Monthly Archives: May 2021

Another rendition of the "Meet the Flintstones" theme. This one is from the C.C.H.S. Trombone Choir and I haven't a clue what the "C.C." stands for but it was also suggested by Bill Lentz…

Tomorrow morning at 10 AM my time (Pacific) I will be ruthlessly interrogated by Dan Shahin on the popular webcast, Comic Book News with Dan Shahin. Once it's over, I will post a link to the whole thing…unless, of course, I make a ridiculous fool of myself and/or confess to a felony or even a misdemeanor. But if you want to watch live, here's a link.

Next Tuesday evening, I will be a return guest — my fourth time! — on the SDConCast, which appears on The San Diego Comic-Con Unofficial Blog. I'll post details and a link on Monday.

I have no plans at present to do any more webcasting of my own but I will be recording/hosting three panels for Comic-Con@Home, like I did last year. This is the online version of what would have been the 2021 Comic-Con International in San Diego were it not for that COVID thing you may have heard something about. I'll be bringing you a Cartoon Voices panel, a Jack Kirby Tribute Panel and a Groo Panel. If you are fully-vaccinated, you will not have to wear a mask in order to watch them unless you're Rick Schroder.

It's always a shame when we lose a smart, funny man. Paul Mooney was a smart, funny man.  You'd have to be to be best friends with (and an occasional writer for) Richard Pryor.  Paul's own stand-up act was also a masterwork of comedy.  A lot of it was about race but a lot of it wasn't.  It deserved a lot more attention than it got.

We worked together a couple of times…even got nominated together for an Emmy which we didn't win.  We were beaten by Mister Rogers and every time I ran into Paul after that, he had a new theory about how it was all rigged and we really won.  It sounded like Donald Trump explaining these days how he really won the 2020 election except that Paul was kidding and Paul was funny.  And like me, he thought losing to Mister Rogers was kind of a nice, funny way to lose.

I didn't see him at all for the last ten-or-so years and I don't think many people did.  We heard he was not well and that his performing career was probably over.  Very sad.  And it was very sad to hear that he died this morning from a heart attack.  He was 79.  And like I said, he was a smart, funny man and it's always a shame to lose one of those.

Stephen Colbert has recently been hitting his guests with something he calls The Colbert Questionert — pronounced so the last word rhymes with his name. It's fifteen questions that are designed to…well, he says they're to enable him to better know his guests. I think it's a way to fill time and pretape segments that they can run when he takes a day off. But one of them is "You get one song to listen to for the rest of your life: What is it?"

I got to thinking how I'd answer that. I think I'd pick the last movement from Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 11, often known as "Alla Turca" or "The Turkish Rondo" — or maybe if the rules allow, I'd pick the whole sonata. In any case, one of my favorite renditions of the Rondo is the one recorded by the Canadian Brass. Here it is for those of you who can't take another video of the Flintstones theme…

Another rendition of the "Meet the Flintstones" theme. This one is by the Gomalan Brass Quintet, also suggested by Bill Lentz…

The posting here of a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup means that Mark has a busy day of deadlines to meet and/or conferences in which he must participate. In this case, it means both. Expect no new content — even though he'd love to write about how delightful and funny he always found Charles Grodin to be — but some pre-written things may pop up. Mark shall return to you after he gets out of his deadline pit and the third person.

A couple of you are outraged that the rendition of the "Meet the Flintstones" theme I posted here — the one by the Anonymous Brass Ensemble — was not by any brass ensemble but was instead a computer-generated file in MIDI format. Hey, I never said it was real brass. Nevertheless, Bill Lentz suggested I "atone" with real brass, like in this video by NEA Jazz Masters Delfeayo, Ellis and Jason Marsalis…

• When I'm in a room where some people are wearing masks and some aren't, I like to pretend I'm at a meeting of the Justice League of America.

Things need to be written here today so you won't find a lot of new material on this blog. This might be a good time to see if there's anything else on the entire Internet worth reading besides my silly postings.

Like if you're interested in the California Recall thing, you might want to read Gabriel Debenedetti on where we are and how we got here. More and more, this is looking California Republicans just trying to get a do-over on the last gubernatorial election — which they lost by a wide margin. Unless Governor Newsom does something really dumb — and he did, at least once — the outcome of this one looks like it'll be Déjà vu — all the same people wanting him in, all the same people not wanting him in.

And Kevin Drum, whom I often link to here, has an interesting overview on why the Pandemic: It's wrong to try and blame it on the C.D.C., wrong to blame it on the F.D.A., wrong to blame it on Obama and even wrong to blame it on Trump. He also thinks it's wrong to see Vaccine Hesitancy as something that relates to the current Trump-dominated political scene.

I'll be back when I'm back.

