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So today, I told you that in the upcoming WGA election, I'm voting for Patric Verrone for President and Carl Gottlieb for Secretary-Treasurer. I like and respect both men tremendously and think the Writers Guild has been fortunate to have their past service.

Shortly after I posted my two cents, I received (as did other WGA members), a mass e-mailing from Carl urging everyone not to vote for Patric. I don't like this kind of negative campaigning and don't feel Carl sufficiently makes his case in what he sent out. Not that my endorsement matters a whole lot but I'm going to tentatively retract it and ponder this further and maybe seek the counsel of others. I'm thinking it's an either/or…that we shouldn't elect both of them. Fortunately, I have yet to mark my ballot.

As quite a few folks (starting with Don Murphy and Buzz Dixon) inform me, the word "cosplay" does not come out of the gaming world. It's more from anime — a term created by squishing the words "costume" and "play" together. Credit for its coinage is often given to Nobuyuki Takahashi of the Japanese studio Studio Hard and it's said he invented it while attending the 1984 World Science Fiction Convention in Los Angeles. Others say it predates him and that event but we don't need to get into that. Thanks to all who wrote in.

The history of the Five Guys burger chain and the folks behind it.

Even as you read this, ballots are arriving in the mailboxes of us members of the Writers Guild of America, West. We have an election for officers and folks are writing to ask me who I recommend.

For President, Patric Verrone (who held the job before) is up against Christopher Keyser (who'd be new to the position). In the electioneering materials I've received, the main argument I see Keyser's supporters advancing for him is that a vote for Verrone is a vote for going backwards instead of into the future. That strikes me as a pretty empty reason. Yeah, maybe the guy who did it in the past could be rooted in yesterday's thinking and the new guy could have a fresh approach. Or the guy who did it in the past could have learned a lot doing it and maybe, as I believe is the case with Patric, done a great job. I don't think Keyser would be bad at all but I'm voting for Patric Verrone.

For Vice-President, I'm voting for Howard Rodman. For Secretary-Treasurer, I'm voting for Carl Gottlieb. Again, I think their opponents are bright and qualified and I won't be a bit worried if either gets in. I just have a preference for Howard and Carl.

On the list of those running for the Board of Directors, I see folks I know and folks I do not know. The ones I know would all be fine. The ones I do not know are all endorsed by at least a couple of people I know and trust. I don't think we can go wrong with any eight of these people. I haven't figured out yet which eight I'm going to not go wrong with but I'm pretty sure Dan Wilcox and John Brancato will be among them.

I'm back from the capacious Chatsworth studios of Shokus Internet Radio where today I did not guest on Stu's Show. No, the big surprise we had planned was that I hosted the show and its usual guest, Stu Shostak, was in the guest chair, so to speak. This was the last live broadcast of the show on that network so it seemed appropriate to put Stu there and quiz him about the station and also about his career in the entertainment industry. I thought it went rather well.

I need to double-emphasize one point: Stu's Show is not ending. It's the station that is ending. Stu's Show is moving to a new home at www.stusshow.com. There it will resume on September 21 with a great (I'm sure) program — a reunion of three now-grown kids who appeared on the old Dennis the Menace TV show, including Dennis himself — Jay North. For some reason, no matter how Stu explains this in one syllable words on his show and on the 'net, people write him and say, "Sorry to hear Stu's Show is ending." In the immortal words of first Jimmy Finlayson and now Homer Simpson: "Doh!"

www.stusshow.com is already up and running and it is there that you can download — for a paltry 99 cents — any of the nearly 250 episodes of Stu's Show that have been done over the last five years. Before this day is out, you'll even be able to to download the one we did this afternoon. There are many shows there that feature me but skip over those for now. Try the episodes where Stu interviewed Stan Freberg, Monty Hall, Rose Marie, Bonnie Franklin & Pat Harrington, Gary Owens, Dr. Demento, Alan Young, William Schallert, Marty Ingels & Shirley Jones, Kaye Ballard, Adrienne Barbeau, Chuck McCann, Betsy Palmer, Peter Marshall and the list goes on and on. I especially recommend the conversation he had with Shelley Berman. If you're interested in the craft of stand-up comedy, you need to hear that one especially.

There is really no money in Internet Radio. Not yet, anyway…and Stu has not even covered expenses the last five years operating his station. These shows run two hours (a few run longer) and 99 cents is a small price to pay. Go download a couple and see if you don't enjoy them. That revenue will make more such shows possible.

A couple of dining notes. Before the show today, Stu and his lovely friend Jeanine and I lunched at a Five Guys that has recently opened in Simi Valley. Stu agreed with me that the burgers are great and the fries are even better. Jeanine had a veggie sandwich and said she enjoyed it a lot.

