My buddy Joe Brancatelli has some tips on how to avoid long delays at airports. Unfortunately, when I fly, I rarely seem to have much choice of flights or connecting airports…but a lot of this is good to know.

For a limited time — so don't delay — many articles from the New Yorker archives are online for free reading. Greg Kelly points out to me that you can read Calvin Trillin's 1989 piece on Penn & Teller, for instance.

So the other night on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart mentioned environmental protestors and they used a quick news photo of some. You see that guy with the beard? That's Ken Gale, who hosts the program Eco-Logic on WBAI radio in New York. He used to host 'Nuff Said, which was the first (or at least, the most notable in terms of pioneering) radio show devoted to comic books. Ken has two passions — the environment and comic books — which shows you his passion for desperate causes. He's written comics and written about comics and he even hosts panels at comic book conventions. Yes, I'm not the only person who does that.

I did Ken's radio show a few times. When I used to go to New York often, I'd fly in on Sunday in time to check into the hotel, catch a Broadway show that evening, take my date to Ollie's Noodle Shop for dinner and then drag her to this funky radio station in a bad neighborhood while I guested live on Ken's program. He seemed to have a surprisingly large and dedicated audience — they even tuned in when I was on — and he and his co-host Ed Menje were good interviewers. Sorry that went away…and nice to see him again even for a fleeting glimpse over Jon Stewart's shoulder.

I miss my old pal Howard Morris, who passed away in 2005. Howie was a great comedic actor who usually worked in support of folks who were louder and bigger so they got more of the attention. Here he is getting his clothes ripped off on a sketch with Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca on Your Show of Shows. Boy, he was good…

Congressguy Peter King is outraged over the color of Barack Obama's suit. Well, not really. What offends him is the color of the president's skin but it's safer to make it about the suit.

Why do airlines cancel flights? According to Amy Cohn, it's not for the reason you'd think; that it will save them money.

We're going to see a lot of these…articles speculating on whether Comic-Con International will decamp from San Diego and relocate elsewhere. I am cited as a person whose opinion — that Comic-Con will not move — is worthy of some consideration. Let me explain why I think what I think…

It's not that the folks who run Comic-Con would refuse to move if they felt the convention was being harmed by staying put. They clearly like San Diego and the set-up they have there but if they couldn't get the terms and cooperation they need, they'd migrate. I just don't think the folks in San Diego who control the convention center and the connected businesses could possibly be so f'ing stupid that they'd let this thing get away.

Estimates vary on how much loot Comic-Con brings into the local economy. Whatever it is, it's a lot. Comic-Con is by far the largest annual convention to hit the city and even if some of us are a little frugal in our dining, it's a massive cash infusion. If Comic-Con does not do wonders for businesses in San Diego, no convention does and they shouldn't have built that big convention center in the first place, let alone be frantic to expand its size.

And it isn't just a matter of how much Comic-Con itself energizes the economy there for five days each year. It's that that whole section of town is constructed to cater to conventions. That's why they built the Marriott next door and the Hyatt next door to the Marriott and the Hilton on the other side of the convention center and the other Hilton across from it, etc. It's to service and exploit those who attend whatever's in the convention center and/or at Petco Park. Petco Park alone won't do it, especially when it ain't Baseball Season.

The entire financial Raison d'être of that area began with Comic-Con. Comic-Con is what made San Diego a convention town. Before that, the whole area was bars and strip joints…and tattoo parlors in the Good Ol' Days when the only people who got them were sailors. Downtown S.D. and the area now filled with hotels and the convention center catered to sailors stationed in the area. And when that stopped being a viable industry, along came the convention industry.

Comic-Con is the keystone to that industry. If the city lost that, they wouldn't just lose what Comic-Con brings in. They'd jeopardize their entire rep and momentum as a town that attracts other conventions. So I don't think the city will ever be dumb enough not to give Comic-Con the terms and support it requires.

Ah, but might Comic-Con move in order to get bigger? To expand beyond the capacity of that building in San Diego? I don't think so. For one thing, even a larger convention center might not serve Comic-Con's needs because it wouldn't have the outside support. The Los Angeles Convention Center has more square footage…but it doesn't have all those hotels and restaurants within easy walking distance. It's also a terrible, terrible convention center with a confusing, sprawling layout and awful parking and too many other crowd magnets within a block or two. For reasons I've stated here before, I don't think Las Vegas or Anaheim would work, either. Those are the alternatives.

