Watching TV Land episodes of The Flip Wilson Show, I am reminded of how much I once liked one of his guests, deadpan comedian Jackie Vernon. (Did I say "deadpan"? Compared to Vernon, Buster Keaton was Roberto Benigni. Jackie got one of his biggest laughs just by coming out on stage and saying, "To look […]
Here's an article by Joshua Green that will tell you all sorts of things about John Edwards. […]
Here's one account of how the New York Post went so awry with its cover story on Kerry's choice of running mate. […]
My Congressguy, Henry Waxman, writes about Congressional Oversight. Quick summary: Nothing was too trivial or too expensive for Congress to investigate when the President was named Clinton but they now do their darnedest not to uncover anything which might embarrass George W. Bush. […]
Woke up this morning to very predictable news. A New England Democratic presidential nominee has picked a Southerner for his running mate. Some Republicans think this was the worst possible choice. And the New York Post got it wrong. I don't know from focus groups, and I'm already sick of hearing "he's a trial lawyer," […]
Here's a terrific website full of online videos of campaign commercials of the past. They even have the infamous "daisy girl" commercial for Lyndon Johnson which implied that Barry Goldwater would start a nuclear war that would kill small, cute children. Do not go to this site unless you're prepared to spend some time. And […]
Love him or hate him…or be like me and feel very conflicted…but you might like to know that Michael Moore has opened a weblog. Betcha it's one of those that after the first few entries doesn't get updated very often. […]
The network formerly known as the Game Show Network is currently on its second go-round of vintage What's My Line? episodes. They ran them all (all they had, at least) one time through, and now their Black-and-White Overnight bloc is running them again. First time around, we made special note of the episode on which […]
Hello. Hope you had a safe 'n' sane Fourth of July. My wonderful friend Carolyn and I spent the evening up at the Hollywood Bowl, listening to a rousing selection of patriotic songs (and a few ringers) and watching the closing fireworks display which was so loud, you couldn't hear the Sousa marches the orchestra […]
Since they will eventually dig up every single thing John Kerry has ever done, you might as well know this now: He was once in a rock band. Jerry Osborne has all the details, including a photo and the cover of their one album, at his weblog. (Thanks, Phil Conley!) […]
Dick Cheney is out there bashing John Kerry as being "on the left, out of the mainstream and out of touch with the conservative values of the heartland." I suspect there's some truth to that with regard to some values. On the other hand, I'd like to see someone ask Cheney about some other values. […]
It doesn't get much mention in the "mainstream" comic book community but there's a thriving world out there of Christian-oriented comic books. My pal Nate Butler maintains a webpage about some of the more important figures in this area, and has recently added a new page about the late Al Hartley, who is perhaps best […]
My friend Earl and I spent this evening plowing through crates of old videotapes that I've had in storage for, in some cases, two decades. I'm transferring everything I want to keep to DVD and getting rid of the tapes themselves. Over the last few months, I've converted most of the labelled tapes that contain […]
I'm working here today with the TV tuned to TV Land's marathon of The Flip Wilson Show. They're rather pleasant with a nice "small" feel — no big sets, no line of dancers, etc. Whatever money they spent, they spent on guest stars…and having worked on a number of shows where the guests had no […]
Illustrator John Cullen Murphy passed away yesterday morning at the age of 85. Murphy, as we reported here, recently drew his last Prince Valiant Sunday page after 34 years on the job and before that, he did a long stint drawing Big Ben Bolt. He was a widely respected artist, both for his comic strip […]