Interesting facts about my favorite place to shop, Costco…

I belong to a group called Yarmy's Army. I am one of the youngest members in fact of this club for veteran comedians and performers. We meet, we eat dinner together once a month and sometimes the group puts on little shows with the talents of its members.

There's one such show on Sunday night. It's at the Lonny Chapman Theater on Burbank Boulevard in North Hollywood and it will feature the talents of Peter Marshall, Hank Garrett, Fred Willard, Greg Lewis, Jim MacGeorge, Howard Storm, Mike Preminger and others. Tickets are cheap. Talent is high. It's at 7 PM and if you'd like to attend, here's how to do it. Do not worry. I am not performing. Really good people are.

Several folks I know who've seen it are raving about Something Rotten, a new Broadway musical that they say is very clever and funny. It's kind of a modern look at the Renaissance and it deals with two playwrights trying to escape from the rather formidable footsteps of that Shakespeare guy.

I haven't seen it but I want to. In the meantime, we can all listen to its complete cast album — online and free for what I assume is a limited time. Go here and click. It's probably good marketing as listening to the first few songs made me want to see it even more.

Dennis Hastert.

Matt Taibbi savages Judith Miller for her Iraq reporting and for pinning the blame for its inaccuracy on just about everyone else. I don't know why he's so angry. Helping get this country to make its all-time greatest military mistake resulting in countless deaths and untold billions…why should a little thing like that harm a reporter's career?

The fine folks who run Comic-Con International today announced…

Don McGregor, John Stanley to Receive 2015 Bill Finger Award

SAN DIEGO – Don McGregor and John Stanley have been selected to receive the 2015 Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. The selection, made by a blue-ribbon committee chaired by writer-historian Mark Evanier, was unanimous.

"I asked on my blog for suggestions of worthy recipients," Evanier explains. "I received dozens of worthy names, but the frequency and passion with which these two gentlemen were suggested led us to an easy decision."

The Bill Finger Award was created in 2005 at the instigation of comic book legend Jerry Robinson. "The premise of this award is to recognize writers for a body of work that has not received its rightful reward and/or recognition," Evanier explains. "That was what Jerry Robinson intended as his way of remembering his friend, Bill Finger. Bill is still kind of the industry poster boy for writers not receiving proper reward or recognition." Evanier will present the awards on July 10 during the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards ceremony at the 2015 Comic-Con International.

Don McGregor began his career writing comic books with work for Warren (Creepy, Eerie) in 1971, and in 1972 he joined the editorial staff at Marvel Comics. Before long, he was writing for Marvel where his work became known for its unique voice. His runs with the character Black Panther in Jungle Action and on Killraven in Amazing Adventures drew strong fan response, as did his later efforts for other publishers: Detectives, Inc; Sabre, Nathaniel Dusk, and the acclaimed Ragamuffins. He also wrote Zorro both for comic books and comic strips. Don will appear at Comic-Con to accept this award for his inspiring body of work.

John Stanley is best known for writing and occasionally drawing Little Lulu for Dell Comics from 1945 to 1959, turning Marge's single-panel gag cartoon into a popular and hilarious series of stories and creating most of the supporting cast for Lulu's world. His rich characterizations and humor made for a memorable series, and he applied those skills to other Dell and Gold Key comics, including Nancy and Sluggo, Melvin Monster, O.G. Whiz, and Thirteen (Going On Eighteen). As with his contemporary Carl Barks, Stanley's work was almost completely anonymous, but avid fans unearthed the secret of who was doing that superb work. Stanley left comics for other work in the early seventies and passed away in 1993. His Finger Award will be accepted by his son, James.

The Bill Finger Award honors the memory of William Finger (1914-1974), who was the first and, some say, most important writer of Batman. Many have called him the "unsung hero" of the character and have hailed his work not only on that iconic figure but on dozens of others, primarily for DC Comics.

In addition to Evanier, the selection committee consists of Charles Kochman (executive editor at Harry N. Abrams, book publisher), comic book writer Kurt Busiek, artist/historian Jim Amash, cartoonist Scott Shaw!, and writer/editor Marv Wolfman.

The major sponsor for the 2015 awards is DC Comics; supporting sponsors are Heritage Auctions and Maggie Thompson.

The Finger Award falls under the auspices of Comic-Con International: San Diego and is administered by Jackie Estrada.

Additional information on the Finger Award can be found at this link.

Four years ago (as reported here), I saw an extremely-limited run of the Neil Simon play, The Sunshine Boys, starring Jerry Van Dyke and Dick Van Dyke. (Well, at least they did most of the play. There were a few changes.)

