Mel Welles, who created the role of florist Gravis Mushnik in the 1960 cinema classic, Little Shop of Horrors, has died at the age of 81. Mr. Welles worked both in front of and behind the camera in dozens of movies and TV shows but the one people always asked him about was the quirky black comedy directed by Roger Corman in, depending on which account one believes, two or three days. (My understanding is it was two full days plus about ten hours of night shooting.) This was the original version which served later as the basis of the musical comedy. (Interestingly, Welles played the role of Mushnik in a few local productions of the musical not long ago.)

I suppose everyone reading this has seen Little Shop of Horrors but there was a time back in the late sixties when it was the private "find" of a select group of us. It ran often on local television, often in the wee, small hours of the morn, and sounded so unappetizing in TV Guide that few tuned in. But some of us had seen it, come to love it and incorporated select lines of dialogue into our vocabularies. Later, as Jack Nicholson became a bigger star, the film got more attention due to his small, weird role in it. I believe it was one of the first movies released on home video that anyone had ever heard of…and it was about then that its cast members, including Mel Welles, began being hailed for being part of film history.

More can be learned about the career of Mr. Welles over at his website. [BEWARE: Loud, annoying music on the opening screen.] I think it's kinda neat that people are often survived by their websites. Buddy Hackett's is still up, happily proclaiming — as it did before he left us — that Buddy is retired and taking a nap. And at Rodney Dangerfield's site, you can still e-mail him. Maybe we should all bombard him with insults. I think Rodney would appreciate being heckled in the afterlife.

Bill Maher on the Housing Bubble. [Los Angeles Times, registration required.]

Just in the nick o' time, we remind you that today is the birthday of one of the all-time great cartoonists, Walt Kelly. He was born this day in 1913 and grew up to create Pogo Possum, Albert Alligator and all the colorful (even when in black-and-white) denizens of the Okefenokee Swamp. You can read all about Mr. Kelly and his creations over at The Official Pogo Website.

I'm guessing most people who read this weblog watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart every night. But if you don't, you might want to catch the discussion on tonight's episode. Stewart discusses Iraq with Christopher Hitchens and…well, it's kind of interesting. Hitchens has always struck me as the political equivalent of certain film/drama critics who take contrary positions to the mainstream just to try and prove they're smarter than the mainstream. While he's trying to stake out one of those "everyone's wrong except me" positions, Stewart uses his home court advantage to mop the linoleum with Hitchens…who is smart enough to know it. I'll post a video link whenever there is one but if you can catch it on your teevee, that's preferable. The rest of the episode's pretty good, too.

[UPDATE, one minute later: Here's a video link. It's from a website called Crooks and Liars, which is a great place to go for newsy video clips that make Conservatives look foolish. I'm sure there are a couple out there that do the same for Liberals but I haven't found one yet. Let me know if you do.]

Dark Horse Comics is beginning a new series of retro-style mini-statues entitled "Classic Comic Book Characters." The line will kick off with Jeff Smith's Bone in December. The comes Magnus, Robot Fighter in January, followed by Marv (from Sin City) in February and Conan in March of '06. What interests us most, of course, is that the April release will be Groo, the minus-minded mendicant created by Sergio Aragonés. Clear your mantel and put fifty bucks aside. Each character comes in a neat tin box that is just as collectible as what's in it: The figure, a booklet about the character and a vintage-style pinback button. There will only be 750 of each statue so you might want to reserve yours now.

Another mention of Blondie and Dagwood in today's Wizard of Id.

Back when I was playing a lot of Blackjack in Las Vegas, one of my favorite casinos (i.e., a place where I usually won) was the Imperial Palace. The I.P., as most folks called it, was an interesting place. It had a great location, good gambling rules and — if this kind of thing matters to you — a lot of cute Asian dealers. It also had a shabby casino, dreadful restaurants, Paleolithic elevators, barely adequate rooms and, as if all that weren't enough, there were reports that that the man who owned it was a big fan of Hitler and threw private parties each year to celebrate ol' Adolf's birthday. This last one was unconvincingly denied but the other drawbacks could not be.

Since I was playing there a lot, I got a lot of comps for free rooms as well as offers to let them fly me in and give me an R.F.B. comp (room, food, beverage) if I'd "give them some action." That was the term they used for "gamble at our casino," and it made me think of all sorts of actions I could perform that they wouldn't particularly like. I never took them up on the free airfare and meals because after staying two or three times gratis at the I.P., I decided I'd rather spend the money and sleep in a hotel where the cockroaches are smaller than the bellhops.

That should give you some idea how crummy the Imperial Palace was. I wouldn't even stay there for free. An exec at a competing hotel once told me the following, and I can't swear this is true but it sounds true. It's that to get certain of their high rollers to fly in and gamble at their establishment, the Imperial Palace had to offer to put them up across the street at Caesars Palace and pay for meals over there. It was like, "Come to Vegas! We love you so much, we won't make you stay at our hotel!"

So now comes the news that the I.P. is probably history. The Harrah's Corporation has been buying up properties on that side of The Strip. They already own the Flamingo Hilton (soon to lose its surname), O'Shea's, Bally's, Paris and, of course, Harrah's. They also recently purchased (and closed) a small hotel around the corner called Bourbon Street and acquired the shopping center nearby that includes the famous local restaurant, Battista's Hole-in-the-Wall. This week, they spent $370 million to obtain the Imperial Palace, which sounds cheap to me given the location of such prime real estate, but high given that it's such a rathole.

