Hey, remember I mentioned that the magnificent voice of Norman Rose could be heard on a National Lampoon record called "Deteriorata"? Well, reader Dan Hayes informs me that it is possible to hear it online, right this very minute. For those of you too young or drugged-out to recall, this is a parody of "Desiderata," a record that enjoyed a brief, inexplicable success around 1971. It consisted of the ancient poem being read by one-time late night talk show host Les Crane, backed by haunting music. The NatLamp parody was written by Tony Hendra, who's probably best known as the manager in This is Spinal Tap and the music was by Christopher Guest, who's probably best known as one of the stars of This is Spinal Tap. I think but do not guarantee that the female back-up vocals were done primarily by Melissa Manchester.

Anyway, none of those folks is as important at the moment as the main voice, which was Norman Rose in all his glory. Wouldn't you like to sound like that? Could anyone possibly say no to you about anything if you sounded like that? Run a guy for president who has that voice and all the Diebold machines in the world couldn't deny him the White House. Here's the link to a Flash animation version of "Deteriorata."

By the way: Frank Buxton, who knows everything about show business, informs me that Mr. Rose's presence in the movie of The Front was especially significant. Rose, he says, was among the many actors blacklisted in the fifties, as depicted in said film. I knew a lot of the performers in The Front, like Zero Mostel and Herschel Bernardi, had been blacklisted. Didn't know that about Norman Rose.

Sorry to have to report the passing of another great voice…and I wish I could find an audio of Norman Rose to link to, because a lot of you would go, "Oh, that guy!" Mr. Rose had one of the richest, most magnificent sounds of any actor who plied that trade. The obits — like this one [Los Angeles Times, registration required] are noting that he did the voiceovers in the Juan Valdez coffee commercials, and supplied the voice of God in Woody Allen's film, Love and Death. Actually, I think he spoke for God more often than Pat Robertson and I remember him from a couple of memorable jobs, on-camera and off.

One was the National Lampoon record, "Deteriorata," which parodied the treacly "Desiderata" poem/song. Another was his role as Woody Allen's lawyer in the closing scenes of The Front. I seem to also recall him doing a number of great voiceovers for commercial parodies on Saturday Night Live. I never met him but I always thought he did splendid work, and it's nice to think that right about now, God is telling him, "Thanks for making me sound good."

While we're at it: Though we told you here several days ago that the very funny Mr. Dayton Allen had passed away, it took 'til last night for this sad news to make it to the wire services and newspapers. Here's a report in The Los Angeles Times and here's one from The New York Times. One other great moment of Dayton's career I recall was the time Groucho Marx was the celebrity guest on the game show, I've Got A Secret. The panel was blindfolded and Groucho's "secret" was that he wasn't answering their questions. Dayton Allen, who did a great Groucho impersonation and who was also a first-rate ad-libber, was speaking for him.

It was a very funny spot. Maybe someone at Game Show Network will think to haul that one out and air it soon as a tribute to Mr. Allen. And I imagine Dr. Demento will be playing "Deteriorata" this weekend on his show that I can't seem to find on my radio dial.

Also here in the Washington Post, it says the founder of the Conservative watchdog group, Accuracy in Media, has died. Sounds like another typical left-wing lie to me.

According to this article [Washington Post, registration may be required], the Bush administration has a whole pile of plans to revamp the tax codes of this nation. One involves eliminating the deduction of state and local taxes on federal income tax returns.

Okay, would any of the Conservative readers of this site like to argue that this is not a tax hike? It certainly would be if a Democrat proposed it. In fact, it would be an example of how the individual making the proposal just loved raising taxes.

Another proposal would eliminate the business tax deduction for employer-provided health insurance. In other words, it will cost your employer more to insure you. That's not only a tax hike on business but a powerful incentive to cut back on providing health insurance. At the same time, other proposals would shield more and more investment income and dividends (i.e., money earned mostly by wealthier folks) from being taxed at all.

You wonder how much of Bush's "base" in middle-class America understood that this is what they were voting for.

Anyone with the slightest interest in EC Comics will want a copy of a new documentary produced and directed by Chip Selby. It's called, like that comic company's most famous horror title, Tales From the Crypt, and it features rare old documentary footage plus new interviews with the folks who created EC Comics, important filmmakers and authors who were inspired by them, and me. Yeah, I'm in there…but if you can stomach the story about the baseball game with human innards for equipment, you can watch a couple of talking head interviews with me. Chip's fine effort is airing on a couple of cable channels but the best way to experience it is to go to his website and order the DVD, which includes loads of extra footage. It's about time someone did something like this, and Chip sure did it right.

The Save Disney website is full of news about that company, most of it spun to the POV of the ousted Roy Disney. His side makes a good point with this photo essay that compares the Tomorrowland section of Disneyland as it now stands to how it looked in Walt's day.

Here's another important article by Frank Rich. [This is a New York Times link but if I've configured it right, you should be able to bypass registration.]

The topic is news reporting on Iraq and the fact that the "new paradigm" in Washington doesn't even want America to see Saving Private Ryan, let alone what's happening in our current war. Now that Bush is purging the White House of anyone who might ever tell the press the administration was wrong about anything, it's going to be an interesting time.

And here's a great example of why you should always read an eBay listing very carefully before you bid.

Above, we see two versions of the cover of Daredevil #37 — and don't worry if they're too small. They enlarge if you'll only click on them.

