We're now watching another plane that just landed at Santa Barbara Airport. They're reasonably sure Michael is on this one. A reporter just explained that they had a tip that Jackson had left Vegas on a plane with a certain tail number and the plane now landing seems to have the same tail number. Ergo, they have concluded it's the same plane so they assume Jackson is aboard. Professional newsmen are actually discussing this on CNN. One just said, "This is either Michael Jackson's plane or a hell of a decoy." Sounds very important.

Just watched CNN spend 10+ minutes showing us a Lear Jet landing at Santa Barbara airport. We saw it land, we saw it taxi. We heard a hapless newsguy try to keep talking the whole time despite the fact that all he had to say was that they had information that Michael Jackson was inside and that he was arriving to surrender to authorities. Finally, it turned out that Michael was not on the plane. They now have various reporters discussing the means by which Jackson might be travelling to the sheriff's office.

Bush is in England, bombs are exploding in Istanbul and Iraq, killer storms are flooding the Eastern seaboard…and on CNN, the most important issue is whether The King of Pop is on a plane or in a van. Fill in your own snide remark.

Let me tell you about Floyd Norman. Floyd Norman is a veteran of the animation business dating back to the Disney Studios, circa 1960, and he looks exactly like the sketch at above right that someone did of him. Over the years, he's worked as a writer and/or layout guy for almost every major studio but mainly for Disney and Hanna-Barbera. He did wonderful work for their shows and movies and comic books and comic strips but he really distinguished himself in one category: Drawing insulting cartoons of his employers and fellow cartoonists. For years, it's been a singular honor of the animation business to make it into a Floyd Norman sketch, and all hail him as The Master. A while back, a batch of his doodles were collected into a very funny book called Faster, Cheaper. We now have a sequel. Son of Faster, Cheaper can now be ordered at this website and if you have any interest at all in the cartoon biz, I urge you to do so. (I think but am not sure you can order the first volume here. If you buy one, you'll want the other.)

Are you sick of discovering that you're somewhere your cell phone won't connect? I am. I have Cingular service and once, I was unable to make a call while in a Cingular office. The guy behind the counter just giggled, "Yeah, they don't work here." Anyway, you can investigate where cell phones don't work — or add your own data — by entering The Dead Cell Zone.

Another great thing to do in Southern California this Friday evening is to go hear Shelly Goldstein sing "Songs for Lovers and Those They've Dumped." That's the title of her one-woman show which she performs here and there — "here" being L.A., "there" being London — when she's not busy with writing-producing assignments. She is a superb singer and a brilliant wit, and she'll be singing and witting for one show only at The Gardenia, an intimate supper/night club located at 7066 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. For reservations, call (323) 467-7444.

Reading the news articles about the mess Michael Jackson seems to be in, I noticed the following line in this report…

The 12-year-old boy at the center of the Michael Jackson child molestation scandal may have confessed to his psychiatrist that the pop singer plied him with wine and sleeping pills when he allegedly molested him, according to sources. The boy has also hired Los Angeles attorney Larry Feldman, the same lawyer who represented the family of a 13-year-old boy who made similar allegations a decade ago, the sources said.

"The boy hired that attorney?" The boy is twelve years old. His parents presumably hired the attorney. These are the same parents who let their kid stay at the home of Michael Jackson, reportedly in the same bed, long after rumors and jokes about Jackson and pedophilia were common knowledge. And then these parents did not apparently know about or report the violation of their son. It only came to light when a psychologist heard enough about it from the kid to feel a report to the police was warranted.

If the allegations are true, Jackson ought to be in prison. And I've love to hear a good reason why Mom and Dad should not be in the adjoining cell.

Forgive me for stating the obvious but in this world, some things just make you feel you have to blog.

Over in The Village Voice, R. C. Baker reports on several books about comics, and even quotes me while he's at it.

What does the staff of a humor magazine do when they get laid off? Why, they offer themselves for sale on eBay, of course! (Thanks to Tom Galloway for noticing this.)

I signed up some time ago to have Special Weather Statements from the National Weather Service e-mailed to me as they are issued. Just moments ago, I received a long one which began as follows…

Special Weather Statement
400 PM PST Mon Feb 24 2003

…Rain and mountain snow for southwestern California tonight and Tuesday…Winter Storm Warning in effect above 5500 feet for the mountains of Santa Barbara…Ventura and Los Angeles counties…

A winter storm approaching the coast has already brought showers to the central coast of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. The showers will increase in coverage with rain expected to quickly spread south to Ventura and Los Angeles counties this evening. Rain…heavy at times…can be expected overnight across southwestern California. An isolated thunderstorm will be possible as well. The heaviest rain is expected along south facing slopes and foothills. The rain should gradually diminish from north to south on Tuesday.

And then it went on for many paragraphs to warn of floods and road-closings. Because I knew no rain was forecast for today and I hadn't noticed the message date, I made a loud Scooby Doo sound…"Ruh?" Eleven minutes later, another Special Weather Statement arrived in my e-mailbox. Here it is, in full…

Special Weather Statement
1100 AM PST Tue Nov 18 2003

Please disregard previous special weather statement dated Feb 24 2003.

This is kinda like all the reports about Iraq/Al-Qaeda links and Weapons of Mass Destruction and leaked memos, except that it got corrected on its own and by the folks who were wrong in the first place.

Do you like the comic strip, Fox Trot? Of course you do…so here's a link to the web page of its cartoonist, Bill Amend. And there's a link on there that will let you read lots of Fox Trot strips.

Molly Ivins on why some people, herself included, don't like George W. Bush.

…to the Hawaii Five-O question. Thanks to all of you who wrote in with answers and suggestions.

Local commitments are keeping me away from Mid-Ohio Con this year. But I wanted to say that if I could get away, I'd get away to Columbus, Ohio next weekend for Roger Price's annual gathering of comics, TV and film fans. Having attended comic book and s-f conventions across the continent since '70, I've gotten jaded and bored by a lot of them, but Roger hosts one of the friendliest gatherings I've ever attended. The spirit reminds me a lot of the late-seventies San Diego Cons which were just big enough that there was always something to do but not so big that they felt unconquerable. Go here to see the guest list and how to get there. And Roger…sorry I won't be there but I'll try to make it next year.

If you're even vaguely in the Los Angeles area, I highly recommend Totally Looped. This is a terrific show of improvisational comedy that occurs not nearly often enough. (I didn't phrase that properly but you know what I mean.) The next edition is this coming Friday, November 21, and you can find out all about it at this website. If I can get away, I'll be there. Read my report on an earlier performance and you'll understand why.

A friend has a question and it's beyond my expertise to answer. We're trying to identify an episode of Hawaii Five-O and all he remembers about it is that it involves a serial killer murdering women all over The Island. There's no explanation as to how he gains entrance to their homes and no seeming connection between his victims until McGarrett (or someone) figures out that all but one had their cars washed at a certain car wash. The killer worked there, picked his targets and secretly duplicated their house keys while their autos (with the keys in them) were going through the car wash.

The reason my friend needs to know about this episode is boring and would be of no interest to anyone. But he needs to, and we're hoping someone reading this is enough of a Five-O buff to tell us which one it was.