You may have noticed that all the music videos I've posted of someone singing solo-four-part harmony on Billy Joel's "For the Longest Time" were all done by men. Until recently, I'd never come across one with a lady singing it in four-part harmony with herself. Well, now I have. Here's Ashley Suppa singing four-part harmony with herself.

This video runs 35 minutes and I'm recommending it to anyone who is conflicted or baffled or lacking in a basic understanding of what's going on in this country with regards to immigration, legal or otherwise. It's a verbal essay by Adam Ragusea, a podcaster/content creator to whom folks usually look for tips on the best way to cook dinner. Nevertheless, he has a view of The Problem that is sprinkled with hard facts, some of which might make you say, "Hmm…I never thought of it that way."

I know it's long and there's a commercial near the beginning that you'll have to wade through. But he's the first person I've seen discuss this crucial topic in simple, comprehensive and non-hysterical terms. If you can spare the 35 minutes, I think it'll make you think — a lot…

Apparently, the surprise package I received was part of what is called a Brushing Scam. I don't think I did myself any damage but we'll see.

I did not click on or even see any QR code…so if what I'm learning on the 'net is true, the only thing the scammers are doing now is to write fake reviews of products and affix my name. Okay — but couldn't they have done that without sending me a box of crappy stuff? What am I missing here?

So this is weird. Yesterday afternoon, I received a package from an outfit called GoFoExpress containing a set of ear buds and a "smart watch" that looks like it would be overpriced if they paid you to take it. It measures what it says is my heart rate but if my heart is really pumping at the rate it says, I will explode before I finish writing this post. It also gives a current time that is not current anywhere on this planet with no instructions on how to change it and it counts the steps I take. As I was sitting here, not budging from my office chair, it counted 10 steps. So it's about as accurate as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — maybe a little more so.

But here's the real weird part. The package was addressed to me but I didn't order either of these things. I didn't order anything from GoFoExpress, which I gather is not a company from which you order. You order something from some other company overseas and then that company packs up a big crate of smaller boxes to be delivered to customers in the United States, ships the big crate to GoFoExpress here and they mail each package individually to its intended recipient. At least, I think that's how it works.

Absolutely nothing in or on the package told me what firm thought they were filling an order I'd placed so I located online a phone number for GoFoExpress and called them. After a semi-reasonable length of time, a man came on the line. English was clearly not his first language and maybe not his second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth, and he was probably not located on the same continent as I inhabit. I gave him the tracking number on the mailing label and he looked it up and told me he was sorry my package was late but it would be delivered soon. Just when, he could not say.

I told him it had already been delivered and he made a sound that I think was intended to ask, "Well then, why are you calling?" I explained to him that I hadn't ordered what was in the package. He told me that it had to be a gift from a friend. I told him none of my friends would send me something as crummy as what was in the box. He said something else I could barely understand but I think it was "Well, maybe not a good friend."

I asked him to tell me what company sent this to them to send to me. He told me he did not have that information, could not get that information and there was no way anyone at GoFoExpress could possibly give me that information. And then, of course, he asked, "Is there any other way I can assist you?" That was the end of the call.

I vaguely recall ordering a computer accessory a few months ago from some firm that may not be in this country. I never received it and my credit card was never charged so maybe this is them accidentally sending me the wrong thing. If it isn't that, I have no explanation…and I've decided to stop thinking about this. If my heart rate is even a fourth of what they say it is, I may not have much time left in this world. I wouldn't want to waste any more of it thinking about this stupid package. And by the way, while I've been writing this seated in a chair, I've apparently taken five more steps.

Here's another solo-four-part-harmony version of Billy Joel's "For the Longest Time." This is Zach Timson and since he recorded this during the COVID lockdown, we forgive him for changing the words…

Kamden Spies wants to know…

While I know a lot about comics, I don't know a lot about the magazine distribution end of the industry. Throughout comics history, lots of titles transition from one to another. For example, a title like Wacky Duck at Timely in 1947 ended with issue #7 but its numbering continued as Justice, a crime comic. Moon Girl, A Romance at E.C. became Weird Fantasy. Why are titles of the books changed instead of cancelling them and starting the numbering from scratch? Also did this make a difference to the subscribers of these titles?

