We recently found out that veteran comic book artist John Calnan passed away at the end of last year at the age of 84. John was kind of a utility infielder for DC Comics from around 1967 to 1982, working on all their books — war, western, romance, super-hero, etc. Sometimes he penciled, sometimes he inked. He drew Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman and was the artist for Metamorpho after artist Ramona Fradon left comic books to draw the Brenda Starr newspaper strip.

Calnan was a graduate of the School of Visual Arts where, like many of his contemporaries, he studied with artist Jerry Robinson and got his first jobs in comics as an assistant to Lone Ranger artist Tom Gill. Mr. Calnan did some work on his own for Classics Illustrated, then went to work in advertising for a time. A co-worker at the ad agency knew some people at DC Comics and that led to Calnan beginning to moonlight for DC. Eventually, the part-time job became the full-time job and vice-versa.

He proved to be a very reliable artist for them — not flashy but really, really useful to have available. DC editor Murray Boltinoff is said to have remarked, "My job would be a breeze if every artist was as good and professional as John Calnan." I never met Mr. Calnan — apparently, relatively few folks who worked in comics ever did — but I greatly respected his skill and dedication and I thought his passing should be noted.

This evening, I'm hosting this event at the TV Academy — a program devoted to the art and science of recasting cartoon voices when the original voice becomes unavailable, usually due to death. I'll be interviewing casting-and-voice director Andrea Romano, Producers Matt Craig and Gary Hartle (who bring you Wabbit), voice actors Jeff Bergman, Grey Griffin, Dee Baker and Bob Bergen, and puppeteer Mallory Lewis, who is carrying on the work of her mother, Shari Lewis. It's only open to members but it will probably be viewable online before long.  I'll let you know where it is.

I also have a pressing script deadline, a doctor appointment (nothing important) and a lot of birthday greetings to reply to. If I don't reply to yours, please forgive me as they literally number over a thousand…and there are even some from people I know! So there won't be a lot of posting here today.

I am absolutely fine with turning 65. I have never felt old at any age. Eubie Blake used to ask the question, "How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?" I'd be 24, which was the age I was when I moved out of my parents' house and took full control of my life…or at least as much as anyone could ever have.

I have friends around my chronological age who I think make themselves older than they have to be by obsessing on the topic, worrying that they'll become unattractive at this age or that no one will want to hire them at that age. I'm sure at some point, I'll become acutely aware and concerned that I don't have much time left on this planet but I'm going to try to not descend into that dead-end more than an hour or two before I check out. Back later.

If you attended Comic-Con International in 2016 and hope to score badges for it this year, go read this.  And mark March 11 on your calendar.

I'm a big fan of the musical 1776.  I've seen maybe a dozen stage productions of it and every so often, I watch a little of one on YouTube, where people often upload scenes from — or the entirety of — regional productions.

Here's a nice rendition of the "Cool, Conservative Men" number from one such production. Alas, the uploader didn't identify where it was done but a bit of detective work on my part suggests it's probably a performance done last April by the City Circle Acting Company at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts in Coralville, Iowa. If it isn't, my apologies to whoever did stage it. Based on this clip, I'd say they did a nice job. The song itself may be more relevant today than ever…

The sad/annoying thing about Trump's speech last night to Congress is that people are praising it because he didn't sound like too much of a know-nothing demagogue. The bar has been set so low for a Trump speech that he's considered "presidential" if he gets through it with only minor lies and brags. Here are some links…

• Jeff Shesol explains why what Trump said in the speech he wants to do is not in sync with the directions in which his administration is actually heading.
• Trump says he wants to increase the defense budget by $54 billion. Kevin Drum explains why that's not possible under the rules. So my question is that when Trump announced his plan, did no one tell him that it's not as easy as he thinks? Does he think he has a way around the rules? Or a way to attract Democratic support? Or is this maybe a bluff to be sacrificed in service of some other, possible goal? Beats me.
• The Yemen raid last month is the kind of thing that, had it occurred under a Democratic administration, would have caused Republicans to immediately hold Benghazi-style hearings — and lots of them. They'd be out there arguing that the recklessness of the President had gotten a good, loyal American soldier killed needlessly. But Democrats don't have that ability to gin up outrage and didn't even when they had control of Congress. Daniel Larison is shocked that Trump will probably get away with it and maybe be equally reckless in the future.
• As Jonathan Chait notes, the new plan is to try and pass an Obamacare replacement so quickly that no one will really get an idea of what's in it or what it would do. There's only one reason our lawmakers ever do that.

