Paul Krugman just posted this on Twitter about Rudy Giuliani, whose Manhattan apartment was raided this morning by Federal Investigators in connection with a criminal investigation into Mr. Giuliani's dealings in Ukraine…

Does Rudy Giuliani ever think about how easy and pleasant his life could have been? He could have spent the last 20 years giving lucrative speeches about Leadership, consisting of a few nouns, a few verbs, and 9/11.

It's one of those things I don't expect to ever understand. There was a time when the then-Mayor of New York was the most respected, beloved figure in this country. Now, Democrats hate him because of his advocacy for Trump, Republicans hate him because of his failures for Trump and it doesn't look like Trump is even that fond of him these days. What a way to squander good will.

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Keeping with the theme of things I don't expect to ever understand…

Unlike way too many people in this country, I think the folks at the CDC know more about disease prevention than I could ever possibly know. Yesterday, I took a long walk sans mask to my bank and then to a restaurant. I donned the mask before entering the bank and just forgot that I had it on so it stayed on until I got back home.

It's such a simple, innocuous thing to do, wearing a mask. When I hear Tucker Carlson say that making your children wear one is a form of child abuse that should be reported to the police…well, I get why he says such things. It's his job to say whatever he thinks his viewers want to hear, no matter how stupid it is. I just don't get why so many people want to be fed such foolish, usually demonstrably-untrue items.

It's like there's a list they circulate at Fox News of things that Americans hold dear and feel they cannot live without…things like their homes, their cars, their TV, chocolate, football, Walmart, etc. And every day when an on-air Fox News employee reports to work, they're expected to pick one from the list then go on camera and claim that Liberals are plotting to take it away from everyone. The other day, Larry Kudlow — the "economic adviser" who as far as I can tell has never been right about anything — chose "hamburgers." Next week, it'll probably be Biden planning to outlaw clean socks.

My chum Charlie Frye is The Rubberband Man…

…because no matter how bad things may seem at times, they could be worse. You could be working for Scott Rudin.

That's the unspoken message in this article about the various ways in which the TV/movie/Broadway producer allegedly abused those in his employ. Interestingly, there's no sex scandal in there. It sounds more like a desperate need for Anger Management. I have worked for people who screamed and fired and threw things but not like this.

And one of the unwritten morals of this story is that if you're important in show business — and maybe certain other fields as well — no matter how bad you are, there will always be someone willing to work for you.

Another rendition of the "Meet the Flintstones" theme. This one is from the Metropole Orchestra and features the great jazz trumpeter Clark Terry, who played with everyone including Count Basie, Duke Ellington and even the Tonight Show band for a long time. Like all jazz renditions of this song, it starts as the Flintstones theme we all know and then wanders off in other, delightful directions…

"A 412? What's a 412???"

If you don't get the reference, just ignore it. Here's this morning's most interesting news item…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased its guidelines Tuesday on the wearing of masks outdoors, saying fully vaccinated Americans don't need to cover their faces anymore unless they are in a big crowd of strangers. And those who are unvaccinated can go outside without masks in some cases, too.

That's nice in some ways but it's a special boon to those who think mask-wearing has always been unnecessary for them and maybe for everybody. It means people won't yell at them on the street for going around without one…and the rest of us will wonder if that person not wearing a mask really is fully-vaccinated. A high percentage of Americans are not.

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It was announced this morning that the prolific TV-movie producer Charles "Chuck" Fries died last Thursday at the age of 92. I awoke this morning to a message from a reader of this site saying, "After reading an obit in today's Los Angeles Times, I thought I'd go over to newsfromme to search for articles about him. Except for a TeeVee Talk, the others were about potatoes…"

This reminded me that I need to seem to periodically remind folks that this blog is not devoted to writing about everyone in show business or comics, nor is it about posting obituaries for all of them. I post about people in those arenas whose deaths do not seem to me to be getting enough respectful attention and I also have to think that I have something worth saying about them — a special observation, a personal encounter, etc.

The fact that I don't write about someone doesn't mean I hold a grudge against them or think they weren't important or anything of the sort. I just had nothing to say. I occasionally get an angry e-mail that says "Why didn't you write about So-and-so? Did you hate them or something?" No. I hate no one. I just had nothing to add…and sometimes, I just never heard of them.

I dunno if the guy who wrote to me this morning knew I'd worked briefly for Chuck Fries' company. He might have but not known that even though I was paid by his firm, I never met Mr. Fries. I know nothing about him you can't find out by reading obits like this one or this one. I simply have nothing to contribute.

