Category Archives: To Be Filed

Republicans loathe "Socialized Medicine" and liken its every advocate to Karl Marx.  But we have a law in this country — the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act — which basically says that if people are needy and in need of emergency medical care, they can go to any emergency room in this country. They will be treated and somebody else will pay for it. This fits every definition of Socialized Medicine I have ever heard, yet it was passed by a bipartisan congress and signed proudly into law by a Republican president. That not one prominent Republican is suggesting its repeal makes me wonder if the biggies against "Obamacare" really have anything against it other than the "Obama" part. Noam N. Levey has some facts about the E.M.T.A.L.A.

Wouldn't it be great if when you had to take the trashcans out or in, an unseen band somewhere played this as background music?

It's Fred Kaplan again, this time writing about Obama's "kill list." See, we don't have Death Panels in this country. We have Kill Lists.

Number two hundred and sixty in a series…

The first time I was up for a Daytime Emmy, I did something I probably won't ever do again: I went to the ceremony.

I didn't win but that wasn't the reason I skipped the gala the next few times I was nominated. I just found that one time I attended to be an ordeal of boredom and hassle…and that was before you had to wear a tuxedo to one of these things. (Note to Self: You still don't. I did last night because they said it was the dress code but an awful lot of folks, including I'd say a majority of presenters and winners, didn't. And the men who opted for a classy dark suit looked better and more natural than those of us in "Black Tie." I have one photo in which I look like a Head Waiter in a really, really crummy restaurant angling for a tip.)

I have mixed feelings on the whole concept of awards like these. Having served on a committee at the Academy that looked into the voting process for possible improvement — and then wasn't allowed to make any meaningful suggestions — I am thoroughly disabused of any notion that the statuettes or even the nominations go to the Best and the Brightest. (Last night though, a few did go to The Bold and the Beautiful and even to The Young and the Restless.) I also think most winners blow the event and honor way out of proportion and that some are even harmed, personally and/or professionally by a win. There are recipients I know who I think were because they then lost perspective on who they were or how they fit into their line of work.

On the other hand, an award like an Emmy sure makes some people happy. It's hard to knock something that creates as much joy as some of the "wins" did last night…and every so often, the name in the envelope is so right and so appropriate that you're grateful for the institution and the ceremony and all the trappings. I wouldn't have gone if I'd been up for one myself but no way was I going to turn down the opportunity to escort June Foray, who at age 94 (!!!) received her first nomination.

As long as I've known June, which is since 1970 or thereabouts, I've heard her occasionally wonder aloud why she had been so totally ignored by the Academy. It wasn't some childish "I deserve an Emmy" whine. She was just puzzled. I guess that when you've received every other conceivable honor in your profession, it just felt like something was missing.

The truth is that…well, first of all, for a long time (like when they were doing the original Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons with her playing Squirrel and a hundred other roles), there simply was no Emmy for what she was doing. No category. And then when there finally was, I don't think a lot of her employers thought to submit her for consideration. When we did the old Garfield & Friends show in the eighties and early nineties, June was a frequent guest and I didn't think to tell anyone, "Make sure we submit June Foray." I don't know if anyone did or not…or if it would have mattered. We did submit, I'm sure, Lorenzo Music and other regulars but the voice cast received zero nominations.

And why didn't more producers submit her? Well, some of them opt to omit the guest stars, lest those folks take away votes from the regulars. Some are just thoughtless, as we may have been. In some cases, I think she was like the prettiest girl in school who doesn't get asked to the prom because everyone assumes she already has too many offers. Though it was announced last night that it was June's first-ever nomination, as she was sitting at the after-party with her trophy, people still came by and asked her, "So how many of those do you have now?" One of the other presenters idled by and said, "Can you find room on your mantle for that with all the others you must have?"

