10 Grammar Mistakes People Love To Correct (That Aren't Actually Wrong)

I am, as a quick search of this blog will reveal, a big fan of a musical group called Big Daddy. What they do is to take current songs and rearrange them to sound like old songs. They're very clever at this and very funny.

To get you in the mood for Halloween, here's a video they did of a song on their latest album — an album made possible in part by Kickstarter payments from readers of this very blog. They took "Music of the Night," as heard in the Broadway musical, Phantom of the Opera and asked, "What might that have sounded like if it had been recorded by Bobby 'Boris' Pickett, the artist who gave us 'The Monster Mash?'" Well, it might have sounded a lot like this…

Hey, you like this? Well, the whole CD will be available on Amazon in two weeks. You can pre-order it here. It's a great listen.

Disney Legend Floyd Norman discusses CGI animation as opposed to hand-drawn animation. I wish they could co-exist in this world…and really don't see any reason why they can't if studios want that to happen.

James Surowiecki thinks we're spending way too much time worrying about Ebola…time which could and should be spent worrying about the flu. When all is said and done, the current strain of flu will probably kill more Americans than Ebola…and unlike Ebola, which may never contaminate anyone outside a few hospitals and labs, the flu seems to turn up anywhere people cough on each other.

I think it's like one of those things where people live in dread fear of a terrorist attack but accept as a normal part of life, the greater number of deaths that will occur from shootings, domestic violence, suicide, etc. Ebola is foreign.

Victoria Jackson says some of the wrong things about Jan Hooks.

Sarah Larson says all the right things about the late Jan Hooks. (Thanks, Shelly Goldstein!)

Here's a "web exclusive" from John Oliver. It's about the mania this time of year for things with pumpkin in them.

I don't like pumpkin…or at least, I didn't before it turned up on my food allergy list and I stopped eating it in any form. This means that October is a good month for me to stay out of any Trader Joe's. October is the month when everything at Trader Joe's — including the pot roast, the chocolate bars, the dishwashing liquid and your change — contains pumpkin. It's like the Monty Python "Spam" sketch except with pumpkin instead of Spam.

Think I'm making this up? This year, their "Fearless Flyer" includes the promise of Pumpkin Bagels, Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins, Pumpkin Spice Chai, Pumpkin Spice Coffee, Pumpkin Cream Cheese, Ginger Pumpkin Mini Mouthfuls, Mini Pumpkin Pies, Pumpkin Bread Pudding, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Pumpkin Croissants, Pumpkin Ice Cream, Pumpkin Macarons, Pumpkin Pie Mochi Ice Cream, Pumpkin Waffles, Gluten Free Pumpkin Pancake Mix, Organic Canned Pumpkin, Organic Pumpkin Toaster Pastries, Pecan Pumpkin Instant Oatmeal, Pumpkin Bar Baking Mix, Pumpkin Bread Mix, Pumpkin Butter, Pumpkin Cornbread Mix, Pumpkin Cranberry Scone Mix, Joe's Pumpkin O's, Pumpkin Pancake & Waffle Mix, Pumpkin Pie Spice, Pumpkin Soup, Pumpkin Spice Granola, This Pumpkin Walks Into A Bar…, Toasted Pumpkin Seed Oil, Mini Pumpkins, Pie Pumpkin, Orange Pumpkins, Sugar Pumpkin, Nonfat Greek Pumpkin Yogurt, Honey Roasted Pumpkin Ravioli, Pumpkin Rolls with Icing, Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Salted Caramels, Iced Pumpkin Scone Cookies, Pita Crisps with Cranberries & Pumpkin Seeds, Pumpkin Biscotti, Pumpkin Cranberry Crisps, Pumpkin Croutons, Pumpkin Joe Joe's, Pumpkin Seed Brittle, Pumpkin Spiced Pumpkin Seeds, Pumpkin Body Butter and KBC Pumpkin Ale.

Oh, yes…and they also sell pumpkins. Guess where I'm not shopping this month. Here's Mr. Oliver…

I finally got around to reading Tim Dickinson's long article in Rolling Stone about the Koch brothers and their unseemly empire. Pretty scary stuff. I keep being reminded of the Texas oil zillionaire H.L. Hunt, back when he was reportedly the richest man in the world and was saying things about how only rich people should be allowed to vote…or you should get more votes based on your wealth…or something like that. He always seemed pretty furious that a poor person's ballot carried as much weight as his.