I thought they were both oddly cast as old, washed-up Jewish comedians, especially since neither looks or acts anywhere near his actual age and it's hard to think of these guys as forgotten performers. But hey, it was the Van Dyke Brothers — two real pros who can't not make something interesting and funny. I'd go see either one of them play the title role in Mame and a lot of you would, too. When I wrote about it back then, quite a few of you sent me messages to say, "Gosh, I wish I could see that." Well, you can see most of it in this video.

The first twenty minutes or so are missing but if you know the play, which is the same as the movie, you can follow the story. If you want to skip ahead to when Dick makes his entrance, that occurs a little more than ten minutes in. And don't go looking for The Doctor and the Tax Collector sketch. It was replaced by a musical number…

A new Gallup Poll says Americans are getting more Liberal (or maybe Libertarian) in their views of what's morally acceptable. If this polling is right, there's been a huge leap in just the past four years for folks being fine with gay relations; also in having a baby outside of wedlock, pre- (or non-) marital sex, divorce, stem cell research and even polygamy. I can't think of any public discussions of polygamy in the last four years except the dire warnings of some that Gay Marriage will surely lead to it.

A few folks I know will deny all this and/or predict we're speeding to the days of Sodom and Gomorrah…but they probably said that when the numbers on gay and lesbian relations went from 10% to 12% okay with it. This country is constantly expanding its definition of what's morally acceptable. On the sex-related issues, for instance, we're always moving in the direction that what consenting adults wish to do in private is their own damn business.

Still, a lot of this is too simplified. Take suicide, for instance. The poll says 19% of us now consider it morally acceptable. Yeah, but whose suicide? I'm sure it's different if you're talking about a despondent teenager versus, say, a 90-year-old person who is in miserable health and pain. (That's surely why doctor-assisted suicide ranks so much higher.) Or take gambling. If a rich person wants to go gamble with highly-disposable income, that's a lot different from the father of a family on welfare taking next month's rent money to Vegas and putting it all on Double-Zero.

I also wonder how much rising opposition to the Death Penalty has to do with feeling it's wrong for the government to kill people and how much is the feeling that it's being administered unfairly and/or that we execute innocent people. And how come the poll didn't ask people about one of the bigger moral issues of our time…the serving of cole slaw? I'd like to think I've done my part to raise opposition to that abomination a few points. I'm all for expanding tolerance on most of these issues but there are some things a decent society just cannot tolerate.

Jack Kirby is finally getting some of the recognition that he's deserved for so long. He's being recognized as the co-creator of so many of the Marvel Super-Heroes and even better, he's had a pretzel named after him.

My three favorite lyricists in the world are probably Johnny Mercer, Stephen Sondheim and Frank Jacobs. For over fifty years (that is not an overestimate) Frank Jacobs has been one of the most prolific writers for MAD and while everything he does for them is great, I have a special fondness for his poems and song parodies.

Back when the song "Downtown" — the one recorded by Petula Clark — was heard everywhere, Frank did his own version of and it went a little like this. (Well, actually, it went exactly like this…)

When you eat meat / but hate the meat that you're eating / Then you've surely got
Ground Round!

It's so unnerving / when they're constantly serving / in an eating spot
Ground Round!

It may be called a Chopped Steak, a Salisbury or Beef Patty!
No matter what it's called, it's always overcooked and fatty!
What can you do?

Sound off to your waiter there / And loudly pound on your table
Stand up on your chair / And shout Ground Round!
Piled on my plate I see / Ground Round!
Always you're conning me! / Ground Round!
Why must it always be? / Ground Round! Ground Round! Ground Round!

I loved that one. A few years ago, I was moderating a panel on MAD at Comic-Con and I asked each panelist to name one thing they did for the magazine that people always mention to them as especially memorable. Frank thought for a second — a lot of possible answers there — and mentioned "Ground Round." I, to prove his statement and I suppose to be a show-off, immediately quoted the lyrics from memory. I seem to remember Drew Carey singing it, also from memory on some talk show once.

Anyway, it's in this new book of his work along with hundreds of other goodies, including his great spoof of West Side Story with John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev heading the rival gangs, all expertly drawn by Mort Drucker. Saluting Frank's work like this makes for a book that really has some of the best things that ever appeared in that magazine.

I still think, as I've suggested for years, that MAD should put out a record — I guess a CD, now — of good vocalists and an orchestra performing Jacobs song parodies but this will do for now. Here's your Amazon link to get one.

P.S. Any singers out there with a keyboard or a Karaoke track of "Downtown?" Make a video of "Ground Round," upload it to YouTube, send me a link and I'll embed the first one here! That'll get you at least ten viewings.