Another rendition of the "Meet the Flintstones" theme. This one is an a cappella version by Kartiv2 and of course, it features monkeys from Hampi in India…

My phone number must have gotten on a new list that's sold to scammers because the number of such calls has increased a lot the last week…

• Three robocalls that claim to be from Social Security telling me my number's been suspended…
• One call telling me that the MAC computer I don't own is hopelessly infected with viruses that are spreading my credit card info around the globe…
• A call from an agency that says there's a lien on my home and I'll be evicted within 48 hours but of course, they can help me…
• An agency that wants some data from me so they can ship me the new, life-saving back brace that they say my doctor ordered for me (although they don't know his name) and I say he didn't…

…and then there's this call that came in about an hour ago,  A youngish-sounding lady who said she was named Linda (so I assume she is not named Linda) ascertained that I was Mark and then — well, here. I'll let you listen in…

NOT LINDA: This is Linda with the Health and Wellness Center calling to do this year's evaluation…

ME: What in the name of Dr. Oz is the Health and Wellness Center?

NOT LINDA: We're an agency that works with your physician to evaluate your health and wellness and to connect you with supplies you need. According to my records here, I spoke to you last year on April 26.

ME: According to my memory here, you didn't speak to me last year — or ever, unless you were the lady who tried to get me to extend the expired warranty on a car I never owned.

NOT LINDA: Oh no, we definitely spoke last year. I have the complete record of our evaluation in front of me.

ME: Really? What was wrong with me then?

NOT LINDA: This is confidential material. We do not disclose the medical information that we collect.

ME: You're keeping that information secret from the person who told it to you?

NOT LINDA: I don't make the policies here, sir. Now, if you'll just answer a few questions…

ME: You said you work with my physician. I changed physicians last year. Which one are you working with?

NOT LINDA: Again, we don't give out that information.

ME: You can't tell me who my doctor is? Let's try it this way. Is it Doctor Geisel?

NOT LINDA: Yes, yes, Doctor Geisel. I have his name along with all your other doctors right here.

ME: You know, Linda, I know we have a long relationship dating all the way back to last year when you didn't call me but I'm beginning to think you're lying to me.

NOT LINDA: Sir, I assure you I am not.

ME: But that's okay because I just lied to you. I didn't change physicians last year and my doctor's name is not Doctor Geisel. But tell me…do you enjoy doing this all day? I mean, calling up strangers and lying to them?

NOT LINDA: Listen, I'm just trying to make a living.

ME: That's what I said when I held up that liquor store and shot the manager. And yes, I'm lying to you again. It was a 24 hour Subway sandwich place.

And that was where she hung up on me. I can't stop these calls from coming in and I'd vote for Donald Trump if he could. But at least I can have a little fun with them. And generate some content for this blog.

Meet Rollie, a southern three-banded armadillo. And thank Eric Gjovaag for telling me about Rollie, the southern three-banded armadillo…

To the surprise of no one…

The 93rd Academy Awards tried to cover for a lost year in film with a boatload of intrigue: A change in venue that allowed for a maskless audience, a movie-style production led by director Steven Soderbergh, and a change in format with a surprise ending. None of that could save the Oscars from turning in the lowest rated telecast in the show's history — by a sizable margin.

The prestigious awards show drew an average of 9.8 million viewers for ABC on Sunday, according to early Nielsen numbers. That's 58% below the ratings from last year's show, the previous lowest-rated Oscars, which brought in in 23.6 million viewers.

I caught about three minutes of The Oscars in online clips. The "In Memoriam" reel was probably quite good if you'd graduated from the Evelyn Wood Academy of Speed-Reading.

Actually, I caught the whole thing on my TiVo but didn't watch any of it there…but I may. A lady friend asked that I record it in case she wants to watch it in Frequent Fast-Forwarding mode one of these days.  I doubt we will. I not only hadn't seen any of the nominated movies, I hadn't even heard of most of them. If we do watch, we'll get through the thing in about the time they allotted for the "In Memoriam" reel.

Scanning the web this morn, I see a few folks who loved the ceremony but most seem to have thought it was abysmal…and most of them seem to have forgotten that that's the normal morning-after-the-Oscars consensus. It's always a few people loving it but a lot of people saying it was the worst Academy Awards show ever, which is what they said about last year's and the one before and the one before and the one before…

We live in a world where this year's Oscarcast is always the worst ever and we long for the good ol' days of previous Oscarcasts which we once called the worst ever.

Any minute now, the ratings — which have been widely-projected as the lowest ever — will be out. Assuming they live down to those projections, many reasons will be cited, most of them Pandemic-related. While those will all be valid, I hope someone remembers another possibility: That audiences are just getting sick of seeing people they consider grossly-overpaid and over-honored celebrating each other for the greatest achievement that any human being can possibly achieve — being involved with a memorable movie.

