Paul Levitz, lord high master of DC Comics, reminds me that among the many achievements of Leo Dorfman was that he created a comic for that company called, simply, Ghosts. It was one of those anthology titles filled with disconnected stories about ghosts and as Paul says in an e-mail to me, "…while it wasn't a fan favorite (then or in retrospect), it was a disproportionately good seller. When Leo passed, editor Murray Boltinoff never found a satisfactory replacement, and a lot of the title's distinctive character faded (ouch)."

During the same period, Leo was writing a lot of scripts for the ghost comics that Gold Key was publishing — Twilight Zone, Ripley's Believe it or Not, Boris Karloff Mystery and Grimm's Ghost Stories. One of the editors there told me, "Leo writes stories and then he decides whether he's going to sell them to DC [for Ghosts] or to us. He tells us that if they come out good, they go to us and if they don't, they go to DC. I assume he tells DC the opposite."

By the way: I always thought it was odd that Gold Key was publishing ghost comics hosted by two actual dead human beings, Boris Karloff and Rod Serling. I never wrote for those books when I was working for that company but if I had, I would have tried to write the host's intros by having them say things like, "This story is so chilling, I had to come back from the great beyond to share it with you…"

Jay Leno's last Tonight Show is tonight. It won't be a tearful farewell. It won't even really be a farewell since he'll be back on TV in a similar, earlier position in a few months, Still, this is a good time to say the following, which is that I like the guy. I think he's done a fine job with the program the last seventeen years…and I admire his sheer survival when so many predicted he'd crash and burn in seventeen weeks. Once upon a time, TV columnists were labelling his selection to succeed Johnny the biggest mistake in the history of broadcast television. That was before he was finishing first in his time slot…a feat he has managed for roughly the last thirteen years.

And throughout those thirteen years, there were still folks betting against him, fearlessly predicting his lead could not hold and that it would soon crumble. Rumor has it that NBC's decision to displace Leno with Conan O'Brien was founded in a belief at his own network that Jay would wear out his welcome by '09. Didn't happen, of course…just as most predictions of Leno failure haven't happened.

I've been a fan of Jay's since I first saw him back at the Comedy Store, back in the days he owned but one car and a motorcycle. He'd zoom around on the latter, doing standup several times in an evening at this club or that. He was so tireless they called him Robocomic. Hard work doesn't always guarantee success in show business — nothing does — but if you have anything to offer, hard work can make a fair amount of difference. It did with Leno. So did his reputation for just being nice to others, including some he might have viewed as competitors.

Though a big fan of Mssrs. Carson and Letterman, I was never one of those who believed that Dave "deserved" The Tonight Show and that there was some grave injustice in him not getting it. TV never works like that and besides, I think a strong case can be made that Leno had earned the job by guest-hosting so long for Johnny, doing a very difficult job and succeeding in both the ratings and key demographics. One of those thoughts that many in the industry believed but no one dared speak aloud is that Johnny Carson was able to stay on top those last few years largely because he had Jay as his guest host. Folks forget how often Jay sat in and how he managed to draw pretty much the same numbers but skewing younger.

I've generally liked the Leno Tonight Show, though I feel like neither he nor Dave have been trying very hard for some time. In interviews, Jay has often bragged about his hard work and told the story of how he was writing monologue jokes one night and he flipped on the TV, saw one of his competitors at a basketball game and thought, "Ha! That guy won't have a good monologue for tomorrow's show." The moral, of course, is that Leno gets ahead while the other guy's goofing off…and that's a good moral that makes you wonder why Jay spends so much time playing Vegas and/or fixing cars in his Burbank warehouse.

Still, I enjoy his show most of the time, even though I occasionally TiVo-skip enough to watch him (or Letterman) in about twenty minutes. And I really enjoy the fact that Leno triumphed over all the predictions of failure, showing up all the people who thought NBC would be forever humiliated by their decision. In the last decade or so, he's turned into one of the few right decisions they've made over there.

I have some thoughts about how his new show will fare and how Conan will do as Tonight host. I'll try and post them over the weekend.

Turner Classic Movies occasionally posts whole movies online for free viewing. Right now, you can watch Kelly the Second, a 1936 comedy featuring Patsy Kelly and a good supporting cast — Ed Brophy, Pert Kelton, Charley Chase, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Billy Gilbert and many more. It was made on the Hal Roach lot with much the same crew that worked on Laurel and Hardy films and has much the same ambiance. It's pleasant and funny enough for me to recommend so here's the link. Enjoy.

