From 8/5/1988, comedian Richard Jeni makes his first appearance with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. I always found Jeni brilliantly funny while being derivative of just about no one. He deserved more attention as well as a better end…

• If the January 6 committee wants Trump to show up, they shouldn't send him a subpoena. They should send him a projection of how huge the ratings will be if he testifies on live, prime-time TV.

They've raised prices at Disney Theme Parks again and I don't know why the press even thinks they have to tell us this anymore. Breaking News would be if they didn't. In the unlikely event they ever lowered them, the network carrying the Super Bowl could interrupt the last quarter with a bulletin and no one would think that was unwarranted.

Many of the press reports about the price increase have delved into discussions of The Cost of Living and spiraling inflation but I think they've missed a very simple point which was made in this article about the increases. The person being quoted here is Pete Werner, CEO of wdwinfo.com, one of the oldest Disney fan websites…

The bottom line is "make more money with fewer people. And we don't care who we price out to do it." And I'm going to tell you that the quality of the product is less, in my opinion, is less now than it was prior to the pandemic, yet the price has gone up considerably.

For 25 years, I've heard that "I'm not going to Disney World" on one hand, while they're handing them their wallet with the other.

Inflation and rising prices in so many areas can explain certain money squeezes and increases. But sometimes, people who set prices for their products just say, "Y'know, I think we can get more money for this." This has happened a lot in Las Vegas since they reopened after the COVID shutdown. Many a hotel discovered it was cost-effective to raise the price of a buffet or a show or a weekend suite. Sometimes, you didn't lose a single customer when everyone was told they had to pay ten or twenty dollars more. Or if you did lose a few, that loss was more than made up for by the folks paying more.

But for some reason, the press treats a lot of these increases like they're forces of nature…Disney had no choice but to up the price of playing in their playgrounds. The folks who own the company gotta eat, right?

I have not been to Disneyland in many years. The last time I was there, it was with an executive with the Disney Channel who wanted to walk around with me and discuss the feasibility of taping a show there which I would write and maybe produce. Even though I just about talked her out of the idea — and therefore myself out of a job — I had a mostly-good time. Everything was free and we didn't wait in any lines. She kept saying, "We're going in through a Michael Jackson entrance," meaning it was some secret route that bypassed the main line for The Haunted Mansion. I guess that's how Michael used to get around The Magic Kingdom.

That, obviously, was quite a while ago.

Maybe I got a bit spoiled by that visit. Maybe it also has something to do with knee problems that do not make walking and standing in line as simple as they once were. But in the past few years, I've occasionally been given free passes to the place and I've allowed them to expire, unused. This was well before the need for masks and six-foot-distancing. COVID was an ideal excuse to not use the last batch of passes I had. By letting them lapse, I avoided the physical challenge and I also avoided the expense.

About that expense: My friends (I hope) would tell you I am not a cheap person. It's just that there's a difference between spending money for which you feel you are receiving something of roughly-equal value in return…and spending money where you feel like a Cash Cow being milked for all they can get out of you. Even with free entrance passes, Disneyland can make you feel like the latter.

And when I have been there, it always kills the joy for me a little to see children practically ordering their parents, "Buy me that!" I once saw a father who looked like he was about to tell his demanding son, "Sure…if you'd rather have a Pluto hat than go to college!" Perhaps if I was a parent, I'd feel differently.

People often say of some exorbitant expense, "It's not the money, it's the principle." That can be valid but so can, "It's not the money, it's the feeling of being played for a sucker." Even when I've had a great time in Disneyland — which has happened and which I'm sure will happen again someday — I was never able to totally view it as a day of pure fun.

Even when that lady from The Disney Channel was getting us into everything a.s.a.p. and charging our food to her expense account, I kept looking at all the families, some of whom had spent thousands of dollars for Disneyland vacations, and I just couldn't enjoy the place as much. And when I'm paying, I sometimes feel like they should send the guy playing Dopey home because I'm doing his job for him.

Hey, watch this 27 minute interview with one of my boyhood heroes, Stan Freberg. This only covers part of Stan's long, clever career — doing cartoon voices for Warner Brothers, working with Bob Clampett and Daws Butler on Time For Beany, and getting into the business of making funny commercials. He barely touches upon his wonderful comedy records and radio shows. Stan was one of a kind and it was an honor to know him and work with him…

My longtime buddy Pat O'Neill wrote to ask…

No comments on the long-held theory that the human characters of Scooby-Doo are based on the cast of Dobie Gillis?

