Those of us waiting for the Arclight Cinerama Dome Theater in Hollywood to reopen will be waiting longer than we expected…

We're about two weeks from the 23rd anniversary of this blog and I'm amazed to find that I have stories I still haven't told here. Here's one of them and before I start it, I'd like to thank Follower-Of-This-Blog Michael Kilgore for digging up the news clipping that acts as the punch line to this story. Now then…

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Kuda Bux (born Khudah Bukhsh in 1905) was one of the first celebrity magicians and even briefly starred in his own TV show in 1950. He did many kinds of amazing feats but was famous for two. One was walking across hot coals while barefoot, which he did all across the country before astonished spectators and newsreel cameras.

The other was the one that caused him to be billed as "The Man With X-Ray Eyes." He would be blindfolded…and not just with the simple kind. He would invite people to cover his eyes and often his whole head with coins, bandages, dough, cloths, etc. — you'll see in the video below how extensive this could be — and then he'd drive a car or read a book or do something else that proved he could somehow see. It was a magic trick but such a good one that a lot of people were convinced something mystical was happening there.

One of the places he performed his feats was on a TV show called You Asked For It which aired from 1950 until 1959, returning later in various versions. The premise of the show was simple: People would write in and suggest things they'd like to see on the show — amazing stunts, celebrity reunions, acts they'd heard about and so forth. They had Kuda Bux on many times and the clip below is from one of those times. But first, this story…

The exclusive private club in Hollywood called The Magic Castle proved they weren't that exclusive by admitting me into membership in 1980. It was and still is a great place to go, eat fine food and see some of the world's greatest magicians perform. In fact, I was there last Sunday evening with friends and among the performers we saw were Javi Benitez (proudly displaying his Penn & Teller: Fool Us trophy) and Larry Wilmore — yes, the guy from The Daily Show. But let me tell you about another evening at the Castle.

The date, I believe, was Wednesday, February 4, 1981. I was there with my friend Shary Flenniken, who most of you know from National Lampoon and her strip, "Trots n' Bonnie." Very fine cartoonist. We'd dined and seen some great magic and were just about to depart when a magician I knew saw us heading for the exit and said, "You're not leaving, are you?" We said we were both pretty exhausted. He said, "You're going to miss Kuda Bux?"

I knew who Kuda Bux was. Shary didn't but I did and I knew that he had retired, in part because The Man With X-Ray Eyes was, of all possible ironies in this world, almost blind due to Glaucoma. He had not performed anywhere for a while but he was doing a special one-time performance in the Parlor of Prestidigitation, which is one of the showrooms in the Magic Castle.

It had not been advertised. He'd agreed to do it because a lot of magician members wanted to see him and most of the seats, we were told, had been filled via word-o'-mouth among those members. It was starting in fifteen minutes.

Shary was dead-tired but she was nice enough to indulge me. We made a dash for the Parlor and managed to get the last two open seats. I recognized almost everyone else in the room as a working magician and some of them were pretty danged famous.

Kuda Bux started his show with a new magic trick he'd invented in retirement. He said it was the first time he'd performed it before an audience and probably the last. He had an empty metal frame on a stand. He daubed rubber cement all around the rim, then displayed a piece of brown paper, the kind used to make grocery bags.

He affixed the paper to the frame so the frame was covered with the paper and there was obviously nothing behind it. Then he brought out a faucet, stuck it through the brown paper, turned it on and began filling glasses of wine which he passed out to folks in the front row.

The audience applauded mightily and a few of them — these were mostly very experienced magicians, remember — looked like they weren't sure how he'd done that. Seeing that look is one of the joys sometimes of going to the Magic Castle: Magicians fooling not only the audiences but each other.

Then Kuda Bux did the x-ray eyes trick. The set-up — putting coins and dough over his eyes, then wrapping his head with many bandages — was pretty much the same as in this video, which I've just decided I should embed right here so you can watch it before I finish this story. Here it is from an old episode of You Asked For It…

What Kuda Bux did in the Parlor that night was the same trick except there were no guns, no glasses of acid, no cigarette-lighting. They wrapped his head and he invited members of the audience to come up, write on a blackboard and then he'd replicate what they wrote. That was mystifying enough to evoke more of those uncertain looks from seasoned magicians.

He closed with a brief Q-and-A with the audience with a lot of them telling him how privileged they felt to see him perform. Pointedly, no one asked him anything about how he'd done either trick but I'd bet cash-money that some of them were soon at the Magic Castle Library, reading up on how he'd done the x-ray eyes feat. Most of the great magic tricks of the world are explained in that collection.

