Not long ago in this post, I told a tale from back in 2013 when I was in Las Vegas with a lady I liked a lot. The other day, I told a friend the story of how that lady and I got to Vegas that weekend and the friend said, "Oh, you've got to tell that part on your blog!" So here is that part on my blog…

On Tuesday, May 28 of that year, I flew back to Indiana for meetings on The Garfield Show, which I was then working on. Muncie, Indiana is where Garfield's creator Jim Davis lives and works and during the thirty some-odd years I've been involved with The Cat, I've occasionally had to fly back there for planning meetings. The Garfield Show was produced and animated in France and some of the key people from there were also headed for this conference in Muncie — a much more difficult trip for them than it was for me.

So on 5/28, I flew Delta to Memphis, changed planes and continued on to Indianapolis. I rented a car there and drove to a Hyatt near the airport where I spent the night. The next morning, I took the rental car back to the airport and exchanged it for one that worked better, then drove to Muncie, Indiana, stopping en route at a great, not-there-anymore barbecue place for lunch. Later that day, I checked into a motel in Muncie and that evening, Jim, his wife Jill, some of the folks from France and I dined at a country club where Jim's a member. No, we did not have lasagna.

Thursday, May 30, I checked out of the motel, then spent all day at Jim's studio discussing vital Garfield matters. We all went to dinner at a local restaurant that evening where again, we did not have lasagna. I then drove back to Indianapolis and checked back into that Hyatt by the airport for the night.

The next day, I was not flying home. I was flying to Las Vegas to spend the weekend there with this friend of mine. She and her current beau might be happier if I didn't give her name here so we'll call her Kathy. We're still friends. We're just involved with other people now.

From here on, much of this story is me bragging about the rest of the travel arrangements I made. It will all sound trivial and No Big Deal to you but at the time, I was insufferably pleased with myself at what I'd been able to configure. Keep in mind that none of these flight numbers correspond to current flights and the date of this was Friday, May 31, 2013. Here was the dual itinerary for that day…

• 1:30 PM EDT: Mark arrives at Indianapolis International Airport. He turns in his rental car, checks his baggage and secures his boarding pass for Flight 619 on Frontier Airlines, scheduled to depart at 3:41 PM.
• 3:41 PM EDT: Mark's flight takes off from Indianapolis, heading for Denver International Airport.
• 3:00 PM PDT: Kathy arrives at San Francisco International Airport, checks her baggage, claims her boarding pass, (etc.) for Virgin Air Flight 910, scheduled to depart at 4:45 PM.
• 4:20 PM MDT: Mark's plane lands in Denver, Colorado and he changes to Frontier Airlines Flight 787 which departs at 5:00 PM.
• 5:00 PM MDT: Mark's flight takes off from Denver, heading for McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.
• 4:45 PM PDT: Kathy's flight takes off from San Francisco, heading for McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.
• 5:53 PM PDT: Mark's flight arrives at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas at gate D16.
• 5:55 PM PDT: Kathy's flight arrives at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas at gate D18 which is next to gate D16. They are just far enough apart so an airplane pulling into one will not prevent another plane from pulling into the other.
• Though they are flying in from different cities on different airlines, Kathy and Mark arrive at adjoining gates at almost the exact same time.

I don't know about you but I think that's kind of romantic. I imagined us running towards each other, her hair bouncing as she runs, and we embrace there in the airport. I knew it wouldn't actually work like that. For one thing, I'd be toting a heavy carry-on with my laptop in it. But doesn't it sound like one of those glorious reunion moments you see in movies? I decided it would be a personal triumph if I could pull it off; if we would achieve simultaneous arrival.

Before the day, I e-mailed Kathy a detailed plan along with her ticket info. I think she thought I was kind of looney but that was some (not all) of the basis for our whole relationship. At least, I hope not all. She was willing to go along with it and she followed her instructions to the letter. Virgin Air did nothing to foil my scheme. They took off on time. They landed a few minutes early. They did everything right, which is probably why there's no more Virgin Air.

