I have these two great friends of 3+ decades, Cheri and Bill Steinkellner. Actually, I've known them since a few years before they got married. Back then, Cheri was an actress and Billy was (and still is) a writer and the best director and teacher of improv comedy I've ever known. They wrote some things together and then they wrote some more things together and some more…and pretty soon, they were so successful as a writing team that Cheri pretty much gave up performing. Among the TV shows they wrote for (and sometimes produced) were The Jeffersons, Who's the Boss?, Bob (the series where Bob Newhart played a comic book artist), Hope & Gloria, Teacher's Pet and Cheers. They won Emmy Awards for Cheers and Teacher's Pet. They also wrote the book for the Broadway musical, Sister Act, and they have a lot more impressive credits.

Cheri teaches a once-a-week class at U.C. Santa Barbara in which she introduces show business wanna-bes to the realities of the industry in which they hope to work, and she kept asking me to come up and speak to this class. That's what I was about to do earlier this year the day my knee went kablooey on me and instead of driving up to S.B., I headed for local medical attention. Yesterday was the first day of the new semester so I went north to be her opening guest.

I can get around okay on the knee now but being the one with which I work the gas and brake pedals, it's not great on long-range driving. So instead of trying to motor up to Santa Barbara and back, I Amtraked it. The train made for a rather pleasant ride, during which I answered e-mail, did a bit of blogging and read, via iPad Kindle, the recent autobiography of Shirley Jones. If you're a fan of Ms. Jones, as I was and to a reduced extent still am, you might want to give this one a miss. She tells you a lot more about her life, and the lives of those around her, than you might feel you have a right to know. On the other hand, if you want to read about her and Jack Cassidy having threesomes in bed, go for it.

Cheri met me at the station and drove me to her class where I addressed about 300 bright, young students, not a one of whom had ever heard of Welcome Back, Kotter. This is in no way a criticism of them or anyone their age because I think I understand the reasons for it…but when I was in college, I was aware of TV shows and movie stars more than twenty years earlier and I think all my contemporaries were, too. Still, as I ticked off at Cheri's request a list of my influences, it didn't seem like a lot of those present had heard of Stan Freberg, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Groucho Marx or It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Interestingly, a fair number of them knew exactly who Jack Kirby was.

The questions, from both Cheri and the students, were bright and challenging…and I had a pretty good time. I don't think I scared anybody away from the profession, nor was that my goal. I think…I hope I gave them sound advice on attitude and how to frame their dreams. I tried to emphasize (a) never becoming or even appearing desperate and (b) not taking setbacks and rejections too seriously. One needs, I believe, to learn to roll with all punches and to understand that the business is not and never will be "fair" the way you want it to be.

After class, I stayed around for about an hour to answer individuals' questions and then Cheri, Bill, their son Teddy and I went to dinner. Since there were no trains back to L.A. that late, I stayed over in the Steinkellner guest house, then Bill and Cheri drove me back home today. They were coming into town anyway since Billy teaches an amazing Improv Master Class on most Saturdays. On the way, we stopped off for brunch in Ventura and this cartoonist I know named Sergio Aragonés joined us.

I'm probably doing what Shirley Jones did — telling you more about myself than you care to know — but I sometimes treat this blog as a diary, jotting down things I want to remember for myself. I had a real good 24 hours. There were friends. There was great scenery. There was good food. There were fresh, inquisitive young people. Everything was wonderful except that I really didn't need to learn how at age 79, the woman who played Marian the Librarian and Mrs. Partridge still enjoys frequent masturbation.

The Governor of Kentucky, Steve Beshear, explains why his state desperately needs Obamacare…and how it'll be good for any state where the leadership doesn't place politics above the welfare of its people and try to sabotage the program.  I agree with what Kevin Drum said this morning when he attempted to summarize the entire battle in one sentence:

The Republican Party is bending its entire will, staking its very soul, fighting to its last breath, in service of a crusade to make sure that the working poor don't have access to affordable health care.

Sent from a train nearing Carpinteria…

A classic Bob Newhart routine performed by a classic Bob Newhart…

Hey, I seem to be able to blog from the train.  I'm on the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner, just passing the Chatsworth station, heading for Santa Barbara.  Very easy, very comfy…and I even have free Wi-Fi.  Pretty nice.  Let's see if I can post a video link…

Not this weekend but next, the second San Diego Comic Fest takes place in…well, you can figure out where it takes place. This is a small, less crowded, mostly-about-comics convention run by some of the folks who started that other annual comic book convention in San Diego. There are no movie and TV stars, there's a small dealer room, there are fewer professional guests…and at last year's, where I had a pretty good time, it mostly consisted of a lot of guys in my age bracket sitting around and talking about how comics and fandom used to be.

If this sounds appealing to you, tickets are still available and you can get all the info here. I am not part of the programming and may not even be able to make it in person but I'll be there in spirit.

My knee, which is generally healing, is still not to the point where I feel I can drive that far. Today, I'm speaking to a class at U.C. Santa Barbara and I'm taking the train there. Amtrak has wi-fi and since I've never blogged from a train, I'll see if I can blog from a train.

