I need to get back to work but before I do, I wanted to say something here about Cheerios®. I haven't mentioned much about Cheerios® here lately and that's an oversight I need to correct. Because Cheerios® are important. Cheerios®, I realized not long ago, are truly Nature's Most Perfect Food. They're tasty. They're crunchy. They're healthier than most other things I eat. Did you know that they may help lower Cholesterol? That's not a proven fact but they may, which puts them ahead of all those foods — like bacon and butter and In-and-Out Burgers, that we're pretty certain do not lower Cholesterol. But Cheerios® may and that's good enough for me.
Please note that I am writing here of plain, old-fashioned Cheerios® — the kind in the yellow box. I have never tried Honey Nut Cheerios® and I never will, partly because I'm allergic to almonds and partly because I simply resent the notion that Cheerios® could be improved upon. I also have no use for Berry Burst Cheerios®, Yogurt Burst Cheerios®, Multi Grain Cheerios®, Cheerios® Crunch, Fruity Cheerios®, Frosted Cheerios® or Apple Cinnamon Cheerios®. For obvious reasons.
Over the years, I've occasionally shifted my affection to other cereals but rarely for long. I always come back to Cheerios®. Recently, I went through a brief Corn Flakes flirtation but it faded. When you put them in a bowl with milk and sugar, they're almost as good but Cheerios® are much, much better when you just eat a dry handful right out of the box. Which is how I eat most cereal.
These days, I really only eat two cereals. One, of course, is Cheerios®. The other, which is also quite wonderful, is Barbara's Shredded Oats and I kind of think of it as Designer Cheerios®. Barbara's Shredded Oats is denser and crunchier and a little more expensive. It's kind of like Cheerios® on a higher budget.
This is all I have to say about Cheerios® at the moment but there will be more. I can't say enough about Cheerios®.
Like most (all?) of you, I woke up this morn to the news that former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had been assassinated at a political rally. Like some (most?) of you, I had some knowledge of Bhutto and Pakistan but not enough to really understand the significance of this killing...what it means to Pakistan and, of course, what it means to the United States. It's tough to not look at every bit of news from the standpoint of immediate self-interest. There are times when I feel semi-uncomfortably like an actor friend of mine. If you told him that a volcano went off in Uruguay, all he could think about was, "Does that affect my career in any way?"
Anyway, I started hitting webpages where I thought I might find some explanation and quick analysis of what the assassination means to me and my country. What I found were a lot of theories about what it means to the Iowa Caucus. Apparently, it helps Hillary Clinton because it will send voters towards the candidate who seems more likely to use military force...unless, of course, they're afraid of a President who'll plunge us into another Iraq-like debacle, in which case it will send voters away from Hillary Clinton. On the Republican side, it will help Rudy Giuliani because voters will look to the man with experience in Crisis Management...unless, of course, those voters realize that Giuliani has no experience in foreign matters, in which case it will send voters away from Rudy Giuliani.
I love explanations that tell you everything you want to know...unless, of course, they don't tell you a damn thing.
But at least there also seems to be a consensus that, as David Gergen put it, "...Pakistan, like an immense number of other problems, will be awaiting our next president." And then he wrote something about how it will require extraordinary leadership in the Oval Office, like all the other decisions that go through that place don't.
Sorry to hear of the death of Paul Grant, who in the world of comic books was a a smart connoisseur and commentator. He was a pioneer of the online comic community, holding forth on the old CompuServe forum at a time when something like 1% of America had ever heard the word, "Internet." His handle, and the name by which most knew him, was Zeus...and when you got to know the guy, as I had the privilege of doing, you saw why the name fit. He not only looked like Zeus, he had a large, expansive manner and a huge, jolly laugh. John Ostrander has more.
In 1972 and 1973, ABC had a neat little show on Saturday morning called The Saturday Superstar Movie. What it was was an anthology of hour-long cartoon specials, which I suppose were all pilots in someone's eyes, produced by an array of studios. Some were revivals of old characters. There was Yogi's Ark Lark, which brought back Yogi, Huck, Quick Draw and the gang after many years off the screen. (Hanna-Barbera was fighting with Columbia over who owned what.) There was a very strange Popeye special that guest-starred most of the King Features comic strip characters. There was even a show that crossed new characters with old...Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies.
There were also animated versions of live-action TV shows including The Brady Bunch, Nanny and the Professor, Lassie, Gidget, The Munsters and That Girl. And there were a few new things, as well. You'll see fast cuts from some of these shows in this, the main title for the series...
There's no way I can embed the videos or link you directly to them...but if you go over to the Disney website right now, they have a video player on the first page that runs little featurettes. You can watch the Donald Duck cartoon, Donald's Snow Fight, and if you hunt just a little bit, there's a nice short about the recent Disney Legends ceremony. It includes a brief soundbite with our pal Floyd Norman and a musical performance by Randy Newman.
December 28, 2007
