First, the good news: I am told by one of my spies that the next service release of the TiVo software will add an undelete feature. You'll get a new folder on your screen that will say "Recently Deleted" or something of the sort, and when you delete a recording, it will go there and be recoverable until its space is needed for something else. This is a very good idea. The next service release is also supposed to incorporate some Internet-type features for those of us who have our TiVos hooked up to a high-speed Internet connection. These will include getting your local weather forecast and the ability to purchase movie tickets through your TiVo.

Bad news? There's no release date yet for the Series 3 TiVos, which will work with High-Def TV. And when they do debut, they may be without the Tivo to Go and multi-room capabilities. That might make me hold off on getting one…that is, assuming they ever come out and there isn't something better out on the market by then. So far, no one's done a personal video recorder as well as TiVo but let's not forget. There was a time not so long ago when no one had come up with a better piece of word processing software than Wordstar 4.0. Then someone did.

As we all know, some casinos have been established on ships in order to avoid anti-gambling laws. They take people out beyond the three-mile limit where the nearby authorities have no jurisdiction. Okay. Now, the question is can you trespass on copyright laws if you're out at sea and therefore not in some country that is bound by them? That's what a new lawsuit is going to try and find out.

As we warned you, it became possible at 9 AM this morn to book online hotel reservations for this year's Comic-Con International through their website. I haven't monitored the activity but others are reporting that by Noon, all the main hotels were sold out and the remaining rooms were off in distant zip codes. More rooms will become available later (especially around June 8, which is when credit cards are charged) but the scramble is on, and many will find no room at the inn.

This year, the convention rates for a single at the Hilton, Marriott or Hyatt hotels that are within walking distance of the convention center range from $175 to $219 a night, and they're sold out of those. A lot of people have already booked at those and other hotels without going through the convention even though that means a higher pricetag. Lodging near a convention center is usually contracted under a promotional arrangement designed to encourage conventions to come to town and give them loads of business. Each hotel will commit to making X% of their rooms available at a convention rate, then they'll sell the rest at higher prices — whatever price they can get. The convention rate for the Westin Horton Plaza, which is six blocks from the convention center, is $160 per night and I think they're sold out, too. Some online hotel bookers are currently saying they can get you in there for $465 a night and we can only guess what they'll charge for any rooms that become available in late June.

This, of course, creates a powerful financial incentive for the hotels to keep that X% as low as possible. The more rooms they don't make available via the convention plan, the more they can get for them. In future years, we may see fewer and fewer rooms available at a convention rate, and there's really nothing anyone can do about that.

It's rather amazing, in a way. I've been attending comic book conventions since 1970, the year of the first one in San Diego. I've gone to them all across America and recall a time when many hotels didn't want them and the ones that did take them were hesitant and treated us like a second-class booking. We were a young, non-spending crowd. We didn't come in with lavish expense accounts and run up huge bar tabs. We didn't book huge banquets or cocktail parties or take the higher-priced suites. We were a little rowdy and we had a tendency to disturb the "real guests." I even remember one hotel accepting a comic convention booking and then, when some other group wanted the place on the same dates, reneging on the commitment.

Sure ain't that way these days. Just in the hotel rates alone — never mind the cash we throw around in restaurants and on taxis and other local merchants — the convention has a major impact on the economy of San Diego. As Jack Kirby — who predicted all this way back in 1973 or so — would say, "Never underestimate the power of comics!"

Good to hear that the gentleman who was on the receiving end of Dick Cheney's shotgun blast is doing better. I frankly don't understand the appeal of "hunting" as he and the Veep practice it…and I put that in quotes because a friend of mine would have wanted it that way. He's a championship hunter with a whole trophy room into which I will not go because I can't stand to see all those mounted animal heads. On the phone the other day, he said (approximately), "What these guys were doing was not hunting. Hunting requires some skill and stamina and in some cases, a little personal risk. These guys were at a club where they arrange it so anyone can kill some birds and pretend it's hunting."

Either way, I don't see why anyone would enjoy it…but then, I never figured out why people enjoyed the original Star Trek, either. So I'm content that there are just some things in this world that thrill others without thrilling me, which is fine. We don't all have to love everything the same way and to the same degree.

A lot of websites seem to be getting all Grassy Knoll on us with theories as to why there have been the odd delays in announcing the news and in Cheney making any sort of public statement of regret. I admit it's odd but in these situations, the simplest explanation is the most likely. It may just be taking a long time for someone to teach Dick Cheney how to utter the words, "I did something wrong." This whole administration has had a bad tendency to confuse never admitting errors with always being right. They won't even admit that they might have been wrong to act on faulty intelligence. It's kinda like, "Whatever we did was correct, even if we didn't know what we were doing at the time." One presumes he will not take that approach in his interview on Fox News later today.

I just finished a by-phone guest appearance on the fine New York radio show about comics, 'Nuff Said! It's been on for years, hosted by some combination of Ken Gale, Ed Menje and Mercy Van Vlack, broadcasting (now) over WBAI, which is listener-supported radio. For some reason, they thought having me on would bring in the pledges and I hope we got a couple. Over at their website, you may be able to locate info on how to hear old broadcasts. It's worth looking because there are some real gems in there.

