Hey, how about an encore performance by the Voctave group? Here are some Disney ditties…

Very early Saturday morning, I turned in and watched the last few innings of the marathon Game 3 of the World Series. In the last three decades, I have probably watched about eight total innings of baseball. I have friends who would skip life-saving medical treatment before they'd skip a ball game, particularly a World Series game. The sport just stopped interesting me about the time my father stopped taking me occasionally to Dodgers games. I don't recall quite when that was but Sandy Koufax was still pitching then and he retired in 1966.

I think part of the problem was that I could never summon up any interest in who won. I was born and bred in Los Angeles but I didn't see why that was any reason to get emotionally invested in whether the Dodgers or even the Angels won. I didn't get a trophy. I didn't get a bonus or a shaving cream commercial. I hadn't been recognized as being the best at anything. And yet, I'd see people who if their team won the pennant were more excited than I'd be if I won an Academy Award, an Emmy, a Tony, a Grammy, a Nobel Peace Prize, a Pulitzer, a Peabody, a Heisman Trophy, an Olympic gold medal, a Powerball jackpot, sex with any or all of the Deal or No Deal models, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

But I watched innings 15-18 the other night because it was such an oddity and just now when I turned on my TV, it was on the same channel. So I have the World Series on and at the moment, Boston is ahead 3-1. They could take it tonight…and I'm just thinking how little that matters to me. I can't name a single player on the Red Sox and the only Dodger I can name is Max Muncy because he's the guy who hit the game-winning home run the other night.

And since I typed the second sentence of the previous paragraph, it went to Red Sox 4, Dodgers 1. If you took a loved one hostage and demanded I care about one team or the other winning, I'd probably say "the home team" because that would make all those people in the stands happy. I think that's Boston.

If you care passionately about this game, I am not for a second belittling that. I might even in a way envy that. Two more innings and you might get a thrill that is unknown and alien to me…a thrill I will never know.

Then again, I can't possibly get depressed because my team lost.

P.S. Oh, they're in Los Angeles. That shows you how much I'm paying attention.

Dan Dreier wrote to ask…

I am an avid reader of your blog and find it both entertaining and informative. You have — and share — many of the same ideals and beliefs that rattle around my own brain container. That being said, I have a question for you. Given the current state of "wokeness" (that I understand to mean one who is unaware becomes aware), have you ever written something that you regret writing? Any storylines, characters, etc., that you are currently uncomfortable with but at the time it/they were acceptable and even sought after?

Hmm. I rarely go back and re-read my old work, in part because when I do, I see all sorts of things I would change now from a creative standpoint. Along the lines of what you're asking about, I'm sure there are lots of things I would now phrase more artfully or perhaps be more or less subtle. And maybe there's something I would change completely but nothing in particular comes to mind except…

Well, in the first issue of Groo the Wanderer back in the Pacific Comics days, there was a quick joke about rape that I think I subconsciously kinda lifted from the movie, Blazing Saddles. I don't recall anyone ever complaining about it or even mentioning it but when it came time to reprint that issue, I did go back through the issue to see if there were any spelling mistakes or anything like that. I saw the line and it struck me as wrong in a couple of ways. Sergio agreed so I personally relettered it into something else. I also don't recall anyone ever mentioning to me that it was changed.

I'm not saying it never happened. I suspect it did because my attitudes about relationships changed a little in the seventies and a lot in the eighties. Maybe one of these days, I'll get up the courage to go back and read more of my old work and I'm sure I'll find some examples. There are advantages to publishers not wanting to reprint a lot of your past efforts.

The harmony group Voctave favors us with some tunes from Cinderella…

This came to me from a reader named Brian David Mannix…

I have never written you before either electronically or conventionally, but I am doing so now because I need to express my feelings about various DC Comics characters and it would really be wonderful if someone would "listen." I quit reading your website a year or two ago because it seemed like the only time you mentioned comics was when someone in the comics industry passed away and I got tired of you "dumping" on President Trump. I don't like a lot of things about our president either, but it just got kind of boring reading about how allegedly horrible he was/is.

I guess this isn't the best way to begin a missive in which I ask you for a favor, but those are my honest feelings. I am not trying to be rude or hurtful, just honest. We people with Asperger Syndrome are not known for our diplomacy or our empathy, but I am not attempting to "tell you off." I have typed several messages to the DC Comics' website contact feature, but have not yet heard back from anyone. I threatened to keep e-mailing them until I got a response, just like Marty Pasko did with "snail" mail back in the 70s, but I guess they weren't very impressed. The people in charge may be too young to even know who Marty Pasko is. I have read, I think in the late, lamented Amazing Heroes, that Mr. Pasko wrote DC so often with so many complaints of (hopefully constructive) criticism, that he came to be known as "Pesky Pasko."

I often joke that I am in a minority; I'm a comic-book fan; but even within that minority I'm in a minority, because most of my favorite comic-book characters are not superheroes. The DC Universe has many fascinating characters who are not superheroes (or supervillains)! And no, I do not mean non-powered but costumed characters like Batman. As far as I concerned, Batman and his ilk are superheroes or supervillains because they wear funny (stupid?) costumes.

One of the best comic-book stories I have ever read featured Slam Bradley in "The 'Too Many Cooks…' Caper." It was in the landmark 500th issue of Detective Comics which was published in late 1980. The story also starred Mysto, Jason Bard, Roy Raymond, Captain Compass, Pow Wow Smith, and The Human Target. In a better world, characters like that would be the stars of a comic-book named Detective Comics and not some freak in a Halloween costume.

