• It's nice that so many companies are pledging to cover travel expenses for employees who need abortions but (a) part of the right to get one was the right to privacy, meaning you don't have to tell your boss, and (b) unemployed women get pregnant too.

I talk about all sorts of things on this blog…whatever's on my mind and a few things that obviously aren't. My opinions are worth exactly what you pay for them if you've never clicked my donate link and even less than what you sent if you did. The following — which is not about comic books or TV or old comedians or politics or the politics of old TV comedians in comic books — is being offered without any claim of expertise. It's about one of my favorite foods.

It's the Jennie-O Turkey Pot Roast, a bone-in, slow roasted turkey thigh that I consider one of the yummiest things I've ever eaten in my own home.  But don't go running out and trying to find the above package in your local stores.  I don't think they make them in that form anymore.

They used to.  I wrote about them years ago here when I was buying them at Costco.  I'd take home four or five from their refrigerator case, stick a couple in my freezer and the rest in the main part of my refrigerator.  Then I'd heat one up, either in the microwave or my roaster oven, and eat dark meat turkey for two or three days until it was totally consumed.  Since they came fully cooked, all I had to do was heat them and even I, a person who is to cooking what Rudy Giuliani is to winning lawsuits, could handle that.

Alas, Costco stopped carrying them.  I searched everywhere and made a pest of myself talking to folks who worked at Jennie-O.  For a time, I found them in similar packaging in the prepared food section of the self-service meat displays at Ralphs Markets, which is the arm of the Kroger Corporation in California.

Then they stopped carrying them.  If you're a big fan of the kind of music you hear when some company has you on hold, call the number that Kroger or Ralphs gives out to call in and sound off about what they carry in their stores.  You'll hear hours upon hours of that delightful music interspersed with ads to use their website.  I don't think I ever got through to a human being there.

I found the Jennie-O Turkey Pot Roasts briefly at Sprouts Markets but they changed to something that I guess they thought was just as good but it wasn't.  And briefly, one Ralphs near me had them, not for sale as a packaged Turkey Pot Roast but warmed and shredded and sold by the pound as Turkey Fajitas from a steam table in their service deli.  But I don't think I'd had one for over five years (probably longer) until last Monday.

A week ago today, while placing an online order at a Ralphs near me, I saw them listed as among the eats they carry.  I called up and a man in the deli department said, "Yeah, we have them."  I jumped in my car, drove directly there…and they didn't have them.  They had a rotisserie turkey breast (i.e., white meat) from another company — one I'd tried and found close to inedible. That's what he thought I was asking about when I said, "Jennie-O Turkey Pot Roast."

"Okay," I said to him. "But your website clearly says 'Jennie-O Turkey Pot Roast.'"  I showed him the listing on my phone and there was a photo of one that looked like this…

He looked at the image and said, "We don't carry those." He polled everyone else working there that day and they agreed. No one could explain why the website said they did but one had a suggestion — that I call in on Monday and talk with the Service Deli Manager who doesn't work weekends. I did…and he said, "Yeah, we have those. We just took a batch out of the warmer to put in the display where we have the rotisserie chickens." I made him swear on the life of any children he has or might ever have and to promise to hold two for me. Then I drove over and bought two of these…

It's the exact same thing but though the Ralphs website calls them "Turkey Pot Roast," it doesn't say that anywhere on the packaging.  It says, "Slow-Roasted Dark Turkey."  That may be the cause of the confusion…and if it isn't, I'm sure it will be.

Meanwhile, this page on the Jennie-O website will tell you what's in them and if they're sold near you.  I would not take the latter info as infallible.  They show a number of stores carrying them in my neck of the woods but of the eight I phoned — six (including two Ralphs) didn't know what the hell I was talking about.  Maybe they'll be carrying them soon — or maybe they do but like the folks on duty at my local Ralphs last Saturday — they don't know they do.

They'd had them in some refrigerator (and not on display) there at that Ralphs that day but no one working there had ever heard of them.  Yesterday, having consumed the two I got on Monday, I went by and while there were no heated ones out with the rotisserie chickens, the manager happily sold me two unheated ones from the back.

I'd rather get them that way. I keep 'em in the fridge and then when I want some, I scoop a proper portion into a microwave-safe dish and get it warm in my microwave-safe microwave.  They're juicier if I heat them than they are if the store does and then they sit there until someone comes in and buys one.  (Note by the way that these are bone-in, meaning that the weight of one includes a large bone you remove and discard.)

Years ago when I was an uncompensated shill for the ones sold at Costco, about twenty people wrote to thank me for suggesting they try 'em. I hope to receive more such thanks again.

