A lot of folks think that it was indecent that Dr. Henry Kissinger lived as long as he did and, worse, that he was regarded by some as an elder statesman of worthwhile accomplishment. This article on Slate by Fred Kaplan explains why they felt that way.
And if Kaplan's piece doesn't strike you as nasty enough, Slate also offers us an old article by the late Christopher Hitchens that oughta do the job.
Following-up on the previous post here, my old pal Pat O'Neill wrote to ask…
How do you feel about the practice in TV shows and movies based on comics where they name locations after people who were involved in the creation of the source material, such as "Infantino St." in The Flash, or "Finger Plaza" in a Batman-related piece?
It seems generally harmless to me but it also seems like a pretty minor nod to folks who are owed a greater debt. I suspect that those who are so recognized and are still around, as well as the families of those who have passed, would prefer that the creative-type person receive a real credit and some real money. Then again, the folks who inserted those names into scripts probably didn't have the power to grant a formal credit or have a check sent.
I'm going to omit the name of this questioner because I'm not sure if the following message I received is a joke or not. I don't want to embarrass him if it isn't…
Mr. Evanier, there is a character in Spider-Woman #8 named Marcus Evanier. Is that a coincidence?
Yes, it's a sheer coincidence that the writer of that story — my longtime friend Marv Wolfman — named a character that. And boy, was he shocked when I pointed it out to him. He said, "Oh, my God, Mark! I forgot that was your name!" And he even got it wrong because my given name is Mark, not Marcus. You'd think that someone in the Marvel offices, or at least my friend Al Gordon who inked that story, would have pointed out that Marv had accidentally used my name for a character.
Seriously: This is a practice that is sometimes referred to as "Tuckerizing," named for the science-fiction writer Wilson Tucker, who liked to insert his friends' names into stories. I'm sure he wasn't the first writer in history to do this. It probably went back to cave paintings. But just as he used others' names in his story, someone decided to use his name in their vocabulary by referring to it as "Tuckerization" and the term caught on in some circles.
Writers have been known to argue about whether it's distracting and therefore injurious to a story. Me, I think it depends if your friend's name is Bob Johnson or E. Sneed Entwhistle. I often come across a character name in fiction and think, "That's the author Tuckerizing!" I've done it in a few things I've written but I try not to do it when it's likely to make readers or viewers react that way.
This was not the first time I found myself in a comic book. Julius Schwartz, then the editor of The Flash, once stuck my name into a story. In that case though, readers were supposed to recognize my name from his letter columns. By coincidence, both stories were lettered by John Costanza. It's kind of fun at times but I think it's often overdone and, like some others believe, distracting.
Home movies from Disneyland in 1956. Gee, this looked like a fun place to be back then. And some of the people you'll see lining up for rides have probably gotten on them by now. In two parts…
WonderCon Anaheim will happen March 29-31 of 2024 where it usually happens: At the Anaheim Convention Center, just a hop, skip and jump from Disneyland. It's kind of like Comic-Con Lite, run by the same folks — a smaller gathering but big enough that you probably won't see all of it and there'll be too many panels and events for you to attend. So smaller isn't worse…just different.
Another good thing about WonderCon is that badges are a lot easier to get. If it sells out, it won't for a while but if you wanna go, don't wait. Three-day badges go on sale at a bargain rate on Thursday, November 30 — otherwise known as "The Day After Tomorrow." Here's the link to find out how to order them and pay special attention to the part about getting a Comic-Con Member ID.
I am planning to attend and I'll be hosting panels and I don't know which ones yet. Single day badges will be available at a later date.
I can't find a way to embed it here without crashing this site but go watch this short documentary by Judd Apatow. It's about the unlikely — in some ways, not in others — friendship between Bob Newhart and Don Rickles.
