Watch this. I probably like this more than you will but it's only seven minutes…

In my earlier piece here, I said, "Donald Trump was the first politician to talk like that when he was in or even near the presidency. And let's not forget that." In response, I received this message from someone who said…

Not true (at least in "modern" times) Nixon was far worse. Listen to the Oval Office recordings.

Do I have to explain that I was talking about public speech intended to be heard by the public? Trump's public speech is worse than Richard Nixon's public speech.

If we had Oval Office recordings of Trump, we could compare those. Nixon's were pretty bad. Trump's might be worse. And if someone found a lot of private recordings of Lyndon Johnson, it would not surprise me if he topped them both.

Jonah Goldberg — not a pundit with whom I usually agree — writes about the use of the phrase, "Let's go, Brandon" as euphemism for "F.U., Biden!" And to the extent his position is that Democrats started this kind of thing, I think he's wrong here. There's a big difference between Robert DeNiro cussing out the President of the United States and an elected leader using or encouraging that kind of thing. I don't buy most "both sides are guilty of this" arguments but I do on this one with one exception: Donald Trump was the first politician to talk like that when he was in or even near the presidency. And let's not forget that.

But I also understand that we're getting more and more polarized in this country. More and more, it seems to me that political arguments are not about what they're really about but who gets the "win." People are against things just because "the other side" is for them. I will not be surprised if we soon see elected leaders, functioning in their job descriptions, calling each other most vulgar names imaginable…because a certain sector of their followers want that. They get tingles and think it's straight-talking when their side insults the other side.

It's indicative of a growing mindset in this country that the goal in every negotiation or confrontation is not to reach a point where both sides are happy. It's to reach a point where you get everything you could possibly want and the other side is lying on the floor, bleeding and sobbing and begging for mercy. The next time there's an opening on the Supreme Court, the idea will not be to select a justice that everyone agrees is fair and unbiased. The objective will be to select someone that the other side will loathe…someone who will "decide" based not on the merits of the case but according to which team they're on.

In a way, it may be a good thing that there's almost no ambiguity on where people stand. In another way, it's awful because it gets everyone farther and farther from reality to presume that the other side is wrong 100% of the time. I happen to think the truth sometimes lies somewhere in-between and people used to know how to be partisan but to still get to that middle-ground. These days, it's getting harder and harder.

This is another excerpt from the Stephen Sondheim 80th Birthday Celebration which was staged (and recorded for broadcast) at Avery Fisher Hall in New York on March 15, 2010. This particular song — "We're Gonna Be Alright" — was, as host David Hyde-Pierce informs us, created for the 1965 Broadway musical Do I Hear a Waltz? Mr. Sondheim famously hated the project, writing lyrics for tunes by Richard Rodgers, who was (reportedly) neither nice nor sober much of the time. As our host notes, these lyrics are a bit "naughtier" than what got on the stage back in '65.

It's performed here by Jason Danieley and Marin Mazzie…a happily-wed couple who met in 1996 performing in the off-Broadway play, Trojan Women: A Love Story. Married the following year, they were together until she passed away in 2018 following a three-year battle with ovarian cancer. I saw Ms. Mazzie on the stage a few times and she was utterly dazzling and superb. In this number, you'll see why they were often referred to as "Broadway's Golden Couple"…

Yesterday on this blog, I was probably guilty of doing something that annoys me a bit when others do it to me. I get a little irked when folks send me questions that they could answer themselves in ten seconds by Googling instead of writing to me. I got one this morning from someone asking me if Jack Kirby ever drew any covers for Daredevil. I went to Google, typed in "jack kirby daredevil cover," hit my enter key and it instantly showed me several he'd done, including the first.

So I was curious about the very funny YouTube superstar act, Men in Coats, and I asked about them without taking the time to search myself. A lot of you did and you led me to some answers. The gent with the white hair is named Mick Dow, and he started in show business as a magician. He wrote this bio on IMDB…

Mick Dow is a writer and director, best known for creating the comedy show 'Men In Coats' (100 million Hits on You Tube) and as the writer of the multi award-winning short film 'Interference' (Best Student Film at the London Short Film Festival) Mick Dow, born in Dundee Scotland and brought up in Yorkshire, started as a street performer in Covent Garden, London and went on to national tours and International acclaim with his own take on visual comedy. 5 years ago he went back to school to gain a Diploma in Film Making.Writing Credits include 2 BBC pilot comedy dramas and he has directed 3 shorts; 'Department of Fate' 'Shortcut' and 'Hope in a Box.' His next short as Writer-Director will be 'Pretty Bonnets, due for release in 2018.