On the way home, I had a real disappointment. I stopped at the famous Dr. Hogly Wogly's Tyler Texas BBQ, which once upon a time was my favorite place to eat smoked, sauced meat. My love affair with the place started when the noted writer Harlan Ellison took me there in the late seventies. The romance went onto rocky ground my last visit there when I had a meal that was unworthy of the Good Doctor.

But hey, any restaurant can have a bad day so I resolved to give 'em another chance and popped in for a post-show takeout order. The beans were still great, the potato salad was good, the bread was fine…and all but about four bites of the brisket is now outside being eaten (and without a lot of enthusiasm, I might add) by the feral cats I feed out there. Such a sad comedown for the kind of place I used to take friends just to see their faces when they bit into a rib. Sigh and double-sigh.

The always-amusing Barry Mitchell writes about what it means to him when Jerry Lewis sings, "You'll Never Walk Alone."

More rumors of Jerry Lewis appearing on the telethon.

You know, there's a way everyone could come out of this smelling like tulips. I don't know what the goal is this year but let's say it's $65 million. The day before, Jerry makes some sort of appearance somewhere that's calculated to get on the news. He says, "No, I'm not appearing on the telethon." And then he says, "Listen, it's more important than me or the folks running the telethon or any of that crap. What matters is raising money to help my kids…

"I'm still in touch with some wonderful people in the MDA organization including some of the top research people. I'm frustrated that I couldn't go in and raise the money like I always do. They're telling me they need more than ever this year…what they could do if they had seventy or even, God willing, seventy-five million…the good that money could do…"

And then in seeming impulse, he says, "Hey, I'll tell you what. Tell them…tell the world that if they can raise $75 million by the fifth hour, I'll show up. I live in Vegas. I'll be sitting around that evening doing nothing…maybe cleaning out the lint trap in my laundry room or something. I own eighty tuxedos and it's a ten minute drive from my home to the South Point. If they want me to come in and do the last half-hour and they have $75 million on that tote board, I'll do that for my kids. I'd put everything else aside if America could do that."

So then when the telethon starts, some big MDA official comes out and says, "Folks…we love Jerry. He built this whole thing. We're sorry about the misunderstanding…and now we have a chance to get him on here. Get those phones ringing. Call your friends and tell them to pledge, too. We've got less than five hours to raise $75 million. It's our way of thanking Jerry and getting him on this stage to take the bow he so richly reserves!"

They'd raise the target amount. Some big sponsor like Pepsi-Cola would probably want to give the last big chunk so they'd get the credit and good will for putting the drive over the top. Even if no such company came forward, telethons have a way of putting any number they want on the tote board by counting donations that weren't earmarked for the telethon or adding in what they know will be donated in the future.

However they do it, they bring Jer on for the ovation of the century. The tune-in would be incredible. He makes a speech showing he's bigger than any of this; that all he's ever cared about is doing right by his kids. The MDA official comes out and they hug and he asks Jerry, in front of the entire country, to host next year's telethon. Jerry says, "Thanks but I think it's time to hand it on to the next generation…" and he says some nice words about those who are taking it over. He adds, "I just want to sit home with my feet up and watch…and hey, if you make $80 million next year, maybe I'll come by and sing the closing number." And then he sings the closing number, his voice chokes up sixteen bars from the end and he doesn't finish.

Television history. A new rebirth for the telethon. And Jerry becomes the first Jewish Saint.

Do I expect any of this to happen? No. But wouldn't it be great?

Actually, neither one of those people in the photo is me. That's my buddy Stu Shostak in blue, posing with Stan Freberg — one of the many legendary show business figures who've guested on Stu's Show since December of 2006. I was Stu's first guest, the premise being that if he started with me, the guests could only get more interesting and important from then on. Indeed, they have…but I'll still be joining him again this Wednesday for Show #244, which will be the last live Stu's Show to air on Shokus Internet Radio…

…but it is not by any means, the last Stu's Show. Nosiree, Bob! Shokus Internet Radio will cease to broadcast at the end of the month but Stu is relocating his fine talk show (and the lovely Jeanine Kasun's Baby Boomer Favorites) to a new venue over at www.stusshow.com. His debut webcast there will be on Wednesday, September 21 and he's got a great first episode — an interview with Jay North, Gloria Henry and Jeannie Russell, the cast of the original Dennis the Menace TV show. To get those folks together around his microphones is quite a coup.

And then in the weeks to come, he's got more great guests including Ed Asner, Sherry Jackson, Jane Withers, Jane Kean, Monica Lewis, Judy Strangis and others. I'll be plugging those installments later. Right now, I'm just suggesting you tune in live this Wednesday to hear the last show in the old digs. Like I said, I'll be on it and we have something very special planned. It won't just be me talking about myself for two hours. Be there for it Wednesday at 4 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM Eastern Time on Shokus Internet Radio.