Jonathan Chait thinks the current Debt Limit Showdown is where Obama has to draw one of those bright, red lines in the sand and stand firm, refusing to give the Republicans anything they can claim as a victory. If you're a Democrat, you probably think so, too…but you thought that the last few times that seemed to be the best course of action.

Last year, Danny DeVito starred with Richard Griffiths in an acclaimed revival of Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys in London. Arrangements were made to bring the production to Los Angeles but then Mr. Griffiths passed away so DeVito is now starring opposite his old Taxi cohort, Judd Hirsch. In case it isn't obvious, DeVito plays Willie Clark, the larger of the two roles, the one played in the movie by Walter Matthau. Hirsch has the George Burns role.

It officially opens October 2 so I guess it's unethical of me to review it from the preview Carolyn and I saw last evening, even if I was going to say that the play is very funny, that DeVito is good and Hirsch, though newer to the role, is even better. I'm tempted to recommend it since it's only here until November 3 and tickets are likely to be scarce once word gets out on how good it is. But I'll refrain from saying any of that.

What I will say is that I've seen some pretty good productions of The Sunshine Boys over the years, incuding the strange one with Jerry and Dick Van Dyke — which I liked a lot despite the absence of a Jew anywhere on stage. I've also seen some poor mountings of Mr. Simon's play, including an awful one with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall. Klugman had his surgically-restored voice then and while one could admire his persistence, and note that once upon a time, Klugman might have been perfect casting for Clark, he was playing his music on a very limited instrument that was painful to the ears and heart. Also, Randall adopted an odd Jewish accent…and what we got was the only time I've ever attended live theater and wished the actors onstage had been dubbed.

But the oddest version of all the odd versions was about twenty years ago. My great friend Howie Morris had been doing the Lewis role in an occasionally-touring production that featured Abe Vigoda as Clark. One was lined up but then Vigoda had to drop out for some reason and the promoters decided to cancel and refund…a decision that pained Howie, who needed the bucks due to his most recent annual divorce. He went to them and said, "If I can get another familiar TV star, will you go ahead with it?" They said okay and Howie began calling famous friends, most of whom were already booked for something on the relevant dates.

He wound up with Brian Keith of Family Affair fame. While it isn't absolutely necessary for the leads in this play to be Jewish — Danny DeVito sure isn't — there's such a thing as being so goyishe (and maybe more importantly, removed from the basic style that was vaudeville) that you can't connect with the material. That is if you know the material and Mr. Keith, I'm afraid, did not.

Or at least he didn't at a local preview Howie invited me to attend. The idea was to do the show a few nights for friends in L.A. and get critiques and input before they took the show to some other state and audiences therein. We all sat there with the "Springtime for Hitler" look on our faces as Brian Keith — always a superb actor on the screen — ad-libbed his way through much of Neil Simon's play and missed the point of the intermittent lines he did remember.

Howie got it all. Howie had done the show many times, knew the lines and more importantly, knew the comedic tradition. It was his kind of play but not Keith's. So what you had on stage was two men not performing the same play. One's questions did not connect with the other's answers, and while Howie was doing Neil Simon up there, Brian Keith was doing Arthur Miller or Tennessee Williams. The audience squirmed and did its best not to giggle rudely at blooper after blooper, and Keith's attempts to inject pathos into lines that from other mouths evoked laughter. I was sitting behind Rip Taylor and at intermission, I heard him say, "What an embarrassment." When Rip Taylor is embarrassed at what someone is doing on stage, you know you're at a theatrical event you will long remember…and not for good reasons.

Finally, mercifully, it was over. Howie had sweat away about forty pounds — or about half his body weight — and in the post-show milling, he nervously approached a few of us and said, "Well, any suggestions?"

There was an awkward pause and then someone — and it wasn't me but I kinda wish it had been — said, "I'd keep everything exactly the same but I'd advertise it as Death of a Salesman."

I'm sure you're dying to memorize Ted Cruz's marathon not-actually-a-filibuster speech so I thought I'd make it easier on you. Here's a transcript.

You know how we were all wondering what the guy's motive was for driving that truck so aggressively off a cliff? Well, it looks pretty obvious now, doesn't it? It's all been about solidifying his position as the Tea Party's favorite Republican…and maybe not about anything else. So now the question is what's he going to do with all that popularity? Does he really think it'll get him into the White House? Or is the ultimate goal here a Palin-like desire to turn it into cash-money?

By the way: I was out Tuesday evening and I received a phone message from Joe Brancatelli, my pal whose airline columns I post here from time to time. In the message he left, Joe said Ted Cruz was reading Green Eggs and Ham aloud on the Senate floor. I swear to you: I thought it was a joke Joe came up with.

I have written in a number of essays, most of which are not on this site, about a comic book club to which I belonged in the sixties. Actually, I not only belonged, I was president for the entire lifespan of the Los Angeles Comic Book Club. It met every Saturday afternoon at what was then called Palms Recreation Center, located on Overland Avenue in West L.A. The facility consisted of a couple of ramshackle buildings that were mostly meeting rooms, a lot of park and picnic tables, a not-big-enough parking lot, and a pretty good public library. I spent a lot of my late teen years at Palms Recreation Center in those buildings and in that library.

