Because of my trip outta town, I didn't watch the Tony Awards when they aired and haven't gotten around yet to viewing them via TiVo. I am told that they did not include the "In Memoriam" segment but instead decided to post it to YouTube. I'm sure there are some complaints being heard today about that.

Here it is. I was surprised to see Michael Filerman in there. Mike was a TV producer who moved on to Broadway. In his TV years, he bought an idea from the then-new team of Evanier and Palumbo and sold it to CBS. Then during the short span of time it took for us to write the pilot script, personnel at CBS changed a bit and the folks who liked our idea were replaced by folks who thought it reeked of a powerful odor…or something. Anyway, it went nowhere but Dennis and I were very grateful to Mike for his support. He went on to be one of the main folks behind Dallas and many other hit shows and earned eight Tony nominations with two wins (for The Gershwins' Porgy And Bess and The Norman Conquests).

So, yes, it is possible to have a career after hiring me. You'll see him in here along with other talented folks. And boy, there's a lot of stuff on this page today considering it's Mushroom Soup Monday…

Okay, this is worth writing about, even on a Mushroom Soup Monday. This morning about 10:15, there was some sort of encounter in El Sereno, an outlying area of Los Angeles and it resulted in a high-speed freeway chase. The cops were following a guy in a maroon car who was armed and deemed likely to use that weapon. The chase went on and on and by 11 AM, all the local stations were preempting regular programming and covering the chase from copters. It sounded like the news copters' biggest problem was not running into each other or the police choppers.

At this point, I would guess that the stations that have an 11 AM newscast figured it was a "hot" news story and that it was likely to be over during their newscasts so it would not interfere with regular programming. I would further the guess the other stations joined in for competitive reasons and also figured they'd only be ruining one or two soap operas for their audience.

Then the suspect bailed. With an assault rifle in hand, he fled the car and for the last few hours, he's been barricaded in a home in North Hollywood with around 78,000 police surrounding the area…and it's nearing 3 PM. The officers are apparently trying to wait the guy out and they're also refusing to discuss if they're in contact with the suspect and what they plan to do and they're asking the media not to reveal where officers have been deployed.

So you have a mob of reporters out there with nothing to report. Almost nothing has changed in three hours and I have to think that at TV stations across the area, they're asking, "Why did we start covering this?" Because what if the guy's in there for many, many hours? They could wait out there until the guy dies of old age. (They seem to have reason to believe he hasn't already just killed himself, which is what you might expect. Since I wrote the above paragraph, they seem to have announced that they are not in contact with the suspect.)

I'm watching this on Channel 2. Channel 2 is owned by the same folks who own Channel 9 and the two stations are broadcasting the exact same coverage. The last time this happened, I asked why they couldn't just go back to regular programming on Channel 2 and put up a little announcement that said that this news story was being covered over on Channel 9. That would serve the public interest better. No one would be unable to watch their reporting but those who'd prefer to watch Dr. Phil would get to do so.

Several folks in the industry wrote to explain it to me. FCC requires that broadcast stations air a certain amount of "public service" material and this kind of thing qualifies. Thus, the company that owns Channels 2 and 9 gets to fulfill those requirements for both channels without having to produce additional programming. It's silly because…

Oh! As I write this, they seem to have caught the guy…alive. The S.W.A.T. boys fired tear gas in, he came out and surrendered. All right. And now, the news reports are showing the footage of them firing the tear gas in a few moments ago. They didn't air it live in case the suspect was watching the news. Okay, it looks like this is over. I still don't understand why every channel has to cover something like this at once, especially when they don't know anything…

This time, I take Monday off from serious blogging (hey, there's an oxymoron) to tend to more pressing matters, unpacking and more sleep being among them. This doesn't mean I won't blog. Just means I'll put more things ahead of that than I usually do.

Before I submerge: Part of the time I was at the Phoenix Comicon, I was on the phone to the fine folks at Comic-Con International, planning out the thousands of panels I'm going to be hosting for them in only…let me do the math…44 days. Yikes. I will be moderating most of your old faves — Cartoon Voices, Quick Draw!, the annual Jack Kirby Tribute, That 70's Panel, Cover Story, etc. — and a few special event-type things. Announcements will be forthcoming.

If you have suggestions for panels, it's probably too late. If you want to give me suggestions about who should be on my panels, this is the time.

Also, I think I may have solved the mystery of my iPhone mysteriously operating in the middle of the night back at the hotel. It wasn't the alarm clock on the bedside table that did it but I think I know what it was. I'll tell you after a bit more research.

Okay, on to other things. I may be back later today and I may not.

