Five.

…before this year's Comic-Con International kicks off in San Diego. In case you're interested, the long-range projections of the National Weather Service suggest mostly clear skies with highs around 75° and nighttime lows around 65°.

The convention folks have posted the schedules for Thursday Programming and Friday Programming with the other two days to be posted this weekend. But you don't care about that stuff. You care about the programs I'm hosting. Here's that schedule…

Notice that this year, we're doing not one but two big Cartoon Voice Actor panels — one on Saturday, one on Sunday. These are always a highlight of the con so you might want to make sure you catch one…or both. And of course, there'll be the annual Quick Draw! competition and the annual Jack Kirby Tribute Panel and the Golden/Silver Age Panel and…well, just read the list. A lot of fun events. Hope to see you at some of them.

I'll post the answer later today.

A nice review of the Sergio Aragonés issue of Solo.

So one night on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, they had the Reverend Al Sharpton booked as a guest. This is in the early days of that fine program. They booked Sharpton but apparently no one told Sharpton. If he'd known, he'd have been there. No force in this universe can keep Al Sharpton from a TV camera. But there was a screw-up somewhere and when it came time to roll tape, he was nowhere to be found. So what did The Daily Show do? Click today's video link and see for yourself. (The beginning of the clip is washed out in green but it'll clear up in a sec.)

Fred Kaplan tells us what this Korean missile business is all about.

Let's all go peruse a good article from 2002 about the late Jan Murray. It starts with a small error when the writer says he watched Murray host Treasure Hunt in 1964. That show went off the air in 1959. But after that, it's well worth a read.

Here's a piece from the Washington Times about how Congressfolks feel about their appearances on The Colbert Report. What's odd about the response is that (a) some of the ones who've been made to look ridiculous seem pleased with the response and (b) this is the first time I can recall disagreeing with anything Barney Frank said.

Enron überthief Kenneth Lay died this morning. Matt Drudge, with his usual flair for accuracy, briefly had it up as a suicide, then switched to a heart attack.

Obviously, anyone's death is a tragedy. Obviously also, it's hard to get too emotional about Mr. Lay, who swindled so many people out of their retirement funds, health insurance and old age money. There's some sort of irony in there having to do with him not needing retirement funds now but I don't have time to phrase it properly.

When I read of the news this morning, I thought I'd post something here about how we're going to have to put up with conspiracy theories that someone — say, George W. Bush — had him murdered so he wouldn't rat on them. But I didn't get around to posting until now and I see they've already started. Let's hope this one doesn't reach Vince Foster proportions.

Jon Meacham on the American tradition of being united, rather than divided by religious differences.

I haven't gotten around to seeing the Broadway show, Avenue Q…but everyone I know who's seen it says it's wonderful. Here's a number from the 2004 Tony Awards telecast that would seem to bear this out…

Jane Mayer on the Bush administration's view of its own power…with special emphasis on Dick Cheney's interesting interpretations of our laws.

Here's a link to the L.A. Times obit on Jan Murray. Amazingly, it makes no mention of all the fine work he did over the years hosting the Chabad Telethon. It also makes some factually-awry statements like, "In 1965 he moved to Los Angeles and found work in films and on TV series such as The Lucy Show and Car 54, Where Are You?" About twenty seconds of Googling would have told this reporter that Car 54 was produced in New York from 1961 to 1963. Oh, well.

One of the best things I've seen on or around Broadway was the revival of 1776 that the Roundabout company mounted in 1997. In fact, I saw it twice: Once with its original star, Brent Spiner, as John Adams and later with his replacement, Michael McCormick, in that role. Today's clip from the Tony Awards ceremony broadcast in '98 features Mr. McCormick.

I had a great time both visits…though I have to say I've never loved the score for 1776. It really is that rarest kind of musical — the kind where the book is better than the songs. The composer, Sherman Edwards, was not a facile tunesmith. He had co-written a few pop songs that were performed by Elvis Presley. His most lasting hit was probably "See You in September," as recorded by The Happenings. 1776, which took him many years to write and more years to sell, was his only musical.

I've seen 1776 three or four other times and always enjoyed it. Somehow, the book by Peter Stone does an amazing job of making you forget that you know how the story turns out. Halfway through at intermission, you're saying, "Those poor saps…they'll never get that Declaration of Independence signed." When they do, there is always a burst of giddy, joyous applause from the audience. It's one of my favorite moments in any musical…and there hasn't been a song in over twenty minutes.

So here, in honor of the Fourth of July, is the opening number from 1776. Wish I could show you the whole thing.

This article by Trudy Rubin makes some strong points about what both Democrats and Republicans are doing wrong with regard to the Iraq situation. Well worth a read.