Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Correction!

I have removed the link from the previous item and I instead direct you to the same article on the site where it originally appeared: That of PC World, which is a fine operation with exquisite taste in websites. So go there instead to read about "100 Blogs We Love." And my thanks to Harry McCracken and anyone else over there who was responsible for sending a little love our way.

• Posted at 10:36 PM · LINK

Post Time!

The Washington Post picks "100 Blogs We Love," one of which is this one. It's the first thing that paper's gotten right since Nixon resigned.

• Posted at 6:00 PM · LINK

Al Langer, R.I.P.

Al Langer passed away on Sunday. Langer's Delicatessen is situated in a crummy part of Los Angeles, down near MacArthur Park. It's so crummy that Langer's closes at 4 PM every afternoon probably because even the Langer family doesn't want to hang around there after dark. But during the day, people flock to Langer's because, they say, it serves the greatest pastrami in the world. That's what they say in the L.A. Times obit for Mr. Langer, though I recall a few pieces in which the Times restaurant critics suggested that other local delis did as good or better in the pastrami department.

I'm not a pastrami kind of guy. When I've been to Langer's, I've ordered the corned beef, which was quite wonderful even though it always caused my dining companion, whoever it was, to act like I'd gone to Lawry's and not ordered the Prime Rib or gone to Peter Luger's Steak House and not asked for steak or gone to any restaurant that was famous for one thing and ordered another. Still, I had to admire Langer's for building a reputation that would cause people to go to that terrible, inconvenient location.

Mr. Langer, by the way, lived to the age of 94. Sol Forman, who owned Peter Luger's in Brooklyn, died at the age of 98 and the two men who founded the Lawry's Prime Rib empire lived similarly long lives. Maybe eating cow flesh isn't as bad for you as some say.

• Posted at 11:58 AM · LINK

Your Big Break

Wanna be a game show contestant? You won't win a million dollars but then again, you'll be able to do it via telephone from the comfort of your own home. Shokus Internet Radio, which we plug the heck outta on this site, has an audio game show called Anyone Can Play, hosted by Larry Anderson, who hosted The Big Spin, the revival of Truth or Consequences and other shows. Anyone Can Play needs contestants for some upcoming tape dates. You need to be good at trivia and it might help if you listened to the show, which you can do Monday through Saturday at 3 PM Pacific Time.

It's sponsored by Endless Games, makers of great board and DVD games like The Price is Right, Password and The Match Game and you'll never guess what the prizes are. That's right: Great board and DVD games like The Price is Right, Password and The Match Game. You can read the rules and apply over on this page. And you can listen to Shokus Internet Radio by going to this page and selecting an audio browser. Don't miss out on this golden opportunity. Remember...this is how Vanna White got started. Sort of.

Also, that last link will come in handy if you want to listen to any of the fine programming on Shokus. All this week from 10 PM to Midnight (Pacific) they're rerunning the most recent episode of Stu's Show that featured Yours Truly and my fellow animation writer/historian, Earl Kress...with a special guest appearance by Batfink. There are also shows there worth your attention that don't have me on them. The TV Soundtrack Show, which is on at 2 PM Pacific on most days, should be of special interest to the kind of person who'd come to this site. Your affable host Stuart Shostak digs up some wonderfully obscure gems to share with his listeners...stuff that never made it to those "TV Themes" CDs that we all own. End of plug.

• Posted at 2:32 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

In 1962 and 1963, Jackie Gleason hosted a variety show called The American Scene Magazine, which was basically the same as every Jackie Gleason variety show — same characters, same running bits, same catch phrases. The main change from Gleason's earlier shows was that Art Carney was not a regular and that Frank Fontaine was, usually playing his mentally-challenged character, Crazy Guggenheim. This is a Joe the Bartender sketch...and they all went pretty much like this one, except that later on, they'd end by have Crazy sing a serious song...and Fontaine would inexplicably drop the idiot voice and character to do so.

This sketch is kinda funny because they get to talking about the movie, The Hustler, in which Gleason had recently appeared. And get a load of the great reading that one of the "Glea Girls" (Jackie's coterie of lovely models) gives the opening. Do we think this woman was hired for her ability to deliver a line? And awaaay we go...

• Posted at 2:15 AM · LINK