On my end, it wasn't so simple.

I got to the airport in Indianapolis right on time, only to be informed that my flight had been rescheduled. Instead of leaving at 3:41, I was told it would be 6 PM and the fellow at the ticket counter suggested it might be even later. It was one of those cases where the plane on which I'd be flying was in another part of the country where there were delays due to weather. During the day, it went from one city to another and another and another before it got to Indianapolis and the problems were between the first two cities.

I asked the man, "Has Frontier considered investing in a second airplane?" He chuckled and said something like, "Oh, if only we could afford it."

Since I was now going to be getting to Denver at least two hours and forty minutes later than planned, what would happen to my connecting flight to Vegas? I asked him that and he said, "You'll miss it." I believe this man has since gone to work for hotels.com under the name Captain Obvious.

He informed me that since they weren't sure when I'd get to Denver, they couldn't (or wouldn't) reschedule the second leg of my journey. Once they knew, they would figure it out…and I should discuss this with the attendant at the gate when I arrived there.

"But I will get to Las Vegas tonight," I said in a voice desperately in need of reassurance. "We'll do our best, sir," he replied. It was that unlikely. I asked about other flights that might get me there that evening. There didn't seem to be any on Frontier and when I set up my laptop at a table in the airport food court and checked online, there didn't seem to be any on any other airline.

The food court was where I would wait and I had a lot of waiting to do…and rethinking. Like, the hotel room in Vegas was in my name. Could I arrange for Kathy to check into it without me and my credit card?

I sent Kathy a text message explaining that my genius plan (ha!) had run into a few problems but she should get on the plane and await further instructions. There would be some on her phone by the time she landed in Vegas, I told her. I really hoped there would be but at that moment, I had no idea what they would be, hopefully not "Find another guy to spend the weekend with."

I turned back to my laptop and buried myself in a script. Every so often, I'd glance over at the flight board that announced arrivals and departures. Flight 619 was now scheduled to leave at, fittingly, 6:19. A check of the Frontier schedule (available online) indicated that if it arrived in Denver on time, I might (note the ominous italics) catch a flight that would get me to Vegas just after Midnight. Maybe.

But then the 6:19 departure turned into 7:05. Then ten minutes later, it was 6:19 again. Then 7:22.

Around then, I was distracted by visitors. The producers from France — the one I'd met with in Muncie — spotted me there at my table in the food court. Their plane back to Paris was delayed, too. We sat and ate bad pizza and talked for around an hour and a half. Around 3:35, we said our goodbyes (again) and they headed for the international side of the terminal to wait there. Realizing it was about the time I expected to be aboard my flight to Denver, I turned to check on the latest departure time for Flight 619…

…and it wasn't there. Nowhere on the flight board was it listed. I hauled out my cell phone and used an app called Flight Board to see what it said…

It said Flight 619 to Denver was Now Boarding.

I replicated several "takes" from Tex Avery cartoons, leaped up, packed my laptop in about fifteen seconds and sprinted down a corridor to the departure gate. As I sprinted, I heard my name being paged and handily mispronounced, followed by "Last call for Flight 619 to Denver!  The doors will be closing!"

"Not without me," I yelled to the amusement of those I was running past. I got in just as a flight attendant began the speech about how to inflate your life jacket. And just before they ordered us to turn off our cell phones, I sent Kathy an e-mail: "Back to original plan!  Everything OK!"

When we landed in Denver, I checked Flight Board and it said that her flight out of S.F. would be taking off on time. My flight out of Denver took off on time. Halfway there, our pilot informed us we'd be arriving in Vegas eight minutes early. When we landed there, before we were allowed to deplane, I checked Flight Board again: Her flight was landing ten minutes early. I was on the right side of my plane to see a Virgin Air jet taxi into the gate next to us.

I'd done it! We were actually arriving simultaneously!

I could hear the love theme from the movie The Apartment swelling within my head as I got off at Gate D16 and began running towards Gate D18. Before I reached it, I spotted Kathy, stunning in a yellow dress. She was running (well, walking) towards me with a grin that was too wide to fit into the overhead compartment. I probably had the same look on my face.