I kinda dealt with that theory back in this message in 2002…for which I made the graphic that I'm reusing below this paragraph. Basically, the theory is true…or at least, they used the Dobie Gillis show as a starting point. Everyone understands the connection between The Honeymooners and The Flintstones or Sgt. Bilko and Top Cat or Masterpiece Theater and The Wacky Races but they should also know (a) that other cartoon studios besides Hanna-Barbera did this, (b) that other non-cartoon studios and many writers do this and (c) often, the development of a show starts with the template from some pre-existing property but it evolves so much that little of the source from which they "borrowed" winds up in the final product.

For instance, it's kinda obvious that the H-B series Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels used Charlie's Angels for the "angels" part but not so obvious that the "caveman" part of it started with someone's decision to do a character like Yosemite Sam. In sketches and discussions, he got hairier and hairier until someone suggested making him a caveman instead. (I didn't work on that show but folks who did told me of its evolution.)

It's like if you and I decided to write a story for kids that was something like Little Red Riding Hood and you said, "But let's make the main character a guy" and I said "Fine…and I think wolves have been overused so let's make the villain a bounty hunter because they're popular on TV these days!"  And we both agree that if the villain is a bounty hunter, Big Bad Bart (that's what we rename Red) shouldn't be transporting a basket of goodies and you say, "How about if Bart's a driver for Amazon and he's bringing Grandma a new computer?"  And I say, "That's good…but a Grandma wouldn't need a new computer and we could use some romance in this story so let's make her a young woman that Bart can fall in love with…"

…and before long, there's very little trace of Little Red Riding Hood in our story — certainly not enough to be called plagiarism.  This happens a lot with committee-created projects and most cartoon shows have been committee-created projects in some sense, even if there was one person who clearly deserved the credit, "Created by…"  Of course, sometimes there are enough remnants that a connection is visible.  If Shaggy didn't have the beard of Maynard G. Krebs, I don't think anyone would ever notice any similarity to The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, which is what that series was actually called.

But if we're going to note that at one point in the development of Scooby Doo there was such a parallel, it's interesting to point one thing out.  Fred kind of started out with Dobie in mind, Shaggy came from Maynard, Daphne came from Thalia and Velma was vaguely based on the character of Zelda…

…and Zelda was played by a fine actress named Sheila James who is now Sheila Kuehl, a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.  As Wikipedia notes — and this is one time it's right — "Kuehl was California's first openly gay state legislator, having previously served in the California State Senate and the California State Assembly, where she was the Assembly's first female speaker pro tem."

This is obviously a real stretch. The connection between Zelda and Velma is very, very remote and hardly worth talking about. But if people are going to say that Velma "was always" gay…well, maybe there's something there worth noting. Maybe.

This three-year-old video of comedian John Fugelsang is suddenly trending all over Twitter. The last few times I was in New York, I was a guest on John's show on Sirius XM radio and when I wasn't actively involved in the conversation, I sat there in his studio, marveling at this man's ability to out-Bible callers who thought they knew what was in the Bible.

Unlike a lot of folks who do political talk radio, he never raised his voice, never insulted his opponents…he never even disrespected them when he was politely explaining why what they thought was in the Bible was not in the Bible. I've seen and heard an awful lot of folks in our national debates who should learn how to disagree with people or correct them without turning into Joe Pyne or Alex Jones.

And what he has to say here about Christianity is something that a lot of self-described Christians could stand to learn…

Last Saturday while I was in the chat room with folks vying for badges to Comic-Con 2023, a number of folks were complaining about how the floor in the Exhibit Hall is uncarpeted and the concrete can be very hard on the feet. That's true not only of the San Diego Convention Center but of most convention centers I've been in throughout my silly lifetime. I assume most of these places have carpeting available for rent if some group that's meeting there wants to pay but I believe I once heard a convention chairman (not in San Diego) explaining how carpeting creates many problems for the load-in by the exhibitors and the load-out. And it costs money, probably more than we think.

So I'm wondering aloud here if recent incidents at the TwitchCon, held in the San Diego Convention Center earlier this month, will cause any changes. Several people — including a lady who broke her back in two places — were injured in a "foam pit" which "attendees reportedly noted was simply not deep enough." From the videos and photos, it doesn't look like a pit at all; just blocks of foam piled on that concrete floor.