Last Christmas, not long before the new Broadway production of The Music Man opened with Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster, Ms. Foster missed a few performances due to you-know-what. Her understudy, Kathy Voytko, filled in as Marian the Librarian, which led to a memorable and highly viral curtain speech by Mr. Jackman praising Ms. Voytko and others who cover roles and sometimes go on with very little notice or rehearsal. If you didn't see that speech or need to refresh your memory, here's a link to it.

I guess it was inevitable. A few weeks ago, it was Mr. Jackman's turn to be out with the same you-know-what and taking his place was understudy Max Clayton. Here's the curtain speech that Sutton Foster gave the first night Mr. Clayton went on. No doubt the audience was unhappy not to see Hugh Jackman — especially those who took a second mortgage on their homes to be able to buy the tickets. But as you'll see here, they seem to be pretty happy at the "memorable event" nature of the performance…

YouTube has lately been full of videos showing amazing feats of mass baking…some company ouputting hundreds of this or that.  This one shows the production of 600 ganache chocolate cakes and it's fascinating how much of it is done by hand, apparently by human beings whose jobs consist of working in a confined space, doing the same thing all day, over and over and over and over and over and over and over…

This is obviously not the blog to which one comes for a deep dive on the issue of Abortion…you know, that thing the Supreme Court kinda/sorta outlawed this morning. It has not been an issue that has had much direct impact on my adult life except as a political concern.

I am not unsympathetic to the feelings of those with honest moral issues about it but I don't think they have been the ones driving the bus on this topic. I think they're the ones who have been manipulated by and exploited by those who knew it was an issue that could get votes and donations.

If you want to convince me you have a genuine caring for the unborn, show me some meaningful concern for what happens to those children once they're born…or for the women whose lives are harmed in some way by being denied the right to control their own bodies. After she had me (by emergency Caesarean section), my mother was told that she came close to dying in the process and shouldn't try it again…which explains why I was an only kid. When I hear people insist that abortion must be illegal in all cases, I think, "Gee, that person who claims to be 'pro-life' doesn't put much value on the lives of women like my mother who may risk death in childbirth."

That and one other thing helped shape my thinking on this matter. Around 1978, a lady friend had me join her in a counter-demonstration against a group that was picketing what they claimed — probably wrongly — was an "abortion clinic." It wasn't really but the protesters got physical trying to deny entrance to pregnant ladies seeking much-needed free care to keep them healthy until they could give birth…and, of course, after. I may tell that story here one of these days but I don't want to write it up now when I don't have time to do it properly. And again, I'm not sure this is the right blog for this topic at all.

Today, I'm mostly distressed at this war escalating. I just saw an ecstatic person on CNN saying that the issue of Abortion in America has now been settled once and for all. I think the opposite. I think we're going to be hearing about it every day a pregnant lady or a provider is arrested…or some woman dies because she couldn't obtain a safe 'n' legal termination of a pregnancy. Which sadly may mean every day.

The fine folks who bring you Comic-Con International announced today their eighth and final list of Special Guests at this year's convocation and — surprise, surprise! — I'm on it. I'll be moderating a bunch of panels, including most of the ones I usually do, and I'll be having a very good time there.

The con starts in 26 days (!) and the full schedule of events should be posted two weeks before each day. That is to say the schedule for Thursday, July 21 will be posted on July 7, the schedule for Friday, July 22 will be posted on July 8 and so on. If you're attending, I urge you to study these schedules when they're posted. Make a list of what you want to attend and also list some second choices if you can't get into your first choices. You will have a much better time there if you do a little advance planning of this kind.

Also — and you can do this right now by clicking here — check out the convention policy regarding vaccinations and face masks.

I guess that's all I have to say right now. I'm sure I'll think of other things.

Peter Parlagreco sent me a photo that he found online and he has a question about it. The photo below is a better copy that I had in my files but here's Peter's question…

I just saw this photo on Tom Brevoort's site and was wondering if it really is you in the Red Skull mask. If yes, any story attached to it? Just curious.

Yes, it's me…and once more, I can't imagine how someone couldn't recognize me.

Sadly, there's not much of a story here. This was taken back in the days when my pal Steve Sherman and I were working for Jack and also — though we would soon quit — for a company called Marvelmania International. Marvelmania was doing mail order stuff with Marvel Comics, taking orders for posters and decals and stuff and, once in a rare while, actually sending the folks who ordered what they ordered.

Marvelmania had done a promotion with the Marine Corps "Toys for Tots" charity and during it, the guy who ran Marvelmania had persuaded various firms to donate items to the campaign that he might be able to then also use for Marvelmania's own concerns. Among these were costumes of Spider-Man, Thor and Captain America.

