I mentioned a few days ago, my belief that most Americans would come to regard as fact, the concept that Al Gore actually won Florida…or perhaps I should have said, "…should have won Florida."  This prompted a number of folks to bombard me with "evidence" and facts, all about various press recounts and how many overseas ballots were counted without postmarks and such.  Actually, I've read all this stuff and it led me to the conclusion that, based on the count, the final totals could go either way.

A lot of the tallies involved votes for which the rules are unestablished and arguable, and the Bush people did a better job of getting their arguments accepted by a state government that, after all, was controlled by their candidate's brother and their candidate's campaign manager.  There is a reasonable interpretation of the balloting that makes Bush a slight victor, just as there's a reasonable interpretation that would have given the state to Gore…and anyone who thinks their guy "definitely" got more votes is, I think, believing what they want to believe.

Actually, my belief that Bush's victory will become more and more tainted is based on following the stories about the vast numbers of Florida voters — most of them, black and Democratic — who were denied their right to vote at all.  That story is not going to go away and, even if it is ultimately viewed as a paperwork screw-up and not an intentional act, I think it's going to become accepted that Bush would not have come close to winning the state, but for that screw-up.  And, of course, a lot of people will never accept that it was not an accident…

For more on the matter, check out the website of Greg Palast.  He's the B.B.C. reporter who broke a lot of this story.  Here's a link to an article he did for Harper's that lays it all out in some detail and, elsewhere on his site, you'll find the text of Katherine Harris's rebuttal, which merely argues that the errors were not intentional.  I'm not arguing that they were or weren't.  I believe that the fact that they were made at all will be accepted as the only reason Bush didn't decisively lose the vote total in Florida.

I still believe that the next presidential election will turn almost wholly on how well the war on terrorism has been fought.  But I also think that Bush will lose the argument that he was fairly elected in 2000, as he and Cheney are starting to lose the argument that their past business dealings were always Kosher.  The press pounced on the assertions that Clinton had committed crimes in Whitewater and that he was humping interns in the Oval Office.  Future terrorist attacks notwithstanding, they'll pounce on the assertions that Bush and Cheney reaped millions in shady stock deals and that black, Democratic voters in Florida got screwed.

A few years ago, I posted this item about my pal, Chuck McCann.  I mentioned we'd be having lunch soon and that prompted a flurry of e-mails from folks who said, "I love Chuck McCann.  Please tell him I'm a huge fan of his."  Several elaborated on watching him over the years and one or two, on brief meetings with the man.  All wished that I convey their affection and admiration to him and, today, we lunched and I did.  Matter of fact, after turkey sandwiches, Chuck followed me back to my house and I showed him all the e-mails.  So if you sent one, know that Chuck got to read it and that he was quite pleased.

And at least three of you will be excited at this news: Chuck mentioned that he'd had dinner the previous night with Don Knotts, and Don said he'd just finished recording an audio commentary for the DVD of The Incredible Mr. Limpet.

And how did you spend your Independence Day?  My friend Carolyn and I spent much of ours doing the final proofreading for Comic Books and Other Necessities of Life, the forthcoming paperback collection of 34 of my POV columns about comic book collecting and creation.  Only nine of the 34 are available on this site and even they underwent some minor rewrites to take out some of the stupid comments and, probably, add stupider ones.  The book had to go to press today (7/5) in order to be out in time for this year's Comic-Con International in San Diego.  You need this in your collection.

I'll be hawking it at the San Diego con (in-between the thirteen panels I'm moderating) and it'll be available in all the usual places, including the website of its publisher, TwoMorrows Publishing.  They don't have it on their order page yet but they will.

Hope you're having a safe-and-sane Fourth.  I dunno if the shooting at LAX today qualifies as another actual terrorist attack in the spirit of 9/11.  Still, it's going to keep us nervous for a couple of weeks.  If our enemies don't do a decent job of terrorizing us, we're quite willing to terrorize ourselves.

Sunday night….well, actually, Monday morning at 1 AM…the Cartoon Network begins another season of The Popeye Show, a fine series that does everything a cartoon program ought to do: It takes great old cartoons, strikes off new prints with their original titles and runs them without cuts.  This is always good but it's especially wonderful in the case of The Sailor Man, since of all the great animated characters, he's probably suffered the most.

