I don't have anything in mind to write about here today. Oh, I have plenty to say about the election but even I'm getting tired of reading me writing about that. Someone send me some questions about show business or comics or writing or anything like that.

The last real KMart in the country closed today. For some unknown reason, I followed the demise of that once-strong company in all sorts of articles and analyses and I came to the conclusion that it was done in by two things. One was the rise of Amazon and other companies that have made it way too easy to shop from home. The other was really, really inept management. And I assume all those really, really inept leaders got paid really, really well for doing everything wrong.

I also see that Denny's is closing outlets, which suggests to me there's no real middle ground these days between restaurants you go to because they're cheap and restaurants you go to because they're good. I also wonder to what extent The Pandemic forced a lot of people to learn how to cook at home, making a trip to a place like Denny's less necessary.

On the other hand, In-N-Out Burger is opening new places every day including — soon — its largest-ever location. It's in Las Vegas and it'll be on the top floors (plural) of a new shopping center on The Strip. It will be over 10,000 square feet with 2,500 of that square footage being an outdoor patio seating area. That ain't bad for a place that mainly offers hamburgers and french fries and nobody likes their french fries.

Meanwhile, I see a number of discussions on the Internet as to which famous person had the biggest schlong — Milton Berle, Forrest Tucker or Arnold Palmer. And I have to wonder what the point of that discussion is and how anyone could possibly have any evidence as to the precise measurements of any of them. At most, there may be some people around who caught actual glimpses of one of them…but only one. And someone, quick, give me a new topic before I'm forced to elaborate on this one.

It is our mission here at newsfromme.com to always bring you the most important developments. So…

MILWAUKEE – This morning, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum unveiled an officially licensed, limited-edition series of The Three Stooges Talking Bobbleheads featuring Moe, Larry, Curly, and Shemp. The unveiling coincides with Curly's birthday, which was on October 22nd, 1903. Each bobblehead is unique in capturing the comedic stylings of the beloved slapstick comedy team. The special edition bobbleheads were produced by the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum, licensed from C3 Entertainment, the company founded by the Three Stooges themselves, Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Joe DeRita.

Bearing their name on the base, each talking Three Stooges bobblehead, which plays a familiar saying at the touch of a button, is unique in capturing the comedic stylings of the beloved slapstick comedy team. Each bobblehead is individually numbered to 2,024, and they are available through the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum's Online Store. The bobbleheads, which are expected to ship in early December, are $35 each or $135 for the set of four plus a flat-rate shipping charge of $8 per order.

I just admit that I feel very uninformed to not know that there is a National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum. I intend to visit it the next time I'm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin which — whenever that is — will be the first time I've ever been in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I guess I never had this good a reason to go there before.

Have you ever seen a product that made so much sense before? The Stooges kind of were bobbleheads in real life and these new releases will give us all the chance to feel like one of them. You'll be able to slap Larry and watch his head bounce up and down just like it did in the films. I hope these are successful but that they're soon joined by bobbleheads of Curly Joe DeRita, Joe Besser and Joe "Fake Shemp" Palma.

I'm amazed to read that Bob Yerkes just died at the age of 92. Why is that amazing? Because Bob Yerkes spent his life diving out of windows, dangling by cables, swinging on trapezes, clinging to clock towers, being set on fire, etc. He was not just a stuntman. He was a superstar stuntman, one of the most in-demand guys producers would want to hire when they had a dangerous feat which had to be done. You can read more about him in this New York Times obit but I'll quote just this much here…

Mr. Yerkes (rhymes with "circus") performed stunts in the films The Towering Inferno (1974), Poltergeist (1982), Ghostbusters (1984) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), as well as on television in Gilligan’s Island, Wonder Woman, Starsky and Hutch and Dukes of Hazzard. He was concussed more times than he could remember.

And that's about 3% of all he did. He also trained a vast array of stuntpeople and professional acrobats. Every trapeze artist I've ever met (about six) trained under and loved Bob Yerkes.

He was one of only two people I've met — the other is Sid Krofft — who actually ran away from home at an early age and joined the circus. I met Bob when I was working on That's Incredible! and he had amazing stories about doubling for just about every action hero-type in show biz, doing things that you or I wouldn't do for any amount of money. I find it amazing that he made it to 92 and that he didn't die from leaping off a burning building or something. The cause of death was pneumonia. He was a fascinating man and probably the closest thing to a real-life super-hero I'll ever encounter.

Here's Rachel Maddow with one of the best "Why you shouldn't vote for Trump" messages I've seen in this election. And we've all seen a lot of them…

And here's Devin "Legal Eagle" Stone with an overview of past Trump criminality and a summary of things Trump says he'll do if he gets back into the White House…

And here's Jake Tapper debunking the claim — made by apparently no one — that ABC conspired to rig the Trump/Harris Debate against Trump…

And here's the latest legal trouble Trump seems to be in…

I know this is a lot of anti-Trump stuff and I'm probably preaching to the choir here. I just think it's amazing that there are so many reasons to vote against this man but some people are still doing it.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is off this week…and when they take a week off, they generously upload an entire past season to YouTube. All of Season 6 (2019) is now online for your viewing pleasure at this link. Enjoy. I know I will.