Once upon a time, comic books sold a fair amount of their press runs via mail subscriptions. Most charged the same price — $1.20 for twelve issues of a comic that sold for a dime on newsstands — and some of those offers came with a bonus prize of some sort, especially on Dell Comics. Walt Disney's Comics and Stories sold a huge number of copies that way.

Such deals were possible because the post office offered a discount rate for magazines. They called it Second Class Mail but now it's called Periodicals. To qualify for Second Class Mail, comic book publishers had to do certain things…like there was some odd ruling that your publication wasn't a magazine unless it had at least one page of text in it. That's why comics of that era all had one-page text stories in them…and that requirement was later filled with a letters page since it cost less to print letters than to pay someone to write a text story. At times, a comic didn't qualify as a magazine if it was all full of one feature so that was why, for example, the Uncle Scrooge comic book always featured a short story of Gyro Gearloose.

And the publisher had to pay a deposit for each publication that had Second Class mailing privileges. The problem with that was that if you canceled a comic, you'd have to wait a few months for the postal folks to refund your deposit. So some publishers tried to sneak a new magazine in under an old deposit. They'd continued the numbering and claim that, in one of the examples you cite, Justice wasn't a new comic but rather a continuation of Wacky Duck.

(To answer a question someone will ask if I don't say this here: Nowadays, we know that a #1 issue will often sell especially well because some folks will buy extra copies in the expectation that those issues will be more valuable someday. But back then, there was no such speculation and a #1 issue often sold less because if was a first issue. Some retailers were hesitant to give a new comic adequate display on their racks. So continuing the numbering of a canceled comic as a different book also helped get around that obstacle.)

The tale of Moon Girl was even more convoluted than you describe. It started as Moon Girl and the Prince. Then they made the slight change to calling it just Moon Girl. Then they decided that maybe a crime comic would sell better so they renamed it Moon Girl Fights Crime. Then they decided that maybe a love comic would sell better so they dumped Moon Girl completely and called their new love comic A Moon…A Girl…Romance. Each time, they tried to trick the post office into viewing the new book as a modification of an old one so no new deposit was required.

Finally, they decided to drop that one and start a new book called Weird Fantasy but they kept the numbering going in the hope that the post office wouldn't notice. In this case, they did…and a new deposit was required.  Sometimes, they got away with it and sometimes, they didn't.

I don't know how often subscribers complained. I guess it depended on how much they liked or didn't like the new comic they were suddenly receiving. I know when I was a kid, a relative offered to buy me a subscription to any Dell comic. I selected Looney Tunes but due to some processing error, I began receiving Tom & Jerry. I didn't mind much. If they'd sent me issues of Annie Oakley then, I might have minded.

And now, here's Sam Robson singing solo-four-part-harmony on Billy Joel's "For the Longest Time." Or maybe this is eight-part harmony. Or nine.  Or ten…

The second the shooting of those legislators in Minnesota was reported, we had people all over the news and the Internet trying to blame it on whoever they considered the opposition party and its leaders. You'd think they'd wait until at least a little was known about the alleged shooter but I guess they never figure there's time for that. FactCheck.org looks into some of the wilder leaps to false conclusions.

Daniel Dale of CNN lists some of the not-true things Donald Trump said at G7.

And Steve Benen looks at some of Trump's claims to be able to "end all wars" and bring peace to the entire world. Those claims aren't aging well.

Back here, we were talking about the various specials and programs featured on an anthology series called ABC's Wide World of Entertainment. I said, with regard to the concept of rotating shows, "I suppose that worked somewhere at some point on one of the three networks we had then but no example springs to mind." A lot of you wrote in to remind me of The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie, a series which featured in rotation, McCloud, McMillan and Wife, and Columbo…and then in its last season, Hec Ramsey.

I suppose that series was a hit but what I was thinking of what ABC's Wide World of Entertainment was two out of four weeks — a series which featured all sorts of different programs, many of them one-shots, in no predictable pattern.

