Category Archives: Uncategorized

Before President Obama released his longform birth certificate, I kinda figured that if and when he did that, it wouldn't make more than a smidgen of difference; that the number of Americans who tell pollsters he wasn't born here would scarcely decline. In fact, it might even increase. All the usual suspects would find some semi-convincing way to argue that whatever he put out there was an obvious forgery and the story would dominate the news for weeks and drive more of those who don't like Obama's policies (at least the way Fox News and the Republican Spin Machine represent them) into the birther camp.

Didn't work out that way. Obama released the longform and birtherism took a sizeable hit, at least if we believe the few polls that have been done. Brendan Nyhan discusses why this might be.

His reasons all seem valid but I'd like to suggest a better one. I think birthers had stopped wanting to be birthers. The movement was becoming so nutcase crazy that it was becoming embarrassing to some to be a part of it. It was also hard. When your friends asked you to explain those birth announcements in the newspapers or how come the state of Hawaii (with a Republican governor, no less) certified the short form certificate you had to insist was bogus, you didn't have an explanation. You didn't even have a credible fantasy as to how that might have been accomplished. You had to fall back on something like, "The President has great power to arrange things so he just arranged all that." And even you didn't really buy that as a response.

Plus, we'd lately had a lot of prominent Republicans cautiously distancing themselves from that mob or even suggesting that birtherism was harming the G.O.P. cause. Even John Boehner, the man some of them hope will ram through their agenda, was sending pretty clear signals that he wished they'd shut up about the President's birthplace.

So what do you do if you're an avowed birther and you want off that bus? You can't just suddenly say, "Hey, I've been thinking. I know I said that there was incontrovertible, undeniable evidence that Obama was born in Kenya but I've just decided there isn't." A lot of people in this country would rather change their sex than their minds — and birtherism attracted a particularly stubborn, angry lot.

Ergo, my theory: A lot of birthers wanted out. The release of the long form gave them not only a good opportunity to climb down but maybe their last. It gave them the chance to say, "All I ever wanted was to have this document released and now I'm satisfied," thereby spinning it as a "win" rather than as proof they were wrong. I think a lot of them grabbed that opportunity…and some of us may even owe them an apology. We didn't think any of them were smart enough to do something like that.

Figured it out by myself.

I own a PC (actually, several) and I use Microsoft Outlook for my calendar and contacts but not for mail. I have an iPad and an iPhone and I have Mobile ME, which is also what I'm attempting to be here…a more mobile ME. I am trying to get all these things configured so that when I add or change a calendar or contact item in one of these three places, the change is automatically propagated to the other three.

I was able to get the PC to sync to the iPhone. Then I was able to get the iPad to sync to the PC but then neither would sync to the iPhone. At one point, I got the iPad and the iPhone to sync to each other but not to the PC. I know that what I'm trying to do is possible. I just don't know how to get there.

Is there someone reading this who really knows this stuff and is willing to talk me through it all? I'll pay for the phone call and do it at your convenience. Drop me an e-mail if you are such a person and are willing to help…and I also have one other request. I'd really like to not get a lot of those "Junk your piece-o'-crap PC and buy a MAC" comments I seem to get every time I ask a computer question here. Given the massive investment I have in multiple PCs, the software to run them, the zillions of bytes of data I have in files formatted for the PC, the hours I have invested in learning the PC and those programs, that really is not an option. It's kind of like if you were having a little trouble with a word in English and someone suggested you solve the problem by giving up that language and learning Mandarin.

Thanks in advance to any and all who respond.

The critics seem to all like the Reprise production of Kiss Me, Kate about as much as I did, which was a lot. Here's the L.A. Times, here's Broadway World and here's Variety. There are a few others but they all say the same thing; that Lesli Margherita is outstanding as Kate and that Tom Hewitt is about as good in role of Graham as a person could be. They all also note that Meg Gillentine is dazzling as Bianca, that Se

I haven't written much here lately about the Broadway show, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. If you care, you presumably know that it closed down for a while so that much of it could be changed by a mostly-new creative team. Our pal James H. Burns has a nice look at what led up to the show's hiatus over at CBS in New York.

