Category Archives: To Be Filed

Several folks e-mailed me links to this article in which Cathy Young (a woman, most pointed out) is concerned that accusations of sexual harassment (or even outright assault) might go too far. Well, yeah…just as increased reporting of any crime might result in an increase in false accusations. What's the alternative? Keep a situation where the Harvey Weinsteins of the world can keep abusing people because that system discourages and even penalizes victims from speaking up? We don't want that.

Well, maybe some sexual predators do. They should not get that.

I understand why some folks — men more than women — are uneasy about this. In our pasts, many of us have a few incidents of what started as mutually-consensual flirtation but the two parties were not on the same wavelength as to how far it would go. If this were a different kind of blog, I could tell a few tales. Sometimes, consensual sex can become a little less consensual after the fact, like when one party decides they shouldn't have done what they did. There's a lot of lying that goes on about sex and it even includes lying to one's self. It's like Archie and Veronica are both dying to sleep together, "sleep together" in this case being a euphemism for screwing. They do…then Veronica has to deal with the fact that she promised fidelity to Reggie or abstinence to Dad so she tells him (and maybe herself) that Archie pressured her into it.

There are infinite other scenarios where innocent sex somehow morphs into allegedly-guilty sex…but so what? There absolutely is such a thing as coerced sex. There are also things like attempted rape, inappropriate sex talk, hints that sound like threats and other situations that fall short of actual rape that should not be tolerated or excused. An awful lot of victims of rape or near-rape do not report what happened to them because they fear they'll only suffer further for doing so. None of this can be stopped if the victims do not come forward and they will not come forward if they're subjected to what some have faced, which includes being put on virtual trial for the crime they're reporting.

The predators count on the prey deciding that it's too painful in too many ways, and there's surely a clear link between getting away with it once and doing it again and again and again.  How many women have now come forth to accuse Weinstein? How many other men have done it because they saw Harvey wasn't paying any price?

What I think is going on now in this country is a corrective and sometimes, correctives over-correct before they find the right level. We paid way too little attention to this problem in the past and victims were way too afraid to speak up.  Is there a danger of correcting too far in the other direction; of innocent folks being accused or at least slandered?  Sure.  That has already happened.  Remember Brian Banks?  Remember the Duke LaCrosse team? (There's a movie coming out soon about what happened to Brian Banks. Its producers couldn't have timed it better.)

Okay, so some people are afraid they'll be falsely accused; that they'll be the target of "witch hunts." Apart from the distinction that there are no witches but there are sexual predators, that's a perfectly valid fear but, you know, we could reduce the number of people falsely accused of murder by not treating murder as a serious crime. Sexual assault is a serious crime, too…and it's one that a lot of people don't think of as one because they've gotten away with it or know others who have gotten away with it. Let's find a way to be fair to the accusers and the accused instead of worrying just about the accused.

Between 1962 and 1967, a brilliant and under-heralded cartoonist named Al Kilgore wrote and drew a Bullwinkle comic strip for the Bell-McClure Syndicate.  It was faithful to the TV cartoons and pretty darned funny but it never managed to make it into many newspapers.  That may be why it is largely unknown these days…and hard to find.  Strip collectors haven't had much luck.  A couple of publishers who reprint classic newspaper strips made the same search and also came up cold.

However, recently someone — I dunno who — has dumped a ton of original art from the strip on the original art market, as well as proof sheets that presumably came from the same source. I'd love to have a book or two that reprinted it so I thought I'd suggest it here. Maybe if someone does some detective work, that someone can find copies of all the strips or at least enough to issue one volume. The reprint rights should not be difficult.

And while I have your attention, assuming I have your attention, here's a line that's currently on Kilgore's Wikipedia page: "He also drew the Dell, Gold Key, Whitman, and Charlton comic books of Rocky and Bullwinkle and related characters." No, he didn't. There are a few stories in the Dell issues that look like Kilgore may have penciled them. Most of the Dell issues look nothing like his artwork nor does anything done for the books published under other imprints.

