New York Times reporter Judy Miller is still behind bars for refusing to divulge sources in the Plame/CIA/maybe Rove matter. Some people, of course, have always felt she should be jailed because the enforcement of various espionage-related laws is of greater importance than whatever principle of the Free Press she is protecting. Others, who believe […]
Happy birthday to the man who is (I think) America's greatest satirist and a major architect of comedy for an entire generation. I sure hope he doesn't try to blow out the proper number of candles because it could be dangerous, and we need to keep him safe and sound. Fortunately, Stan Freberg has a […]
The other day, I made an outta-left-field reference here to Joe Pyne. This brought the following e-mail from Brad Kohler… I realize that you did not really give him a favorable mention, but it amazes me that, even though he has been dead for over 30 years, just the mention of that man's name raises […]
Still the funniest, cleverest thing on my TV: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. If you didn't catch last night, they had a wonderful segment about Mr. Novak's outburst on CNN, and followed it with a piece about the news coverage of that Toronto airport accident. You can view a video with one bit after […]
Bloggers are making way too big a deal about the incident today on CNN when Robert Novak uttered an obscenity and walked out. (If you didn't see it, the video's all over the 'net. Here's a good place to view it.) Since the rhetoric preceding his little outburst was pretty much the norm for years […]
Let's play Catch-Up on items posted here lately… No, I do not know of any firm plans for memorial services for Pat McCormick, Danny Simon or Gary Belkin, though I am told there will be public events at least for Pat and Gary. If you knew these gents and want to be kept informed, drop […]
Some old wise man — I think it was Joe Pyne — once said that the real scandal in government wasn't about what laws were being broken but what you can get away with without breaking any laws. As this article in the Washington Post notes, there's an awful lot that lobbyists can do to […]
About three weeks ago, I got a call from a friendly-voiced lady who said she was conducting a marketing survey for a national research company, the name of which I didn't catch. On a whim, I agreed to answer her questions and the first few were pretty innocuous…things like, "Do you like chocolate?" and "Have […]
David Frum, a writer for National Review, had much the same reaction I did to the news coverage of that airplane crash at the airport in Toronto. The main difference is that I found CNN, MSNBC and Fox all lacking…and he just watched (and criticizes) CNN. […]
I apologize that I didn't give you a "head's up" about an episode of To Tell the Truth that was rerun the other night. The panel had to guess which of three men was Theodore "Dr. Seuss" Geisel. One of the many things I found interesting about it was that for years, learned men and […]
The August edition of Back Issue, which I have just received, contains an interview that was conducted via phone with Sergio Aragonés and me. It's not a great interview and it's marred by a number of terrible transcription errors…like when I talk about a character named "Palandrone" in Groo, that's actually a reference to a […]
It's been a bad few months for comedy writers and for folks affiliated with the Sid Caesar TV shows. My friend Gary Belkin was both. That's Gary at a 1996 event called "Caesar's Writers" held at the Writers Guild Theater. He was seated one person away from Danny Simon, who passed away last week. When […]
Just watched Bill Maher's latest HBO Special, which is entitled "I'm Swiss," and which reruns often over the next few weeks. (It's on tomorrow night, to name one instance.) Mr. Maher has developed an annoying little giggle that punctuates many a line, as if to suggest he just thought of it and can't help cracking […]
Great news: All 309 folks aboard that jet that crashed at the airport in Toronto escaped with their lives. I sure didn't think that would be the case when I watched about a half-hour of news coverage this afternoon, dancing between CNN, MSNBC and Fox. The folks covering the accident obviously thought the opposite had […]
I am told that the Lena Horne episode of What's My Line? aired this morning (I'm behind on watching what's on my TiVo) so that would mean the one with Lieber and Stoller is on tonight. […]