His best films — the ones made by the Fleischer Studio — have too often been unavailable, or available in well-spliced, retitled and faded prints.  Matter of fact, as various batches of Popeye cartoons were later made by other studios, the quality went steadily down and the availability became greater.  The worse a Popeye cartoon was, the better your chances of seeing a good print of it.  Nice to see Cartoon Network reversing the trend.

Tom Galloway, who is rarely wrong about anything, suggests I point out that the second part of the Mike Peters article is another page.  Here's a link to that page.

My friend Mike Peters is a Pulitzer-class political cartoonist and the creator of the highly-successful newspaper strip, Mother Goose & Grimm.  You'd think that would be enough for the guy…but no.  He wants to be Superman.  He's always wanted to be Superman.  He has been known to run around in a Superman costume.  If you're ever with Mike and you want to hear one of the funniest stories I've ever heard, get him to tell you about the time he dressed up as the Man of Steel.  And in case you never get to meet Mike, you can get an inadequate (but still very funny) version here.

You can also see some of Mike's wonderful work on his website, the address of which is www.grimmy.com.  All of his political cartoons are terrific and, on occasion, he nails an issue better than all the verbose commentators in the business.

The hardcover edition of The Life of Groo and The Death of Groo (both in one volume, collected back-to-back) is now out.  So is a new, 20th anniversary Groo t-shirt…both from Graphitti Designs.

I haven't posted the schedule yet of panels I'm hosting at the Comic-Con International in San Diego.  This is because we're still switching around time slots as it turns out that certain guests are not available at certain times.  All should settle down by the middle of next week…however, let me say again that we have some incredible events.  I'm emceeing 13 because I couldn't turn any of them down.  You'll see why when I post the list next week.

The DVD of the movie 1776 is out and being reviewed all over the Internet.  My copy is in a box of stuff I ordered from Amazon.Com that, last time I looked at the UPS tracking page, was sitting in a warehouse in Fernley, Nevada.  If it doesn't get here in a few days, I may drive up to Fernley and watch it there.

Thursday evening, The Tonight Show With Jay Leno is a rerun.  The comedy bit after the first commercial involves silly phone callers, one of whom identifies himself as a master magician named "Earl the Magnificent."  That's the voice of one of my best buddies, Earl Kress, a multi-talented fellow I met via the late, multi-talented Daws Butler.  Earl is a writer (with an Emmy for Pinky & The Brain) and he's an actor and a cartoon expert and a fellow Laurel and Hardy enthusiast, and he even claims to know was much about the movie, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World as I do. This last claim is, of course, ridiculous…but we sometimes humor him and allow him to believe such a thing.

You can see some of Earl's comic book writing (he does all sorts of things) in recent issues of DC's Looney Tunes book, and you can hear him on Jay's show from time to time, and — most impressive — he and I are having dinner, some night this week.  At least, I think it's most impressive.  He's probably prouder of some of that other stuff.

A lot of news reports on how everyone stayed away from public events and large buildings for fear of a terrorist attack…and nothing happened.  This will happen again for September 11, 2002.

Everyone who watches TV gets the occasional crush on some performer.  It can be triggered by a look, a smile, a swimsuit…often, something utterly non-sexual.  But something about someone on the screen makes a connection with you.  This is especially prevalent during adolescence, although I have one friend who's in his late sixties and still catching every appearance of Ann Miller, hoping she'll be wearing something that shows her legs.  One of my many crushes, actually managing to momentarily displace Mary Tyler Moore, involved a show called Harry's Girls that ran on Friday nights, commencing in September of 1963.

Larry Blyden played a song-and-dance man who was touring Europe in a U.S.O. revue with three young, pretty ladies.  The storylines mostly centered around him becoming their father-figure, big-brother and all-around protector, sheltering them from horny servicemen.

I was thirteen that year…a very dangerous age, hormone-wise, and I could have fallen for any of the three women.  Hell, a thirteen-year-old boy could get aroused by the picture of Betty Crocker on the pancake flour box.  My particular lusting opted for Susan Silo.  She's the brunette — third from the left — in the above photo.