I have no idea who's legally liable in a situation like this — the convention, the convention center or the particular exhibitor — but I'm reminded of one time I heard a lawyer asked by a client who they were going to sue in some matter at hand. The attorney's answer was "Everyone in every direction who has serious money." One assumes all three of those businesses carry significant insurance.

I'm also wondering if the convention industry has done any sort of analysis on the cost-effectiveness of carpeting. I know I've left the floor of some cons earlier than I might have because my feet and legs couldn't take much more time on cement. In a carpeted hall, I might have stayed another hour or two and spent more. Some exhibitors at Comic-Con do bring in carpeting for their spaces. Do they do that to be decorative or because they think it'll cause you to spend more time in the area where they're selling stuff? Even some carpeting does little to spare your lower extremities from the hard, cold flooring below.

Warren Scott sent me this question…

There was an article floating around social media for a while that suggested the Scooby Doo series resulted from the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy and an effort to reduce violence on television. It seemed to be oversimplifying things to me, but what is your take on it? And what do you think of the show using real ghosts versus fake ones? There seems to be some debate over that among fans.

From the dawn of TV for kids, there were always groups that wanted those shows to be more uplifting and educational and which mistook slapstick for violence. There probably still are such groups, though I would imagine they're pretty ineffectual these days. A lot of my career in animation involved dealing with network folks who were trying to appease those groups…while at the same time, putting on shows that kids wanted to watch. At times, it seemed hard to achieve both at the same time, especially at ABC.

My understanding is that Scooby Doo came about because Fred Silverman (then at CBS) thought there might be an audience for a whodunnit and they did it in the style they chose, rather than a more adventure style, because the Archie cartoon show was a recent hit. Also, in the early development, the focus of the show was almost wholly on the kids and the dog was kind of an add-on tagalong. As the show took shape, mostly in the hands of Joe Ruby and Ken Spears with Silverman and Joe Barbera participating, the dog seemed to be stealing the show. Joe Ruby told me once about a day when he and Ken decided to make the dog more of the star and even to name the show after him.

And with that decision — with the show now more about a scared, almost-talking pooch — that further cemented the lighter style. They may have said that it was part of an effort to reduce violence because of the R.F.K. killing but I think that was just good public relations. I heard about the show from both Joes, Ken and even a little from Silverman. I don't think they really had that in mind at the time though the network may have decided there was some value in saying they did.

As for the switch from fake ghosts to real ghosts: I think the show quickly got into a rut with the ghosts always turning out to be fake. At some point, even the most open-minded kid had to be asking why Scooby and Shaggy were so terrified about this week's alleged ghost when the last eighty alleged ghosts all turned out to be someone they'd met who had put on a mask and maybe rigged up some cheapo special effects.

Plus, the writers had come up with every conceivable fake ghost and it was necessary to be open to real monsters and goblins and such just to get a story that they hadn't done eleven times before. So I was fine with it.

And before anyone asks me what I think about the announcement that Velma is now officially gay…I don't care. I don't even care whether actual people I know or work with are gay or straight. Either way, they're still human beings who deserve to be treated with respect — whether they're gay or straight, "out" or not. I guess it matters if you might find yourself in a dating or mating situation with someone…but it's been my experience that when that's an issue, you find out soon enough.

As a kid, I loved ventriloquists and puppeteers so naturally, I loved Shari Lewis and her friends Lamb Chop and Charlie Horse and a few others.  From 1960 (when I was eight) until 1963 (when I was eleven), I never missed The Shari Lewis Show, which was on NBC every Saturday morning.  It was one of those kids' shows that was so clever and so expertly done that it attracted a significant number of adult viewers and one Peabody Award.  At the time, I thought a Peabody Award was something you got for going back in time and correcting a problem in history.

You cannot, alas, see much of The Shari Lewis Show these days.  It's one of those shows that was not well-preserved.  Not long before Ms. Lewis left us in 1998, I had the pleasure of working with her on a TV pilot which, alas again, never reached fruition.  When I asked her about the 1960-1963 series, she said with great regret and a bit of anger that all the copies of it were lost or destroyed.  I believe a few have since been located and restored …but only a few and I think they're in the U.C.L.A. Film Archives and maybe nowhere else.

What we have for you here is a commercial for the series.  The video and audio aren't good but the writing is great and the vocal dexterity of Shari is amazing.  You may have to remind yourself that all three voices are coming from the same larynx and I'll bet she didn't take more than one or two takes to get this right…

I should have put a soup can up this morning but I didn't know then how busy today would get.

