I should warn you: This will run twelve minutes and there's a strong possibility that William Shatner is in it. I'm not saying he is and I'm not saying he isn't…just that you should be ever vigilant and on the alert.

Some weeks ago, I linked to a batch of clips (here and here) from an installment of Night of 100 Stars. These were specials that ran on ABC in the eighties, each of which featured well more than a hundred stars, even if you adopted a more realistic definition of the word "star" than the producers did. Most of the celebs didn't do much more than show up and walk out on stage but if you just wanted to look at familiar faces, you were probably in ecstasy.

Here, from one of those specials, is a salute to whatever was then on television (1985). It has Hal Linden, Michele Lee and Nancy Dussault singing a song that must have taken a month to pre-record, thanks to rhymes that probably gave the lyricist a hernia. I'll caution you one more time it's long…so long that it exceeded You Tube's ten minute time limit and had to be split into two pieces. And of course, I already told you that Shatner might be in it. If you're comfortable with all that, proceed at your own risk and click away.

And then, here's part two of the presentation…

Molly Ivins on "activist judges." Roughly speaking these days, an Activist Judge is anyone who for any reason doesn't decide a case the way you want to see it decided.

What is it with doing away with orange-flavored things? When I posted the previous item about Hostess Orange Cupcakes disappearing from shelves, I was unaware that another orangey (and sugary-good) treat from my childhood has gone bye-bye: Orange Life Savers. According to this article, the Life Savers people changed their standard roll three years ago, dropping orange, lemon and lime in favor of raspberry, watermelon and blackberry.

Interesting. As a kid, I had an Uncle Nathan who never knew what to give me at Christmas or on my birthday so he usually gave me money plus a "Life Savers Gift Set." I guess these were sold at some store he frequented, probably the place he bought pipe tobacco. They were little books that you'd open and there'd be twelve rolls inside — one each of what then comprised the Life Savers line. Here — I'll show you a picture of one of them…

A nice little gift but I really wasn't a huge fan of most flavors. Actually, I wasn't big on hard candies or gum at all but the only ones that interested me at all were the orange and occasionally the peppermint, lemon or lime. Every birthday or Christmas, I thanked Uncle Nate for the Life Savers Gift Set, pulled out the roll that was all orange and maybe one or two others, then gave the rest away. In fact, I think I usually gave him the Butterscotch ones.

I'm pretty sure I read an article back then saying that the Orange Life Savers were the third best-selling variety, right behind the "Five Flavors" assortment and the Pep-o-Mint. Orange was one of the flavors in the assortment so I always thought my fave should have been regarded as the most popular.

I also read that the orange roll was introduced due to consumer demand. Apparently, the way Life Savers were then distributed, they were limited to twelve varieties at a time. I'm guessing this had something to do with the size of the racks of them you often found by the checkout counter in markets and drugstores. The article said — I'm remembering back close to a half-century here so cut me some slack — so many people had written in and said they wanted a whole roll of the orange that Life Savers complied, dropping its lowest-selling roll, which I recall as watermelon. If I'm remembering this correctly, it would seem like Watermelon Life Savers got the last laugh.

All of this raises one of those questions that I doubt anyone can answer. What happened to Orange Life Savers? Why were they so popular for such a long time and now, they've even been booted out of the basic Life Savers assortment. Did the recipe change? I doubt that. Does the current generation have less taste for orange? I doubt that, too. (Life Savers has a new flavor called Orange Mints and their Creme Savers line has an orange version.) What doomed the basic orange Life Saver? Did Billy Crystal sabotage its career?

Boy, am I behind in my snack cake knowledge. It's been many years since I gave them up…maybe a decade since I even cruised that section of the supermarket. But the other night in a Pavilions, I had one of those carts with the one wheel that insists on dragging the other three (and therefore, you) towards stuff you have a hard time not purchasing. Quite against my will and intent, I found myself at the Cupcake and Twinkie display and I couldn't help but notice: No Hostess Orange Cupcakes. And no designated space on the shelf where they'd be if there were any in stock.

When did this happen? Probably shortly after I gave 'em up. The total number of units sold — at least around Los Angeles — must have plunged when I abandoned that favored way of getting stoked up on sugar. The Hostess Chocolate Cupcakes (which fortunately, are still produced en masse) were good but the orange ones…

Ah, the orange ones…

I not only used to eat Hostess Orange Cupcakes at home but if I was in a strange city and spotted them, I indulged…just to see what interesting and subtle variations the local Hostess baker might have introduced into the mix. The best ones I ever had, I had in Reno, Nevada. In a little market just up the block from Harrah's.

