Monthly Archives: November 2015

MAD Magazine asks the leading presidential candidates: "Would you pardon the Thanksgiving turkey?"

Hey, here's some footage of the 1940 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, complete with the Superman balloon that made its debut in that procession. Not bad for a comic book character who'd only been around for two years…

If your Turkey Day would be incomplete without a viewing of the famous Thanksgiving episode of WKRP in Cincinnnati, you can view it, thanks to Hulu, at this 2008 link on this blog. How many TV shows have there ever been that did their most memorable episode as Show #7 of their first season?

Various friends tell me of the horrors of Thanksgiving (or other family gatherings) with relatives who are politically stupid and stubborn. I never had this problem. My family didn't talk politics much and to the extent we did, we were all on roughly the same page. There was a period in the late sixties when I skewed much more Conservative than readers of this blog might ever imagine. Even then though, I had zero interest in discussing my views with my relatives and they had zero interest in discussing theirs with me.

For some reason, the dominant topic at the dinner table when a lot of us ate together was food. My father, his brother and his sister would argue about the way their mother cooked certain items as opposed to the way my mother had cooked comparable items upon which we were feasting. My mother's cooking usually came off well in the comparison but it still annoyed her a little that it was even being discussed…and discussed over and over.

Now, I avoid family dinners altogether. You can do that when you have almost no family left. My closest relative — David, author of this fine book — lives in Brooklyn with his peachy wife. Even if we were in the same state on some holiday, I don't think David and I disagree on much of anything.

Oh, yeah. I like some Woody Allen movies he doesn't and vice-versa. That's certainly not enough to ruin a meal.

As I've written here before, I had a very happy childhood with parents who yelled or quarreled about once every two years and never for long. I also had no siblings and have never for one second regretted that. Friends tell me how wonderful it was to have these brothers or those sisters and I don't doubt that for a moment. But I felt no void in my life because I did not and I was glad I didn't have to share my room, my comic books or my parents' affection.

By coincidence as I was composing this, I received an e-mail from someone asking if I had any tips about discussing politics with politically-different relatives at Thanksgiving. Well, I've never had to do that but, yes, I have a tip: Don't try it. It doesn't matter if your uncle thinks Donald Trump is a great man who will bring peace to the world by shutting up and/or nuking everyone who disagrees with him. It especially doesn't matter if your uncle resides in a state other than the few swing ones that will decide the 2016 Presidential Election…but it also doesn't matter because you're not going to change his mind. Just as he's not going to change yours.

So just remind him of that and ask him to pass the cranberry sauce. Happy Thanksgiving.

Jonathan Chait on Donald Trump and terrorism. I am still not worried about Trump becoming President of the United States or even the Republican nominee for the job. Is it possible? Sure. So are a lot of other scenarios that involve him getting so hysterical with his rhetoric and discredited "facts" that he becomes an obvious turn-off to swing voters…and therefore to Republicans who above all want to win next November. As he more and more becomes a caricature of himself, he's really starting to look like a guy who has Applause Lines but no workable policies.

It's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and an annual tradition on Stu's Show is that he invites on his two resident TV critic-experts, Steve Beverly and Wesley Hyatt, for a long conversation on the state of the tube.  Stu's website says, "We'll discuss CBS' new Star Trek series that will premiere over the air and then only be available through their online pay streaming service. We'll also run the latest cord-cutting numbers…something the satellite and cable companies need to start addressing fast. Other topics will include Colbert doing a 'live' show following the next Super Bowl, why the Buzzr digi-network continues to air the same eight weeks of programs over and over, why shows that are tanking in the ratings are not getting cancelled as fast as they did in seasons prior, and a new NBC Rant from Wes that will demonstrate once more why this network is in desperate need of some creative infusion."

Stu's Show can be heard live (almost) every Wednesday at the Stu's Show website and you can listen for free there. Webcasts start at 4 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM Eastern and other times in other climes. They run a minimum of two hours and sometimes go to three or beyond.  Shortly after a show ends, it's available for downloading from the Archives on that site. Downloads are a paltry 99 cents each and you can get four for the price of three.  You won't find a better deal on Black Friday…or any color Friday for that matter.

There are few things I enjoy watching as much as Buster Keaton in his prime. This little look at his staging of gags reminds me why. I don't get a couple of the music choices in this but the visuals are a thing of beauty…

Here's a list of U.S. Senators telling us just how popular each is in his or her own state. The most popular — and by a wide margin — is Bernie Sanders. In Vermont, he has an 83% Approval rating versus 13% Disapproval. This is not based on a huge sample but I think it explains a lot as to why Sanders is so unafraid to advocate for positions that others might consider "unsafe."

The least popular? In Kentucky, Mitch McConnell has a 38% Approval rating and a 52% Disapproval rating. That's only slightly better than cold sores. I assume though that McConnell's problem is that he hasn't delivered on a lot of things that Republican voters feel he should have made happen.

My two Senators — Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein — are both around the 50% Approval mark and around 34% Disapproval. I have no particular feeling about either because I almost never hear anything about what they're doing or how any of their votes have mattered. California currently has around 44% Democratic registration and 29% Republican and I suspect that has more to do with the two Senators' current ratings than their actual job performance.

