The City of Fast Food

As some of you may know, I grew up in Muscoy, an unincorporated area of San Bernardino County, just outside of the city limits of San Bernardino, California. Some of what I am about to relate I have known for years, but some of it I just recently learned, but it all has to do with growing up in the City of Fast Food.

I remember as a kid never eating fast food and then it just sort of took over. I didn't realize it was all starting right in my hometown. It had actually started in 1940 when Richard and Maurice (Dick and Mac) McDonald opened their McDonald's Barbecue restaurant on E Street in San Bernardino. A few years later Dick McDonald studied his sales and discovered that 80% of his business was generated by hamburgers. They closed down the Barbecue restaurant and on December 12, 1948 they reopened the converted E Street shop as a fast food restaurant called simply, McDonald's, and introduced their Speedee Service System. Fast food was born!

In an article by John Weeks in the San Bernardino Sun and the Daily Bulletin, Chris Nichols, a historian with the Los Angeles Conservancy said, "Every major fast-food company has something to do with the corner of 14th and E streets." In the same article Chris recalled a famous anecdote in McDonald's lore.

"One day, Glen Bell...sat in the car outside McDonald's with Neal Baker... and John Gallardi... and tried to figure out how they did it." How the McDonald brothers could serve so many people so quickly was what intrigued the trio. McDonald's serviced a seemingly never ending line of customers at a revolutionary pace. As those in the car later discovered, the McDonald brother had become masters of innovation.

The brothers collaborated with the owners of Toman Brothers Machine Shop in San Bernardino to create spatulas that were the perfect size for flipping burgers, milk shake machines with shorter spindles so workers could make shakes right in the paper cups, and ketchup dispensers that doled out perfect dollops of ketchup.

"That sounds like a little thing, but it makes it so they could do this anywhere, and it would be the same everywhere," Nichols has said. The McDonalds' innovations put the "fast" in fast food and the brothers were generous with their secrets, sharing them with others.

James A. Collins, chairman of Collins Foods International, the largest Kentucky Fried Chicken franchisee and the operator of Sizzler Restaurants recalls his own tutelage at McDonald's, starting in 1952. "We all took our lessons from the McDonald brothers. There was a fraternity of us, and every one of us saw the McDonald's in San Bernardino and basically copied the boys."

The "fraternity" included those three buddies who pulled up in one car, on that day in the early 1950s, and were so impressed with what they saw.

Glen Bell of Muscoy, and the driver of that famous car, opened Bell's Hamburgers on the corner of Oak and Mount Vernon Avenues in San Bernardino. After a while, Glen began experimenting with adding tacos to his menu. The tacos were a hit and in 1954 and 1955 he opened 3 Taco Tia restaurants dedicated to serving his tacos, the first at the corner of Base Line and Acacia. They still exist today.

In 1952, another Muscoyvite and passenger in that famous car of lore, Neal Baker, a friend of Glen Bell's who had helped Glen build his first few locations, decided to try his hand in the business and opened the first Baker's Drive Thru on Highland Avenue. Baker's may have been the first fast food place I ever went to. As a kid, if we got fast food it was usually tacos from Baker's.

They had a "Taco Tuesday" where you could get eight tacos for a dollar. Over the years it dropped to six, then five, then four, then three, then two for a dollar. But they still make a great taco. Baker's pioneered the "twin-kitchen" concept of American and Mexican fast food under one roof. They never expanded like the other chains and only have around 40 locations, but I do still go out of my way to get to one.

Glen Bell opened a Bell's Burgers location in Barstow and convinced his employee Ed Hackbarth to move up to Barstow and run it. Ed successfully ran the location after they changed it into a Taco Tia. Eventually Ed leased the location from Glen.

In 1956 Glen opened his first El Taco restaurant in Long Beach creating another chain which he sold in 1962 when he opened a restaurant in Downey named after himself, Taco Bell. He quickly expanded to eight locations (which are still open today) and sold his first franchise to Kermit Becky in 1964. Today, Taco Bell is the nation's largest Mexican fast-food chain, with more than 6,000 outlets.