I got stuck this afternoon in the Traffic Jam From Hell. Matter of fact, it's hard for me to grasp the fact that I'm not still in it.

Driving time between my house and my mother's usually averages fifteen minutes. I've made it in ten in emergencies. It takes twenty in rush hour. Today, it took an hour and forty minutes to go from there to here, most of it spent on a small stretch of boulevard from which one could not turn off or turn back or escape.

I thought for a time it was Obama's doing…even considered turning Republican in protest. This was not far from the hotel where he's staying and the passenger in the car next to me yelled, "It's the presidential motorcade! Avenue of the Stars is blocked off for it!" But when we finally got to Avenue of the Stars, it was not blocked off and we could see that the delay was due to massive road construction, narrowing an eight-lane street to one in each direction, necessitating impossible mergings. Cars apparently kept bumping one another and logjamming and…Well, at one point, things were so totally not moving that I just picked up my BlackBerry and began answering e-mail and Twittering. Folks in other vehicles around me literally got out of their cars and stood around talking.

After about twenty minutes in one spot, I felt like I needed a parking validation. I also felt myself getting hungry. Fortunately, I'd stopped at a market just before…so I finally put the car in Park, got out, dug into my back seat and assembled a chicken sandwich out of my purchases. I also had a bag of Baked Ruffles potato chips and a bottle of water…so that part wasn't bad. I could have made some serious money selling snacks to people in nearby autos.

Finally, after six eternities and an eon, the processional got moving. I did about one mile an hour for twenty minutes and then, like magic, the Heavens opened. We were past the road construction with the two lanes suddenly bursting back into eight. I heard the guy in the car ahead of me yell, "Yahooooo!"

Anyway, that's why there hasn't been more posted here today. And why I may never go visit my mother ever again.

Do not go to this website.

As I Twittered, I have no idea what kind of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor will make. I'm just glad the first Hispanic nominee to that bench wasn't Alberto Gonzales. (And yes, I know about Benjamin Cardozo. But the joke works better if we leave him out of it…)

The right wing is probably very happy. They have someone they can rail against and delay and demonize, and it will all be very good for their fund-raising and for trying to convince their base they still have power. But ultimately, unless someone uncovers something juicier than her past rulings, they'll have to give in and confirm her. And it's not like denying her the seat will cause Obama to nominate someone they'll like a whole lot better.

Meanwhile, the California State Supreme Court has upheld Proposition 8. For reasons I explained here, I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. Same-sex marriage is inevitable…and those who oppose it may become more accepting if it's decreed by a vote of the people, as opposed to judicial fiat or overrule. If a few more states vote it in soon, as is expected, there may not even be a lot of enthusiasm among the "anti" crowd to try and block it when it's on the California ballot again next year.

I'm just glad the court didn't nullify the unions of same-sex couples who married when they could. Wonder if there are a lot of unmarried California couples arguing over why they didn't seize the opportunity when they had the chance…)

That's when I had my Gastric Bypass Surgery. I'm sure for some people the procedure is wrong and disastrous but for me, it was maybe the smartest thing I've done in my entire life. (Admittedly, it doesn't have a lot of competition for that honor…)

People always ask, "Did you have any complications?" Really, no. I've had a few problems but they're smaller and more fixable than the ones I'd have had if I were still carrying around the hundred+ pounds I forfeited. I was pre-diabetic and now I'm not. My feet hurt if I walked more than about a half-mile in a day. Now, they don't. I sleep better. I feel better. More important than you might imagine is that I now feel like I fit into the world better. I can go into a restaurant without worrying that I won't fit into the booth or the chair won't hold me. I don't recommend G.B.S. for everyone but losing weight if you're too fat? Hey, that works.

What else is different besides wearing pants that are five sizes smaller? Well, I eat less. Sometimes, I'm having lunch with someone and can only finish about a third of a normal portion, whereupon I have to convince my dining companion and/or the server that I don't dislike my meal. My taste for sugary things disappeared suddenly in January of '08. One moment it was there; the next, it was gone…and now I probably consume about as much sugar per month as I used to eat in two days. (This is not a usual effect of G.B.S.) My digestion is better as long as I avoid spicy foods. Never liked them a lot and never handled them well…and now I like them less and they cause me more problems.