I got a late start driving out to pick June up for the evening. We're recording more episodes of The Garfield Show (the follow-up to Garfield & Friends) today and tomorrow. In fact, June is in tomorrow, again playing Mrs. Cauldron, the character she won the Emmy for playing in earlier episodes. The most amazing thing to me about June is not that she is 94. A lot of people live to be 94. But how many of them can still do essentially the same job they were doing at 24? I'd planned to leave to pick her up by 2 PM but at 2 PM, I was still polishing scripts and configuring cast lists. At 2:15, I uploaded the scripts for both days to the printer and began hurriedly donning my gay apparel. Carolyn, who was too busy working on the next volume of Pogo reprints, had decided she'd reluctantly have to skip the evening but on an impulse, she came along with me to pick up June and admire how stunning she looked in her formal-type gown.

We got to June's at 3:30 (she lives some distance) and to the hotel at 4:30. I hadn't eaten all day…and wouldn't until the after-party after 9 PM but for the fact that Carolyn went off and found a hamburger for me. My big personal achievement of the day was eating it without getting ketchup on my tux. June and I went through the presenters' briefing and rehearsal and then Carolyn took a cab back to her place to work on the book.

As you may be aware if you read this blog, my life abounds in coincidences. One thing I needed to do before the ceremony was to make sure the announcer — the person they have introducing those who come out to present — knew how to pronounce my last name. The advance script I received had it written out phonetically and wrong. Turned out I didn't have to bother. The announcer, I discovered, was Candi Milo who knows me very well. In fact, I'll be directing her at the Garfield Show recording in less than an hour from now. (And the presenter just before June and me turned out to be my old pal Bobby Logan…)

They stuck us in the front row and June and I sat through an awful lot of awards for folks who do make-up on soap operas and lighting design on game shows. I am not knocking those folks or what they do at all, and I did enjoy seeing how happy some of the winners seemed to be. There's just a limit to how much interest I can generate about people I've never heard of who work on shows I've never heard of. At one point, I was in the men's room and I overheard a gentleman on a cell phone say to someone, and this is darn near verbatim…

So they just gave an award to The Nate Berkus Show and I'm sitting there thinking, "What the f is The Nate Berkus Show?" Then I go out to the lobby and someone says to me, "Congratulations for The Nate Berkus Show" and I said to them, "I don't have anything to do with The Nate Berkus Show. I don't even know what The Nate Berkus Show is" and she says, "Doesn't your company produce The Nate Berkus Show?" And I found out that yeah, we're involved with it somehow. So I'm really happy for us.

That eavesdrop, more than anything I could tell you, captures what I feel about awards like this…especially once you know that what The Nate Berkus Show won for was Best Scenic Design. I can well understand the pride and glee of those scenic designers. I don't understand why anyone else thinks they won anything because they have some tangential connection to success.

Eventually, it was time for June to present and for me to escort her to the stage. (They had us listed as co-presenters but I made her do all the talking. My role was to maintain a vise-grip on her upper arm. Getting up on stage meant walking over cables and climbing rickety stairs…and then they had a wobbly riser she had to stand on to be tall enough to be seen behind the lectern. Much younger people were stumbling a bit and I just made sure June remained upright.) When Candi introduced us and we entered, June got the one and only standing ovation of the evening. It was worth putting on the tux just for that.

We presented three animation-related awards. The folks who won for Outstanding Casting for an Animated Series or Special seemed happier to receive the award from June Foray than they did to receive the award.

A few categories after we returned to our seats, it was time for the one in which June was nominated. Those who'd routined the event did not know for sure whose name would be in the envelope but I think they arranged things in the expectation that it would be June. The voiceover that introduced her as presenter made special note of who she was and that this was her first-ever nomination. Ergo, a few minutes later when she won, there was a special thrill out in the audience. A big whoop! went up and that whoop! was maybe my favorite thing about the evening. The crowd was really happy about the selection.

So was June but she was truly stunned for a few seconds. She was stunned the morning that the nominations were released and I called to tell her. She was stunned last night when she won. I got her back up to the stage and she made a wonderful acceptance speech. I hope they show at least a little of it on the other Daytime Emmy ceremony which unlike last night's will be televised. It's June 23 on HLN. I'm not sure if video from last night will be available anywhere else.

