Early this morn, I embedded a video of my favorite episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. What I didn't know is that hulu, the company that hosts these videos, is not accessible outside the U.S. About a dozen folks from other lands wrote to ask which episode I'd embedded. Answer: "It May Look Like a Walnut."

In truth, there are at least a dozen episodes of that series I could have identified as my favorite and not have been fibbing by too much: The one where Laura went on the game show and told the world that Alan Brady was bald…the one where Mel Cooley was fired…the one about Buddy's practical joking…the one where the writers almost went to work for a snail…and others I could mention. But this week, the one about the walnuts is my favorite.

This weekend, I'll be in New York, New York appearing at The National, a fine comic convention at the Hotel Pennsylvania. I'll be hosting panels on Saturday. I'll be hanging around on Sunday and maybe part of Friday. Before I return to L.A., I'll also visit publishers, go to Broadway shows, see friends…and I think I'm even going to have lunch or beverages with Fred Kaplan, whose Slate articles I'm always recommending to you. Expect intermittent reports (the hotel has lousy Internet connectivity) which should include reviews of South Pacific and Gypsy.

Then, no conventions 'til February. I'll be at the Wondercon in San Francisco from 2/27 through March first, then the next one I've said I'll attend is the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo, which is April 25-26. There may be one other in there but I think I'm getting conventioned-out, and all my good shirts are too full of holes from name badges.

Over at fivethirtyeight.com, demon number cruncher Nate Silver concludes that the success of Proposition 8 in California — the one that banned same-sex wedlock — was not, as some have concluded, due to a higher-than-usual black vote. Silver thinks it's generational. Older voters went for Proposition 8, younger ones didn't.

That makes sense and it's also encouraging. The last time Gay Marriage lost a statewide vote in California, it lost by 22 points. This time, it was a little less than 5 points. It's disappointing that it lost at all but at least things are moving in the right direction.

I have no idea how likely the various court challenges are to overturn Prop H8, as people are now calling it. (It took me a minute to figure that one out, too.) But there is something unseemly, or perhaps self-defeating, in trying to invert something that was an expression of, after all, The Will of the People. Seems to me Gay Marriage will never be a settled matter in this state until it becomes The Will of the People via a clear, inarguable victory at the polls. Maybe all the energy that's now going into blocking traffic and siccing lawyers on the matter would be better put into amassing bucks to back a proposition on the next ballot.

I don't know when that next ballot could be…but by then, a few more of the older voters will have died out. And just in case there is some merit to the theory that black turnout for Obama helped Proposition 8…well, that shouldn't be a factor next time, either. Court challenges might take just as long — and even if successful, reinstating same-sex weddings that way is merely going to muddy the issue. I'm sure there are some people out there who bought the following argument: Never mind gays getting married…the reason to vote for 8 is that we want to show those damned courts that they can't overturn our vote.

Even if only 2% of those who voted for 8 had that in mind, that's almost half the winning margin. Take that concern off the table and figure that by the next election, more older voters will be out of the mix…and it seems to me Gay Marriage could win with the electorate, no matter how much money the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints threw at it. Wouldn't that be better? The trouble with winning via legal challenges is that it becomes a victory based on technicalities, not on human enlightenment. This one deserves to win because enough people in California come to their senses, not because an attorney finds a loophole.

So it's a week after the election and we still don't know for sure where Missouri's electoral votes are going to land. A few news sites have awarded them to John McCain but most haven't…and I wonder if the ones that have would have called that state if it did matter.

It's interesting to imagine a scenario where they did. Let's say Obama won all the states Kerry won plus Iowa and Nevada, McCain took everything else except Missouri…and Missouri was still in the balance. That would put Obama at 264, McCain at 263 and the entire nation on pins and needles, waiting for Missouri to come in and declare our next President. I assume somehow they'd have sped up the counting process there and we'd have a winner by now…but maybe not.

I don't have a punch line for this or even a semi-interesting observation. I just think it's fascinating to note that this could have happened.

Anyone here see John McCain on with Jay Leno last night? I have mixed feelings about that. It's nice to see the "old" John McCain, I guess, but you'd like someone to ask him if he was really proud of the campaign he wound up running. Does he still think Obama is a socialist? Or that Obama voted to cut off funding for our troops? Is he worried about having someone who "pals around with terrorists" in the White House? Leno, of course, is not the guy to ask such questions but I hope someone will. Jay did ask if he regretted the choice of Sarah Palin and of course, McCain said no. He's proud of her and expects her to have a career on the national scene in some way. Somehow, I don't believe either part of that.

