Monthly Archives: December 2019

Several folks have sent me this link suggesting I post it.  Christianity Today, a magazine founded by Billy Graham, rarely editorializes but they make an exception for Donald Trump, a man they think any good Christian should wish to see removed from office.  Since I'm not a Christian, I'll just give you this link and leave you to make of it what you will.

Probably fewer than a dozen of you are interested in this but I'm interested in it, it's my blog and it's going up here. You don't like it? Go check and see if Abe Vigoda is still dead.

Not all that far from where I live, there's this wonderful little Italian cafeteria called Andre's. It ain't much in looks or luxury but it serves up great spaghetti, ravioli, chicken parm, lasagna and other goodies at low, low prices. I've written about this place before…here, for example.

It's in a shopping mall at the corner of Third Street and Fairfax here in Los Angeles. On the far right is a CVS Pharmacy which remodels their interior right after each time I stop in for something. I'm quite sure the manager gets on the P.A. system and announces, "Okay, Evanier's gone! Move everything around so the next time he comes in, he won't be able to find a damned thing!"

To the left of the CVS is a Whole Foods Market which is apparently run to disprove the rumors that when Jeff Bezos bought out the company, he lowered prices. You want to know how bad it is? Even Jeff Bezos can't afford to shop there.

To the left of Whole Foods is a little patio and Andre's is in that patio. If you're in the area, its exact address is 6332 W 3rd St. and its website with the menu, the hours and everything is here.

Andre's is built into the west side of a very big building. There were a few other shops there but they've either all closed or are about to. Most of the building was occupied for the last few decades by a very shabby KMart. As we've discussed here, outlets of KMart (and its sister chain, Sears) have been closing faster than businesses with "Trump" in their names. The KMart of which we speak closed its doors last Thanksgiving but way before it went bye-bye, the owners of the shopping center had announced a plan to tear down the entire building and erect a 26-story tower with 381 apartments and 81,000 square feet of commercial ventures.

Many folks in the vicinity protested the erection of something that large in that location. I even spoke against it at a meeting of of the Mid City West Community Council, which has some sort of supervisory role on development in the area. I was mainly interested in saving — or at least, delaying — the demise of Andre's, which would have disappeared along with the building it's in. I claim zero credit for the veto of the 26-story Goliath but they were soon talking about a much smaller project.

At the moment, Andre's is still open and serving dee-lish pasta and they have a lease through the end of June of 2020. And what of that big, ugly, empty building that once housed the KMart?

Well, yesterday, they painted it pink. Or purple. Here — you can decide for yourself…

Personally, I think it's the color of Pepto Bismol, which is ironic since just looking at it could cause nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach and diarrhea. Why, you may ask, did they do this to what already was a pretty unsightly piece of real estate?

I did some sleuthing and found out that the building has been leased for one year for a "pop-up" store. Apart from the identity of the lessee, I know nothing about it. I don't know, as one might assume, if this means that since they won't be tearing down the building within that year, Andre's can get that lease extended for at least an additional six months. And I'm not clear on just what kind of pop-up business will be popping-up there, though some have suggested a clothing line.

It's a pretty big building for just that and it'll probably cost a couple of bundles to renovate the insides to make it serviceable…all for one year? Well, maybe. I suppose. I guess. Really? So that's everything I know about it except, of course, that I've got you all curious as to who it is who rented this monster of a building and had it painted to look like a 99-Cent-Only Store with psoriasis. It's this person. And I hope she's real successful because the longer she's there, the longer Andre's may be there…assuming the color of her building doesn't kill too many appetites.

I don't have a whole lot to say about The Impeachment of Donald Trump except that I don't think anyone's predictions about how this will play out — including mine, certainly — are worth a whole lot. I do agree with this piece Josh Marshall wrote last night and I'll quote just this much of it…

Here are three points that, for me, function as a sort of north star through this addled and chaotic process.

One: The President is accused of using extortion to coerce a foreign power to intervene in a U.S. presidential election on his behalf.

Two: There is no one in U.S. politics who would ever find that behavior remotely acceptable in a President of the opposite party.

Three: The evidence that the President did what he is accused of doing is simply overwhelming. The documentary evidence points overwhelmingly to guilt. His sometimes unwilling accomplices say he is guilty. His own words prove his guilt. He continues to justify what he is accused of and continues to do the same things again and again in plain sight.

This process has been so clotted with tantrums, goalpost-moving and dissimulation that it can be hard to keep one's bearings. For me, those three essential points clarify the matter and drown out the yelling and stomping.

The problem with the kind of partisanship we're now seeing in this country is that it pre-empts rational, honest thought. Imagine you went to a U.S. Senator and posed a hypothetical question about some unnamed president of the future who committed certain questionable deeds. You ask him, "Would you consider those impeachable offenses?" and the answer you might well get would be "It depends. What party is this hypothetical president?" Or some would answer that yes, those are impeachable offenses but they'd presume that if one of their guys did those questionable things, they could effortlessly modify or reverse that position as necessary.

