Today is the annual Christmas Gift-Giving episode of Stu's Show.  Join your genial host Stu Shostak as he welcomes a bunch of folks who'll talk about gizmos and books you can buy this year for your loved ones or even for yourself.  The roster includes Dick DeBartolo, who has been writing for MAD magazine since Alfred E. Neuman had a full set of uppers.  Dick is also known as the "Giz-Wiz," an expert on neat gadgets and electronic goodies that can make your life easier or at least more fun.  He'll talk about a wide array of such items while three authors — Dwayne Epstein, Herbie J. Pilato and Julian David Stone will talk about new books about television. Tune in and get your holiday shopping done the Stu's Show way.

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 way longer. Shortly after a show's over, it's available for downloading from the Archives on that site. Downloads are a measly 99 cents each and you can get four shows for the price of three. Then you can take the money you save and buy more of the great gifts you'll be hearing about on the show. Simple?

This may be more interesting than it sounds. It's an entire hour-long episode of The Price is Right but shot with extra cameras to show you all the backstage doings and how everything is done.

Once upon a time, I was fascinated with this show, not because of the game and certainly not because of its host. I finally stopped watching it because Bob Barker was so self-obsessed and condescending to the players. It also didn't help that I'd heard so many bad stories about the guy from folks who worked on or around the show and wanted him spayed or neutered with a pair of hedge trimmers.

But I was amazed at the directing and staging and what these folks were able to do in a small studio (way smaller than you'd think it was when watching at home) and in pretty much real time. They edited but not much. If before this series ever existed, you'd gone to the network and pitched it, telling them what you had in mind, the reaction would probably have been, "Hey, that sounds great but there's no way you'll ever be able to actually do that, especially not for the kind of money you'd have to do it for."

Still, they did it as a half-hour and that was remarkable enough to anyone who knew the limitations of TV studios, the current equipment, human ability, etc. That emboldened them to double-down and go to an hour and, by God, they made that work. It's a very difficult show to pull off and somehow, they've done millions of them. I poached on the stage there a few times and was astounded. (Something you don't see in this video: The corridors outside the studio. You can't walk down them during a taping because they're jammed full of cars and other prizes and games and props and all. I once could not take the shortest route to a meeting in that building because there was a damned yacht in the way.)

One thing you may not know about game shows: The producers are always obsessed with not getting sued. Losing contestants have been known to take recordings to their lawyers to search for loopholes or anomalies in the game play. In the showcase segment here, one of the bidders — the winner, as it turns out — bids $25,500 but says "for the car." Well, she's actually bidding for an entire showcase of prizes, only one of which is the car. During the commercial break that follows, there's a brief discussion among producers and the director (Adam Sandler, obviously not that Adam Sandler) about whether to edit or retape the bid. They decide not to change it since she did win and, I suspect, because the other guy was so far off.

The last time I went to a taping, well before the Drew Carey days, there were tape stops during the commercials to give the crew time to strike the last game and set up for the next one, and also because Mr. Barker was having a good time chatting with the audience and encouraging them to fawn over him. In this video, they don't stop but I'll bet that at times, they have to.

Give it a look. You may not care for the show but see if you aren't impressed with the fact that they're able to do it at all…

The seven key points from the C.I.A. report on our use of torture…

1. The C.I.A.'s interrogation techniques were more brutal and employed more extensively than the agency portrayed.
2. The C.I.A. interrogation program was mismanaged and was not subject to adequate oversight.
3. The C.I.A. misled members of Congress and the White House about the effectiveness and extent of its brutal interrogation techniques.
4. Interrogators in the field who tried to stop the brutal techniques were repeatedly overruled by senior C.I.A. officials.
5. The C.I.A. repeatedly underreported the number of people it detained and subjected to harsh interrogation techniques under the program.
6. At least 26 detainees were wrongfully held and did not meet the government's standard for detention.
7. The C.I.A. leaked classified information to journalists, exaggerating the success of interrogation methods in an effort to gain public support.

So: They did it. They did it poorly. They lied to everyone, including the White House and Congress about what they did. And it didn't work.

And nobody's going to prison or paying any sort of penalty for it.

The McDonald's company has a problem. Sales are plunging and they don't seem to know what to do about it. They're reportedly experimenting with a new gimmick where you can go in, tell a touch screen what you want to order, component by component, and your burger or sandwich will be made to order.

Will this work? I think not. People don't not go into McDonald's because some burgers come with pickle chips on them. They don't go in because they feel stupid eating at McDonald's or want something better than you can ever get at a McDonald's. I suspect "feel stupid" is more prevalent. It's why every time they've tried to make McDonald's feel like someplace you'd take an adult to dinner, it's failed miserably.

