A Sesame Street classic…

For months now, a day has rarely passed without someone asking me if I think there's a chance of a Comic-Con International 2021. Here is an absolutely accurate answer: No one knows. I don't mean no one outside the convention committee. I mean "no one" as in "no one."

Even if one assumes the various vaccines will be rolled out in a timely manner and with the best-possible rate of warding off the dread disease…

Even if one assumes that most anti-vaxxers who think "It could harm me" will then think, "Then again, getting the virus could also harm me" and decide the odds are better with the shots than without…

Even if the rates at which people get the disease and people die from the disease plunge…

…no one can say if there'll be a Comic-Con next July.

It's not just a matter of the convention committee deciding it's safe. It's not even a matter of health officials giving it a green light. It involves literally hundreds of factors that have to come together…

Like when will the convention center be ready for Comic-Con or any convention? San Diego's main campaign against the coronavirus is centered in that building where in a normal year, cosplayers cosplay, I host panels and everyone is front of you in the line for the restroom of your choice. It's now a major testing center and it's currently "home" to 830 otherwise-homeless human beings. Much remodeling has been done to house them. Before there can be Comic-Con, those people need to be relocated, the convention center has to be turned back into a convention center and a lot of Lysoling needs to be done.

Or like when will the city be ready for Comic-Con? A lot of hotels have closed for the duration. Some may not reopen at all. Some may take a long time to reopen. Same with restaurants and other vital services. The convention committee cannot just throw a switch and have a fully-functional San Diego suddenly appear where one used to be.

I am not trying to bring you to despair. I'm just trying to get you to not think there's an answer to the question; to stop wondering, "If they move it to August, will that be okay? How about September?" No one knows.

And besides, Comic-Con, though I love it dearly, is not a necessity. Getting lives functioning again is. Getting kids back to school and people back to work is. Rebuilding the economy is. I'll bet you can name fifty more. I'm optimistic this will happen and I hope a lot of it will happen before I get to host "Quick Draw!" again. And yes, I know Comic-Con will do a lot for the economy of San Diego and for the exhibitors and vendors.

But let's stop thinking this kind of thing is predictable. Because it isn't. No one knows.

He might just be the most beloved entertainer alive. He's certainly been my favorite current-day performer ever since I first discovered The Dick Van Dyke Show and that's still my all-time fave TV program.

And while I've admired some folks from afar and then been disappointed once I got to know them a little, he's never let me down. Just as nice as you'd expect him to be…and a great role model for how you can get older without getting old. Dick Van Dyke is 95 today. I am just greedy enough to want him to live forever and idealistic enough to think that if anyone can, it's him.

One of my favorite Broadway-style performers, Kelli O'Hara, favors us with a tune from the first show for which Stephen Sondheim wrote the score. This was in Saturday Night, which didn't get produced in 1954 as was planned because its producer, Lemuel Ayers, died. Since Mr. Sondheim became famous for the later shows he did that did get produced, Saturday Night has been staged a few times here and there. I don't think it ever excites people like Sondheim's later works did but some of the numbers, like this one, are pretty good…

Hi. Sorry I didn't post more yesterday but it was one of those days. Come to think of it, it's been one of those years. I'm just hoping it's not one of those decades.

I don't think I have anything to say about Trump's big Supreme Court loss that a thousand-plus other people on the 'net haven't said. Seems to me part of the problem we're now having is that one of the big things Trump supporters liked about the guy is a feeling that he always wins; that if you stick with him, things will always go your way. So they're having a lot of problems with the concept that he lost the election and that he keeps on losing. How many times has he lost Georgia so far? There were Confederate Generals who didn't lose Georgia that many times.

This is above and beyond the problem Trump seems to be having with the concept of Trump losing.

And that's all I have to say about that. Regarding all the news about vaccines, I've decided to take the same attitude about them that I've had about the whole disease from Day One: We don't know what's going to happen and when. The news obviously is better but I think we're all just wildly speculating about when we'll get it, how many people will get it, which one we'll get, what problems there will be in getting it, what side effects there may be, etc. It all may work out well before we expect but I'm taking the "It'll Happen When It Happens" outlook.

Back later today with more. Maybe.

