Search Results for: campbell's mushroom soup

First off: Thank you all for the lovely birthday wishes that were sent my way yesterday on social media and even some antisocial media. I do not feel 71 years old except sometimes around the knees. And I certainly do not fit the image I had of being 71 back when I was much younger. I would thank you all individually but that would take me until I'm 72 and then I'd have to start sending out thank you notes about that birthday and that would take until I was 73…

Second off: I have a very busy day ahead so this may be the extent of the posting here day. For those of you who don't know, that's what it means when I post a picture of a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup. This is a well-known ancient custom that began in the year 1412 A.D. in The Ming Dynasty except that they used sesame cakes instead of mushroom soup and they posted on Gingko Trees instead of on the Internet. Otherwise, it's exactly the same tradition.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Ancient Internet Custom that only I follow: When the blogger is known to post every day or almost every day…and there comes a day when he or she is so busy that they may be posting little or nothing…the blogger posts a photo of a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup? Why Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup? Because Bean with Bacon would be silly.

I have stuff due that needs to be written. I may pop back in with something but I may not. Life can be so uncertain at times.

For those of you unfamiliar with this centuries-old Internet Custom that I invented and which no one else follows, the posting of a picture of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup on a blog means the blogger has a busy day and may not be able to post much, if anything today. It is an advisory to you that you might want to go see if there are any sites other than this one on the World Wide Web. I hear there are.

It's been quite a while since I posted a picture of a can of Campbell's Mushroom Soup to signify I was taking some or all of the day off from blogging. And it's about time. Happy This Year!

The posting here of a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup means that Mark has a busy day of deadlines to meet and/or conferences in which he must participate. In this case, it means both. Expect no new content — even though he'd love to write about how delightful and funny he always found Charles Grodin to be — but some pre-written things may pop up. Mark shall return to you after he gets out of his deadline pit and the third person.

Busy writing something today…something that's not for this blog. I do that occasionally. And when I do, I put up one of these cute graphics I made using an image of a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup which, by the way, is not only a delicious lunch but also a handy ingredient to use in many recipes.

When one of these graphics is displayed on this blog, it denotes that Mark is busy and may not be able to spare the time to generate the usual amount of content today. Your tolerance is appreciated.

Writing something that has to be written today. For those of you who are new to this silly blog, one of our silly customs is that when I'm really, really busy, I post a photo of a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup. This is my way of saying that while I'd like to post something new for your enjoyment — it's all I live for — demands of my life and/or some tyrannical producer or editor with whom I'm working demand that I put something ahead of you.

Hope you won't feel snubbed. If I have time later, I'll try to post either a rerun or something from my little folder of ready-to-go posts which have been waiting patiently for their moment in the spotlight. But don't waste your precious web-surfing time checking in here for something fresh because there won't be anything. Unless I suddenly need to post an obit.

The image of a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup on this blog indicates a day of reduced activity on this blog.  I could probably have come up with a better indicator but I made up all these cute soup can graphics and I don't want them to go to waste.  When you see it, it means I'll be posting once a day (or so) instead of several times a day (or so) because I'm busy with some non-blogging activity.  You will be seeing my cute soup can graphics a lot here for the rest of this month.

I'll tell you why in June.  It's not medical, it's not important and it's not even a top-secret writing project. The same lack of online presence may apply to my responses to e-mail. I'll be around. Just not as often as I usually am.

Oh, look! It's a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup, the signal that the owner-operator of this blog is taking the day off to deal with other things, hopefully something that will pay him some money. He will be back tomorrow. Or he'll post another soup can. You never know what this crazy guy will do, including but not limited to writing posts in the third person.

Before he goes, he would like to suggest that if you want to know what's really going on in the Mueller investigation — including info on what laws may or may not have been broken and which ones you think exist but don't — you read a long piece by Jeffrey Toobin, who seems to know of what he writes.

The proprietor of this blog appreciates your patronage and he (and by "he," I mean of course, "I") will be back tomorrow. Or maybe not.

The posting of an image of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup is a good indicator that the guy who runs this blog is busy today — maybe even because someone is paying him to write something for them and it's gotta be in real soon. There will therefore limited posting on this blog and you'll have to look elsewhere for your utter trivia, your plugs for Frank Ferrante, your remembrances of Huell Howser and your articles about Donald Trump doing things which any Republican would have insisted was criminal and/or a sign of bad moral fiber if done by a Democratic president. Mark will be back with full force blogging when the workload lessens. So sorry.

