A couple of times in the past on this blog, I've recommended Mastergate, a "play on words" by the fine comedy writer, Larry Gelbart. Larry decided to try and see if he could top the absurdity of the Iran-Contra hearings with a spoof thereof. The play consists of a series of Congressional hearings. On the spot (or maybe the spit) is a soldier named Major Manley Battle who, not unlike Oliver North, arranges for some U.S. weapons to go someplace they weren't supposed to go — in this case to guerilla forces in Central America, ostensibly to use in filming a war movie. As noted in the L.A. Times noted when the play debuted on Showtime…

"I feel that these kinds of situations are going to be with us forever with government, the military and business being as big as they are," said Gelbart, whose long list of credits includes creator of TV's M*A*S*H and Tony-winning writer of City of Angels. "But first and foremost, Mastergate is a play about the language. It's not for me to discover that politicians are corrupt or full of hot air. It's really about what they and television have done to the way we speak and the way we listen."

The dialogue is amazing…and difficult. Broadway singers have been known to say that the lyrics of Stephen Sondheim are wonderful but very, very challenging for the performer who has to perform them. The speeches, many of them lengthy that Gelbart wrote for Mastergate presented the same challenge to a cast that included James Coburn, Robert Guillaume, Dennis Weaver, Bruno Kirby, Ed Begley Jr., Marcia Strassman, Darren McGavin, Henry Jones, Pat Morita, Tim Reid, Buck Henry, Jerry Ohrbach, Richard Kiley, David Ogden Stiers, Paul Winfield, Ken Howard and Ben Stein.

Why am I mentioning this now? Because its producer, David Jablin, just let me know it's now available to watch on Amazon Prime. I did and it still holds up. Here's a little preview…

The winds have died down, the lights have stopped going on and off, and things appear to be normal here — or at least as normal as they are these days, which is none too normal.

As we all know, the Electoral College today did what it always does and tallied the votes. You'd think that would be the end of it but Trump supporters are still angry and Donald's still raking in donations so on it goes. Today's odd twist was Republicans in certain states electing alternate slates of electors pledged to Donald, submitting their votes to Congress as if the two submissions had some sort of equal weight.

I don't get the legal premise here. The real electoral submission is based on an actual tally of ballots cast by everyone in the state who chose to vote. The alternate submission is a tiny bunch of people saying how they feel the election came out. Maybe I'll get a bunch of my friends together, we'll blow a few bucks on a notary public and submit a report saying that we're feeling pretty sure I won.

This Friday is the 20th anniversary of this blog. I've been at a loss as to what to do to make that day special here and I finally had a good suggestion. Stop by Friday and see what it is. But don't get your hopes up.

Power's back, internet is back, e-mail is still a bit screwy. If I haven't responded to yours, I might not have received it.

My electricity is out, my internet service is out and my e-mail is letting some messages in and out but not all of them.

The e-mail thing has been a problem for days and my hosting company says, "We know what the problem is but we haven't figured out how to fix it yet."

I assume the other two outages have to do with gusty winds in my area today. Somewhere out there, there's one guy with a pair of pliers and a soldering iron who works part-time for the DWP and part-time for Spectrum Cable and he's trying to fix both.

I'm typing this on my iPhone which is at 68%, wondering when someone will fix something. It's kind of like absolutely everything else this year.

A Sesame Street classic…

For months now, a day has rarely passed without someone asking me if I think there's a chance of a Comic-Con International 2021. Here is an absolutely accurate answer: No one knows. I don't mean no one outside the convention committee. I mean "no one" as in "no one."

Even if one assumes the various vaccines will be rolled out in a timely manner and with the best-possible rate of warding off the dread disease…

Even if one assumes that most anti-vaxxers who think "It could harm me" will then think, "Then again, getting the virus could also harm me" and decide the odds are better with the shots than without…

Even if the rates at which people get the disease and people die from the disease plunge…

…no one can say if there'll be a Comic-Con next July.

It's not just a matter of the convention committee deciding it's safe. It's not even a matter of health officials giving it a green light. It involves literally hundreds of factors that have to come together…

Like when will the convention center be ready for Comic-Con or any convention? San Diego's main campaign against the coronavirus is centered in that building where in a normal year, cosplayers cosplay, I host panels and everyone is front of you in the line for the restroom of your choice. It's now a major testing center and it's currently "home" to 830 otherwise-homeless human beings. Much remodeling has been done to house them. Before there can be Comic-Con, those people need to be relocated, the convention center has to be turned back into a convention center and a lot of Lysoling needs to be done.

Or like when will the city be ready for Comic-Con? A lot of hotels have closed for the duration. Some may not reopen at all. Some may take a long time to reopen. Same with restaurants and other vital services. The convention committee cannot just throw a switch and have a fully-functional San Diego suddenly appear where one used to be.

I am not trying to bring you to despair. I'm just trying to get you to not think there's an answer to the question; to stop wondering, "If they move it to August, will that be okay? How about September?" No one knows.

And besides, Comic-Con, though I love it dearly, is not a necessity. Getting lives functioning again is. Getting kids back to school and people back to work is. Rebuilding the economy is. I'll bet you can name fifty more. I'm optimistic this will happen and I hope a lot of it will happen before I get to host "Quick Draw!" again. And yes, I know Comic-Con will do a lot for the economy of San Diego and for the exhibitors and vendors.