Hello from Los Angeles. The trip home was uneventful except that I couldn't find anything in the airport to eat that didn't collide with my food allergies and wound up hiking all the way over from the C gates to the B gates to find something. The only option over there turned out to be a McDonald's but it was something. I asked them to make me a Quarter-Pounder without cheese and the lady who took the order acted like I'd ordered a tuna sandwich with no tuna.

Back at the Phoenix Comicon, it felt like a low-key Sunday — fewer people than Saturday and the ones who were there seemed worn out…or maybe it was just me. Despite getting ample hours of sack time, I was pretty tired by the time I hauled my luggage and myself away. Anyway, my thanks again to the management of that fine convention for inviting me and treating me — and all their guests, as far as I could tell — so well. I need sleep.

A fine tune for any day…

The Phoenix Comicon is a very well-run, very well-attended comic book convention where everyone seems to be having a very good time. The place was, as advertised, packed yesterday. I would imagine that the biggest complaint most attendees have is how long it sometimes takes to get anywhere due to the massive crowds. That is, in a way, a recommendation for the event. I have no idea what the final attendance figures will be but I'll bet the con organizers are very happy with them.

I did encounter one dealer who was less than delighted with his sales. I dunno what the guy was selling. Our conversation occurred at the Hyatt while waiting in line for the elevator and as I've learned, when a dealer bitches about insufficient business, that could mean the convention hasn't attracted enough people eager to spend money…or it could mean that that guy brought the wrong stuff to sell and/or has it way overpriced. In any case, this particular dealer's gripe was how many of the attendees were cosplayers in costume. Said he, "They just come to parade around and be seen and block the aisles and none of them ever buys anything. Hell, most of them don't even have wallets or pockets to put a wallet in."

I offer the above without comment.

I am not wild about the Phoenix Convention Center. It's confusingly laid-out and it seems like its designer didn't pay ample mind to the issue of crowd control. I can also imagine some cellular company someday doing a commercial in which they boast, "Our coverage is so good, there's actually a slim chance you could make or receive a call inside the Phoenix Convention Center!" Still, the folks behind this particular con did a fine job working with what they had to work with and they treated their guests pretty well.

Friday night, I went back to that revolving restaurant for dinner, this time with Len Wein, Chris Claremont, artist Todd Nauck and his lovely wife Dawn. Food was great, company was great and there was a terrific fireworks display over the adjacent baseball stadium. It was a bit odd to be watching fireworks from the 24th floor of a building, thereby putting us closer to them than usual. It was just like being in the opening of Love, American Style except that Charo wasn't there. As far as I know.

Last night, Len and I went with my friend Phil Geiger to a barbecue restaurant to eat barbecue-type food. Len told us he's getting unnerved to meet children who have been named after comic book characters he named. It was okay when it was Logan (as in Wolverine) but now he's coming across kids named Colossus. I told him to brace himself for the day when a young girl comes up to him and says, "My parents were big fans of your comics. My name is Swampthing O'Reilly!"

I just got back from a little room here in the hotel where they serve breakfast to their guests and I had nice conversations with Billy Tucci and Gini Koch. I'm going to post a video link to Eric Idle singing the only song he knows, pack, check my luggage and get over to the con. When next you hear from me, I will be back in my office in Los Angeles. I hope.

I use — and have been very happy with — an anti-virus software called Avast…and believe me, I went through a lot of them before I settled on that one. It's lightweight, it's non-intrusive, it catches no-no's that might otherwise infest my system…pretty good product. It has given me great peace of mind while using the Internet.

Just now, I had a question and I went to their online Support Forum to see if the answer might be there. What I found instead was a page with this at the top of it…

AVAST forum offline due to attack

The AVAST forum is currently offline and will remain so for a brief period. It was hacked over this past weekend and user nicknames, user names, email addresses and hashed (one-way encrypted) passwords were compromised. Even though the passwords were hashed, it could be possible for a sophisticated thief to derive many of the passwords. If you use the same password and user names to log into any other sites, please change those passwords immediately. Once our forum is back online, all users will be required to set new passwords as the compromised passwords will no longer work.

This issue only affects our community-support forum. No payment, license, or financial systems or other data were compromised.

I now have a little less peace of mind while using the Internet.

Hey, let's watch some Triple Plays…

Making sense of this whole Bowe Bergdahl deal is hard because the Republicans who are outraged about it and demanding investigations and hinting at impeachment are the same ones who get outraged and demand investigations and hint at impeachment when Obama eats a chicken salad sandwich. But it might help to read what Fred Kaplan has to say and also what William Saletan thinks. And Paul Rosenberg reminds us that Ronald Reagan not only negotiated with terrorists but did it to undermine U.S. policy and help himself get elected president. But at least he didn't eat a chicken salad sandwich while doing it.