Glen loved the food business and in 1961 convinced his commissary manager, San Bernardino friend and the other passenger in that famous car, John Gallardi to open a restaurant of his own. John wanted to sell something other than tacos and settled on hot dogs. In an interview in the Orange County Business Journal Gallardi recalled, "Glen's wife named the company. I was at dinner one night at their house and Bell's wife was looking at a cookbook and said you ought to call it wienerschnitzel. I told my wife going home nobody in their right mind would call a company wienerschnitzel. Three days later, I said, 'Hell, it's better than John's Hot Dogs.'" Today, Wienerschnitzel is the world's largest hot dog chain, boasting almost 350 locations.

Also in 1961 the McDonald brothers sold Ray Kroc the business rights to their restaurants for $2.7 million dollars; they retained the original McDonald's, which they rechristened The Big M. A few years later Kroc opened a McDonald's across the street and eventually put the McDonald brothers out of business. Today, the Kroc restaurant remains boarded up. The original McDonald's was demolished in the late 1960s, though a McDonald's museum exists at the original site (with a building built in the 1970s), which is run by Albert Okura, founder of the local chicken chain, Juan Pollo.

In 1964 Ed Hackbarth who leased Bell's Taco Tia in Barstow opened his own restaurant in nearby Yermo called Casa del Taco. Casa del Taco expanded to become a chain of its own, eventually shortening its name to Del Taco. Today, there are more than 400 Del Taco restaurants.

Years later Dick Naugle, while installing equipment for the first Del Taco drive thru, would become interested in the business and would team up with Harold Butler from Denny's and open up a taco place called Naugles. It was a Mexican fast food franchise similar in many ways to Del Taco (only the food was much better). Naugles rapidly grew to 225 restaurants under the ownership of Harold Butler, who sold the company to Collins Food International in 1985 (yeah, the same Collins Food International that is run by James Collins who worked for the McDonald brothers on E Street in 1952). In 1988, Del Taco and Naugles merged, and all Naugles franchises were converted to Del Taco franchises.

Much of the menu at Del Taco today is actually the Naugles menu, where the "Macho" food items all originated.

In the California State University San Bernardino Magazine, in referring to the business innovations introduced into the food industry in the ’40s and ’50s, Neal Baker said, “All of these places really started here and San Bernardino never really gets any credit for it.”

So that makes San Bernardino and my little community of Muscoy, in one way or another, a part of the births of McDonald's, Bakers, Taco Bell, Del Taco, Wienerschnitzel and Naugles, like I said, the City of Fast Food.

Neal Baker still owns land in Muscoy and donated the property for the new enlarged Muscoy fire station which opened last Fall, and just recently donated a large corner lot adjacent to the fire station to the county, with specific orders it is to be a Muscoy Community Center.

I remember in the 1970s that Naugles was the only fast food place in San Bernardino that was open 24 hours a day, so if you wanted a burger or a burrito in the middle of the night or late on the weekend you had to go to Naugles to get one.

I'll never forget the night in the Naugles' drive-thru when a shoot out happened right in front of me between a guy on foot and an off-duty police officer in the truck two cars ahead of me. There were women in cars getting punched through their open windows, bullets flying, shattering glass, women screaming, men yelling and very shaky Naugles employees walking from car to car to give you your food and help you back out of the drive thru and away from the building.

Ah, those were the days and nights in the City of Fast Food!

Oops!

The Swiss accidentally invade Liechtenstein, or so says the AP.

Man I hate when that happens!

Drake Improving

Mark Evanier is reporting that Ken Gale is reporting that Arnold Drake's condition "is much improved." That is truly great news.

I met Arnold a few years ago at the San Diego Comic-Con, first when he was on a panel that Mark Evanier was hosting and later in the Artist's Alley, where Arnold had a table. What a great man, so full of life and real joy! He was wearing a "I'm Deadman's Father" t-shirt and had a large reproduction of the cover to Strange Adventures #205 on the table beside him. The cover was hand water-colored and I remarked that I thought it was one of the best covers in the history of comics, not so much for the Carmine Infantino/George Rousso artwork (which is pretty damn cool!), but because the caption was pure magic. Arnold agreed, saying, "Yeah, that caption is the single best thing I ever wrote." For those too lazy to click on the artwork and see a larger copy, it reads

This man who was just murdered is our hero!