While I was talking on the radio, I was simultaneously posting an old article on my website here. It's this one, a report on the 1996 (I said 1997 earlier) party celebrating the 100th birthday of the great ventriloquist, Señor Wences. I didn't write much in there about how Rickie Layne and Velvel did what I now think was Layne's last public performance…but he was there and folks who remembered him and Velvel from The Ed Sullivan Show were thrilled to see him there.

Okay, going to bed. And I just realized my doctor reads this weblog and will scold me for staying up so late. I'm still recuperating.

The hotel reservation service for this year's Comic-Con International opens tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM, Pacific Time. A few weeks ago, someone inaccurately reported it as 9:00 AM, Eastern Time, and a couple of my local friends were irate because they figured that meant getting up to be ready at 6 AM.

I don't know how many rooms will be available but it would not surprise me if they're all gone by the time the late risers log in. The last few years, I've had friends calling me in despair. They didn't get in quickly and found themselves faced with the choice of staying in New Mexico and commuting…or paying a per-night figure roughly equal to the price of a near-mint Action Comics #1. I cannot help these people. You have X number of hotel rooms near the convention center and Y number of people who want one, and Y is at least ten times X, maybe twenty or thirty times. It's simple math.

But don't give up too quickly. Anecdotal evidence suggests that a lot of people, well aware of the inevitable shortage, long ago made any kind of reservation they could get — sometimes, several — and they'll be cancelling some as we get closer to the date. Some hotels (I don't mean the ones available through the con) may be holding back rooms 'til later. Last year just before the con, when everything south of Disneyland seemed booked solid with a waiting list, a friend of mine innocently called a hotel within walking distance of the convention center and got a room at a decent price. The person who took the reservation told him, "For weeks now, we've been laughing at people who call and ask what you asked, but someone just cancelled."

So don't despair. But also don't call me.

Anyway, the gold rush begins tomorrow at the Comic-Con website. Let the games commence.

I just realized that the last two items I posted here kind of go together. I hadn't heard about the death of Rickie Layne when I posted the link this morning to the video of Rod Hull but they were both great performers who manipulated very rude and funny puppets.

Just thought I'd mention the connection before dozens of you take the time to write in and make note of it.

Ventriloquist Rickie Layne, who made 38 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show with his wooden friend Velvel, died Saturday at the age of 81. As this 2002 article in The Jewish Journal explains, Layne (born Richard Israel Cohen) owed his stardom to a recommendation from singer Nat King Cole.

Some additional details not in the article: The Sunset Strip nightclub mentioned in the piece was Ciro's, which was in the building where The Comedy Store is now housed. Cole's wife, Maria Cole, was playing there and her opening act, fresh from the Catskills and Miami hotel circuits, was Rickie Layne and Velvel. On October 23, 1955, Nat and Maria did the Sullivan show and told Ed about the wonderful Jewish comedian and his dummy with the Yiddish accent. Sullivan said he ordinarily liked to see an act before he booked it and that he wasn't travelling to the West Coast, where Layne was then working, for some time. Nat said, in effect, "Trust me on this one, Ed. Book the guy. If you don't love him, my next appearance with you is free."

Sullivan took the offer and Rickie Layne appeared on the January 1, 1956 episode of Ed's show, which was called Toast of the Town back then. Layne's lips moved more than Edgar Bergen's even but Velvel was hilarious and the act was immediately booked again, with many appearances to follow. Of all the acts that appeared on Sullivan's long-running variety series, only four others — Wayne & Shuster, Topo Gigio, Jack Carter and Myron Cohen — made more appearances than Rickie Layne and Velvel. He was one of Ed's main "go-to" guys when a given episode seemed in need of an extra comedy spot. (The Jewish Journal article says he made 48 appearances. It was actually 38.)

Alas, Layne's career did not much survive the end of the Sullivan program. He barely worked after the late seventies. His last public performance seems to have been in 1997 when there was a show/party at The Improv in Hollywood to celebrate the 100th birthday of the great Señor Wences. I should post an article I wrote at the time about that wonderful evening, but one of the things that made it special was the appearance of Velvel. Not long after, I was fortunate to attend a private party for Rickie Layne that celebrated his life and career, and to hear him tell wonderful tales of his years playing the Borscht Circuit. It was amazing how many hotel and showroom owners couldn't quite grasp the fact that the insults (and demands for better pay) that came out of Velvel's mouth actually were the views of Mr. Layne.

Oddly enough, the other day in the hospital, I watched an Ed Sullivan special on that in-house comedy TV channel I mentioned and saw a few seconds of Velvel in great form. I wish someone would assemble a special or a DVD of those acts presented in full. With so many people like this leaving us, those clips are all we have to remember the great art form represented by variety performers like Rickie Layne. And, oh yeah — Velvel, too.