Hey, Ronald! You serve food that's for kids and/or convenience…nothing else. That's all you are. That's all you'll ever be.

I confess. I patronize the chain occasionally and when I do, it's for only one reason: I need to get something to eat in a hurry and that's my best option. Nothing else is around or open or if something is, it's either (a) something much slower, (b) something quite unfamiliar or (c) a chain I like less including but not limited to Burger King, Carl's Jr, Jack-in-the-Box, anyplace that serves tacos or KFC.

I like chains. Having as many food allergies as I do, there's something very comforting about predictability in my food. I like that no matter where I am, I can go into a McDonald's and know exactly what I'm going to get. ("Predictability," by the way, is still one of my two reasons noted above why folks go there. It's a sub-category of "Convenience." So is the fact that often, it's safer for me than any nearby alternative. And unless there's a Five Guys — and I might not have time for a Five Guys — better.)

So I patronize Mickey D's but I rarely dine there. I drive-thru because, well, I feel uncomfy eating at those little plastic tables. Between those and the general ambiance, I feel like I'm snacking in a nursery school.

Some of it is being waited on by teenagers…or worse, by adults you know are being paid like teenagers. And some of it is…well, it's McDonald's. I'm wondering if the main reason their sales are down is that decades of McDonald's jokes — remarks about how it's tacky and low-class and exploitive of its help and there's no meat in their burgers — are just finally catching up with them.

Okay, I'm really going to try not to blog today after I post this. Too much to do. I also have a whole bunch of these soup can graphics to use up. Here are a few quick thoughts before I go…

I watched Peter Pan again, albeit with one eye while training the other on computer maintenance tasks. I liked him (Mr. Walken) a bit more and I liked her (Ms. Williams) a bit less. One of my problems with Walken though is I like a Captain Hook you can hiss and boo and then feel some joy when he's defeated. There was something kinda sad about Walken's Hook. He was acting defeated before he was defeated. Also, I think there's something wrong with a musical in which wires get more screen time than Kelli O'Hara.

Today is the first weekday in a while when I haven't seen a new bit of bad news for Bill Cosby. Then again, it's still morning.

There are settings in most browsers that will allow you to filter out porn on the Internet. I'd like a setting that prevents me from seeing offers of boxed DVD sets of TV shows I liked until such time as I've watched the boxed DVD sets of TV shows I liked that I already have.

The internal injuries to my knee, sustained a week ago this evening, are healing nicely. The epidermis, however, is not so it's off to the Dermatologist this afternoon. I seem to have found the only Dermatologist on Wilshire Boulevard who's more concerned with the health of one's skin than its appearance. See you later.

Hogan's Alley is, as I hope you already know, a fine magazine devoted to the Comic Arts. Recently, I was interviewed by its proprietor, Tom Heintjes, about my new book, The Art of the Simon and Kirby Studio. You can read that interview here and if it makes you want to immediately order a copy, you can do that here.

It's Cookie Monster. What more do you need to know?

Longtime pal Joe Brancatelli writes…

Check it out: the difference between a Ph.D. and Ed.D in education is one without a distinction now. In fact, there no longer are any substantial standards between universities about what constitutes a Ph.D. track and an Ed.D track.

Bottom line, though, Cosby is a Doctor of Education. As far as we know, he earned it. (That's one of the real problems with these kinds of accusations. After a while, you start questioning everything about the guy. I gotta check to make sure he was actually in I Spy. Maybe it was a doppelganger…)

Okay, I officially drop all discussion of college degrees, a topic about which I know nothing. And I'm trying to stop thinking (and therefore, writing) about the Cosby matter but boy, that's difficult. It's just getting worse and worse for that guy.

Well, since I brought it up, I got this from a reader named Briggs…

It bothers me that The Cosby Show is off the air. Doesn't that hurt a lot of people who aren't Bill Cosby? They didn't stop running those Police Squad movies when the public turned against O.J. Simpson. Do you think The Cosby Show will be seen again?

Yeah, as soon as advertisers are willing to have their commercials appear in it. That might take a while but I think it'll be back. (By the way, the Aspire channel, which programs for a black audience, is still running episodes of I Spy and Cosby's 1969 sitcom.)

You're right that there are other people who profit from the rerunning of The Cosby Show and they're losing some income. Then again, some other show is now airing in its old time slots so someone else is profiting. That's kind of the way the game is played. And it's very difficult to boycott anything without some innocent party getting harmed.

Kevin Drum notes that the "Obama recovery" (in an economic sense) is way better than the "Bush recovery" and by a wide margin. I note that the people who don't want to believe this are just plain never going to believe it.

