I love this video. Take it full-screen on your monitor. 44 performers in the Broadway revival of A Chorus Line demonstrate what the show would look like in The Age of Social Distancing…

Groucho on The Dick Cavett Show in 1969…

Here's my all-time favorite musical group…Spike Jones and the City Slickers with their massacre rendition of "Twelfth Street Rag." Yeah, The Beatles were great but could John or Paul play a clarinet that went through several human heads? I think not. And I'll betcha that's Billy Barty playing the bottom half of Elvis, back in the days when other shows wouldn't show him below the waist…

Properly masked and gloved, I took a walk yesterday afternoon — to the ATM at my bank to deposit a $12.47 check, to a corner mailbox to mail off my WGA dues statement and, since I was in the area, a McDonald's. Since this thing started, the closest I've been to a place that prepares food, not counting my kitchen, was the drive-thru at a Pollo Loco. Before any wiseguy suggests that what McDonald's offers is not food: You oughta see what comes out of my kitchen.

I ordered via their app on my iPhone then walked over and actually went into the McDonald's. I've heard that a lot of their outlets have closed the going-inside part and just operate the drive-thru. This particular McDonald's has no drive-thru and the alterations within were impressive and serious. Everyone in the place was masked and gloved and the counterpersons were behind large, stylish plexiglass panels. The entire counter was not shielded; just the part where you stand when you place your order.

The floor was marked with one-way arrows to lead you into a curving line that snaked all through the dining room up to where you order and it was marked off with WAIT HERE signs spaced six feet apart. At the same time, other signs informed you that to sit at a table and consume your meal there was forbidden. Someone had given this a lot of thought and I felt about as safe as I could have felt in a public place.

When I walked in, I was the only one there so I short-cut the long-and-curving line and showed the counterperson the order number on my app. My credit card had already been charged so all he had to do was hand me my bag o' fries, burger and McNuggets, which was not ready yet. As I waited, a kerchiefed lady came in and as she waited for her order, we got to talking from behind my mask and her kerchief.

On the way in, we'd both passed a rather sad-looking homeless gent outside, leaning on a shopping cart that probably contained everything he owned in the world. He asked me to help him get a meal and I said, "On my way out" and went on in. She'd done the same and she said to me, "I feel like I should give that poor man five or ten bucks." I said, "You put up ten and I'll put up ten and we'll get him a $20.00 gift card." She agreed, we bought one and on our way out together, I handed it to the fellow. He was very grateful and thanked us about eighteen times.

As we walked off, he was still looking at that card like a tiny miracle in hand. You can't get much of a miracle these days for twenty bucks but I guess when you have nothing, anything can be a miracle. I can't quite explain it but I think that meant more to him than if we'd just given him a twenty-dollar bill.

And I felt a strong connection to that lady even though I didn't know her name or even what she looked like. It was a nice moment and when I got home, the fries were still warm and so was I. I think I need to get out of my house and take more walks.

A lesson in dating with Rowan Atkinson…

We had a fun time last night with our little online discussion. 52 of you were on with us as Marv Wolfman and I talked about comics and we were also joined by Marvel writer-editor Scott Edelman and by my best buddy Sergio Aragonés. I'm going to keep doing these, experimenting with guests, topics, formats and software. I'm not sure where I'm going with this but you might enjoy participating in some of the trips. Watch this space for details.

An actress I know called me the other day to say she'd acquired a supply of really good breathe-thru masks — not the kind that medical personnel need to wear because they get first dibs on those. But these are, she said, some of the best that are proper for civilians to wear and I'll try to tell you what they are once I have a reason to go out and test them.

She brought me two and wouldn't allow me to pay her cash for them. She was, however, willing to accept two rolls of paper towels and two rolls of toilet paper. Those are apparently becoming the coin of the realm. You're considered rich these days not if you have lots of money but if you have lots of the quicker picker-upper.

And by the way: I got another Instacart delivery yesterday. I was going to tip my Designated Shopper but she didn't have change for a Charmin.

No matter what happens in this world, you can go online and find someone protesting it. A lot of folks are upset that there will be no Comic-Con in San Diego this year as if the virus that's killing so many people can be ignored and the con would be just as it has always been. I guess they're a subset of the folks who who are demanding that everything be reopened, in some cases immediately. I saw this guy on the news and decided to get a frame-grab of him…

Assuming he's not a parody — and it's getting harder and harder to be sure about that kind of thing — what's the position here? That COVID-19 (which as Kellyanne Conway will tell you is the nineteenth COVID) isn't really dangerous but "I always wear a Hazmat suit while protesting"? Is that the premise?