Harrah's has stated they will continue to operate the I.P. while they weigh various options. This roughly translates to: "We're gonna keep the doors open at this dump until we figure out just what we're going to put in its place." The building will almost certainly be razed, which may be happy news for everyone who goes to Vegas except for those who coveted getting such cheap rooms in such an ideal location. But it also raises a few questions…

One is what will become of the Imperial Palace's incredible auto collection, which was one of the few reasons to venture into the place if you weren't gambling. The cars were not included in the transaction. They're owned by an outside party and the museum will continue for now. But will it figure into whatever future plans are devised for whatever occupies that land? Oddly enough, the Harrah's organization has an interesting history with automotive museums, having operated one for years in Reno. (Much of that collection now forms the basis of The National Automobile Museum, also in Reno.) Maybe they'll find a place for all those neat Duesenbergs.

And what will become of Legends in Concert, the pretty-good impersonator show at the I.P. which was just about the only other reason to go in there? I'd hate to see all those Blues Brothers look-alikes and Madonna clones out on the street.

What will happen to the drainage on the Las Vegas Strip? That sounds like a strange concern but on those occasional days when a heavy rainstorm hits the town, an amazing amount of water has been known to cascade through the Imperial Palace parking lot. I was staying there one day when a monster storm hit and from my window, I could look down at a river in the garage below, with cars that were two-thirds submerged for a little while. Whatever the Harrah's people have in mind for that property, they're going to have to factor in that little problem.

Lastly, how will they demolish the place? Most old Vegas hotels when they come down, come down in a glorious implosion/explosion and folks gather to watch and sometimes plan trips just to be there when it happens. But this one is right between Harrah's and O'Shea's, and I'm thinking they can't drop it the way they've nuked the others….not that it would take a lot. The last time I stayed there, I got the feeling you could bring down the entire hotel just by slamming a closet door real hard.

By now, you've probably all heard about Pat Robertson calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. (If you didn't, here's all you need to know about it.) We were about due for another looney quote from the host of Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club and founder of the Christian Coalition of America. In fact, if anything, he was a bit overdue. I think the last one was last October when he told us that George W. Bush had personally assured him that the Iraq War could be fought without a single American casualty. I'm no fan of Bush's but I can't believe he said that.

What's amazing about most of Robertson's news-making statements is that they seem to serve no purpose other than the dubious one of getting him a few days' attention and reminding us all what a wacko he can be. What did he think this one would accomplish? Was he trying to drum up a groundswell of support for the hit? No, because you can't exactly do a covert assassination by popular demand. Just saying it out loud makes it less likely to be attempted. Was he trying to bond with Bush supporters? No, because implicit in his statement was that the Iraq War is costing us too much. Was he trying to bond with Bush detractors? No, because none of them would likely favor such action. Was he trying to establish his credentials as a moral leader? No, because you don't do that by suggesting that murder is a peachy idea.

I can't imagine what, if anything, was on the guy's mind. I'm reminded of a line Jack Paar once said to explain his retirement. He said, "The longer you're on TV, the greater the chances that you're going to say something really, really embarrassing."

Dagwood Bumstead visits The Family Circus.

And to answer a question people keep sending: No, I have no idea if all the strips involved in this will someday be collected in a book or something. But it wouldn't surprise me.

Fred Kaplan on what's in the portions of the Iraqi draft constitution that have been released so far. His interpretation is that the language is vague, that many clauses contradict other clauses, and that this thing is far from becoming the governing document of a democracy.

Reader Scott Tacktill calls my attention to this article inspired by Costco getting into the business of selling original Picassos. This is not the first time a department store has done something like this.

Malcolm Gladwell writes an interesting article about the health care system in this country. My impression for years has been that most Americans think it's inefficient and expensive to the point of killing people who can't afford proper medical attention…but at the same time, there's an attitude of "Don't you dare try to change it." This piece discusses why that might be.

I'm not waiting for tomorrow. Here's a link to tomorrow's Mother Goose & Grimm strip which is part of the Great Blondie Crossover.

And here's a link to tomorrow's Beetle Bailey, in which Mort Walker recycles an old joke from his great strip of the sixties, Sam's Strip.

Meanwhile, you might want to keep an eye on the Blondie strip, which is most easily read at The Official Blondie Website, not to be confused with The Official Blondie Website.

Blondie reference in today's Wizard of Id.

Some of the press coverage of this Blondie thing seems to have missed the fact that though Blondie and Dagwood are celebrating an anniversary, it's the strip (not their marriage) that has been going on for 75 years. The first Blondie strip by Murat "Chic" Young appeared on September 8, 1930. Blondie Boopadoop — that was her maiden name — was courted by Dagwood Bumstead for a time and they finally tied the knot on February 17, 1933 in the strip from which the above panel was taken. Their first kid, Alexander, was born a year later.

In the meantime, the folks in Mutts get their invitation to the Big Bumstead Bash. And more characters show up in today's Blondie strip. (It's really tricky linking to some of these.)