For those of you whose Sunday nights are not complete without a little John Oliver…

Another rendition of the "Meet the Flintstones" theme. This one, for which I have Jim Newman to thank, is by Tom Kaufmann playing his limestone lithophone. This is a very appropriate instrument on which to play this song…

Mike Everleth read what I wrote about the show I did for Kroffts with the Bay City Rollers and he has three questions…

1. What was the order of production? Did you do all the season's musical performances in a few days? Then film the Krofft character sequences?

Each show that was produced was made up of about ten different segments — opening musical number, opening monologue, "Horror Hotel" segment, "Lost Island" segment, comedy blackouts with the Rollers, etc. We wrote thirteen of each segment in advance, working out of the offices the Kroffts then had out in the Valley. Then the whole operation moved into offices on the KTLA lot in Hollywood and we began taping and filming.

I don't remember the order these were done but we shot thirteen opening numbers over a day or three, then thirteen monologues over a day or three, then thirteen of this and thirteen of that. Finally, someone — happily, not I — went into an editing room for a couple of weeks and assembled thirteen hour shows which were later cut into thirteen half-hour shows.

2. Was the concert audience there all the time? The opening scene feels like there's no audience, but we do see them later. And why are they seated so far away from the band?

The live audience was brought in for one or two days when we were shooting some of the musical numbers. Footage of the audience was then edited into other musical numbers or material where we wanted the sense of it being done in front of an audience. But a lot of it wasn't. That was pretty standard practice for variety shows then.

Want to hear about one of the easiest jobs I've ever had in show business? The other two writers — Rowby Goren and Lorne Frohman — and I took turns doing the audience hosting for those tapings. Doing "warm-up" for bleachers full of fourteen-year-old girls who were about to see The Bay City Rollers perform was like throwing medium-rare filet mignon out to a band of starving coyotes. At one point, the Stage Manager came over and told me the director had asked me to change the "warm-up" into a "cool-down."

I don't know why the audience wasn't closer. Maybe the guy who designed the set-up was afraid the young ladies there would storm the stage and devour our stars. But I don't think there was as much distance as it appeared on the TV screen.

3. Where was this filmed? On just one set, i.e., was the same spot used for the concert and "Horror Hotel," just dressed differently? Or was there a big soundstage with different sets?

The film stuff with the Rollers running around an amusement park was shot one day at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, not far from Disneyland. There was another day of filming visual gags at a park in Burbank. Everything else was taped on Stage 6 at KTLA where hundreds if not thousands of network and syndicated TV shows were taped.

They set the whole thing up for the musical numbers and we did those. Then over a weekend, they took every bit of that scenery out and installed the sets for "Horror Hotel" and after we shot thirteen of those, those sets disappeared and were replaced by the sets for "Lost Island" and so on.

I worked on several TV shows on Stage 6 there and it was amazing how it could be a dense jungle in there on Tuesday and on Wednesday, they were taping Solid Gold or a game show in there. A lot of the "magic" of television is made by set designers, the tech crew and super-heroes who are referred to as "grips."

I should mention: On Stage 6, we also taped a prime-time special for NBC with the Bay City Rollers and also a syndicated special. These were done after the Saturday morning series so the stage crew had to bring back parts of the concert set and bring back parts of the "Horror Hotel" set and others, and we brought in another live(ly) audience one evening for the music portions of that show.

The NBC one was a done-at-the-last-minute quickie to promote that year's new Saturday morning series and I think we wrote it in three days, taped it in two and delivered it to the network about an hour before it had to air on the East Coast. I did a number of those Saturday morn preview specials — at least one for each of the three major networks then — and they were included in a recent series by the fine writer Andy Mangels, who wrote a multi-part history of such programs for RetroFan magazine.

Have you ever tried cooking with clarified butter, aka ghee? I haven't but it seems popular with some of the online chefs whose videos I watch in a usually-fruitless search for a recipe I feel like I could prepare. Usually, that's limited to egg dishes but only the part where I crack the eggs into a bowl and then spend some time fishing out pieces of shell.

But Friday morning, I was in a Trader Joe's and I spotted a jar of ghee and thought, "Why not?" I have no specific cooking adventure in mind for it but according to the date stamped on the jar, I have 186 years, 9 months and 10 days to use it…and then on 2/4/2208, it won't even be inedible. It just won't be at its best. I probably have at least half a century after that before it might taste rancid or stale.

I should be able to figure out a use for it by then. And just in case I can't and it survives me, I've got that all figured out. I'm going to put a clause in my will leaving what's left in the jar then to Elroy Jetson. Maybe he can share it with Astro.

Yesterday, I linked you to a video of the "Springtime For Hitler" number from the musical of The Producers as it was performed in Germany. We discussed how it contained the "dance challenge" segment that was in the number when it was trying-out in Chicago but cut when it moved to Broadway.

Here's a clip of the same number from that Chicago try-out with the "dance challenge" still a part of it. And it's in English. Thanks to someone named Brian who apparently has no last name…