The Phoenix Comicon is huge…not quite Comic-Con International huge but huge in the same sense that it's hard to get around because of crowds and you won't get to see half of what's there to see. Everyone's telling me tomorrow (Saturday) will be wall-to-wall people and in some parts of the hall, that's how it felt today.

It has a higher density of "cosplayers" (folks who come in costume) than any convention I've ever attended save for Pittsburgh's Anthrocon, which is a "furry" gathering — meaning people in animal suits. I'm not sure I fully understand the motive of cosplayers, especially when it involves making an elaborate and perhaps expensive costume and/or painting one's self an odd color. I'm not knocking them in any way and I often admire the handiwork and effort. I'm just not sure I get why they do it or how wide a variety of reasons there might be.

Well, I will knock the cosplayers in one way. Look, I know your outfit is great and you spent a lot of time on it…but it is possible, you know, to pose for photos without blocking aisles.

At every entrance to the con today, there were security folks inspecting bags and tagging prop weapons. Many folks bring swords and fake guns and spears…and some were barred but others were "okayed" with a little plastic tag. Isn't Arizona an "open carry" state? One of these days, there's going to be a con where it's be permissible to bring in a real, loaded rifle but you're forbidden to carry around a light-sabre.

I really like the trend at conventions to sell "home-made" items — stuffed toys, posters, prints, props, etc. There were some great funny stuffed toys in the hall today and some beautiful figurines. In earlier convention days, 95% of sellers were hawking old comic books, old movie posters, old fantasy novels, etc. There's still that but there are now so many people selling wonderful things that they, themselves, made.

My biggest complaint about the con so far? No cell phone coverage in the hall. I had to keep traipsing outside to stay in touch with the world…and it was a long walk to get there, plus it was 108° outside. Next time I come back here in this weather, I'm having one of those mist-sprayers installed in my pants. Otherwise, having a good time.

So in the middle of the night, some part of my brain became aware that I was dreaming of June Foray's Emmy acceptance speech in June of 2012. Why I was dreaming of that, I had no idea but after a few more moments, I became aware that I was not dreaming of that speech. I was hearing that speech. I woke up some more and realized it was coming from my iPhone on the bedside table. I have on it a video of that event and the iPhone was running it though I had not told it to do that.

I turned it off and went back to sleep. A few minutes later, there it was again.

This time, I not only turned it off, I got up for a little while, did some e-mail, posted the previous post on this blog and went back to bed.

An hour or so later, there was music. My iPhone was playing a tune from an Internet radio feed. I turned it off and went back to bed. A little while ago when I awoke for the final time today, my iPhone was running an audioless map app I have on it.

Something similar to this happened to me at the hotel in Anaheim when I was there for WonderCon. My iPhone kept acting like a ghost — or me doing the smartphoning version of sleepwalking — had hit some buttons. I ruled those out and came to the conclusion that it had something to do with the hotel alarm clock, which in Anaheim was iPhone-friendly. So is the one in the hotel here. But there are problems with that theory…

1. The alarm clock allows you to set it to wake you up by playing some audio file on your iPhone…but you have to have your iPhone plugged into the docking station of the clock. In neither hotel did I ever put my iPhone into a dock and there is no indication that these bedside devices have any capability to send wireless commands.
2. Also, in both hotels, my iPhone was lying on one bedside table — plugged into an outlet — while the alarm clock device was on the other bedside table.  So they'd have to have a bit of a range.
3. The alarms were not enabled on the alarm clock devices at either hotel. They had, however, been set to times close to the times when I first heard the iPhone making inexplicable sounds.

I did some Googling and didn't find anyone else who'd ever had this experience once, let alone twice. I considered other causes and could only come up with one other remote possibility: In both cases, the iPhone was connected to the hotel's Wi-Fi. Could that have something to do with it? It doesn't seem likely to me but I don't have anything that seems much likelier.

Tonight, I'm going to try unplugging the alarm clock and maybe I'll take my phone off the hotel Wi-Fi. But if anyone reading this has a better theory, I'd be eager to hear it. Maybe Texting Gremlins —?

Ignore the stamp for a moment in the above image.  Beneath it is an idealized photo of your basic McDonald's hamburger. They fluffed the bun up and put something extra under it to make it ride tall on the burger. They artfully applied the condiments to make them hang ever-so-slightly over the edge. But it's not too unrealistic a depiction of the basic burger I've always had when sashaying through them Golden Arches.