I can buy clothes at Costco. I don't need the seat belt extender on airplanes. My mother thinks I look like her son again. And until I got a new driver's license photo, I occasionally had trouble proving I was me.

There are others but really, it's just been an amazing change, wholly for the better. I tell you this because throughout those three years, I've heard from quite a few folks who read about what I'd done or saw me at conventions and said some variation of "Hey, if that clown can do it…" and I'm real happy about that. If you can help yourself, great. If you can help yourself and others can profit from it as well, so much the better.

I'm also pleased I did not inspire a flurry of surgical procedures. Most who wrote to say they'd been inspired did not go the Gastric Bypass route. They did it via eating less and exercising more, which is the way to go if you can make it work for you. I couldn't but if you can, you have my respect and envy.

The key thing is just that they decided to do something, as opposed to being hectored into it. Before I tackled my weight problem, I was occasionally nagged by others to do something. Most meant well — I'm convinced at least one did not — but all generally did more harm than good. One friend who, I'm told, tells people that he saved my life with his one lecture will never understand or believe how far he set me back, knocking me off-course with his well-meant (I assume) unsolicited intrusion.

What did help me was the wise counsel of two separate physicians who talked to me in a pragmatic, useful manner, saying things that allowed me to grab onto the problem and take meaningful control of it. I'll not repeat their words of guidance here because they were Mark-specific and might have the opposite impact if applied to someone else. The best thing the doctors did was to not tell me what to do and to allow that to remain my job. They just helped me to get better at it. As I've learned, there's a big difference between taking charge of a situation and being swept along via circumstances that are out of your control. Appreciating that distinction was key for me. Because of it, I think I not only made the right decision but made it at just the right time.

This all may sound like double talk to some but there will be people out there who will get it, and maybe some of them need to get it. If you have a problem — and this applies to things other than excessive girth, as well — you need to own it. Wrap your brain all around it from every angle. Understand why you have it and why you want to get rid of it…and don't let anyone tell you those whys. They don't know you as well as you know you.

Then, once you're in charge and it's truly your problem to solve, you have a good shot at solving it. That does not mean you have to do it alone. Seek out those who can help you solve it, give you options, teach you about the various solutions. Just don't let it become their problem. Let it remain yours. You have to be The Decider…and let's hope you're better in that role than George Bush was.

It's important to be realistic and to not overdramatize, especially to yourself. People say to me, "You saved your life." I don't believe that. I think I saved myself a lot of health problems down the line. I made my life better but I don't think I extended it any. (Don't try to figure out what difference it makes, so long as I lost the weight. It made a difference to me and that's all that matters here.)

Last night, a lady on Facebook pulled me into chat to ask my advice about her girth, which from the way she described it makes the old me sound like a jockey. We switched to a phone call and I gave her all the stuff I pass off as wisdom, which is pretty much what I just wrote here: Understand the problem from all sides, understand the possible solutions…then pick one. Just make sure you're the one who does the picking and that you don't skip the stage about understanding the problem.

That's about all I have to say on this topic. A happy third anniversary to my lap. It's been nice having one again.

As you no doubt recall, we're soliciting the donation of comics written and/or edited by my pal Len Wein to replace those he lost in a big house fire not long ago. You people are terrific. I've just posted the latest update on the site and as you'll see, we only have a few more to locate for Len. If you can help out, please do. And if you've sent an e-mail and not heard back from me…my apologies. It's taken 'til today for me to have time to update the list and now I can tackle the mail I've yet to tackle.

For some reason, people are sending me e-mails telling me that I got the time wrong for Dreams With Sharp Teeth. I said I'd set my TiVo to record it at 6 PM. I did…and it started at 6 PM here. It's on right now.

Someone sent me an e-mail to say it's on 11 PM CDT. Someone else wrote that it's on at 9 PM Pacific Time. Someone else wrote that it's on at 8 PM where they are but they don't say where they are.

Times can vary because of different time zones. Times can also vary because some cable companies out west run shows "live" from an east coast feed, whereas some time-delay the schedule for two or three hours. You always need to check when a show will air on your set.

I have a DirecTV satellite. Dreams With Sharp Teeth started at 6:00 on my set. Your mileage may…well, you know what they say.