James Randi, aka "The Amazing Randi," is an expert magician who now puts his skills towards "debunking" those who claim to have psychic or otherwise supernatural abilities. I am of the view that such folks are all — 100% of 'em — frauds. Some are perhaps harmless frauds but some clearly do great harm and […]
Amy Davidson notes that some in the Republican Party are starting to come around to the notion of Gay Marriage. I've received a couple of interesting e-mails about Same-Sex Matrimony and I'll be posting and responding to them here over the next week or so. […]
Richard Alf, whose obit ran on this site early last month, was one of the founding members of the get-together we now know as the Comic-Con International in San Diego. Another was Mike Towry. Mike has written a tribute to his friend Richard which doubles as a history of the early days of that convention. […]
Juan Cole itemizes ten Catholic teachings that Rick Santorum and a lot of other political figures reject while still professing their unyielding Catholicism. And I don't think it's at all wrong to think for one's self and reject a teaching with which you disagree. The problem is when you reject some, embrace others…and insist those […]
Brian Brushwood is a professional magician who credits Teller (of Penn &…) for the kind of attitude one needs to be successful in that line of work. On his blog, Brushwood tells of how he first met Teller and reprints an e-mail exchange that changed his life. Even if you never had any desire to […]
Here's a moment from David Letterman's old NBC show that I always thought was funny… […]
I do not know when the full load of hotel rooms (or admissions) for Comic-Con International will be made available. I know the con folks are working like crazy to perfect the system before they open the floodgates. But just when you'll be able to book your rooms and badges, I can't tell you, nor […]
And by that, I mean many polls over time and a much better chance than Romney. # Santorum will not really be the G.O.P. front runner until polls show him with a much better chance than Romney of beating Obama. # […]
Number one hundred and fifty-one in a series… […]
Read More… from Great Photos of Stan Laurel and/or Oliver Hardy
Want to know what one-time Saturday Night Live star Tim Kazurinsky is up to these days? My pal Bruce Reznick sent me this link to an article about his current whereabouts. I always thought Kazurinsky was the funniest thing on SNL during a few years when not much was and I'm glad to see he's […]
I'm always suspicious of restaurants that claim to have invented some item that you now find on menus everywhere. In Philadelphia, there are at least three places that will swear to you the Philly steak sandwich was first served on their premises, and there are two in L.A. alone (Phillipe's and Cole's Pacific Electric Buffet) […]
I don't usually embed Daily Show videos here because the Comedy Central codes are kinda screwy but this one's too good. Jon Stewart is right. Most of this talk about religious persecution in America (the part that isn't just about scaring people into voting against Obama) is about religious folks who are upset that everything […]
Our friends at The Comics Journal have posted Gary Groth's long 1999 interview with John Severin. Well worth a read. Near the end, Gary asked Severin about a story for DC called "Spoilers" written by Jerry DeFuccio and Severin says he has no memory of it. This may be because he didn't do it for […]
The last few years, my dining habits have changed. Some of this is no doubt due to my big weight loss in 2006 following Gastric Bypass Surgery. Some of it, I suspect, is for other reasons, one of which is that some of the things I used to eat are simply not as good as […]
Andrew Sullivan thinks all this talk about contraception is causing the extreme right-wing to place themselves precisely where Barack Obama wants them. Maybe so. I do think that trying to restrict birth control is a political loser. It may not be in the Bill of Rights but for most people in this country, the right […]