Here's the first episode of Quark, a situation comedy that I kinda liked for all of its eight episodes. It was a parody of shows not unlike Star Trek and it was created by Buck Henry, who wrote this installment and no others. But the writing was clever and the cast — headed by Richard Benjamin — was strong and I thought it deserved more of a chance than NBC gave it…or most of their new shows in the seventies.

People are blasting Trump for saying that Kamala Harris is "mentally disabled" but my thought is "Well, that one's not gonna stick." It just reeks of desperation…and really, he'd be saying that about anyone who opposed him. If someone isn't blindly loyal to the guy, they're ugly and communist and fascist and their business is failing and they're weird and crooked and lazy and they hate America and they're rude and dishonest and headed for prison and any other insult that pops into that panicked mind of his.

I think one of the reasons he's not doing better now is that even a lot of his loyal supporters don't take this kind of thing seriously. They may still want the kind of anti-immigrant government he promises. They may have been snookered into believing certain lies about how the economy did under him versus how it is under Biden/Harris. But they don't think all his insults are literal. They're just enjoying the hatred.

Meanwhile, Jonathan V. Last takes us through the scam that is the new Trump watch.

And Steve Benen takes us through a real assessment of how the economy is doing.

Since Trump couldn't win my state if he gave every Californian one of those $100,000 watches and a neck massage, I don't see a lot of political ads on TV. But I see 'em online and don't see a lot that I think will move votes. This one, narrated by Sam Elliott, might…

Here's a terrific interview with John Oliver. I was reminded how when he left The Daily Show, I and a lot of my friends thought, "Well, that sounds like a dumb career move" and how wrong we were. He now has a popular, award-winning show which may go on indefinitely and it's one that we (a lot of my friends and I) all love and respect. I think one of the reasons the show works is how honest Mr. Oliver is. I don't mean that he gets everything right but he sure tries hard and not just because there's a good living to be made there.

If you watch/listen to this, stick around for the whole thing. The last ten minutes are the best part…

The New York Times talked to everyone who was present for the first telecast of Saturday Night Live who'd talk to them and they printed some remembrances. They also reviewed what reviewers thought about the show in its first year.

If The Internet has taught me nothing — and I readily admit that's possible — it's that some people get angry when you don't like something they like or when you like something they don't. I can kinda understand when it's something like me liking Kamala Harris and them liking Donald Trump. After all, the vote in California might be so close that my one vote (for some reason, I only get one) might cause her to win the state, thereby denying its 54 electoral votes and therefore the Presidency to Donald.

But some folks in my e-mailbox and online forums get really upset when my tastes don't line up precisely with theirs on matters where mine don't make a bit of difference to their lives. It's well known that I think cole slaw is the single most repulsive thing anyone could possibly put in their mouths and this bothers some people who love it as if I'm about to make it illegal and get it banned. This is not likely to happen and, believe me, I've tried. Lord, how I've tried.

Someone is really, really upset with me because I have a low opinion of the 1966 Marvel Superheroes Cartoons. And someone else is really, really, really bothered that I don't love all those old movie serials about heroes like Captain America. The latter accused me of not respecting the creative genius of Captain America's creators, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, even though I pointed out that they didn't like that serial either. Maybe he thinks that Joe Simon and Jack Kirby didn't respect the creative genius of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

I think some people need to learn to live in a world where other people have other opinions. Some others — or maybe some of the same people — need to learn to live in a world where others have different skin colors or religions or maybe don't even conform to certain rigid ideas about genders. Life is so much easier when you don't let differences make you furious.

Hey, I've got a great one here…one of my favorite movies, The Comic starring Dick Van Dyke and Michele Lee. Van Dyke plays a comedian from the silent days whose story has elements of the lives of Stan Laurel and Buster Keaton and a few others. Billy Bright is the name of the comedian that Dick plays and he's not a nice man. That may be one of the reasons why this film didn't go great at the box office when it came out in 1969.

Van Dyke gives a great performance and there are a lot of good character actors in here including Carl Reiner (who directed and co-wrote), Ed Peck, Pert Kelton, Gavin MacLeod, Barbara Heller, Fritz Feld and even Mickey Rooney. (See if you can figure out which actor in this film was dubbed by June Foray and you'll probably notice at least three separate voiceovers by Paul Frees.)