At left is the cover as it appeared on the comic book I purchased off the stands, lo these many years ago. It was expertly drawn by Gene Colan and Frank Giacoia, two fine craftsmen.

At right is the cover as reinterpreted by Fred Hembeck, who has been filling comic books and comic book fanzines with his wonderful, enthusiastic cartooning for a few decades. I can't decide if I prefer when he takes a serious cover and makes it silly, or when he takes a silly cover like this one and makes it even sillier.

You probably cannot afford to purchase the original to a piece of art as fine as the Colan/Giacoia version. But if you scurry over to Fred's website and especially to this page, you can perhaps afford to buy the original to one of his wonderful re-creations…and for a lot less money than you'll pay if you wait a few years. Don't say I didn't warn you.

As delineated in this article [Los Angeles Times, registration required], the TiVo folks have come up with yet another way to swap the privacy of their users for a few dollars. I am of two minds about these little plans for the gathering of user data and the implementation of targeted advertising. On the one side, they don't seem all that invasive to me, and I do want to see the TiVo company stay in business. On the other, they're slowly chipping away at my right to watch what I want the way I want and at my right to not be spied upon when I do. The "privacy" part bothers me more as a matter of principle than actual damage. I can't see any harm in TiVo compiling data that includes a list of what I watch and it could conceivably do some good in boosting the ratings for shows I like…but at some point, I suppose there will be a downside. It's like when I fill out a form somewhere and I'm asked for seemingly irrelevant but unimportant data. I think, "I can't imagine any harm in them knowing this about me but — somewhere, sometime — someone will figure out a way to use it against me."

Here's the big problem with this new incursion on our viewing sovereignty, and it's a small possible drawback. The new policy involves TiVo bombarding us with pop-up ads as we fast-forward through commercials. One of the worst-kept secrets on the Internet is that TiVo has an undocumented capability. By punching a few buttons, you can program your remote to have a 30-second skip feature…so when they start a 2-minute commercial break, you just grab the remote, hit a certain button four times…and you're completely past the ads without having to see more than a fraction of a second of each. Does this new policy mean that some future TiVo software upgrade will take this away? I'm hoping it doesn't but it probably does.

Here's an article [Washington Post, registration required] about a confrontation in an Oklahoma town. On one side, you had a Bible-belting group that is admittedly filled with hate for homosexuals. On the other, you had the local citizenry that rallied around a young gay man. The result gives one a certain amount of hope.

Is Abe Vigoda alive? Let's find out over at www.abevigoda.com.

Conan O'Brien has made a star out of a graphic designer on his staff, a serious gent named Pierre Bernard. Fred Hembeck, who also remembers when Pierre used to be a comic book letterer, sends me this link to an article on the guy. [CAUTION: This is a link to a site that may ask you for your zip code and age.]

Here's an Amazon link to order George Carlin's latest book, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? It's a funny book by a funny man. Much of it has to do with euphemisms — fancy or inefficient words we use when there's a simple and more direct one. I think he belabors these at times but he's darned amusing, and there's more than enough genuine insight in his work to satisfy me. There was a period not long ago when we were treated (that's not the right word) to a lot of very poor books by stand-up comedians, often putting their acts on paper and taking an author's credit for recycling material that they purchased from comedy writers. Carlin's books are mostly new stuff and all by him.

Which brings me to how I spent last evening. I went to hear Harry Shearer interview George Carlin before a sold-out audience of Carlin fans. Shearer's a pretty funny guy, too, but the spotlight was on Mr. Carlin who discussed many of the topics from his book plus the recent presidential election, getting fired in Las Vegas, serving in the Air Force, smoking marijuana, becoming disillusioned with Christianity and the human race (in that order), why he doesn't consider himself a cynic, why there aren't more great stand-up comics these days, Michael Jackson, the futility of protest movements, his general working procedure and a host of other topics. Naturally, I don't agree with the man on everything. No one would…and that made for an interesting kind of nervous energy in the room. The place was, of course, filled with people who generally love Carlin and what he says, and for most of the evening, they (we) laughed and applauded. But every so often, like when he said he thought Michael Jackson was the greatest entertainer in the world and should be left alone to perform, even with children, you could sense the audience withdraw slightly. No one booed but the energy waves in the room were a little unsettled, and you could practically hear people rolling what he'd said over in their minds, wondering if they were wrong and this usually-so-perceptive gent was right. Before they came to any decision, he'd be on to another, less arguable topic and the sense of the hall would swing back his way.

One of Carlin's great strengths as a comic is his willingness to say what audiences don't want to hear, or think they don't want to hear. He has great perception when he talks of everyday, harmless occurrences…but he also has the guts to go against popular and/or polite opinion. He'll venture into areas like "cripples" and 9/11 and aspects of religion that a lesser comedian would sidestep. Too sensitive. Too many potential landmines.

Carlin ventures in and as often as not, hits on something that causes you to say, "Hey…he's right about that." At times, I find myself laughing at the fact that I'm laughing at something that was right in front of me but concealed by a bogus air of propriety or — to use a term I dislike — political correctness. Occasionally, I even find myself chuckling at an observation where I disagree with his viewpoint. I guess when you're funny enough, you can do that…and it probably explains why the man's been so successful for so long. He doesn't play it safe. He just plays it for laughs.