I haven't put one of these up for a while but I have all these neat graphics I made…and don't be surprised if you see another one or two this week. Gonna be a busy week. (For those of you who don't know, the can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup signals that Mark may not be posting very often for a day or two, and also that I'll be lousier than usual about answering e-mail.) But before I go off to be busy…

If you're an active member of the Writers Guild of America, you have less than three hours to vote for the Strike Authorization. Please vote for the Strike Authorization. It is not a vote to strike. It's more like a show of unity…a polling of the members to verify that they're behind our current leadership and unwilling to accept a crappy deal. Now, you don't want a crappy offer, do you? Crappy offers are why we sometimes have to strike.

Meanwhile, the nominations are closed for this year's Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing and the recipients will be announced shortly. We received a lot of names this year but — and I mention this as something that makes me curious — a surprising number of them were of people who are ineligible for the award because they've already won it. I wrote…

To date, this award has gone to Arnold Drake, Alvin Schwartz, George Gladir, Larry Lieber, Frank Jacobs, Gary Friedrich, Del Connell, Steve Skeates, Don Rosa, Jerry Siegel, Harvey Kurtzman, Gardner Fox, Archie Goodwin, John Broome, Otto Binder, Bob Haney, Frank Doyle, Steve Gerber, Robert Kanigher, Bill Mantlo, Jack Mendelsohn, John Stanley, Don McGregor, Richard E. Hughes and Elliott S! Maggin. Those folks, having already won, cannot win again.

I thought that was clear but I guess I have to be clearer. There were at least thirty nominations for folks listed in that paragraph, including five for Steve Gerber and the one from the fellow who said it was an outrage that the judges were so "unaware of John Broome's contributions to comics" that we hadn't presented the award to him. This kind of thing puzzles me more than it probably should.

I go now to do things. See you in a day or so.

Third one of these this year.  For those of you who are new to this blog: When I get so burdened with deadlines that I don't expect to be able to post much for a day or three, I put up one of these nifty graphics to indicate a few speed bumps for the time being.  I dunno why I chose Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup…some connect to "comfort food," I guess.  It signals to you to explore the remote possibility that there's something else on the Internet for you to read besides my blog.  Here are a few thoughts though before I focus on the writing that allegedly pays…

Hey, speaking of getting paid, artist Colleen Doran has a good discussion going about what kind of income one can reasonably expect from the profession of drawing pictures.  Of course, it depends a lot at how good you are at drawing those pictures and maybe on how good you are at marketing them.  But go read what she and her commenters have to say.  I really like that kind of discussion as opposed to the "you can achieve anything if you're determined enough" nonsense that I think does much harm to newcomers. If that worked, I would have married Mary Tyler Moore when I was twelve years old.

I said here that I was trying to write less about Donald Trump so I would think less about Donald Trump.  It may not look like I'm succeeding but oh yes, I am, people!  I could write 7-10 times a day about how awful I think this man is for the country.  Any day I can hold it down to two or three, I'm doing well.  I just saw a whole mess o' tweets from unabashed racists and Jew-haters who are doing happy dances and I'm resisting the urge to write about how being on the same side as certain people means you really need to question your perceptions.  I'm still shaken whenever I agree with Dick Cheney.

I will be back here at a normal posting pace when things clear up and scripts are sent.

Haven't had one of these for a while.  (For those of you who don't get the soup can bit: It's a pointless tradition I decided to start.  Whenever my life seems too busy to post a lot on this blog, I put up a graphic of a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup.  It's my way of saying there may not be a lot of posting here for a day or two.  I do not remember why I selected a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup to denote this and do not assume that I actually had a reason.  But there it is.)

Before I go about my day, a few floating thoughts…

Well, Hillary looks to have a lock on it but I can't help but think that with all the mulch they're going to fling at her between now and Election Day, there won't be a moment or two when a Trump victory feels possible enough to unnerve a lot of us.  I also think I'm on the verge of having to use my Lost Friend graphic at least one more time.

This week, I tried watching a few episodes of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah out of the two dozen or so that have accumulated on my TiVo.  I saw a few clever bits, almost all of which involved correspondent Jordan Klepper, who — perhaps not coincidentally — was the lone holdover I saw from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Overall, the show was not bad and if the Stewart version had never existed — if they'd gone straight from Craig Kilborn to Trevor — I'm sure I'd think it was a good program. But it just doesn't command my attention the way it once did. It's more a matter of goofing on things in the news rather than using the format to make a strong but hilarious point about something going on in our country. That's why so many episodes have piled up on my TiVo.