His story begins one minute later--

Introducing... DEADMAN

Pure magic Arnold, pure magic! Get well soon my man!

40 Years Ago Today From DC Comics -- Aquaman #33

Aquaman #33 (On Sale: March 2, 1967) has a great Nick Cardy cover introducing Tula, AKA, Aquagirl! Mr. Cardy's mastery of the female figure is the big treat here.

Inside we have "Aqualad's Deep-Six Chick" by Bob Haney and Nick Cardy. Aquaman and Aqualad return to Atlantis after rescuing the survivors of a plane crash in the ocean. Aquaman receives a hero's welcome, but Aqualad feels ignored. Aqualad then meets Tula, an Atlantean girl his own age. She convinces him to leave Atlantis and have some adventures of his own. Before the story is over Aquaman, Aqualad and the newly dubbed Aquagirl will have to face Dr. Dorsal!

Aquagirl pretty much fills out the Aquaman family. We now had Aquaman, his wife Mera, their child, Aquababy, Aquaman's sidekick, Aqualad and now Aqualad's friend, Aquagirl. And why do we need her? 'Cause she's Wild, Wet and Whacky!

Duh!

Actually, in the wonderful The Art of Nick Cardy, John Coates asks Nick just that question:

I think it stemmed from the idea that the Aquaman character had Mera, while Aqualad was sort of left out. So George [Kasdan] and Bob [Haney] wrote in a young girl character, Tula. Like Mera, I designed Tula's outfit and overall look. She was Aqualad's companion. Being of the same age, they could relate to one another, or oppose the elders. We played up the fact that she was this wild, "hip" 1960s modern girl and Aqualad was more reserved and introverted.

Edited by George Kashdan.

Arnold Drake -- Deadman's Daddy is Hospitalized

Ken Gale, producer, interviewer and host 'Nuff Said!, WBAI-FM, NYC has this information on Arnold Drake...

Arnold Drake is in Cabrini Hospital in New York City with what was first called "a touch of pneumonia." He was found collapsed, but conscious on the floor of his apartment by a neighbor (thank you, Mr. Hennessy). He is still in intensive care as of today (February 28).

His doctor said, "His heart enzymes tell us that he had a heart attack recently." The "touch of pneumonia" was actually - or also - a blood infection called Septicemia. He's getting a plasma transfer and a lot of anti-biotics and sedatives.

He was having trouble functioning on Monday and his neighbor, Mr. Hennessy, brought him to the hospital the next day. He is still in intensive care as of today (February 28) and will probably be there for a while yet. March 1st is his 83rd birthday.

Arnold has been writing comics since the late '40s. He's written humor and adventure for all age groups from Batman to Jerry Lewis, from X-Men to Little Lulu. He is the creator of Stanley and His Monster, Deadman, Doom Patrol and Beast Boy. He also wrote what is probably the first American graphic novel; "It Rhymes with Lust" was published in 1950 with art by Matt Baker and is due to be re-released by Dark Horse in a few weeks (March, 2007).

Send cards, letters and art to:

Arnold Drake
Cabrini Medical Center
227 E. 19th St.
New York, NY 10003.

Please spread the word! Thanks!

The Men Actually in the Arena

Nah, the topic is not Teddy Roosevelt, the topic is football... Arena Football. That's right baby, the indoor game is back!

Now I understand that Arena Football is not everyone's cup of tea, since it is so different than regular American football. For one thing, it's played indoors, and I don't mean in giant domed stadiums. My local team plays at the Staples Center, the same place the Lakers, Clippers and Kings all play. Not that big of a place, but big enough for Arena football as the field is only 50 yards long, with 8-yard end zones, and 85 feet wide. Fits nicely in about the same space as a hockey rink. The field is wrapped in 48-inch high sideline barriers of high-density foam rubber and directly beyond them are your seats!