I could be wrong about the city driving Comic-Con away. San Diego has not always had the sanest governing bodies — Google "Bob Filner" for but one example — but they'd have to be quite mad to lose one of the best things that ever happened to that city. And the only way I see Comic-Con getting bigger is to expand into more of the surrounding city, which is not really an option in L.A., Vegas or Anaheim.

I think…I hope we'll be there for a long, long time. One of these days, I'll write a long post about how my feelings about Comic-Con are changing; how some aspects of it no longer thrill me as they once did and I've found others to take their place. But that'll be a post about me, not the convention. The convention as it is works just fine, right where it is. I don't want to see them screw with it by trying to move it to another city. (Then again, WonderCon did survive the relocation from San Francisco to Anaheim, so…)

We're changing hosting companies. Normal posting will resume sometime Friday.

Fred Kaplan on why he believes Obama should not bomb Isis in Syria. I don't get that anyone really knows exactly what to do with Syria or even what we want the place to be like when we're done with it. All I know is that the people crying loudest for us to bomb there are the people who are always yelling for us to bomb everywhere. And if we'd gotten President John McCain, they probably would have gotten their wish.

That's Jack Kirby, dancing with his beloved Roz at a surprise birthday party some of us threw for him in 1987 when he turned 70. He was born in the not-so-affluent part of New York on August 28, 1917 so he could have been 97 today.

I have written thousands of pages and articles about Jack and somehow, it never seems to be enough. There are people out there who think he was just a great comic book artist and the co-creator of some of the world's most popular fictional characters. That would have been enough to warrant all the honors and accolades he achieved in his life…and the recognition of him has only grown since we lost him in 1994.

But Jack was more than that and it's tough to put it into words. I used to use "visionary" until it came to be applied to everyone who ever thought of anything. "Genius" isn't bad but Jack's uncanny ability to understand and prophesize didn't span the galaxy like so many of his stories. His mind raced about from topic to topic, leapfrogging over some to land in the darnedest places. He would start talking about the future and take you there via a load of yesterdays and even a couple of todays. If he sounded disconnected, it was partially your fault for being unable to bridge the gaps as he vaulted from one thought to another.

He knew he was the best in his field but somehow, he was amazingly humble about it. When one of his comics or stories met with disapproval somewhere, he wasn't bothered. He just said, "You watch. One of these days, most people will come to appreciate it." And more often than not, that's exactly what happened. It's why his work — even work which at the time was deemed a flop — is constantly reprinted, much of it in very fancy volumes.

I loved the sheer, non-monetary value of being around him. There was so much to learn and somehow, when you talked with Jack, you came away feeling more talented and energized. That was because he treated you as an equal so some of the sheer imagination within him was absorbed by osmosis. You didn't have to actually meet Jack to be inspired by him — you could do that by reading darned near anything he worked on. But meeting him sure helped. It reminded you that human beings could do things like he did and that he thought you were fit to breathe the same air.

Happy Birthday, Jack. It's hard to miss you when there's so much of you surrounding us. But miss you, we do…

While Jon Oliver's on vacation, they've been releasing little "web-only" videos — like this one, for instance…

The news that Mitt Romney may run again reminds me of joke that Mort Sahl (I think it was) told in 1961. It went like this: "Looking ahead to 1964, the Republicans are thinking of running Richard Nixon again so they won't have to break in a new loser."

I agree with what Jon Stewart said last night. At times, I don't think Fox News is the right-wing channel so much as it is the haven for white people who think the whole world's supposed to go their way on every issue. The whining and outrage about folks wanting to acknowledge that there are other holidays adjacent to December 25 is a dead giveaway.

I recently read Behind the Curtain: An Insider's View of Jay Leno's Tonight Show by Dave Berg, who is no relation to the guy in MAD who used to do "The Lighter Side of Staple Removers" and other controversial articles. This Mr. Berg worked on the show for years and since he had a political background, was very much involved in the booking of politicians who came on. I found the book pleasant but not particularly packed with revelations.

Berg is a big fan of Leno (as am I) and he doesn't dig any real dirt because, and this corresponds to what I've always heard, there wasn't much. A few guests' misbehavior is about the extent of the scandals. He does go through the whole Jay/Conan mess and his version matches my understanding: NBC made a series of bad decisions and Jay unfairly wound up looking like the Bad Guy. If you're interested in reading that and the rest of the book, you can order one here.

Lastly: Posting, I know, has been light here lately. I have a few longish pieces in the works so it will all average out.