UPDATE, THAT EVENING: They posted it on YouTube so now I can embed it here. Thank you, Bruce Reznick…
Can't believe it been several years since I posted a Linda Eder video here. Among the folks who sing show-type music, she's one of my favorites. What an incredible voice. She's famous for belting out vocals that can be heard not only in the back row but also in the theater down the block…but here, she sings "Wouldn't it be Loverly?" from My Fair Lady with some charming visuals. And stay tuned after because she talks a little about her relationship with Julie Andrews who, of course, introduced that song to the world.
In case you don't know, when Ms. Eder mentions "Frank," she's referring to Frank Wildhorn, the composer of many great shows but most notably, the musical version of Jekyll & Hyde.. He was her husband but is no longer that.
It's been a few weeks since I took the difficult (emotionally) step of canceling Spectrum TV, retiring my beloved TiVos and switching my TV service over to streaming. I researched and experimented and got a load of help 'n' advice from friends including Marc Wielage, Rod Woodcock and Stu Shostak. I finally settled on (for now) the YouTubeTV app, which is not the same thing as the YouTube website you probably visit often.
That's my main way of viewing the stations I watch most often plus I also got a subscription to HBO Max and to Apple TV. I bought a year of Apple TV just before I heard that Jon Stewart is not doing his show for them any longer. I would not have subscribed if I'd known that.
How do I like what I have now? It's mostly a "yes" but let's take it one step at a time…
PICTURE QUALITY/DEPENDABILITY: Pretty darn good. That may have something to do with the high-speed Internet connection I have which currently gives me at least 800 Mbps downloads and often as high as 950. Even with that though, the picture occasionally freezes up for a second or two…but then that happened, albeit a bit less often, with my TiVos. And I'm not sure if it's the software or the web connection or the TCL-brand Roku TV but at least one of those doesn't like me fast-forwarding too far. If I try to leap from the beginning of a show to the end, the signal often freezes up and I have to close out the app and start over.
AVAILABLE CHANNELS: With YouTubeTV and my two add-ons, I have pretty much everything I want. If I want something that isn't on one of those three, it's a pretty simple matter to add more.
COSTS: Better than I was paying before.
OTHER ADVANTAGES: Not being on the phone either waiting forever on hold for Spectrum Technical Support, trying to explain things to Spectrum Technical Support or talking for twenty minutes to someone at Spectrum Technical Support and then having them drop the call so I have to call back, wait forever on hold for Spectrum Technical Support and when I do get someone, start all over with them.
OTHER DISADVANTAGES: My fingers grew so very accustomed to my TiVo remote control that they're having trouble learning that the buttons are in all different places on the Roku remote control.
LASTLY, A QUESTION I HAVE: I now own and watch TV on Roku TV sets in two different rooms. Each has a USB port to which one can connect a flash drive or external hard drive…and one can play or view video files and images (in some formats) on one's TV using an app called Roku Media Player. This is an enormous convenience but when I try to use Roku Media Player, I get a message that says this…
So is this telling me that if I use Roxu Media Player on my TV to, say, watch my old home movies, HBO Max gets access to films of the birthday party I had when I was six? It gives me the option to select "Allow" or "Do Not Allow" but if I Do Not Allow, it closes the media player…so I have to grant access in order to use it. I'm sure we could all mount a very good argument as to how that's Invasion of Privacy and surrender of intellectual property, not that there was anything intellectual about that birthday party of mine.
Can someone explain this to me? Or tell me how to use Roku Media Player without letting Apple TV spy on what I choose to watch on my own TV?
More on this one of these days.
…for a word from a lovely friend of mine who's involved in kind of an online beauty/charm pageant competition…
Do me a favor and go to this link and vote for Gabriella Muttone. You can make a donation to a worthy charity as you do but you can also vote for her for free if they can verify you're a person…like if you have a Facebook account. And if you voted for her before, vote again. You can cast a free vote for her every day until this competition is over. She is living proof that there's Loveliness After 40.
Some time ago in this post, I wrote about how for Christmas of 1963 — when I was 11 years, 9 months and 23 days old — I scoured used bookstores in Los Angeles to find one book in particular to be part of a holiday gift for my mother. I finally found what I was looking for (sort of) in a large, scary, cluttered shop down on Western Avenue called Yesterday's Books.
