Monthly Archives: December 2023

A very powerful message…

In most of the political-type speeches I see these days from folks running for election or re-election, I hear the candidate saying they have solid plans to fix a given problem or that they have incontrovertible evidence of some crime committed by their opponents…

…but they don't tell us much (sometimes, anything) about those plans or they don't divulge that evidence. It's always to be revealed at some future time and in most cases, it always will be. Donald Trump, for instance, has this wonderful health care plan that will replace Obamacare and be so much better and cheaper for everyone…and he has all these mountains of proof that he won the 2020 Presidential Election in a landslide.

I think we all instinctively realize that when a politician claims to have something like that and doesn't release it, it isn't what he or she says it is or, more likely, doesn't exist at all. I wish people — journalists, especially — would be more openly skeptical about such claims. I also wish the journalists would track them better even when they're made by people I might wind up voting for.

We should think of it like this: You're playing poker with someone and he announces, "I have a royal flush. I'll show it to you one of these days!"

That subject line is the whole point of this post. I started this blog on December 18, 2000 with the idea of "Well, let's see how long I feel like doing this." You could have won a lot of money then by betting me that I'd still feel like doing it after ten years, let alone 'til now and beyond. It's work that pays almost nothing, true…but 95% of it is writing and I became a writer because I enjoy writing. I have decreasing patience with people who complain about putting in long hours in their chosen profession. I keep using the analogy of a plumber who bitches about having to fix toilets.

You may not be interested in the following numbers but I am: This blog has been online for exactly 8,400 days. This is Posting #31,485 and of those, 242 have been "encore" reruns. Not counting this posting, I have typed the name "Jack Kirby" 827 times, "Sergio Aragonés" 520 times, "Frank Ferrante" 370 times and "Vivek Ramaswamy" once. In the future, I shall try to cut back on mentions of "Vivek Ramaswamy."

Thank you to all of you who read this blog and a special thanks to you if you (a) donate to its upkeep and/or (b) link to it from other sites and/or (c) send me corrections or additional information. The sense that there are people out there who are more than just casual clickers is why I've been able to do it as long as I have.

Coming in at #9 on our countdown — and yes, I know I sound like Casey Kasem doing this — is a video by a performer that several folks have told me is "The Barry Manilow of Mexico." I'm not sure they all meant that as a compliment but if I were a singer, I sure wouldn't mind being the Barry Manilow of anywhere.

The gent's name is Emmanuel — born Jesús Emmanuel Arturo Acha Martinez sez Wikipedia — and even though my Spanish is rustier than Jack Haley by the side of the road, I like Emmanuel's rendition of "Jingle Bell Rock." I especially like the way he brings in all these folks who I assume are celebrities in Mexico to pretend they're actually singing or playing musical instruments and how half the time, they don't even pretend very much…

Jason [last name withheld] wrote to ask me — and I'll try to make this the last mention of Rudy Giuliani on this site for a while — the following question…

If your friend Jake Tapper stuck a microphone in your face and asked you what you think has been going on with Giuliani in this trial, what would you say?

Well, first of all, my "friendship" with Jake Tapper consists of talking with him for about 15 minutes at a National Cartoonist Society convention and we spent 13 of those minutes talking about newspaper cartoonists, Walt Kelly especially. So that's a pretty loose application of the word "friend."

I think what's been going on with Giuliani in his recent trial has been a matter of trying to have it both ways: To settle the lawsuit for the lowest amount of cash and to retain whatever credibility and popularity he might still have with the MAGA crowd…and I don't think that was humanly possible. Earlier this year, his attorneys in the defamation case submitted this stipulation…

Defendant Giuliani, for the purposes of litigation only, does not contest that, to the extent the statements were statements of fact and other wise actionable, such actionable factual statements were false.

In other words: Giuliani's lawyers conceded on his behalf that he lied. But that doesn't sit well with the portion of MAGA World that still wants to believe there's all this evidence that Donald Trump was the rightful winner of the 2020 election. It's a key component of Trump's popularity with them that he never apologizes, never admits when he's wrong, insist he won in every instance when he loses, and that he never allows that "the other side" might be anything other than stupid and/or evil. Giuliani is not the only Trump-wannabe who tries to emulate those principles.

Rudy, I suspect, feels he can't afford to lose whatever portion of that mob hasn't already turned on him for not flipping that '20 election. After all, when he fundraises for loot to pay his legal fees and the massive judgement, those are the only folks who might donate. So that explains why outside the courtroom, he's telling reporters (and therefore, his followers) that he would take the stand and make "definitively clear" that what he said about the two campaign workers "was true" while inside the courthouse, his attorneys were saying the opposite.