As we came together, I threw my arms around her, whacking her in the back with my laptop. She didn't mind…much. And just at that most romantic of moments, she said the exact same three words to me that I said to her, again perfectly in sync. We both said, "Where's a restroom?"

This has been, I swear to you, a true story.

Recently when Fox did their "live" performance of the musical Rent, they would up airing a dress rehearsal recording instead. But, feeling that some aspect of a show announced as Rent: Live should be live — and because they had that live audience coming in, expecting to see something — they arranged to do a live add-on concert at the end, reprising some of the numbers.

My buddy of more than half a century, Joe Brancatelli, urged me to take a look at this brief moment from this concert. It's "Seasons of Love" with Keala Settle singing the hell out of her end of the number. And I urge you to take a look too…

I link to columnist William Saletan often because he's real good at taking evidence that is right before our eyes and noting that this statement does not jibe with that statement and that other statement over there contradicts both of them. Here he is reporting what Virginia governor Ralph Northam has been saying about that racist photo that seems likely to end his political career and certainly his term as governor.

This is one of those cases where you can take your pick: He should resign for reasons of racism or just for colossal lousy judgement. There's also that ineptness he's demonstrated the last day or so for crisis management. His press conference this morning may stand a long time as the Gettysburg Address of Self-Destructive Press Conferences. When you gotta go, you gotta go.

• The ghost of Al Jolson says he's just realized that wasn't Al in all those photos.

• I've never watched a Super Bowl but I may start tomorrow if I can't find anything else on TV that doesn't have Chris Christie on it.

As we've discussed, I was in Santa Cruz last Wednesday to sign stuff at my buddy Joe Ferrara's bookstore. The night before, I was in San Jose and I went to the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. In this case, the art being performed there was the musical Something Rotten.

I first saw a different, Equity touring company do this show in L.A. in December of 2017 and I liked it a whole lot.  This current troupe is traipsing from town to town — sometimes only for a night or two — all across the U.S. They open in Tucson next Tuesday.

Sometimes, I see a show like this and I can't help but think, "People this talented ought to be able to make a living doing shows without spending their lives on buses." The brutal life of Renaissance times they were singing about might be nothing compared to playing that show on a Wednesday night in St. Louis and getting to Muncie in time to do it on Thursday night there. How they pack all those sets, props and costumes and get them set up in the next town is beyond me.

But maybe some of those players enjoy the adventure. And maybe some of them feel as a friend of mine did when I asked her about a string of one- and two-nighters she did once in a roving band performing Grease. She said, "I would rather live six months like that and get to perform almost every night than spend those six months doing office-temp work because I can't get a job acting in town."

This production of Something Rotten was was pretty darned good for a non-Equity production with several folks who I'm sure would not have been outta place when this musical was on Broadway. Maybe not everyone but several.  A scan of their credits in the program indicates that a lot of them have done this kind of tour before so they knew what they were getting themselves into. Maybe I'm wrong to think they don't love every minute of it.

The San Jose Center for the Performing Arts is a big, oddly-constructed place. It was obviously built to house musicals (mostly) but somehow, no one thought to build an orchestra pit under the stage. It's in front of it instead, distancing the audience from the performers who are on a rather tall stage. In order for them to be able to see the conductor, they had to elevate him on a platform…and then they installed a wall around the pit so the audience couldn't see the conductor except, occasionally, his hands.

I somehow wound up in the center of the first row so there was this wall in front of me and I had to look up and over to see the actors — and I could only see them from about the shins up with the wall blocking the rest of them. When someone fell down on stage, I couldn't see them at all.

I think I was the tallest person in the front row. The lady next to me said she could only see of the performers from about the waist up. Still, she loved the show. Everyone did, including me. I just don't get what the guy who designed that theater was thinking.

So it comes out that an old school yearbook of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has in it a photo of a guy in blackface posing along with a guy in a Ku Klux Klan outfit.