They say it's a juicy 100% beef patty simply seasoned with a pinch of salt and pepper, tangy pickles, minced onions, ketchup and mustard, and that's close. I might quibble with "juicy" and "tangy" but okay. It is what it is…and what it is is a Dependable Known Quantity. If you order one and you don't like it, you're probably at fault. I can't recall the last time I had one that wasn't exactly as it was supposed to be.

In my teens and twenties, I ate them about twice a month. Since then, it's more like once a season and only for one of two reasons…

1. I'm going somewhere, I need to grab a meal in a hurry and there's a McDonald's there. It's probably the fastest of all fast foods.
2. I'm traveling. McDonald's is often my best/only choice in an airport. Plus, there's this…

I have, as I've explained here before, a wide array of food allergies and intolerances. I am therefore not fond of new (to me) restaurants and especially of exotic menus and adventurous dining. Being in strange places can mean eating unfamiliar things…and my stomach really likes having something recognizable in it at times. It would prefer better recognizable food than McDonald's but it does appreciate recognizable. I have sometimes heard a little voice in my tummy say, "Thank you. We know what this is and how to handle it!"

All of this is leading up to a story that probably isn't worth much leading-up to but I've already come this far. Last week, I had gone even farther and was miles from home, miles from anyplace better than a McDonald's. I have already told you of the horrible experience when Carolyn and I dined at a Coco's. The next day, in much the same predicament, I went to a McDonald's.

I could feel my stomach smile as I walked in, not because it expected the chow to be great but because it knew: There would be no surprises.

Well, there was one. I couldn't find the basic McDonald's hamburger on the illuminated menu.

I looked over and over it. I found cheeseburgers but I don't like cheese on burgers. I found the Grilled Onion Cheddar Burger. I saw the BBQ Ranch Burger. I spotted the Bacon Habanero Ranch Quarter Pounder. I saw the Big Mac of course. (All of those have cheese. Currently on the McDonald's website, the menu option shows fifteen different hamburgers. Fourteen of them come standard with cheese.)

But they didn't have that basic cheeseless hamburger, the one I've been having there since I was a tot, the one upon which the entire McDonald's empire was founded. It wasn't anywhere on the menu except as an option on the Happy Meal which I don't think you can order when you're 62, no matter how damned happy you are. I figured I was going to have to order a cheeseburger and have them leave off the cheese, which I've sometimes had to do in other fast food places.

I asked the counterman, "Do you still have hamburgers without cheese?"

"Oh, sure," he said. And then he added, as if letting me in on some fact that even Edward Snowden doesn't know, "They're on our Secret Menu!"

Yesterday morning, my friend Jewel drove me to LAX for my trip to Phoenix, which is where I am now.  I didn't have anything to eat before leaving the house so I sought sustenance at Terminal 1.  My only option?  McDonald's.  I went and got myself a Sausage Biscuit with Egg, which is one of the few breakfast sandwiches in all of America that comes without cheese.  (I have, by the way, nothing against cheese.  Not as long as it's where it belongs, which is in or on pizza, lasagna, chicken parmesan and French onion soup.)

My stomach welcomed the familiarity of the McDonald's sandwich and thought for a moment we — that is to say, my stomach and I — were in New York. When I'm in New York, I usually start my day with a McDonald's Sausage Biscuit with Egg. This is to make it up to my stomach for any unfamiliar foods it may need to process between then and bedtime.

As I waited for the sausage patty to be placed on the biscuit and for the odd, folded thing they claim is an egg to be placed on top, I asked the counterman, "Excuse me…I'm looking and I don't see it. Do you still have the basic hamburger here?"

He said, "Sure" and looked to find it on the display above…and couldn't. He asked a lady who worked alongside him where it was and she said "Oh, it's right there" and she pointed to something she couldn't find, either. Other employees were enlisted in the search and they were all baffled. They were all certain it was up there someplace but they couldn't locate it.

Finally, as the counterguy handed me and my stomach our Sausage Biscuit with Egg, he said, "I can't find it but I have a key for it on my little cash register here. People order it all the time."

I leaned over so only he could hear and I whispered, "If no one's eavesdropping, tell them it's on the Secret Menu."

Hello from Phoenix where I think I'm beginning to understand some of the political antics of this state now. When you live in this kind of heat, you're bound to do crazy things. It hit 105° today and if that doesn't horrify you, the AccuWeather people have come up with something called RealFeel™ which tells you it's 105 but that it feels like 111. Gee, thanks. Science is always working to make you feel worse.