Okay, listen up. For a couple years here, I've been hectoring you to tune in Stu's Show, a weekly two-hour chat about classic television, hosted by my buddy Stu Shostak. Many of you have written to thank me for the tip since Stu puts on a great show. He's usually able to get great guests and when he can't, he has me on. So either way, I'd like you to listen…which you can do on your computer, assuming it's hooked up to the Internet, which it must be or you wouldn't be reading this.

Well, tomorrow is Stu's one hundredth show. That's a big deal all by itself but he's celebrating with a great guest…everyone's favorite actress, the legendary June Foray! That's right. The voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Natasha Fatale, Granny (Tweety's owner), Jokey Smurf, Witch Hazel and so many others will be in Stu's studio to be interviewed and take questions from those of you who call in. It doesn't get any better than that. Animation expert Earl Kress will be co-hosting and I'll participate via phone.

It happens tomorrow (Wednesday) live on Shokus Internet Radio. To listen, go to their website at the correct hour and do what it says to do. The correct hour will depend on where you live but on the West Coast, it's from 4 PM 'til 6 PM, which works out to 7 PM 'til 9 PM on the East Coast…and you can figure out other places from that. The show will rerun all week but it's better to hear it as it happens — and of course, you can call in when it's live.

This is a rare opportunity to hear and maybe even chat with one of the animation field's true living legends. And if you've never experienced the fun of Stu's Show, it's a good time to start.

The Circuit City chain has filed for bankruptcy. Many of its stores will be closing and the ones that hang in there might not be there for long.

Anyone who's ever shopped at one knows the reason they're in trouble. It's the same thing that doomed the Good Guys chain. And Egghead Software. And caused CompUSA to close most of its outlets. It's the same problem that destroys most chains that sell technology. Someone says, "We have to keep labor costs low," and doesn't realize or care that this invariably results in too many employees who — I'm going to put this in bold — don't know a damn thing about the stuff they sell.

I don't know that much about computers and technology but it's been a long time since I encountered someone in one of those stores who knew as much as I do, let alone more. In fact, every time I'm in one, I seem to wind up correcting something I overhear. Last time I was in the Circuit City near me, a salesguy was telling a lady the difference between DVD+R discs and DVD-R was that DVD+R was the "deluxe" version of DVD-R. I felt I had to intervene.

Management in these stores doesn't seem to realize that all they have to offer is personal expertise. If you know what you want, you can always find it at a lower price online. If you want to take the thing home today or touch it before you buy, you can go to a "big box" place like Costco where no one knows the product but it's cheaper. The only way a place like Circuit City can possibly compete — and I'll bet there'd a big market for this if they could deliver it — is by giving you someone knowledgeable to talk to. Usually though, there's no such person on the premises…or if there is, there's only one and he's eternally waiting on someone else. In some of these stores, it's even hard to find someone unknowledgeable to talk to. You might as well go to Costco. They have better prices, plus there are ladies in hairnets who offer you free samples of teriyaki chicken.

Now, you might say, "Hey, Radio Shack's still in business and no one there knows anything." This is true…but Radio Shack serves a function, much the same purpose 7-Eleven or some other convenience store serves in relation to a real market. It's a quick place to run in and buy a patch cord or a headset. You wouldn't do your serious grocery-buying at the Quik-E-Mart and most folks don't do major purchases at Radio Shack, except maybe of cell phones. Oddly, the last few times I've been in a Radio Shack, the only thing the staff seemed to know about was signing you up for Sprint. I asked where a certain cable could be found and the guy didn't have a clue…but he did ask me about my wireless plan.

Circuit City's downsizing probably won't help. People in record numbers are buying computers and high-def TVs and PDAs and digital cameras and even things we don't yet know we can't live without, and you'd think it would be a golden time to operate a chain of stores that sold that stuff. But crummy service has killed the brick-and-mortar end of that market. Everyone's learned that if you're not going to get personal attention from a salesperson who knows the product line, you might as well buy it on the Internet. It's cheaper and you don't even have to carry it out to your car. I'd wager good money that within two years, the Circuit City near me is a CVS Pharmacy. I base that prediction on the fact that the Circuit City is badly run…and also on the fact that we don't seem to have a CVS Pharmacy on that block.

Beginning some time next year, TiVos in Australia will have a new feature which we'll probably see soon after in this country. They'll be able to use their TiVos to order pizza. This article doesn't say but presumably they mean that a delivery person will bring your pie to the door, not that it will somehow come to you via cable. No word on whether it'll let you take a Season Pass.