My late father, who was one of the gentlest and kindest men who ever lived, used to watch Crossfire on CNN, hoping someone would finally haul off and belt Robert Novak. Dad called him the perfect example of a guy who thinks that the world should revolve around him and his friends making as much money as possible, and that there is no concern that even comes in even a close second. He was also amazed that Novak could be regarded as a reporter and pundit when he continued to get so much so wrong so often. I have seen nothing to suggest my father was wrong.
Take a look at this. Novak is driving along in a black Corvette. He hits a pedestrian and keeps on going. A man on a bicycle sees this, chases Novak down and tells him he hit someone. Only then does Novak stop. He says, "I didn't see him there."
The bicyclist apparently had to stand in traffic to block Novak from leaving the scene. Later, describing the accident, he says he watched as a, "black Corvette convertible with top closed plowed into the guy. The guy is sort of splayed onto the windshield."
Police came and gave Novak a citation. One does suspect that if it had been you or I or anyone who wasn't a well-connected, famous media celeb, we'd be taken to a little room and told that we had one phone call. Gee, I wonder what Keith Olbermann and Jon Stewart are going to say on their shows tonight.
And it's off to San Diego with me. Those of you who fret for the well-being of Lydia, the cat I feed on my back porch, needn't fret. The housesitter will make sure she is well-fed, and I have an array of plumbers and tile guys rebuilding a bathroom and portions of my kitchen whilst I'm down in S.D. hosting panel after panel. So she will not starve for food or attention. (And remind me when I get back to tell you all about Max, a new feline who's joined the throng at the backyard supper dishes. Max is obviously aware that I write the Garfield cartoons and thinks, wrongly, that if he hangs around and gets morbidly obese on the Friskies I put out, he too will enjoy such stardom.)
I have no idea how much, if at all, I'll be posting at the con. Friday, I have three business meetings, an hour of book-signing, four panels to host and one I've promised to visit, plus I have a dinner date and then I'm presenting an award at the big awards gala, dashing out to do a video-type interview, then dashing back to the awards show. Saturday is busier than Friday. I will however try to get a link up here whenever Fred Kaplan posts whatever he's going to post on the current doings with Iraq. Read back on this guy's old articles, people. He's called just about everything exactly right. Wouldn't be nice if we could say that about anyone in our government?
If you see me down there, say hello...and forgive me if I seem distracted at the moment. That's my natural condition, even when I'm not at a Comic-Con International. Each year, it seems, I come back to find one person on the Internet who thinks I snubbed him or her because they said howdy and didn't get what they felt was courteous attention. That is so unlike me and it bothers me that it ever happens. Let's see if I can get through this con without it happening again.
I don't recall when L.A. had streetcars. They were around when I was around but I was too young and, probably more significantly, they didn't seem to go to many places where I went. But someone has made a film about them and we have a preview of it here, and I enjoyed it just because I like to look at old Los Angeles...
So how long will it be be before the McCain ads just say, "Barack Obama is a Muslim extremist who's on a holy mission to destroy the United States and if you elect him, we'll all die?"
It's only July and they're already getting close to that.
Reading the polls and such, I don't get that McCain is in that much trouble. But he and his campaign managers obviously think otherwise.
July 24, 2008
