Monthly Archives: December 2024

I do not want to suggest even in the slightest way that it was a good thing that someone — presumably, the guy they've arrested and have a ton of evidence against including some near-confessions — gunned down that health care CEO. Awful, wrong, illegal, prosecute him to the max. But I do think it's about time that someone began talking about how much money insurance companies are making for not providing some of the services that people think they're getting when they sign up.

Many interesting articles suddenly abound. Kevin Drum has an important post about it here and another one here. This is a very important matter that has to be solved and it's comforting to know that our president-elect has some vague ideas that may at some point turn into a concept as to how to fix this kind of thing one of these days.

For the record: Being well into Medicare age, I have Medicare and it pays for almost everything I need. The few things it doesn't cover are almost all handled by my supplemental health insurance from the Writers Guild. This would be a much better world to live in if everyone had something like that.

Here's a bunch of people at a small dinner gathering to celebrate Rose Marie's ninety-somethingth birthday back in 2013. The lady at the lower left is Arlene Silver, otherwise known as Mrs. Dick Van Dyke. The gent next to her is Mr. Dick Van Dyke. The lady next to him is Rose Marie. The two folks at the end of the table are Jeanine Kasun and Stu Shostak (another married couple) and then you have me and at lower right is Laraine Newman. But this post is about Mr. Van Dyke and maybe Arlene, too. Arlene has taken such good care of this man that today, he is 99 years old…and in darn good shape for 99.

Dick Van Dyke has been my favorite performer since…well, since I first saw The Dick Van Dyke Show, I suppose. This post isn't about me so I won't go into detail as to how important that show and he were to my life and the career (if you can call it that) I now have. He is also one of those too-rare exceptions to the rule that you should never meet your heroes. He has never disappointed me in any way if you don't count the fact that I wish there had been a sixth season of The Dick Van Dyke Show. And a seventh and an eighth and so on…

The whole world is wishing him a Happy 99 today and very relieved that after his recent brush with those fires in Malibu, he and Arlene and their pets and home are all marked safe. He is just a wonderful man and they're a wonderful couple and lemme tell you what happened at the end of that dinner for Rose.

Dick and I went out to give our parking tickets to the valet to get his car and Laraine's (she drove us) and as we were waiting, two women who were also waiting for a car were suddenly staring at Dick with one of those "Oh, he's someone famous" look. It took a moment for them to recognize who he was and, I think, also to accept the concept that he really and truly was who they thought he was. One said, "Oh, if you're who I think you are, I've always loved you." The other one agreed and Dick gave them both that great smile of his and said, "Well then, I hope I am who you're thinking of because I could use all the love I can get."

Their car arrived and as she tipped the valet, the first one told Dick, "I think you've already got more than anyone else." The other lady said, "Everyone adores you…everyone" and I just stood there thinking, "They're both right." Then as they drove off, clearly delighted with that little exchange, I asked Dick, "How often do you get that?" He replied, "I get it a lot and I'm always very grateful. Hell, I'm grateful when people recognize me and don't tell me how much they didn't like my accent in Mary Poppins."

I had a few "golden oldies" on my 1972 mixtape and a few novelty songs. This entry qualifies in both categories. In 1962, the Los Angeles Dodgers — who had not been in Los Angeles for long — had a rousing, grudge-filled battle for the pennant with the San Francisco Giants. It aroused a lot of emotion in L.A. Dodgers fans in part because while most Dodgers games were not then televised, Channel 11 (I think it was) did televise the games whenever the Dodgers were up in S.F. playing the Giants. It created the feeling like those were the only two teams in the league.

Into the middle of this rivalry came Danny Kaye with a song that as far as I know was only released as a 45 RPM single. It was called "The D-O-D-G-E-R-S Song" and it was written by Kaye's wife Sylvia Fine and Herbert Baker. Baker was a longtime writer who worked on Danny's radio shows and later his TV shows and he also wrote movies including a couple for Martin and Lewis and later he wrote Don't Give Up the Ship (a solo Jerry movie and one of the first films I remember seeing) and for Dean, some of the Matt Helm movies. And this 45 record may well be the first 45 RPM record I ever bought.

It came out in '62 but one day around '69, there was some reason I don't recall to play it on KHJ radio and I recorded it…so onto my mixtape it went. There are a few things you should know before you listen to it. All the players' names were real players at the time. The umpire mentioned was a real umpire. Walter O'Malley was the owner of the Dodgers, Walt Alston was the manager and Leo Durocher was a coach. And that year, the National League pennant for which the Dodgers and Giants competed maniacally was won by…the Giants.

