One of the many things which amaze me about politics is the unerring capacity for self-delusion evident in some folks. I'm speaking now of the flurry of articles we're now seeing that suggest the next presidential election is pretty much over. They come from all sides. You have your Bush bashers who are staking out their seats at the inauguration of President Dean. You have your Bush supporters explaining how the Democrats have no chance, no how. I think all of these folks are seriously full of bovine excrement.

You'd think that after last time, when we didn't know who was going to be prez for weeks after the election, they'd be a little reticent to decide it's over before one primary vote has been cast. And in truth, I think a lot of folks know it's wide open, and they're just saying what they're saying to (a) boost their guy a little, (b) torture the other side and (c) maybe try to convince themselves.

A lot can happen between now and Election Day. Osama could be captured. There could be another terrorist attack. Someone in the Halliburton or Enron scandals could roll over and testify against someone powerful. The economy could rebound beyond anyone's dreams or plunge to unforeseen depths. We could find those elusive Weapons of Mass Destruction that, as hard as Bush's guys try to pretend otherwise, are the reason much of America got behind the war. If and when Saddam Hussein goes on trial, God only knows what he's going to say. Today, the political sites seem to be buzzing with rumors that the prosecutor in the Valerie Plame scandal is going to indict Karl Rove. If that happens, who can say how that will affect the election? And we can all sit here and name another hundred maybes, any of which could change the dynamic of the election.

It's a long time 'til November. Today, a number of political sites are making that point by linking to this article which appeared much closer to the '92 election than we are now to the '04 one. It basically explains how unlikely it was that Bill Clinton could possibly beat George Bush. More to the point, I recall a Saturday Night Live sketch that appeared in November of '91. It had SNL cast members playing the various Democratic candidates debating over which of them should be the guy to lose to Bush. The skit was built on the premise that no Democrat could possibly win and, of course, one did. (The sketch was so premature, they didn't even have Clinton in it. Phil Hartman played Mario Cuomo, instead.)

Today, a Time/CNN poll says that if the election were held today, Bush would beat Dean by 5%, Lieberman by 6%, Kerry or Gephardt by 9%. That's not much of a margin, given that the poll has a 3 point margin of error, and all those Democrats could still enhance the ticket with a good choice of running mate. If you go state by state, figuring who's likely to get which electoral votes, there are an awful lot that are too close to call.

I may not pay much attention to the election for the next few months. It's going to be too much of a roller coaster ride, and I have the feeling that something is going to happen later this year which will make it a brand new ball game. But I know I'm not going to pay any attention to those who tell me that the election result is predestined, even if…make that especially if they tell me what I want to hear.

Former Congressman Pete McCloskey writes about how Republican attitudes have changed towards environmental issues.

Among the many things I liked about this new book on Dick Giordano was its sub-title: "Changing Comics, One Day at a Time." Michael Eury, who authored the book, said a lot of perceptive things about Dick but that may have been the wisest. Since the late sixties when he ascended to the top editorial position at Charlton, Dick has been changing comics, almost always for the better and almost always without sufficient notice. Charlton was a company that paid its writers and artists abominably and then printed their works on a glorified ditto machine. That Giordano was able to elevate the quality of their wares at all was a stunning achievement.

He then moved to DC where as an editor, he was uncommonly "creator-friendly." He didn't last long in that niche but he definitely had an impact, helping to redefine the editor/talent relationship, again for the better. For a while after, he worked mainly as an artist, often in a partnership with Neal Adams, and gave inspiration and first jobs to a pretty vast array of new talents. (For a time, half the artists in the business were trying to ink like Joe Sinnott and the other half were trying to ink like Dick Giordano.) Eventually, he moved back to the DC offices, at a point where the company had evolved closer to his style of editorial management.

It was all for the better but it was never abrupt. Dick just did what he did and waited for the industry to catch up to him. Michael Eury does a fine job of telling that story and giving us good insight into the man, so I am pleased to recommend Dick Giordano: Changing Comics One Day at a Time, published by my friends at TwoMorrows Publishing. Go to their site to buy a copy…or wait a day or three until I finish recommending several of their new releases.

Every year at the Comic-Con International in San Diego, I get to interview the greats and the near-greats of comic book history. It's always fun but it's never been more fun than a few years ago when I got to chat with Nick Cardy, a wonderful artist best known for Teen Titans, Bat Lash and Aquaman. Nick had never been interviewed in public and was afraid he wouldn't have enough to say, so I added three of his friends to the dais. As you can see, I didn't need 'em. I just asked Nick a question and off he went, delighting the crowd with tales of heroism in World War II and working for DC Comics. Guess which was more dangerous. Anyway, I have just posted two columns made up of highlights from that interview. Click here. You'll be teleported to Part One, and you can find your way from there.