Who did draw them? There's some art by Mel Crawford in a few issues but most of it is by artists who have never been identified by historians. In the absence of those names, some folks decide to credit them to Kilgore. In theory, Mr. Kilgore could have written some of those comics but I know of no evidence that he did. Jack Mendelsohn wrote a few of them but most of the writing is unidentified too.

The early comics based on the Jay Ward characters are one of those black holes of comic book history. No one seems to know anything about them. Recently in Alter Ego magazine, one of the editors of those comics was interviewed and he said that Kilgore wrote and drew the Rocky & His Friends comics and also the Hoppity Hooper comic. He was wrong about the Rocky & His Friends books as a simple look at the art proves. Only a fraction of it could be by Kilgore. He was also wrong about the Hoppity Hooper comic books because there never were any Hoppity Hooper comic books. I guess I can't prove that Al Kilgore wouldn't have drawn them if there had been any but I doubt it. He was pretty busy then writing and drawing a great newspaper strip.

It's been quite a while since I wrote about the feral cats in my backyard. Above is a photo I posted of them here about two and a half years ago. I can use it again because they're both still around and they look exactly like that. Lydia has been here for more than ten years. In fact, in April of 2008, she was pregnant and as I reported in this diary, I trapped her, took her in and had her made unpregnant and unable to get that way ever again.

She's always around…or at worst, in an adjoining yard. I feed her almost every morning and then I feed her at least once in the evening when she is joined by Sylvia. I know not where Sylvia lurks during daylight hours. Given her schedule, she just might be a vampire.

For most meals, each gets a half-a-can of some wet Friskies canned food served on a bed of dry Friskies cat food. I don't give them larger portions because I've learned that's all they'll eat. If there's more, they leave it and wander away and then it gets devoured by raccoons or possums. During daylight hours, the huge crows we have around here will sometimes swoop down for a knosh.

Lately, the Friskies I've been giving them are from a box like this one…

This is Friskies' new "Cat Concoctions," which they describe as "curious combinations chosen by cats." The box of 24 cans costs the same as any box of 24 cans of Friskies in the market I went to so I figured I'd give it a shot. You get six each of…

• Scrumptious Salmon & Chicken Liver Dinner Paté
• Chicken in Creamy Crabby Sauce
• Lamb in Clam Flavored Sauce
• Cod in Cheesy Bacon Flavored Sauce

The Creamy Crabby Sauce does smell like some sort of cheap canned crab bisque but there is no trace of actual crab in that item's ingredients. There are no clams in the Clam Flavored Sauce, just as one will find neither cheese nor bacon involved in the Cheesy Bacon Flavored Sauce. One suspects those flavors are in there for our benefit so we'll think we're giving our cats what we think is yummy.

I keep wondering about this. I feed them different varieties of Friskies in rotation — one day, salmon; the next day, chicken; the next day, turkey. Do they care? If I just bought a ton of any one flavor and fed it to them at every meal, would they be any less happy? I know feral cats are glad to get any kind of food but I have never noticed the slightest preference by them for one kind over another, whether it was your basic Mixed Grill or Chicken in Creamy Crabby Sauce. You and I might get sick of eating the same food every meal but do cats?

The tagline "curious combinations chosen by cats" suggests that the Friskies people made up a wide array of strange flavors and that some Blue Ribbon Committee of cats preferred these four. Did they opt for Cod in Cheesy Bacon Flavored Sauce over, say, Tilapia in Hickory Smoke BBQ Flavored Sauce? Why do I think the deciding factor was what sounded good to the buyers?

Here's Dylan Matthews with a good explainer of the House Republican Tax Proposal which was unveiled today. It's way too complicated for most Americans to understand…and I would imagine its proponents are counting on that. It's also not the final bill that will perhaps be passed by the Senate and sent to Donald Trump for signature. Since it's designed to give him a huge tax cut, what do we think he will do?

It's called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. I suspect there are people in this country who would back anything called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act even if all the actual text did was make it legal to trap and eat your neighbors' pets and maybe their children. But at least the real, current version of the bill is not going to pass without a lot of rewrites and adjustments.