Here's the record. As I understand it, it sold a zillion copies in Los Angeles and about four anywhere else…

So not only do I not understand how to watch the new David Letterman channel on Samsung TV, this interview shows that David doesn't understand it either. But it's about other things too and I found a lot of it interesting…

A lot of people are informing me that the David Letterman material being aired now on Samsung TV is not (repeat: not) full shows. It's all packages of excerpts, kinda like one might see someone assemble on YouTube. Okay, fine. I guess part of that is someone not wanting to pay to clear music.

No one, however, has told me how to view these packages of excerpts when I do not have a Samsung TV or a Samsung tablet or a Samsung phone or a Samsung Hair Dryer or a Samsung Staple Remover or a Samsung Anything. I keep seeing online info that says there's a way to watch them on one's computer — I have a PC — but they don't tell me how. Can anyone tell me how?

The Comic Art Professional Society was founded in 1977 by Don Rico, Sergio Aragonés and myself and held its first meeting on June 9 of that year. Last night, it held its final meeting so it was around for 47 years, 6 months and 2 days. It was a gathering entity for folks in Southern California — and a few from outlying parts — who were involved with cartooning in print media, comic books and a few allied areas. I have no idea how many people passed through it but I know a lot of them made friendships or helped their careers or both.

I organized the first meeting and there was a moment there that summarized a reason why then — in June of '77 — such a group was needed. We invited everyone we knew who might qualify for membership and two of those who came were Don R. Christensen and Roger Armstrong. Both were men who'd done a lot in the field of cartooning, mainly in work for Western Publishing Company on its Dell and Gold Key comics. Don was a writer-artist but mainly a writer. Roger was a cartoonist who usually worked on scripts by others. He'd drawn hundreds of scripts written by Don over the preceding twenty or so years…

…and at that meeting, I introduced them to each other. They'd never met before.

That would not happen today. For one thing, we're into a way new generation of cartoonists and comic book people and they know how to network. They go to conventions, they congregate at comic book shops, they e-mail and Zoom and there are all sorts of exhibits and groups where they gather. One of the things that prompted the formation of C.A.P.S. in '77 is that at the time, I was getting quite a few calls from the kind of folks who'd become members asking me, "Do you know a good letterer?" or "I need to find some artists for a project I'm working on." The frequency of such calls has dwindled to almost zero in the last few decades.

So if someone wants to know why C.A.P.S. existed or why it's gone outta business, there's a goodly part of the explanation right there. The group did a lot of good but it just ain't as necessary as it once was and it's also suffered from a paucity of members who were willing to do the grunt work of running it.

I withdrew years ago from the organization but last night, since it was the last meeting, I joined in via Zoom. A group of members were in the meeting hall while my co-founder Sergio and I were "there" via computer. Don Rico, sad to say, passed away in 1985 but I know he was proud of what we'd started. There were speeches and there were anecdotes and I think they had pizza there…and when are the Zoom people going to invent a way to transmit a slice along with the conversations?

And now it's over…except that a lot of people who have aspects of their careers in common now know each other. If not for C.A.P.S., they might never have met or been in a position to help each other. I kinda like that.

Starting today, there's a new channel on Samsung TV that runs clips from old David Letterman shows. And like me, you may be thinking, "What the hell is Samsung TV?" Well, apparently — and this is the first I've heard of this — Samsung TVs and certain other Samsung devices have been coming with their own TV network pre-installed. They have oodles of channels there, all ad-supported I think, and you can tune in your Samsung Whatever and watch any of those channels for no additional fee. And now a Letterman channel is joining all the ones already there.

Here's a little announcement that will tell you more about this but not much more.

So now, you may be asking yourself, "But…but…I don't have a Samsung TV! I love David Letterman — especially the old, unbearded David Letterman who didn't complain about everything and acted like he enjoyed doing his show! How can I watch it without going out and buying a brand-new Samsung TV?" And I'm not sure. There are a lot of articles online that tell ways to do this but some of them seem to be outta-date and some suggest that the rules are changing. So if anyone reading this knows for sure, lemme know and I'll post it here. I'd love to watch some of those early Letterman shows.

Stephen Colbert, asking the questions found in the famous Colbert Questionnaire, asks his guests to name the one song they'd pick if they had only had one song they could listen to for the rest of their lives. If I were ever asked this question, I would name The Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, particularly the movement known as "The Turkish Rondo." Here is it played expertly by Marnie Laird…but don't be impressed by my taste in music. My second choice is the theme from Car 54, Where Are You?