I mentioned back here that my third-favorite place to eat Italian food in Los Angeles is Maggiano's, a chain restaurant that's better than any other chain restaurant I've been in that serves pasta 'n' such. The one I frequented was in The Grove, a shopping center over next to CBS Television City. And did you notice that I changed to the past tense? That Maggiano's, I was unhappy to learn, suddenly closed last week. A few months back, another favorite restaurant right next to it — The Wood Ranch Grill — moved out so both huge restaurant structures are vacant.

The Grove is a 575,000-square-foot…well, they don't call it a mall. They call it a "Shopping Xanadu" and it's owned by Rick Caruso, a local businessman who is currently running for Mayor of Los Angeles. The Internet Chatter is that Mr. Caruso wanted those two restaurants out because he has plans for the real estate they occupied. I don't know if that Internet Chatter is true. If it is, then I might be a little happier with the fact that I already filled-out and sent off my mail-in ballot on which I voted for Caruso's opponent, Karen Bass.

The recorded announcement when you phone that Maggiano's just tells you they've closed but you're invited to patronize the Maggiano's in Woodland Hills or the one in Costa Mesa. The one in Woodland Hills is 25.3 miles away and the one in Costa Mesa is 48. Their food is good but not 25.3 miles good.

"Legal Eagle" Devin Stone explains how screwed Alex Jones is…and you have to remember that Jones hasn't even touched bottom yet in this matter. He's still awaiting an assessment of compensatory damages in Connecticut and a whole other penalty-phase trial in the third lawsuit he lost. He also must have a few million bucks in lawyer bills ahead. I'm kinda curious as to whether this man has really, really bad lawyers or he has good ones and he keeps paying them but not following their advice…

My pal Tom Brevoort, who supervises many a fine comic book at Marvel, read what I had to say about word balloons on comic book covers and sent this add-on…

A bit of additional nuance for you concerning the reason why word balloons and copy aren't used on covers so much as they once were. Everything that you stated is absolutely correct, but in my experience, there's another factor at play that caused everybody to scale back on the use of copy on covers. And that concerns the changing tastes of the audience.

I don't know where the sentiment came from necessarily — possibly a backlash against all of those silly early 1960s DC text-heavy covers that we all remember. But at a certain point, the hardcore fan cognoscenti reached the unshakable conclusion that word balloons on a cover made it look juvenile. Now, as you know, there is nothing that an insecure young comic book reader fears more that being pigeonholed as somebody who reads "kid's stuff" by their peer group. So as this sentiment penetrated into the fandom, especially as more and more business ran through the Direct Sales marketplace which sold on a non-returnable basis to stores and consumers — stores that, in many cases, were opened by people who had previously been fans, some of whom based their ordering decisions on their own likes and tastes as much as anything else.

This feeling also began to extend largely into the creative community, who were also a bit afraid of having their work seen as juvenile, especially during the era when grim and gritty was the common shorthand for what was considered good by the audience at large. (A sidebar — this is also what happened to thought balloons in general. Once Frank Miller introduced first person narration as the way in which tough guy characters revealed their inner thoughts to the readership in a literary style, every writer worth his salt abandoned thought balloons and first-person narration became a dime a dozen. And even when that narration largely went away, the thought balloons didn't grow back, they were simply gone for the most part.)

And once the word balloons went, it was only a matter of time before any other copy on covers was likewise deemed unattractive. For the longest time, the people who worked as art directors or cover editors at the major two comic book companies would evoke a study that had been conducted many years earlier, which showed that a cover that had copy on it would be looked at by a prospective consumer for a fraction of a second longer than one without — it took that long for the average person's brain to decipher the text. And so cover copy was for the longest time mandatory. But as those art directors, et al left, they were replaced by a new generation that either weren't aware of that study or who gave it no credence, and who felt that the purpose of a cover was to provide a strong piece of art, a compelling image that would draw a prospective reader into buying the book.

Who is right? Who can say? It's possible to do great covers without copy and it's possible to do great covers with copy. No one approach is the only one, all tools in the toolbox should be valid. But this is in large part the reason why so relatively few covers employ cover copy today.

I agree with all that. And I'll add that I think the whole attitude about cover design has changed over the years, in part because someone finally realized that there was no evidence that cover blurbs and balloons led to higher sales but that there was some indication that visually-arresting covers did. Largely gone are the days when someone in the office would crank out layout sketches for a dozen covers and then Gil Kane or Nick Cardy or someone would take them home, draw covers following the sketches and than the office would slap lettering on it.