There was then a gent named Don Post who made and sold rubber masks of all sorts of ghastly creatures. Among other places, they were advertised in the rear of Warren Magazines like Creepy and Famous Monsters of Filmland. The Marvelmania guy saw one of those ads, noticed a skull mask that Mr. Post sold and said, "Hey, we can get a costume of the Red Skull!" He persuaded Don Post Studios to donate one and Steve spray-painted it red…so we had a reasonable facsimile of Captain America's major villain! Mr. Post later began selling them in red but I don't know if he got the idea from us.

One day when Steve and I went out to Thousand Oaks to work with Jack, we took the mask along. I put it on. Steve took the photo. That's about the extent of the story. Don Post died in 1979 but apparently his son has made arrangements with this company to reissue and extend the mask line, and they'll soon be bringing them out. You can see the skull mask over on their website.

PBS is airing the Mark Twain Award Ceremony in which the coveted prize is bestowed on Jon Stewart. If you don't watch the whole show, at least watch Mr. Stewart's terrific acceptance speech…

With so much other news at the moment, little attention is being paid to the fact that Dr. William Henry Cosby Jr. (or did they take back the doctorate?) lost a civil trial. He must pay $500,000 to a woman who said that he took her to the Playboy Mansion and assaulted her in 1975 when she was sixteen years old. Cosby did not attend the trial but the jury heard part of a deposition in which he said he had no memory of the woman, Judy Huth.

But there was a photo of them together at the mansion and the jury apparently believed her testimony on the witness stand. (One juror is quoted as saying that in this news story.) Perhaps Mr. Cosby would have been believed if he'd shown up and taken the stand, perhaps not. I would guess that he felt that showing up there would cause the case to get a lot more attention and he's happy now that it hasn't. And what's half a million to him? He probably paid his lawyers a lot more than that.

One of those lawyers said it was a partial victory for Cosby because he was assessed no punitive damages. That ain't much of a victory. It is now more of an established fact than before that Cosby is a rapist. Sexual contact with a woman under the age of consent is statutory rape just about everywhere…even at the Playboy Mansion.

• "Woke" has joined the list of words that people use with so many different definitions that when anyone says it, I have no idea what they're trying to say.

A lot of folks think Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941) was W.C. Fields' best movie. Less arguable is that it was his last starring vehicle and I think the last time he ever participated in the writing of a movie he was in. The few films he made after it before passing away in '46 were glorified cameos in other folks' flicks…and the best of these appearances was cut and never seen by audiences of the time.

We're talking about Tales of Manhattan, a 1942 "anthology" movie with different writers and casts for each of five stories. It was originally six but one whole story was cut and it was the one that featured Fields and also Phil Silvers and Margaret Dumont. Many years later, this footage was found and here it is for your viewing pleasure.

Silvers told me the following story about it: It was shot on a tight schedule and the producers were concerned because Fields was taking swigs from a thermos he'd brought to the set. They presumed it was booze, went to him and begged him not to drink during shooting. He was promised all the alcohol he could consume if he would only abstain until the end of principal photography — an offer which could have made the film go farther overbudget than Heaven's Gate.

Mr. Fields denied he was tippling. He explained to them that it was only lemonade and he was drinking it to settle a small stomach problem. Then he turned to Mr. Silvers, poured him a drink from the thermos and asked him to taste it and affirm that it was indeed lemonade.

Silvers sipped, tasted pure gin and told the producers, "It's lemonade all right." There was a certain amount of Bilko in Phil Silvers even before he played that character and there was a certain amount of gin in W.C. Fields most of the time. Here's that story that was cut from Tales of Manhattan. It's fun but not as interesting as the story about the thermos…

• Based on the Jan. 6 hearings, it would seem the new definition of "pedophile" is anyone who prevents Donald Trump from getting whatever he wants. I guess to some that counts as child abuse.

From Kay Lemley comes this message…

Everyone in my house really enjoyed watching Frank Ferrante's Groucho on PBS, so much so that we ordered the DVD because it has more stuff on it. I've been seeing you rave about this fellow for years on your blog and now I see why. He really is amazing. I think you mentioned that you don't usually care for impersonator shows but this one was an exception for you. I feel the same way.

I saw the thank-you to you in the end credits but I was wondering why you weren't anywhere in the film or the extras. You're his number one fan. Couldn't he squeeze you in somewhere?