There are a lot of riches in here including a look at one of my favorite places in the world, the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax — which was still open and operating when this movie was made. I thought it was a great film and I hope you do too…

As Heather Digby Parton notes, Trump is really hammering this McDonald's thing hard and I can't believe it's going to move many (maybe any) votes. The folks who'll believe it matters are the ones who would never not vote for him. I can understand scaring people into thinking Kamala Harris is going to import billions of illegal aliens into your neighborhood but who would feel personally threatened if she fibbed about making fries at McDonald's four decades ago?

I actually don't believe anyone thinks any political candidates tell the truth 100% of the time, not even Trumpers who claim their guy does. If you're for a given candidate, you rationalize their omissions or exaggerations as "This is what they have to say to get elected."  And you want them to get elected so you excuse it because their opponent is a bigger liar and one must fight fire with fire.  I don't think I've ever for voted for someone who didn't at least color the truth a little. Maybe Jimmy Carter didn't but that might also explain why he lost in 1980.

I have a number of e-mails about this. Bruce Jones wrote me that Harris might be able to dig up Social Security records to show that she was paid by some McDonald's franchisee. Garth Gersten wrote me to say, in part…

Trump got his McDonald's talking point from someone (I forget who) that says Harris did not list McDonald's on her resume when she applied to be a prosecutor, nor at any other time. But, most people don't list fast food jobs they had in high school when they are applying for a job after graduate school, unless they were relevant. And working at a McDonald's for a summer during high school is not relevant to 99% of the jobs out there – unless, perhaps, you were a "manager."

I do not think she would have been required to list it on her application to take the California State Bar, either. I don't recall listing my high school job on my application to the California State Bar.

Yeah. And I never had a McDonald's-type job but my résumé omits about 80% of the things I've done — mostly stuff I didn't think would impress anyone or because it was something I'd like to forget.

As Will Saletan notes in this video listing the Top 10 Stupidest Trump Lines, Trump is now claiming that "someone" (no name given) tracked down the manager of the McDonald's (again, unnamed) where Harris claims she worked and this person remembered that 40+ years ago, she didn't work there. The other nine stupid things are also pretty stupid…

By the way: I'm not following the Eric Adams matter much but if he dunnit — and it's sure sounding like he did — this is another one of those cases where two things would be true of a scandal involving a public official. One falls under the general category of "Gosh, that person broke the law" and the other falls under the heading of "Gosh, that person was stupid to think they could get away with this." Either one is a perfectly fine reason they shouldn't be in power.

What are you waiting for? Order yours here!

91 people who worked for and with Donald Trump explain why he is unfit to be President of the United States.

Let's check in on Everything You Need To Know About Saturday Night Live as it takes us through Season 13 — a pretty good season as I recall…

My old pal Pat O'Neill just wrote me with a good point…

As you probably know, most McDonald's restaurants are not owned nor operated by the McD's corporation. Rather, they are owned and operated by franchisees who pay a fee to McD's for use of the name and its products and trademarks.

Therefore, when VP Harris says she worked for McDonald's when she was in college, she does not mean the parent company. She means a local businessman who held the franchise in her town (and who may very likely no longer hold said franchise, since we are talking about some three decades ago).

Trump's challenge on this matter is beyond ridiculous; it is meaningless.

Right. And Trump probably knows that…or someone pointed that out to him. Unless Harris held onto some pay stub from a long time ago or has a photo of her in a McDonald's uniform, there's probably no way she can prove she worked at one. And even if she did, Trump would just say it was a forgery…you know, like Barack Obama's birth certificate. He does have this blanket argument that every statistic, witness, video clip or anything that proves he's wrong about anything is fake. If Harris said today was Thursday, he'd accuse her of using a fake calendar.

I'm back "live" and what I'm seeing online is a number of polls that say Kamala Harris is ahead 3-5 points and a number of polls that say it's about even. I'm going to believe the former but act like the latter is true.

And it's another good day to not be Rudy Giuliani. I would love to know if this man ever pauses, looks back over his actions since 9/11 and wonders how he possibly could have taken that wrong turn at Albuquerque.