Someone whose e-mail I can't find again pointed me to this video and rather than explain it myself, I'm going to steal the explanation of the fellow who posted it, David Rowen…

This music video is the culmination and fulfillment of a small dream I have had since college. I attended James Madison University, where I sang in an a cappella group called The Overtones. During my last semester of school, I was commissioned by the American Heart Association (AHA) to arrange an a cappella medley of music from Wicked, The Wiz, and The Wizard of Oz for the Overtones to perform at two Oz-themed galas hosted by the AHA. Outside of these events, the medley was only performed one other time, and since then, I have wanted to revive and revamp the arrangement, and take the creative vision to new heights. With the help of an amazing team, a stellar cast, and generous donors, the new vision has finally come to fruition. I am thrilled to present "The Oz Medley."

I love this kind of a cappella singing. I suppose I'm fortunate that I have a wretched singing voice because if I could sound like these folks, I'd join one of those groups and never do anything else. This is worth ten minutes of your time. Thank you, whoever sent me the link!

Kevin Spacey's statement the other day reminds me of one of the many, many reasons I don't drink alcohol. I know many folks who handle it fine and enjoy it and it never creates problems for them or others around them. But imagine being told you did something horrible and your best defense is that you have no memory of having done it…but you might have.

Of course, few will believe that Spacey does not remember the incident in question. My point is that if he honestly doesn't, that's pretty horrible…and it's maybe worse than if he does. It makes you want to ask the guy, "Hey, how many other minors might you have tried to rape and forgotten about?"

I also kind of wonder if a smart lawyer vetted that admission. When you confess you might have tried to rape a minor but you can't remember for sure, aren't you just inviting others to accuse you of doing other things you might not remember? Aren't you kind of disqualifying yourself as a witness to your own life?

And of course, that isn't the worst part of his "apology." It's that he handed ammo to those who, through naivete or deliberate smears, want to link homosexuality with pedophilia. I suppose, given the accusation against him, he had to finally "come out" and admit to being a "proud, gay man." But he could have separated the two concepts. He could have reminded all that just because a gay man does that kind of thing, that doesn't represent all gays any more than Roman Polanski is proof that all straight guys molest 13-year-old girls.

Mr. Spacey has never disappointed me as an actor but he sure has as a human being. And I guess it's finally time to admit that I never thought his impressions were very good.

Here's another list of the most popular Halloween candy treats. A lot of them contain peanuts or peanut butter.

There's also a list there of the Most Hated candies. Candy Corn is in second place right after Circus Peanuts. I don't believe anyone in the world has ever liked them, either.

But actually, you shouldn't pay much attention to my taste in candy since I don't like any of 'em. About ten years ago, my sweet tooth mysteriously went away and I don't find any of them appealing. When I did, I didn't really like anything but chocolate. These days, I'd rather eat gravel than M&Ms.

Jim Bahler read my piece about Halloween and wrote this to me as part of a longer rebuttal…

Peanuts? You give out peanuts? With so many kids having problems with nut allergies, apparently of a serious nature, you're giving out peanuts? Yes, you and I both like peanuts, but I'm hearing that folks are now supposed to have non-food and food treats.

Well, actually I have little packets of peanuts to give out if (big "IF" there) anyone comes to my door tonight. Considering that no one has for around seven years — and since I may not be home anyway — I don't think anyone's in much danger.

Also, each of these packets of peanuts says PLANTERS PEANUTS on it in quite legible type and has a drawing of a character who looks like a peanut wearing a monocle and top hat on it. I assume that if some kid has serious allergies to nuts, he's learned not to open one of those and devour the contents. If he hasn't, he's in a lot of trouble.

If we are to believe this survey, the top ten most popular treats to give out on Halloween are — in this order — Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Reese's Miniatures, Twix, Kit Kat, Snickers, Reese's Pieces, Milky Ways, Reese's Stuffed With Pieces, Peanut Butter M&Ms and Butterfingers. By my count, seven out of ten contain peanuts or peanut butter…and note that Peanut Butter M&Ms and Peanut M&Ms both outrank non-peanut M&Ms.

