Every so often, I like to link to an article that gets things completely wrong and this piece by Andrew Sullivan may be one such article. It's one of these psychological profiles of an elected official written by someone who doesn't know the guy at all and is extrapolating all sorts of things about him from a few public utterances and deeds. Sullivan also isn't a psychologist but that's okay. Those who've studied in that area tend to make even wilder assumptions when they do a long-distance diagnosis of a stranger. They're all kind of like Bill Frist discussing Terri Schiavo.
Note that I'm not saying Sullivan is wrong. I'm saying he may be wrong. The guy is guessing from afar, speculating on what's going on in George W. Bush's mind based on very little evidence. I'm not sure people who work with G.W.B. every day are qualified to make some of these deductions but a guy who's never met him certainly isn't. I didn't think these psychiatric explorations had any worth when they were about Bill Clinton (nearly all were sure he'd divorce Hillary as soon as he was out of office) and I don't think the ones about Bush have any value, either.
Actually, they're going to bring down (i.e., implode) The House but first, people have to buy what was in it. The Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas will be demolished some time next year but right now, they're auctioning off its contents. You might be interested in browsing the catalog of what's going on the block; not that you're likely to rush out and bid on an old Keno display board or some carpeting that Sinatra once spilled scotch on, but it's fascinating how much stuff they have to sell. Here's a peek at the first lot and you can find your way from there to others. (The item depicted above is identified as "hippie-style Blackjack table." You have to wonder if the guy who designed it thought it would be a great way to win peoples' drug money away from them.)
For years, I have quarrelled with Norton Anti-Virus on my PC. I suppose it does its job okay in terms of protecting me from evil viruses but it's an intrusive program that often seems to be hogging memory and slowing down others. It also has a teeth-gnashing tendency to go kablooey every now and then for no visible reason...and don't even try to get Tech Support online or, if you're a mad and impetuous dreamer, via phone. General rule of thumb: If you have Norton and something goes wrong, uninstall the program and reinstall it from scratch. It's a pain but that seems to be the only thing that works...and if that doesn't, try this: Uninstall it not the normal way but with a piece of software called the Norton Removal Tool (or something of the sort...you can Google and find it) and then reinstall. Or better still, uninstall it and keep it uninstalled forever and switch virus programs.
Which is what I finally did after way too many crashes and problems. I am now up and running — on the advice of Bill Goldstein, my tech support wizard — with AVG and it's doing the job well. Matter of fact, their AVG Malware package is both virus checker and spyware scanner, rolled into one. The spyware component was formerly known as Ewido, and it was one of the best. No spyware checker will catch everything so if you're anal about this kind of thing, you need to run a couple. (I rotate Spybot Search and Destroy, Ad-Aware, Super Anti-Spyware and A Squared. Each flags things the others don't, owing to different criteria of what constitutes "spyware.") But the AVG version is almost all you need.
There is a free AVG and a pay AVG. I sprung for the pay AVG and so far (one week), I'm very happy with it. For whatever that's worth.
Bullwinkle selling Cheerios. That's Bill Scott as the voice of the moose with June Foray as Rocket J. Squirrel ("Rocky" to you) providing the introduction. You know where to click.
Add another 2007 convention to the roster of conventions that have had the questionable judgment to invite me as a Guest of Honor. The Anthrocon isn't strictly a comic convention — it covers "funny animals" in all media — but I hear it's a great event and, heck, I've never been to Pittsburgh on a July 4th weekend, even one that runs July 5-8. Come to think of it, I've never been to Pittsburgh at all. That alone should be interesting.
The New York Times has a nice profile up of Dark Horse Comics, which is the third largest publisher of comic books...an especially impressive achievement when one considers that the firm is privately owned and not part of some massive conglomerate. The article mentions a number of reasons why important creative talents — and even some lesser lights like Yours Truly — like working with Dark Horse. A biggie, of course, is that you generally feel like you're working with them, not for them.
I'll add another: One-stop shopping. It's something a lot more companies, and not just purveyors of funnybooks, should practice. And by that term, I mean that there's someone in charge with the power to give a Yes or No that actually means something. I've worked with (or for) a number of companies where you can go to the person ostensibly in charge of determining what projects they do and you can say, "Here's an idea that I'd like to write," and it almost doesn't matter what the response is because it still has to be referred to committee and kicked around and put on an agenda to be discussed at next summer's planning conference after it's run past the marketing department...and on to oblivion.
I have literally had cases where there was some comic that I proposed and it won approval from every single person who theoretically had to approve, all the way up to the top...and it still didn't happen. Everyone said Yes but then red tape and buck-passing and I-don't-know-what-else caused it to be delayed or simply not scheduled or something.
Quite maddening. There have been times when they said Yes and in hindsight, I would have been much better off with them saying No. Because we would have gotten to the same place via the No, only quicker and with a lot fewer meetings and phone calls...plus, of course, a No frees you up to take something elsewhere or to focus your energy on other ideas. One time, the head of one of the two biggest comic book companies asked me what changes I thought the firm could institute to make them more "creator-friendly." I told them what I'm telling you, and said that what I wanted was to be able to pitch an idea to an editor and potentially get a Yes that was a firm commitment and not merely the prelude to weeks of conference referrals and exploratory discussions. The boss said that sounded like a terrific idea, then turned to an aide and said something like, "Make a note to have the Infrastructure Planning Committee discuss Mark's idea at the October seminar."
I've never encountered that with Dark Horse. I go to Mike Richardson, the guy who owns the company, and if he says he wants to proceed with something, that's it. End of discussion. I can't tell you how refreshing that can be. Even one level down, his editors can go to Mike and then call you back and say, "Mike approved it" or even that he didn't. Either way, you're not left dangling for months. It's a fine operation, and I say that as someone who isn't known for speaking excessively well of publishers, even some who've had the wisdom to employ me.
November 13, 2006
