And now, it seems Harvey Fierstein will not be playing Mrs. Claus in the Macy's parade. Here are the details.

Here's an article by Eric J. Greenberg on the impact of Jews in comic books, with special focus on Joe Kubert. The piece has a few errors in it (Captain Marvel was created by C.C. Beck and Bill Parker, not Beck and Otto Binder; Bob Kane's real name was Bob Kahn), but it's otherwise pretty good.

There's lots of good stuff to read over at Jim Hill Media, like this profile of Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett, this piece about Mickey Mouse's relationship with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and this rundown of musicals that Disney may or may not bring to Broadway. Alas, they no longer have columns by my pal Jim Korkis, but he's been replaced by another expert on animation history, Jackson "Pop Culture" King. Here's King's latest. Good stuff.

Here's a tip that will make some animation buff very happy…and don't thank me. Leonard Maltin just told me about it. Disney Home Video has been releasing a series called "Walt Disney Treasures," which feature rare Disney films and cartoons on DVD. These are the ones that come packed in those little tin boxes, and they are starting to go out of print. As they do, they begin selling on eBay for…well, for a lot more than Carl Gottlieb's pants. If you missed them, you missed some terrific, must-have video gems. Obtaining the first seven now could run you $350 and up.

There is, however, an alternative. Disney has put together a slipcased set of the first seven called "The Walt Disney Treasure Chest." You don't get the tin boxes but you do get the first seven DVDs in a cardboard sleeve for $124.99. What's the catch? Just this: You have to belong to Costco. This set seems to have been produced only for them as a Christmas item. It may not be available anywhere else and it may not be available once Costco finishes selling whatever quantity they've purchased. It should be in the Costco stores any day now if it isn't already there, or you can pay postage and get one from the Costco website (Do a search for "Disney Treasure"). If you aren't a member, you can either pay 5% extra or join Costco, which costs $45.

By the way: Costco is also selling that new Pioneer DVD-TiVo I mentioned recently for $779.99. If you've been thinking of getting one, that's a pretty good price. I'm still quite happy with mine.

Guess who's playing Mrs. Santa Claus in the Macy's parade on Thursday! If you're registered to read articles at the New York Times website, you can read this article by the future Mrs. Claus and some comments on what it all means.

Carl Gottlieb is a writer, producer, director and actor with a list of credits to die from. I just called and left a message on his voice mail informing him that someone on eBay is selling his pants!

Here we find William Saletan and Jacob Weisberg discussing the Republicans' new TV commercial that suggests the Democrats are against fighting terrorists. The discussion makes a good point that Bush's policy of shooting first and looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction later is getting tougher to defend.

The other day on Crossfire, Paul Begala challenged Republican Senator Kit Bond of Missouri on this ad. He quoted the line that says "Some are now attacking the President for attacking the terrorists," then asked Bond twice to name someone who's actually doing that. No names were forthcoming.

Maybe there should be a TV show during elections called "Defend Your Commercial." In it, the producer or candidate would come on and their commercials would be shown. They would be asked to substantiate each claim, and there would be a jury of statisticians to fact-check whatever they said. At the end of the show, a panel would vote on the truthfulness of the ad and would itemize the assertions they felt were false or misleading. The show would also fact-check the commercials of those who refused to come on and defend them. I wonder if a network could refuse to air any spot that declined to submit to this process.

Richard Cohen has some pretty strong words for the Bush administration and what they got us into with Iraq. I wish I could link to one of Cohen's columns from the lead-up to the war because it sure seems he's changed his tune.

As I mentioned, I'm probably not going to tune in to the infomercial formerly known as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. But I might to see the announced return of some of their older balloons, including one (four? three?) of the Marx Brothers. And I did enjoy browsing around a website the Macy's folks set up to give out info and some of the history on their annual Turkey Day ritual. Actually, one of these days, I'd like to go to N.Y. and see the parade in person. It marches down Broadway past the windows of several companies I do work for, and at least one of them will usually open the office on Thanksgiving for the employees who want to come in and watch the festivities below and sometimes above. One year, a friend of mine called me from his desk to say, "I took a secretary into my office, closed the door and we started making out…until we saw a sixty-foot Bullwinkle peeking in on us. That kind of killed the mood." I imagine it would.

I doubt there's anyone anywhere who thinks that Newsmax is a legitimate news source. It's not that they're a rabidly right-wing website and news service but that they're rather fiercely committed to printing whatever will get right-wingers fired up enough to send money. For a long time, they were flogging the idea that it was an absolute certainty that Hillary Clinton has a firm plan to run for president in 2004 and were soliciting donations to stop her. Lately, they've been edging towards the idea that she now realizes she's so unpopular that she can't win. So if she doesn't run, that will be the reason. (Uh, it couldn't be that she never planned to run?)

Anyway, they recently posted this "news" story that flows from an interview on Larry King Live the other night…

For all the coverage generated by the 40th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination this past weekend, the media managed to miss the only genuine news to emerge from the commemoration. Nellie Connally, wife of former Texas Gov. John Connally and the only person still alive who rode in the presidential death limousine, publicly disputed for the first time the Warren Commission's "magic bullet" theory, a scenario absolutely essential to its finding that Lee Harvey Oswald was Kennedy's lone assassin.

They're wrong about this being the first time she's said this. She's said it hundreds of times. The Newsmax piece says it's the first time she said it publicly but also quotes her as saying she said it to the Warren Commission. Her statements there and elsewhere are quoted in around 95% of all the books that seek to refute the official findings, and that's a lot of books. Here's a link to the text of a 1998 interview in Texas Monthly where she not only says it but says that she's never wavered from her view. I think she's incorrect about the second shot but it certainly is not news that she believes that.

