Of all the indicators that the "Bush Economy" is heading down the commode, this is the most serious: Producers have just announced a film remake of The Six Million Dollar Man, only now it's going to be The Six Billion Dollar Man.  Alan Greenspan has a lot to answer for.

Consider this a blanket recommendation of all the magazines put out by TwoMorrows Publishing (issuers of my own tome, advertised at the bottom of this page).  But I especially enjoy The Jack Kirby Collector, Comic Book Artist and Alter Ego…and I really enjoyed the latest Alter Ego.  One side has an in-depth look at the great artist Lou Fine.  The other has lotsa stuff by and about one of my favorite comic book writers (and a helluva nice guy), Arnold Drake.  Drake was the co-creator/writer of Deadman and The Doom Patrol, to name but a small chunk of his fine work.  He always struck me as one of those writers who had a lot more to offer comics than comics had to offer him.

Political stuff: This column by David S. Broder is worth a look but if you don't have time to click that link, I'll summarize: Says he, George W. is determined to launch a war and topple Hussein, and the White House can't be bothered to give us a coherent, consistent explanation as to why this is necessary or justified.

As someone who has trouble even sounding like himself, I envy people who can sound like many people, let alone everybody.  The fellow above, Bob Anderson, can sound like just about every great male pop vocalist — Frank, Dino, Tony Bennett, et al…even seemingly-impossible imitations like Mel Tormé, Otis Redding and (one at a time) the Righteous Brothers.  He has also achieved the greatest feat an impressionist can achieve, which is to do an impression so well that other impressionists learn how to do the guy by watching you.  Any time you see anyone do Sammy Davis, Jr., they're probably imitating either Bob Anderson or someone who learned how to do Sammy after seeing Bob Anderson.

You can see Bob Anderson if you're in Vegas the next few months and you go to the lounge at the Stardust Hotel.  Admission is about a third the price of Danny Gans but the star is no less amazing.

We paid another visit last evening to the production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum which we discussed here.  And we had another wonderful time.  That's all I have to say about that.

Over on Salon, there's a fine article by Keith Olbermann, who is probably known to many of you as a sportscaster.  When he was on news-type cable (MSNBC, I think), he had what I thought was a very fair, informative interview show.  He's now writing fine commentaries like this one for Salon.  You need a subscription to read the thing so I'll summarize it for non-subscribers.  Basically, it says that the notorious scold Bill Bennett and a new organization he's heading up have been too eager to brand as unpatriotic, not only anyone who challenges the White House on its Iraq policies but even those who don't support them fervently enough.  Personally, I think this kind of tactic is going to backfire big time on the right-wingers who employ it.  Why, it may even get some Democrats mad enough to say something.

I still think The Larry Sanders Show is/was the best sitcom of the last decade or two.  Good writing.  Even better acting.  Celebrities willing to trash their own images.  How can you beat that?  This week, the episodes begin appearing on Bravo and also in some local markets via syndication.  I don't know about Bravo but I presume the local stations are running edited/alternate versions which are missing some of the stronger language.

I also assume the episodes aren't as good that way, but will check and report.  In the meantime, if you have a question you've always wanted to ask Larry Sanders about his life (or even about your life), you can do so online.  Just go to the Bravo website and Ask Larry.

If you believe that all this talk of war with Iraq is, at least in part, to distract Americans from economic bad news…well, here is a summary of the economic bad news.  [Warning: Extremely annoying pop-up ads.]

As a reminder: Your POVonline pal, m.e., will be appearing this coming weekend at the Victoria Comic, Movie & VideoFest 2002, being held in Victoria, British Columbia.  More info on the event can be obtained by clicking here.

I don't have many strong opinions about Al Gore's recent speech other than that I think America needs to be reminded that Bush and Cheney are talking about doing something that the United States has never really done, which is to start a war.  Unless there is solid proof that Saddam Hussein was behind the 9/11 assaults — and clearly, there wouldn't be a debate in progress if the U.S. presently had such proof — what is proposed is that we initiate this round of hostilities and killing.  Does anyone think this won't bite us on the ass in the future?  It may be necessary but actions do have consequences.