This discussion started here with an e-mail from Ken Scudder asking me who was responsible for word balloons on a cover. It might advance this conversation if I mention that my partner Sergio Aragonés, being a master of pantomime cartooning, believes that covers should never have lettering on them above and beyond the title logo, price, issue number, etc. Comics on which he and I have collaborated have resulted in well more than 200 covers and unless there was one that has fled my memory, we've had word balloons on a grand total of two…

The way we handle covers is that at some point in the process, someone tells Sergio we need to have a cover drawn and Sergio just sits down and draws a cover. No one does a sketch for him. No one approves his designs although I've made suggestions on one or two covers but not many more than that. I think they've all turned out fine.

When he drew the cover of Groo #18, he surprised the heck outta me by putting a word balloon on it.  That's his lettering even.  When he drew one of the covers for The Mighty Magnor #1 (it had several), he surprised me again by drawing the above, leaving space for word balloons and telling me to add them.  I wrote and lettered them.  In case anyone's interested, the blurb that starts "First Time Ever…" was penciled by me and inked by him.  These were rare exceptions.

Under the category of Unsurprising Information we find recent "news" stories that Donald Trump doesn't think Trevor Noah is funny. Anyone startled by that revelation? Is there a comedian…no, make that anyone of any profession…who doesn't kiss his butt but Trump likes? He'd probably call you a sick failing loser if you said his tie was crooked.

Mr. Noah thinks Trump will not be able to resist the temptation to testify before the January 6 commission. Lots of people feel that way just as lots of 'em think there's no way he'll put himself in that position. From the divergence of forecasts, I deduce that no one has any idea…and that may include Donald Trump. I would expect that if he does testify, he;ll make super-clear that it's not because they have the power to make him show up but because he wanted to do it. He may even try to dictate terms and win some concessions from them. Everything's a show of power with this guy.

Noah is said to be departing The Daily Show on December 8. That's a lot sooner than I imagined and I assume Comedy Central knew and began discussing his replacement a long time before he made the public announcement. Jon Stewart announced on February 10, 2015 that he was leaving his Daily Show, saying his contract was up in September and he might leave around then. He actually did his final broadcast twenty-five weeks later on August 6, 2015. Noah will leave ten weeks after his announcement.

Comedy Central has said the show will go on hiatus and will return with a new host on January 17. I said I'd give it to Jordan Klepper but that was in no way a prediction. I remind you that with talk-type shows, the "new host" has rarely been someone who was on the lists of those speculating on who'd be the new host. No one predicted Trevor Noah or, for that matter, Jon Stewart.

The other day here, I linked you to a video collection of times on The Carol Burnett Show when one or more cast members could not avoid laughing and breaking character. Our link today is to more of the same — but first, I have some words from Arnie Kogen, who was one of the writers on the series…

Unlike many of my friends' wives (not mine) Harvey was not faking it. His laughter was legit. Tim could easily push Harvey's buttons and get him to laugh whenever he wanted. Burnett had a dress rehearsal and an air show every Friday. Tim would hold back on the afternoon dress show. He'd "save it" for the evening performance. In the evening, Tim would surprise Harvey (and us) with one or two new pieces of business. We never knew what was coming or when. Harvey was genuinely uncontrollable.

The best example, of course, was The Dentist sketch. There were many others. I wrote the fireman sketch where Tim played the world's oldest fireman. It was fairly funny when I wrote it. It was incredibly funny while Tim gave Harvey mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Loved writing for Tim.

I especially loved writing Tim-Harvey sketches. THE SCENE: An Ancient Slave Ship. Many oarsman chained together rowing strenuously. Harvey, a slave, is rowing alone. The seat next to him is empty. He is waiting for the arrival of his new slave partner who will be chained next to him for eternity. Tim Conway enters and is chained next to Harvey. That's all you need. You've got comedy gold. BTW, Tim's opening line to Harvey, Hi, I'm a Leper!"

The mouth-to-mouth resuscitation scene was in the previous collection to which I linked. Arnie probably wrote something in here, too…

This morning was Returning Registration for Comic-Con 2023. To qualify for Returning Registration, one had to have been a paid attendee of Comic-Con 2022 and/or Comic-Con Special Edition 2021. I have been to every Comic-Con in San Diego in the summer and have never been a paid attendee of any of them. Still, I hear a lot of complaints about the process so I decided to peek in this morning and learn a little about what it involves.