Now, here's where the story gets a little chilling…

At the time, I was a writer on the TV show, That's Incredible!, which was kind of a successor-in-interest to You Asked For It. After Kuda Bux concluded his presentation, everyone present gathered around to shake his hand and fawn. I made my way to him and asked if he'd like to do his act on our show.

I didn't really have the authority to make that offer but I knew our producers would go for it. He said he'd love to do it and he gave me his contact info. He seemed pretty happy as did the friends around him who overheard our discussion. The next day, I told the folks at the show about him and everyone who had to approve the booking approved the booking.

I gave his contact info to our Talent Coordinator who attempted to reach him to arrange his appearance on the next episode we taped. She was unable to reach him but she kept trying and trying — and finally, a week or so later, there was an item in the trade paper Variety about him. It was wrong about him appearing frequently at the Castle in recent years but sadly right as to why we hadn't been able to reach him…

A company called Brightline has been saying for some time now they would "break ground in the second half of 2023" on a high-speed rail project that will connect Southern California with Las Vegas. Today, we enter the last twelfth of 2023 and I haven't heard or read anything to indicate that this has started. Assuming it happens as announced…

Brightline West will be America's first true high-speed passenger rail system. The modern, eco-friendly system will redefine train travel in America and connect two of our most iconic destinations: Las Vegas and Southern California. This 218-mile passenger rail service will be operated by Brightline West from Las Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga, California, with 96% of its alignment within the median of the I-15 highway.

Sounds exciting, right? I hope they can pull it off but…well, even if my now-low enthusiasm for Vegas were to regenerate, I don't think I'd use it. For one thing, to get to the train station they intend to build in Rancho Cucamonga would not be easy. Rancho Cucamonga is around 44 miles from me. I just consulted Waze and it says that if I were to leave right now for the Rancho Cucamonga station, it would take 1 hour and 13 minutes in "typical traffic."

Since they probably won't be running a lot of trains to and from Vegas, at least at first, it would probably be a matter of arriving on time for my train or waiting many hours for the next one. "Typical traffic" in my city can get atypical without notice so I'd have to build a lot of pad into that drive to Rancho Cucamonga along with time to park. So add an hour to that 1:13. The Brightline train (they say) will travel at speeds up to 186+ miles per hour, delivering me to a station on the Las Vegas Strip in two hours and ten minutes.

So total time from my garage to the Las Vegas strip would be around four and a half hours…or about the time that Waze tells me if would take me to drive right now from my house to Caesars Palace. I just looked that up too.

I also tried figuring it if I drove or took an Uber to Union Station downtown to take a Metrolink train to Rancho Cucamonga. Union Station is nine miles and again, you have to allow pad time…and if I drove there, parking time as well. It works out to even longer.

Meanwhile, in addition to driving, there's another way I could get to Vegas and it's available to me right now: Drive or take an Uber the 45 minutes to LAX Airport. Add in an hour pad for traffic on the way or in the TSA line plus maybe parking, then take a nonstop Southwest Airlines flight (60-75 minutes) to the airport in Vegas. Figure a fifteen minute cab ride to the Strip…and that's probably well under four hours.

Going Brightline to Vegas may be way faster for people who live near Rancho Cucamonga but for me, it's not gonna be faster and given how many zillions they're spending to build this super-charged choo-choo business, I doubt it will be cheaper. If you book a flight in advance, you can find $44 fees on Southwest so when they talk about Brightline serving Southern California and a projected "11 million one-way passengers annually," I dunno. Most of Southern California lives farther from Rancho Cucamonga than I do.

Don't get me wrong: I love the idea. On the project's website, they talk about all the jobs it would create and all the environmental advantages and that all sounds peachy. And I'd love to see the day when a high-speed train would whisk me from my neighborhood to Las Vegas or even to Rancho Cucamonga for the transfer but I just don't see that happening. Here's hoping I'm wrong.

One of my favorite online political writers — Josh Marshall of Talking Point Memo — just published a real good article entitled "Why Did So Many People Hate Henry Kissinger So Much?" But I don't think you can read it unless you're a subscriber to his website.

Basically, he asks the question why is Kissinger loathed so much more than Richard Nixon when whatever damage Kissinger caused, it was endorsed and implemented by Nixon. And the answer has a lot to do with Kissinger living a long life and remaining a celebrity, whereas Nixon at least had the decency to get himself almost impeached and lose his office and then die. Those are my words, not Mr. Marshall's. If you're a subscribed to TPM, go read what he had to say.

Mr. Devin Stone (aka "Legal Eagle") explores the legal culpability of the Panera chain in the death of a customer whose body got over-caffeinated…

A lot of folks think that it was indecent that Dr. Henry Kissinger lived as long as he did and, worse, that he was regarded by some as an elder statesman of worthwhile accomplishment. This article on Slate by Fred Kaplan explains why they felt that way.

