Monday, March 5, 2007

Announcement of Vital Importance

Last year, we made a fuss over the Creamy Tomato Soup that was part of the rotating selection at the Souplantation chain. (In some states, Souplantation is known as Sweet Tomatoes. By any name, it's a place where you go, pay a flat fee and tank up on salad, soup and baked goods.) I suggested you all try it and if you liked it, call the company's Customer Service line and tell 'em so. I phoned up a couple of times and a lady there told me they'd gotten "a lot" of calls but she knew of no plans to add my favorite soup to their permanent lineup.

About two weeks ago, I happened upon those old posts and on a whim, I called up and asked it they had any plans to ever bring the Creamy Tomato Soup back again. The person who answered the phone there said it didn't look good.

Well, guess what. Creamy Tomato Soup is on the Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes lineup for the month of March.

I suppose the person on the Customer Service Line just didn't know, because these things are scheduled some time in advance. But never mind that. The soup's back and I have to get over there and have a few bowls of it and see if I still like it. The last time I tasted it was before my Gastric Bypass Surgery and there are a number of things I enjoyed then that don't taste as wonderful now. Most of those are foods with high sugar content so there's a good chance the Creamy Tomato Soup will still be wonderful. That is, unless they've done something treacherous and changed the recipe. If they have, I'm blaming Cheney. It would be just like him.

This page will show you if there's a Souplantation or Sweet Tomatoes near you. I do not own stock in this company but if they make the Creamy Tomato Soup permanent, I may buy some.

• Posted at 6:18 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Back when Mike Douglas was doing his talk show out of Philadelphia, the producers occasionally brought in famed Stooge Moe Howard to guest. Invariably, pies were thrown, which was half the point of bringing Moe in at all. Someone has posted a whole mess of these segments to YouTube and I'm only going to link to this one. You can find the rest on your own if you like.

In this one, Moe, Mike and guest star Soupy Sales do a version of the Stooges' old "Maharjah" sketch that runs a little less than ten minutes and feels like thirty. It's slow going but it's worth it just to see Moe and Soupy. The older woman at the end who gets a pie in the face is Moe's wife, Helen.

• Posted at 4:10 PM · LINK

Monday Morning

I'm back, I'm back. Before I get out of Bitching and Moaning mode, what is it with all these caste systems about who boards the plane in what order? I understand letting on the elderly, infirm or even families with small children before anyone else. I even understand letting on the First Class people, though I always thought that since they sit in the front, it would be more comfy for them to get on last. But last night at Alaska Airlines, it was like, "We now invite all passengers with elite gold level in our Mileage Plan to board," followed by "We now invite all silver card holders in our mileage partners plan to board" and then "We now invite all Alaska Air Super Saver Partnership cardholders with platinum star points to board" and so on. I don't remember the specific tiers but it seemed like those of us who'd just bought tickets (i.e., 98% of us) were in the nineteenth group allowed to go down the jetway. The whole idea seemed to be to get me on last. I kept waiting for them to say, "We now invite everyone who's never written Groo the Wanderer to get on the plane."

And here's something that's long puzzled me. Why is it that at some airports, when I pick up my suitcase at the Baggage Claim, someone examines my little claim check stub to make sure I'm taking only my own luggage out of there...but in some, nobody checks? If that's a good idea sometimes, why isn't it a good idea always? Are there times when suitcase theft is more likely to occur? Or is the checking, when they do it, in the same category in which I place most of the screening they do when you board the plane and they make you throw away lighters and take off your shoes? (That category is "Useless inconveniences they put you through to make you think they're protecting you when they really aren't.")

Okay, change of mode. Let me underscore the very good time I had at the Wondercon, doing my panels and seeing friends and just talking with people. If I'd been in more of a shopping frame of mind, I could have had a very good time purchasing goodies. The place was loaded with treasures. I've been to good conventions and bad. Wondercon is one of the best.

For those of you who are interested in such silliness, here's a report on a panel I did with Sergio on Friday.

I have a ton of work to do, as well as an awful lot of unread e-mail. So posting on this site may not be up to speed for a day or three. Or four or ten.

• Posted at 11:05 AM · LINK

Wondercon Report

Welcome to the weblog that is unafraid to tackle tough questions. Today's tough question is: "Why do airlines keep telling me to be 90 minutes early for flights that take off two hours late?"

Tonight, we're coming to you from San Francisco International Airport where I arrived at 7:15 for an 8:50 flight which they're now saying may (a note of hopeful expectation in that "may" take off at 10:15. Fortunately, I found a nice eatery here in the airport called Max's Deli that has a pretty good matzo ball soup and — of greater importance — tables on which one can dine and set up one's laptop. Let's see if my patience or my Lithium Ion battery runs out first.

Today's session of the Wondercon didn't seem as crowded as yesterday's. Then again, there were scenes in Ben-Hur that didn't seem as crowded as yesterday's Wondercon. The joys were many, the complaints were the usual for most cons...rotten, overcrowded food stands and long lines and nearby hotels and eateries that charge on the presumption that everyone's on an expense account and is charging it all to the home office. I think I may stop bitching about these things and just learn to accept them as a part of most convention-going. Wherever you go, no matter what the con, the food at the convention center is going to be awful and way overpriced, and there's nothing the operators of any one convention can do about it.

I did a nice panel today called "The Art of the Cover" with Al Feldstein, Nick Cardy, Gene Colan, Phil Jimenez, Tony Harris and Michael Turner. I showed random covers these gentlemen had drawn for comics and they discussed how and why they'd done what they'd done. Not only did the audience seem to find it interesting but the artists were intrigued by the "shop talk" aspect of it all. Gene was supposed to leave early for another engagement but he elected to stay because he found the discussion so enlightening. (Gene's been drawing comics since Johannes Gutenberg used to print them between running off Bibles. And I suspect that one of the reasons Gene is still doing stellar work, eclipsing his previous personal bests, is that he doesn't regard himself as too experienced to learn something from someone else.)

Not much more to report other than to say it was a great con, as always. Oh, yeah — and there's this: Late in the day, Russ Heath (who's been doing comics about as long as Gene Colan) packed up his table and left, and he gave me permission to set up my laptop there and get a little work done, which I did. So I'm sitting there typing on this here machine and a young man comes up with a pile of DC war comics. Seeing the sign on the table which still says "Russ Heath," he informs me that he always loved the way I drew Sgt. Rock and asked if I'd mind signing a batch. I know Russ doesn't look his age but still...

I can't post this from the airport without paying T-Mobile a serious chunk of change for wireless access so I'll put it up on the site when I get home. If you're reading this, I did. I hope the time stamp below isn't too late.

• Posted at 2:15 AM · LINK