So I have a hunch a lot of people are giving out peanuts and the kids who are allergic and/or their parents are on alert. They'd better be. At least the peanuts I have here to give out are (a) clearly labelled PEANUTS and (b) never given out.

Believe me, Jim. I'm aware of the bad effects some foods can have on people. There are very popular candies that contain ingredients that are just as bad for me as peanuts are for someone who could eat one and go into anaphylactic shock. But I recognize you can't run the world protecting everyone from everything that might harm someone. These days, I'm not sure we're even that interested in protecting everyone from everything that might harm everyone.

I wish I could sing like this guy. If I could, I'd probably sing this song all day…

• Translation of Kevin Spacey: "At times in my life, I was so drunk, I'm now not sure if I tried to commit statutory rape!"

• How long before we see a headline: "No new women come forward to accuse Harvey Weinstein"? And when did that man find time to make movies?

Okay, so Trump's former campaign chairman and associate have been indicted on money laundering, tax and foreign lobbying charges. I think we can assume that since Robert Mueller chose them as his lead-off catches, he's pretty confident he's got a strong case there. The question is whether they have sufficient dirt on others that they can reduce the trouble they're in by testifying against those others.

But the bigger story today may turn out to be that in a separate matter, George Papadopolous admitted that in his capacity as a Trump adviser, he met with an unofficial representative of the Russian government to arrange meetings with Putin's office and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. That makes it a bit harder for Trump to claim this whole "colluding with Russia" story is "fake news."

I keep remembering that what did Nixon in was the slow drip-drip-drip of revelations that scared away prominent Republicans from defending him. Increasingly, G.O.P. members of the House and Senate became afraid of linking their careers to him because who the hell could guess what would be revealed next Tuesday? And at the time, Nixon was a lot more popular in this country than Trump is now.

I'm back from my Secret Mission and no, I can't tell you what it was. It was nice though to not look much at the news for several days. If you wake up each morning with a clenched face wondering, "What has he done today?", you might want to try it. Tomorrow, of course, we may find out just who gets the honor of being the first person indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller. My money's on Flo from the Progressive Insurance commercials. She's really getting on my nerves.

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Jon Maki writes to tell me that back in 1986, there actually was a short-lived sitcom based on Fast Times at Ridgemont High…

It didn't air on Saturday mornings. I believe it aired, for its brief run, on Wednesday evenings and it was on CBS. It was just called Fast Times, with Ray Walston and Vincent Schiavelli both reprising their roles from the movie. Dean Cameron, who played a lovable stoner goofball in several teen movies in the '80s, had the role of Spicoli. Also of note were a young Patrick Dempsey and Courtney Thorne-Smith. I remember it being not entirely terrible, but I would have only been 13 or 14 at the time, so who knows how good it actually was? (Mostly, I think I just liked it for Claudia Wells, who filled in for Phoebe Cates, although, there was, of course, a significant lack of bikini-top-removing with her version of the character.)

I have no memory of this at all…but as you note, they didn't produce it for Saturday morning.

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Entertainment Weekly has an article up about the new attention being paid to Jack Kirby for his part in creating all those popular characters now appearing in popular movies. One quibble: The author says "After returning home from the war, Kirby teamed up with Stan Lee and Marvel owner Martin Goodman, and together they came up with the Fantastic Four and birthed the Marvel Universe as we know it." That makes it sound like Jack did that while taking off his uniform and returning to civilian life. Jack came home from the war in 1945 and the Fantastic Four started in 1961.

Other than that, good article…as are most of those that quote me.

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One more thing and then I'm heading for bed: My friend radio-guy Paul Harris recently had the unpleasant shock of tuning in his own station and hearing one of his colleagues giving much glory and air time to an alleged psychic. Actually, all psychics are alleged because there's no such thing as an actual one. I am amazed that anyone with an I.Q. higher than their inseam measurement ever falls for the claims of psychics but then I look at who won the Electoral College and I scale back my amazement.