A quick bit of Internetting revealed that Hostess still makes them but just as an occasional specialty item sold in a few select stores. Most markets do not carry them and probably could not get them…but you can find ways of ordering them online if you're desperate. I'm not, but it's a relief to know that if I ever am, there are ways of obtaining them.

I also experienced a bit of a shock to learn that Dolly Madison Bakers — once the arch-rival to Hostess — is now part of the same company, the Interstate Bakeries Corporation. Zingers, the most popular of the Dolly Madison offerings, are now Hostess Zingers. I understand we live in a world of corporate takeovers and acquisitions but some of these still surprise you.

I thought I'd treat you to one more excerpt from Zero Hour, a play which stars Jim Brochu as the late 'n' looney Zero Mostel. This is the scene in which Jim re-creates Zero's 1955 appearance before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. It runs a little under six minutes.

Jim Hightower provides a long, exasperating list of the failings and arrogances of the Bush administration.

ATTENTION, MIKE PETERS: Remember how yesterday over lunch, I told you that every now and then, you'd find a link on my weblog that would take you to an article that would make you very angry? This is just such a link.

ATTENTION, EVERYONE WHO IS NOT MIKE PETERS: The Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoons of Mr. Peters may be viewed at this site, along with his very funny newspaper strip, Mother Goose and Grimm. Both are also Recommended Reading, every doggone day.

Actor Bruno Kirby died on August 14 from leukemia. I didn't post anything about him at the time because I never met Mr. Kirby and had nothing to add to all the obits and words of regret. Unfortunately, I do now.

Ricocheting around the farthest crannies of the Internet at the moment is a "controversy" that strikes me as being based on absolutely nothing. People who never met Bruno Kirby or his occasional co-star Billy Crystal have taken an unsourced rumor that they had some sort of falling-out and have added a lot of speculation and a great many leaps of logic. The end-product is a theory that Crystal, apparently out of some sort of anger, "destroyed" Bruno Kirby's career. Even if the two men did have some sort of quarrel, that does not lead to the conclusion in articles like this one. (Note if you will that its source is a weblog by someone who has had no contact with Crystal and no inside info, and admits to an "animus" towards him.)

I would first argue with the premise that Bruno Kirby's career was destroyed. You can look over his Internet Movie Database listing and see that he worked at pretty much the same volume from when he broke into the field in 1971 until his death this year. He was in hits now and then, flops now and then. It looks like a pretty typical career arc to me. One successful film does not automatically earn you another, especially when you're working in supporting roles, playing the best friend. Sometimes, a good showcase role will get you offers, sometimes it doesn't. Even when it does, the offers may be for films that don't get made or released or which turn out so poorly that they're regarded as embarrassing credits.

There's always an enormous crapshoot involved and sometimes, it doesn't go the way you want, or the way you'd wish the system would work. One of the people arguing that Crystal sabotaged Kirby's career noted that "Kirby also won acclaim on Broadway, replacing Kevin Spacey as the male lead…in Neil Simon's memory play, Lost in Yonkers, which had won four Tony awards. At that point, Kirby's career was on a trajectory that was leading inexorably to Oscar nominations, and perhaps even a golden statuette."

That's a completely illogical conclusion. First off, even starring Broadway roles often do not lead to anything beyond Broadway…and rarely does a replacement get any notice at all. (I'm not sure why the guy mentioned the show's four Tony awards since they were won long before Kirby was even in the show. By the way, more than a dozen other actors were replacements in that show over its Broadway run and none of them got important movie offers as a result. Lucie Arnaz, who was one of them, won even more acclaim than Kirby. See any good Lucie Arnaz movies lately?) In any case, no one's career leads "inexorably" to Oscar nominations. Which is why the vast majority of talented, working actors go their entire careers without getting one.

For the sake of argument, let's assume Billy Crystal and Bruno Kirby had some huge fight…and let's really stretch logic and say Crystal had some reason then to want to nuke Kirby's career. Yeah, I know. It doesn't make sense. Crystal's a huge star whose every live appearance sells out and who's begged each year to host the Oscars. In no way is he ever in competition with Bruno Kirby but just play along. Let's pretend Billy decides that Bruno Kirby's career must be terminated.

What could he possibly do? I mean, how might that be accomplished?