But let's stop thinking this kind of thing is predictable. Because it isn't. No one knows.

He might just be the most beloved entertainer alive. He's certainly been my favorite current-day performer ever since I first discovered The Dick Van Dyke Show and that's still my all-time fave TV program.

And while I've admired some folks from afar and then been disappointed once I got to know them a little, he's never let me down. Just as nice as you'd expect him to be…and a great role model for how you can get older without getting old. Dick Van Dyke is 95 today. I am just greedy enough to want him to live forever and idealistic enough to think that if anyone can, it's him.

One of my favorite Broadway-style performers, Kelli O'Hara, favors us with a tune from the first show for which Stephen Sondheim wrote the score. This was in Saturday Night, which didn't get produced in 1954 as was planned because its producer, Lemuel Ayers, died. Since Mr. Sondheim became famous for the later shows he did that did get produced, Saturday Night has been staged a few times here and there. I don't think it ever excites people like Sondheim's later works did but some of the numbers, like this one, are pretty good…

Hi. Sorry I didn't post more yesterday but it was one of those days. Come to think of it, it's been one of those years. I'm just hoping it's not one of those decades.

I don't think I have anything to say about Trump's big Supreme Court loss that a thousand-plus other people on the 'net haven't said. Seems to me part of the problem we're now having is that one of the big things Trump supporters liked about the guy is a feeling that he always wins; that if you stick with him, things will always go your way. So they're having a lot of problems with the concept that he lost the election and that he keeps on losing. How many times has he lost Georgia so far? There were Confederate Generals who didn't lose Georgia that many times.

This is above and beyond the problem Trump seems to be having with the concept of Trump losing.

And that's all I have to say about that. Regarding all the news about vaccines, I've decided to take the same attitude about them that I've had about the whole disease from Day One: We don't know what's going to happen and when. The news obviously is better but I think we're all just wildly speculating about when we'll get it, how many people will get it, which one we'll get, what problems there will be in getting it, what side effects there may be, etc. It all may work out well before we expect but I'm taking the "It'll Happen When It Happens" outlook.

Back later today with more. Maybe.

I said, writing about a recent video link, that I preferred the song "Supercalifragi…" (well, you know the one I mean) when it was sung more like it was in the original Mary Poppins film rather than in the stage version where they fiddled around with it. But I don't mind unusual arrangements of songs when they're not in the context of the story for which they were intended. Here's a fun interpretation of the theme song from The Flintstones sung by Jacob Collier, Jacob Collier, Jacob Collier, Jacob Collier, Jacob Collier and also Jacob Collier…

• They're saying today's SCOTUS decision is "the end of the road" for Trump's crusade to overturn the election. I thought his last loss was "the end of the road." And the one before and the one before and the one before and the one before…

• Joe Biden and Kamala Harris named Time magazine Person(s) of the Year. Trump insists he won and has a mountain of evidence they cheated.

We haven't had a variant version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" on this blog for a long time. This seems like the perfect one for tonight…

I doubt there are many people reading this blog who think Donald Trump won the election and is being denied his rightful second term due to fraud. But if you know someone who believes that, see if you can get them to read this article by Steve Benen. It's about how, once again, the Trump forces claim there's tons of evidence of fraud when they're arguing their case in the court of public opinion. But when they get into a real court and have to actually produce such evidence, they retreat from those claims.

The much-admired artist Richard Corben died December 2 at the age of 80 following heart surgery. His work came to prominence around 1969, give or take a few years, in the fan press and the world of underground comics. His style was unique with an awesome sense of depth and roundness and lighting effects that no one else could duplicate; not that many didn't try. He had a technical skill, particularly at coloring via techniques of his own invention. Accomplished artists would look at Corben's pages and ask, "How does he do that?"

He was, at least at first, fiercely independent. I remember a conversation between Joe Kubert and Jack Kirby early in '71 when both were editing and drawing comics for DC. Both had seen and been impressed by Corben's work in underground comics…some of the first to be published in color. Kubert explained how he had contacted Corben and offered him work from DC, expecting the artist to leap at the chance. Joe was surprised when Corden said — this is me remembering from long ago what Kubert said Corben said — "Thank you but I just want to do my own work."

Joe said he was amazed at the turndown but that they'd spoken for a while and, Joe said, "I wish I could do that." It was one of the first times an artist was "discovered" in the fan or underground press and offered work for one of the majors…and it may have been the first time the offer was declined. Jack said, "Good for him. He knows you don't have to work for DC or Marvel to do comics."

Before that year was out, Corben's work did start appearing occasionally in Warren's magazines, Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella. And while he ultimately did work for DC and Marvel and other houses, it was always a matter of them publishing what Corben did as opposed to him trying to do what they published. He also started his own company, Fantagor Press, which published his work the way he wanted it published. He later collaborated more and segued into animation and wider areas but he managed to retain an enviable amount of control and independence.

I never met Richard Corben and neither did most people who worked in comics. He rarely attended conventions or put himself in the spotlight. But I sure thought his creations were amazing and so did most people who worked in comics…or read them. His widow Dona has announced that she will continue to manage the publication of his work and I'm sure there will always be a great demand for it.