Two songs from Wicked…

Our pal John Ficarra, who was an editor for MAD Magazine back when there was a MAD Magazine, holds forth on the subject of heteronyms. I tend to rebel against them but then I always was a rebel. Thanks to Bruce Reznick for letting me know about this.

Another rendition of the "Meet the Flintstones" theme. This one is by the S.C.H.S. Orchestra. What is the S.C.H.S. Orchestra? I have no idea, though I assume the H.S. stands for "High School." Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine…

There's a video making the rounds of actor Ricky Schroder yelling at a Costco employee who wouldn't let him into the store without a mask. Yes, it's true that Costcos in some states say that you can shop there maskless if you're vaccinated…and no, I don't understand either what's to stop the non-vaccinated from lying about that. But that's not what this post is about.

The name "Karen" has come to describe a person, usually but not necessarily female, who makes a public scene, demanding special treatment and insisting that rules that apply to everyone else do not apply to him or her. The association with the name is unfortunate because I know a number of smart, nice, non-hysterical ladies who happen to be named Karen.

But whatever we call these annoying people, the definition of what they are ought to include the following: Demanding that people who have no power to change the rules for them change the rules for them.

If you were arguing with a high-ranking official in the Costco, it might be different. But the guy at the door enforcing the rules is just the guy at the door enforcing the rules…and it doesn't even matter if they're the rules of Costco Management or the rules of the great state of California. The door guy can't change either. What he can do is get fired.

You see this a lot. I spent a lot of time in hospitals when my mother and my friend Carolyn were ill and I often saw nurses being screamed-at by patients or the loved ones of patients just for abiding by the rules. I remember a man whose wife was in great pain and he kept screaming at this young nurse — I don't think it was even a nurse; more of a nurse-trainee — "GIVE HER SOMETHING FOR THE PAIN!" The nurse was not allowed to do that. It might even have been a law, as opposed to a policy of the hospital. Either way, she kept saying, "I've paged the attending physician. When he gets here, he'll handle this."

That wasn't enough for the husband. He was screaming and scaring the hell out of the nurse and everyone around her. He was vowing he was going to get her fired and she'd lose her nursing license and he was going to sue the hospital (and her, personally) and he was going to start breaking things and he kept yelling, "ONE MINUTE! YOU'VE GOT ONE MINUTE!" Because this poor lady would not violate the law.

Someone finally arrived and handled things but up until then it was a very ugly scene and so utterly pointless. I didn't even think the man's behavior was excusable out of concern for his loved one. I think some people just like to scream at someone who seems defenseless and if they can find a way to make it seem like a matter of principle or human concern, fine. He sure wasn't helping his wife…or anyone.

What he might have done is the kind of thing I learned to do. Talking to another human being like a human being, you say, "I understand you don't have the power to do this but can you tell me how I can speak to someone who does?" That always worked for me.

Switching examples here: Have you ever seen these videos of so-called Sovereign Citizens? These are people who have some strange notions about government…like you can declare yourself a "sovereign citizen" and not obey any law you don't care for. Or they believe bizarre interpretations of the law…like if you're operating a motor vehicle on public highways but you're not doing so for reasons of commerce, you don't need a driver's license. Ergo, you don't need to show one to a police officer who detains you for not having the license plate that you also don't believe is required.

These people never win these arguments…ever. They generally wind up making things much, much worse for themselves and I don't think any of their positions have a gram of merit. But if they do have any right at all on their side, they sure aren't going to triumph in roadside debates with the cops who pull them over. The officers don't have the power to reverse laws as they've been applied for decades or more.

I'm all for standing up for one's rights but you have to stand up in the right place against the right opposition. Yelling at the guy at the door at Costco over Costco policies (or especially, state law) isn't going to get you anywhere. It isn't even going to get you into Costco.

Last June, I couldn't get into a Ralphs Market to get some things. The one door they were using was blocked by a lady demanding to be let in without a mask. The following is stolen from a post on this blog back then…

"I'm not going to be on one of those sheeple," she kept saying…and I don't know about you but I've never seen that insult hurled by anyone who wasn't a sheeple (by their own definition) listening to a different shepherd. I listened to a little of the argument then politely asked if they could move it to one side so some of us masked lambs could get in before the rotisserie chickens were all gone.

She whirled towards me and said, "Don't you feel stupid wearing that mask?" I said, "No, because of it, I'm way less likely than you to get the coronavirus and way more likely to get a half-dozen russet potatoes and some parmigiano reggiano. All you're going to do is get yourself on YouTube for all eternity screaming like a maniac."

• Today's Potatoes are from Carl Taylor Farms, Idaho Falls, ID.

Hey, wanna read a long interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci? If you do, here's one.