Nate Silver has a post up about how this country is moving slowly — very slowly — towards the legalization of marijuana. Says he, the percentage of the population that has ever used the stuff is increasing. Logically, if you used it, you're a little more likely to favor allowing everyone to use it...especially if your experiences convinced you that it doesn't automatically lead to psychosis or heroin addiction or any of those dangers we were warned about in high school.
The stat he gives that most interests me is that about half of 55-year-olds have used marijuana at some point in their life. I'm startled it's that low. I've never used marijuana or any other recreational drug. Matter of fact, I've never smoked anything in my life. First of all, I don't like the basic idea of smoking at all. As Bob Newhart once described in a routine, it's taking old leaves, shredding them, sticking them in your mouth and setting fire to them. I still don't see why anyone thinks that's a good idea and I also don't warm to the idea of being even a wee bit intoxicated. This is in no way a condemnation of anyone else who does these things as long as they don't do something a-holish like get stoned and drive a car. It's merely a personal choice...me deciding for me.
I'm amazed that only half of folks aged 55 have tried pot. I'm about that age — I'm 57 — and since about '67, people have called me a liar for claiming I've never "experimented" (as we used to say) and told me, "Everyone in our age bracket has used marijuana." Well, I knew it wasn't everyone because I hadn't and I had friends who I'm pretty sure hadn't...but I thought we were a much smaller group than half. I met people who acted like I'd told them I'd never urinated or something the sort. Like it was close to biologically impossible not to have smoked marijuana, at least for a puff or two. Once or twice, they were so unpleasant about it that just to get rid of them, I'd lie and say, "Okay, okay...I tried it a few times and didn't care for it." And they'd go, "Of course!"
Silver says in his piece, "...one can plausibly support its legalization without having ever inhaled..." That's me. Never inhaled but I think that if adults want to and they aren't operating a motor vehicle or heavy machinery, the government has no more business forbidding it than the drinking of whiskey. We've seen how well that worked out. And I think the efforts to deny it to folks whose pain might be alleviated or health improved is positively inhumane.
I figure it'll be a while before it is legalized...and I kinda hope it isn't just because we need the tax revenue. That would be doing the right thing for the wrong reason. At the moment though, I'm just surprised that I'm not as alone in my generation as I thought.
Veteran comic book and strip artist Frank Springer died last Thursday at the age of 79. The cause is being reported as prostate cancer.
Born December 6, 1929 in Queens, New York, Springer graduated Syracuse University with a degree in art in 1952 and promptly went into the army, where he did mostly illustration work at Fort Dix. Upon his discharge in '54, he began assisting George Wunder on the comic strip, Terry and the Pirates, a post he held until 1960 and returned to on occasion when Mr. Wunder was behind and needed help. In later years, Springer also occasionally worked on other strips including several years of Rex Morgan, M.D., plus ghosting on The Heart of Juliet Jones, On Stage, Friday Foster, The Phantom and many others. He also did strips he originated like The Virtue of Vera Valiant, written by Stan Lee.
His comic book career began in '60 and he later recalled Brain Boy, a Dell comic, as his first assignment. He drew many books for Dell including Charlie Chan, Ghost Stories and Toka, Jungle King. He also began drawing for DC and later, Marvel. Fans recall his byline on the DC series, The Secret Six, and for a time on Marvel's Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD and later on many Spider-Man titles and Dazzler. He also did a lot of uncredited work, including a few Batman tales under the "Bob Kane" signature.
In the late sixties, he teamed with writer Michael O'Donoghue and produced several adult comic features for Evergreen Review, the most notable being The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist, the episodes of which were collected into a best-selling book. When O'Donoghue became an editor for National Lampoon, he brought Frank in and soon Springer was drawing many of their comic book parodies to great acclaim.