Some of you also reminded me of one of the one-shot specials on ABC's Wide World of Entertainment. It was this special on the history of the game show — which was never on ABC — What's My Line? It's mostly made up of Mystery Guest segments…

Not that anyone needs any further proof that Mike "MyPillow Guy" Lindell is a few feathers short in the head-stuffing department but…

Late Monday, a Colorado-based federal jury ruled that he defamed Eric Coomer, a former employee of Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems and ordered Lindell to pay $2.3 million bucks in damages. Mr. Lindell immediately sent a text message to Rolling Stone that said, "Awesome win! MyPillow 100% innocent!!!!"

He learned this at the feet of The Master, D.J.T.: When you lose, just insist that you won!

So it's like 36 days until this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego…time for my way-overused joke about how if you're going and you'll need a parking space, leave now.  To answer the two most-asked questions I'm getting right now about this stellar annual event: No, my best friend Sergio Aragonés will not be at the con and no, I can't help you find a hotel room.

Well, let me elaborate: Sergio is in good health.  He's just choosing to not attend.  As for hotel rooms, I'm not an expert on this stuff as it's been a long time — thirty years at least — since I've booked my own room for one of these. I will suggest that if you can't find lodging close to the San Diego Convention Center (or can't afford what you can find), you may need to widen your search area and then figure out how to get to the con each day. A friend of mine reported that it was cheaper for to him to book far, far away and figure on paying for Lyft each day than to pay for the only room he could locate within walking distance of the festivities.

My schedule currently has me moderating or appearing on seventeen panels…and yes, I know that's crazy. Fine. It's crazy. I sometimes do crazy things. It comes from reading too many comic books. Stop trying to bring me to my senses. I abandoned them a long time ago and haven't missed them a whole lot since then.

The convention prefers I not post my schedule until they post the whole schedule…which they'll do two weeks before each day of the con. That is to say the schedule for Thursday of the convention will be online two weeks before Thursday of the convention, the schedule for Friday of the convention will be online two weeks before Friday of the convention and so on. If you are attending, I urge you to study it carefully and jot down what you want to attend…and what you'll attend if you can't get into your first choices.

I also suggest you just forget about attending anything in Hall H. Just get that kind of nonsense out of your head right this minute. If you're even thinking of trying that, read this about what that involves. And yes, I know that a guy who's doing seventeen panels has no friggin' business telling anyone they're doing something foolish.

It's probably safe though to tell you that I'll be doing all of my usual panels — in the same time slots they're always in and in the same rooms they were in last year. This includes two Cartoon Voices panels and the famous/infamous Quick Draw! game.

Are you perhaps interested in some stats? This will be the fifty-fourth of these conventions I've attended. If you'd like the whole list, let me refer you to this list I compiled last year.

Counting both Comic-Con Internationals and WonderCons, this year will be our 29th Quick Draw! game. I recently made up this list of all of them and who was on each one.

And counting Comic-Con Internationals, WonderCons and the ones I did online during the worst of COVID, the two Cartoon Voices panels we do this year will be #61 and #62 for me. I also recently made up this list of all of them and who was on each one. (I am still doing research and making changes on this list. If you have anything to offer, please let me know…but I think it's pretty complete and accurate now.)

Lastly, someone's going to ask this if I don't address it now. In 2018, I hosted sixteen panels and appeared on one other. That's my record to date. This year, I'm hosting thirteen panels and appearing on four others. So you can decide for yourself if that's tying my old record or not. Either way, it's crazy. Like I said, I sometimes do crazy things.  Later today, I may even read some news and try to understand what's happening in this country.

And now, here's Dan Wright singing solo-four-part-harmony on Billy Joel's "For the Longest Time"…

Jon Stewart tonight on The Daily Show…

Here's a little over an hour of the anchors of The Daily Show talking about their program at a recent event at the TV Academy. They do these to perhaps impress Emmy voters and to maybe — just maybe — beat out John Oliver…

Yesterday, I linked you to Billy Joel's music video for his big hit, "For the Longest Time." It's inspired a lot of cover recordings and many of them are…well, I don't know quite what you call them. They're videos where one or two guys sing four-part harmony with themselves. Here's one I featured here before in 2014. It's a gent named Julien Neel, who has dozens of these online featuring just himself, teaming up with Sgt. Sonny, who also has dozens of these online of just him vocalizing with himself… The song is Billy Joel's "For the Longest Time"…