I have written a few times on this blog about the 1996 Broadway revival of my favorite musical, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. I thought it was a great production and here's what a few of the TV critics had to say about it at the time. You'll see a few clips from it which don't do the show justice…

If you think the asking prices on Stubhub for tickets to see Audra in Gypsy this evening were steep, someone is now offering a pair for tomorrow night for $3,215…and that's for each and on top of that, there's a service charge of $889 each. I'll save you the trouble of doing the math: It's $8,208 for two seats in the Orchestra section…and the seller doesn't even specify what row. There are several other offerings exceeding the price of $893 (plus a $248 service charge) that seemed so outrageous a few hours ago.

Meanwhile, seats in the second balcony range from $123 to $158 with service charges of $37 and $46 respectively. So you can see the show for a sorta reasonable price. You just can't see it from the same zip code.

I don't know what to think of this. I've bought tickets to a few events this way and once sold a pair that I'd purchased but couldn't use. I think I made about $35 on that transaction which seemed to be the markup that others were getting on similar tickets for that particular show. But I'm trying to understand this industry where somehow, some person or company grabs up tickets with a face value of $471 and slaps a huge price tag on them.

I kinda thought it was like, "Okay, I'll ask thousands of dollars for them and maybe there's some fabulously rich guy who'll grab 'em up and if that doesn't happen, I'll mark them down at the last minute as far as I have to to get my investment back." But if they're not marking them down on Stubhub, what is happening to those tickets when they don't sell? They're not going for half of face value at the TKTS booth. I doubt someone is standing outside the Majestic Theater trying to sell them in the hour before showtime.

Someone was sitting in those seats when Audra made her entrance tonight. How did they get those seats, how much did they pay for them and did the theater (or Audra) get any of the selling price over face value? I have some guesses but does anybody reading this know?

George Kresge, better known as "The Amazing Kreskin," has died just a few weeks short of his ninetieth birthday. As I explained in this post here not long ago, I don't like it when magicians — and that's what he was — try to pass off their tricks as genuine mentalism because I don't believe there's any such thing as genuine mentalism. There is only a series of tricks and ploys which some use for entertainment and others use to bilk people out of money. Kreskin did mostly the former and in so doing, he attained a fame (and a lot of bookings) that few of the many, many magicians doing that kind of act achieve.

And already, I'm seeing messages on the Internet from people who knew him and had personal interactions with him that they considered very positive help in their lives. That's a very nice thing to hear. I hope he rests in peace and isn't bothered by a lot of phony psychics trying to contact him.

I'm not going much of anywhere until my ankle is a lot better so there's very little chance of me being in New York in the next six months. Even if I could be there, I don't think I'd be rushing to see the new production of Gypsy there starring Audra McDonald as Mama Rose. It's in previews now and getting mostly raves from online folks who, since they aren't professional theater critics, aren't honor-bound to not review it until opening night. Opening night is December 19 and I doubt that what the critics say then will make a bit of difference at the box office.

This is "theater as an event" and people want to go to an event. The (arguably but not too arguable) biggest star on Broadway today is playing what some would say is the greatest "diva" role ever written in one of the best musicals. It's got a huge budget and Danny Burstein in the Jack Klugman role and Sondheim's name is on the marquee and…well, how could this thing not sell out every night? Even at a top price of $471 per seat?

That's for tickets straight from the box office. I just looked and someone on Stubhub is asking $893 each for two tickets in Row F for this evening. It'll probably be worth that to someone to be able to say to their friends, "Why, yes…I saw Audra in Gypsy…you mean you haven't been yet?" but it's not to me. I felt the same way about Hugh Jackman in The Music Man, which I also didn't want to see.

Anyway, it's a little before 4 PM out here and the curtain goes up on Gypsy in New York in one hour and ten minutes. They're still asking $893 for each of those two tickets in Row F and I'm wondering if and when the seller is going to drop the price just in case there's no one in Manhattan in the moment willing to cough up $1768 plus whatever Stubhub tacks on as a processing charge. I'm going to check back in a little while and I'll report here.

UPDATE, A LITTLE BEFORE ONE HOUR BEFORE CURTAIN: I did a little more sleuthing and it turns out the guy asking $893 each for the tickets has four of them for sale, all together. I also see folks offering Orchestra seats in Row G for $799, in Row K for $752, in Row M for $705 and in Row P for $658. I also see that if you buy the $893 tickets, each has a $248 service charge on it bringing the total to $1141 per seat. Wow.