Hey, I should remind everyone in the L.A. area that tickets are still available for Frank Ferrante's run with his Groucho show at the Pasadena Playhouse, January 9-10. We in this area don't often get to see him perform his wonderful performance.

Usually, he tours America (and has a run in Australia ahead) and he ventures nowhere near where I dwell. Anyway, if you've never seen Frank, here's how it works. You go see his show. He comes out as Frank Ferrante and tells you of his love of Groucho Marx. As he tells you, he applies make-up and right before your eyes, the Italian kid disappears and you're staring at The One, The Only…

You blink and there he is, cavorting on stage and bringing one of the world's great comic talents back from the hereafter for 90 minutes of Marx Madness. I've never been fond of impersonator shows but this one works. If you can get to Pasadena when he's there, you'll see how well.

This is an entry to Mark Evanier's list of the twenty top voice actors in American animated cartoons between 1928 and 1968. For more on this list, read this. To see all the listings posted to date, click here.

Most Famous Role: Junior Bear.

Other Notable Roles: Pete Puma, The Beaver (in Lady and the Tramp), half of the Goofy Gophers (Mac & Tosh), half of Hubie & Bertie, many more.

What He Did Besides Cartoon Voices: What didn't he do? Puppeteering (Cecil the Seasick Serpent and Dishonest John on Time for Beany), dozens of best-selling comedy records, acting for movies and television, hundreds of popular commercials produced by his advertising company, etc.

Why He's On This List: Stan was the other, unbilled voice in dozens of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, holding his own alongside Mel Blanc. Even after he was the highest-paid talent in the advertising business, he always made time for any cartoon voice job that came along.  He was one of the best comic actors to ever lend his voice to an animated cartoon.

Fun Fact: Stan got his first voice job in 1945 — a Warner Brothers cartoon — only weeks after getting out of high school. Stan passed away in April of 2015 but before he did, he did his last voice job for an episode of The Garfield Show that is scheduled to air in 2016.  That's a span of 71 years and a longevity record that will never be broken.

Daniel Larison is sick 'n' tired of guys like John McCain and Lindsey Graham scurrying about, moaning that the world has never been more dangerous, that nuclear conflict is imminent, that Earth's days may be numbered, etc. We have problems, sez Larison, but nothing like we've had in the past.

Here's what John Oliver had to say last night about refugees…

Lately, my mind keeps going back to the Bush/Gore election and all the accusations by Bush supporters that Al Gore was a "congenital liar." That was the term — one most of the same people have flung at Hillary Clinton. A lot of them seemed to think the word "congenital" meant "extreme" while others used it to suggest that Al (or Hillary) had some mental illness that forced them to speak lies to no particular advantage.

My problem with calling politicians liars is that people only do it to those they wish they see lose. Everyone running for public office says things that aren't technically true. Sites like Politifact have examples for everyone and you can really find examples when you're trying hard to discredit someone. Gore didn't say "I invented the Internet" — he didn't use the word "invented" at all when he said what got misquoted into that — but a lot of folks thought the misquote was inarguable proof he was a serial fibber.

So I don't really know what to make of certain acquaintances who dismissed Gore as a liar but are quite enthusiastic about voting for Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina and others who unabashedly say things happened that no one thinks happened. Trump says, "I watched in Jersey City, N.J., where thousands and thousands of people were cheering" as the World Trade Center collapsed. Carson says he "didn't have an involvement with" the nutritional supplement company, Mannatech. Fiorina says, "92% of the jobs lost during Barack Obama's first term belonged to women" and that she saw an abortion in a video that no one else can locate. There are other examples from them and other candidates of both parties.

I can excuse some things as misunderstandings or garbled phrasing. When Carson talks about Thomas Jefferson writing the Constitution, that seems like a factual error and/or maybe a case of misspeaking. A factual error isn't a lie unless you double-down on it and insist it's so, no matter what anyone says. A misspeak isn't a lie any more than a typographical error is a lie.

I could almost respect someone who said, "Much of what Donald Trump says is lies and misrepresentation but I'm going to vote for him in spite of that." I think that's how a lot of us feel about the people for whom we wind up casting ballots. I sure can't defend that Obama line about keeping your doctor or some of his claims of government transparency.

Don't give your guy a pass when he makes up some bogus anecdote that cues applause in a political speech. Seems to me that if you only care about The Truth when you can use it as a weapon against an opponent, you really don't care about The Truth at all.

Vegans should skip this. It's a trip into the meat supply house where Peter Luger's Steakhouses in New York get some (not all) of the animal flesh they serve. I haven't been to Peter Luger's in over ten years but until it proves otherwise, I still consider it the best place to eat beef I've ever found. Wolfgang's Steakhouse in Beverly Hills is very similar and is a lot closer to me so I don't yearn for Peter Luger's as much as I might…

I just watched the last episode of the year of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. The opening segment, which was all about the refugee situation, was not only funny but it imparted more actual information than any news segment I've seen on the topic.

I don't know if they're going to put that part of the show up on YouTube. They usually only post their "top story," which in tonight's show was a good argument for getting rid of the penny. But the whole show reruns many times this week on HBO and you should catch it if you can.