and those in positions that aren't unionized — are stuck with however the producers choose to display their names…or not.

Next up is one from Jim Held…

You've been posting a few photos of voice actors at work including the late amazing June Foray. In all these photos there seems to be a big round flat sort of "filter" thingie between the actor and the microphone. I see the mikes also have padding around then I assume to kill the popping of sharp exhales. But what are the big round disk shaped things? More filters?

Yep. And in some cases, they're there to stop spittle from getting on the microphone. Some voices can be kind of moist. You should have seen Mel Blanc doing Sylvester. It was magical but in some ways, it was like having front row seats for a Gallagher performance. And Mel didn't even need a watermelon.

Next, here's one from Craig Buchman…

Are you sure you didn't start your blog sooner than 2000? I've lived in my current place since 1999 and could swear I had been reading your blog at my last place of residence. I seem to remember doing a search for comic books or such and found your blog way back in the day. I've read it regularly since. I really enjoy good writing.

I put up my first website, which was at www.evanier.com, on December 18, 2000. Actually, there was a website there for two weeks before that as I tinkered with the design but since the address hadn't been publicized, it got zero hits. On 12/18/2000, I finally declared it finished and went on a bunch of other sites to announce it…and the thing grew from there.

After a little while, I decided it was too self-promotional (and unfair to relatives with the same surname) to call it that and I set up www.newsfromme.com and relocated it there. But December of 2000 was my first online presence. And by the way, this post is #24,673 so we're creeping up on #25,000. Thanks, Craig.

Lastly, let's take one from a reader who signed his name as "Dennis W."…

Just finished reading DC's collection of the Silver Age Suicide Squad by Kanigher, Andru and Esposito. A question occurred to me that I am surprised I've never seen answered: Why did silver age DC comic stories have chapters?

For a long time, there was a belief that a comic was more commercial if it had a lot of stories in it. Editors would sometimes argue — and sales figures would suggest — that buyers preferred three 8-page stories to one 24-page story because they'd think, "Hey, if I buy this comic, I get three stories, whereas if I buy that comic, I get only one." But the evidence from the sales charts wasn't definitive and there were also sales reports and letters that indicated readers liked bigger stories with more characterization and the feeling of a "big" adventure.

Some of the best ideas the writers had couldn't be squished into eight or nine pages. And it was also easier to come up with one premise for a story than to think of three. That led to a trend towards longer, book-length stories.

But! The editors and execs couldn't completely disregard the data that suggested some readers preferred to get three stories instead of one. So, to kind of have it both ways, someone came up with the idea of making a book-length story look more like three stories by breaking it into three chapters. They did this for a while but eventually, the thinking evolved and sales figures indicated that book-length was jes' fine and there was no need to create the rhythm of the story ending and resuming twice in one issue. Thanks to everyone for their questions.

• ‪Trump pardons former Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Also announces new cabinet post: Secretary of Intimidating Minorities. ‬

Tony Bennett doing what Tony Bennett does so well…

From Robert Hackett…

I just saw your most recent post that mentioned the Hollywood Show. What percentage of celebrities do these signings because they genuinely need the money and what percentage just want to get out of the house and meet fans or such? I see the upcoming Hollywood Show has Barbara Bosson, who was married to Steven Bochco for 27 years. Surely she does not need the money?

Well, I don't know about Ms. Bosson but it has been my observation that some folks you'd assume surely don't need the money need the money. Maybe they went through a messy divorce or maybe they had some bad investments or a Business Manager who put all their money into a chain of Bill Cosby Day Spas for Women or something. When I have been in a position of being able to hire actors, it's mostly for jobs that pay scale — i.e., the minimum rate set by their union. You'd be surprised at some of the "name" actors who either call me, have their agent call me or have a friend contact me when there's a chance I can hire them.

I would say that more common than that is the actor who ain't had a lot of people asking for his autograph lately or treating him like a celebrity. I see a lot of folks at the Hollywood Show and other autograph-vending events that strike me as more interested in that than the cash. It's a very strange thing to go from being on a series for years — which often means being recognized everywhere you go and getting many forms of preferential treatment — to not being recognized at all or very often. Spending a few days chatting with people who know who you are, even if they don't splurge for an autographed 8-by-10 can scratch a lingering itch.