UPDATE, A FEW MINUTES LATER: Hmm…At 4 PM — i.e., one hour before showtime — all the Gypsy tickets for tonight that cost more than $205 disappeared from Stubhub. Usually when tickets are purchased, the listing stays there and is marked "sold" but the ones I just listed are gone. I wonder what happens to those seats. Do they go to some other vendor or what? Can anybody explain this?

I'm trying to work but my mind keeps drifting to friends who have been evacuated from their homes by the wildfires in and around Malibu. When we talk about the proper role of government in our lives, I wish there was more concern given to dealing with natural disasters. Among the responders who are called into action in such situations, there seems to be unanimous agreement that they could use more manpower, more equipment, more preventive maintenance, etc. But somehow when there's no fire, no flood, no earthquake (etc.), it seems real easy to save money on those kinds of things.

Several folks have written to ask me what would be the best method to purchase a copy of the Space Circus hardcover if they want to put maximum bucks in the pockets of its makers. Anywhere is fine, thank you. Your local comic book shop would probably appreciate the business but if you don't have one, use my Amazon link. We have no signings planned. At the moment, the only place I expect to be appearing in the next six months is WonderCon in Anaheim next March and I don't bring books to sell. I leave that to the dealers.

When I write here about all the spam calls I get from people trying to sell me stuff, I always forget to mention that a lot of those calls ask for my mother. My mother passed away over twelve years ago and every time she was hospitalized in her last years, I put her phone number on Call Forwarding to mine and after she died, I never took it off. The phone company has long since reassigned it to someone else but — and I have no idea how this works — I now get calls for her at my number. Yesterday, I told a solicitor (a home improvement guy) who asked for her that she died in 2012 and that he'd bought a badly-outdated list of potential pigeons. He yelled "Shit!" and hung up. Didn't even try to sell me his services.

So now it looks like the plan to convert the Norms Restaurant on La Cienega Boulevard in L.A. into a Raising Canes is off. Good. I'm still largely leaving my home only for doctor appointments but when I get back to eating out, one of the first places I'll hit is that Norms.

I'm not following the news much but I see that authorities have arrested a man who they think is the man who murdered that United Healthcare CEO…and they seem pretty sure they have the right guy. I saw a few things online where people said this was good because it might prevent more people from wanting to kill CEOs. Okay…but that's not a crime that happens very often. I'm more concerned about people who want to kill mail carriers, Uber drivers, retail employees, the neighbor across the street, someone who plays their stereo too loud, comic book writers, Walmart greeters, police officers, ex-spouses, current spouses, anyone with a very different lifestyle, kids sitting in classrooms…you get the idea…

Ignoring the links in the right-hand margin, there are 32,390 posts on this site. Less than 2% of them plug anything you can purchase or watch in a manner that will make me any money. I'm not even sure this will make me any money but I'm going to tell you about Space Circus anyway. This is a new graphic novel that's arriving in bookstore this week. It's a collection — on bigger pages on better paper with hardcovers and better printing — of a long-outta-print mini-series done some years back by myself, Sergio Aragonés, Stan Sakai and Tom Luth.

In fact, coloring Sergio's new wraparound cover for this book was the last coloring job Tom did before his way-too-early passing. The last page of this book is about him.

I don't prod you to buy most things I do. I haven't even mentioned half of them. I'm mentioning this and prodding you because I'm really happy with this one. It might be for an audience younger than you are but, heck, you can regress yourself to the appropriate age and enjoy it. It's the story of a young boy who runs away from home to join the circus…only it's not a circus of this planet. If that premise sounds intriguing, wait'll you see what Sergio drew.

That's all the sales-pitching I will do. It should be at your local comic book shop but if you want to order a copy here's an Amazon link. I hope you'll be even 15% as delighted with this as I am.

Pringles — factory-stamped potato "crisps" in a can — first hit the marketplace in the early seventies. I remember trying them and liking them and eating them and then deciding there were other snacks I preferred…so I stopped buying them. As of the other day, it had been a good forty years since I'd bitten into one. This was back when they had only a few flavors and now they seem to have thousands.

What changed the other day? I came across the video below, watched it and wondered if I'd still like them. So I got a little sampler pack of three flavors — original, cheddar cheese and their sour cream & onion — and guess what? I found them just this side of inedible. My taste buds could not possibly have changed that much even in 40+ years. I'm thinking they must have seriously changed the recipe, perhaps substituting corrugated cardboard for the potatoes…or something.

I'm guessing it'll be a good forty years before I try another Pringle. I'll be 113 years old by then and the remaining ones I have here should be just as edible then as they are now. But I am impressed by one thing. I have a new-found respect for the effort that goes into making one. It's lot harder than, say, making a real potato chip…