Ah, but I am in there. In fact, i'm in the very last shot of the show. It's this photo of Frank with his hero, Hal Holbrook, the great portrayer of Mark Twain along with his many other accomplishments…

This photo was taken by my friend, the lovely actress (and photographer) Jewel Shepard when she, Frank and I went to see Mr. Holbrook perform.  You see that person standing behind Hal?  That's yours truly.  I don't know why you didn't recognize me.  (And if anyone doubts it's me, the video in this post is proof. Jewel shot that too.)

Let's say you got a job working at McDonald's. How do you make those breakfast sandwiches?

And how do you make a cheeseburger?

And what's it like making burgers and other sandwiches at rush hour?

Paul Carpente sent me a paragraph from the IMDB listing for director Gordon Hunt. I saw many fine plays and musicals Gordon staged and he was also a fine director of the voice tracks for Hanna-Barbera cartoons. He directed hundreds of shows there, some of them written by me. An awful lot of what I know about voice directing, I learned watching Gordon.

Anyway, Paul sent me this from Gordon's IMDB page and asked me if it was true…

While working on Yogi's Treasure Hunt (1985), Gordon Hunt was looking over a storyboard, and, what seemed to be a new character, caught his eye. He asked writers Mark Evanier and Earl Kress, who this "new character" was. They both told him it was Yogi's friend, "Boo Boo", and was not a new character.

The answer to Paul's question is: No, that is not true. Not only have I no memory of such a thing but well before Yogi's Treasure Hunt, Gordon had directed a number of Yogi Bear projects for Hanna-Barbera with Boo Boo in them, including a prime-time Yogi special that I wrote in 1982. Gordon was not a seasoned expert in Hanna-Barbera history — there were few of those in the building apart from Earl, myself and Scott Shaw! — but he certainly knew stuff like that.

Would someone who knows how to tell IMDB that they're wrong please tell IMDB that they're wrong?

Paul also asks why, if I worked on Yogi's Treasure Hunt, my name is nowhere on it. Because I quit, that's why. I was the first writer on it and Joe Barbera asked me to do it and told me he trusted me to make it work. I thought that's what I was doing but around about the second or third script, Mr. Barbera suddenly decided to take an interest in the show and started coming up with all sorts of different ideas to change this or change that.

It was a low budget series for syndication and because of my love of the characters — and the fact that Daws Butler would be voicing the ones he'd voiced in my childhood — I took a considerable cut in pay to do it. That might have made me a little less good-natured about rewriting scripts to please Mr. Barbera, who I felt was reneging a bit on his promise not to micro-manage. I respected the hell out of that man and as such, I had a little trouble disagreeing with him and arguing with him, even though such arguments were always cordial and friendly.

Some of the disagreements were actually funny and much talked-about in the halls of the studio. The premise of the show (not my idea) was that in each episode, Yogi and his friends would go on some treasure hunt. In one episode, I had them seeking a rare jewel which had the power to enable its bearer to become a beloved singing star and to sell out huge stadiums. I called it The Neil Diamond.

J.B. laughed at that but said, "At this studio, we don't like doing puns on the names of celebrities" and I said, "You mean like Yogi Bear?" He gave me one of those looks — anyone who worked for him can do one for you — and insisted it be changed anyway. A week or two later, after a few more such disagreements, I decided it was time for me to stop working for Hanna-Barbera and did, though I remained on good terms with J.B., lunched with him a few more times and turned down a few offers to return. I believe it was Tom Ruegger who took over my position and took Yogi's Treasure Hunt more in the direction the boss wanted. Earl Kress wrote some of them.

Lastly, Paul asks, "On your IMDB, it states 11 years has passed between your work on Superman and The Garfield Show. Why did you take such a long break from cartoons?" I didn't really.  I was hired for a few projects that didn't get made and for a few that did but I removed my name from them or never put it on in the first place.

Also, in-between Superman and The Garfield Show, I wrote on and voice-directed Channel Umptee-3, and I started on The Garfield Show a year or so before the dates they list for it. There can often be a wide gap between the time you start writing a cartoon show and when finished episodes are broadcast. But yeah, there have been periods when I've been so occupied with non-cartoon projects that I didn't do as many cartoons.

I mention all this to point out that while IMDB is a good resource, it's far from exact. They have me down as writing about a third of the episodes of The Garfield Show that I actually wrote.  They have me writing three episodes of Channel Umptee-3. My pay stubs say eight. They have me doing 10 episodes of the Mother Goose and Grimm cartoon show but I did 13, and I did five episodes of CBS Storybreak, not four…and so on. I am way overcredited on Thundarr the Barbarian.

Please: Don't anyone take it as a personal crusade to try and correct all this stuff. They'll never get it right and I don't care that much. But do fix the thing about Gordon Hunt. He was a much smarter guy than that anecdote makes him out to be.