I've given it up (quit while I was ahead) but for several years, I was a demon Blackjack player and I'm not sure I can explain why. In 50+ trips to Las Vegas plus a couple to Reno or Laughlin, I have never played Craps, Roulette, Keno or just about any other game besides Blackjack […]
Announcing a new feature that I'm going to have on this site until I start forgetting about it! Each day, I will point you to the website of a fine voice actor. Today, say hello to Rob Paulsen, a fine talent I've had the pleasure of working with a few times. Rob is heard in […]
Here's a link to a PDF file of the Taguba report on torture in Iraqi prisons. Don't worry if you don't get around to reading it for a while. Donald Rumsfeld didn't, either. […]
Matt Hinrichs has long brought us scrubbles.net, a very classy pop culture weblog. Now, he's gone one better and erected The Joyce Compton Shrine, a tribute to one of the more dazzling comediennes of the movies. Ms. Compton appeared in an awful lot of films, most of which were less memorable than her on-screen presence. […]
Among the many depressing things about the current Iraq prison scandal is the way folks on all sides are treating it as just another campaign issue to be spun for votes. A lot of those defending Rumsfeld and Bush strike me as precisely the kind of folks who, if we currently had Democrats in those […]
This coming Tuesday, CBS is offering up a reunion special for my all-time favorite TV series, The Dick Van Dyke Show. Early reviews are not great but I don't care. I'll be watching. As I've written many times (like here), I really loved the show and got into my main line of work at least […]
Just watched an advance copy of Lewis Black's HBO Special which airs May 15. It's called "Black on Broadway" and subtitled "Everyone's a comedian," which I guess explains the above graphic. I am hesitant to rave too much about this show because Mr. Black starts out by complaining about people who tell their friends how […]
A reader of this website who asks to remain nameless writes… You must have a lot of communications material, for lack of a better word or phrase. You might not use all of the means I can think of — e-mail, bulletin boards, chat groups, IRC, IM, Usenet newsgroups, phone calls — but you certainly […]
Michael Moore is now saying things that lead one to believe that the "scandal" about Disney blocking release of his film was something of a publicity stunt. If this is true, I've lost yet another layer of respect for the guy. […]
I only saw a little of Rumsfeld's testimony this morning but it struck me that he thinks (and apparently, others think) that being in the dark about something is an acceptable excuse for those in positions of ostensible leadership. If you didn't know about something, even if it's because you never got around to reading […]
Over on the Time Magazine website, Richard Corliss is doing some excellent articles about EC Comics. This one is about the horror era and this one is about Harvey Kurtzman and MAD. I agree with most of what's in these two articles though I have a higher opinion of MAD as edited by Al Feldstein […]
I agree with this editorial in the Washington Post on why Donald Rumsfeld's policy decisions have led to the current reports of torture and human rights violations by American troops. […]
George W. Bush says he has no intention of firing Donald Rumsfeld. He seems to have no interest in firing George Tenet or Paul Wolfowitz, and I think we still have Ahmed Chalabi on the payroll. Is there anything you can do in this administration that will get you fired? I mean, besides tell the […]
Yes, as several people have pointed out to me, there's an older man who lost his wife in the comic strip, For Better or For Worse. Forgot about him…but it's still an interesting "character situation" for Walt Wallet of Gasoline Alley. Uncle Walt was getting somewhat disoriented in the strip and seemed to be having […]
The episode of The Late Show With David Letterman that airs the evening of Friday, May 14 will be taped earlier that day…much earlier. For some odd reason, Dave is taping at 4:00 in the morning. […]