Once upon a time, it might have been possible to look at a situation like the one that now exists and make some reasonable predictions but that was back when at least some people in power were being reasonable. Now, I dunno and you don't either. I'm going to guess that the reason Trump is so visibly furious at being impeached is that he believed his own bullshit about this being a "do-nothing Congress" and can't believe they did anything.

Deep down, the guy's gotta know a dozen things in his past that are either worse or could be spun as worse…so it's like, "My God, if they'd impeach me over this, what will they do if they get hold of my 2017 income taxes? What if they find out about the deal I made in Peru? What if they find out about that special assignment done for me by Jon Voight and our Rudy Giuliani body double?"

But that's just a guess from a guy who writes cartoons for a living. In a way, it's kinda nice that my predictions are probably just as good as anyone else's these days. I think the three above points from Josh Marshall are valid. I'm not sure much of anything else is.

• I almost expect Trump to announce, "It was greatest impeachment ever! Nobody knows more about being impeached than I do! Obama wishes he could have been impeached as well as I was! Poor Bill Clinton was only impeached once and I'm going to be impeached again and again!"

• Somewhere in this world, there is a person who designs the parking lots for all the Trader Joe's markets. And this person obviously believes that there are no cars in this world larger than a MINI Cooper.

Yep. Nineteen years, I've been doing this. In case you're interested, this is the 27,180th post. Well, not exactly. A few have been deleted and a larger number have been rerun. I'll guess I'm well over 25,000 unique postings. I would like to acknowledge and thank a few friends who've helped me with the tech end of this thing…friends like Josh Jones and Glenn Hauman. I must also thank the many who, when I typo, are quick to let me know…folks like Steve Stoliar, Shelly Goldstein, Jerry W. and many others.

And I really should thank those of you who send tips via PayPal and/or use our Amazon links to buy things from Jeff Bezos. A few years ago, in order to minimize the "down time" of this blog, I moved it to an expensive hosting company that has indeed eliminated most of the technical outages. I lose money on it but I lose less because of our donors. Your support is very much appreciated. Maybe we can celebrate today by impeaching the president or something.

I haven't seen a lot of movies lately that impressed me. I don't think I even wrote here about Hustlers. But last evening, a friend and I watched a "screener" DVD of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and if I were the kind of person who reviewed movies on a thumbs up/thumbs down basis, mine would be pointing towards the ceiling. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did.

As I've written before here, I rarely "buy" impersonation movies where someone is playing a public figure I know so well. The impression may be as good as it could possibly be — the leads in Stan & Ollie being a recent example — but the fact that it's an impersonation rarely leaves my frontal lobes. Tom Hanks did an "as good as it could possibly be" impression in A Beautiful Day… but it was like a mad scientist kidnapped Hanks and Fred Rogers, locked them into chairs in his secret lab and used some impossible machine to fuse the two into one body. There was still a little too much of Tom Hanks in there for me.

Maybe, you might think as I briefly did, if they'd cast an unknown as Mister Rogers…but then, if that person's unknown, he probably isn't anywhere near as good an actor as Tom Hanks. And for reasons we can all understand, maybe the movie wouldn't have been made or gotten much attention without Tom Hanks in it. So my brain decided to play along and once I'd made that mental leap, I had a good time. As I wrote back here expressing my advance reservations about this film, I met the real Mister Rogers once and Hanks managed to capture exactly the guy I met.

He was aided a lot by the fine screenplay by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, spinning off the 1998 Esquire article "Can You Say…Hero?" by Tom Junod. Between those three men there was a real understanding of Fred Rogers, both onscreen and off. And of course, as everyone familiar with him in both modes has noted, one of the charming things about Mister Rogers is that there really wasn't any difference between the two.

In case you haven't seen the film or heard much about it, this is not so much a film about Fred Rogers as it is about a mythical reporter (based a bit on Tom Junod) who met Fred Rogers and had his life changed as a result. The reporter is well-played by Matthew Rhys and though you kind of see where the transformation's going about ten minutes into the picture, it's quite enjoyable watching it happen. If you get a chance, watch it happen.

There won't be much of me around here today. If you come to this blog for Trump Dumps, relax. I just checked and practically every website on the whole friggin' Internet looks like a Trump Dump. Which is unfortunate for those of us who are trying — with very little success, obviously — to not think as much about him. You can see from this blog what a bad job I'm doing there.

I will repeat my frequent advice to friends, which is to remember how long it'll be until we vote and to remember how volatile everything is about our current political scene. Everything can change tomorrow. Everything will change within the month, let alone the 321 days until we go to the polls and vote for whoever's names are on the ballots. The way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised to find no mention on them of either Trump's or Biden's.