Now, this next link may not be good for long but here it is. Back in December on the message board of another pal of mine, Tony Isabella, Jim wrote a long memo detailing with how (he felt) the original show's problems could be fixed. I'm hearing that many of them have been changed just the way Jim outlined, which is not to say the alterations were definitely because of what Jim wrote.

In any case, the two pieces provide an intriguing look at a version of the Spider-Man musical that will probably never be seen again. And we can all wait and see how much the new version will be seen in the future.

Each week on the TV series Extreme Makeover Home Edition, a crew of experts redesigns and rebuilds someone's living space. On Sunday night's episode, they do it for Patrick Sharrock, a young man with brittle bone disease. They not only build him a home that fits his specific needs, they do some of it in the style of something Patrick likes a lot…Marvel Comics. Artist Todd Nauck and you can see it on ABC or if you miss it there, on ABC.com for two weeks after. I'm told it's a lot of fun.

The 14th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor will be presented this year to Will Ferrell. For the benefit of you folks who occasionally see things on your computer screen and think, "It can't really say that. It must be a bug in the software," I shall repeat the preceding sentence:

The 14th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor will be presented this year to Will Ferrell.

I'm not a huge fan of Will Ferrell but in fairness, I haven't seen several of the movies that his fans seem to love…so maybe there's something happening there that I just haven't noticed. The following is less about him than about a growing trend out there to think "history" is anything in reruns and that a Lifetime Achievement Award can and should go to someone whose achievements were made during the lifetime of a housefly. The annual tributes at the Paley Center for Media used to be about the grand heritage of television and honoring work that had endured the test of time. Now, it's about what's hot at this moment on the networks. Shows are saluted not necessarily because of their lasting contributions but because they're successful this week.

They say this Mark Twain Prize — and I quote — "recognizes people who have had an impact on American society in ways similar to the distinguished 19th century novelist and essayist best known as Mark Twain. As a social commentator, satirist and creator of characters, Samuel Clemens was a fearless observer of society, who startled many while delighting and informing many more with his uncompromising perspective of social injustice and personal folly. He revealed the great truth of humor when he said 'against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.'" Okay, great. No argument there.

But when you read that, don't you think it's kind of about humor that has proven timeless enough to speak to more than just the audience at the time of its creation? Isn't there something in there about being quoted a lot and becoming a part of Americana? There are many comedians who will tell you that they were inspired to get into that field because of Bill Cosby and Jonathan Winters and Richard Pryor. Are there a lot of new comedians who have been motivated by the work of (as differentiated from the paycheck of) Will Ferrell? I'm just asking.

If ten or twenty years from now, there are a lot of humorists saying that and some of them have gone from that inspiration to create their own inspiring, influentual work then great. A Mark Twain Prize for Will Ferrell, absolutely. But they've never given one to — and this is just counting people who are currently alive — Sid Caesar, Stan Freberg, Shelley Berman, Don Rickles, Mort Sahl, Robert Klein, Carol Burnett, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, David Letterman, Tim Conway, Dan Aykroyd or Jerry Lewis. Now granted, some of those folks have won the full Kennedy Center Honors so you could maybe disqualify them…although Neil Simon at least has won both. Perhaps a few were offered the award but declined it for some reason. But couldn't Will Ferrell have waited a few years while they saluted great comedians who'll soon be in no condition to appear and appreciate the plaudits?

I understand about demographics…how the folks in charge might want to snag the younger viewers. But this event is televised on PBS. I also understand how the ceremony is a fund-raiser and they need to fill the room…and I'm not saying Will Ferrell might not do that better than, say, Shelley Berman. Another major consideration in the choice is probably who'll bring in a lot of billable name guests to speak and perform and that's probably Will Ferrell more than some of those other comics. I mean, you just know that when they gave it to Jonathan Winters a few years ago, a primary reason was that someone there said, "Betcha we could get Robin Williams to show up." I get all that.

I just think it's insulting to people who do fit the definition of the award to hand it instead to whoever's hot at the moment. Last year, it was Tina Fey, by the way. Same deal. Maybe they oughta give out two each year: One to someone who's got a hit series or a couple of hit movies…and one to someone who really deserves it.