For years, we've been hearing that the convention center in San Diego would be undergoing a major expansion to the tune of $520 million. That was one — though hardly the only — reason it seemed unlikely Comic-Con International would soon move to another city.

Well, the expansion plans are off. Whether there's a chance of it coming back or a downsized expansion plan taking its place, I have no idea. But I do have an idea what it means for the future of Comic-Con in San Diego: Nothing. I still don't see it moving.

Not that we don't love blogging for you but we have a ton o' stuff to do today. Also, I have a lot of these fancy soup can graphics to use up here. So I won't be posting a lot here today, though even this is more than some bloggers do for you.

I was awakened this morn by a call from another contractor's representative who told me I was on the Preferred Homeowners list but wouldn't tell me who sells this list or where they got their copy. I told him this homeowner prefers not to get these calls. Interestingly, he told me — I dunno how true this is — that he calls everyone on the hunk of the list assigned to them except those who are marked "in bid," meaning a contractor who subscribes to the list is trying to close a deal with the homeowner. This, presumably, is to prevent one of them from underbidding another.

I thought these calls came from various firms that just bought the list and then it was every man for himself…but apparently, there's some tracking and constant updating of prospects. I think I'll try telling the next few that I no longer own the house. I've moved into a condo that has a maintenance contract with some company so I'm no longer in a position to hire contractors. Wonder if that'll get me off this list. I'm willing to sacrifice the pride I get from being a Preferred Homeowner to make the calls stop.

See you later…maybe.

I can't take the Emmys (or any awards show not hosted by Neil Patrick Harris) in its entirety but I watched pieces. Robin Williams was, of course, deserving of that special tribute…but didn't Sid Caesar and James Garner warrant more than a few seconds of screen time? I have the feeling one or both of them gave us a lot of hours of beloved television programming.

I wish they wouldn't do those teasers like "6 minutes to Ricky Gervais." It's like they're saying, "Yeah, we know this is boring but hang in there because someone interesting lies ahead."

I was on the Disney lot this afternoon for the first time in a while. It's fascinating how much some of that lot has changed and how little some of it has. The Animation Building — apart from now being full of producers instead of animators and sporting "no smoking" signs — is very much what it was when Walt roamed its halls.

I continue to get one or two unsolicited, unwanted calls per day from contractors or other businesses that want me to pay them to do things to my home. They fall into two categories…

1. The ones who introduce themselves honestly, ask if I need any work done on my house and then go away when I tell them I don't.
2. Those who lead with a lie. Sometimes, it's that they're working on my block and an unnamed neighbor told them I need some work done. Other times, they claim to have spoken with me months ago and I told them I'd be ready about now to discuss some work and they should call back.

I deal with those in the second group via cross-examination. Who is this alleged neighbor? Can I call them and see how happy they were with the work done? For some reason, they have a policy of not divulging the identity of customers who might tell me what a swell job they did. Or if they claim I asked them to call, I tell them they're lying. Sometimes, they'll say, "Yeah, I'm sorry. That's what they tell us to say."

The calls in the first group get asked where they got my phone number. They refuse to tell me and when they do, I say, "I'm sorry…I can't deal with a business that won't answer a simple question like that."

This is a close re-creation of a call from a lady this afternoon…

ME: Could you tell me where you got my number?

CALLER: You're on the Preferred Homeowner list.

ME: I see. Could you tell me where you got this Preferred Homeowner list?

CALLER: Oh, you know. It's the Preferred Homeowner list.

ME: And what did this homeowner do to warrant his inclusion on the Preferred Homeowner list?

CALLER: You'd have to ask them.

ME: I'll do that. Could you tell me how to contact the people who compile the Preferred Homeowner list?

CALLER: Oh, come on. It's the Preferred Homeowner list. You should just be proud that you're on it.

ME: I am. I'd like to call and thank them. Do they have their phone number on the Preferred Homeowner list?

CALLER: It's just a computer program. The only numbers on it are the ones I call.

ME: Are any of my neighbors on it? I was thinking we could get together…maybe start a little club…

CALLER: We're not supposed to give out that information.

ME: Oh well, maybe I could get my own copy of it. I'd like to frame it and show everyone I'm a Preferred Homeowner. Where did you get your copy?

CALLER: The company I work for gave it to me. Listen, if you don't need any work done on your house, I don't have time for this.

ME: Oh, I'm sorry. This isn't going to cost me my spot on the list, is it?

And that's when I heard the click. You know, these calls can be a real pain in the ass if you don't learn how to enjoy them.