When I wrote that article, I didn't have a photo of Yesterday's Books and didn't imagine that one existed — or if one did exist that I would ever find it. Well, it just goes to show you: A year or two ago, I came across this one…
I have no idea when the place went outta business but I suspect this shot is from not long before they closed forever. When I was there in '63 and a few times after that, there was no any-book-a-buck banner. This looks like a going-outta-business offer. Also, the "Books will turn you on" banner suggests the rhetoric of late sixties or early seventies.
Inside, it was three stories of books piled in crates or shelved in no discernible sorting order. A major tremor could have shaken the place like a James Bond martini and what you were seeking would have been no more difficult to find. Every time you shopped there, it was a major scavenger hunt. I hate to think what it took to clean out the place when they moved out…but they did. I seem to remember driving by and seeing other businesses in the building after that. Here's what's there now…
Not only do we no longer have Yesterday's Books in Los Angeles, we no longer have very many second-hand bookstores at all. Once I discovered online book search engines and eBay, I was able to easily find all the books on a little list of "wants" I carried around in my wallet for years. So I didn't particularly regret the slow extinction of used book stores. Still every so often, I remember how much fun it was to browse in them and I recall the joy of finding one on my list…or maybe one I'd never known existed. And then maybe I miss them a little.
Sid Krofft posted this on Instagram last night…
I'm heartbroken over the loss of my baby brother.
I really know that all of you meant the world to him.
It's YOU that made this all happen.
Thank you for being there with us all these years.
Love, Sid
As I type this, there are 964 comments and 5,197 likes…almost all of them comments from folks who loved various Krofft shows and therefore the men behind them. If you want to take a look, here's a link but I don't think Instagram keeps these messages available for very long. I wish we could have kept Marty around indefinitely too.
This one's tough. I worked for Sid and Marty Krofft off and on from early 1978 until…well, I wrote and sometimes produced shows for the company that got on the air until 1985 or '86 but after that, there were a number of developments and pilot scripts that never went anyplace. Every so often after that, I'd see Marty and he'd always have a new project…and the Kroffts ran the kind of operation that worked like this: If the first time you worked with them, things didn't go great, that was the last time you worked for them. If things went well, you were adopted into the family and they tried to bring you on board on every new project.
Two months ago on September 21, I took a lady friend to the Musso & Frank Grill in Hollywood for her birthday. The host seated us at our table…and at the next table, seated with some of his associates, was Marty. We hugged. We talked. He insisted I come to his office soon after where we discussed upcoming projects. Marty always had upcoming projects. And his assistant told me that Marty had tried to pay for our dinners that evening at Musso & Frank's but I'd unknowingly beaten him to the check.
Marty died earlier today due to kidney failure. He was 86. This obit is about as good an overview of his amazing career as you're going to find.
What I think I'd like you to know this evening and forever is that Marty was the kind of guy I wish every producer in show business was. He was fierce about doing a good show and doing right by his people. The Kroffts paid me well…or if they didn't on one project, they made it up on the next. Money was sometimes tight because they didn't hesitate to spend it if it would make a show better. From where I could see, Sid had the wildest, most creative ideas but it was Marty who had to deal with the network, deal with the budgets, deal with the schedules.
Marty had a great life. He knew everyone in show business and they knew him. He was married to one of the most beautiful women in the world and they had equally-beautiful daughters. And he and his brother became a lot more famous than the kind of producers who produce the kinds of things they produced.
I have an awful lot of stories about the two of them but here's the one that feels like a good ending for this piece. This happened in 1973, several years before I went to work with them and was subsequently adopted. They were doing the TV show, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters and it was shot partly on the beach and partly on soundstages at Goldwyn Studios in Hollywood. Most of the sets on that stage were underground caverns because that's where Sigmund and his friends lived.