Northam's immediate response is to release a statement saying, "Earlier today, a website published a photograph of me from my 1984 medical school yearbook in a costume that is clearly racist and offensive." He does not identify whether he is the guy in blackface or the guy in the Klan hood.

Amidst demands for his resignation, Northam now says he is thinking maybe he isn't in the photo because he can't recall for sure if he ever put on blackface makeup or a Ku Klux Klan costume…and who among us could remember a thing like that? Are you absolutely certain you never put on blackface makeup or a Ku Klux Klan costume? I can't recall precisely when but it wouldn't surprise me if I'd done it a dozen times.

Northam says he is willing to let facial recognition scanning check him and the photo out to prove he is not in the photo. And of course, facial recognition scanning is infallible on people wearing Ku Klux Klan hoods. Do I have this right?

See that guy on the couch? That's our friend Frank Ferrante not portraying Groucho Marx, See that lady on him? That's a splendid actress (also, a friend) Dreya Weber. They're currently appearing in Ken Ludwig's play A Comedy of Tenors at the historic Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia. It's there through March 3 and if I could get back there to see it, I would.  The whole cast, I hear, is terrific.

Frank also directed this production of Mr. Ludwig's raucous farce comedy. When correctly performed, as the reviews all say it is, it's one of those shows where things happen at such a rapid pace, you're afraid to take your gaze off the stage for two instants. (Ludwig will be part of an onstage talkback after the performance on 2/20.) Boy, would I like to see this…when it's warmer. It's 23° in Philadelphia at the moment.

Don't worry.  Frank is not abandoning Groucho for long.  He has a day off from the play on 2/25. Anyone else starring in a play that frenetic — playing two roles, in fact — would spend that day sleeping. Frank's throwing sanity to the wind and doing his acclaimed An Evening With Groucho show that night on the same stage. Tickets for both can be procured here.

Like I said, I'd love to see it but I may get no closer than watching this 90-second "sizzle" reel. One assumes the other 5,910 seconds of the play are equally mad…

William Saletan disproves Donald Trump's repeated claim that most Americans support the building of The Wall.  Trump will never admit it, of course.  For Trump, there is no proof possible that he is wrong on some supposed fact or that he does not have the majority of the nation solidly behind him.

Saletan doesn't mention it but a lot of those who did support The Wall at the time of Trump's election did so under the belief that Trump had some way to force Mexico to cut a check for the entire cost of the project.  I'm in favor of a lot of things until I see what I'm going to have to pay.  And yes, the case can be made that Trump didn't explicitly say Mexico would make a direct payment (except he kinda did) but a lot of people sure thought that was the idea.

A question I'd like to see him asked is: "You keep saying The Wall is desperately needed.  Is it so desperately needed that the U.S. should foot the full cost even if there's no chance of Mexico paying any of the cost in any way?"

And another is: "Would Donald Trump the real estate tycoon commit to fund a project if he knew as little about it as we know about what The Wall will cost, what it will be made of, what it will cost to acquire private real estate to build it on, who will build it, when approximately it will be completed, what will be the ongoing costs of upkeep on it, etc.?"

Shin Lim. Boy, this guy is good…

I haven't done one of these lately because just about every website is turning into a Trump Dump these days. But for the many of you who read no other website but this one…