In the past, I have told you of my troubles with contractors who phone me up and try to sell me their services. I'm still getting a lot of those calls, including the kind where the caller pretends we spoke last year and I was so nice and begged them to call back around now because I'd certainly be ready to hire them to do all sorts of things to my home. Alas, I'm also getting a lot from people who want to install solar panels on said home and are trying to sound like some official government agency that's going to do all this for free or almost free. (As I've learned in many ways about many business dealings, "almost free" always runs into a lot of money.)

And now I have a new flavor of unwanted phone solicitors. Next year, I turn 65 so I have all sorts of insurance agencies and others who seek to "help" me with my important Medicare decisions. I think some of these are the same folks who want to put in solar panels and then paint my house.

Excuse me. The phone's ringing and I think it may be one of those very people. Back later…or tomorrow…or sometime…

Another one of these. For those of you who are new to this blog, the mushroom soup can signifies that Mark is busy with something that is likely to keep him from blogging and maybe even responding to e-mails for a brief period. It should not in any way be considered product placement for the Campbell's company which has never sent me so much as a noodle, those rat bastards.

One nice thing about being this busy is that I don't have time to think much over whether it's going to be Trump vs. Hillary or Cruz vs. Bernie or what's the inevitable surprise twist that's going to happen here? There's going to be one of them…something no one saw coming except that after it happens, they'll all say they did. I'm thinking Donald may pick a wombat at his running mate in a desperate attempt to lock up that all-important marsupial vote.

Some folks on the 'net are making a big deal about news that a new showrunner is coming in to preside over Stephen Colbert's show. That might be a significant development if he's going to truly supplant in any way the real showrunner, who of course is Stephen Colbert. I think Colbert's doing the best late night program that's currently airing and given its ratings, it's doubtful his job is in any jeopardy. But his numbers could be higher and one assumes that's what the new guy is there to work on.

Personally, I think the show needs to make more use of Colbert's ability to ad-lib. First thing I'd do is make a rule: We tape in real time, no edits and less rehearsal. A late night show does not need prime-time polish. There ought to be moments which not only surprise the audience but the host as well. Second thing: At his old gig, Colbert often seemed to be bigger than his own series, turning up on other shows and in Washington and in the news, surprising us every which way. His new show's a good one but they fit him into standard talk show format instead of reinventing talk show format to fit him. I'd love to see him break out more. Hope that's what the new guy will help him do.

I'll be back later. I'm just not sure how later.

An unexpected landslide of Things To Do forces us to declare today a Mushroom Soup Tuesday, meaning that I post a neat graphic of a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup, then tend to matters more important than this blog. Of course, they're only more important in terms of me meeting deadlines for work and getting (occasionally) paid for it. Nothing is more important than blogging for your dining and dancing pleasure, dear followers.

The second part of the story I started on Sunday will be along shortly.

Yesterday was supposed to be the day we found out if the highest court in this land would announce whether or not they'd take on the infamous Jack Kirby matter but that was settled on the (Supreme) courthouse steps. Instead, the Big News was just that they wouldn't take on current cases regarding the legal propriety of Gay Marriage, thereby clearing the way for it to become legal in five states plus, soon, six more.

As you probably know if you care at all what I think, I think it's insane and cruel to deny two consenting adults of any race, creed or gender the right to wed. I'm glad that's becoming the norm though I still kinda wish it had happened in some of those states by a vote of the people instead of judicial interpretation. Having it happen by court decisions is fine insofar as making it the law of the land. A few balloting victories here and there would have made it more palatable to some.

I cruised some right-wing websites after the decision not and saw an awful lot of "This fight isn't over yet." Like me, they all want to see it put to a vote of the people. Unlike me, they think they'd win everywhere. All these same people a year or two ago looked around their local communities, "unskewed" what few polls they consulted and waited eagerly for the Mitt Romney landslide.

We may never know how a "Vote of the People" would go on this issue. Those who favor Gay Rights have no reason to make that happen. They're getting what they want. Those who oppose Gay Rights have a lot to lose: The certainty that they have a majority of Americans on their side on this issue. I think they might be surprised…except maybe in the reddest of red states. But I also think it's highly likely we'll never see that vote take place.

Gotta go. Sergio is coming over for a Groo story conference. He'll be here in six minutes…or fifteen if he stops off to draw the issue before he arrives.