How much did I enjoy watching Susan on Harry's Girls?  Well, when J.F.K. was shot, a goodly portion of my grief was over the fact that news coverage preempted Harry's Girls and my chance to see her that week.  Did Oswald have to shoot the president on a Friday?  And then, the following January when the series was cancelled, I was truly crushed.  It never re-ran anywhere, and though she continued to turn up on other shows, I more or less forgot about lovely Susan.  Laura Petrie got me again on the rebound.

More than a quarter-century later, I was at a Christmas party at the offices of Cunningham-Escott-Dipene, which is one of the top agencies for voiceover performers.  This was when I was voice-directing the Garfield cartoon shows, employing many of their clients.  One of the agents there, Paul Doherty, introduced me to a delightful older gent named Lou Krugman who, alas, is no longer with us.  I am unable to find a photo of Lou to post with this but turn on TV Land at almost any hour and you'll see him, especially on various old sitcoms starring Lucille Ball.  (He played the director in that episode where Lucy got the chance to play a showgirl in a murder mystery.  On The Dick Van Dyke Show, he played Nunzio, the fellow who sold Rob Petrie a wholesale fur coat.  Here's a link to his listing in the Internet Movie Database.  As you'll see, he was in just about everything at one time or another.)

I chatted a while with Lou and then Paul came over and said, "Mark, I'd like you to meet Susan Silo."

"Susan Silo?"

Yes, Susan Silo…looking just about the same as she did on TV when I was thirteen.  I immediately launched into a bad vocal rendition of the theme song from Harry's Girls.  This shocked her because, as I said, the show has aired nowhere since the first week of 1964.  There were then no tapes around, no place I could possibly have learned the theme, but to have remembered it all those years.  (She has only recently latched onto cassettes of a few episodes.)  I immediately hired her to play a role on a Garfield that taped the following week — a role which, at that moment, I had yet to write.  She was so good, she appeared on many subsequent episodes, and many other shows I've voice-directed.

I saw Susan at the Hollywood Collectors' Show last Saturday and it reminded me that I oughta tell the above story.  We also should start a campaign to get some cable channel to run Harry's Girls and I should direct you to her web page at www.susansilo.com, where you'll see what a busy actress she is, both on-camera and doing voiceovers, and you can listen to voice demos.  If you should happen to fall in love, just remember: I saw her first.

We had a system crash last night that wiped out this page.  It has now been successfully reconstructed back to its old self with nothing lost.  This was made possible by the kindness of several readers of this website, including Carolyn Kelly, Bob Heer, "DRG4," Rephah Berg, David M. Lynch and Kurt Pirmann.  Thank you all.

I never particularly liked Bill Maher as a person but — and these rarely go together for me — I've always liked him as a stand-up comedian.  And I've really liked him as the host of Politically Incorrect, which has just aired its last original show, at least on ABC.  The show has included a lot of wrestling (in the Vince McMahon "put on a show" tradition) and has given air time to a lot of pundits who never convinced me they weren't just saying what brought them air time.  Still, I generally enjoyed his issue-based chat show and usually heard enough honest, perceptive commentary — mainly from Maher — to make it a must-see for nine years.

I especially marveled at his ability to kick-start tepid conversation and to, more often than most "hard news" guys, nail an interviewee for evasion or outright fibbing.  If I were a weasel politician, I think I'd rather face an army of Tim Russerts than one Bill Maher.

I don't know if this still works but, about two years ago, I did a newsgroup search on the guy and was amazed at the range of hatred he engendered.  Some called him a fascist; others, a communist, a misogynist, a ladies' man, etc.  Often, someone would agree with him on most issues, then dismiss him as Satanic-possessed scum the second he took one "wrong" position.  A self-described Libertarian who voted for Ralph Nader is a tough guy to pigeon-hole, but many tried.  None, I think, really succeeded…and I admire that about the guy, as well.

I always thought "politically incorrect" was a silly, meaningless term.  But if it applies to anyone, it applies to him.  The conventional wisdom seems to be that Maher was cancelled for some awkwardly-phrased remarks he uttered, a bit too soon after 9/11.  In interviews, he seems to be saying that, as well.  My friends over at ABC claim those comments — widely and deliberately misinterpreted, I believe — were merely the excuse.  One, in fact, told me months ago that Maher had ridden out the controversy and was no longer in jeopardy.  When I asked him recently what happened, he said, "It wasn't that.  It's that no one on the 10th floor ever liked Maher.  They never thought he was an ABC star or that Politically Incorrect was an ABC show."  I find it hard to believe that Jimmy Kimmel and his forthcoming program will pass those tests but there you are.

