Ah! A human answers the phone. I tell him what the problem is. He says, "Do you mind if I place you on hold?" I ask, "Do I have a choice?" He says, "Not really," so I am now back on hold, hearing those same messages again. 25 minutes since I initiated this call. […]
22 minutes and counting. […]
MARK'S PAYPAL ADVENTURE STARTS HERE! I'm trying to clear up a small (I hope) problem with my PayPal account. Their online "help" feature is of no help so I called the service phone number. According to the little call timer on my telephone, I have now been on hold for 14 minutes. Every thirty seconds, […]
As you probably know, the entire staff and management of this website (i.e., me) is a big fan of certain old game shows, including the classic What's My Line? As of last evening, I am also a big fan of the new What's My Line? What's that? You didn't know there was a new What's […]
There are two great stories about Danny Simon, the veteran comedy writer who just passed away. Well, actually, there are probably a lot more than two. Danny was a major force on TV variety shows of the fifties and sixties, and I even worked on one with him in the late seventies. He was also […]
Hack two people to death with a knife if you want to…but don't you dare steal cable TV! […]
Warner Home Video has formally announced the upcoming DVD sets we've been mentioning here for months. The Yogi Bear Show comes out on November 15, as does the first collection of The Huckleberry Hound Show, as does the fourth season of The Flintstones. Those links go to articles that list the contents. I'll provide Amazon […]
Here's a quick bit of Comic Book History: In 1954, EC Comics were being driven from the newsstand. Various parents' groups and factions within our government were pressuring distributors and retailers not to carry "nasty books" like the company's Tales From the Crypt and Shock SuspenStories. Publisher Bill Gaines was forced to kill off his […]
I assume by now, everyone knows that a number of newspapers dropped yesterday's Doonesbury strip while others did some editing on it. The whole tale is here (and the strip in question is here) but basically, Garry Trudeau had George W. Bush using his reported nickname for Karl Rove, "Turd Blossom." One suspects that such […]
According to the USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll, 51% of all Americans believe the Bush administration deliberately misled the public about whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Now, I don't believe any poll on its own proves much, and there are others that place that number a bit lower than 51%. But as more and more […]
Last night, one of Jay Leno's guests was Australian Joseph Hachem, who recently won $7.5 million bucks (American) in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. There was an interesting subtext to their discussion. Jay was asking Hachem about what it's like to be a professional gambler. Hachem kept suggesting that he really isn't […]
Fred Kaplan, whose commentaries on the Iraq War have been frighteningly prescient, says that the Bush administration is making a major shift in its approach to combatting terrorism…but only in how they try to sell it to the American public. […]
I didn't mention it when it happened but I spent another long day in the hospital emergency room with my mother. Our previous visit there — the one I described here — was last Friday. We were back there on Saturday afternoon. She was in the hospital for two nights and then I brought her […]
Next year's Comic-Con International will be held July 20-23. Good time to start looking for a parking space near the convention center. […]
I think Robert Klein is one of the ten-or-so most brilliant stand-up comedians of all time. I enjoyed his new book, The Amorous Busboy of Decatur Avenue, but I think I'm going to enjoy his next book more. When I read biographies (or especially, autobiographies) of folks whose careers interest me, I usually skim or […]