This trip to appear at the Phoenix Comicon was the first time I've flown in about a year. When did Security get to be so simple? Didn't have to take my shoes off. Didn't have to take everything out of my laptop case. Didn't even have to strike that statue-like pose in the full-body scanner when via which some non-smirking TSA employee sees you naked. I used to enjoy that part.

OK flight on Southwest including (I'm not kidding) an a cappella song on the P.A. system from one of the flight attendants…and she wasn't bad. I've heard worse on Brittney Spears videos.

Long wait for the limo. Long line at the hotel check-in. Long, long line to get my badge. After what seemed like hours, I made it to a window that said "Guest, Professional, Panelist Registration" where I told the lady I was all three. Given that and the amount of time it took me to get to the front of the line, I thought I deserved three badges.

Somewhere in there, famished for want of food, I ducked into the most convenient place, which was an Einstein Brothers Bagel Shop. Every time I see one of those places, I expect to go inside and see Albert Brooks and Super Dave Osborne behind the counter.

They have me at Table 2222, a nice easy number to remember. I brought absolutely nothing to display or sell — I never do — so I guess it'll just be me sitting there the next three days. Today, I actually signed an issue of Groo that Sergio hadn't already signed. How that one got past him, I'll never know.

I chatted with Don Rosa, Wendy and Richard Pini, Mike Baron, Katie Cook and many others. Another old friend (and a fine writer-artist) Dan Jurgens and I had dinner together in the revolving rooftop restaurant at the Hyatt. It's called the Compass and it makes an entire 360° revolution every fifty-five minutes…a fact I elicited from our server. Actually, I peppered her with a lot of questions about the place since this was my first meal in a revolving restaurant. With great patience, she told me that no, they can't make the room go counter-clockwise. And no, they don't put Dramamine in the food to help diners who are prone to motion sickness.

Dan and I talked about the Old Days in comics…and our mutual amazement that we've been in the business long enough to have Old Days. When seemingly grown people tell me, "I started reading your books when I was ten," I look about, fully expecting to see Joe Kubert or Jack Kirby behind me. That has to be who those people at my table are talking to, right?

Let's pay a visit to Greg's Kitchen — where even the simplest recipe can sound kind of freaky…

Dale Herbest asked me this question over on Facebook and I felt like answering it here…

I'm sure you've been asked this before but here goes. With Comic-Con right around the corner, do you ever get distressed or upset that the event has become a mecca for all geek things, not just comic books. You know TV, movies, and video games? Personally, I love it as it celebrates all things and appeals to many different factions. Since you've been around since the event was launched, how do you sum-up its evolution?

I love Comic-Con. I wouldn't want every convention to be like that but…well, sometimes the complaints I hear about it sound like the person is saying, "I wish Disneyland was a tiny little place with just a couple of merry-go-rounds and one roller coaster." The kind of thing some folks wish Comic-Con was either (a) exists elsewhere in sufficient quantity or (b) cannot possibly exist anywhere. A few weeks ago, I got a message from someone who — and I'm not exaggerating by much here — wishes we could return to those days at the El Cortez where the convention was sitting by the pool and talking with Jack Kirby. Yeah, and I wish Johnny Carson was still hosting The Tonight Show and comics were still twelve cents.

I do not mind the presence of TV and movies and video games because, like it or not, that's the current comic book industry. That's what Marvel and DC are all about now: TV and movies and video games. Superman and Spider-Man stopped being comic book characters a long time ago. Now they're characters that exist in every possible medium, one of which happens to be comic books. Tomorrow, if all comic books ceased publication, it would not affect Superman and Spider-Man and other such properties very much.

Now, you can complain that Comic-Con is about all that stuff. It seems more logical to me to lament what the comic book business has become — and oh, by the way, all the complaining in the world isn't going to change either.

So the question comes down to this: Are you going to just look at what it isn't (and have a lousy time or better still, not attend) or are you going to hop on for the ride and find all the things about it that you can enjoy?

For me, Comic-Con is 4.5 solid days of Stuff To Do. My calendar is absolutely jammed with events I like hosting, events I like attending, meetings, people to see, people to eat with, etc. When there's a moment open between items on my schedule, it's fun to just walk around and look at things…and I always run into folks I enjoy seeing. Wouldn't miss it for the world.

I am off today — leaving in less than an hour so I have to type fast — for the Phoenix Comicon. In the last few years, I largely gave up conventions that weren't Comic-Con or WonderCon because I was finding myself bored (or occasionally, not treated all that well) at conventions that weren't Comic-Con or WonderCon. I decided it was time to try another one…and lots of folks told me this was a good one.

If I don't like it, I suspect it will be because of me and not the convention. When people tell me they don't like Comic-Con in San Diego, I usually think that's the problem.

Gotta pack.