After all that, there was a party and June posed for a lot of photos. I had to keep "spotting" her because an Emmy is not a lightweight thing and she literally could not hold hers for more than a few seconds at a time. It's not easy to lift a figurine that's almost as big as you are.

An awful lot of people, many of them winners themselves, came up to congratulate her and maybe get a cell-phone pic with her. My favorite was an animator — I apologize for not getting his name — who also won last night. He told her that he'd done most of the animation on her character in Disney's Mulan and that it was a true honor to finally meet her. Gloria Allred (another presenter) also came by and said some wonderful things to June. That annoyed me a bit because it's now going to be a little more difficult to dislike Gloria Allred as much as I probably should.

As we left, we had to navigate through a maze of fans who'd congregated just outside the party area. They were mostly there to see and maybe get autographs from the daytime drama stars in attendance and there was a young woman there who was quizzing everyone who exited, asking "Did you win?" and "What show you on?" She was trying to identify any possible celebs for herself and the people around her. She asked me, "Did you win?" I pointed to June and said, "She won." The lady asked what show and I told her, "That woman is the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel." There was a moment of disbelief: That tiny older person is Rocky the Flying Squirrel? But we were toting one of those big boxes in which people were taking home their Emmys so I guess that gave us credibility and June got another whoop!, this time from a mob of folks in t-shirts and jeans. I liked that second whoop! almost as much as the first one.

And I'll tell you one other thing I liked about last night and this did not involve June. Shortly after Midnight, I stopped in at the 24-Hour FedEx/Kinko's near my house to pick up the printed scripts for tomorrow. The lady behind the counter looked at me in my tuxedo and I said to her, "What's the matter? Don't you dress to pick up your Xeroxing?"

Full report to follow.

There won't be a lot of blogging here today. Tonight, I'm taking the wonderful June Foray — the best damn voice actress in the history of cartoons! — to the 39th Annual Daytime Creative Arts & Entertainment Emmy Awards ceremony. This is one of two Daytime Emmy ceremonies and before you rush to set your TiVo, you should know it is not televised. The second one will be…on June 23 on HLN, which is the most basic of basic cable channels. They may or may not show excerpts of tonight's ceremony on that one, which will feature more of the performing awards. (They give so many of those statuettes out that they have to serialize their presentation.)

Most or all of the animation-related categories will be handed-out in the non-televised one tonight…which, by the way, is being hosted by Byron Allen. So the category in which she's nominated is tonight, plus they've asked her to present some of the other animation awards first. We have to be there early for a briefing/rehearsal for the presenters. I'm listed as one but actually June is the presenter and I'm escorting her onto the stage and off. I believe we're following Elmo.

We should make an interesting couple. I'm 6'3" and June is under 4'10". Speaking of puppets, when we get up there on stage, it's going to look like Ed Sullivan talking to Topo Gigio.

About the time we return to our seats, some actors from One Life to Live will be presenting her category and I sure hope there's a reason to escort her onto that stage again. But however it goes, I'm just plain thrilled she's finally, at age 94, received her first-ever Emmy nomination. In case you missed where I said it a few weeks ago here, I believe she's the oldest Emmy nominee ever, beating out the previous "oldest Emmy nominee" (Betty White) by five years.

Notice that I said "I believe she's the oldest." So far, the folks at the Academy don't seem to be totally certain…but I sure can't think of a performer who's got her beat. June, by the way, will be 95 in September. Somebody is going to have to start thinking about a helluva party.

I may be Tweeting from inside the event tonight. And then again, I may not. While I'm there, I'll decide based on decorum and signal strength…and signal strength will be by far the more important consideration. If you don't follow me on Twitter, follow me on Twitter. I'll try to post a full report here later tonight but it may have to wait 'til sometime tomorrow. Whenever I write it, I'll try to still be wearing my tux so it'll be a formal report.