There are also some who don't need the money but have a hard time saying no if someone says to them, "Hey, you could make X thousand dollars for signing your name for two days." Even some really rich people have trouble turning down real easy money. Some of them — and I know this from personal conversations — give the dough to charity or to some sick relative. Back in 2001, in a post here, I wrote about a melancholy memory from one of the earliest Hollywood Shows…

…It involved the late comedian Pat Paulsen who, at the time of course, was not a late comedian. Alas, he then knew he was about to become one. He'd been diagnosed with something terminal — the big "C," I believe — and was out on a crusade to accrue cash to leave his family. Pat was a very sweet, very funny man who had managed to not rack up much of a fortune during his years on television — though I suspect his last minute putsch for dollars was less a matter of needing cash than of needing something constructive to do. Whatever, for his last few months, he was appearing everywhere he could, performing and signing, making whatever money he could make.

Colleagues were abetting him. Ruth Buzzi was sitting with him that day, dolled up in the Gladys Ormphby outfit she wore on Laugh-In, signing and posing for photos, with and without him, all proceeds going to Pat. A few other stars lent their celebrity to the effort while autograph dealers, aware that the supply of Paulsen autographs was soon to be finite, were stocking up, buying multiples from him. It was sad…but it would have been even sadder if Pat hadn't had that outlet.

Anyway, to answer your question, I'll take a guess and say that at one of those shows, 25% need the money, 25% would like the money, 25% can't turn down the money and 25% like the attention and the fact that they get to chat with people who know who they are and what they've done. And in each of those groups, there are probably some who tell themselves it's for one of these reasons when it's actually to some extent about another of them.

Eric Levitz explains why, despite firm predictions and phony "news" stories, Obamacare is not collapsing. It's also a lot more popular than some people want to admit.

I live not far from the building they used to call "Television City in Hollywood" and I drive past it often. A week ago last Tuesday, I was late for an appointment because of this…

Boy, that speech in Arizona was ugly. Trump's popularity is so low, he's now banking on angry racist voters rallying to keep him in power. I'm sure he still has plenty of non-racist supporters but he's not playing to them. Charles P. Pierce really unloads not so much on Trump but on those who cheer the white supremacist side of him.

Matt Taibbi puts more of the blame on Trump than on his supporters and is a wee bit nicer about it all.

William Saletan thinks that the more Trump talks, the more he's exposed as a hateful fraud. That's true but I think there are a lot of people out there who want to see gay, minority and gender rights rolled back and their advocates punished for ever supporting them. And if it takes a hateful fraud to do that, fine.

As Matt Yglesias notes, Trump's campaign to delegitimize the media is not working. Yeah, but it may be working with his base and that may be all he cares about.

Eric Levitz explains the big fight that's going on in Congress about the budget. Looks messy and we can count on the guy in the White House to not only make it messier but to be proud he's making it messier.

Finally: Trump is reportedly considering a pardon of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. When I hear some government official is "considering" something, I often think his or her office has leaked that as a kind of trial balloon to gauge what the response might be. I agree with the A.C.L.U. that a pardon would be "an official presidential endorsement of racism." I also think it would send the message to the Nazi crowd that if you go out and rough up brown people, the White House has your back. Here's some background on Joe Arpaio, a man that some cheer for his utter contempt for the rights of minorities.

From Chris Pepin…

I was watching an episode of Garfield and Friends yesterday and noticed that James Earl Jones did the voice of a ghost in the episode. How did you manage to get him to work on the show?

We recorded the voice tracks for that show at a terrific little place in Hollywood called Buzzy's Recording Studio. Usually, when we were there, someone else was recording in one of the other studios there and one day it was James Earl Jones, doing narration for some sort of public service announcement. He strolled in to watch our fine actors at work and later, we had a nice conversation about all sorts of things, one being that he'd seen and liked our show.

To my surprise, he said, "I'm going to be in town a lot over the next month or so. If you come across a role that would suit me, I'd love to do a voice on your show." I said, "You know…we have a recording session in two weeks and there's a part in one of those scripts that would be perfect for you." I told him what it paid and he said, "I don't care about the money. I just want to do a voice in a Garfield cartoon."

