A couple of points about this article that notes the ratings plunge (but demographics gain) of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien behind the desk. One is, of course, that NBC ain't as happy with the situation as they claim to be. They couldn't be. Another is that CBS isn't crowing too loudly about Letterman's ratings dominance because everyone at both networks is thinking that anything can happen once Mr. Leno's new show debuts. It's all so lacking in precedent — and the viewerships for Conan and Dave seem so uncommitted — that no one wants to predict anything.

And the third thing is that because of the second thing, everyone's quietly drawing up contingency plans. CBS is thinking about what they'll do if all the late night viewing patterns collapse. NBC is thinking about what it would involve to put Leno back on The Tonight Show. And all the other networks are thinking that once they see what Leno's show will do to the dynamics, it might be a dandy time to invest in new late night programming. No one's saying it out loud but meetings are being held and proposals are being pitched. A friend of mine who's in the thick of it says, "Everyone knows someone's going to eat it…and they're all poised to leap in and capitalize on that failure. Just as soon as they know whose it is."

For what it's worth: In the upcoming Writers Guild election, I'm throwing my support to the slate of Elias Davis for President, Tom Schulman for Vice President and David N. Weiss for Secretary/Treasurer. Here's a link to the website promoting this trio and many fine board candidates. Not that there aren't some good folks not on this list…but I think the Guild is doing a lot of things right these days and that these candidates are primed to continue and build on that momentum.

Like I said: For what it's worth.

My amigo Sergio Aragonés is being celebrated in his home town of Ojai this month with an exhibition of his work. Personally, if I were setting up the gallery, I'd hang drawings by Mort Drucker and Jack Davis, then have Sergio draw on the baseboards and in the corners. But that's just me.

Seriously, it's a great honor for a most deserving individual and there's a very nice piece in the Los Angeles Times about it…actually two items. Read the short one first, then read the long one.

The exhibition is at the Ojai Valley Museum and it's there until October 4. There will be several appearances there by Señor Crowdscene during the run…and when he isn't there officially, he'll probably be in the Men's Room, drawing on the walls.

Incidentally: The above photo is the earliest known picture of Evanier and Aragonés together, though we'd known each other for several years by that point. It was taken (I deduce) at the 1972 San Diego Comic-Con, which was called San Diego's West Coast Comic Convention and held at the El Cortez Hotel. What puzzles me is why I found the negative to this photograph among the strips of negatives I took at that convention. The obvious answer is that someone else took it with my camera…but as you can see, in the photo I'm holding my camera, and I'm pretty sure that's the only camera I owned at the time. One of life's little mysteries.

By the way, my computer has been fixed but I'm still way behind.

My primary computer has gone banana-whackie on me again and I'm over here, as you can plainly see, on my backup computer. I was "behind" enough before this happened and now…well, I may not be posting a lot here during the rest of this weekend.

I would appreciate it if there were no deaths of anyone I care enough about that I feel I need to post an obit. Actually, I'd prefer it if all such people would wait a long, long time before dying…at least until after I go. But if you must die before then, try not to do it before…oh, if you could hold off 'til Tuesday at the earliest, that would help me out a lot. Thank you.

As we mentioned back here, the economist and game show host Ben Stein has outdone himself in the "I'll say anything if you pay me enough" sweepstakes with his endorsement of a new online scam. That has proven to be enough to get him tossed out of The New York Times. Apparently, being consistently wrong about everything wasn't enough.

Dick Cavett brings us the video of a second interview he did with Richard Burton. In it, Burton addresses all sorts of interesting questions but none so interesting as asking what the hell I'm doing posting links at this hour?

I don't take nearly enough photos at comic book conventions. I always get home and wish I'd taken more. Fortunately, there are folks like Bruce Guthrie who take oodles of them and he trains his camera mainly on the people particpating in programming, not at the odd people who think they look good in a Princess Leia outfit.