Stephen Colbert's live show last night following the Trump speech was amazingly good, given how little time he and his writers had to assemble the monologue and desk spot. I'm not sure every bit of it was live but the parts that obviously were were really sharp and they felt truly connected to the day's events. Wish he'd do more of that.

Okay, forget Trump. It's March 1 so there are two more important topics. One, of course, is that the month of March is when the Souplantation restaurant chain — known in some areas as Sweet Tomatoes — offers their Classic Creamy Tomato Soup. This is my favorite soup so I'll be dining at those places often during the next thirty days.  If you'd like to do the same, you can find out if there's one in your area on this page.

A few years ago, I had a relentless campaign going on this blog to persuade the company to make this soup a part of their regular lineup. I spoke to many people at the company. I blogged. I even indirectly caused Souplantation to be mentioned on the TV shows, Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. The company thanked me with a lot of passes for free meals but did they heed my pleas and make my favorite soup available the other eleven months of the year? Nooooo.

Then in October of 2016, the company filed for bankruptcy protection and announced the closure of 20-30 restaurants and a few months later…

San Diego-based Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp., which owns the Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes restaurants, will sell its assets to a New York private investment firm as part of its bankruptcy restructuring plan. The sale, which was approved in bankruptcy court on Monday, is expected to be completed by late January. Garden Fresh said that that once it emerges from Chapter 11 later this month, the restaurants remaining will total between 90 and 104.

I'm not saying the bankruptcy could have been avoided if they'd listened to me but the bankruptcy could have been avoided if they'd listened to me.

Actually, I haven't set foot in a Souplantation since last March. After being a steady customer — even during those dreary months when they didn't offer my soup — I found that all three of the ones I was frequenting had gone way, way down in quality. Maybe that had something to do with the changeover in ownership and maybe it was only temporary. I'll find out when I venture back into one in the next day or so.

I'm hoping they'll be back to their old standard so I can become a regular again. If not, I'll just send my assistant over for the rest of this month to get "to go" orders of the soup. And if they're really bad — like, so bad they make me sick — I'm ready for that because of the other important March topic. Tomorrow, I turn 65 and as of today, I'm on Medicare.

Today on Stu's Show, Stu Shostak welcomes actor Jon Provost and his wife, author-historian Laurie Jacobson. Jon, of course, is best remembered for his years playing Timmy on the TV series, Lassie. There, he did the near-impossible. He was a kid on television I didn't want to slap for making kids look stupid. When I was young, I couldn't stand most actors my age. It was pretty much just Provost and Ron Howard. Anyway, he'll be discussing what happened to his life and career after he left Lassie, while Laurie will be sharing great stories from her books on Hollywood history. Oughta be a good show.

Stu's Show can be heard live (almost) every Wednesday at the Stu's Show website and you can listen for free there and then. Webcasts start at 4 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM Eastern and other times in other climes. They run a minimum of two hours and sometimes go to three or beyond. Then shortly after a show concludes, it's available for downloading from the Archives on that site. Downloads are a bargain 99 cents each and you can get four for the price of three. They're great to listen to if you're ever trapped in a well.

Mark Zimmer wrote…

In defense of Warren Beatty, my read (both at the time and on repeated viewing) of what he was trying to do was show Dunaway that there was a problem with the card, and she was so into the idea he was being a prankster that she didn't get that and just blurted out La-La Land, without registering that Emma Stone had apparently just won Best Picture.

I primarily blame the PWC dude tweeting pictures of Emma Stone instead of taking care of business, though. What a goober. You had one job, as they say.

I think what happened was that Beatty knew something was wrong and wasn't sharp enough at that moment to say, "Hey, I think someone gave me the wrong envelope." It's tough to say why that was. Certainly, that's a confusing place to be — onstage in front of Hollywood and the world with all the lights and music and a TelePrompter which is giving you what now may be the wrong command, which is to read what's on the card.

I would guess he was just plain afraid to do the wrong thing and momentarily wasn't sure what the right thing would be…so he showed the card to Ms. Dunaway. Maybe he was thinking she'd see what the problem was or maybe she'd have an idea what he should do. But she thought he was showing her the card so she could read the winning name and there before her eyes, it said "La-La Land." She didn't notice that it also said "Best Actress" and "Emma Stone." Her eyes were looking for the name of the movie and she spotted the name of the movie everyone expected to win…so she read that name.