So we set it up and then I had to write a cartoon with a part for a guy with a very deep, sinister voice…because, of course, we had nothing at all in the works when I said I had a role for him and he knew it. But he came in two weeks later and he was an absolute delight. Of course.

I get an awful lot of requests to plug Kickstarter, Go Fund Me and other crowd-funded projects on this blog…at least one a day. I don't do many but my old friend Martha Thomases has a good one — Mine!, a benefit comic to support Planned Parenthood. It features work by Neil Gaiman, Gabby Rivera, Amber Benson, Gerard Way and an awful lot of good people and I certainly believe in the cause. I'll let Martha tell you more about it but when you're ready to back it, here's the link…

My friend Carolyn passed away at the beginning of April and I'm still mopping up various leftovers from her life. One of these has been a steady stream of bills for $27.08 from a company that supplies medical equipment. A new one is sent every week to her old address, which forwards for the time being to my address, and they're getting nastier and nastier. Donald Trump has less threatening words for the Taliban than this company has for my late girl friend.

In the last months of her life, she was in an Assisted Living Facility. A Hospice Doctor ordered 24/7 oxygen for her and somehow — don't ask me how or why — two different companies delivered oxygen supplies. One set, from what we'll call Company B, worked fine and when we had questions or problems, all we had to do was call Company B and someone would answer immediately and make things right. The other set, from what we'll call Company A, didn't work…or maybe it did but it came without instructions and neither I nor anyone at the Assisted Care facility could figure out how to make it work.

We called their support line a few times and invariably got placed on hold for…well, I don't know how long. It was long enough to cause us to surrender and hang up. That's how long it was. Then I tried calling their delivery department and telling them to come get their machine and tanks. Each time, someone said, "We'll send someone out" and each time, no one came.

Company A's oxygen equipment sat in the corner for several weeks, unused. The day after Carolyn left, I called Company A, told them the patient had died and that revelation caused them to send someone over to pick up supplies. No one however told their Billing Department that the patient had died. She's been getting weekly bills which are now escalating into threats of collection agencies, interest payments, fines and other unspecified nastiness…all to collect twenty-eight bucks from a woman who died in April.

I probably should have just let it go but I get curious as to why certain people and companies do things that make so little sense to me. I mean, has it never occurred to anyone there that if you deliver oxygen equipment to a Nursing Home — equipment which was ordered by a Hospice Doctor — and then bills go unanswered for four months, maybe — just maybe — the person who was in hospice care is not around to pay that bill?

I tried writing "deceased" on bills and sending them back. This did nothing.

A few times, I tried phoning their billing department and until this morning, the shortest wait time estimate the computer lady gave me was "Your call will be answered in approximately twenty-six minutes." This is the number you call if you have a question about the bill before you pay it, and I can't see how that could possibly be cost-effective for them. I mean, shouldn't you make it easy for the folks with questions to find out what they need to know before they pay?

This morning when the latest threatening letter arrived, I decided to write this article but first, I called up to see what the wait time would be. Amazingly, the computer lady said I'd have to hold for three minutes so I decided okay, fine. It turned out to be more like seven, proving that you just can't trust computer ladies. This one sounded a lot like Kellyanne Conway so I suppose I should have been wary.

The non-computer lady who finally came on the line sounded nice enough and when I told her my lady friend had died, she said, 'I'm sorry for your loss," with a delivery that suggested this is said often in her building with the about the same frequency they also say, "You have a nice day." She then insisted that I stay on the line until she had filled out some sort of computer screen form and gotten it approved. I said, "Can't I go now? I'm doing your company a favor by calling at all and I've told you everything you need to know. I've been on this call for fifteen minutes."

She said, "If you end this call before the cancellation of the bill is approved, it wipes out everything and the bills will keep on coming. And you've only been on with me for eight minutes."

I probably should have just hung up and let them keep sending threats because, after all, what can they do? But I gave her a few more minutes and finally, she said, "All right. The cancellation of the bill has been approved."

I asked, "Can I go now?" She said yes but added, "You may continue to receive the bills for a month or two but eventually, they will stop." I have this strange feeling that they won't.