Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Today's Bonus Video Link

It's two nights ago at the Dodgers-Padres game, bottom of the ninth. Padres are ahead, 9-5. So you figure the Dodgers are through, right? I mean, they're not going to make up four runs in one inning...are they? Here's a short video of the legendary Vin Scully calling the plays as the L.A. team gets four consecutive home runs to tie it up and another in the tenth inning to win.

• Posted at 7:53 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Do you recall this news story I linked to? Don't bother clicking. I'll refresh your memory: A lot of our troops in Iraq, and other military folks serving our country, are being gouged by predatory loan sharks who take advantage of how poorly we pay soldiers.

Here's the latest development. A bill has been introduced which would cap high interest rates for folks in the military at "only" 36%. That's an obscene amount to charge someone but it's still not high enough for Rep. Geoff Davis from Kentucky. He's leading the charge to block this bill. And it's just a coincidence that one of his top campaign contributors is a loan company. Read all about it.

• Posted at 7:53 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

And this time, we're bringing you an old commercial with Top Cat and his pal Fancy Fancy selling Kellogg's Corn Flakes. Arnold Stang provides the voice of Top Cat...or T.C., as us close friends get to call him, providing it's with dignity. John Stephenson is Fancy Fancy, and the actress who did the girl cat's voice is a lady who went by several names. She appeared in a bevy of early sixties sitcoms where she was variously billed as Sallie Jones, Sally Jones and Sallie Janes. Remember the episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show where Rob got temporary amnesia and wound up at a party where he met a cute blonde and told her he was Antonio Stradivarius? Sally/Sallie played the cute blonde. Kudos to Earl Kress for making that identification. Now, does anyone know whatever happened to Ms. Jones or Janes or whatever her name is?

• Posted at 7:15 PM · LINK

Lightning Striking

Just back from doing something I haven't done since 1988: Picketing. My first thirteen years as a member of the Writers Guild of America, West found me pounding pavement three separate times...or was it four? Whatever it was, we were striking more than some of us were working. In the '88 strike, I even got involved with helping to organize the picketing and the demonstrations.

When I have more time, I'll write more about why we had to strike then, why we haven't had to strike since, and why I fear next year will be the greatest year of Labor Unrest that Hollywood has ever seen. At the moment though, the immediate battle is over the "reality" show, America's Next Top Model. As explained here, its writers are seeking to be recognized as writers and to have the WGA recognized as their collective bargaining representative.

This morning, maybe a thousand WGA members — most of them clad in red WGA t-shirts — assembled at Pan Pacific Park, which is more or less adjacent to what they used to call, at the start of many a CBS show, "Television City in Hollywood." (It's not really in Hollywood and neither is anything done at NBC Studios in Burbank. But when you're on television, you're allowed to lie...at least about things like that.) We heard about an hour of speeches by our leaders, by prominent writers in the industry and by the striking "reality show" writers. Then we marched around the CBS building, effectively picketing the people waiting to go into a taping of The Price is Right.

I have to go off and do things this afternoon so I'm going to have to serialize this post and continue it later. But I have to say before departing that I was enormously impressed with, first of all, my Guild's organization of the event. Everything we did wrong or were unable to do in '88 from the standpoint of logistics and physical set-up, they did right this morning. Secondly, the mood was strong, the unity was almost tangible and the members who turned out — many of whom seemed too young to have been involved in earlier strikes — seemed to not only "get" what it was all about but to ready to march for any just cause. I sure felt better about the future for having been there today. I'll write more about why that is later today.

• Posted at 1:29 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Eric Boehlert writes about the press and the way it's dealing with the unpopularity of George W. Bush. Basically, his thesis — for which he makes a pretty good case — is that there are reporters out there who are determined to write stories that say Bush's approval rating is bouncing back and on the upswing. So they keep writing that story even though it's unsupported by the numbers they're quoting.

• Posted at 1:09 PM · LINK

Friend of Mark's on TV Alert!

We mentioned here what a good job ventriloquist Ronn Lucas did on the Jerry Lewis Telethon and we said, and I quote myself: "David Letterman is about to do a week of ventriloquists on his show, probably not because he likes that kind of act but because he thinks they'll be easy to make fun of. I hope they'll book Ronn and I hope Dave lets him just do what does so well." Ronn's on tonight's show, probably with his reptilian friend, Scorch.

• Posted at 1:30 AM · LINK