I've received a lot of e-mail asking me what I think of the new movie, Joker. I think I haven't seen it and I don't know when I will. I do get the feeling that the filmmakers made at least nine or ten completely different versions of it, all quite different from one another in the levels of violence and the political messaging, and that everyone who's reviewing it is seeing a different version.

And when some folks tell me "It's the Joker from the comic books," I wonder "Which comic books?" Because I think I've seen at least a dozen distinctly different characterizations of that villain in comics I've read. In one or two, he didn't even seem that much like a villain.

I forgot to mention it but last Thursday night, I was up at U.C.L.A. speaking to a class of future (they hope) Animation Writers. It was a class taught by my buddy Brooks Wachtel, who knows so much about the art/craft that he doesn't need guest speakers but invites people like me in, anyway. The students were bright and attentive and they asked real good questions, many of them about the process of being a writer, not just of cartoons but anything. I'm not much help advising anyone on how to break into the field, having last had that problem in 1978. The business has maybe changed a little since then. But I hope they got something out of what I had to say. I like talking to students like that once in a while because I usually think I get something out of hearing what I have to say.

Halloween is coming soon. That means that people are sending me every possible link and news item that mentions candy corn, an alleged food I have said here I think is horrible. Since I gave up candy of all kinds, my campaign against the stuff is pretty hollow and I no longer have any emotions invested in it. If you want to hear someone rant about its evils, go listen to Lewis Black. He rants way better than I do on the topic. In fact, he rants better than I do about everything since he screams all the time and I yell about once every three years.

My dislike of cole slaw, however, remains firm since restaurants keep interpreting a request for "no cole slaw" to mean "make sure I get cole slaw." That's all I ever really had against the stuff apart from the fact that it's repulsive and disgusting and probably fatal if taken internally. For me, anyway.

• Apparently, the part of the Constitution that covers impeaching the President has a small loophole we didn't know about.  It doesn't apply if the one who might be impeached thinks the process isn't fair to him.  Bill Clinton's probably thinking, "Why didn't I know about that?"

Ricky Gervais is interviewed for 60 Minutes Australia…

I've decided that until Donald Trump leaves office — and maybe even after — I will feature one story each day about what he's doing to The World, America, The Rule of Law, The Dignity of the Executive Branch and himself. He, of course, is concerned only with the last of these. I've decided to also post one bit of bad news for him for that day. I'm fairly confident there will always be one. So here's today's…

Today's Bad News for Donald Trump
A Federal Judge has tossed outta court, Trump's suit claiming that he doesn't have to hand over eight years of his tax returns to an investigation in the state of New York.

Today's Outrage by Donald Trump
Trump and his Giuliani-grade legal team are trying a ridiculous argument: That it's unconstitutional to investigate the affairs of the President of the United States because he can't be punished except by impeachment. So not only would he be above the law but so would anyone who committed crimes in his service.

The New York Times has corrected its obit on Rip Taylor…

Correction: Oct. 7, 2019
An earlier version of this obituary misstated Mr. Taylor's role on the animated television series "The Jetsons." He did voice work for one episode, "Elroy in Wonderland," when the show was revived in the 1980s; he did not provide the voice of Elroy on the original series, seen in the 1960s.

No doubt dozens of Jetsons fans, if not hundreds, informed them of their error. Donald Trump is probably jealous of us for being able to get the Times to change what they print.

I think Rip Taylor would have been very happy to see or know all the attention his passing has gotten in the media. It was hard to tell what would make Rip happy. The New York Times has an obit but unfortunately it includes this…

Mr. Taylor's voice proved to be a bankable commodity. In the 1960s, he did voice work as the son, Elroy, on The Jetsons. He was nominated for an Emmy for playing the voice of Uncle Fester in the television adaptation of The Addams Family.

I could have told you when I was ten years old that the voice of Elroy on The Jetsons was Daws Butler. Rip did a guest voice on the revival of that series in the mid-eighties. He actually didn't do that much voice work, at least in cartoons. When I worked with him, I sure got the impression that he wasn't even all that interested in performing when there wasn't a live audience present to laugh and applaud.

Speaking of which, I got an e-mail from someone named Jillian asking, "With Rip Taylor's recent death, I'd like to know how he came about to be in Garfield and Friends. Did he have a grandkid who watched the show?" Nope. I don't think Rip had any kids or grandkids but he was on the show because I wrote a part that I thought was right for him and I called his agent and booked him. And that day, I came to the above impression.

At the time, he was enjoying a bit of increased attention on TV. Various shows (Mr. Leno's, especially) were hiring him for cameos where he'd come on and do his great entrance — marching through the audience to the tune of "Happy Days Are Here Again" and throwing confetti — and that was all he'd do. We talked about it and he was not about to turn down a chance to be on television but he was frustrated that none of the folks hiring him seemed to want him to do any of his actual act. I didn't say this out loud but I kinda thought he was one of those comedians who was funnier than his own act.