Paul debated with himself long and hard and finally decided he had to say something on his own show about this and every other con-artist who claims to have psychic abilities. You might want to give it a listen.

I watched Saturday Night Live through some of its grimmer years because no matter how bad I thought the show was at times, I was always impressed that they could do it at all. Even the worst episode was a miracle of technical proficiency and an unbelievably skilled crew. They make it look easy but I know enough about television production to know that it is anything but. This video should give you a tiny idea of how they do the seeming impossible…

This is my new annual post about why I don't like Halloween. It is an amalgam of several past "Why I Don't Like Halloween" posts with some new thoughts tossed in. Nothing that follows should be taken to suggest that I don't want you to celebrate and enjoy Halloween. It's just to explain why I don't. Here is me explaining…

At the risk of coming off like the Ebenezer Scrooge of a different holiday, I have to say: I've never liked Halloween. For one thing, I'm not a big fan of horror movies or of people making themselves up to look disfigured or like rotting corpses. One time when I was in the company of Ray Bradbury at a convention, someone shambled past us looking like they just rose up from a grave and Ray said something about how people parade about like that to celebrate life by mocking death. Maybe to some folks it's a celebration of life but to me, it's just ugly.

I've also never been comfy with the idea of kids going door-to-door to take candy from strangers. Hey, what could possibly go wrong with that? I did it a few years when I was but a child, not so much because I wanted to but because it seemed to be expected of me. I felt silly in the costume and when we went to neighbors' homes and they remarked how cute we were…well, I never liked to be cute in that way. People talk to you like you're a puppy dog. The man two houses down…before he gave me my treat, I thought he was going to tell me to roll over and beg for it.

When I got home, I had a bag of "goodies" I didn't want to eat. In my neighborhood, you got a lot of licorice and Mounds bars and Jordan Almonds, none of which I liked even before I found out I was allergic to them. I would say that a good two-thirds of the candy I hauled home on a Halloween Eve went right into the trash can and I felt bad about that. Some nice neighbor had paid good money for it, after all.

And some of it, of course, was candy corn — the cole slaw of sugary treats. Absolutely no one likes candy corn. Don't write to me and tell me you do because I'll just have to write back and call you a liar. No one likes candy corn. No one, do you hear me?

I wonder if anyone's ever done any polling to find out what percentage of Halloween candy that is purchased and handed-out is ever eaten. And I wonder how many kids would rather not dress up or disfigure themselves for an evening if anyone told them they had a choice. Where I live, they seem to have decided against it. Each year, I stock up and no one comes. For a while there, I wound up eating a couple big sacks of leftover candy myself every year.

That didn't seem healthy so one year, I actually did this: When I was at the market picking out candy to have on hand for the little masked people, I picked a kind I didn't like. So that year when no one came, instead of eating a whole bag of candy, I found myself throwing out a whole bag of candy…and wondering why that had seemed like a good idea. What I now do is that I always have on hand, not for Halloween but for me, little bags of Planter's Peanuts and if any trick-or-treaters ever knock on my door, that's what they'll get.

So I didn't like the dress-up part and I didn't like the trick-or-treating part. There were guys in my class at school who invited me to go along on Halloween when they threw eggs at people and overturned folks' trash cans and redecorated homes with toilet paper…and I never much liked pranks. One year the day after Thanksgiving, two friends of mine were laughing and bragging how they'd trashed some old lady's yard and I thought, "That's not funny. It's just being an a-hole."

Over the years, as I've told friends how I feel, I've been amazed how many agree with me. In a world where people now feel more free to say that which does not seem "politically correct," I feel less afraid to own up to my dislike of Halloween. About the only thing I ever liked about it was the second-best Charlie Brown special.

So that's why I'm home tonight and not up in West Hollywood wearing my Judge Roy Moore costume. I'm fine with every other holiday. Just not this one. I do not believe there is a War on Christmas in this country. That's just something the Fox News folks dreamed up because they believe their audience needs to be kept in a perpetual state of outrage about something. But if there's ever a War on Halloween, I'm enlisting. And bringing the eggs.