I will miss Bill Maher's show, and I look forward to his return some day soon.  Rumor has it he's dickering for a long-term deal on some cable channel for a show that would incorporate elements of Politically Incorrect but also showcase the host's talents for stand-up and sketches.  As I've said here before, I think Mssrs. Leno and Letterman are way too afraid of real spontaneity on their stages, and go to elaborate lengths to eliminate any chance of it.  If Maher is going to roar back with an unexpurgated show that is as unplanned as P.I. was, he could have a very long, successful run.  He'd certainly have a Season Pass on my TiVo.

Had a lovely time this afternoon at the Hollywood Collectors Show at the Beverly Garland Hotel in Studio City.  (The event continues tomorrow.  If you want to attend, further details can be located here.)

If you've never been to one of these, it's basically a ballroom full of celebrities selling autographed pictures, autobiographies and other collectible items — a wonderful chance for them to make some bucks and for their fans to meet them.  I got to see some old friends — Teresa Ganzel, Susan Silo, Greg Berg, Bob Bergen and others — and say hello to some folks I'd met only briefly.  For instance, the only other time I ever chatted with Warren Berlinger, it was on the set of a short-lived TV show he did in 1971 called The Funny Side.  (Anyone else remember that?  Gene Kelly was the host and I used to sneak into NBC to watch them tape and to pester Mr. Kelly with questions when he wasn't busy on the set.)  Last week, I saw Berlinger playing the party host in the production of Follies I mentioned then, so I got to tell him how good it (and he) was.

Also told Roy Stuart how good he was in a play in which I saw him.  Roy is probably best known for playing Corporal Boyle on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (that's a shot of him at left on the show) but I recall a wonderful production of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple I saw back in the late sixties at the Ivar Theater in Hollywood.  Stuart played Felix, Jesse White was Oscar and the two of them managed to wring every possible laugh out of a very funny play.  I never got to see the original combo of Walter Matthau and Art Carney on stage but I can't believe it's humanly possible to laugh harder than we laughed that night at White and Stuart.

The production was directed by Neil's brother, Danny, upon whom the character of Felix was somewhat based.  Roy told me that, throughout rehearsal, Danny kept saying to him, "That's not how I'd do that," and he [Roy] had to keep reminding him, "I'm not playing you, Danny. I'm playing Felix."

Across the room, Bruce Kimmel was doing a brisk business selling copies of his novel, Benjamin Kritzer, and the newly-released DVD of a wonderful little film he directed wrote and starred in, The First Nudie Musical.  In recent years, Bruce has turned his talents more often to producing some of the best Broadway-type CDs and he also has an unnatural relationship with Guy Haines, a camera-shy vocalist who appears on some of them.  Matter of fact, Bruce writes a daily journal over at Guy Haines's website and it's full of fun info about show biz and the theater.  While you're over there, order the novel and or the DVD.

The biggest line at the entire show was for Barbara Eden, about whom every male in the place and most of the women remarked, "God, she still looks great."  She does.  She was there all day, signing pictures and I Dream of Jeannie memorabilia (one guy brought a crate of toys) and feigning laughter at all the ha-ha hilarious remarks about her navel.  Nearby, Jamie Farr was hearing other fans ask, ad nauseam, "Where's your dress?"  I wonder if folks will ever realize that, when you meet a celebrity who's known for something special, it's nearly impossible to make a wisecrack they haven't heard 3,000 times before, often from the guy just before you.

As always, the "celebs" with the shortest lines were some of the most interesting and the ones who weren't selling anything, who were roaming about to see friends, were especially fascinating.  Chuck McCann was there and he introduced me to one of the great impressionists of all time, Will Jordan, who was telling stories in the aisles.  Every time I'm around comedians like that, I realize someone could do a helluva great low-budget TV show by just pointing a camera at guys like McCann and Jordan and having them tell show biz anecdotes.  You could probably do a solid 26 weeks just on tales of Milton Berle's penis.