• In the coming showdown over budget negotiations regarding The Wall, there are three possible outcomes. At least, that's how Jim Newell figures it. He explains how Trump will like none of them. My guess is we will wind up with no real bucks for his wall but Trump will fiercely try to spin it as a total victory for him and insist, "I got everything I wanted!"
• Fred Kaplan notes that just about everything Trump is saying about U.S. security and conditions overseas is being contradicted by departments within the executive branch and people that he appointed. Isn't it comforting to know that in matters relating to war and international relations, either Trump is dead wrong or his intelligence departments are?
• And as Alex Ward explains, Trump is dealing with this discrepancy by lying about what those departments are saying.
• Congress is voting to stop Trump's plan to withdraw U.S. military forces from Syria and Afghanistan. As Kevin Drum explains, this kind of translates to "We should stay there forever." I have two thoughts about this. One is that this may be one of those outlier matters where Trump is right (or mostly right) and those opposing him are wrong. The other thought is just that John McCain would be so happy.
• Max Boot doesn't think Trump is taking the right approach with Syria and Afghanistan. So there's the other side of that argument.
• When employment numbers under Obama looked good, Trump insisted the numbers were fake and that unemployment had never been higher. Now that the steady drop in unemployment under Obama continues, Trump insists those numbers are very real and that the "fake news" is that the press is not reporting how successful he's been. Emily Stewart has more.
• Jonathan Chait takes us through the curious thought process of those who deny the revelations to date of the Mueller investigation. Not just a river in Egypt.

And here are some recent thoughts from Frank Rich about Howard Schultz, the upcoming State of the Union address and other topics. For more Trump Dump stories, consult almost any other website on the 'net.

51. When a character is killed in a comic book, that character is only dead if the present controller of the copyright wants him or her to be at that moment.
52. If a comic book page needs arrows to tell the reader the order in which the panels should be read, it's probably not a well-designed page.
53. Adding more word balloons and sales blurbs to the cover of a comic book rarely makes it more saleable but those additions always lessen the impact of the image.
54. A lot of us try too hard to turn whatever we work on into a facsimile of the first comic book we really loved as a child.
55. Sometimes, having one of the best artists ink the work of another of the best artists results in a comic that, while nice-looking, isn't as wonderful as what either artist would have done on their own.
56. When you write a comic book with a lot of captions, stop before you submit your script and read over all those captions to make sure they're all in the same tense.
57. The Comics Code might have been necessary in the fifties but they could have gotten rid of it in 1970 and the only thing that would have been different is that a few comics might have been a little better.
58. Word balloons usually overlap everything in the panel but sometimes, part of one is tucked behind a character's head or some object in the panel. When they are tucked behind, no part of them should overlap something or someone that is supposed to be closer to "camera."
59. "Villain" is not spelled "villian," nor is "weird" spelled "wierd."
60. The word "anniversary" refers to a number of years. If a comic has been published for 20 years, we can celebrate its anniversary. If it has been published for 100 issues, that is an impressive achievement but it is not an anniversary.
61. In any ongoing series, the writer needs to remember that some readers did not read previous issues.
62. If anyone else working for the company has the same first name as you and a last name that starts with the same letter as yours does, you will eventually receive one of his paychecks.
63. Readers like to see the character clearly from time to time in full-figure poses. This is especially true when the comic features characters who are visually interesting. Don't always show the character in shadows or head shots.
64. If you run a "pin-up" page in a comic, less than .0001% of the readers will actually pin it up.
65. When a writer needs to convey a lot of exposition that can only be done via dialogue, that writer needs to think of something visually interesting that the characters can be doing as they say all that stuff. Standing around talking is not visually interesting.
66. In any office that employs more than 7 people, there is always one employee who knows where everything is and keeps the office functional and operating. The readers of the comics that come out of that office are usually totally unaware of that person.
67. If you write comic books for more than five years, you will one day come up with a sensational idea for a story and you will then write several pages of it before you realize you did it before.
68. Sound effects should not cover the drawing of whatever is making that sound.
69. Ever since Amazing Spider-Man #50 in 1967, it is required that any super-hero comic at some point has a storyline in which the hero gets fed up with being a hero and quits and throws away his or her costume.
70. Retroactively changing something in a character's origin story is a sneaky, devious way to generate a new plot.
71. If in a comic you use the phrase, "Trapped in a world he never made," you need to explain (a) what world he is trapped in, (b) what world he did make and would prefer to be in, and most importantly, (c) how many worlds has this character made and how is it that he or she has the ability to make worlds?
72. Fans often say about some artist, "He can't draw Superman" or "He can't draw Spider-Man" or you can insert the name of any established character…but that's not true. A professional comic book artist can draw any character. He or she just may not draw them to match your favorite version of how that character looks.
73. In a store, if a potential customer looks at a comic and isn't sure if he or she already has that issue, he or she will decide not to purchase it. For that reason, the cover of this month's issue should look nothing like the cover of last month's issue. If nothing else, they should have very different color schemes, especially in the logo.
74. If (and only if) it will not crowd the drawing in the panel, small word balloons should float near the person speaking what's in them. They should not be jammed up against a panel border, away from their speaker and situated so the white in the balloon meets up with the white on the other side of the panel border.
75. If you work in comic books and you meet someone who asks you what you do, you should never hesitate to tell him you work in comic books. And I wish those who act ashamed of it would do me and themselves a favor and get the hell out of the business.