And if Kaplan's piece doesn't strike you as nasty enough, Slate also offers us an old article by the late Christopher Hitchens that oughta do the job.

Following-up on the previous post here, my old pal Pat O'Neill wrote to ask…

How do you feel about the practice in TV shows and movies based on comics where they name locations after people who were involved in the creation of the source material, such as "Infantino St." in The Flash, or "Finger Plaza" in a Batman-related piece?

It seems generally harmless to me but it also seems like a pretty minor nod to folks who are owed a greater debt. I suspect that those who are so recognized and are still around, as well as the families of those who have passed, would prefer that the creative-type person receive a real credit and some real money. Then again, the folks who inserted those names into scripts probably didn't have the power to grant a formal credit or have a check sent.

I'm going to omit the name of this questioner because I'm not sure if the following message I received is a joke or not. I don't want to embarrass him if it isn't…

Mr. Evanier, there is a character in Spider-Woman #8 named Marcus Evanier. Is that a coincidence?

Yes, it's a sheer coincidence that the writer of that story — my longtime friend Marv Wolfman — named a character that. And boy, was he shocked when I pointed it out to him. He said, "Oh, my God, Mark! I forgot that was your name!" And he even got it wrong because my given name is Mark, not Marcus. You'd think that someone in the Marvel offices, or at least my friend Al Gordon who inked that story, would have pointed out that Marv had accidentally used my name for a character.

Seriously: This is a practice that is sometimes referred to as "Tuckerizing," named for the science-fiction writer Wilson Tucker, who liked to insert his friends' names into stories. I'm sure he wasn't the first writer in history to do this. It probably went back to cave paintings. But just as he used others' names in his story, someone decided to use his name in their vocabulary by referring to it as "Tuckerization" and the term caught on in some circles.

Writers have been known to argue about whether it's distracting and therefore injurious to a story. Me, I think it depends if your friend's name is Bob Johnson or E. Sneed Entwhistle. I often come across a character name in fiction and think, "That's the author Tuckerizing!" I've done it in a few things I've written but I try not to do it when it's likely to make readers or viewers react that way.

This was not the first time I found myself in a comic book. Julius Schwartz, then the editor of The Flash, once stuck my name into a story. In that case though, readers were supposed to recognize my name from his letter columns. By coincidence, both stories were lettered by John Costanza. It's kind of fun at times but I think it's often overdone and, like some others believe, distracting.

Home movies from Disneyland in 1956. Gee, this looked like a fun place to be back then. And some of the people you'll see lining up for rides have probably gotten on them by now. In two parts…

WonderCon Anaheim will happen March 29-31 of 2024 where it usually happens: At the Anaheim Convention Center, just a hop, skip and jump from Disneyland. It's kind of like Comic-Con Lite, run by the same folks — a smaller gathering but big enough that you probably won't see all of it and there'll be too many panels and events for you to attend. So smaller isn't worse…just different.

Another good thing about WonderCon is that badges are a lot easier to get. If it sells out, it won't for a while but if you wanna go, don't wait. Three-day badges go on sale at a bargain rate on Thursday, November 30 — otherwise known as "The Day After Tomorrow." Here's the link to find out how to order them and pay special attention to the part about getting a Comic-Con Member ID.

I am planning to attend and I'll be hosting panels and I don't know which ones yet. Single day badges will be available at a later date.

I can't find a way to embed it here without crashing this site but go watch this short documentary by Judd Apatow. It's about the unlikely — in some ways, not in others — friendship between Bob Newhart and Don Rickles.

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UPDATE, THAT EVENING: They posted it on YouTube so now I can embed it here. Thank you, Bruce Reznick…

Can't believe it been several years since I posted a Linda Eder video here.  Among the folks who sing show-type music, she's one of my favorites. What an incredible voice.  She's famous for belting out vocals that can be heard not only in the back row but also in the theater down the block…but here, she sings "Wouldn't it be Loverly?" from My Fair Lady with some charming visuals.  And stay tuned after because she talks a little about her relationship with Julie Andrews who, of course, introduced that song to the world.

In case you don't know, when Ms. Eder mentions "Frank," she's referring to Frank Wildhorn, the composer of many great shows but most notably, the musical version of Jekyll & Hyde.. He was her husband but is no longer that.

It's been a few weeks since I took the difficult (emotionally) step of canceling Spectrum TV, retiring my beloved TiVos and switching my TV service over to streaming. I researched and experimented and got a load of help 'n' advice from friends including Marc Wielage, Rod Woodcock and Stu Shostak. I finally settled on (for now) the YouTubeTV app, which is not the same thing as the YouTube website you probably visit often.