A great photograph of Las Vegas. If you look carefully, you can even see that Where's Waldo? guy losing his shirt at craps.

Last evening, I attended the premiere of the Reprise! production of Kiss Me, Kate up at the Freud Playhouse at UCLA. I have raved before about Reprise! shows. With minimal budget and rehearsal time, they stage classic musicals for limited runs. This was one of the best I've seen and the audience seemed to agree. I've never heard so much enthusiastic applause and whoops of delight at one of these.

I'm too swamped with work tonight to write the kind of review this show deserves. I'll try to get to it in a day or two but in the meantime, if you're near West L.A., hurry and get tickets. You can order through the link on this page and if you enter the code "KISS," I think you get a discount. More when I have time.

The Book of Mormon is a big Broadway smash that will, they say, be running there for years. I have been informed by Alan Burnett, Gordon Bressack and nine other folks that you can hear the cast album in its entirely over at this page of the NPR site. Apparently, putting this kind of thing online is in accord with Sharia Law.

One day last week, I had to drive by the Westfield Mall in Culver City so I stopped and had me a Five Guys burger. Very good. My other missions at that shopping center took me past the mall's recently-refurbished Food Court and I noticed that (a) they'd really improved the selection up there, (b) a couple of those places look darned good and (c) it didn't matter insofar as my own dining is concerned. If I'm eating there, I'm eating at the Five Guys downstairs. They're about to open a Lucille's Smokehouse Barbecue there too…and while I like those too, it won't matter either. Because if I'm dining at the Westfield Culver City Mall, I'm dining at the Five Guys. I know me.

I also know where I definitely won't be dining there: Sbarro. The Food Court was full of all these really nice little eateries but for some reason, the Italian stall was a Sbarro. In your whole life, have you ever heard anyone say, "Hey, you know where they have great food? Sbarro!"? One of the first rules of marketing is not to name your product something that's difficult to pronounce. I think Sbarro has gotten away with breaking that rule for a long time because they know no one is ever going to recommend their food to anyone…so it's okay if they can't say the name.

I used to wonder if "Sbarro" was Italian for "only option." They always seem like places that get business only because they're situated in a mall or airport where it's either that or something worse. In New York City, they have a lot of them where it's like, "I could eat at Sbarro's or I could walk two blocks to decent pizza…and I don't feel like walking the two blocks." The cuisine usually looks impressive enough and it's all ready to serve so it'll be fast. So I sometimes have to remind myself, "You've never liked the food at Sbarro."

Nobody I know ever has. This article about their recent bankruptcy filing makes that point. In fact, on my drive home from Culver City, I started mentally writing a long blog post about Sbarro and that article says most of the things I was going to write. So I'll just add that I suspect the company is trapped in a vicious circle: The worse their sales get, the more likely that the food on display in a Sbarro's steam table has been sitting there quite a while. And the more likely it is that the food's been sitting there quite a while, the worse it'll be for the hapless passer-by who does order the ziti and that will lead to their sales getting even worse.

And don't you just know that at this very minute, the Sbarro executives are in a meeting somewhere, discussing how to save their company and considering things like a new advertising campaign and how to stuff more cheese into the product?

That's a picture of can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup and you know what that means. It means Mark's so busy with work that he may not be posting much here for the next day or two. He may also be even worse than he usually is at responding to e-mails. This is fair warning to those of you who check in hourly here. Back soon.

Albert Brooks has a novel coming out this week so he's going to be everywhere, signing and plugging, signing and plugging. Here he is plugging in the L.A. Times.

An interview with "Trader" Joe Coulombe, the man who founded the Trader Joe's market chain. I have very mixed feelings about their stores. Every so often, I find something wonderful in one and think, "Oh, I want to always have some of this around." But when I go back to purchase more, they don't make it anymore. Whatever it is. It's like if I like it, they discontinue it.

Woody Allen does not think any of his films will be remembered or even that many of them are very good. So my question is: Does he really feel that way? Or is it something he says so folks will say, "He's so modest and unspoiled?" Or is it that plus he says it so people will assure him it's not so?

I think if I were around him when he said that, I'd say, "No, you're wrong, Woody. That's probably true of the others but Casino Royale will live forever."