The big Screen Actors Guild exec board meeting finally adjourned after more than 30 hours, which means it lasted longer than half the shows on the NBC fall schedule. What was decided? Apparently, nothing. But the guild's head negotiator, Doug Allen, has not been fired…at least, not yet. Both Variety and Hollywood Reporter reported that he was terminated, and the Hollywood Reporter website still says so, more than seven hours after others who announced it began retracting. (By the way: If you read either of those papers' accounts of the local labor situation, keep in mind that they both operate from a premise that in any dispute, those with the most power, fame and money must be in the right. Variety especially seems to have this notion lately that if you run a studio, especially a studio that buys a lot of ads in Variety, you can do no wrong.)

So where does this leave us? In theory, SAG is still going to call for a strike authorization vote for its members but no one is saying when or betting that it won't be called off. Allen is still in his job but no one's betting that will continue unabated. My guess is they're trying to stitch together some sort of coalition negotiating team, with or without Allen, that can present a united front of two factions that have been galloping in opposite directions. There has to be some fear that if they can't manage that, this messy working-without-a-contract situation will never end…but the Screen Actors Guild might.

The big Hollywood Labor News at this hour is that there is no big Hollywood Labor News…but some could be along any minute. The 71-member board of the Screen Actors Guild has now been meeting since 9 AM Monday. That is not a typo. The meeting has gone on longer than 24 hours…presumably with some participants leaving and returning. They're trying to figure out what to do about the current negotiating mess. Rumors have leaked and been denied that the Chief Negotiator, Doug Allen, has been fired. Rumors have leaked and been denied that the Board has decided to cancel the planned Strike Authorization vote or maybe proceed with the planned Strike Authorization vote or maybe schedule a leg-wrestling contest instead of the planned Strike Authorization vote. No one seems to know.

But whatever's gonna happen, it's probably gonna happen soon.

Why does it scare me that George W. Bush is giving a farewell address on Thursday night? I'll tell you why: Because of the old government adage that if you have to release news that you don't want people to notice too much, you do it on Friday. I have the feeling that Bush has a pile of last-minute edicts and executive decrees and especially pardons that will outrage all decent Americans, and he wants to have his last, semi-dignified address before we get whacked by them. He couldn't very well sit there and talk about the integrity and lawfulness of his administration right after he'd signed pardons for himself and all his top officials, right?

Another week, another plug for Stu's Show, the flagship program on Shokus Internet Radio. Tomorrow, your enthusiastic host Stu Shostak welcomes one of my best buddies, writer Paul Dini. Paul has a long, long list of credits in television and comics, his TV work including both animation (Batman, The Animated Series) and live-action (Lost). In comics, he's one of the main current writers of the Batman character, the creator of the lovely Jingle Belle, and…well, Paul's done a lot of quality stuff. Here's your chance to hear him interviewed about his impressive career and you can even call in and ask questions. Someone ask him about the production of A Christmas Carol that we went to see a couple weeks ago.

Next week at this time, I'll be plugging next week's Stu's Show, which will focus on the world of animation voicing — how it's done, how folks are cast, how to become one of those folks who are cast, etc. I'll be a guest along with vocal legends Gary Owens and Janet Waldo, and writer-actor Earl Kress.

Since I'm getting tired of rephrasing the following each time I write about Stu's radio station, I'm going to crib the rest of this from the last plug I gave him. This is not a podcast. You can't download it and listen to it whenever you want. You have to "tune in" when it's on…which in this case is from 4 PM to 6 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM to 9 PM Eastern. Stu's Show is done live on Wednesday and that's the best time to listen because, among other reasons, you can call in and ask questions. You can hear the show on your own computer by going to the website of Shokus Internet Radio at the appointed hour and clicking where you're told to click. (The show reruns on other days, usually in the same time slot. Check out the site for a full schedule…and while you're there, take note of some of the other fine, free programming.)

I ate a meal last evening with Aaron Barnhart, a friend I made over the Internet around '94, back when the World Wide Web ran on kerosene. At the time, Aaron was just one of those guys on the 'net writing about what interested him, which was primarily late night TV. He started up an e-mail newsletter on the topic and it led to a number of high-profile freelance assignments and his current gig, which is as the TV critic for the Kansas City Star. Not too shabby.

He also operates a fine weblog of TV news which you oughta check out. It's called TV Barn and it's one of the best places to keep up with what's going on in and around the world of television. For that matter, here's an interview with Aaron that you might enjoy.

There's still about a week in which George W. Bush might outdo himself…but here's Jacob Weisberg's list of the Top 25 "Bushisms."

If there's anyone out there who still thinks this man was ever fit to be president, they should watch the press conference he held this morning and the lame, head-in-the-sand answers he gave to obvious questions. Good to know that not finding Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq was a big "disappointment." Apparently, he would have been happier if Saddam had been more dangerous.

I agree with Ken Levine about Woody Allen movies.

When I was a kid, I sometimes went with my Aunt Dot when she did her marketing. This pretty much consisted of pushing the cart and playing the following game, which I could never win. Every time she noted a price increase on something, even if it was only up a penny, I'd have to guess how much the product cost back when she was my age. One time, I think I asked her, "Gee, did they even have money then?"

We'd go to a Safeway about three blocks from her home…and the first thing she'd do was to select something to eat while shopping — a bag of cookies or chips or dried fruit or something. She'd tear the bag open, stuff it in the "baby" seat of the shopping cart, then nibble as she shopped, offering snacks also to me and even to other shoppers she happened to talk with.

That always made me uncomfortable. I had the idea that you're supposed to pay for the food at the market before you open it and eat it. When I mentioned this to my Aunt Dot — a very sweet, nice lady, by the way — she'd dismiss my concerns. Everyone does it, she said, even though I never saw anyone else do it. And she was going to pay for the item along with all her other purchases, as of course she did.

I assumed at first that since she was a grown-up, she must know what she was talking about…always a very bad assumption on my part. I think I was around ten when I began to realize that wasn't always the case; that older didn't mean smarter and neither did being my aunt. One day in the Safeway, a young lady who worked there approached Aunt Dot and asked her very politely to not begin gorging herself on the Triscuits until after they'd been purchased at the check-out counter. With a touch of startled indignance, Aunt Dot replied that she was going to pay for it.

The clerk had a gracious undertone of "Please don't make trouble for me, lady" as she said, "I'm sure you are…but some people don't. Every day, we find opened, half-consumed packages around the store and the boss gets upset with us. You put us in an awkward position because we can't tell who's going to pay and who isn't. If the boss sees you, you're not going to get yelled at. I am."

It was as much how she said it as what she said. Aunt Dot, like I said, was a terribly nice lady and she hadn't realized she'd been making possible trouble for someone. She never did it again and I've never done it. Even if I'm famished, I wait 'til I've paid for an item to dive into it.

I'm telling this story because lately, I've started seeing this a lot in markets…people opening packages, munching on chips or swigging beverages for which they've yet to pay. Is this now becoming customary? Do stores now expect it or tolerate it? This may be a mental block I can/should get over.

The alphabet for Jack Kirby fans.