I don't think she was at fault. Beatty arguably should have known what to do. It may well be that there was no one near him he could turn to…no host or stage manager nearby. (Jimmy Kimmel was seated out in the audience because he was going to do his closing lines sitting with Matt Damon.) But I don't think I would blame Beatty because he was probably just told to come out, read the Prompter, open the envelope, read what's in the envelope and get the hell outta the way. I doubt he was briefed on what to do in case of an emergency…and apparently, no one else was, either.

It does look bad for that gent from PriceWaterhouseCoopers…which seems to have embezzled the spaces between those names. Still, I think I'd like to hear his side of all this before we condemn him to a lifetime of scrubbing the floors at H&R Block…or wherever disgraced accountants wind up if there's no opening as Trump's Treasury Secretary.

And yes, I know we're devoting a lot more attention to this matter than it deserves…but isn't it a lot more fun than watching Donald dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency and remove all constraints on duplicitous business dealings?

Some of this will be quickly forgotten after the man makes his speech tonight and unleashes a whole new wave of factually-challenged and contradictory statements…

• Trump wants an increase in the defense budget of $54 billion. Fred Kaplan explains why this is unnecessary, ridiculous and dangerous. I've never understood why people who fault Liberals for "throwing money at a problem" have this concept of Defense where the more you spend, the safer you are…and it really doesn't matter what you spend it on. Spending more is just a macho thing to do.
• Kevin Drum itemizes what Republicans have accomplished so far this year. It isn't a very impressive list.
• Ed Kilgore says that as much as Republicans want to do away with Obamacare, they want even more to snuff out Planned Parenthood. I wonder if any of them have ever thought, "Hey, I know how to get rid of Planned Parenthood! Let's set up and properly fund a big organization that does everything Planned Parenthood does for women except abortion!"
• Steve Benen writes about how Trump is running his administration more like a TV show than a division of government. He's especially concerned with "casting," making sure his people at least look like the right people. This may be so but how do you explain Stephen Miller?

I assume you all saw Jon Stewart on with Stephen Colbert last night. He was scolding the press for not doing its job and I couldn't help but think, "Some of them might be doing a better job if you were on TV more regularly."

Some optical illusions to make you doubt your own eyes…

Every year on his must-read blog, my pal Ken Levine does a snarky Oscar commentary. This year, he did it as an episode of his new, must-hear podcast. I highly recommend listening to his podcast each week but especially this one. You can find a link for the podcast on the blog.

Also this week, he has a sponsor…Blue Apron, the company that delivers supposedly easy-to-prepare meals to you. A number of my friends have tried this service and love it but I will never sign up. As I've mentioned here, I have a myriad of food allergies. I checked Blue Apron's March menu and — and I am not kidding — every single meal they have contains at least one ingredient that would kill me. So to you, it's an easy way to prepare a meal but to me, it's assisted suicide. Ken's a fine salesman but even he couldn't talk me into that.

As is usual after an Oscar or Emmy ceremony, people are compiling lists of folks who should have been in the "In Memoriam" reel and weren't. So far, I've seen Gloria DeHaven, Alan Young, Robert Vaughn, John McMartin, Anne Jackson, Steven Hill, Brian Bedford, Tammy Grimes, Rita Gam, Dick Davalos, Patricia Barry, Marvin Kaplan, Ruth Terry, Madeleine Lebeau, Francine York, Van Williams, Douglas Wilmer, Peter Vaughn, Fritz Weaver, Madeleine Sherwood, William Schallert, Charmian Carr, Maggie Blye, James Stacy, Alec McCowen, Burt Kwouk, Barbara Hale, Robert Horton, Jon Polito, Garry Shandling, Larry Drake, Miguel Ferrer, Bill Henderson, Teresa Saldana, Kevin Meaney, Jinpachi Nezu, Joseph Mascolo, Frank Pellegrini, Gil Hill, Peter Brown, Nicole Courcel, Joe Santos, Florence Henderson, Doris Roberts and David Huddleston.

Some of those are arguable, not because the people weren't important but because they weren't important in movies. And I'll bet you a couple of those names were from last year. Still, that's an awfully long list. I don't know why, given all the time the ceremony spends on silly things, they can't spare two minutes more for that segment.

I also wonder if anyone has ever thought to change "In Memoriam" to "In Celebration" and make the segment a bit more upbeat and not so maudlin. Get a presenter with a little energy and charm to come out and say, "Let's pause to remember some of the wonderful, talented men and women we lost this past year…and let's give thanks that we got to know them and their contributions." Having been to many a funeral that was conducted in that frame of mind, I think a lot of people would prefer that.