Something electrical sparked. Something some of the sets were made of caught fire. Pretty soon, the stage was ablaze.
Like I said, I wasn't around then but an Associate Producer I worked with later for the Kroffts was. I asked him once about that day. As the fire engulfed a large portion of Goldwyn Studios, this A.P. ran up to near where Marty was and yelled, "We may be able to save some of the sets!" Marty, he told me, instantly yelled, "Fuck the sets! Make sure nobody gets hurt!" And nobody got hurt.
If I was ever in charge in a situation like that, I hope that would be the first thing out of my mouth. I've worked for some producers who would have had different priorities.
For those who are interested, here's the link to read or download a PDF of the new SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical agreement. By using this link, you promise not to try to discuss this contract with me or ask me questions about it.
It's not a comic strip…but then neither is the daily Dennis the Menace, which is a panel Monday through Saturdays. Also, the puzzle panel Jumble competes for space with comic panels and is often featured with them on the funnies pages in newspapers. Jumble, which challenges you to unscramble words to arrive at the punch line of a cartoon, has been running in papers since 1954…only two years less than I've been running.
It was created by Martin Naydel, who also sometimes signed his other work "Martin Nadle" and "Martin Dell." His brother was Larry Nadle (née Naydel), a longtime comic book (and strip) writer and editor who also worked under different names. Larry was an editor for All-American Comics around 1943 and stayed on when that firm was absorbed a few years later by National Comics to form the company we now know as DC. Larry specialized in funny comics, romance comics and comics which featured movie stars like Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis.
Martin did a little work on super-hero comics. He ghosted for artist E.E. Hibbard on early Flash stories in the forties and was among those who ghosted the Slam Bradley feature in Detective Comics after its creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, went full-time on their other creation, Superman. For a time, Martin did a cartoony feature for All-American called "McSnurtle the Turtle," which was basically, "What if The Flash was a turtle?" I recommend it to any of you who might have been wondering about that.
There were other such strips but eventually Martin did most of his work for DC on puzzle pages and cartoon fillers. He is often confused with Martin Nodell, the co-creator of Green Lantern. On a panel I hosted once at Comic-Con, someone asked Mr. Nodell how he created Jumble.
As mentioned, Martin Naydel did that. It was originally called Scramble in '54 and he produced the panel until 1960 when it was taken over by Henry Arnold and Bob Lee. There is no record of Martin doing anything in comics after '60 and it's assumed he died — he would have been 49 years old — but I also can't find a source for his date of death. In any case, Arnold and Lee produced Jumble for a long, long time. and it's now the work of writer David L. Hoyt and artist Jeff Knurek who do very good work.
It's available in many different formats — I play it on my iPad — and yesterday, it guest-starred longtime MAD art director Sam Viviano and longer-time MAD cartoonist Sergio Aragonés. The answer (I figured it out) is "That's the last draw!" Thanks to "Gary from Buffalo" who alerted me to my partner's cameo.
So let's discuss why the Ritz Brothers aren't as well known as, say, the Marx Brothers. For one thing, the funniest Ritz Brother (inarguably Harry) never had a hit TV show and all those appearances on popular TV shows like the funniest Marx Brother (more arguably, Groucho). For another, the Ritz Brothers didn't star in as many classic movies as the Marxes. The best screen performances of the Ritz boys were as comedy relief in the kind of movie where if you watched it at all, you'd want to fast-forward through all the scenes they weren't in.
For yet another, we all know which Marx Brother was Groucho, which one was Chico, which one was Harpo and, when Zeppo was present, which one was Zeppo. It's much harder to keep track of which Ritz Brother was Harry, which one was Al and which one was Jimmy. At times, it seems like even they weren't sure.
And we can probably think of other reasons but none of that means the Ritzes weren't very funny and very popular. If you'd like to know a little more about them, here's a short documentary that can serve as kind of an introduction. And by the way, in the last black-and-white clip as they're cavorting on the stage of a TV show, I believe the fellow playing the stage manager is Peter Leeds…