How about a team-up between Captain Compass and the Sea Devils? And if the crybabies can't live without their precious superheroes, they could throw in Aquaman. I have a copy of the Showcase Presents black-and-white trade paperback that DC published a few years ago, and my least favorite feature in it is The Flash. I like that feature okay, but I would much rather read about firefighters, frogmen, animals, Lois Lane, and The Challengers of the Unknown, which were some of the other features in the first 20-odd issues of the original Showcase from the 1950s. I really am in a minority, am I not?

The community computer I am using to type this just told me that I have less than ten minutes before it shuts down, so I will close this e-missive for now. Thank you for listening!

Let you in on a secret, Brian. I think most folks who write comic books would much rather write about folks with no special powers. For one thing, you can write about human emotions and themes that relate to your own world more directly.  My own dreams and hopes and feelings would be quite different if I came from another planet and could bench-press a Chevrolet.

Secondly, stories would be easier and neater if we didn't have to keep coming up with menaces that could threaten people with superhuman abilities. When you're writing about characters with the power to save the universe, you have to keep coming up with storylines that threaten the destruction of the universe.

There's also the mix-and-match problem. I like a lot of Superman stories and I like a lot of Batman stories but I can't think of one story I ever really liked with both of them in major roles. Those just get too contrived because any villain who's powerful enough to give Superman a fight would be powerful enough to kill Batman in two seconds. Also, there's a wide discrepancy in the bravery of those two heroes. For Batman, facing down a band of armed gunmen is risking his life. For Superman, it's a yawn.

I don't think they go together but the readership loves to see them in the same comic. The readership also loves its superfolks. DC and Marvel will start doing more comics about characters like Slam Bradley when there's the slightest evidence people will buy them. At the moment, I don't believe there is.  It's not all that different from back in 1990 when someone at Marvel asked me to come up with a book that had not a single super-powered or costumed character in it.  You can read about that unhappy experience here.

Frankly, I think you're wasting your time lobbying DC or Marvel or any of the major publishers about this.  If you want to expend some energy on this cause, try going to your local comic book shop and ask them how they'd feel about ordering and promoting the kind of comic you want to see.  They'd probably order really low unless it was done by some superstar writer and artist.  Then ask them how many copies they'd order if that same superstar writer and artist did a new super-hero team or something full of monsters and the possible destruction of our Solar System.  If you can't convince the folks at your local comic shop, you probably can't convince someone at Marvel or DC.

And if you do convince them, please let me know.  I have several ideas for comics of the sort that I'd love to do.

Ducklings in a swimming pool…

• If someone went in and shot up a convention of armed security guards, Trump would tweet, "This wouldn't have happened it they'd had armed security guards there!"

You may not have noticed this but I have stopped linking to most crowd-funding efforts. I haven't totaled up the precise number but a number of the ones I've plugged here asking you to help fund a publication or film have never come out. As far as I can tell, those who accepted the crowd-funded funds had every good intention and still, long after the announced delivery dates, intend to get their publication published or film completed. And of course, some were finished as promised.

But some have not and I'm trying to decide whether I should stop linking to such efforts. While I do, I'm turning down all such requests so please — especially if you're a good friend — don't ask me.

This is different…first of all, because Mark Waid didn't ask me and secondly, because he's not promising to deliver a product. Mark — who as you know is a fine, popular comic book writer, is trying to deliver a sane, just ending to a lawsuit that could have ramifications for the entire comic book community. The money is definitely being spent just as he explains on his GoFundMe page. Read up on it and see if you want to support him. I sure did.

• Nice game-winning homer by Max Muncy. But I don't think he had that beard when the game started.

• They wouldn't have dared keep Vin Scully up this late.

• On the other hand, maybe I should go get some sleep. The Dodgers may need me to start tomorrow.

• I'm tuning in to watch the Dodgers playing the Red Sox. I find that baseball games don't really get interesting until you get past the seventeenth inning.

You'll love this. Last October 18, there was a retirement party for Caroll Spinney, who as we all know is ending his long run as Oscar and Big Bird on Sesame Street. A mob of past performers from that show turned out to serenade him.

This is a Facebook embed which means that in some browsers, you have to click on a little "X" to turn on the audio. And while you're clicking down there, you'll want to take this full-screen on your computer monitor.

• The trouble with Trump saying "We want all sides to come together in peace and harmony" is that the only way he could ever see that happening is for everyone to support Donald J. Trump and every single thing he does.

We have here an article and a video about one of my favorite restaurants in Los Angeles — a place known variously as Philippe the Original, Philippe's the Original or just Philippe's. In the video below, you'll see the owners using the three names interchangeably so I figure I can, too.

The article is from Eater L.A. It and the video both tell the legend about how its original owner, Philippe Mathieu, accidentally invented its signature item — the French Dip sandwich — by unintentionally dropping a French roll into a pan of drippings.

I am suspicious of these stories of how someone accidentally spilled molten chocolate on ice cream and invented the Hot Fudge Sundae; how someone accidentally dropped chopped meat on a roll and invented the Philly Steak Sandwich; how someone accidentally spilled mayonnaise on floor sweepings and invented cole slaw, etc. Couldn't someone have said, "Hey, I'll bet this sandwich would taste better if I dipped the roll in the pan drippings"? Why is it always an accident?

However they came to be, the sandwiches at Philippe's are great and they aren't great because of exotic spices or various ingredients used to enhance the meat. It's just good meat on a good roll with good pan drippings. The beef is the star and it's probably what you should try the first time you go there but I also love the lamb sandwich and the turkey. Read the article. Watch the video. Next time you're in downtown L.A. at the right hour, go eat a sandwich there. (For a time long before I was born, they were open 24 hours. Wish they still were. I'd go there at all hours.)

Oh — and you can find out more about the place and take a virtual tour at the Philippe's website. Here's the video…