The goal posts are nine feet wide with a crossbar height of 15 feet (NFL goal posts are 18-1/2 feet wide with the crossbar at 10 feet). On both sides of the goal posts are 30 feet wide rebound nets which are 32 feet high. Balls kicked off these nets, missed field goals or kick-offs (there are no punts) are live balls and really good kickers aim for the angle-iron surrounding the nets to create unexpected rebounds. I've seen many a touchdown scored by the kicking team after a ball careens oddly off the nets.

As you might by now guess, I love the Arena game. It is fast, high-scoring and fun. It is also iron-man football with normally only two of the eight players on the field changing between offense and defense. On offense one man can be in forward motion, so the long bomb is always a real threat. All of the rules can be found at AFL 101.

I have Los Angeles Avenger season tickets and have been going to games for years. We have some great players including the best kicker in the league. I may from time to time gripe or hopefully cheer about the fate of my team.

The season starts tonight and the televised season starts tomorrow on ESPN and on through the weekend on ESPN and ABC. My first game is Sunday night at the Staples Center. Go Avengers!

Vonnegut's Pledge

Only this morning I, an old poop, got a letter asking me if I had any suggestions for a revision of the Pledge of Allegiance, and I answered by return mail: "I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and the flag which is its symbol, with liberty and justice for all."

Kurt Vonnegut

I Would Hate To Belong To a Party...

...That is always wrong. A party that feels so threatened by a guy who lost the election to their nominee seven years ago (OK, he actually won and maybe that's why they feel threatened). A party of liars and true hypocrites, who constantly have to attack the other party because if their constituents ever stop their rabid hatred for even one second, their minds might kick in and they may start looking at facts and they sure don't want any thinking going on in their base.

So here they go again, making shit up and looking stupid to most of the thinking people in the world and like heroes to their unthinking, mindless base. You need to have more to offer than character assassination. God, I would hate to be a person who believed that was enough and I would hate to belong to a party that preached it as a mantra.

I would be embarrassed to belong to such a party.

40 Years Ago Today From DC Comics

I belong to a Yahoo Group on the History of DC Comics and twice a week I send out information on all the comics DC put out 40 years ago today, which is almost the time I started reading comics. Starting today I'm going to pick the most interesting comic from each of my twice-a-week mailings and share them here. Look! Here comes the first one now!

Adventure Comics #355 (On Sale: February 28, 1967) sports a Curt Swan/George Klein cover, this one featuring the Legion of Super-Villains and Superman. This one is once again marred by the ridiculous looking "Go-Go Checks" that infested the covers of all of DC's books for a year and a half beginning in 1966.

Continuing last issue's story of Superman and the adult Legion of Super-Heroes with "The War of the Legions" written by Jim Shooter and drawn by Curt Swan and George Klein. The Legion of Super-Villains, which now includes two new members, Echo and Beauty Blaze, plots to defeat the Super-Heroes by capturing a Legionnaire. When Superman decides to depart for his own time, Brainiac 5 accompanies him to the time-travel lanes, and is captured by the villains moments after the Man of Steel vanishes. Reprinted in DC Super Stars #3 and Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 6 HC.

The second Legion story, "The Six-Legged Legionnaire" is written by Otto Binder and drawn by Curt Swan and George Klein. Because Lana Lang refuses to watch when she catches Superboy switching to his secret identity, he rewards her by taking her to a Legion meeting. Changing to her costumed identity of Insect Queen, Lana tours 30th century Metropolis, and after meeting Dream Girl, decides to apply for Legion membership. Since her powers come from her bio-genetic ring, however, she is disqualified. The Legionnaires are then summoned to Antarctica, where its Ice City is threatened by the ruthless criminal, Oggar-Kon. Reprinted in Superboy #181 and Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 6 HC.

Edited by Mort Weisinger.

Thoughts on a Season - The Bad

I haven't said much about the current TV season this year. For the most part I have just been kicking back and enjoying it. But I thought I would finally answer the call and pontificate a bit on shows old and new. This time out I will concentrate on returning shows that have disappointed me.

