A big metal flying thing took us to the isle of Manhattan where they clear out an old See's Candy Box, install a bed and the world's slowest wi-fi, charge $300 a night and call it a room for two. By the way, JetBlue has real good, comfy metal flying things.

This is my first time in New York — a city I used to visit once or twice a year — since '08. Why the gap? Well, as I think I mentioned, there came a point in her life when my mother got real, real nervous when her only son and local relative was not in the same state…and then after she passed, Carolyn's cancer was causing her to fear when I was too far outta town. So apart from a few unavoidable short biz trips, I kept pretty much to my own state.

Also, I had fewer reasons to come here. I used to come and visit DC Comics (they're now in Burbank) and the offices of MAD Magazine. They'll be there soon. I used to visit the Marvel offices but for a time (now past-tense) I didn't feel welcome there. I used to go visit friends at David Letterman's show and to visit folks like Joe Simon, as well as other publishers who are no longer with us. And now there's no Carnegie Deli…

We walked around Times Square last night. So much was the same but so much has changed. Most of what's changed is the increase in brand names — a lot of independent pizzerias replaced by Pizza Hut and other chains. But it's still New York. I'm going to go out and be in it today — and around 4 PM New York time, I'm supposed to be on John Fugelsang's show on Sirius XM radio. I'll report back later.

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Here's an ancient song that you all know…at least if you love old Warner Brothers cartoons. And if you don't love Warner Brothers cartoons, please stop reading this blog. I would hate to think that I'm writing it for anyone who doesn't love old Warner Brothers cartoons.

This is, of course, "Merrily We Roll Along," the tune that opens and closes so many of the great cartoons with Bugs, Daffy, Porky, Elmer and that gang. The singer is Eddie Cantor, who was quite a huge star in his day…and a pretty good performer who has been unjustly forgotten. The official writing credits for this song are that it's by Charlie Tobias, Murray Mencher, and Eddie Cantor. And here's Will Friedwald with the story behind this famous tune…

Getting ready to get on big metal flying thing and go to isle of Manhattan. Smoke on your pipe and put that in.

But it's hard to think about that and to not think about, in alphabetical order: Las Vegas and Puerto Rico. My sympathies and shock are kinda bouncing back between the two of them, appalled that we don't do more to prevent what happened in the former and to help with what's happened to the latter. I sent money to Operation USA, which is about all I can think to do to aid Puerto Rico. I mean, it's not like I'm the head of a government who could care a lot more about those people down there.

About gun control? That's long seemed hopeless to me. I do have friends who own enough firearms to qualify as Gun Owners in anyone's eyes. Not a one of them believes people should be allowed to own the kind of gun you can take up to the 32nd floor of a hotel and use to kill 59 people, injure 527 others and leave countless others in shock. Any one of them could probably write a batch of laws that would cut down on massacres while still preserving the rights of responsible hunters and those who need a weapon for protection. But they're not driving this bus and I'm skeptical that those kinds of folks ever will, not even after the next "Greatest Massacre in U.S. History" or the one after that or the one after that or the one after that…

I do like what Seth Meyers said in the video I embedded last night. Maybe it's time to get politicians to at least self-identify where they stand. Get each one on the record answering questions like, "Would you be willing to support laws that would have prevented Stephen Paddock from obtaining the weapons he had in that hotel room?" And then we have to wait for the day when it would cause more candidates to lose elections if they said "No."

Gotta go pack. Posting will be sporadic here for the next week but it will include reports on the New York Comic-Con and various shows on or slightly off-Broadway.

I start most days with a chocolate protein shake made with Jay Robb Whey Protein. It's the only chocolate thing I ingest since I (largely) gave up sugar about ten years ago. Jay Robb products are free of sugar and also of artificial sweeteners, which neither I nor my body like. They make 'em with Stevia and it's a pretty nice, protein-rich drink especially if you make yours with real cold water. For a time, I also put in a splash of milk but I stopped doing that.

They have a couple of flavors but I like the chocolate way more than the others. Recently though, I came across a product at the market that I'd never seen before — Jif Peanut Powder. I tried adding a teaspoon of it to my Jay Robb chocolate shake and in addition to upping the protein count, I got a pretty good peanut butter flavor drink.

I was expecting something not unlike a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup — a mix of chocolate and peanut butter — but it doesn't work like that. No matter how little peanut powder I put in, the result tastes like peanut butter with almost no trace of chocolate. That is not a bad thing though. You might want to try Jay Robb Whey Protein, with or without the peanut powder.