The closing of most parts of this country was quick because a lot of people were scared — rightfully so, I think. The reopening will be slow for the same reason. I'm leaving the Fortress of Solitude here not when any elected official tells me…not even when Dr. Fauci tells me…but when I tell me, and that'll have a lot to do with what my personal physician tells me. That may be a while.

Thurl Ravenscroft and his deep, deep voice spoke for Tony the Tiger, sang "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" in the Chuck Jones version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and was in so many Disney projects that in 1995, he was designated an official Disney Legend.  A lot of his work was done as part of various quartets, especially the Mellomen.  Here's a commercial they did for some TV show to celebrate and sell the 1957 Plymouth.  Thanks to Tom Wagner for telling me about this…

Here's a nice long interview of Craig Ferguson, interrogated by Kathie Lee Gifford. I miss having Craig Ferguson on my TV. When he talked honestly about the world and his experiences — as opposed to trying for laughs and dancing — he was one of the most interesting people to ever host a network talk show…

I've been doing a lot of interviews today about the decision to cancel Comic-Con this year. Here's how it's being covered in The San Diego Union-Tribune.

I meant what I said in it. I feel sorry for the kid who's been working on a project he hoped to sell there or a job he'd hoped to get there. I feel sorry for the person who's been making a costume they hoped to wear there and for the dealer who expected that certain deals or sales there would bolster his or her business. Or for the person who dreamed of going there finally and this was the year. Or for the writers or artists or actors or…

Well, everyone. Everyone who was going to go there and have a good time and maybe boost their business a little.

Respect to the operators of Comic-Con International. It's a bitch to put that thing on every year and it must be at least a quintuple-bitch to call if off and deal with the refunds and the hotels and the local businesses and the convention center and the exhibitors and the San Diego police and the Chamber of Commerce and the unions and the travel agencies and the parking concessions and the insurance companies and I'll bet I could make this list ten times as long if I knew more about how the con operates. I know enough to know how miraculous it is that they pull it off every year and putting it off must be tougher.

Don't whine about it. It's just another loss from this fuckin' pandemic and far from the saddest one. But they had to do it…and good for them for doing it now. I just have to figure out where I'm going to cosplay as Princess Leia this year.

As advertised, the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber are being posted on YouTube for limited times. You have about 47 hours from the time of this posting to watch The Phantom of the Opera, which is the longest-running show in the history of Broadway. We will all be dead and buried before any other show even challenges that record…

• Since the Comic-Con in San Diego is canceled for this year, I intend to spend July 22-26 wandering the streets aimlessly, hosting panels with anyone I run into.

To the surprise of almost no one, there will be no Comic-Con in San Diego in 2020. The official announcement — I told you one would be coming — can be read here.

Johnny Carson was famously angry at NBC for not preserving the tapes and kinescopes of the first ten or so years of his Tonight Show. The other day here, we linked you to an excerpt from one of the few shows from that era that has survived and it's mentioned in this article from the Library of Congress about their collection of Carson programs.

Things are fine here in Mark's Fortress of Solitude where I'm amply-stocked with the necessities of life. I have enough to not worry I'll run out but not so much that I fall into the classification of Hoarder. A few neighbors and I are sharing our respective inventories and I passed out a few masks to folks who needed them.

I'm not paying a whole lot of attention to public debates about when the country should "reopen" but it strikes me that a lot of those advocating for doing it soon and hard are forgetting something. Governments can lift "shutdown" orders but they can't (or shouldn't) force businesses to reopen if their proprietors think the customers aren't there yet. Just because a movie theater is open doesn't mean moviegoers will come flocking in. A lot of us are going to be avoiding crowds for a while.

Tonight is that online conference I'm doing with special guest Marv Wolfman. I have a lot of e-mails asking if I'll record it and put it online. Yes to the first part. I haven't decided on the second yet. I'm going to wait and see just how big a fool I make of myself. My plan now is to do more of these over an array of topics but I may experiment with some other platforms that will make the shows available to all, at least for their live webcast. Zoom is great for conferencing and I'm using it well for business-type meetings but I think I need something else.

There are some days when you just have to re-watch certain scenes from certain movies…