Steve Benen itemizes just some of the spectacularly-wrong assertions we've recently heard from our Secretary of Health and Human Services. Putting this man in charge of our nation's disease prevention is like putting the Reverend Jim Ignatowski in charge of…well, anything.

Thanks to all of you who wrote to wish me improved health. I'm sure I'm going to be fine but I am going to take it easy — in terms of activity that includes blogging — in the coming week. I just watched some video of the Celebration of Life I hosted last Sunday and I was amazed. I was exhausted but I thought I did a much better job of not showing it. In the video, I look like the kind of person who's about twenty-four hours from being rushed to the Emergency Room on a gurney…which I was. When that video's posted here in a day or three, you'll see what I mean.

I keep forgetting I'm 73 years old and while I don't think a number like that should prompt you to act like an old person, it doesn't hurt to keep in mind that maybe you can't do everything you did fifty years go. I can write faster now than I could then but that might be the only thing. Anyway, thanks for the concern from those of you who were concerned.

We are tentative fans — "tentative" meaning we haven't seen it but are hopeful we'll love it — of Boop the Musical, which opened recently to mixed reviews at the Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway. I probably won't get back there until later this year and I hope it's still running. The folks I know who've see it — cartoon fans, all — have been unanimous in their praise. The critics who I've seen panning it seem to be saying "Why the hell is there a musical on Broadway about an old cartoon that no one cares about?" So there are two views for you.

One of the many things that interests me about it that they did one of those "video diaries" covering the making of the show. Four installments have been released so far. Here's Part One…

…and here's Part Two, Part Three and Part Four. I wish more shows did this. I really liked the ones for Something Rotten and Catch Me If You Can.

Trump insists that sanctuary cities are "death traps." Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post says there's zero evidence that's true.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — who's about as qualified to be the Health and Human Services secretary as I am to be lead ballerina in The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky — claims that the measles outbreak in Texas is subsiding. The folks at FactCheck.org have looked at the actual numbers, as apparently R.F.K. hasn't, and they say that's not true. It feels like Trump tells his people, "No matter what we do, say it's an overwhelming success. Enough of our followers will believe it!"

That's where I am now…home from four nights in a hospital. And I can hear some of you saying, "Huh? You didn't mention anything about being in a hospital" and it's true, I didn't. I figured I wasn't worried about my health so there was no reason any of you should be. Briefly, I had an attack on Monday morning. I wasn't sure what kind of attack it was but it was sure painful. I'm guessing it felt like whatever a heart attack feels like but I have to guess because I've never had a heart attack and still haven't.

In fact, just about every doctor-type person I encountered the first 24 hours of this experience ran tests on me and said with great certainty, "You didn't have a heart attack," which is always a nice thing to hear. Okay then…that left the question of what the hell it was.

Those pains stopped on their own about an hour after the 911 responders got me to the Emergency Room and I was thinking maybe they were just going to send me home. But no, the examining physician said, "No, we're not letting you out of here until we figure out what it was and how to prevent it from happening again." I wasn't about to stop them from doing that so all Monday evening and much of Tuesday, they ran test after test after test and finally arrived at this conclusion: I had passed a gallstone. Once it fully passed, that was when the pains had ceased but it had left some toxic infections in my bloodstream. So then I had to stay two more nights until intravenous antibiotics had obliterated most of those infections.

This morning, they said, "Okay, you're out of here." Next week, I'm meeting with a surgeon who will decide if the best thing to prevent this from happening again is (a) Laparoscopic surgery to remove the remaining stones from my gall bladder or (b) complete removal of the gall bladder. So we'll see.

I'm still a little sleepy and woozy from four days of eating and drinking almost nothing. Part of that was because I always seemed to have a test pending of which they said, "You can't eat or drink before that test." But when I could eat, I couldn't eat because while the medical personnel in this hospital were first rate, whoever was prepping the meals was a culinary Incredible Hulk. Simply awful and inedible.

