Bagels.

Dick Cheney lied about "evidence" to justify the Iraq War? Jeez. Next thing, you'll be telling me Paul Lynde was gay…

My longtime pal Marc Wielage told me about this. It's an article about the convoluted ownership of Route 66 and Naked City, two very fine TV shows. There are a number of shows that aren't out on home video because of snags like some of what you'll read in that piece…or if they are out on video, they aren't done right or out for long.

This afternoon, the topic is "Close Encounters with Groucho" — stories about being around the comedian supreme. My pal Steve Stoliar, who was there for Groucho's last few years working in his home, will have the most anecdotes and the best…but some of us have our treasured tales. And by "us," I include me. Host Stu Shostak will tell of his run-in with Groucho. Comedy writer Bob Illes will tell his. And I'll be on (by phone) at some point to tell mine. Listen in to enjoy and envy our Marxian name-drops at 4 PM Pacific Time, aka 7 PM Eastern.

It's live and if you listen then at the Stu's Show website, it's free. If you can't listen then, all is not lost. Beginning shortly after, you'll be able to download the 2+ hours (betcha it runs close to three) from that site. It'll only cost you 99 cents but if you have a brain in that thick skull of yours, you'll select some other webcasts from the voluminous Stu's Show Archives and download four episodes for three bucks. The one last week with comedy writer-sportscaster Ken Levine was especially good. If you love Groucho, you'll want to listen. And if you don't love Groucho…what the hell's the matter with you? How could you not love Groucho?

So according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center, the House Republican plans would cut taxes for the wealthy and raise them on the middle class. The Tax Policy Center previously concluded this was the case with Mitt Romney's proposals. This is apparently not a violation of that silly Grover Norquist pledge they all signed. And I'll bet it won't get the Tea Party folks — even the ones in the middle class — as angry as it would if it were the other way around.

Number two hundred and sixty-one in a series…

Newly-released CIA documents say that they knew before 9/11 that Bin-Ladin and al-Qaida were preparing a big attack on the U.S. and that they had ample opportunity to kill Bin-Ladin but the Bush administration really didn't care that much. My friend Roger still thinks that Democrats are "soft on defense" and Republicans are tough.

Here's 45 minutes of Alec Baldwin interviewing David Letterman…

Ezra Klein discusses how Republicans used to love the idea of the individual mandate in the health care bill…until they decided it was an issue they could use against Democrats. And of course, putting Democrats on the defensive is a lot more important than doing what you thought yesterday would save a lot of lives.

I have a pretty busy week ahead of me.  In about an hour, I have to be at a recording studio to voice-direct the second half of an extra-long episode of The Garfield Show.  We did the first half last week with, among other fine thespians, these three lovely ladies: Laraine Newman, June Foray and Rose Marie.  Note that this photo was taken before June Foray was Emmy-Winning June Foray. Note also that Mark's longtime obsession with The Dick Van Dyke Show, which included a life-changing visit to a filming of it at age twelve, is tingling as he works with Rose "Sally Rogers" Marie. This is above 'n' beyond the obvious tingles of working as I often do with Ms. Foray and Ms. Newman. The photo, by the way, was taken by a lovely actress named Jewel Shepard who is also in this extra-long episode.

We're doing a number of these extra-long Garfield episodes this season and no, I have no idea when they will air in this country. I don't even know when the last season we did will air in this country. We're recording the voice tracks for yet another extra-long episode next Monday and Tuesday…which means I'd better start writing it. I haven't. So somehow, I have to write 90 pages of that before Sunday night and also write another issue of the Garfield comic book being published by Boom Studios. Here's a nice review of that endeavor. The write-up is by a wise and perceptive person named David Oxford who reminds me that today is the 34th anniversary of the first time the Garfield newspaper strip appeared in print. I'm sorry I didn't realize that until this morning. I was thinking of sending Jim Davis a gift to note the occasion…maybe twenty bucks so he could buy himself something nice. The man works hard. He deserves it.

But never mind me getting paid to write lasagna jokes. The important thing I have to do is to finalize the plans for the panels I'll be moderating at this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego. I'm hosting three on Thursday, three on Friday, four on Saturday, and then on Sunday I'm hosting four more and I'm on one other. Just in case the Guinness people follow this blog, I think this ties my record.

I'll be hosting (or in one case, co-hosting) the usual Jack Kirby Tribute Panel, a joint tribute to Joe Simon and Jerry Robinson, a discussion of the lives (as reported in two new books) of Bill Finger and of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, an interview with editors Victor Gorelick and Sid Jacobson, a 50 Year Anniversary panel for the Marvel Super-Heroes, the annual Cover Story panel, a panel with that Sergio guy about our work, a 100th anniversary celebration of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the annual Quick Draw!, the usual two Cartoon Voices panels, another panel on how to break into that field, a panel of comic book creators of the seventies, plus a tribute to Ray Bradbury with an amazing lineup of speakers. I think that's all fourteen of 'em and I'm looking forward to every one of them. More details including time slots will be posted shortly.

Oh, and there's one more thing I have to work on this week. My best friend Carolyn Kelly is prepping the second volume of reprints of her father's classic, much-loved newspaper strip, Pogo, and she needs a few assists from moi. You know how good the first volume was? Well, the second will be even better because (a) it's bigger and (b) as Walt Kelly went along with that glorious strip of his, he got better. And more better. And even more better…in that order. Volume Two, which features a foreword by Walt's buddy Stan Freberg, will be out for Christmas and will be available alone or in a lovely new slipcase (which Carolyn is designing) with Volume One. And yes, if you already have Volume One, you'll be able to purchase the slipcase without purchasing another Volume One. I contribute very little to this project but am darned pleased to be able to contribute anything to them. There are a lot of fine comic strip reprint projects out there but this is my favorite and it would be even if I was just someone like you, impatiently waiting for the next edition. It is, after all, Pogo.

Okay. Gotta go pretend to be a director. You'd be surprised at the things people will let you do in this world if you can act like you know what you're doing. If posting here is light the next week, you now know the reason why.

America's great foldable cartoon Al Jaffee explains a little about how he views his work. If you do anything in the same wheelhouse, you might want to consider viewing your work this way…

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…