A little over a year ago, the great singer Petula Clark went on a tour of the U.S. and another fine singer, Shelly Goldstein and I went to see her. The clip below is from the night before we saw her — same band, same show, different venue. Ms. Clark did about 100 minutes on stage singing most of her hits and some other tunes without taking a break or even a seat…an amazing feat for a woman of 86.

For her closing she sang…well you can guess what she sang. I think she performed it better when we saw her but you can sense for yourself how delighted the attendees were at this performance. I remember it from the performance we saw as a very thrilling moment with the audience about as happy as any audience could be. The video probably won't give you the same tingle we got standing in the front row about eight feet from her but it might warm your spirit a little…

Ms. Clark seems to have no intention of retiring soon. She's currently appearing in London in the musical of Mary Poppins as The Bird Woman. I didn't much care for the show when I saw it here without her but I think I'd pay to see it again just to see her perform her one song. Here's a little promotional video shot in St. Paul's Cathedral there…

To put the current impeachment brouhaha into some context, let's look back at this article that ran in Vanity Fair dated November 4, 2016. That was four days before Election Day. Here are the first few paragraphs…

With the latest polls showing Hillary Clinton remains likely to win the election on Tuesday, Republicans are preparing for the possibility of a second Clinton White House by promising to make the next four years a living hell. Some lawmakers are talking openly about refusing to approve any Supreme Court nominees until a Republican is elected president, the F.B.I. is investigating both the Clinton Foundation and the former secretary of state's use of a private e-mail server, and House Republicans have vowed to launch additional investigations of their own. Now, a growing number of conservatives are warning that there could be a "constitutional crisis" if Clinton is elected, and threatening her with impeachment.

While the F.B.I. is currently looking into both Clinton and Donald Trump, there is currently no reason to believe an indictment is forthcoming, despite the "large swath of F.B.I. personnel" who reportedly see the Democratic nominee as "the antichrist personified." The word "investigation" is "a term of art in the F.B.I.," reports NBC's Pete Williams. "There was an initial inquiry that was opened a couple months ago based largely on media reports and a book called Clinton Cash." Still, that hasn't stopped a number of Republican lawmakers from jumping the gun. "There's been nothing like this where you can have potential criminal charges," New York Rep. Peter King said in a radio interview Tuesday. "You really could have a constitutional crisis here," he added, echoing a similar charge by Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert and Wisconsin Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner.

Other Republicans are already using the "I" word. "Assuming she wins, and the investigation goes forward, and it looks like an indictment is pending, at that point in time, under the Constitution, the House of Representatives would engage in an impeachment trial," Texas Rep. Michael McCaul said on Fox News. "They would go to the Senate and impeachment proceedings and removal would take place." Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson declared that Clinton could be impeached for "high crime or misdemeanor." And Donald Trump, who has turned "lock her up" into a rallying cry at his campaign stops, said Wednesday that Clinton would be impeached just as surely as Bill Clinton was. "You know it's going to happen. And in all fairness, we went through it with her husband. He was impeached," the Republican nominee said at a rally in Florida Wednesday, adding that Hillary is "most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency."

So…if there was so much evidence that Hillary Clinton had committed all these crimes, why has she never been charged with any of them? You'd think it would make the current President of the United States pretty happy if she was. Just asking for a friend.

Well, not right this second. But on January 25 and 26, they're doing Puppet Up! again on the Henson Lot in Hollywood. In the past, they've done two shows on Saturday and one on Sunday but this time, it's two each day. If you order tickets now, you can grab some real good seats. Here's the link. I'm going Sunday evening.

For those of you who don't know: Puppet Up! is a live, improvised puppet show for adults. The puppets often say or do things that Kermit and his pals never did, at least in front of an audience. The whole thing has a kind of "night club" feeling (they serve booze) and it's somewhat naughty and very funny…and you even get to be on a real movie lot that was once owned by Charles Chaplin. We highly recommend it.

Harvey Weinstein, who is awaiting trial for rape and other sex-related crimes, has gone and gotten himself back in the news again. He gave an interview in which he called himself a "forgotten man," not receiving proper credit for the many good things he did for women.

I haven't seen anyone thoroughly fact-check his claims but let's say they're all at least approximately true. Among his many well-compensated attorneys, wasn't there one who could have advised this man to shut the "f" up? Did none of them make a little speech that went something like this —?

You know, Harvey, you may well be right that you did some good things for women that no one is talking about. But if no one is talking about them, it's because they don't really matter until all your legal problems are solved and you show some contrition and regret for the bad things. There is no trade-off here. You don't get a pass on raping someone because you paid her or some other women decently for working on a movie. Bill Cosby did an awful lot of humanitarian work and philanthropy and no one thought it canceled out one rape, let alone all of them.