Trying to have it both ways. Trump has gotten away with that a number of times and Rudy has, too. When he was spearheading all those lawsuits to get states to toss out the results of their vote count in '20 or even just award the state to Trump, what Rudy said in speeches and soundbites was very different from what was presented in court. He tried the same thing in this defamation case and it worked just as poorly as it did there.

That's what I've concluded from my Rudywatching and I'm going to try to look away for a while.

Once again, we begin the annual Christmas tradition here on newsfromme.com. It's Mark's Xmas Video Countdown — ten days of holiday songs carefully selected by our judges, all of whom are me. Some of these songs have appeared before on this website and some haven't.

We start with a "haven't" — a "novelty record" as they used to call them. Wikipedia tells us it was written in 1944 by Donald Yetter Gardner, who was teaching music at a public school in Smithtown, New York. They go on to say…

He asked his second grade class what they wanted for Christmas, and noticed that almost all of the students had at least one front tooth missing as they answered in a lisp. Gardner wrote the song in 30 minutes. In a 1995 interview, Gardner said, "I was amazed at the way that silly little song was picked up by the whole country." The song was published in 1948 after an employee of Witmark music company heard Gardner sing it at a music teachers' conference.

"All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" was soon recorded by an awful lot of performers but the top seller was this rendition from Spike Jones and His City Slickers. The gent singing it is George Rock, who was a trumpet player and a vital component of Spike's band. Apologies for the not-great video image…

Among the many other recording artists who took a swing at this one was Danny Kaye, backed up by Patty Andrews…

And even the great Nat King Cole recorded it…

And while we're on the subject, here's a more recent rendition of the tune, courtesy of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy…

…and finally a version by Elmo from Sesame Street and Michael Bublé…

If that's not enough for you, YouTube is filled with videos of the song performed by actual children who are actually missing their two front teeth. But I'll let you find those for yourself if you're interested.

First off, I could use more questions for my ASK me posts. After doing this blog for two days shy of 23 years, I need some help figuring out what to write about here. Send those questions to askme@newsfromme.com and tell me if you'd like me to leave your name out of any public reply.

Secondly, about names: For some reason, my e-mailbox gets a lot of mail from folks who hide behind handles. I think it's a common courtesy to use your real name — or at least something that looks like a real name — when you write to someone who is under his or her own real name. I've been answering most of the ones from the hiders but I'm going to stop or at least move their messages to the bottom of the To Be Answered folder. Please…sign your real name. Or if you're terrified for me to know it, make up something that sounds like a real name and use it consistently when you write to me.

And lastly, if your name is David Schwartz, Steve Thompson or Michael Lee, be aware that I know an awful lot of David Schwartzes, Steve Thompsons and Michael Lees and I can't always tell you guys apart. Thank you. Oh — and I have no idea what some old comic book or piece of artwork you possess is worth.

We will probably never fully understand how Rudy Giuliani made that bizarre transformation from the revered figure of 9/11 to what we've seen on display in recent years.  When he claims he has "no regrets" about anything he said about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, you get a clear picture of how this man is not living in the same reality that I — and for your sake, I hope you — live in. He reminds me of so many people I've encountered in my life who, to use a phrase I've used before here — think that never admitting you're wrong is the same thing as always being right.

Some, especially those who knew him well as Mayor of New York, would argue that he's always been like this; that all that's happened to him in recent years is that his true self has oozed out. Well, maybe…but the man he used to be had tremendous earning power and didn't have to put his apartment up for sale and do some of the demeaning things he's done lately for cash. He won not only occasionally but often.

One of the truest phrases in the English language was written by screenwriter William Goldman for the movie, All the President's Men. The phrase is "Follow the money" and it's the answer to so many questions in this world. I feel like that explains some of Giuliani's transition from America's Mayor to America's Laughingstock…but it doesn't explain everything.

Sorry if this seems off the topic of this blog to some of you. But sometimes, I can't sleep until I write something down and then I need a place to put it. Good night.

Wow.

YouTube is filled with videos of folks having unpleasant — for at least one side — encounters with police officers or other enforcers of laws. In many cases, the person who had the encounter recorded it on video — or even live-streamed it to YouTube — to document something that they thought at the moment was tyranny or police misbehavior of some sort. You have a lot of people who can cite mythical Supreme Court decisions that, they say, prove you don't need a driver's license, registration and/or insurance to drive.