Donald Trump keeps screaming that Kamala Harris is lying when she says she once worked at a McDonald's. I wish someone would ask him how he knows this. The McDonald's company has made no statement whatsoever about this and we don't even know if they have records that would settle the matter either way. Without that, I can't begin to imagine how anyone could prove someone did or didn't work at a McDonald's several decades ago.

I don't believe Trump really has a health care plan for this nation. But to the extent he does, here's what is known about it.

Finally, here's another blast from the past reminding us why Donald Trump should not be President again…

The Marvel Comics Group began in 1939 (not under that name) and published zillions of comic books. It was not, however, until around 1966 that they made any real money doing anything besides publishing comic books. For long stretches of time in there, they didn't have many continuing characters who could be licensed or merchandised. One of the very few outside deals they made was in 1944 when publisher Martin Goodman licensed Republic Studios to make a fifteen-chapter serial of Captain America. Wikipedia notes…

It stands as the first theatrical release connected to a Marvel character; the next theatrical release featuring a Marvel hero would not occur for more than 40 years. It was the last live-action rendition of a Marvel character in any medium until Spider-Man appeared in the Spidey Super Stories segment of the children's television series The Electric Company in 1974.

The serial was reportedly the most expensive one Republic ever made but apparently almost none of that money went to Mr. Goodman's company. Joe Simon, the co-creator of the character along with Jack Kirby, told me Goodman made the deal for "almost nothing" just to get one of his characters on the screen. The deal also apparently did not include any requirement that Republic adhere to anything in the comic books or even mention in the titles that there were Captain America comic books. They were though mentioned in some of the advertising.

Those who know more about serials than I do have said that the script was not even written with Captain America in mind. There are several theories as to who the hero of the serial was originally intended to be but it does not seem to be in dispute that Republic couldn't close the deal for some other property they wanted. Thus, the script was switched to Captain America because Goodman was so eager to sell. Captain America in it is not Steve Rogers the super-soldier. He's District Attorney Grant Gardner and he uses a gun, not a shield.

I know some folks love these old serials but I find them unwatchable for more than a chapter or so. Someone has posted all fifteen chapters to YouTube and I've embedded Chapter One below. If you enjoy it, it shouldn't be hard to find and watch the other fourteen installments but I doubt a lot of you will. Neither Simon nor Kirby ever watched the whole thing…

When I was a kid, I never went away to camp. No, let me make that stronger: When I was a kid, I never even thought of going away to camp. Not for an hour, not for a minute, not for a second, not for a nano-second. Leave my wonderful home and all my comic books and go away for even a few days to a camp where I'd bunk with strangers and we'd hike and do exercises and have to eat whatever the camp served? Are you outta your ever-lovin' mind suggesting that? It's hard to think of something I would less want to do.

And my parents sure didn't ever seem to want a vacation from my presence. The first time I ever stayed overnight at a friend's house, my father was a nervous wreck.

I had seen camp in TV shows and movies. Not one thing in any of those programs or films looked like anything resembling "fun" to me, especially the pranks. I didn't even like the part in The Parent Trap where one Hayley Mills cut off the back of the other Hayley Mills' dress. Even as a child, I thought most pranks were…well, childish.

So I did not attend Mel Pierson's "Sleep Over Camp" advertised in the ad above.  I did however take swimming lessons at Mel Pierson's Swim Club, a small office complex with a pool in which kids could learn to dive, swim and generally not drown. It was located at the address in the above ad…and all this, of course, raises the question, "Who the hell was Mel Pierson?"  I don't think I ever met him and I certainly never heard anything about the man.

I had to wait until they invented The Internet and I could use our dear friend Google to find out that Mr. Pierson was a leading figure in the Los Angeles Parks and Recreations community and that then-Mayor Sam Yorty appointed him to the commission governing such matters for the city.  I also found online lots of news clippings about Pierson losing that position and being indicted on various allegations of bribery and financial improprieties.

Makes sense. That was exactly the kind of person Sam Yorty tended to elevate to positions of trust. Personally, I would have indicted Mr. Pierson for having a not-very-clean, not-very-private dressing room situated so as to not give children like myself a secure place to change in and out of our swimwear.