Bruce has a whole online gallery where you can see pics he's snapped at conventions and also at places like the La Brea Tar Pits where, for some reason, I wasn't hosting any panels. If you want to view just his pictures from this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego, try this link. If you were on one of my panels this year, you're probably in here.

Steven Pearlstein says that Republicans aren't even trying to make an honest case against the plans for Health Care Reform. They're just flat-out lying about what's being proposed.

Maybe Democrats should try lying right back: "Did you know that insurance companies have the right to put you into internment camps and make you eat foods you don't like? And they can force your daughters into prostitution and perform forcible sex changes on your sons to make them into daughters? We need this bill to outlaw those insidious practices!"

It might work. Claiming that Obama wants to kill your grandparents seems to be working with someone out there.

In the meantime, Sarah Palin says that Obama might have euthanized her son, Trig. This must mean it's an even-numbered week. Next week, she'll be out there complaining that her foes are dragging her kids into political matters.

Every hotel in Las Vegas has at least one swimming pool and some have several. For a number of years now, some hotels have designated one of their pools as "European-style," which is a classier way of saying that women are allowed to bare their boobies. As far as I know, this is not the case with every pool or beach in Europe or even a majority of them, but I guess the term sounds more sophisticated than "topless."

I've never been to one of these, but I gather their appeal is as follows. Women like them because they feel freer and also because of tanning benefits. Men like them because the women don't have tops on. And some of each like them because it means there'll be no children in or around the pool, probably no old people, and possibly a general sexual ambiance. Some of the ads suggest (nudge nudge, grin grin, wink wink) such pools might be a good place to meet members of the opposite gender, making them well worth some hefty admission prices. Men, of course, pay more than ladies since the ladies are the show.

In Vegas, they like control and artifice. I could cite many examples but my favorite, and I think it's still there, is at the Flamingo. Out back, they have a little garden with live birds, including flamingos, and there are babbling brooks. To ensure that the brooks babble properly, there are hidden speakers that output the recorded sound of rushing water. Someone actually decided that just having a nice little stream of H2O there wasn't enough; that they could actually improve on a river.

In a town that does that kind of thing, it's easy to presume all sorts of attempts to control and better reality. So the rumor's been around for some time that attractive women are being hired and paid to hang out at some of those "European-style" pools, the better to get males to pay the steep entrance fee. A friend of mine who works at a hotel that has such a pool told me what he'd heard; that business there was falling off because few of the women who were sunning themselves, sans tops, were the kind of ladies that men want to see that way. So they hired some wanna-be showgirls (I guess) to just sit around all day and sun themselves. Nice work if you can get it.

Then, of course, someone took it to the next step. This is Vegas, after all, where the next step is always the next step. The Rio made a deal with Sapphire, a local "gentleman's club" (euphemism for "strip joint"). to have some of its employees drape their European-style pool…to in effect make the pool an extension of the club. This lasted several months…up until last week when several of those employees were busted on prostitution charges and the pool was closed.

Hotel execs are reportedly shaking their heads, wondering how such a thing could happen and I can understand that. I mean, you have men who come to Vegas with lotsa money to spend on having a good time. You have strippers lounging around them with their tops off. You have alcohol being served and daytime temperatures reaching into the hundreds. How on God's Green Earth could that combination possibly lead to prostitution? Who could have imagined it?

(And surprise, surprise: When newspapers printed the mug shots of the ladies who'd been arrested, none of them looked even remotely like the woman in the above photo, which the Rio used to promote the "Sapphire Ultra Hot Brazillian Style Adult Pool.")

So you're thinking what I'm thinking…about the scene in Casablanca where Captain Renault says he's shocked…shocked that gambling is going on. Me, I'm shocked that prostitution is still illegal in Las Vegas County. At a time when business is way, way down and more hotels are in trouble (the Riviera is reportedly not long for this world), they're probably considering it. Mayor Oscar Goodman has long been in favor of legal, regulated brothels but, of course, he has no power. The big hotels have the power in that town and they've got to be talking, discussing when the time might be right. It's the only attraction they could offer that you can't get at the new casinos all over the country.