Monday, February 6, 2006

Grandfather Doesn't Know Better

Here's a big reason people thought "Grandpa" Al Lewis was born in 1910 when he was actually, they're now telling us, born in 1923. Kip Williams sent me a link to this interview in which Lewis was asked his birthdate and he gave it as April 30, 1910. And if he said it in one interview, he probably said it in others.

So what happened here? It's possible that whoever transcribed the interview misheard him but that sure doesn't sound likely. So either his family, which announced the 1923 date, is wrong...or Lewis, for whatever his reason, chose to lie about his age. But why lie to add thirteen years? And if that's wrong, a lot of stories he told are probably wrong too, including his war stories and his tales of getting involved in politics in the thirties. Among many other accounts that don't fit the corrected timeline is that he sometimes claimed to have been involved with the defense of Sacco and Vanzetti, who were executed in 1927. (Hey, maybe that's why they got the chair. They had a four year old kid defending them.)

My hunch is that the family is not wrong; that Al just thought it made him more colorful to have all those colorful experiences in his past and that he had to lengthen his past a bit to accomodate them all. But we may never know for sure.

• Posted at 11:24 PM · LINK

Briefly Noted

Testifying today before the Senate committee, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said, "President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all authorized electronic surveillance on a far broader scale."

Right. Washington was sending eels to spy on the British.

No wonder they didn't dare put this guy under oath.

• Posted at 7:39 PM · LINK

Piece on Paul

The New York Times has a nice article on DC Comics head honcho Paul Levitz. Why is it a nice article? Because it quotes me, of course.

• Posted at 6:41 PM · LINK

Today's Political Theory

Many years ago, Senator Arlen Specter from Pennsylvania was one of the main architects of the "single bullet theory" of the Kennedy assassination. I happen to believe that theory is correct and I have a new one. It's the "double Arlen Specter theory." My theory is that there are two senators from Pennsylvania named Arlen Specter who look exactly alike but who have totally different sets of principles and moral conduct.

Anyone who has followed this man's career (or rather, these men's careers) could cite many examples. No representative who has held office for any length of time has had quite the capacity to get both parties mad at him, often for the same actions. Browse Democratic websites and you'll see people cursing him as a Republican. Browse Republican sites and you'll see them cursing him louder as a "RINO" (Republican in Name Only). Ordinarily, I'd admire the seeming unwillingness to toe any party's line. But in this case, it's mostly a matter of one Arlen Specter subverting the other's agenda, making sure that any stand that puts principle over partisan concerns is soon neutralized.

The other day, UPI reported...

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says President George W. Bush's warrantless surveillance program appears to be illegal. Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, Specter called the administration's legal reasoning "strained and unrealistic" and said the program appears to be "in flat violation" of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Now, the lede is a bit overstated, given that Specter also said the problem may have been with the law itself. But it takes a certain amount of political courage to say as much as he did, and to make all those other statements about pursuing the truth, no matter who it embarrasses.

This morning, chairing the committee investigating these charges, we got an Arlen Specter who didn't feel the Attorney General needed to be sworn in before testifying. If you or I testified in a case involving a discrepancy of twenty dollars somewhere, we'd have to be sworn in and say whatever we said under oath. Judge Judy puts people under oath before she'll let them state their names in her TV court. Today, rather than spend the thirty seconds necessary to do that, Specter spent many long minutes defending that decision. He stated that the Attorney General had said he was quite willing to take the oath but that this particular Arlen Specter decided it wasn't necessary because, if I understand him correctly, somewhere there was precedent that showed this occasionally was not done and he didn't feel like doing it this time.

Sorry...I don't get it. The only conceivable reason to not take any kind of testimony under oath is to give the witness a smidgen of wiggle room if later, it's necessary to prosecute them for lying. This should not even be an option and I'll bet you that one of the Arlen Specters agrees. At least one of them must remember John Mitchell, a former attorney general who was convicted and sent to prison on charges that included obstruction of justice and perjury.

Some of you may be skeptical of my theory, and I can certainly understand that. You might be thinking, "Hey, how can Pennsylvania have two Senator Specters? States only get two senators and don't they have another one? No, not really. Take a look at some of the posturings and contradictions of this Rick Santorum guy who is sometimes passed off as "the other" senator from Pennsylvania. That's not a real senator. He's just some sham someone arranged to mask the fact that there are two Arlen Specters.

Come back later and I'll tell you about the three Joe Bidens. That's how many there'd have to be for there to be that many Joe Biden speeches and Sunday morning news show appearances.

• Posted at 2:04 PM · LINK

More Sidewalk Drawin'

Jay Shull, who reads this site, sends me a link to the work of another great pavement artist, Kurt Wenner.

• Posted at 10:15 AM · LINK

Grandpa Update

The press services are now correcting their obits on "Grandpa" Al Lewis, saying he was born in 1923, which would have made him 82 at the time of his death, not 95. I seem to recall a number of past instances where press reports confused his past with that of a couple of other gents in show business with the same name, and several Internet sites clearly had it wrong. So that may have been the source of the error.

• Posted at 10:13 AM · LINK

Paul Norris Honored

On a number of comic books I wrote years ago, I had the pleasure of working with Paul Norris, a fine artist and gentleman. Paul, who is 91 and sharp as ever, has many credits but I'll just mention two. He was the artist creator of Aquaman and then later, he wrote and drew the Brick Bradford newspaper strip for a little over 35 years. Others have said that Paul never missed a deadline in his life and while I can't attest to that, I can tell you that when we worked together, he was never not early with whatever he was drawing.

A few years ago at a San Diego Con, Stan Lee and I were wandering around, talking about something or other, and we wandered into a big auditorium where a panel of veteran comic artists was in progress. Stan mentioned he'd worked with everyone on the panel except one gent and asked who it was. When I told him it was Paul Norris, he said, "You mean, the guy who did Brick Bradford?" And then, with the exact same tone that some geeky fanboys have had when they asked me to introduce them to someone like Stan Lee, Stan asked me to introduce him to Paul Norris. Which I did. Paul couldn't believe that Stan Lee wanted to meet him and Stan couldn't believe that he was meeting Paul Norris.

Paul is a graduate of Midland Lutheran College in Fremont, Nebraska. Opening this week there is an exhibit of his artwork. Here's an article about his life and career, and there's some info there about the exhibit. If you're anywhere near Midland, check it out. But since you probably aren't, just read the article.

• Posted at 2:03 AM · LINK

Pavement Pics

Has anyone sent you a sample of Julian Beever's art? Mr. Beever does these remarkable chalk drawings on sidewalks that, when viewed from a certain angle, take on a 3-D effect. This website displays some of them. Take a look at the photos that show what the drawings look like when viewed from the wrong angle in order to fully understand what this man does. It's not humanly possible.

• Posted at 12:31 AM · LINK

February 7, 2006 • Current • February 5, 2006