I said, writing about a recent video link, that I preferred the song "Supercalifragi…" (well, you know the one I mean) when it was sung more like it was in the original Mary Poppins film rather than in the stage version where they fiddled around with it. But I don't mind unusual arrangements of songs when they're not in the context of the story for which they were intended. Here's a fun interpretation of the theme song from The Flintstones sung by Jacob Collier, Jacob Collier, Jacob Collier, Jacob Collier, Jacob Collier and also Jacob Collier…

• They're saying today's SCOTUS decision is "the end of the road" for Trump's crusade to overturn the election. I thought his last loss was "the end of the road." And the one before and the one before and the one before and the one before…

• Joe Biden and Kamala Harris named Time magazine Person(s) of the Year. Trump insists he won and has a mountain of evidence they cheated.

We haven't had a variant version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" on this blog for a long time. This seems like the perfect one for tonight…

I doubt there are many people reading this blog who think Donald Trump won the election and is being denied his rightful second term due to fraud. But if you know someone who believes that, see if you can get them to read this article by Steve Benen. It's about how, once again, the Trump forces claim there's tons of evidence of fraud when they're arguing their case in the court of public opinion. But when they get into a real court and have to actually produce such evidence, they retreat from those claims.

The much-admired artist Richard Corben died December 2 at the age of 80 following heart surgery. His work came to prominence around 1969, give or take a few years, in the fan press and the world of underground comics. His style was unique with an awesome sense of depth and roundness and lighting effects that no one else could duplicate; not that many didn't try. He had a technical skill, particularly at coloring via techniques of his own invention. Accomplished artists would look at Corben's pages and ask, "How does he do that?"

He was, at least at first, fiercely independent. I remember a conversation between Joe Kubert and Jack Kirby early in '71 when both were editing and drawing comics for DC. Both had seen and been impressed by Corben's work in underground comics…some of the first to be published in color. Kubert explained how he had contacted Corben and offered him work from DC, expecting the artist to leap at the chance. Joe was surprised when Corden said — this is me remembering from long ago what Kubert said Corben said — "Thank you but I just want to do my own work."

Joe said he was amazed at the turndown but that they'd spoken for a while and, Joe said, "I wish I could do that." It was one of the first times an artist was "discovered" in the fan or underground press and offered work for one of the majors…and it may have been the first time the offer was declined. Jack said, "Good for him. He knows you don't have to work for DC or Marvel to do comics."

Before that year was out, Corben's work did start appearing occasionally in Warren's magazines, Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella. And while he ultimately did work for DC and Marvel and other houses, it was always a matter of them publishing what Corben did as opposed to him trying to do what they published. He also started his own company, Fantagor Press, which published his work the way he wanted it published. He later collaborated more and segued into animation and wider areas but he managed to retain an enviable amount of control and independence.

I never met Richard Corben and neither did most people who worked in comics. He rarely attended conventions or put himself in the spotlight. But I sure thought his creations were amazing and so did most people who worked in comics…or read them. His widow Dona has announced that she will continue to manage the publication of his work and I'm sure there will always be a great demand for it.

Again, thanks to all who've sent cash donations for this blog which — and this amazes me as much as it might amaze you — will be twenty years old a week from tomorrow. I still haven't thought of anything special to do for the occasion. Maybe I'll come out in support of overturning the election for Trump or I'll post a great recipe for cole slaw. Just to shake things up.

Things are peaceful here these days. I continue to wince at every new coronavirus record we break and to think how different things would be if back in March, Donald Trump had told everyone to wear a mask and to stop gathering in groups for a month or two. But that might have helped everyone, not just the people who supported him.

Please stop writing and asking me what's going to happen to the comic book industry in the next year or two. You don't know, I don't know and neither does anybody else. I believe there will be an industry and at some point, it will stabilize and there will be some clear business models to follow. Before we get there though, there will be much uncertainty and a lot of executive-types who'll come and go like Spinal Tap drummers.

Comic conventions? They'll happen when they happen. No one knows about them either.

We are in a time when everyone needs two things. I mean, besides paper towels and toilet paper. We need common sense and we need patience. Common sense tells us to stay home as much as we can, wear a mask when we can't and to not go to parties or gatherings, no matter how much shpilkes you may have.

