Forgot to mention: While I'm in San Francisco for Wondercon, I'll be teaching another class in the artistry and commerce of Animation Voice Acting at the Voice One workshop. It's March 2 at 10 AM. I did one of these last year while I was in that fair city and I guess it went over well enough to do another.

I turned up at a lot of conventions in '08 but I've decided to stick closer to home this year. Right now, I'm only scheduled for the Wondercon (San Francisco, end of February), the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo (Calgary, end of April) and the Comic-Con International (San Diego, late July). There may be others but not many.

If you're going to Wondercon next month, read this. There are still tickets available to see my buddy Frank Ferrante, world's greatest Groucho impersonator, in San Francisco on February 28. If you're around Southern California, you can also catch him at the La Mirada Theatre in — where else? — La Mirada the following weekend. One matinee performance on March 8. His whole schedule is over here and if he's coming your way, go see him. It's as close as you'll ever get to the genuine article.

Back in this message, I revealed that back when I ran my first computer bulletin board, an amazing percentage of users picked DRAGON as their password. Well, our pal Vince Waldron found this list of the 500 most common passwords…and sure enough, DRAGON is #7, beaten out mainly by things like 123456, PASSWORD and 12345678. You might want to check out the whole list and if you're using anything on it as a password anywhere, change it.

Here's the latest on the Al Franken-Norm Coleman game show in Minnesota.

A new flavor of Ben & Jerry's ice cream: Yes Pecan.

Joe Biden apparently got turned away the other night from a sold-out theater where he and his spouse wanted to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. According to this account, he was told there were no seats so he left, and only the theater staff realized who it was. Other moviegoers either didn't recognize him or didn't care.

Now, there are a couple of ways to look at this. Back in the pre-Cheney days, there were a lot of jokes about how there was no one in Washington more ignored than the guy who was a heartbreak away from the Presidency. Walter Mondale used to joke about how utterly unnoticed he was in the role. So we may be back into that. You could interpret the incident as indicative of how people don't care about Biden…or like him enough to demand autographs. Or you could commend the guy for not making a fuss and reminding someone that he was that state's Senator and is about to become Veep so they'd damn well better find him a couple of seats. Do we think Dick Cheney would have left quietly?

It might mean all of this or none of this. It also might not have been Joe Biden. It would be comforting though for me to think we were heading back to the era of the Invisible Veep. I want a Vice-President who doesn't do anything, doesn't get noticed, isn't seen as a secret power broker, doesn't shoot anyone in the face and just sits around fulfilling his one true Constitutional duty: Waiting for a foreign leader to die.

I may wind up feeling a little guilty about Book Soup, a very fine independent book store up on Sunset Boulevard. It was, and I guess still is, a model of the "old school" place to buy books…a shop where browsing is encouraged and which stocks a much wider range of publishers and subjects than you could ever find at a Barnes & Noble or other chain store. It has always employed folks who genuinely love books and know plenty about them — and if you ask them for some title they don't stock, they'll take down its name and look into acquiring copies. It is also "the" place for signings. I doubt any store in this country has ever had a more stellar list of authors who've graced its doors to autograph their output.

So what's the problem? Well, last Friday the store's owner-founder, a man named Glenn Goldman, announced the venerable establishment was up for sale. And then on Saturday, Mr. Goldman died from from pancreatic cancer. No one knows what will now become of the business he founded in 1975 but obviously, things are going to change. That's ominous because these days when you're an independent bookseller and things change, it usually means you go out of business and they put a Pinkberry yogurt shop where you were.

One hopes/trusts that will not be the case with Book Soup. If it does, I'll probably feel a twinge of guilt because I long ago stopped shopping there. I don't think I've set foot in the place for at least ten years.

I can give you reasons why. The parking up there was always impossible. Once, I completely missed the signing of a favorite author because I got there 45 minutes before he was to depart and in all that time, I couldn't find a legal place to leave my car at any price. The store was always cramped due to its narrow aisles and books crammed into every conceivable space and people standing around reading them. And of course, you have online entities like Amazon which will ship the exact same books to your door for around half the price.

I like the idea of Book Soup. I like it being there and I feel good when I'm in places like that. But I rarely go to them.

I admire the spirit of Mr. Goldman and his staff and I'm glad that that kind of business hasn't been beaten completely into submission by the likes of Amazon and Barnes & Noble. But I rarely go to them.

I even like driving past it occasionally and seeing it there…but I have to admit: I drive past on my way home to order from Amazon. Therein lies the possible guilt. I've contributed to the sad fact that places like that are on the endangered species list…or at least, I haven't done anything to help.

Logic suggests this should be the paragraph where I vow to visit Book Soup soon and buy lots of books I want, even though it would be easier and cheaper to buy them online. The answer is that I could vow that but I doubt I'll do it. I'm not proud of that but I have to be honest…and hope there are enough people not like me in this regard that stores like that don't all go away.

Bob Bergen is, as we say, the nice Jewish boy who grew up to be Porky Pig. He's also sometimes the voice of Tweety, Sylvester's Son and other characters introduced by his hero, Mel Blanc, and he does other non-Blanc work, as well. Bob's a fine voiceover talent and when I do convention panels on the nuts and bolts of that biz, he's one of the first people I try to get because he really knows the business well.

You can hear his story and his sage advice tomorrow (Wednesday) on Stu's Show, the must-hear gabfest hosted by Stuart Shostak which "airs" on Shokus Internet Radio. January is Animation Month so each week, Stu will welcome one or more guests to talk about the wonderful world of cartoons. This week is Bob. Next week is Paul Dini. The week after is a special program on how to be a voice actor with Gary Owens, Janet Waldo, Earl Kress and me. And then the week after that is Jerry Beck. I'll be nagging reminding you to tune in.

Okay, now let me explain one more time about Internet Radio. 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.)