The park and library are still there, though the park now seems to be called Palms Park and all the buildings have been rebuilt. Just the other day, the library held a special dedication center in honor of perhaps its most famous patron, Ray Bradbury. It was the library closest to the Bradbury home in Cheviot Hills and I saw him there a few times.

He had two other connections to the place. We made Ray an honorary member of the L.A. Comic Book Club, back when we met in the building on the other side of the parking lot. He never attended a meeting but he did accept a membership card signed by me, treating it as seriously as any honor he'd ever received. Based on that, we felt it was okay to shamelessly exploit his name and brag to all that Ray Bradbury was a member of our club. Also, the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society met for a time at Palms Park before finally acquiring its own clubhouse building out in the valley. Bradbury joined L.A.S.F.S. at the age of 17 back when it met at the Clifton's Cafeteria in downtown Los Angeles. I don't believe he ever attended a meeting of L.A.S.F.S. at Palms Park either but I could be wrong.

Anyway, I wasn't there for the dedication ceremony on Monday but I hear it was quite nice with three of Ray's four daughters in attendance, along with other folks who knew him such as Harlan Ellison and George Clayton Johnson. Next time I'm in the neighborhood, I'm going to visit the old place and see that plaque in person. Just the photo of it someone sent me makes me smile.

Shelly Goldstein noticed an unfortunate line in that article I just linked to about The Princess Bride…

6. The actor who played the Albino (Mel Smith) has never watched his performance in the film. This is because during filming, he had to wear contact lenses and was allergic to the lens solution, equating to constant pain while shooting. Hence, he has been reluctant to relieve the uncomfortable memory.

As Shelly points out, there's a good reason Mel Smith isn't talking much about his role in the film. Mel died last July. A great guy, Shelly says.

We have repeatedly established on this blog the simple, obvious truth that there is no person, place or thing on this planet cuter than a newborn panda. We have also affirmed that the only thing cuter than one baby panda is two baby pandas.

Today, thanks to Mark Thorson who sent me this, we prove conclusively that fourteen baby pandas are seven times as cute as two baby pandas. Simple math…

Here are 26 allegedly-interesting facts about the movie, The Princess Bride…and indeed, some of them are. I find it interesting that everyone on the film seems to think Billy Crystal was so hilarious because I think he's the weakest thing in the movie…and I usually like Billy Crystal. I just think he doesn't come off as an ancient wizard. I think he comes off as Billy Crystal in obvious makeup. Every time I see it, I can't help but think who I would cast in that role: Carl Ballantine. He wouldn't have needed much makeup, he really was Miracle Max, and he was one of the funniest people who ever lived.

• Ted Cruz finishes his 21 hour Senatorial infomercial for himself. All views of Obamacare in the nation and Senate remain the same.

• Ted Cruz on CSpan vowing to hold breath until he turns blue if Senate won't defund Obamacare. Currently approaching Cerulean.

Tomorrow is the season opener on Stu's Show, that splendid radio show/podcast that my buddy Stu Shostak does every Wednesday. Much of the time, he manages to snare an important person in the history of entertainment to talk candidly for hours on end (always at least two, sometimes three plus change) about their careers. And every so often, he gets stuck with someone like me as a guest…but you'll notice I haven't been on lately. That's a sign Stu is getting the biggies and he's got a good one for tomorrow.

It's Dan Castellaneta, a very gifted actor who has done many things…but when you're the voice of Homer Simpson, and many other characters on the most successful TV series of all time, folks tend not to mention other avenues of employment. Ah, but one of the great things about Stu's Show is that you can count on Stu to not only mention the other things but to discuss them at length. So if you just want to hear about the yellow people, sorry. Stu and his co-host for the day, Vince Waldron, will be interrogating Dan about that gig but others, as well. Dan's a great guy and as I've learned over many a lunch, a great conversationalist and wit. (So is Vince. And for that matter, so is Stu.)

You can hear these three guys babble for hours on Stu's Show in one of two ways. The best, in part because it's free, is to listen tomorrow — Wednesday — when they do the show live. It starts at 4 PM Pacific Time, which is 7 PM back east and other times in other climes. Just go to the Stu's Show website and click where they tell you to click. It's very easy to minimize that window and enjoy the show while you do other things on your computer. And remember, it'll run for two hours and maybe more.

But let's say you're busy at that time. You have reconstructive surgery scheduled or a mambo lesson or something. No problem…or as they say in Mexico, no problemo. Because Stu's Show is also a downloadable podcast. Go to that same website and not long after tomorrow's episode airs, it'll be there for you to download at the incredibly reasonable price of 99 cents. Better still, there are many past Stu's Shows there to download and if you buy three, you get one free. Monty Hall in his heyday never offered a deal that good. But listen to Dan and Vince live because it's a bit better that way, if only because it's free.