If you read the piece on the Kochs, make sure you read their rebuttal. And then if you read their rebuttal, make sure you read Dickinson's rebuttal to their rebuttal. He's right that they don't really refute a lot of the critical things he wrote. It looks like they tossed his piece to some lawyer with the orders to tear it apart…and the lawyer didn't have the ammo to do that so he just tried to sound huffy and indignant.

• Visited Harlan Ellison at the hospital after his minor stroke. More energy and wit than most folks who haven't had a stroke.

Just got home. I was going to write up a piece about what I did today but I see on Facebook that my pal Alan Brennert already posted something I can steal. A number of writers have done very well stealing from Alan. Here's what he wrote…

So today my pal Mark Evanier and I went to see my old friend and colleague Harlan Ellison, who is recovering from a stroke he suffered last week. This was without a doubt the cheeriest, often laugh-out-loud funniest, hospital visit I've ever paid. Harlan's right arm and leg may be paralyzed, but his mind and wit definitely are not. He kept answering the phone, "Hello, Just This Side of Death, how can I help you?" and continued in his futile attempts to explain who Vera Hruba Ralston was to the very efficient, very nice, very young doctors and nurses caring for him.

Mark and I showed up as Harlan was finishing his physical therapy, and we were soon joined by David Gerrold and Josh Olson and his wife Nancy Himmel. There was much more comedy, but we'll be releasing the entire session on CD and iTunes as Harlan: Live From the Stroke Ward on the Edgeworks label. No, I made that up, but we could have. It was great to see Harlan in such fine form after what could have been such a debilitating injury.

I don't have much to add except that Harlan is doing fine and it was not unamusing to see the puzzled looks of the nurses and orderlies who were trying to pretend they understood two-thirds of what he said. Merry as the room was, it reminded me of the scene in All That Jazz where Joe Gideon turns his hospital room into a 24/7 party with interesting visitors and scintillating conversation. I assume Harlan will be going home soon. If not, I'll go back and enjoy more of the best show in town.

The Very Long Truck…

Yesterday morning, I watched some of Fox News Sunday and caught a debate between superlawyer Ted Olson and Family Research Council president Tony Perkins. The subject of course was Gay Marriage and given the obvious view of host/moderator Chris Wallace, one could say that Perkins was outnumbered two-to-one. You don't often see those odds opposing a right-wing position on Fox News.

Still, that wasn't why Perkins lost badly. It was because he had no answer to this question which Wallace put to him…

You and your wife live happily in this house. There's a same sex couple living [next door]. What's the damage to you?

Perkins ducked and weaved and tried to talk about the damage done to merchants who are fined or driven out of business because they don't want to make Gay Wedding Cakes. He simply had no answer to Wallace's question. His movement never has, which is why they've lost this debate.

He tried instead to present as fact the notion that children do better in a family with one male parent and one female parent. The studies that asserted that are old ones of questionable credibility even then…and way outnumbered by more recent studies that say there's no proof of that. And of course, even if it's true that kids do better with a mixed set of parents, that's not an argument against Gay Marriage. It is at best an argument against Gay Adoption.

It's also an argument for making it harder for couples to get divorces in this country — a change for which absolutely no one is fighting.

Not only is the battle over, I sure got the feeling that Perkins knows it's over; that all he's interested in at this point is not admitting defeat and not losing whatever donations and power his organization can still extract from those who don't want to concede a lost cause.

There are districts and probably even a few states where a candidate for office can help his or her fundraising and vote-getting by promising to fight hard against Gay Marriage. That may be just about all that's left of that particular movement.

Here's a nice profile of Jay Leno, who's about to receive the Mark Twain Award. All of this writer's observations about the guy parallel mine.

Moe, Larry, Curly, Shemp, Joe and Curly Joe have all passed away. You'd think Columbia would have stopped making these things but no…

Yes, I've heard that my friend (everyone's friend, actually) Harlan Ellison has been hospitalized with a stroke that has paralyzed his right side. I just spoke with someone who'd spoken with Mrs. Harlan and Susan says his mind is sharp and the rest of him seems unaffected. Sounds like there is every reason for optimism. I'll pass on more news as it becomes available.