The last 25 of these will be along in a few weeks.

Dave Portnoy, who covers sports and does daily pizza reviews on YouTube, is in Atlanta for the Super Bowl. I like watching his reviews, which is not to say I agree with all his reviews of slices I've sampled or don't wince at some of the things he says about passers-by on the street or the racial makeup of some of the pizza makers.

But there is a nice sense of reality about his videos. Here he is blowing his top and cussing out a rapper who was supposed to be there as a guest pizza reviewer and didn't show up…and then the guy shows up. The pizza gets a bad review not because it was bad but because Dave let it get cold before he sampled it. Doesn't seem fair, does it? You make the call…

I had a very nice time signing books yesterday at Joe Ferrara's Atlantis Fantasyworld in Santa Cruz.  I know very little about the retail end of the comic book industry.  I'm rarely in shops as a special-type guest or even as a customer.  The last time before yesterday was, I suspect, the last time I went to Indiana on business.

Some time ago, a friend of mine who works in that area for DC or Marvel — and who would probably prefer I didn't give their name or which of those firms employs them — told me that about a third of comic shop owners really love comic books, a third understand how to run a business and both of those are true of the remaining third. He or she said it is only that third third who are successful for any length of time. I guess that's approximately true.

Joe has been selling funnybooks and other such goodies in Santa Cruz for around four and a half decades so you can figure out where he fits into that equation. I was impressed with the smart layout of the store, the fine staff Joe has there…and most of all, with the way he greeted so many of his customers yesterday by name.

It was a huge contrast to that place in Indiana where I couldn't find any of the comics I wanted to see. When I asked the employee on duty (pretty sure he was not the owner) if they stocked them, I got back a megadose of "Who cares?" He pointed to a rack of the hottest current books, expecting (I think) I'd come to my senses and grab a handful of them instead. I walked out without buying anything. If and when folks exit Joe's store empty-handed, it's not because he and his crew didn't care.

If you were one of those who came by yesterday to say howdy, thank you. I enjoyed meeting you.

Two things of note today! There's a new episode of Stu's Show today and Stu's in-studio guest is one of the best voiceover guys in the business, Neil Ross. Neil had a great career in radio and then he moved into doing both promo-type announcing and also cartoon voices.

You wanna hear how good he is at his job? Click below. This only runs 47 seconds, short but sweet…

If you're interested in that field — as a fan or as a voiceover star of tomorrow — he's the kind of guy you oughta listen to and you can listen to him today on Stu's Show. You can also watch him and that program on any Roku-enabled TV set and also some other ways. This page will tell you how to watch or listen for free.

You can even read Neil since he's guesting to promote his autobiography, Vocal Recall. That can be ordered here on Amazon but I'm going to suggest going to this page where you can order a paperback copy, a Kindle copy, a PDF copy or — most intriguing — an audio MP3 where Neil reads the book and performs many of his voices.

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Also today, if you're anywhere near Santa Cruz, California: I'll be signing stuff today at the fine seller of books and comics and books about comics and books full of comics and comic books, Atlantis Fantasyworld. The shop is located at 1020 Cedar St. — in Santa Cruz (of course) and I'll be there from Noon 'til 6 PM or maybe Noon 'til five, depending on the turnout. But I will be there. Come by, say hello, get me to write my name on something just to prove I can do it.