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…

My buddy Tom Brevoort sent me a question that a number of other folks sent me…

Your post today about the best and worst episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show immediately made me wonder the obvious question: if you'd rank "The Twizzle" about ten spots from the bottom, what do you consider to be the worst episode of the series?

I'm not sure I'd say "worst" so much as "weakest" because I don't really dislike any of them. Even the weakest episodes have moments when it's fun to watch that wonderful cast doing what they do. But if I had to list the nine weakest episodes in my opinion at this moment, I think they'd be — in no particular order — "The Bad Old Days," "You Ought to Be in Pictures," "Viva Petrie," "Uncle George," "The Square Triangle," "Happy Birthday and Too Many More," "The Lady and the Babysitter," "Like a Sister" and "The Lady and the Tiger and the Lawyer."

I don't care for most of the episodes that are about jealousy, especially ones where Rob or Laura thinks the other would be happier with someone else. The Petrie marriage always seemed so ideal that it couldn't be shaken by something as trivial and contrived as someone at work flirting with Rob or an old boy friend of Laura's showing up. I'm not saying there can't be jealousy in a marriage; just that in this show about this marriage, that kind of problem pops up out of nowhere and then it gets resolved ten minutes later by one or both suddenly remembering that they love each other.

Here's one of Woody Allen's best movies, Hannah and Her Sisters from 1986…

And here's an even better Woody Allen movie, Annie Hall from 1977…

The California Secretary of State, writing on behalf of Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters, sent me this message…

Hello MARK EVANIER,

This is a message from the California Secretary of State on behalf of Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters. The US Postal Service has collected your ballot for the upcoming November 5, 2024, General Election and will deliver it to us soon.

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

Thank you, California Secretary of State. It's nice of you to keep me informed like this. Now, could you possibly inform all the people and agencies who e-mail me, robocall me or send me text messages trying to influence my votes that I have marked my ballot and sent it off and that there's no point in them pestering me? I would be most appreciative.

The other day here, I listed My 25 Favorite Episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show. A couple of folks wrote to ask me where they can be seen…and the answer is "All over YouTube and almost any streaming channel that carries vintage television programming." But to save you the hunt, I made up this page where I countdown my ten favorites. Happy viewing.

We have two more feature films for you today…

This is American Graffiti from 1973…

And here's (arguably) the best movie Jerry Lewis was ever in, The King of Comedy from 1983…