Back when he was running against Obama, Mitt Romney said the president "gets full credit or blame for what's happened in this economy, and what's happened to gasoline prices under his watch." Next time Romney is interviewed by someone, I'd like to see him reminded of that and then asked, "Well, gas prices have dropped more than anyone imagined. Does Obama get full credit for that?" It would be fun watching Romney reverse himself, as he'd have to do if he wants to have any future in his party.

By the way: I don't think any president is wholly to blame or credit for the economy or gas prices or anything of the sort. I don't think anyone who says they are really believes it, either. Public servants probably all deserve less credit than they'll take and more than their opponents will ever give them. I just wish that game didn't get in the way of people admitting when things are going well…or not.

Here's your chance to buy Burt Reynolds' Emmy or one of his many People's Choice Awards or his old American Express card or all sorts of things. The man sure had enough belt buckles. The auction catalog is online.

Time to start filtering in the Christmas videos. I prefer this song as performed by Thurl Ravenscroft but this version is pretty cool…

A reader who signs himself "Shill" writes, "Bill Cosby received a Ed.D. (Doctor of Education) not a Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) in education. There is a big difference." Yes, there is. I stand corrected.

Reader Yacov Freedman doesn't think Ray Bolger lied about his age. He thinks Bolger misspoke; that the script he was performing said "forty-eight years" and he accidentally said "forty." This was the 48th annual Academy Awards ceremony so it had been 48 years since "it all started." Had Bolger said the correct number then his line about his age would have been accurate. Yacov is probably right.

Okay, I guess I didn't succeed in not blogging much today. I might as well post a video link…

This is worth coming back for. In the clip I posted from the 1976 Academy Awards, Ray Bolger says, "It all happened forty years ago. Forty years ago, I was twenty-four years old." That would lead one to believe Mr. Bolger was 64 years old at that moment, right?

Wrong. Ray Bolger was born in 1904 so he was 72. I should have caught that.

I never understood why people fib like that about their ages. Granted, it was harder to check out in the days before Google but it was still not difficult to get caught. And Bolger's dance number would have been even more impressive if people had been aware it was being performed by a guy in his seventies.

I knew an actress once who though well into her eighties, kept telling everyone she was in her sixties even though it meant she would have made her screen debut playing an adult two years before she was born. She wasn't fooling anyone. She did however briefly panic a much younger actress I was dating who looked at her and said, "You mean I'm going to look like that when I'm sixty?"

My knee continues to heal. I'm guessing by Monday, it should be pretty much back to normal but tending to it has put me behind on a few things…ergo, we have the soup can alerting you to a reduced rate of blogging for the day.

The New York Times really liked that televised production of Peter Pan but my pal Robert J. Elisberg did not. My views are closer to Bob's but I don't feel particularly strong about it.

At least Bob was respectful of the effort. I'm saddened by some of the nastiness voiced by those who thought it was not good. Talented people made an honest attempt to do something wonderful and they succeeded wildly in the eyes of many, and succeeded somewhat in the views of others. I am amazed how upset and insulting some people get when they encounter a TV show or a movie or anything that doesn't strike them as wonderful. It's not like we're starved for media in this country. You can go watch something else you will like.

By the way: If you missed it, NBC is rerunning Peter Pan Live! on Saturday, December 13 when kids can stay up later. I hope the network has the decency to retitle it Peter Pan Not Live! Once again, it will probably have more Walmart commercials than there are Walmarts.

In other news: I was kinda joking when I asked how long it would be before Bill Cosby had his doctorate revoked. My ol' pal Bruce Reznick wrote to remind me that Cosby earned a PhD in education from the University of Massachusetts. As Bruce noted, "They don't take those away, unless there is evidence of plagiarism or fraud in the process of the degree." Ted Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber, earned a PhD in mathematics from the University of Michigan and it was apparently never revoked.

(By the way, did I ever mention that at the time of his Unabombing, mail from Mr. Kaczynski turned up in my mailbox? He wasn't writing to me and his correspondence contained no explosives. But I was then sharing my P.O. box with the lovely actress Jewel Shepard and she was getting honest-to-God fan mail from the guy! She was not worried nor was he the creepiest guy writing to her.)

I'll be back later today if there's Breaking News. Otherwise, I'll see you Sunday.

Well, on the web actually. Joe Stuber has a great comics-oriented website called Comic Book Central and it's full of podcasts interviewing interesting people in and around the world of comics. As of today, it's fuller because he's posted one with me. It runs a little over an hour and I mostly talk about my experiences in the world of teevee but there's some stuff in there about comics.

You can find it on this page. And while you're looking for mine there, check out the one from a few weeks back with my pal Judy Strangis. Judy is a wonderful actress who you'll recognize from dozens of TV shows and commercials and other appearances.