Lost

I haven't yet given up on Lost, but if it goes off the air next week I wouldn't morn its demise. I feel it is just jerking me around and I'm not the only one. If there was an award for show most often compared unfavorably to Twin Peaks, Lost would win hands down. Despite the protestations of the producers, I think there is little faith out in the great American wasteland that this show will ever reach a timely and satisfying end, but I would love for the producers to prove me wrong.

Survivor Fiji

I love Survivor, but this season is so patently unfair to half the contestants that I don't know if I can continue watching. Having all the contestants build a dream camp together, then giving it to one team after the first challenge and giving the other team almost nothing just rings of foul play. There is not a single contestant on the "lap of luxury" team (who lounge around on hammocks or on couches all day) that I would want to see win the money and it appears that very soon they will be the only ones left. The producers better have a way of flipping this thing on its head or I predict fans will abandon the show by the islandful.

Grey's Anatomy

This show lost me at the end of last season. Just about every character on the show would be in jail or in court as a precursor to going to jail if this were the real world. I can't find a redeeming quality in any of them. I hope they spend the rest of their horrid lives pining over the love of some other shitty, self-absorbed character that they have lost and will never get back except in out-of-focus, Vaseline-lensed sophomoric dream sequences and I don't want to ever waste my time on it again, even if it means missing Sandra Oh. God does this show piss me off!

CSI: Miami

I swore off CSI: Miami after the season opener and have not missed it a bit, except as comic relief. My opinion on this mess of bad acting on top of laughable writing can be found all over this BLOG and collected here.

24

So right-wing and so over-the-top that I have pretty much given up on it seven hours into this season. Reading that our soldiers at Abu Ghraib watched DVDs of this show and took lessons from it on how to torture people doesn't do much to endure me to it either. And what is the deal about Kiefer Sutherland? I find it incredible that he has been nominated repeatedly for best actor for this show when all he does is either talk calmly under his breath or scream at people.

Next time: The other end of the spectrum!

In Honor of the Dear Departed

Now that was a long Academy Awards Show. I felt like I had invaded Iwo Jima by the time it was over. I thought they were doing better at getting this thing down shorter, but I guess not.

Not that it was all bad, not at all. One thing that I thought worked well was that, like I said earlier about the Dreamgirls' credits, they really extended the presentation of each nominee, so that you saw some of what they were being nominated for instead of just having a list of names recited. I liked that a lot, but it makes the show longer and if you are going to do this, in my opinion, worthwhile endeavor, then you need to cut out of the show anything superfluous. There was a lot they should have cut.

As much as I liked the silhouette dancers, they could have been cut. As much as I enjoyed seeing the retrospective of the 50 films that have won Best Foreign Language Film. it could have been cut. The Will Ferrell, Jack Black, John C. Reilly song was cute, but we need to speed this thing up folks, so it should have been cut. All of the backstage nonsense should have been cut; it adds nothing and only serves to drag the show down and out.

The last thing I would cut out is the ham-handed banter between presenters. It rarely works and there was nothing memorable this time except the Al Gore presidential declaration bit.

The award for Ennio Morricone seemed to go on forever, not that much could have been done here given the need for interpreting Mr. Morricone's comments into English. I wouldn't have cut this, but it sure added to the "battle fatigue" vibe that permeated the whole evening.

As to my feeling on the actual awards, well, I thought Eddy Murphy was more deserving than Alan Arkin and that both Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi from Babel gave better performances than Jennifer Hudson did in Dreamgirls. And though I was thrilled that Martin Scorsese finally won his long deserved Best Director Oscar, and though I thought The Departed was a wonderful film, I think Babel was more of an achievement and a film that will stay with me for a very long time.

Be that as it may, I congratulate everyone associated with The Departed.

Bush Supporters: An Explanation

Belief is a virus, and once it gets into you, its first order of business is to preserve itself, and the way it preserves itself is to keep you from having any doubts, and the way it keeps you from doubting is to blind you to the way things really are. Evidence contrary to the belief can be staring you straight in the face, and you won't see it. True believers just don't see things the way they are, because if they did, they wouldn't be true believers anymore.

Philip Caputo

Marty Wins!