Here's one of Woody Allen's best early films, Bananas from 1971…

And here's one of the Marx Brothers' poorer later films, A Night in Casablanca from 1946…

What Kevin Drum has to say about Donald Trump's stint working at McDonald's today.  Short excerpt…

It's heartwarming to see Trump serving the little people, sort of like Jesus did. But you will be unsurprised to learn that it was all staged. The store itself was shut down for the day. The cars coming up to the drive-thru window were full of handpicked Trump supporters.

But of course!

I suspect that if enough male voters can get over a sexist reticence to vote for a woman — especially a non-white woman — Kamala will win. Trump sure isn't winning over a lot of folks with his incoherent speeches, his clinging to questionable (at the very least) "facts", his not looking very healthy and canceling appearances or swaying to Village People records when he should be answering questions. Kamala had the guts to sit for an interview on Fox News but Donald won't sit down with any interviewer who won't lob softballs and refrain from fact-checking.

I wonder how many voters realize that if they restricted the voting to folks who've worked for Trump — the kind he described as "the best people" when he hired them — he'd lose in the biggest landslide of all times. Never mind carrying states. He might not even carry a 2017 cabinet meeting.

A little while ago, he was at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania apparently training for his next job. I honestly don't understand why anyone thought this would get him any votes. I guess he's trying to double-down on his claim that Harris was lying to say she'd once worked at such a place but he has zero proof that she didn't…and even if she didn't, who cares? When people lie about what's on their résumés, the sin is to claim you went to some prestigious university when you didn't or you had some important job when you didn't, not "I worked the fryer at a McDonald's forty years ago."

Ah, well. My ballot's in and counted in a state that Kamala can't lose. I shouldn't be thinking about this as much as I am. It's just hard to look away.

Bob and Ray in "The Hobby Hut"…

I used to maintain a website called Old L.A. Restaurants on which I reminisced about some of the places in my town where I used to dine. The site is still up but don't bother seeking it out. It's been inactive for several years and sometime in 2025, for reasons you wouldn't care about, I'm going to delete it. Before then though, I'm moving all the listings I wrote — the listings, not the many comments on them — over to this site to preserve them and in the process, I'm doing a few rewrites and updates.

Some of them have already been migrated. The rest will follow. If you want to read any of them, a new entry on our menu bar will show you the ones that are already over here.

Hey, let's watch two musical remakes! Here's the musical remake of Little Shop of Horrors from 1986…

And this is the musical remake of the movie of Annie. They made a movie of Annie in 1982 and this is a remake of that movie from 2014…

Okay, so I've voted. That doesn't mean I'm not interested in more reasons not to vote for Donald Trump. Lately, of course, he's given us a new one, looking sick and more incoherent and less likely to talk about issues than ever. When he's in especially bad shape, he tends to really lean on the extremes: Every time anything happens that he doesn't like, it's the biggest scandal in the history of mankind and everyone involved should be in prison or sued or both. And remember that broadcast that he backed-out of?

60 MINUTES SHOULD BE IMMEDIATELY TAKEN OFF THE AIR – ELECTION INTERFERENCE. CBS SHOULD LOSE ITS LICENSE. THIS IS THE BIGGEST SCANDAL IN BROADCAST HISTORY. Kamala should be investigated and forced off the Campaign, and Joe Biden allowed to take back his rightful place (He got 14 Million Primary Votes, she got none!). THIS WHOLE SORDID AND FRAUDULENT EVENT IS A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY!

You get the feeling that Trump is seeing polling that's a lot worse for him than the polling we're seeing?

Trump is supposed to be this great negotiator but Kevin Drum has a nice rundown of some of Donald's greatest deals.

Rachel Maddow's site has the story of how Trump is still trying to broker a deal with Stormy Daniels to shut up. Exactly what is she likely to say about him in the future that she hasn't already said?

And Jack Smith continues to release new evidence against Trump that's gotta have Donald worried about serious prison time. Maybe that's what's got him so panicky, not the polls.

James Corden opened his show a few years ago like this and I never saw it until today…

The California Secretary of State, writing on behalf of Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters, is becoming a real pen-pal or e-mail-pal or whatever the cyberspace term is. I just received this message…

Hello MARK EVANIER,

This is a message from the California Secretary of State on behalf of Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters. Your ballot for the November 5, 2024, General Election was received and counted. Thank you for voting!

Questions? Call (800) 815-2666 or email votebymail@rrcc.lacounty.gov. Visit https://lavote.gov for election information.

So when Donald Trump announces, as he probably will, that the announced vote totals for California are wrong and that Kamala Harris did not receive one real vote here, you'll know that's not true. Mine is in and counted.

What do we have for you today? Why, it's The Flintstones from 1994. Back when I worked for Hanna-Barbera, someone was always talking about taking the cartoon show and doing a live-action version of it. I always thought and often said "It would never work" and eventually, they spent a lot of money to make this and prove me right…

Amazingly, it did well enough to warrant a sequel so here we have The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas from 2000. What some people won't do to prove me right…