As you may have heard, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick are back in the Broadway edition of The Producers for a few months. Tickets are just about impossible to get but those who get them should have a very good time.

There have been, we hear, a few alterations in the show, including a change in what may be my favorite line. In the old version, there's a moment where Leo (Broderick) mutters something about them investing in the show they're about to produce, Springtime for Hitler. Max (Lane) gasps in horror and then lectures him, "There are two rules in the theater. Number one, never put your own money in the show! And number two, NEVER PUT YOUR OWN MONEY IN THE SHOW!"

After he yells the second part, Lane now adds, "That's taboo!"

(Explanation for those who don't get it: One of the bigger stories around Broadway is that the Boy George show, Taboo, is fighting for survival. It was completely financed by Rosie O'Donnell.)

My friend Brad Oscar is back as Nathan's stand-by, though he is not playing Franz Liebkind as he did before when Mr. Lane was in the show. Presumably (I haven't talked to him), Brad is lounging around his apartment, taking it easy and being very well-paid to be in town and available, just in case. I hope he resumes a regular lead slot soon because I only got to see him play the Nazi, and would love to see him play Max.

This is as good a time as any for me to thank all the friends I've made doing my two little websites and all the help you've been to me and each other. I'd also like to thank those of you who've sent bucks. When I started this, I was getting a certain amount of bandwidth for free and didn't figure it would ever cost me anything more than my time. I've been getting so many hits here that it's started to run into money, so I appreciate the occasional PayPal donation…and, yes, I made that an active link for a reason, hint hint.

I don't go out on New Year's Eve. One year, a lady friend insisted we "party hop" to three shindigs and it was one of the worst evenings of my life. Noisy gatherings where you couldn't hear what anyone else said. People who had had too much to drink trying to be funny. People who had had too much to drink trying to drive. People who weren't having fun trying to pretend they were. Then one year, I was in Vegas when the year ended and though that was fun, it was not something I'm eager to repeat.

It's nice that I can stay home tonight with a loved one and also, through the miracle of the Internet, communicate a little with others. Hello, out there! Whoever you are, if you routinely find your way to this site, even via Google search, we probably have something in common. I hope '03 was good for you and I hope '04 is better for all of us in every way. Let's do what we can to make that happen.

The next few days, I'm going to post a mess of reviews, most of them recommendations, for new books about comic book writers and artists. A wide void is suddenly being filled, and while any book about some of these people is welcome, most of those we're getting are very good and pretty damn exhaustive. My fave so far is Bill Schelly's Words of Wonder: The Life and Times of Otto Binder. Binder was a writer of comics and science-fiction, the former including (but not limited to) a long stint as the major writer of the original Captain Marvel, followed by many years of Superman scripting. He contributed many key concepts and characters to both franchises. His Superman writing, for instance, included the first stories of Supergirl, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Krypto, Brainiac and the city in a bottle, Kandor. I never met Mr. Binder but I felt like I knew him through his scripts, and thanks to Bill Schelly, I feel like I know him even better now. Bill did the kind of diligent research job that can only be driven by passion for a subject, and he got to darn near everyone who's still around and had any info at all on the late Otto Binder. The result is a complete portrait, not only of the man but of the industries in which he worked when he worked in them. If I were you, I'd run over to Bill's website and order me a copy. And while you're there, pick up copies of any of Bill's other books that you don't have. They're all as good as they sound.

The calendar may be about to say 2004 but it's starting to look like 1984 (the book, not the year) as the PATRIOT act gets expanded once more. According to this article, if the FBI now wants to know anything about you and what you do with your money, all they have to do is hand a letter to whoever you do business with that says you are suspected of involvement in terrorism. They never have to prove you have any connection to any such activity. They just have to say that they think you might be, and the other party has to hand over all info on you, and is forbidden to tell you they have done this.

What do you want to bet that, in the cause of stopping terrorism, John Ashcroft and his minions will use this to inquire into every conceivable kind of financial transaction except the purchase of weapons?

Speaking of lettering, as I think I just was: Richard Starkings practically invented the lettering of comic books via computer. If you've been thinking of purchasing any of the splendid fonts he sells over at Comicraft, there will never be a better time than tomorrow. New Year's Day only, he has 'em discounted to a price matching the year, thankfully with a decimal point between the zeroes. He who hesitates pays more.

How about a good interview with Tom Orzechowski, who's one of the best letterers the comic book business has ever seen?