One of the most-accessed articles I have on my site here is this one about the late Rod Hull, who performed an odd but hilarious act with his creation, Emu. Richard Schultz tips me off about this brief online clip of Rod in action — not the best example of the Hull technique but it may give you some idea of what he did.

There have probably been funnier moments on television than the opening of tonight's Daily Show with Jon Stewart, as they covered the story of Dick Cheney's hunting accident. But I sure can't think of one just now. They have a video clip up over at Crooks and Liars.

Those of you wishing to view episodes of The Bill Dana Show do not have to get yourself hospitalized to make this happen. A company called Corinth Films sells a DVD of six episodes. In fact, going by their website, Corinth Films sells nothing else. I have no idea what the quality of the video is…and $24.00 for a DVD of six half-hour TV shows seems steep to me but if you have to have 'em, there they be. The six episodes and the history of the show are described on the front end website, which is www.billdanaondvd.com. The installment I saw while in the hospital was, appropriately enough, the one on this DVD about Jose Jiminez (Dana) and Byron Glick (Don Adams) being afraid of donating to a blood drive. It featured a nice performance by Charles Lane, who always played a crotchety something, as a crotchety doctor and it amused me…but of course, I was full of antibiotics at the time.

The Los Angeles Times [registration might be required] joins the never-ending legion of those who write about Superman but are unable to correctly spell the names of both Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster at the same time.

And what a joy to be typing on a non-laptop keyboard sitting at my desk instead of with the computer balanced on a hospital table between my pitcher of water and a dish of mandarin orange segments left over from Friday breakfast.

Hello all. Thanks again for all the nice messages and I hope you enjoyed the hospital blogging, which did much to preserve my sanity. The staff at Cedars-Sinai (that's where I was) was uniformly efficient and helpful, but being in one little bed in one little room for four days…well, that's the most confined I've felt since I wrote Scooby Doo. My foot looks about like it did before the inflammation and I've switched from intravenous antibiotics to the oral variety. A few days of non-rigorous lifestyle and occasionally elevating said foot and all should be well.

Based on e-mails from several folks who've had Cellulitis, it looks like I had a minor case and managed to get it treated before it spread too far. Still, it's not an experience I would recommend to anyone.

I should tell you about Channel Six at Cedars-Sinai. Their TV offerings include all the local stations and most basic cable channels, plus a number of in-house channels, all but one of which feature documentaries on taking better care of one's health. The exception, Channel Six, is their "Board of Governors Comedy Channel," offering reruns of old TV shows. They have episodes of The Jack Benny Show, The Burns and Allen Show, The Bill Dana Show, The Andy Williams Show, and "best of" specials of Carol Burnett, the Smothers Brothers, Pat Paulsen, Johnny Carson. They kept rerunning a "Debbie Reynolds in Las Vegas" show and a special with Carol Channing and Pearl Bailey, and there were also David Copperfield magic specials, plus a very nice little magic special featuring one of my favorite sleight-of-hand artisans, Johnny "Ace" Palmer.

I hadn't seen a Bill Dana Show in years. I forgot how good it was, with Jonathan Harris and Don Adams stealing scene after scene from Mr. Dana, and how almost the entire production staff consisted of the same people working on The Dick Van Dyke Show that year. I'm told these shows are syndicated these days but not where I can see them; not without putting myself into the hospital again, which I have no intention of doing.

Yesterday, the entire in-house TV feed, including CBS, NBS, ABC, CNN, USA Network, etc., was about a second and a half out of sync. I imagined some poor guy in another room waking up from surgery, turning on his set and thinking, "Oh, no! What's happened to me?"

And that's about all I have in mind to write at the moment. Have to go put my foot up and enjoy my own bed for a while.

My doctor just came in, looked at my leg and ordered me to "enjoy the sumptuous breakfast here" — there's a risky prescription — and go home. Then he left because apparently the Emergency Room is full of people who've been accidentally shot by Dick Cheney.

I'm sure we're in for endless jokes about Dick Cheney joining Aaron Burr in the ranks of American Vice-Presidents Who've Shot Someone. But here's a question: Why is the man who's a heartbeat away from the presidency out hunting? The whole idea of hunting bothers me but leave that aside. Let's say it's a great, fun sport. Shouldn't the Secret Service still say, "Uh, Mr. Vice-President, we don't like you being around people with guns"? I mean, isn't there some unnecessary security risk in there? Even if everyone in the hunting party passes a rigid security clearance, the Secret Service is supposed to keep weapons away from the Veep. And if Cheney could accidentally shoot this poor guy, isn't there some danger of this poor guy accidentally shooting Cheney?

I always understood that when you run for public office of this magnitude, you agree to sacrifice a certain amount of privacy and freedom to the folks charged with protecting you. Anyone here remember Ronald Reagan claiming the reason he didn't attend church more often was because the Secret Service thought it was a security risk and asked him not to? I'm no fan of Mr. Cheney but couldn't he put off killing quail 'til he's out of office? There'll be quail then. There may not be a future for our economy but there'll be quail.