That's my main way of viewing the stations I watch most often plus I also got a subscription to HBO Max and to Apple TV. I bought a year of Apple TV just before I heard that Jon Stewart is not doing his show for them any longer. I would not have subscribed if I'd known that.

How do I like what I have now? It's mostly a "yes" but let's take it one step at a time…

PICTURE QUALITY/DEPENDABILITY: Pretty darn good. That may have something to do with the high-speed Internet connection I have which currently gives me at least 800 Mbps downloads and often as high as 950. Even with that though, the picture occasionally freezes up for a second or two…but then that happened, albeit a bit less often, with my TiVos. And I'm not sure if it's the software or the web connection or the TCL-brand Roku TV but at least one of those doesn't like me fast-forwarding too far. If I try to leap from the beginning of a show to the end, the signal often freezes up and I have to close out the app and start over.

AVAILABLE CHANNELS: With YouTubeTV and my two add-ons, I have pretty much everything I want. If I want something that isn't on one of those three, it's a pretty simple matter to add more.

COSTS: Better than I was paying before.

OTHER ADVANTAGES: Not being on the phone either waiting forever on hold for Spectrum Technical Support, trying to explain things to Spectrum Technical Support or talking for twenty minutes to someone at Spectrum Technical Support and then having them drop the call so I have to call back, wait forever on hold for Spectrum Technical Support and when I do get someone, start all over with them.

OTHER DISADVANTAGES: My fingers grew so very accustomed to my TiVo remote control that they're having trouble learning that the buttons are in all different places on the Roku remote control.

LASTLY, A QUESTION I HAVE: I now own and watch TV on Roku TV sets in two different rooms. Each has a USB port to which one can connect a flash drive or external hard drive…and one can play or view video files and images (in some formats) on one's TV using an app called Roku Media Player. This is an enormous convenience but when I try to use Roku Media Player, I get a message that says this…

So is this telling me that if I use Roxu Media Player on my TV to, say, watch my old home movies, HBO Max gets access to films of the birthday party I had when I was six? It gives me the option to select "Allow" or "Do Not Allow" but if I Do Not Allow, it closes the media player…so I have to grant access in order to use it.  I'm sure we could all mount a very good argument as to how that's Invasion of Privacy and surrender of intellectual property, not that there was anything intellectual about that birthday party of mine.

Can someone explain this to me?  Or tell me how to use Roku Media Player without letting Apple TV spy on what I choose to watch on my own TV?

More on this one of these days.

…for a word from a lovely friend of mine who's involved in kind of an online beauty/charm pageant competition…

Do me a favor and go to this link and vote for Gabriella Muttone. You can make a donation to a worthy charity as you do but you can also vote for her for free if they can verify you're a person…like if you have a Facebook account. And if you voted for her before, vote again. You can cast a free vote for her every day until this competition is over. She is living proof that there's Loveliness After 40.

Some time ago in this post, I wrote about how for Christmas of 1963 — when I was 11 years, 9 months and 23 days old — I scoured used bookstores in Los Angeles to find one book in particular to be part of a holiday gift for my mother. I finally found what I was looking for (sort of) in a large, scary, cluttered shop down on Western Avenue called Yesterday's Books.

When I wrote that article, I didn't have a photo of Yesterday's Books and didn't imagine that one existed — or if one did exist that I would ever find it. Well, it just goes to show you: A year or two ago, I came across this one…

I have no idea when the place went outta business but I suspect this shot is from not long before they closed forever. When I was there in '63 and a few times after that, there was no any-book-a-buck banner.  This looks like a going-outta-business offer.  Also, the "Books will turn you on" banner suggests the rhetoric of late sixties or early seventies.

Inside, it was three stories of books piled in crates or shelved in no discernible sorting order.  A major tremor could have shaken the place like a James Bond martini and what you were seeking would have been no more difficult to find.  Every time you shopped there, it was a major scavenger hunt.  I hate to think what it took to clean out the place when they moved out…but they did.  I seem to remember driving by and seeing other businesses in the building after that.  Here's what's there now…

Not only do we no longer have Yesterday's Books in Los Angeles, we no longer have very many second-hand bookstores at all. Once I discovered online book search engines and eBay, I was able to easily find all the books on a little list of "wants" I carried around in my wallet for years. So I didn't particularly regret the slow extinction of used book stores. Still every so often, I remember how much fun it was to browse in them and I recall the joy of finding one on my list…or maybe one I'd never known existed. And then maybe I miss them a little.