A successful career is based on a lot of different producers and directors wanting to hire you. You need a lot because there are always some who don't like you. Perhaps Billy Crystal blocked Bruno Kirby being cast in City Slickers II and subsequent Billy Crystal movies. It was probably within his power to do so…but how could he stop Spielberg from hiring Bruno Kirby? How could he stop Cameron or Howard or…well, name the top fifty directors in the business these days. If one of them decided Bruno Kirby was the best actor for a given role, would that director say, "Let's go with our second choice. I want to help Billy Crystal destroy Bruno's career."?

What I'm closing in on here is that it's an enormous slam to the memory of Bruno Kirby to suggest that his entire career hinged on getting cast again as Billy Crystal's buddy. Never mind the insult to Crystal, suggesting he'd be that vindictive. It's just plain insulting to the deceased.

And it's all based on speculation about some things we know nothing about. Maybe Kirby wasn't in City Slickers II because the writers, producers and/or director didn't want him or his character back. Maybe he had a schedule conflict or he held out for an outrageous sum of money. Who knows? Certainly not the folks spreading the Crystal Conspiracy Theory.

Bruno Kirby was a good actor. He was in some good movies…in roles which, somehow, did not lead "inexorably" to Oscars. He was in some bad ones. I doubt anyone thinks he saved the good ones or ruined the bad ones, but he certainly was good on the screen in most of them. Let's bury this rumor and instead put the blame for his career ending on what was really responsible: leukemia. That's a real and effective career-ender…and unfortunately, it makes even less sense than show business.

It's Walt Kelly Day and you know what that means: We celebrate the birthdate of one of the world's great cartoonists by singing songs, dancing dances, drawing drawings, painting paintings, chanting chants and feasting on feasts. On this planet, we encounter so few talents of that kind…where everything they did, everything they left us, just makes you feel better and happier and maybe even a little smarter. The creator of Pogo Possum was one such talent, and we thank him for a lifetime of wondrous work.

And a reminder: Don't put the hats and horns away so quickly. Next Monday is Jack Kirby Day.

Last night, I posted this item telling you that all Fantagraphics Books are 20% off so this would be a great time to buy, for example, The Complete Peanuts. The first five volumes retail for $144.75 so a 20% discount takes them down to $115.80. That's a good deal for you and probably a nice profit for Fantagraphics. I like the idea of, where feasible, buying books directly from the publisher (or even better, the author), thereby allowing more of the purchase price to go to folks who'll use the bucks to publish more. I'll often buy something that way, even though it would be a bit cheaper to order from a serious discounter.

However, under the oath I took when I became a Weblogger, I vowed to always tell you the best possible deal I could locate for an item. This requires me to mention something that Nat Gertler reminded me about. You can get those five Peanuts books even cheaper if you buy Volume One and Volume Two as one boxed set, and Volume Three and Volume Four as another. You get the same books plus you get the neat little slipcase that miraculously transforms two separate books into one boxed set.

Over at the Fantagraphics site, the two boxed sets retail for $49.95 each. Add in the as-yet unboxed Volume Five ($28.95) and the list price for all five is $128.85. Take 20% off that and your cost is $103.08.

But as they say in infomercials…"Wait! There's more!" Cole Odell reminds me that Amazon routinely discounts the most popular titles from Fantagraphics up to 37%. Right now, they sell the individual volumes for $18.24 each and the boxed sets for $32.97. So two boxed sets plus Volume Five equals $84.88. And it's even better than that because if you order from Fantagraphics, you'll need to pay shipping, which will tack another $22.50 onto your order, whereas Amazon will ship for free. I'm all for supporting publishers but the total Fantagraphics price works out to $125.58, whereas Amazon will sell you the exact same thing for $84.88, a savings of more than forty bucks. My sense of honor requires that I mention this.

And my sense of industry requires that I provide this Amazon link to order. That link will take you to the ordering page for the first boxed set and from there you can navigate easily to pick up the other books. If you go to the Amazon site via that link, this site receives a small cut of anything you order while you're over there…and not just Fantagraphics books or Peanuts books.

However, do not forsake the Fantagraphics 20% discount altogether! It has its useful qualities. As Mr. Odell notes in his e-mail, "…where [it] comes in handy is with the part of the list that isn't discounted better, elsewhere: any items not distributed through the book trade, plus items like Roberta Gregory's Bitchy Butch TPB, Feiffer, The Collected Works Vol. 1, and probably a slew of titles that didn't turn up in my cursory Amazon search."

Good point. Wherever possible, support the folks who create the books and those who publish them. But hey, forty bucks is forty bucks.

If you're been reading this weblog, you know my pal Jim Brochu has been starring in a play up in Hollywood in which he somehow turns himself into Zero Mostel. I don't know how he does it, either…but he sure does it well.