I gather from the reactions of the orderlies who picked up my largely-untouched trays that they were used to seeing 90-some-percent of each meal return untouched. I do not understand how a facility that can do such great work saving folks' lives can do such a bad job feeding those people. I couldn't even eat the plain white rice or the diced carrots. Seriously.

But I'm home and I've had actual food and all is mostly well. It's interesting to me — maybe not to you but to me — that this thing hit me just as I was finished with two projects with urgent deadlines: The Mike Schlesinger Celebration of Life which I arranged and hosted, and making the last little fixes on the book about Charles Schulz, which had to be finalized. If the gallstone had done its damage two days earlier, both those projects would have suffered more than I did.

Anyway, this is why posting was light here for a few days. I felt I owed you an explanation. And please — I do not want to hear about your hospitalization or your experience with gall stones or what you learned about them from reading some website or anything. My policy in life is to have real good professional doctors and to listen only to them. I believe I had the best-possible treatment and I can only regret that it so often comes with the worst possible meals.

Here's a pretty good history/analysis of the forever-controversial film by Bob Fosse, All That Jazz. I've seen this movie a number of times and I always like some things in it and dislike others…except it's never the same likes and dislikes from one viewing to the next…

The New York Times runs down Trump's long history of saying things about global trade and the economy and tariffs that just plain ain't true.

And if those aren't enough for you, here's a rundown of false and misleading statements about American relations with China, Japan and the European Union. The hits just keep on comin'!

Here from 1957 is an episode of This is Your Life focused on Buster Keaton. Buster doesn't look too pleased to be surprised like this — but Buster never looked too pleased about anything…

Peter Navarro is a senior counselor to Donald Trump who's out there claiming that Trump's tariffs will generate six trillion dollars over a decade. That's six trillion with a "tr." With all the reversals and postponements and changes, I don't know how anyone could estimate such a thing but Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post says Navarro's number is ridiculous. FactCheck.org agrees with Kessler.

Meanwhile, JD Vance says that 40% of calls to Social Security involve fraud. Glenn Kessler says that number is absurd also.

The Associated Press says Trump is lying about coal and Politifact says he's (again!) lying about winning the 2020 election.

…and I'll tell you what kept me away in a couple of days…no big deal. More important is that I tell you about my new book…

The Essential Peanuts
The Greatest Comic Strip of All Time
By Mark Evanier
Introduction by Patrick McDonnell
Foreword by Jean Schulz
Publication Date: October 7, 2025

From award-winning author Mark Evanier, a deluxe edition celebrating the 75th anniversary of Peanuts and the life, art, and legacy of Charles M. Schulz, featuring unique bonus materials

"Not many cartoons live into the next generation, and that probably is the best definition of art, isn't it? Does it speak to succeeding generations? Real art, real music, real literature, speaks to succeeding generations." — Charles M. Schulz

Seventy-five years after the first Peanuts strip made its debut on October 2, 1950, the beloved comic strip and its iconic characters remain a touchstone for generations around the world. From cultural milestones such as the introduction of Franklin (the first Black character in a major syndicated newspaper strip) to NASA's Apollo 10 lunar and command modules being named after Charlie Brown and Snoopy, to the classic holiday specials that have aired on national television annually, and the modern-day animated movies and iPhone shorts as well as the Gen Z phenomenon of Snoopy Girls, Peanuts has a lasting influence that few works of art or literature can claim.

Written by Mark Evanier, this will be the only book commemorating the 75th anniversary of Peanuts, examining Schulz’s most iconic comic strips, placing each one in its broader historical and cultural context. Peanuts Worldwide and the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, California, has worked closely with Abrams ComicArts to produce and include our book in all of their plans to promote the 75th anniversary. This deluxe edition includes:

8 ready-to-frame prints
5 vinyl stickers
8 postcards
Iron-on patch
Full-color comic book and more!