Six funny women discuss the problems faced by funny women. A few of them are also faced by funny men.

Texas and nearby states have been experiencing record-shattering and destructive rains, including ten inches in a single 24-hour period in Houston. Bill Nye (Science Guy) took to Twitter and wrote…

Billion$$ in damage in Texas & Oklahoma. Still no weather-caster may utter the phrase Climate Change.

This has triggered a monsoon of hateful replies calling him names and suggesting new places on his body for his bowtie and such. The change in climate could not possibly have anything to do with Climate Change.

I have the feeling that if the same kind of flooding had hit San Francisco — or any part of the country that has accepted Gay Marriage — the same folks who are attacking Bill Nye (S.G.) would say it was obvious it was God's way of showing He was pissed. How about if we spread the notion that the rains are clear signs that God is against Gender Discrimination, the Death Penalty, Open Carry and Rick Perry running for president again?

This video shows tricks and unusual things one can or can't do with a piece of paper. As you'll see they say that it's impossible to fold a sheet of paper more than seven times…

Okay — but now there's a video from the show Mythbusters showing some people folding a sheet of paper more than seven times. Granted, they had to use a fork-lift, a steam roller and a sheet of paper the size of a football field — but they did it…

I am now about to cause some of you to spend a lot of time on a webpage other than mine.

Less than a year ago here, I told you about an old pal of mine, a large-hearted, industrious gent named Paul Maher. Paul was a devout fan of entertainment that fell under the general classification of "children's television" and he died some time back without realizing his dream, which was to erect a museum devoted to such material. He spent much of his life amassing artifacts and material for his dream.

One of the things Paul did was to videotape — at a time when that was not as easy to do as it is now — interviews with folks who'd worked in children's television, mostly in animation. Someone has put a number of his interviews online on this page, including long ones with Don Messick and Larry Harmon, and shorter ones with folks like Paul Winchell, Alex Lovy, Ward Kimball and Grim Natwick. Not all of his subjects' names are spelled correctly. I haven't watched them all yet but on the ones I've watched, the voice you'll hear asking the questions is Paul's.

Those of you interested in comic book history may be especially interested in his chats with Pete Alvarado and Owen Fitzgerald. Because they worked almost exclusively on comics that didn't have credits, both are not as well-known as they should be. They were among the most prolific comic book illustrators of their time, especially Pete, who I wrote about here.

Owen may have been the fastest comic book artist I ever worked with — and yes, that's including Jack Kirby and Sergio Aragonés. Among the many comics he drew were the early issues of DC's Adventures of Bob Hope and for long periods, he ghosted the Dennis the Menace comic books and Sunday pages for Hank Ketcham. I worked with Pete on Gold Key comics and with both men at Hanna-Barbera and since both have passed, I'm so glad Paul shot these videos of them.

Make a point of watching at least the beginning of Owen's video. He draws Alvin of Alvin and the Chipmunks and as you'll see, he doesn't approach the drawing the "normal" way, which would be to rough in the head shape and then place the features. When he drew — and I saw him do this — he would just start anywhere, almost at random. Sergio sometimes does that and Kirby did, too. Most other artists cannot.

Another odd thing about Owen: He could draw anything as long as he couldn't see it. At Hanna-Barbera, he was constantly being handed model sheets and drawings of new characters he would have to draw and he would look at them, put them away and draw the characters perfectly from memory. He could not do it with the model sheet in front of him. Just an amazing talent.

Paul shot videos of many amazing talents. Go browse the page and if you can, drop something in their donation box. I'm not sure who's running things there but if they're carrying on Paul's work, they deserve your support. In fact, while you're over on that site, go to the main page, click on one of the characters there and you'll see the kind of things Paul collected.

That's my friend Greg Ehrbar. Greg knows many things but the expertise he'll be demonstrating on today's Stu Show is his exhaustive knowledge of cartoon music. I don't know anyone who knows that much about the composers and musicians who've created tunes for animation. A close runner-up would be Animation Expert Jerry Beck and he'll also be on Stu's Show today as he, Greg and Stu discuss that topic and play examples of some of the great talents who put the melodies in Merrie Melodies and the tunes in other toons. If you like cartoons, give a listen.

Stu's Show can be heard live (almost) every Wednesday at the Stu's Show website and you can listen for free there. 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.  Shortly after a show ends, it's available for downloading from the Archives on that site. Downloads are a measly 99 cents each and you can get four for the price of three. Stu's generosity is exceeded only by his enthusiasm.