There are times when the officers are wholly or partly in the wrong but there sure are plenty where the person caught speeding, driving drunk or lacking a license and other legal requirements look like arrogant/ignorant babies. And a lesson to be learned from all of these online videos is that if you're stopped by the cops, being belligerent and confrontational will only make things worse for you…even if you're in the right.

You may also learn that a lot of "law" people learn on the Internet is spectacularly wrong and that some of them will never believe that.

The Sheriff's office in Pinal County, Arizona has a deputy named Frank Sloup who, at least in the videos they post online, seems to be very good at his job. He's smart, polite, occasionally funny and real good at de-escalating a confrontation with an outraged driver who he stopped for doing 71 where the posted speed limit is 45 MPH.

They post "Fridays with Frank" videos almost every week and I would guess the main premise here is to show motorists that the guy who stops you is just doing his job and there's no reason or gain in being a dick about it. But I think they're also showing police officers and deputies everywhere that you can do that job without being a dick about it. Here's the latest of those videos and there are many more where this one came from…

That's right, we're on Rudywatch today. The jury is still out deliberating on the compensation he's going to be slammed with for defaming Georgia poll workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss and all the reporters seem sure there'll be a verdict any hour now. They're also sure it'll be so big that Rudy will never pay all and probably not most of it.

I'm curious as to how much it will be but here's what I'm really curious about. At every turn, the man who was once America's mayor has found a way to insist he is never wrong and then to do something incredibly self-destructive. What is he going to do after this verdict?

Hey, here's a really nice cover of one of my favorite Paul Simon songs. The lead guy is Joshua Lee Turner, who I think did that nice rendition of "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" I featured here last year…

Boy, I'd love to have heard the discussion when Rudy Giuliani's lawyer told his client how much money he [Rudy] might have added to the judgement against him [Rudy] when a guy who couldn't keep his mouth shut [Rudy] began defaming Georgia poll workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss just a day or two before a jury was about to begin deliberating how much money he [Rudy] should have to pay them [Georgia poll workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss] for defaming them in the first place.

I kinda get that Rudy, like his owner Donald Trump, doesn't want to do anything to lose face with the "We love Trump" mob. They can be a valuable asset to someone in public life if only as donors. But that was a bad time to choose to play to them, Mr. Ex-Mayor — and to claim you had proof they were guilty. That was the day before your own lawyer was going to go out and praise those poll workers and tell the jury that they were innocent.

That jury will probably return a verdict tomorrow and then will come endless appeals and Rudy railing about the unfairness of it and using it to spur donations. And we can all make bets on who'll see some actual damage money first — Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss or the Sandy Hook families that Alex Jones is trying to stiff.

"Tam" wrote to ask…

Obviously those great early MAD parodies of DC superheroes, such as "Superduperman" and "Bats Man" from the 1950s are pretty well known but did MAD ever parody Marvel comics (prior to them appearing on the screen) and if so, what were the earliest examples?

Nope. MAD pretty much gave up parodying comic books of any sort when MAD became a magazine and when Al Feldstein took over from Harvey Kurtzman as its editor. For those who don't know, MAD was a 10-cent comic book sold on comic book racks for its first 23 issues and in those issues, Kurtzman as editor-writer did "Superduperman" (MAD #4), "Black and Blue Hawks" (#5), "Melvin of the Apes" (#6), "Bat Boy and Rubin" (#8), "Woman Wonder" (#10), "Starchie" (#12), "Plastic Sam" (#14") and a few others, plus a number of parodies of newspaper comic strips.

There were no Marvel parodies because in those years, Marvel wasn't publishing anything worth parodying. When MAD became a magazine, they began aiming at more widely-read (or widely-watched) targets. Newspaper strips were okay. Comic books weren't. Feldstein, in fact, was very pleased to be out of the comic book business and didn't even look at what other companies were publishing. When they did spoof something like Superman, it was the Superman newspaper strip they were parodying, not the concurrent comic books. They did almost nothing about Marvel until, long after Feldstein had retired, they took on a few Marvel movies.

If you'd asked Al just before he left why they didn't do comic book parodies, I suspect he'd have said something like "MAD is selling over a million copies per issue. The best-selling comic book sells 300,000 or less. Most of our readers won't be familiar with what we'd be making fun of."

I've decided that my new favorite singing group is the Semonski Sisters — Diane, Donna, Joanne, Valerie, Audrey and Michelle — as seen here on The Lawrence Welk Show and introduced by Myron Floren…