Speaking in my role as an unapologetic shill for the Five Guys hamburger chain, I proudly announce that they've just released a free app for the iPhone. They already had this available for Android…but now us iPhone users can find out where the nearest Five Guys is with just a tap or two. It was worth buying the iPhone just for this.

Obituary for Del Connell in his hometown (current hometown) newspaper.

We are pleased as punch to announce that Volume One of Pogo has gone to press. We have printer's proofs and it looks sensational. Or to put it another way, it looks worthy of the great newspaper strip (some would say the greatest) created by Mr. Walt Kelly.

Some of Pogo has been reprinted before, not always in the best possible manner. Now, all of it will be republished — every daily strip and every Sunday page with the latter in color — in twelve volumes being issued by Fantagraphics Books. This is not as simple as someone saying, "Hey, let's reprint Pogo" and making a deal to do so. Much of the material does not exist in pristine, ready-to-print form and the earlier a strip is, the more likely it had to be located and painstakingly restored. That takes time, which is why the release date of this book was announced and changed, announced and changed, announced and changed, etc.

But now the first one's at the printer and subsequent volumes oughta be a lot simpler. (That sentence was hard to type with fingers crossed.)

My friend, the lovely Carolyn Kelly, lovingly supervised the loving restoration of her lovely father's lovely strip and she also did the lovely design of this lovely book and its lovely dust jacket and the lovely imprints under that lovely dust jacket. Sure sounds like a labor of love to me. Not that the contents need any help but the strips are supplemented by a foreword from writer (and friend o' Walt's) Jimmy Breslin and essays/annotations by Steve Thompson, R.C. Harvey and myself. If I were you, I'd read all that text stuff after I read the strips themselves about eleven times.

Each volume contains two years of Walt Kelly's magnum opus. Since the first year started in mid-year, there's room in the book to also include the pre-syndication Pogo strips he did for The New York Star, a short-lived newspaper for which he worked. This gives you the chance to observe from Day One and watch as it develops steadfastly from a darn good newspaper strip to something a lot better than just "darn good." Working on this collection, that was my constant thought: "Gee, it just gets better and better, doesn't it?"

That's about all I need to say about the contents. I am not sure when exactly the book will ship. Amazon is cautiously saying mid-December but it'll be well before that by at least a month or two. It'll be soon enough that you can order a copy in confidence of holding one in your hand before long. (Ignore the old cover design on the Amazon listing. The real one is above.) I'll caution you that if you buy Volume One, you're going to want Two through Twelve. I don't want to claim that Pogo was the best newspaper strip ever done. But if you want to say that, I sure won't give you an argument.

Several folks have e-mailed me to state what should have been obvious…the reason Jim Henson is a Disney Legend now and wasn't a few years ago. There's a new Muppet movie coming out now and there wasn't a few years ago. So I guess the question now is when does Frank Oz become a Disney Legend? And then what about Jerry Juhl and Dave Goelz and Jerry Nelson and all the other Henson associates whose characters are now Disney property?

For over twenty years, I've been a subscriber to The Las Vegas Advisor. It used to be just a newsletter that arrived in my mailbox each month. Now, it's that for some but for most of us, it's a website that covers Vegas. Unlike about 90% of the press coverage of the hotels and casinos there, LVA is not advertiser-supported and therefore indebted. Most of the publications that cover that industry tell you that the buffet at the Imperial Palace is delicious and the Crazy Girls show at the Riviera is the sexiest thing in the world. Neither of those statements is true but when your publication depends on the good will of the hotels, you write things like that. LVA is truly independent and while I don't always agree with their rules and reporting, it strikes me as utterly honest and therefore valuable.

Their website has many useful sections open to all and some sections that are only for us subscribers. One that falls into both categories is their Question of the Day. Each day, the experts at LVA answer some question about Vegas history or Vegas etiquette or Vegas customs or whatever. Each day's question is free to read on the day it first appears and then it goes into the subscriber-only archives. Except this weekend.

This weekend, the archives are open to all. Go there and browse around while you can. There are over 1,500 questions answered there so you're sure to find many that will interest you.

There's a moment in the movie and Broadway show 1776 (book by Peter Stone) when John Hancock is speaking with Pennsylvania delegate John Dickinson, the leader of the Conservative movement in the Congress at hand. Mr. Dickinson is denouncing John Adams and others who are advocating independence from Great Britain…

Dickinson: Be careful, sir. History will brand him and his followers as traitors.

Hancock: Traitors to what, Mr. Dickinson? The British Crown? Or the British half-crown? Fortunately, there are not enough men of property in America to dictate policy.

Dickinson: Perhaps not. But don't forget that most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor. And that is why they will follow us.

You get the feeling that the 2012 election in this country will be all about testing that premise?

Here's a conversation with my occasional employers, Sid and Marty Krofft. Actually, one does not work for the Kroffts. One gets adopted into the family…and the discussions always sound exactly like this.