As usual, Gore's speech is being reviewed as much for its style as content.  One level of criticism that I think is unfair is when people accuse him of playing politics and say, as if revealing an ulterior motive, "He's running for president."  Why it would be either a secret or a criticism of Al Gore that he wants to be president, I do not know.  It's like saying, "Hey, watch out for those Dodgers.  I'm beginning to suspect they want to win the World Series."  Yes, Gore wants to be president, the same way Bush wants to be re-elected, the way McCain wants to be president, the way darn near every elected official higher than County Tax Assessor wants to occupy the Oval Office.  Why is this even the slightest criticism?  Isn't it about time we stopped damning politicians for dabbling in politics?  Some do it with more grace than others but they all do it.  Let's find more meaningful things to condemn these people for.  It's not like there aren't plenty from which to pick.

Last evening, my friend Carolyn and I took in the Reprise! production of Cole Porter's Anything Goes up at the Freud Playhouse at U.C.L.A.  It closes Sunday, which is a shame for those of you who won't get to see it.  Storywise, Anything Goes ain't much of a story…some trivia about a guy who stows away on an ocean liner to try and stop the woman he loves from marrying somebody else.  Since its original production in 1934, the book has been revised a few times and it's still silly.  Fortunately though, subsequent productions have also interpolated a few of Mr. Porter's best songs from other venues.  They join some terrific songs that were already in the show and…well, you have a score that can't be beat.  Get together a terrific cast and you have a helluvan evening.

The Reprise! folks got together a terrific cast, headlined by Brent Barrett, Anastasia Barzee, Larry Cedar, Jason Graae, Delee Lively, Sally Struthers, Fred Willard and Rachel York.  Boy, were they good — all of them, as were the other members of the troupe, directed by Glenn Casale.  Half the numbers had that little magical moment at the end where the audience bursts into applause a half-second faster than normal, courtesy clapping, and hits their hands together hard and fast to indicate how much they loved what just occurred.  At the end of "Blow, Gabriel, Blow," there was an explosion you may have heard in other time zones.

Everyone was good.  Rachel York sings like the proverbial dream.  Fred Willard, Jason Graae and Larry Cedar were all very, very funny.  So was Sally Struthers, who seems to be succeeding in her ongoing campaign to turn herself into Shelley Winters.

Not much point in me saying more since there are only a few more performances.  But I'm glad to be a subscriber to Reprise! The batting average is high and every so often, they come up with one like this one that all by itself is worth the price of the whole season.  If you live in Southern California, check out the Reprise website.  The remaining two shows for this season are On the Twentieth Century, which will star Kristen Chenoweth and Douglas Sills, and She Loves Me, in which Patrick Cassidy will play the role his father Jack played on Broadway.

Every few months, the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters group stages a luncheon to honor someone who has made a vital and lasting contribution to the art of broadcasting.  Yesterday afternoon, it was the long-overdue salute to the First Lady of Voice Work, June Foray.  The place was packed to hear a dais that included Hal Kanter, Arthur Hiller, Tom Hatten, Fay Kanin, Milt Larsen, Leonard Maltin, Charles Solomon, Roger Mayer, Gary Owens and Yours Truly.  Stan Freberg was to have been among the speakers but a touch of bronchitis forced him to stay home and fax in a letter which Gary read.  Even without Freberg, it was a great afternoon with a lot of love and respect for a lady who has done the best-possible work in her field for more than a half-century.  (For a piece about an earlier tribute to June I attended, click here.)

They're renaming the Martin Beck Theater in New York.  As reported here, it will be renamed the Al Hirschfeld Theater next June on Mr. Hirschfeld's 100th birthday.  You'd think they'd change the marquee now just in case the man doesn't make 100 but in any case, it's a well-deserved honor.  I just hope someone has the wit to hide little "NINAs" all over the building.

All the news: on the condition of DC Comics editor-writer Denny O'Neil is encouraging.  We're especially happy about this because Denny is one of the good guys.

That production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum I keep raving about was raved about, or at least liked a lot, in this review in the Los Angeles Times.