In honor of the new year, NBC has decided to cause trouble by shifting most of their weeknight prime-time shows a minute or two one way or the other. You may think (to pick one example) their Monday night schedule is three one-hour shows: Fear Factor at 8:00, Las Vegas at 9:00, Average Joe at 10:00. Nope. Fear Factor starts at 8 but it's a 59 minute show. Las Vegas starts at 8:59 and runs for an hour. Then Average Joe starts at 9:59 and runs for 61 minutes. On Tuesday, we have The Tracy Morgan Show at 8:00, Whoopi at 8:30 and then Frasier at 9:00…but Frasier is now a 31 minute show so the following program, Happy Family, starts at 9:31 and runs for 28 minutes. This enables Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which is a 61 minute show, to start at 9:59. On Wednesday, Ed and West Wing start at 8:00 and 9:00 but West Wing is a 59 minute show so Law & Order starts at 9:59. It's just as screwy on Thursday and Friday.

The first problem with this, of course, is that if you try switching channels during the evening, you'll wind up missing the beginning or end of some show. You have even more problems if you want to record a show for later viewing. Most TV listings seem to be ignoring these subtle adjustments but TiVo has the accurate times. This is great if you're not changing channels but if you do, it can get messy. If you tell TiVo to record Frasier, and then to switch over to ABC to record Less Than Perfect, it will not accept the second show because it will tell you they overlap…which they do.

So let's say you decide you want to get the entirety of Frasier even at the expense of the first minute of Less Than Perfect. You could accomplish that with the time-padding options of TiVo. It takes some effort to program but it can be done. Pad the recording time of Frasier by one minute at the end. Set Less Than Perfect as a manual recording beginning at 9:35 and then set "Start Recording" to 4 minutes early. Then Frasier would end at 9:31 and Less Than Perfect would start recording one minute into the show…which is, of course, less than perfect.

But there are some combinations that don't work. On Monday night, CBS airs Still Standing from 8:30 to 9:00 while NBC has Las Vegas from 8:59 to 9:59. What if you wanted to record both shows and chop off the last minute of Still Standing? Well, you can't. TiVo can pad the end of a recording 1 minute or 2 minutes but the next increment is five. You can't set a manual recording to end at 8:59. The best you could do is 8:57.

Obviously, this problem is even worse for folks who are trying to record with VCRs that program in five-minute increments. And there are other problems for everyone, like remembering that a favorite show starts at 9:59, not 10:00. There are no upsides for us. I'm skeptical that there's any great advantage for the network but I know there are none for us. Someone needs a serious beating. (Thanks to Earl Kress for calling this to my attention.)

My favorite place to see stand-up comics in the Los Angeles area is not in the Los Angeles area. It's the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach. That is not as far as it sounds. The room is friendly, the prices are reasonable and the food is decent. Only the parking is sometimes a drawback, especially on the kind of days when folks flock to the beach.

Jay Leno, who can obviously play any comedy club he wants, chooses to bypass at least a half-dozen that are closer to his home and play the Comedy and Magic Club most Sunday evenings. When he does essentially the same act in Vegas, it's sixty bucks a seat with no opening act. In Hermosa Beach, it's around $25 and he has two comics on before him, one of whom is usually the wonderful Jim Brogan. If you're looking for a good place to take outta-town visitors (even older folks), you can't do much better. Here's a link to the club's website.

And here's a real tip which isn't up on the site yet. February 4th, 5th and 7th, Lewis Black is performing at the Comedy and Magic Club. I think he's the sharpest of the "newer" comedians and even though I saw him just last August, I have reservations to see him again. If you want to go, don't wait until they post the information. They'll probably be sold out before they announce his appearance, but they are selling tickets if you phone the club. Black is doing one show on Wednesday, one on Thursday, none on Friday, then two on Saturday. (I'm guessing he's doing Bill Maher's show on Friday night. Or something like that.)

If you're not familiar with Mr. Black, here's a link to a recent commentary he did on gadgets for The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. And while you're over there: Here's a link to a very funny Jon Stewart spot about Strom Thurmond's illegitimate daughter, or click this one to see him discuss the news coverage of Saddam Hussein's "spiderhole." I don't know about your TV set but it's the cleverest show on mine.

If this article is to believed, an honest lady police chief is being fired for the outrageous offense of giving honest answers to a reporter's questions. I assume there's another side to this story and if anyone sees one online, I'd love to read it. But in the meantime, it sure looks like the kind of thing we all ought to protest.

Lex Passaris suggests I link to an obituary for Dick St. John, who was one half of the musical act, Dick and Dee Dee. The obit lists their main hits but somehow omits the fact that they performed the infamous song, "Bupkis," written by Rob Petrie and "Sticks" Mandalay. It was originally credited to Buzzy Potter but this was corrected on later pressings.

Jimmy Breslin on the way images of our war dead are being hidden from the American public. I hear conflicting reports as to whether this is standard procedure or unprecedented but either way, I think it's putting politics above respect.