As your well-compensated attorney, I would advise you to keep out of the public eye as much as possible. If you absolutely must say something, tell the world you're sorry for the way you treated certain women. Even if you're not, say you are. Tell them you've seen the error of your ways and you want to do everything you can to atone for the damage you did…and you'd damn well better sound like it's sincere. Because that's all anyone wants to hear from you now and if you can't pull that off, you're better off saying nothing.

Maybe someone did say that to him and he ignored it. It's been my observation that a lot of wealthy folks have a very real "the rules don't apply to me" attitude and think they can talk (or maybe, talk and buy) their way out of any jam. Not that Weinstein won't deserve whatever happens to him but it's always a little sad when those people find out the rules do apply.

• Of course Trump will claim complete and total exoneration when the Senate fails to convict him. Trump always claims complete exoneration. He claimed he'd been exonerated by Robert Mueller even after Mueller said he did not exonerate him.

I don't get why so many people who don't believe a word published in Time magazine care so much about who they put on their cover one week a year.

The publication has always made it very clear that the selection as "Person of the Year" (formerly — and changed for good reason — "Man of the Year") is of someone (not necessarily a human being) that "for better or for worse…has done the most to influence the events of the year." The list of those so designated has included Joseph Stalin (twice), Nikita Khrushchev, the Ayatollah Khomeini and the man to whom no sane person wants to be compared…Adolf Hitler. Would you like to see your name on a list that includes those fellows?

I sure wouldn't but some people have apparently decided to regard it as a list of the Best or Most Wonderful Person of the previous twelve months. Then and only then can they be outraged if their fave doesn't adorn the front of this magazine for which they already had no respect. Donald Trump is so upset he wasn't their pick this time that he began attacking the sixteen-year-old girl who was.

I can't find the words right now to describe how poorly that speaks of the president. Just imagine what Mike Huckabee would say if Obama felt the need to bad-mouth a high school student…then substitute "Trump" for "Obama." Our current prez also once reportedly had a fake Time cover, showing him as their Person of the Year long before he really was, on display in one of his resorts.

Almost everything Trump does lowers my opinion of him as a leader and/or a human being. The ones that are primarily the latter are kinda fascinating in their own way since they parallel so many foolish, petty things we see done or said by people who aren't President of the United States, Commander-in-Chief of the United States military, very wealthy, very much admired by many and — perhaps arguably — The Most Powerful Person in the World. You'd think that would be enough for anybody, wouldn't you?

But no…he has to make a pissy remark to a teenager who is engaged in a non-profitable effort to make the world a little better for everyone to live in. Something is seriously wrong there and it isn't with Greta Thunberg. To attack someone like that, you've got to have a real problem with the selflessness of others.

On a vastly smaller (but similar) scale, I encounter people like this in the entertainment business…and yes, I'm including comic books in that category. Every so often, you run into someone who is by any reasonable scale, very prosperous and very honored. I'm talking about someone who has plenty of fame, plenty of fortune and a career that has given them about 98% of everything they could ever have imagined.

And instead of luxuriating in all the good that's come to them, they're absolutely furious about that 2%. They have somehow learned to be successful but not how to be happy. Worse, they've convinced themselves that the contentment that's eluded them will be theirs if only they can attain that unattainable 2%. If you're generally satisfied with anything in your life — your job, your mate, your family, your home, your bank account, your fame, your honors, your blood pressure, your sex life, your Groo the Wanderer collection — any of those — you might just be way ahead of a lot of people you think are doing better than you are. That is to say you might be a happier person.

Most Friday afternoons, I can be found up at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, lunching with one or more friends. Yesterday, I was there with three, one being my buddy/aide John Plunkett, who isn't in the above photo because he was busy taking it.  I'm on the right.  On the left is Frank Ferrante, the only person mentioned more often on this blog than Donald Trump.  The two of them have something in common: Frank can sometimes be found imitating Groucho Marx.  Donald can sometimes be found imitating a human being…admittedly, not convincingly.

Frank's in town at the moment because he's not touring America doing his splendid Groucho show.  He's next scheduled to do it the first two days of next February in Bellport, New York, then the following month in Virginia and New Jersey.  Details are on this page where other dates and performances will soon be added.

The lovely lady we bookend is my friend of more years than she looks to have lived, Jewel Shepard.  Jewel is an actress and a writer and a person who constantly amazes me with her versatility and her ability to master whatever new skill set she needs at the moment.  If the U.S. Space Effort is ever really serious about getting an American to Mars, all they have to do is give Jewel a darned good reason to be that person and she'll figure out how to do it.

When the Castle is serving lunch, they always have a great magician doing close-up shows at Noon, 1 PM and 2 PM.  The four of us convened at 11:45 and got so immersed in conversation (and a little eating) that we missed all three shows.  That probably means we had a good time.