Seth Meyers on his show tonight says something about Gun Control which everyone actually might agree with…

• So, what do you tip a Vegas bellhop who carries in 19 rifles, 2 tripods, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a machine gun?

Sometimes, the headlines tell the story…

• Trump Dedicates Golf Trophy to Recent Hurricane Victims. Well, now at least no one can say that he did nothing for them.
• Why Donald Trump Doesn't Care About Puerto Ricans. Because he isn't one.
• Hamilton composer Lin-Manuel Miranda to Donald Trump: "You are going straight to hell". Just you wait. Just you wait.
• Republicans Angry at Economists for Finding Their Tax Cuts Go to the Rich. In other news, I'm denouncing my bathroom scale as biased and unfair. It's constantly claiming I'm overweight.
• And lastly: Trump Intends To Blow Up Nuclear Deal. He doesn't have any idea what to do in place of it but Obama made that deal so it's got to go.

You just shake your head. You look at the death toll in the massacre in Vegas last night and you shake your head and ask "Why?" Yeah, we have disasters in this world — lately, a lot of them. Fires and earthquakes and floods. But those are unavoidable. The one in Las Vegas…somebody made that happen. Somebody thought it would be a good idea to do that.

And it's chilling because any one of us could have been there. Any one of us could have been sitting there and suddenly, bullets are whizzing past us. We feel bad for the people who were killed and for their loved ones. We feel bad for the ones who were wounded or hurt and we feel for the folks who weren't injured but endured the panic and terror. How well are those people going to sleep in the weeks or months to come?

And then we have to deal with the secondary horror…of people trying to "spin" this for partisan advantage. Sometimes when these things happen, I feel I should go online and say that the only way to prevent this kind of thing is for everyone to buy more copies of Groo the Wanderer. That would make about as much sense as some of the things being posted this morning.

Donald Trump said it was "an act of pure evil." As I think I've said here before, I don't think the word "evil" is a very helpful word. It may be right in a dictionary sense but it doesn't advance the dialogue about what really happened or how we might prevent it in the future. It's like saying it was witchcraft and we can't possibly understand it. I should have known better than to expect a word of insight or depth from the guy in the Oval Office. I'm surprised he didn't congratulate himself on the fine job others did of getting people to hospitals.

As I wrote here after the last five or six of these, I don't expect anything to change. We'll hear the same old, same old and nothing will be done. Don't get your hopes up that this is the one that will do it. It won't. The next one won't and the one after that won't and the one after that won't. The next Stephen Paddock will be able to acquire all the same guns just as easily.

I'm watching the news out of Las Vegas. Apparently, one or more shooters opened fire with automatic weapons at an outdoor country-western concert at the Mandalay Bay hotel. Just horrible.

Everyone has snapped into action. The police department has dispatched officers to protect people. The fire department has dispatched ambulances to treat and transport victims. The news organizations have dispatched reporters to cover the situation. And the National Rifle Association has dispatched spokespeople to insist "This is not the time to discuss gun control."

The new Trump/Republican tax plan would give its largest benefits to the very, very rich and it would leave a $2.4 trillion hole in federal revenue in its first ten years. That's what every independent analysis is saying. The Trump administration apparently thinks they can convince everyone that those reports are Fake News. Jonathan Chait has more.

• ‪Today's potatoes are from Pasco, WA — Easterday Farms. ‬

Ten days ago in Philadelphia, my friends Amber and Marv and I dined at the Reading Terminal Market, which is one of my favorite places to eat in the world. Actually, it's more like a favorite place to walk around in, look at all the food and all the people and then select between about eighteen things you'd like to eat but you can only eat one. There are many videos on YouTube where folks walk around with their cameras and show the place but I selected this one to put up here…

Ron Bernstein writes…

You're quite right that that Wikipedia line about Mort Walker's WWII years is screwy. Like you said, Colonel Klink commanded a German P.O.W. camp. What Mort Walker commanded was an American P.O.W. camp that housed German prisoners of war. Here's a link to an article in which he tells about it.

Thanks, Ron. That makes a lot more sense. The linked article is behind the Washington Post pay-after-reading-X-number-of-articles-each-month-wall so here's the relevant quote: "Once he landed in Europe, the forces didn't know what to do with Walker — so he was put in command of a prisoner-of-war camp. "So I had 10,000 Germans in a P.O.W. camp in Naples," he says. "They made me an intelligence officer. I investigated thefts and rapes and murders — all kinds of stuff." That makes a lot more sense.

• Puerto Rico doesn't have water, power or humanitarian aid because of two other things they lack: Electoral votes and enough white people.