If I understand correctly, his first partner in the act was a comedian named Maddy Sparham and now, when the Men in Coats perform, Dow works with a gentleman named Mark Felgate. There are videos on YouTube of them doing basically the same clever act in recent years. I think that's Mr. Felgate on the left in the photo above with Mr. Dow.

That's a lot more than I knew about them before. If you want to know about them, searching for "Men in Coats" will take you to a lot of websites and photos of guys in parkas. But if you search for "Mick Dow," you can find what you're looking for.

Since my dear friend Betty Lynn died — and "friend" understates our long relationship — there have been a lot of online articles and videos and I'm sure there are stories in the tabloids that are really, really wrong. She did not have a sad life at the end. When I saw her in Mt. Airy in June of 2019, one of the things we talked about was how happy she was living there. She was in an assisted living home where the staff took very, very good care of her. She was financially sound. She loved her doctors and caregivers. She loved being the big celebrity in town and meeting her fans. When I spoke with her after that, including the week before she died, none of that had changed.

Yes, she had health problems. If you live to be 95, you might have a health problem or two. It is not news that a woman that age had health problems. She was very content with that situation and grateful she had as few as she did and had lived as long as she had.

She was not in despair. She also did not die of a broken heart because of Andy Griffith. She and Andy were friends but they were not as close as some people like to think. I actually do have a little insight into Betty's romantic life because we talked about matters of the heart and love — hers and mine — a few times, including that last time I saw her in person.

Betty's passing was only sad in the way that the death of anyone who dies at the age of 95 is sad. We can't stop people from writing what they write about folks in the public eye…but we also shouldn't believe that if it's written somewhere or there's a YouTube video about it, it's true. There were sad parts to Betty's life and career but her last years were anything but.

This is my almost-annual post about why I don't like Halloween. Each year when I do run it, I make a few updates and changes but if you've read it in the past, you already know…

At the risk of coming off like the Ebenezer Scrooge of a different holiday, I have to say: I've never liked Halloween. For one thing, I'm not a big fan of horror movies or of people making themselves up to look disfigured or like rotting corpses. One time when I was in the company of Ray Bradbury at a convention, someone shambled past us looking like they just rose up from a grave and Ray said something about how people parade about like that to celebrate life by mocking death. Maybe to some folks it's a celebration of life but to me, it's just ugly.

I've also never been comfy with the idea of kids going door-to-door to take candy from strangers. Hey, what could possibly go wrong with that? I did it a few years when I was but a child, not so much because I wanted to but because it seemed to be expected of me. I felt silly in the costume and when we went to neighbors' homes and they remarked how cute we were…well, I never liked to be cute in that way. People talk to you like you're a puppy dog. The man two houses down…before he gave me my treat, I thought he was going to tell me to roll over and beg for it.

When I got home, I had a bag of "goodies" I didn't want to eat. In my neighborhood, you got a lot of licorice and Mounds bars and Jordan Almonds, none of which I liked even before I found out I was allergic to them. I would say that a good two-thirds of the candy I hauled home on a Halloween Eve went right into the trash can and I felt bad about that. Some nice neighbor had paid good money for it, after all.

And some of it, of course, was candy corn — the cole slaw of sugary treats. Absolutely no one likes candy corn. Don't write to me and tell me you do because I'll just have to write back and call you a liar. No one likes candy corn. No one, do you hear me?

I wonder if anyone's ever done any polling to find out what percentage of Halloween candy that is purchased and handed-out is ever eaten. And I wonder how many kids would rather not dress up or disfigure themselves for an evening if anyone told them they had a choice. Where I live, they seem to have decided against it. Each year, I stock up and no one comes. For a while there, I wound up eating a couple big sacks of leftover candy myself every year.

That didn't seem healthy so one year, I actually did this: When I was at the market picking out candy to have on hand for the little masked people, I picked a kind I didn't like. So that year when no one came, instead of eating a whole bag of candy, I found myself throwing out a whole bag of candy…and wondering why that had seemed like a good idea. What I now do is that I always have on hand, not for Halloween but for me, little bags of Planter's Peanuts and if any trick-or-treaters ever knock on my door, that's what they'll get.