Guess they're afraid that someone's loved ones would complain a death had been trivialized or not given the seriousness it required. There was though this complaint…

Australian producer Jan Chapman says she was "devastated" when she saw her image used in the Oscars' 2017 In Memoriam segment in place of a picture of her "friend and long-time collaborator" Janet Patterson, who died in October 2015.

But no one's going to pay much attention to that gaffe because they're still talking about the biggie. PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm that handles the envelopes, released this statement this morning…

We sincerely apologize to Moonlight, La La Land, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for best picture. The presenters had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope and when discovered, was immediately corrected. We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred.

There's not much to investigate here. They have two representatives backstage who each have a full set of all the envelopes. One of them accidentally handed a duplicate of the Best Actress envelope to Warren Beatty — or to someone who handed it to Warren Beatty — instead of the proper Best Picture envelope. You could prevent this particular mistake by only having one set backstage but it would still be possible to hand out the wrong envelope earlier in the show by getting them out of sequence. And we can all make up scenarios where one envelope is lost and they need a backup.

Folks are debating today how much responsibility Warren Beatty and/or Faye Dunaway had for reading the wrong name. It would have been nice if Mr. Beatty, who obviously noticed something wasn't right, had done something other than show the card to Ms. Dunaway, who read the name. Her confusion is understandable…his, a bit less so. But really, the blame should go to whoever dispensed the wrong envelope and especially to the folks backstage who didn't stop the acceptance speeches immediately.

As I noted, there was at one point a procedure to handle this kind of thing. Did they not still have it in place? Or did someone simply fail to invoke it? Blaming the folks on stage is easy and probably wrong. They're just told where to go and what to say and they don't have a whole lot of command over what's going on.

And Jimmy Kimmel is probably kicking himself that he didn't think to come out and say, "Apparently, Price-Waterhouse was sabotaged by Russian hackers that wanted La La Land to win…"

If you missed John Oliver because you were watching the Academy Awards, you missed a real good segment about Obamacare…

I only caught a bit of the Oscars and may or may not watch more of the ceremony in the days to come. Jimmy Kimmel's material (at least what little I heard) sounded generally funny…but then the times I've caught his show, I always thought his material was better than the guy delivering it. If he came up with the Steve Harvey line at the end, maybe he's sharper than I thought.

That joke was, of course, because the wrong Best Picture was named and after some chaos ensued, La La Land handed the trophy over to Moonlight. I dunno how that happened.

I mean, I know that someone apparently handed the presenters another Best Actress envelope instead of Best Picture. I just don't know how they allowed the folks behind La La Land to make their way to the stage and deliver several speeches before the error was corrected.

You may recall I once wrote about the near miss back in 1985 when Sir Laurence Olivier presented the Best Picture Oscar to the right film by sheer accident. He didn't open the envelope but instead announced the first film on the nominee list was the winner…and it happened that the right film, Amadeus, was first in alphabetical order.

I was told that after that, a fail-safe system was put in place. The company that tallies the votes has people backstage who know what's supposed to be in each envelope and if the wrong "winner" is announced, there's a code or an alert they can issue to stop the proceedings immediately. I dunno if they still have that or if so, why it wasn't operational…but I'll betcha there's more investigations about that then there will be of Donald Trump's Russian connections.

I have an odd fascination with televised police pursuits — not so much with the chases themselves as with the way they're covered. It connects up with my constant nag that late night TV shows should be less rehearsed, planned and edited, and instead be more spontaneous. I like TV where the folks on the broadcast or supervising it have no clue what's going to happen next…which almost never happens on so-called "reality" shows.

As I've mentioned before, my favorite local reporter for this kind of thing here in Los Angeles is a gent named Stu Mundel. This man I call "the Vin Scully of televised car chases" must live in a helicopter, hovering over the basin, always at the ready to zoom to wherever cops are following anyone. He gets a bit excitable at times but that's okay because it's honest and he's a welcome change from the anchor-types who seem to do nothing but recite a lot of clichés like "He's driving with no regard for the safety of others" or "This is a very dangerous situation."

News flash, newspeople: Police chasing a fleeing car is always a dangerous situation.

And I swear, I once heard another reporter who was desperate for something to say actually tell us, "We have been able to confirm that there is at least one person in the vehicle." That was a relief because I was so concerned that the police were chasing one of those driverless cars that had knocked over a Wells Fargo.

Anyway, here's a too-brief (4 minutes) segment that Mundel did last night for the local news about police pursuits…