Frank was admired and loved by his peers, and the National Cartoonists Society three times awarded him its trophy as Best Comic Book Artist of the year and once elected him its president. He was a guest of honor at the 2004 Comic-Con International in San Diego where I had the privilege of interviewing him twice before his many fans. On one of those panels, he said of his career, "There were some raggedy times, but I always had work, raised five kids, bought some houses, bought some cars...I've been lucky." Personally, I think skill and dedication had a lot to do with that.
He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Barbara, as well as four children and seven grandchildren.
Yesterday, I linked up a number from a Limeliters concert in (I'm guessing) the late seventies. Here's the opening number from that performance. Up front are the original members of the group: Alex Hassilev, Lou Gottlieb and Glenn Yarbrough...
An early, unfinished copy of the new Wolverine movie has apparently been making the rounds of the Internet, downloaded by many...including a Fox News columnist who wrote and released a review of it. He was promptly fired for "promoting piracy," which makes sense. He might also have been faulted for reviewing an unfinished, unreleased work...which is unethical even if you come by a copy honestly.
I don't altogether understand the mania of those who can't wait for a movie, who have to have it a few weeks early even if it means going to all sorts of trouble to obtain a bad or incomplete copy. I can't think of a single movie that would ever prompt that yearning in me. Matter of fact, it's quite the opposite. If I care at all about the project, I want to wait until I can experience it in its proper form and presentation.
When Monty Python's Life of Brian came out, a friend who worked on the advertising campaign gave me an advance copy — on 3/4" video cassettes, which I could play since I had a machine that played those. He didn't, which is why he gave them to me. Some friends came over and we brought in pizza and made an evening of it...watching a copy that was a little too dark on the TV I owned then, which had a 19" screen. We enjoyed the film but did no backflips. That was not the way to see it, I later realized. The advance copy was also missing a few scenes that were in the final release and must have included some that weren't, since it was around ten minutes longer.
A month later, I realized what I just said I realized. It was the weekend Life of Brian was formally released and I took a date to see it at a theater in Westwood. That was the way to see that movie. I loved it but felt sure I would have loved it even more had the advance copy not diminished many of the best moments for me. In hindsight, there was a childish feeling of privilege because we got to see the movie before anyone else we knew...and it wasn't worth it.
Obviously, there's a legal wrong in bootlegging material like this...in spreading or even just receiving stolen goods. There's also the downside for the audience in having the film spoiled a little or a lot. And there's one other thing: It's just unfair to the filmmakers. They offer their work for public consumption and once they release a movie, it's fair game for everyone to review it and say it's great or that it sucks moose or whatever. But before they release it, it's theirs in that sense. It ain't finished. It's like sneaking a peek at a novelist's working draft before he's ready to show it to anyone. I don't particularly want to see anything until the person creating it declares it's done, or at least until they decide it's far enough along to invite public inspection. It's not good for me as a consumer and it's not good for those who create what I consume.
My body seems to be catching up on sleep I missed last October or something. I woke up this morning at 10:46 — a bit of a jolt since I had to be someplace at 11:15. Somehow — don't ask me how — I showered, dressed and got there by 11:20.
The event was a lovely memorial/celebration brunch recalling Page Cavanaugh, the great entertainer who passed away last December. My pal Leonard Maltin emceed artfully, introducing film clips and a parade of Page's friends and colleagues. There were many wonderful moments but I'll only mention two. Michael Feinstein performed a couple of Page's favorite tunes and Peter Marshall (yes, the master of the Hollywood Squares) sang, "This is All I Ask," in a powerful but touching voice that sent chills through the room. We all sure left with a sense of how loved and respected Page was and still is. It was well worth rushing out of the house to be there for it.
Dick DeBartolo, who's been writing for MAD since before Alfred E. Neuman's front tooth fell out, is selling DeBartolo books and other goodies over on his website. But what may interest you more is that he's posted a poster that was prepared for an upcoming issue of MAD but omitted because by the time it could reach the stands, its topic will be old news. It's a funny piece spinning off the great Milton Bradley game, Operation...otherwise known as The Bush Health Plan.
April 6, 2009