So I didn't like the dress-up part and I didn't like the trick-or-treating part. There were guys in my class at school who invited me to go along on Halloween when they threw eggs at people and overturned folks' trash cans and redecorated homes with toilet paper…and I never much liked pranks. One year the day after Thanksgiving, two friends of mine were laughing and bragging how they'd trashed some old lady's yard and I thought, "That's not funny. It's just being an a-hole."

Over the years, as I've told friends how I feel, I've been amazed how many agree with me. In a world where people now feel more free to say that which does not seem "politically correct," I feel less afraid to own up to my dislike of Halloween. About the only thing I ever liked about it was the second-best Charlie Brown special.

So that's why I'll be home tonight and not up in West Hollywood wearing my Ted Cruz costume. I'm fine with every other holiday. Just not this one. I do not believe there is a War on Christmas in this country. That's just something the Fox News folks dreamed up because they believe their audience needs to be kept in a perpetual state of outrage about something. But if there's ever a War on Halloween, I'm enlisting. And bringing the eggs.

In the early days of YouTube, one of the most-watched videos was of two fellows who called themselves Men in Coats and did weird, funny stuff. A fuzzy video of their act — a bit different from the one below but made from the same longer video — got zillions of hits and even this one (with better video) has over 11 million views. I linked to it in 2005.

At the time, I asked who these guys were and where they came from and if they were still performing. I got no answers whatsoever then and I'll probably get the same number now. But who were they and what happened to them? Guys who get that many YouTube hits ought to have real and impressive careers, shouldn't they?

• One sign that COVID-19 is on the decline in my area: The supermarkets no longer have employees outside their stores sanitizing each shopping cart after each use.

Artie Forrest — he's the guy on the right in the above photo — was one of the busiest and nicest television directors in the business. Among the shows he directed (and sometimes produced) were Wonderama, The Mike Douglas Show, The Dick Cavett Show, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, That's Incredible! and many annual Rose Bowl Parades and Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades. He was especially facile at live shows — or programs where you had to get it in one take like game shows and telethons. He produced and directed many of Labor Day Jerry Lewis telethons.

I asked him once how he picked up his skills for live or one-take shows and he told me a half-hour of great stories about being Jackie Gleason's personal cameraman. He often had to "cover" Gleason (control the main camera on the guy) with no rehearsal on live shows. You had to be good to do that job…and yes, when you watch many of the classic Honeymooners episodes, you're looking at a shot taken by Artie Forrest.

He was a lovely man, beloved by everyone who ever worked with him. Sinatra loved him. Remember when Frank brought Dean Martin out to surprise Jerry Lewis on the telethon? Frank worked that out with Artie. And Jerry loved him and Jackie loved him and his crews loved him. I remember sitting with him in the control room of a TV show he was about to direct and Artie was telling me a great dirty joke.

Suddenly, he noticed that the crew wasn't doing the set-up as fast as they should have been doing it. He interrupted the dirty joke to get on the P.A. system to yell at them in very foul, furious language and they instantly sped up and finished as Artie finished telling me the dirty joke. And the crew loved him for what he'd said and felt very bad that he had to say it.

He was a very wonderful man who did his job very, very well. Artie died a few days ago at the age of 95. You can read more about him here.

Another Charlie Frye video. Being friends with this guy helps me understand how Jimmy Olsen probably felt. It's kinda neat to have a friend with amazing powers…

I'm quite pleased to be a part of this handsome volume that Abrams Books is releasing in the next few days. I got my contributor copy the other day and I'm still going over and over it, especially the parts I had nothing to do with. It's Fantastic Four #1 — the issue that started the Marvel Super-Heroes dynasty — with its panels enlarged and analyzed and discussed.

This was done once before and I was a part of it and not too thrilled with the way it came out. This is much better, thanks to Charles Kochman at Abrams Books and to Chip Kidd, designer extraordinaire. It's called Fantastic Four #1 Panel by Panel.

So you understand: The book is 8-1/2" by 11" in hardcover. In the back of it is a full reprint of F.F. #1 as it originally appeared. It has not been retouched or recolored or altered. They borrowed a copy in great condition from a collector who was willing to share his precious copy with the world and it was carefully and perfectly photographed by Geoff Spear.