It is also kinda dishonest for them to pull that one item out of the interview (here's the whole transcript) and not cite that she also said that she was positive there were exactly three shots and that all three came from behind. Of the thousands of conspiracy theories that have been tossed out since 11/22/63, I'm not sure there are any that believe there were three from behind, that the second hit Connally and that the third hit Kennedy only. That description does not match the physical evidence. In any case, Nellie Connally may firmly believe the "single bullet theory" isn't right but she also firmly believes Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin. She's wrong about some part of it, and Newsmax is wrong to quote only the part that supports their agenda. They do a lot of this.

One of my earliest heroes was the world's greatest ventriloquist, Paul Winchell. If Paul was on TV with his dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff, I was in front of the TV. Always. I read and re-read his autobiography, which was also a kind of "how-to" book on his craft, and practiced many hours with my toy Jerry Mahoney. I loved my little Jerry and kept it long after most of my other toys of that era had gone into the dumpster or off to Goodwill. About seven years ago, the water heater in my basement burst and the only thing destroyed was my old Jerry Mahoney doll. I cried a bit, then ran to the computer, logged onto a new thing called eBay and won my first auction: $300 for a new old Jerry Mahoney doll. I have since purchased exact, working replicas of Jerry and Knuck, which sit around my house and do a great job of scaring my maid every single time she walks into the room.

Shortly before the water heater incident, I'd written this column about Paul and the current "best ventriloquist" I've seen, a talented gent named Ronn Lucas. I'll have to write another, better one since that column doesn't begin to do justice to Paul. In the meantime, you can find out a lot about him at his website. They're still erecting the new version but there's already some good biographical information posted there.

Here's an Interview with Don Novello…writer and performer for Saturday Night Live, creator of Father Guido Sarducci and "Lazlo Toth, American," and candidate for Governor of California. Don't thank me for noticing it. Thank Kevin Walsh.

For some time now, comic book entrepreneur Todd McFarlane has been locked in a legal dispute with hockey player Tony Twist. Briefly: McFarlane named a villain in one of his comic books after Twist as a sort of in-joke and (he said) tribute. Twist sued, claiming that his right of publicity had been violated by the use of his name. McFarlane won a lower-court decision on the grounds that his use of Twist's name fell within the purview of the First Amendment. The Missouri Supreme Court reversed that judgment and reinstated a huge cash award to Twist, asserting that since this involved merchandise and not commentary, the First Amendment did not apply. McFarlane's attorneys are attempting to get the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and reverse the Missouri Supreme Court, and briefs are now being filed to urge for or against this intervention.

Attorney Eugene Volokh writes one of the most-read legal weblogs on the Internet. Here, he summarizes the case and provides this link to an Adobe PDF file of the brief he is filing on behalf of Michael Crichton, Larry David, Jeremiah Healy, Elmore Leonard, Harry Shearer, Ron Shelton, Scott Turow, Paul Weitz, and the Authors Guild, Inc. They all believe that the lower Missouri court was right and the Missouri Supreme Court was wrong. Here's a link to the latter's decision.

For what it's worth, I'm with Todd on this. And as I said elsewhere, I'm amazed that there are a few folks in the comic book business who ought to be on his side but, in a burst of schadenfreude, are rooting against him. If he loses this one, we all lose. (Thank you, Bob Cosgrove, for calling my attention to Volokh's posting.)

Treasure Chest was a comic book published from 1946 through 1972 by George A. Pflaum and the Catholic Guild, and distributed to kids in Catholic schools. It usually came out bi-weekly during the school year and was crammed full of stories that promoted pretty much the kind of worldview you'd expect. There were some lovely historical tales and some very preachy tracts. Among those who contributed splendid artwork to the book were Joe Sinnott, Dick Giordano, Fran Matera, Bernard Baily, Bob Powell and even EC Comics' own "Ghastly" Graham Ingels. It is likely that the editorial board of Treasure Chest would not have approved of some of the comics those men had drawn for other publishers, like "The Spectre" or Tales From the Crypt.

Beginning in '61, the Catholic funnybook got even more political than usual with a serial called "The Godless Communism" that summarized almost every hysterical fear that the John Birch Society then voiced about the Commies. (One is reminded of John Wayne's definition of a fanatic: Someone so right-wing they made him want to move to Moscow.) Today, the series is an amusing relic that is best appreciated for its fine artwork by Reed Crandall, who was best known for his work for EC and on Blackhawk. Reportedly, Crandall did not see the irony in contrasting the message of this series with those other assignments…or even some of the work he did later for Creepy and Eerie. The entire "Godless Communism" series can be read online here.

This gem can be found on a pop culture website called The Authentic History Center which also features a display of comic books about atomic energy and bombs, a section about comics of the seventies, and comic books about 9/11. There are also some fascinating pages that have nothing to do with comic books, so wade around there. And my thanks to the fine comedy writer, Marvin Silbermintz, for letting me know about this site. And why do I have the feeling they didn't distribute Treasure Chest at his school?

Posting was light today as I spent a lot of time with men of medicine. I have developed a heel spur on my left foot and if you don't know what that is, believe me: You don't want one. The inflammation comes and goes but there were times today when it hurt so much, I literally could not walk. A specialist took x-rays, issued me crutches and a Handicapped Parking Placard, and send me off to mend. This is going to take a few weeks, if not months. On the other hand, it may lead to more posts here because I won't be leaving the house as often. So my pain may be your gain.