Here's my pal John Fugelsang talking about the enemies of Christianity. To John, it has nothing to do with them self-identifying as Christian and everything to do with them following the teachings of You-Know-Who…

My friend Christine Pedi was a close friend of Rip Taylor's. She just posted a wonderful remembrance of the guy on her Facebook page and I think this link will take you to it.

Donald Trump Jr. claims to be outraged that Hunter Biden may have profited from being related to someone in the White House. This is a little like Jeff Bezos saying it's wrong to make money online. Russ Choma lists some of the conflicts of interest of the Trump clan.

I'm not sure what to write about comedian Charles Elmer "Rip" Taylor Jr., who died today at the age of 84. He made a lot of people laugh including, at times, me…but that was on TV. Our paths crossed often, including one time when I directed him doing voices in a cartoon. The Rip Taylor I met in person was sad, suspicious of people, shy, withdrawn and I probably should throw the word "brooding" in here somewhere.

A mutual friend of ours said, "When Rip's not working, he's miserable because he figures no one wants him, no one loves him, no one will ever want him again. And when he is working, he's miserable because he knows that sooner or later, that job will end and he'll be back to not working."

He wasn't the crazy, loud, confetti-throwing extrovert off-stage and at least around me, people were sometimes noticeably disappointed that he wasn't That Guy. I may be dead wrong about this but my theory is that he couldn't be That Guy because he was so depressed…and he was depressed because people he met were so disappointed in him not being That Guy. (There's a logic in this theory somewhere but you may have to study it carefully to understand what I'm getting at.)

But he was wonderful to his friends. He really loved the people who didn't expect him to be his manic on-screen self and he cared very, very deeply about the people who cared about him. He could go on and on endlessly about how wonderful this friend of his was on her TV show or that friend of his was in that new play — and he really meant it. The man loved show business. He loved people in show business. He loved entertaining people when he had that opportunity. And he was very, very humble and genuinely moved when people appreciated him.  An awful lot of people did.

So last night, I took my great friend Jewel Shepard to the Writers Guild Theater to see Renée Zellweger do about as good a job as humanly possible playing Judy Garland in the closing years of her life. They're already talking Oscar for her and it'll be a hard performance to beat…but there oughta be a little bit of Oscar Buzz (at least a hum) for Darci Shaw who plays Young Judy in flashback sequences. I think I know the answer to this and it's "no" but has there ever been a case where the Best Acting award and the Supporting award went to two people playing the same person in the same movie?

Judy is the story of Ms. Garland struggling to make a living and keep custody of her two children in the late sixties (she died in '69). I sensed a lot of factual fiddling. In an early scene that couldn't have been earlier than '67, she and her kids make a stage appearance for which she is paid a measly $150. True Fact: In July of '67, Judy did a two-week stint at the Palace Theater on Broadway and sold out every performance with scalpers charging top dollar for their scalpings. How do you go to or from that to playing a joint so small they can only pay you $150?

I don't know a lot about Judy's finances but I have a read a number of books about her life and I don't think this film told me one thing I didn't already know about her so very little in the movie particularly surprised me. I suspect what little did were all the contrivances of the screenwriter Tom Edge, or Peter Quilter, who wrote the play on which this film is based. This made a lot of the film tedious for me but we hung in there, knowing there'd be a great end scene and there was. I think I would have enjoyed the picture a lot more if I'd known less about Judy Garland going in.

One thing I liked: In the movie Stan & Ollie (which I seriously disliked), the famed British impresario Bernard Delfont was portrayed as kind of a boob. He pops up in Judy Garland's life too and here, he is more of a wise businessman, which from all I've read is much closer to the truth.

And of course, I liked Ms. Zellweger's performance, which is really the only reason to see the film and perhaps the only reason it was made. She lacks the magic of Garland's singing voice but I'm glad they let her sing instead of lip-sync to Judy because that always distracts. I'm usually not comfy with actors portraying well-known people on the screen but there are exceptions and this one of them.

We love watching this lady…

The Judy movie started on time. A reason to see it is the amazing performance by Renée Zellweger. A reason not to see it is if you're already very familiar with the life of Judy Garland, especially the last few years. I was. I'll explain in a longer review tomorrow.

• At the Writers Guild Theater waiting for the movie Judy to start. If they're true to the spirit of Garland, they'll keep us waiting for at least 45 minutes past the scheduled start time.

Last December, you may recall, I went into an outlet of the Boston Market chain. I used to love those places but this visit was a disaster. The place was not very clean and I waited 22 minutes for a plate of roast turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a side of corn, took one or two bites and walked out. Terrible food, terrible service. I complained to the company website and in this post.

The next day — which was a Sunday — I was surprised to receive a phone call from a senior exec with the Boston Market chain. He apologized, said he'd send me coupons for free meals, look into my complaints and call me back when he can tell me something concrete that might get me to give Boston Market another try. As I said in this post, I was impressed.

I shouldn't have been. He never sent the coupons, never called me back…and the Boston Market in question closed its doors forever. Gee, I can't imagine why…