The same material is printed in the front of the book but there, the panels have been enlarged — one panel to a page or sometimes one panel covers two pages. This gives us a chance to get up close and personal with the artwork…to see it as you've never seen it before. I keep doing this and it's fascinating. I see what Jack Kirby did better than I ever did before.

Between these two presentations of F.F. #1, there are essays. Chip Kidd wrote one about the making of the book. Tom Brevoort wrote one about Kirby's page composition and apparent changes made in the art. I revised and expanded mine from the previous attempt at this kind of thing. It's kind of a deep dive into who did what on the comic.

So this is me recommending this book and offering you this link to "advance order" one from Amazon. I put that in quotes since it is all printed — like I said, I have my copies — and it should be out this coming week. Hope you like it as much as I liked being a part of it.

Let's cover some loose ends. Folks are writing me with different answers to the question of whether Not Tonight, Henry! is public domain. Don't send me any more notes about this. I've decided it doesn't matter to me. The film is downloadable over at Internet Archive in case you can't live without a copy on your hard drive and you're one of the few folks who doesn't know how to download from YouTube.

I have a number of messages from folks asking what panels I'm hosting at the Comic-Con Special Edition in San Diego on Thanksgiving Weekend…and a few asking me if they can be on one of them. I hope this event will be a grand success but I won't be there to see it. I've decided I won't be comfy enough being around large quantities of human beings by November 26-28 so I'll be Comic-Conning here at Casa Evanier and not hosting panels there.

In the last month or so, three different people have written to me to ask why MAD is no longer being published. But it is. It's bi-monthly and almost all reprints but it's still available at comic book shops, though probably not all the newsstands where it was once available. Some of the reruns are very well chosen — the latest issue reprints a Kurtzman/Davis story from MAD #1! — and reproduced well, which is especially impressive when you consider who's editing MAD these days: No one! No one is listed as editor. I'm told the selections are being made by Suzy Hutchinson but her title is Art Director and she's doing a fine job. Maybe more magazines should have no editors.

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Lastly for now: In my obit for Mort Sahl, I wrote, "I hope someone now will put together a big American Masters kind of thing with clips of him at his best." Several of you, including Jeff Abraham and Steve Stoliar, wrote to remind me that one of my favorite producers of this kind of thing, Robert Weide, did indeed do just that and Mr. Weide has put a copy of it up on Vimeo. Here it is if you want to watch it.

I've watched about half and there's some great stuff in there. But I have to say that I lost a lot of respect for Mr. Sahl when he became a salesperson for Jim Garrison's "investigation" of the J.F.K. assassination, which I thought proved its theory about as well as The My Pillow Guy has proven Trump got more votes than Biden.  Sahl was about equally willing to admit to being wrong about anything.

And I lost another chunk when Sahl was making the rounds of the talk shows to argue that women were intellectually inferior to men and should all kind of accept their second-class lot in life. I'll be interested to see if that's included in the remainder of the documentary. I still admire so much of what Mort Sahl did there were times when you had to specify you were talking about an earlier time in his career.

We hear a lot these days about "Critical Race Theory." I have a theory about "Critical Race Theory." It's that very few people using that term know what "Critical Race Theory" really is, nor do they care. It's just a handy boogeyman to scare others…a way of saying, "Your children are being indoctrinated by being taught something about race that you don't want them to believe." The truth or falsity of the "theory" doesn't matter.

"Indoctrinated" is also a scary term. "In schools these days, your children are being indoctrinated about how words should be spelled or how to add one number to another and arrive at a third number."

And as Eric Boehlert points out, the press is writing a lot about "Critical Race Theory" without pointing out that (a) no one using the term seems to define it and (b) "Critical Race Theory" is really not being taught anywhere.

Hey! If you were thinking of ordering a DVD of Not Tonight, Henry!, hold off. I didn't think to look on YouTube and see if it was there but as about eight of you all just e-mailed me within a few minutes of each other, it is. It's here. This looks like a slightly different version of the movie than the one on the DVD and it's a better print with better color. Ignore the naked women. Go watch Hank Henry's reactions and takes, and listen to some of the Paul Frees narration. That is, if you're over eighteen years of age.

And does anyone know how to look up and see if this film in public domain? Given that it's on a DVD that sells for seven bucks, it may well be.