An appropriate song for the day from Julius Marx…

Bruce Bartlett, who worked for Ronald Reagan, explains why his old boss would not be embraced by today's Republican Party…and might even be called a Dirty Socialist by some in it. Last year at a party, I got into a bit of unpleasantness with a Republican with Tea Party overtones who insisted that no, no matter what anyone says, Ronald Reagan did not (repeat: not) raise taxes. Apparently, all those press reports at the time were forged by the same guy who does Obama's birth certificates.

As Bartlett notes, Reagan also raised taxes when he was governor of California — an action he took almost immediately upon taking office. My recollection is that everyone — Democrats and Republicans alike — advised a smaller increase with the possibility of another one later if necessary. But Reagan figured that he could blame one tax increase on his predecessor and didn't want to chance having to raise them again later. He had this idea that the public counts tax increases, not their amounts.

Say Elected Official A pushes through a tax increase of 5% and later, because it proves to be needed, an additional hike of 3%. Then say Elected Official B just pushes through one 12% increase. In that situation, the claim would then be that B was the fiscal conservative because A raised taxes twice as often, never mind their size. Way too often, voters buy into that. When running in '88, the campaign of George Bush (the first one) gained a lot of yards by pushing the number, not the amount, of tax hikes when his opponent, Michael Dukakis, was governor of Massachusetts.

The amazing thing Reagan got away with regarding his California tax hike was that hindsight showed it was way too big; that the more modest recommended amounts had been correct. The state wound up with a huge budget surplus (remember budget surpluses?) which Reagan tried to credit to his prudent financial management. But any state can show a surplus if they raise taxes a lot higher than necessary…

I linked earlier to a gallery of animated GIFs. Here's a gallery of such graphics by Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg, who took the concept to a whole different level. Thanks to David Goodman for the link.

We have here a link to a live webcam trained on the crosswalk on Abbey Road in London where the famous Beatles cover photo was shot. If you watch for any length of time — especially when it's daylight there — you will see at least one person or group try to strike the pose of John, Paul, George or Ringo. I saw it happen about twenty seconds after I clicked over there. It was four people posing for a quick photo — and the guy in the Paul position even took off his shoes and socks.

The Illustrated History of Animated GIFs…as illustrated by animated GIFs.

Number two hundred and fifty-nine in a series…

Joe Brancatelli, my friend who knows more about airlines than Jerry Sandusky knows about tickling, says that flying "coach" is about to get even more uncomfy than it already is. If this trend keeps up, they'll just be stuffing us into prepaid mailers and FedExing us to our destinations, second day air.

Y'know, not that my voice has any particular volume, but I wouldn't mind if the seats didn't recline much. I rarely recline mine and whatever comfort it affords is more than negated by the guy in the seat ahead of me reclining his. But for those of us who are 6'3" (and at least one of us is), losing an inch of legroom is like losing your toes.

In fact — and some of you will emphatically disagree with this — I wish airlines would charge for carry-ons and make it free to check your luggage. Ever since most instituted fees for checked baggage, people are boarding planes (even on carriers that don't charge to check) with suitcases the size of the Louisiana Purchase. Some of them fight to get on the plane early because the overhead bins always fill to capacity and then there are always delays while flight attendants rearrange those bins so as to get one more bag in there, and then have to go check the ones for which there's no room. I'd be happier in my seat if there was room overhead to put my coat (instead of holding it on my lap) and my laptop (instead of having it under the seat ahead of me, thereby constricting my footroom).

But that'll never happen, charging for carry-ons and making checked baggage free. If anything, they'll start charging for carry-ons and start charging more for checked baggage.

Neil Gaiman writes about the occasional necessity to defend something we find tasteless and perhaps even worthless, in and of itself. I support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund not because it defends comics I do (so far, I don't think it's had to) and not because it defends comics I like (I'm sure there are some it has but I couldn't name one) but because it defends the right of creators to create and the right of sellers to make those creations available to those who wish to buy them. It's the principle that's worth fighting for, not every scrap of work that anyone writes or draws.