I spent the last few days running around to meetings, putting the finishing touches on Mad Art (a book coming your way shortly from Watson-Guptill), lunching with Stan Lee (he says hi back), prepping my speech for tomorrow's luncheon in honor of June Foray and, most of all, setting up my new computer.  It's a Pentium-4 with 512 Meg RDRAM, two 120 gig harddisks, a DVD-Rom drive, a 40X CD-RW, a 250 mb Zip drive, an automatic ice maker, a built-in toaster oven, a set of wind chimes, five golden rings, four calling birds…

Okay, I'm lying about those last few.  But it's a helluva computer and I would like to again plug/recommend Bill Goldstein to anyone in the L.A. area who's in the market for anything that computes.  I couldn't have asked for wiser or better service.  You can visit his website at www.wdgoldstein.com.  Even if you don't buy anything there, he has a good repository of virus removal tools, as well as a terrific on-line video of a segment he did for the local news.  It's about how people donate old computers to charity or sell them, thinking wrongly they've purged the hard drive of personal info.  Bill and a reporter went to a thrift store, picked out some donated computers and Bill was able to restore the donor's files…including credit card numbers, personal data and probably a lot of downloaded porn.  A good, cautionary tale.

Things will be back to normal here as soon as things are back to normal here, if you know what I mean.  Our web counter will be topping a quarter of a million hits any day now and we'll celebrate by putting up a few new (old) columns.  Or something.

New computer's running great.  So far, I like Windows XP.  Reinstalling all your software is like buying DVDs of movies you already bought on VHS.  Go read Michael Kinsley's latest column.  Having lunch today with Stan Lee.  I'll tell him you said hello.  Gotta run.

So I'm taking delivery in about a half-hour of a new, faster computer.  This will mean many arduous-but-almost-fun hours of reinstalling software and moving things around…and not many postings here.  Bye now.  Back soon.  Busy now.  Back soon.

Travelers to Vegas should beware a growing trend.  Used to be, the hotels and casinos paid big bucks to the best acts and shows to perform in their showrooms…but no more.  Now, it increasingly works the other way around.  In what some call "play for pay" deals, the hotels rent out their showrooms to producers or acts who pay for the space.  There are variations on the deals but, in most cases, the hotel demands a certain weekly fee as an advance against a percentage of the door.  The hotel also can "comp" a certain number of guests to see the show free or on tickets that cost the hotel very little.

How did this change come about?  Two things seem to have happened at the same time.  Some of the larger hotels began to notice a disconnect between their showroom attendance and the amount of gambling in the casino.  Used to be, you had to have Sinatra or Sammy or even Buddy performing to lure people in to bet.  Lately, that isn't as important as it used to be.  Caesars Palace tore down its showroom a few years ago and they've been taking their time building a new one.

At the same time, you've had a couple big success stories like Danny Gans.  Gans is an impressionist, largely unknown outside Vegas, who now appears at the Mirage.  His show costs close-to-nothing to produce: It's just him and a nine-piece band.  Six nights a week, he fills the 1,260 seat showroom at $80-$100 a seat.  (There are scalpers getting more than twice that.)  It's not public knowledge how that wad is divided up between Gans and the hotel but obviously, someone's making a hell of a lot of money.  Other acts and producers, itching for a chance to replicate such profits, are therefore willing to scrape together the investment to get into some other hotel's showroom…and they're doing it.

What does this mean to you, the consumer?  A lot of reportedly-crummy, low-budget shows have recently popped up in town, sometimes in prestigious hotels.  These pay-for-play shows are usually under-advertised and often close abruptly, with no notice.  A friend of mine e-mails me that he recently showed up for the late performance of a show and was told that after the early show, the producers had decided to fold their tent, effective immediately.  It took a few days after that for the show's name to be removed from the hotel marquee and some of its few billboards are still around.

Once, you rarely saw a bad show in Vegas.  The hotels pumped cash into them just so you wouldn't feel burned and leave with a negative feeling about the casino.  Now, they don't worry about such things…so we have to.

Here's an interesting news flash from Army Archerd's column…

News also gleaned from the Norman Lear birthday dinner: Carl Reiner will reunite Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke in a half-hour sitcom — with their characters from the Reiner-created "Dick Van Dyke Show" (1961-66, CBS) to be shown as they are today. Meanwhile, Reiner reprises his role in a cartoon version of "Dick Van Dyke" taping Oct. 3, with Van Dyke, Rose Marie guesting on the pilot.

I'm not sure what I think of these ideas but I certainly intend to find out.

One of my favorite people on this planet (assuming he is on this planet) is Mike Peters, the Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist and creator of the comic strip, Mother Goose and Grimm.  You can see his work in both venues over at www.grimmy.com and you can read a good interview with Mike over at the lair of AstroNerdBoy.  Click right here to go there and pay special attention to his advice to those who want to be syndicated.