In our vain attempt to see all the nominated films. my wife, son and I watched Martin Scorsese's The Departed this afternoon, pushing back the start of the TiVoed Academy Awards show by an hour. Well worth the trouble I would say, as I was just amazed by the audacity of the film. And then the capper of the night, Marty finally wins for Best Director and the film wins for Best Picture.

I don't normally yell when someone wins the Academy Award, but I did tonight. I screamed "Yes!!" and thrust my fists up in the air in triumph when Marty's name was read. What a night!

Congratulations Marty!

In Honor of the Day

Hosting the Oscars is like making love to a beautiful woman— it's something I only get to do when Billy Crystal's out of town.

Steve Martin

Must the Gods Tease Us So?

First it was the heart attacks and now this. When do we get what we really want?

Credit Where Credit is Due

Two things that happened last night got me thinking of credits on entertainment. I'm talking about TV and movies.

The second thing was late last night I turned on my TiVo and watched the latest (next to last for the season) episode of Monk on the USA Network, and I was once again struck by how delightful the opening title/credits sequence is. "It's a jungle out there" sings Randy Newman in what is, in my opinion, the best title/credit sequence on TV, in a time when these sequences are all but disappearing (look at Lost which has the most minimal of titles).

It's a unique and totally clever throwback to the days when many shows had a catchy title song that explained the premise: "Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, that started from this tropic port aboard this tiny ship." "Here's the story, of a lovely lady, who was bringing up three very lovely girls. All of them had hair of gold, like their mother, the youngest one in curls." "They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky. They're all together ooky, The Addams Family." Gilligan's Island, the Brady Bunch and the Addams Family come immediately to mind, how could they not?

But Newman's Monk theme is much more subtle, it doesn't tell you what the show is about (a widower, San Franciscan, ex-police detective with severe OCD who is a modern day Sherlock Holmes). Instead it gives you the main character's world view; you may think the world is fine, but Monk knows...

It's a jungle out there
Disorder and confusion everywhere
No one seems to care. Well I do.
Hey, who's in charge here?
It's a jungle out there
Poison in the very air we breathe
Do you know what's in the water that you drink?
Well I do, and it's amazing
People think I'm crazy, 'cause I worry all the time
If you paid attention, you'd be worried too
You better pay attention
Or this world we love so much might just kill you
I could be wrong now, but I don't think so.
'Cause it's a jungle out there
It's a jungle out there!

The catchy tune and wonderful lyrics are enhanced by scenes of Monk being Monk, finely edited to match the pace of the music. And despite the depressing tone of the lyrics, the bouncy Newman music plays in such direct contrast, that you can't help but end the credits with a smile on your face. It's an amazing piece of work.

But I said Monk was the second thing that happened last night.

The first was our vain attempt to see all the Academy Award nominated films before Sunday's show. We aren't going to make it, but that won't stop us from trying. Last night we saw the wonderful Dreamgirls. From what I have seen so far, Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson seem shoe-ins for the supporting acting Oscars, but I haven't seen everything yet, so I could be wrong. I thought the film was great, but I thought the end credits were pure magic.

As they introduce each actor they show numerous scenes of them from the film, which isn't really anything new, but they seemed to give each actor 10 to 15 seconds of credit time, which was great. However, this was not the magic part; the magic came next.

They split the screen up into constantly changing strips and showed scenes from the film interspersed with drawing of the sets. You would see a set and the strip next to it would be a drawing of the same set and then finally you saw the Production Design credit.

They then followed the same process through all of the main credits: Cinematography (montage the most gorgeous scenes in the film), Editing (10 seconds or so of a song and dance number with lots of cuts), Casting (the screen fills with small squares, each with a different member of the cast), Costume Design (a montage of costumes and the drawings from which they were derived), Lighting (montage of dramatically lit scenes), Choreography (montage of dance sequences), etc. It was magic!

You not only saw the name of the person responsible, you saw what they produced. You attached the people's names to their work and you got an immediate connection. That's the way to honor the people who pour out the sweat creating the cinematic experience. If there is an award for best credits, this film should win it, no questions asked!

Like I said, pure magic!

More on MP3

The Los Angeles Times agrees with me that there is something horribly wrong with the latest MP3 patent verdict against Microsoft. The U.S. Patent Office has been a joke for a very long time, being totally unprepared to deal with technology issues; it's good to see someone of the Times stature finally taking notice of its shortcomings.