The play closes tomorrow night and the last performances are long since sold out so this isn't a plug. Well, maybe it is, because I'm sure Jim will be doing it again in other cities, probably even in future decades. I have a feeling he'll be doing this show for the rest of his life, except that I'm suggesting that in about twenty years, he convert it to Nathan Lane.

If he does it near you, go see him. For now, you'll have to be content with this sampler of four minutes from the play…

If you haven't started collecting the new series of Peanuts books yet, now would be a great time. It would also be a great time to pick up on a lot of other great books published by Fantagraphics. They're having a 20% off sale. From now 'til September 30, if your order totals $40 or more, they'll lop a fifth off your tab. The first five volumes of The Complete Peanuts, for example, would ordinarily run you $144.75. Ordered during the sale period, you'd pay…wait, I'm doing the math…

Looks like $115.80 to me. That's five for the price of four. And it isn't just Peanuts. It's all the Fantagraphics books, Eros titles excluded. There are a lot of goodies there that would look splendid on your shelf and are even more fun to read. Go for it.

Jonathan Alter on one of the many things making us less safe than we oughta be from terrorists: The FBI is still handling its data on computers not that much more sophisticated than the one I used to write Scooby Doo comic books in the early eighties.

Why is it so difficult to get this kind of thing upgraded? You'd think Dick Cheney must have one buddy in the computer business who'd gladly sell us $100 million worth of computers for a no-bid $2 billion government contract.

A great jazz trumpeter is gone. Click below to be reminded how good he was…

I made it through all 4+ hours of When The Levees Broke, an HBO documentary by filmmaker Spike Lee. Much of it is tough going because it means witnessing the pain that so many people felt when their homes and lives were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and — as the film makes clear — the incompetence (and sometimes indifference) of those we count on in a time of emergency. Parts of it also made me angry. I find that in the face of such devastation, I get angry at government officials of all kinds, of all parties, who spend time on comparative trivia like flag-burning amendments, pork projects for their home districts and buddies, and impeaching Bill Clinton.

The story is told through news footage, newly-shot footage and — most compelling of all — the personal accounts of a vast number of locals and witnesses. Lee found some articulate and perceptive people to interview and he let them talk, in some cases at considerable length. The stories and observations often cover the same ground and there are moments when you may be tempted to grab for the Fast Forward button and say, "All right, already. We get it." Part of me wishes Lee had made the film shorter, not because any of the tales are unworthy of telling, but because a lot of people who need to see this account won't clear the four hours. And if they do start watching, they won't make it to the last hour, the message of which is that the system is still broken with regard to helping people down there.

On the other hand, it is an important story…one of the most important ever told about life in these United States. Maybe four hours isn't too long.

Early Sunday morning (3:01 AM in some time zones), NBC is rerunning the full, 90-minute version of the Saturday Night Live originally broadcast on October 3, 1981. It was not a great episode but it was somewhat important in the show's history.

As you may recall, when Lorne Michaels departed the show after Season #5, all the cast members and writers went with him. A former talent coordinator named Jean Doumanian was inexplicably appointed Producer and assigned the impossible job of rebuilding the show, almost from scratch. Among those who were around the show at this time, there seems to be a consensus that no one could have succeeded in the situation (not much lead time, lower budgets, network expectations of an instant classic, etc.) but that it didn't have to be quite that bad.

Anyway, Ms. Doumanian was fired and a man named Dick Ebersol was handed the job of building something out of the wreckage. He didn't have a lot of money to do it with and he had even less time. Ebersol produced an episode or two…but then he caught a break. The Writers Guild called a strike and NBC agreed to end that season of Saturday Night Live early. Ebersol suddenly had until the Fall to remodel the show, and he did. The 10/3/81 episode was the first of the new season and while not great, it was a huge improvement. Eddie Murphy especially blossomed with a sketch in which he played an amalgam of the legendary rocker, Little Richard, and the legendary exercise instructor, Richard Simmons.

There was no real host but Rod Stewart did some musical numbers and performed in sketches so he almost functioned as host. You'll also see juggler Michael Davis do a nice turn, from back in the days when SNL used to book acts like that. The entire cast consisted of Brian-Doyle Murray, Robin Duke, Christine Ebersole, Mary Gross, Tim Kazurinsky, Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo and Tony Rosato.

The following week in the same time slot, NBC is running the 1/30/82 episode from the same season. John Madden was the guest host and Jennifer Holliday was the musical guest, singing two songs from the Broadway show, Dreamgirls. Most of the show was Eddie Murphy but somewhere in there, there's one of Andy Kaufman's odder appearances.