"Shpilkes" is one of those Yiddish words that comes in handier than the corresponding word in English. It means restlessness, nervous energy, sitting on the proverbial pins and needles. I'll use it in a sentence: "He couldn't sit still…he had shpilkes." Some people would say "…the shpilkes."

It goes with the part about having patience. This thing will go away. We will hug, kiss and shake hands as we always did…maybe not as freely right away but one of these days. I don't know when. You don't know when. But fretting about it won't make it happen any sooner…and rushing is probably the reason we're now in a Second Wave or a Third Wave or whichever number Wave this is. We all know this. We just have to keep reminding each other about what we all know.

As I wrote back here, I was disappointed by the stage musical version of Mary Poppins that Disney took to Broadway and elsewhere in the mid-2000's. I thought it lacked heart and magic…and a Mary Poppins with neither of those is not much good, is she? A few great moments came from what they retained from the original movie, though not necessarily from how they staged that material for the stage.

Here we have two numbers from the show performed outta-context for the Royal Variety Performance of 2019. The first, "Feed the Birds," is pretty wonderful I think because (a) it's just the song, arguably the best one in the movie, staged simply and without gimmicks, and (b) The Ol' Bird Lady is played by Petula Clark, who is — as she's been since well before "Downtown" — just a wonderful, magical performer.

The second number is "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" and give me some credit for typing that without looking it up or cut-and-pasting. That too is a great song but not, in my opinion, here. It's like they were trying to make it not sound like the version we all know and we (I'm only speaking for some of us) would have preferred to hear it done more like the version we know and love. Different is not always better.

But maybe you'll like what I didn't like or even not like what I did. It's a free country. Why, we're even making the guy who got the most votes President, which we don't always do in America.

I get many of my home services (Internet, phone, etc.) from Spectrum Communications. Occasionally, I have problems with their service. This has been true with all the other companies I've had providing services like DirecTV, A.T.& T., Charter Communications, Time-Warner Cable, etc. I've never found one to be markedly better than the others but I have to live with one of them.

Here's something they all seem to do in one form or another and it probably bothers me more than it should but, hey, that's what ranting on blogs is for.

I call them about a problem. I may have to call them several times but eventually, it gets solved. At various times during this process, I find myself talking to a computer that asks me to rate the employee with whom I have just conversed. They ask me was the person polite? Did the person provide a satisfactory solution to my problem? Did the person seen knowledgeable? Did the person explain the problem to me in a way I could understand? Et cetera.

And the problem with these questions is that, 85% of the time, what I really want to say, but the computer doesn't give me the opportunity to say, is "The person was fine. It's your company that's the problem!"

I have the same problem with some food delivery services. I order something to eat and after it arrives, I'm asked by text or a recorded voice on the phone to rate the person who delivered the meal to me. Were they on time? Were they polite?

There's no opportunity to rate the person who prepared the food — the person who put mayo and lettuce on it despite my clearly typed message, "NO MAYO AND NO LETTUCE!" The timeliness of the food's arrival is treated as the responsibility of the delivery person whereas its lateness, if late it be, is more likely a function of the food-preparer not getting it done promptly…or it could be that the company is just screwed-up. I am only being asked to rate the person who is probably least responsible for quality control, paid the least and the most easily-replaced.

And often, my options are all choices that do not apply. Spectrum always asks me if the person I spoke to provided a satisfactory solution to my problem. Sometimes, they do. Sometimes, they can't. One recent call to Spectrum resulted in the Spectrum employee on the other end of the line telling me it was beyond their ability and jurisdiction to fix my problem and they'd have someone in another division call me.

So how do I answer whether that person provided a satisfactory solution to my problem? My options are Yes and No. So it could be "Yes, they weren't able to fix it so they said someone else would call me" or "No, they weren't able to fix it so they said someone else would call me."

And then no one else called me. How do I rate the person who never called me? That's a rhetorical question because they never ask me to rate him or her.

Here's yet another unusual interpretation of the song "The Rhythm of Life" from the show Sweet Charity. This is, of course, the Pontarddulais Male Choir which bills itself as "The most successful competitive male voice choir in Wales." This is from a rehearsal and they're doing the variant set of lyrics that leave out the irony and sarcasm of the original…