For a year or two, my parents took me weekly to Mr. Pierson's Swim Club where an array of teenage "instructors" taught us to swim in Mr. Pierson's aggressively-chlorinated pool.  Later, for reasons I don't recall, we switched to the Tocaloma Swim Club that was over on Santa Monica Boulevard near Westwood.  It had an Indian motif that would probably now seem racially-insensitive.  When my mother passed away and we cleaned out her house, I found my Tocaloma Swim Club membership card and my diploma and some sort of Red Cross certification.

But Mel Pierson's was where I learned how to swim and I was okay at it, I guess. Most of my lessons were handled by an instructor there named Beverly who seemed like a grown-up to me but was probably in her late teens…maybe early twenties. I remember her being very nice and very pretty and I remember one moment in particular. It was one of those things you don't forget when it happens at that age.

We — the dozen other students, Beverly and I — got out of the pool at the end of the lesson and toweled-off. Beverly had some sort of pamphlet or brochure she wanted to give me and she told me to go get dressed and then to come to the office. I had about fifteen minutes before one or both of my parents would be by to pick me up.

I went into the crummy little boys' locker area which I recall as something made out of cinder blocks with a shower, a bench and a row of unlockable lockers.  It was not inside a building and it had no roof on it.  Anyone upstairs in the office building could have looked out a window and seen us changing.   I quickly showered off the chlorine, dried myself, put on my clothes and then I went into the office where Beverly was waiting for me. She was all alone in there and had taken off her swimsuit. She had not though put on anything else.

I had seen girls without anything on before but they were all around my age. Beverly was most definitely a woman. She acted embarrassed and I acted embarrassed and I later concluded that I was but she really was not. The way she had not immediately tried to cover up made me decide she'd planned it, as did the fact that…well, what the heck was she doing naked in the office anyway? And no, I can't tell you why she arranged this. You can make up a reason that's just as likely as anything I could offer. But she sure took her own sweet time about putting on some clothing and she couldn't find the pamphlet she's said she wanted to give me.

I can tell you why I was embarrassed. I had no idea how to react or what to do or what not to do. I felt like I'd done something wrong but I couldn't figure out what. I can also tell you it never happened again and that it was not why we soon took our business to the Tocaloma Swim Club. I didn't tell my parents about what had happened. In fact, I didn't tell anyone about it and Beverly never mentioned it or any pamphlets in subsequent swimming lessons.

This was the closest thing to a sexual impropriety I was involved in during my childhood. These days, you hear a lot about kids being molested or touched inappropriately or prematurely sexualized and that's, of course, awful as well as illegal. It just never happened to me and if it ever happened to any of my friends, I never heard about it. I wonder if it was occurring and it was just kept more of a secret.

Well, let me walk back one thing: I did tell one person about my encounter with naked Beverly. I told my mother…but I told her in 2011, a year before she died. I was 59 years old at the time.

In her last years, my mother and I talked on a lot of topics we'd never raised before. She asked me about various girl friends I'd had, especially the ones she'd met. She asked me if I'd ever tried recreational drugs or alcohol and was unsurprised to hear I hadn't. She asked me what went on at our house when she and my father went off for a few days in Vegas and I had the place to myself.

She also told me some things — like details of her first marriage — that they'd kept from me. They were things they thought I was too young to hear and then they forget to tell me when I was older. All that frank, "no secrets" conversation led to a remarkable bonding of mother and "child."

I told her the story about Beverly and she thanked me for not telling her about it at the time. This was because — and I think these were her exact words — "I would have had to do something about it and I'm not sure I would have done the right thing." My parents had a pretty easy time raising me since I never got into trouble and she, at least, liked it that way. (My father, I suspect, might have appreciated more opportunities to feel like a father by disciplining his son or getting him out of jams. I just never required either.)

She did say one thing that I thought was funny. She asked me if I was still as good a swimmer as I was at those two swim clubs. I said yes. I have a swimming pool at my house and while it isn't large enough to do serious laps and long-distance, I can still swim. She said, "Good. And I would hope that every so often, you also get to see what a naked woman looks like."