An "online waiting room" was supposed to open at 8 AM and then at 9 AM, sales were to commence. Something went wrong, the waiting room didn't open as scheduled but not long after the appointed time, the con tweeted that a glitch had been fixed and that the waiting room would open at 9:30 and the sale would begin at 10 AM. These are all Pacific Times I'm giving you here.

The waiting room did indeed open at 9:30 and at 10 AM, all of us in the waiting room were "admitted" to…another waiting room. The computer randomizes everyone in this second room and then assigns each person an expected wait time. Mine, as you can see below, was over an hour. That didn't bother me a whole lot because I wasn't there to buy anything…just to see how the system works. It might bother me if this was my only or best way to get myself and maybe a couple of loved ones into the con.

All this time, about 1700 of us were being guided through the process by the folks who operate The San Diego Comic-Con Unofficial Blog. This is operated by a group of dedicated attendees who have no actual connection with the con but who provide valuable advice and insight year round. They began blogcasting live on YouTube early this morning, answering questions and providing helpful hints for folks tackling the registration process. Most of all, they gave us, as we all waited in the waiting room, the feeling of not being alone.

Around 10:20, folks in the chat who'd been admitted to the purchase area were reporting that Preview Night (Wednesday night) was sold out for today's sale. But others were reporting they'd gotten in and purchased it and other days. Others were reporting that "Your estimated wait time is more than hour" had changed to a lower number of minutes but mine didn't then and wouldn't for quite a while.

At 10:42, the convention tweeted "Preview Night badges have sold out for this sale. Badges for other single days of Comic-Con 2023 are still available!" A minute later, they tweeted "Saturday inventory is running low. You may not be able to purchase a Saturday badge if you are selected for a registration session." At a later date to be announced, there will be an Open Registration sale and if you didn't get what you wanted today, you may be able to get it then. Only a portion of all the badges are up for sale today.

At 11:00, my estimated wait time was still more than an hour. All this time in the chat room for the Unofficial Folks' podcast, various people were reporting they were able to purchase most or all of the badges they sought.

At 11:01, there was this tweet from the con: "Friday inventory is running low. You may not be able to purchase a Friday badge if you are selected for a registration session." Folks in chat were saying that in past years of this sale, Saturdays and Fridays had sold out by this point. That may mean fewer people vying for tickets this year but I suspect it's more likely a matter of how swiftly the computer program was admitting shoppers and processing their orders.

At 11:10, my expected wait time changed to 50 minutes. One minute later, it was 43 minutes. People in the chat were still reporting they snagged all four days but not Preview Night.

At 11:11 came this tweet: "Saturday badges have sold out. Badges for other single days of Comic-Con 2023 are still available!" Again, this is all Saturday badges for this sale. There will be more Saturday badges up for grabs in Open Registration. Same with Preview Night.

At 11:16, my expected wait time was 36 minutes. A minute later, it was 28. A minute after that, it was 29. Three minutes later, 21. The latest tweet said "Friday badges have sold out. Thursday and Sunday badges are still available."

At 11:33, my computer played a little fanfare like the Pearly Gates were opening to welcome me in…and I was admitted to the portion of the site where I could purchase badges. There, I was offered Thursday and/or Sunday. At the same time, I was seeing folks in the chat room saying that they were in and that Sunday passes were gone. At 11:36, the con tweeted "Sunday badges have sold out. Badges for Thursday of Comic-Con 2023 are still available!" One minute later, they tweeted "Thursday badges have sold out."

So that was the end of today's sale. I think I could have scored Thursday and Sunday but I was just there to observe, not to buy.

I absolutely understand why the process frustrates so many folks. I started around 8:30 this morning and three hours later, got the chance to buy passes for but two of the four days…and Preview Night was even farther out of reach. For now.

I don't know how many people didn't get in at all…probably a lot. At the same time, I also have absolutely no concept for any better system. If you do, don't send it to me. Send it to the folks who run the convention…and keep in mind that there is a maximum capacity for that event and that the number of human beings who wish to attend each year far exceeds that maximum capacity. There is no way to make them all happy.

In fact, I think if somehow, the San Diego Convention Center could magically be made ten times as large and admit ten times as many people, they'd still have to use some registration process like the current one because ten times as many people would want to attend. And just imagine the joy of trying to get a hotel room then.