In addition to text by Mark Evanier, an introduction by Patrick McDonnell, and a foreword by Jean Schulz, the book includes original contributions by Robb Armstrong (Franklin), Derrick Bang (Vince Guaraldi and A Charlie Brown Christmas), Rob Boutilier (The Snoopy Show), Paige Braddock (Schulz's pen line), Alberto Brambilla (Peanuts in Italy), Benjamin L. Clark (Peanuts paperbacks), Alexis E. Fajardo (selecting the Essential Peanuts), Ben Folds (the sound of Peanuts), Sarah Gillespie (editing Schulz), Chip Kidd (design of Peanuts), Amy Lago (editing Schulz), Mike Massimino (Snoopy and Apollo 10), Akio Matsunaga (Peanuts in Japan), Jeff Morrow (scoring. Peanuts), Hilary B. Price (Peppermint Patty and Marcie), and Shuntarō Tanikawa (Poet laureate and translator of Peanuts in Japan).

That's the press release and I don't have a whole lot to add to it except that it was a lot of fun to immerse myself in the world of Charlie Brown the last few months and to spend so much time thinking about what Charles Schulz created and why it has meant so much to so many people. I was thrilled to be asked to do this and to work with Mr. Schulz's superior support team. I don't plug everything I do on this blog but I'm really proud of this one. I'll tell you more about it in the coming months.

Tomorrow, a fine publisher will be announcing the new book I’ve authored about a great creator of comics. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you who it is even though Amazon has already listed the book.

Daniel Dale of CNN lists some more of the fibs our Commander-in-Chief has been telling about tariffs and U.S. trade with other countries. I can remember when the kind of folks who back Trump called Al Gore a congenital liar for uttering one syllable that was arguably inaccurate.

…or at least it was one of the longest days I've had in a long time. On very little sleep — because of an urgent deadline — I went out to Santa Monica and hosted the Mike Schlesinger Celebration. Hundreds gathered to salute our late friend…and I was told it went well but I was in no condition to make that assessment. All I know is that people laughed and people cried and you would have been real impressed by the turnout of actors, directors, producers (etc.) at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. Here's what was on the marquee when we arrived…

The celebration included a screening of Mike's favorite movie, which happens to also be mine, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. I don't know how many times I've seen it now but it always makes me laugh and I always notice something I'd never noticed in it before. Then some of us Friends of Mike had a lovely dinner, my friend/assistant Jane drove me home and in changing out of my emcee clothes, I fell fast asleep for a few hours. I would have stayed that way all night but I had to get up and spend 2+ hours on the phone with the editor of a new book I have coming out later this year.

It's about one of the greatest creators in comics and no, it isn't my still-in-the-works mega-bio of Jack Kirby. It's about another great creator of comics and I should be able to tell you all about it tomorrow or the next day. I'll also tell you more about the Schlesinger Celebration. And now that I've finished 2+ hours of minor copy-edits, I'm posting this and diving back into dreamland. Nighty-night.

Mel Narunsky writes, referencing a line in this post…

Being an American, you unknowingly came up with a marvelous pun: Sheldon had first spotted Dick in the 1959 Broadway revue The Girls Against the Boys…" Spotted Dick is a traditional British steamed pudding, historically made with suet and dried fruit (usually currants or raisins) and often served with custard.

Best wishes and hope that your foot heals soon.

Actually, it was my buddy Vince Waldron who wrote that sentence but I should have noticed it. I sampled the real, non-canned and non-microwaveable kind of Spotted Dick at a party once and wasn't inclined to eat more than that sample. I got the feeling it was more fun to mention in a double-entendre context than it was to eat.

My foot continues to heal, thank you…a little behind the surgeon's predictions but things are still going in the right direction. My problems now are mostly matters of balance when I walk and quick fatigue in my left leg when I'm walking or standing. Another few months of physical therapy and I should be able to do all the steps in the curtain call for Boop! That is, as long as I'm on strings like the dog marionette.