Sorry I haven't written anything real today here. If it's any consolation to you blog readers, I haven't written anything that mattered for my career today, either. Now, around the time the phone stops ringing for the day, I'm settling down to try to do that. I'll be here way into the A.M., enjoying what is increasingly becoming My Time of Day.
Today was busy but okay. I took time out to lunch with cartoonist Carol Lay at my friendly neighborhood Souplantation. Good cartoonist, good Creamy Tomato Soup. And remember: We're halfway through March, the month when Souplantation (and its sister chain, Sweet Tomatoes) features my fave soup. Go try it if there's one near you...and you can find that out on this page. Also while you're on that page, should you locate an outlet you may be visiting, sign up for this thing they have called Club Veg. It gets you a steady stream of e-mailed discount coupons that will save you a buck or three. I do not own stock in this company.
Hey, if you live in L.A.: The evening of April 12, Jules Feiffer will be appearing at a Writers Bloc event where he'll be interviewed by none other than Carl Reiner. I would imagine someone there will also be selling Mr. Feiffer's new book and he'll be writing his name in copies. Here's how you can be there.
Not long ago, we were all disheartened when Mad magazine was cut from monthly to quarterly. We are therefore heartened to hear that it has now been upped to bi-monthly, which ain't that much less than the eight-per-year status that it enjoyed for much of its past existence. The new issue, by the way, is very funny. I do not think that the sales decline of Mad is due to its quality. I think it's due to its being a magazine.
Okay. My Time of Day is fleeting. Gotta get back to work. I'll take a break in about an hour and post a great video link.
The folks at Shout Factory are about to release a Tom Lehrer boxed set that contains one CD and one DVD. If you're a Lehrer fan, you may have all or most of what's on the CD, though there appear to be a few obscure recordings on there. The DVD, however, looks like it'll be worth the price all by itself. I don't think any of these performances have ever been available on home video ever. Here's the link to pre-order. If you got one of those $25 credits from Amazon because they couldn't sell you all the Marvel Omnibus books for three dollars, this might be a peachy thing to use some of that money on.
Actor Peter Graves has died at the age of 83. I never met Mr. Graves nor have I ever heard any interesting anecdotes about him. Still, he was in some fine things, including the TV show, Mission: Impossible, and the movie, Airplane!. I always thought Airplane! was the quintessential example of a film that couldn't be appreciated unless you saw it in a theater with a large, hip audience. This is the trailer for it. There isn't a lot of Peter Graves here but you do get to hear him deliver his famous line and get one of the biggest laughs in the history of the cinema...
I don't know how much of this you'll feel like following but here it is...
Representative Paul Ryan has drawn up and presented what he calls "A Roadmap for America's Future." It's a financial restructuring that, he claims, will slash government spending and head us towards a balanced budget. You can read the whole plan and accompanying sales pitch at this website which he set up for it.
A lot of people think Rep. Ryan's plan would do very little to wipe out debt and balance the budget. What it would mainly do, they say, is to slash taxes for the wealthiest Americans, increase them on the lower and middle class and harm a lot of institutions on which people depend such as Medicare and Social Security. One of the more devastating responses of this sort was composed by the non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Here is their analysis of Ryan's proposal.
On Thursday of this week, the race will commence to book hotel rooms for the Comic-Con International in San Diego this July. If you'll be competing, read this.
Also: As you know, one-day memberships for Friday and Saturday are sold out. Thursday will probably be sold out some time this week and Sunday won't be far behind. And no, I can't help you with admission or a hotel room.
March 16, 2010