ARCane MP3 Patent should be worth ZIP!

I'm sure you all have read the news that French company Alcatel-Lucent is suing the techno giants of the world over the MP3 format, beginning with Microsoft, who this week was ordered to pay $1.52 billion in damages. I don't have any problem with companies going to court to protect the patents on the technology they have created, but I have problems with them allowing others to claim ownership and even accept licensing payments for years and only then say, "Ha, not so fast, you paid the wrong guy."

There is something extortion-like about going after people who have attempted to legally pay for a technology of which, until now, you didn't claim ownership. It seems plain dishonest to me. As Microsoft argued:

Microsoft disputed that Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent's patents govern its MP3 encoding and decoding tools, and said it licenses the MP3 software used by its Windows Media Player from Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, a German company.

"We believe that we properly licensed MP3 technology from its industry recognized licenser — Fraunhofer. The damages award seems particularly outrageous when you consider we paid Fraunhofer only $16 million to license this technology," Burt said

I don't know if there will be a backlash, but a new music compression format may need to be developed. This reminds me of the early days of PC file compression and of how ARC begat ZIP.

If you were using a personal computer in the mid-1980s you probably bought a lot of software on those wonderful 5 1/4 in. floppy disks. These disks held little data and to get more software on a diskette, files were compressed using a format called ARC. ARC was a product of a company called System Enhancement Associates (SEA) and they let ARC be used for free. A few years after ARC took off, a programmer named Phil Katz developed a faster version of ARC, which Katz called PKARC.

System Enhancement Associates sued Katz for trademark and copyright infringement and won. All SEA wanted was for Katz to take PKARC off the market and to pay for their legal fees. Katz paid SEA $62,000 and took PKARC off the market. A month later Katz came out with a new compression program called PKZIP and a month or so after that ARC all but disappeared.

The early computer adopters believed strongly in shareware and despised large companies ganging up on the little guy. The lawsuit by SEA angered many shareware users, who perceived that SEA was a 'large, faceless corporation' and Katz was 'the little guy'. In fact, both SEA and PKWARE were small home-based companies, but the community largely sided with Katz and the superior compression capabilities of PKZIP.

What I remember is how fast the change came. One week everything was in ARC format, the next it was all ZIP. We need an MPZIP format to take on MP3 and send a strong message to Lucent.

On a side note, I met Phil Katz only once at a COMDEX (COMputer Dealer EXpo) in Las Vegas at the PKWARE booth. He was a very short, balding Jewish man who was surrounded by two very large bodyguards. I don't know what he was afraid of, but considering how he died it might have been himself.

Phillip W. Katz died in 2000 at the age of 37 due to complications from chronic alcoholism. Katz was found dead in a motel room holding an empty bottle of peppermint schnapps. Five other empty liquor bottles were also found in the room.

Happiness is a....

I love this one from John Varley's website...

President Bush, First Lady Laura and Dick Cheney were flying on Air Force One. George looked at Laura, chuckled and said, "You know, I could throw a $1,000 bill out of the window right now and make somebody very happy."

Laura shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I could throw ten $100 bills out the window and make ten people very happy."

Cheney added, "That being the case, I could throw one hundred $10 bills out of the window and make a hundred people very happy."

Hearing their exchange, the pilot rolled his eyes and said to his co-pilot, "Such big-shots back there. Hell, I could throw all of them out of the window and make 56 million people very happy."

One Sirius Merger

While I've been away for a few days in Mammoth pretending my body will still let me ski, Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio have announced a merger. As a Sirius subscriber I have been hoping for this for a while, if only so that a Sirius radio will come standard in any brand of car I happen to buy in the future.

I've heard XM and it sounds a whole lot like terrestrial radio, bad pop songs and lot of ads. None of the music stations on Sirius have advertisements and I like it that way. I only hope the crappy XM product does not infiltrate my nice clean, ad-free Sirius dial.

OK, there is one big exception to that; XM carries Air America and Sirius has not for a year and a half or so. So give me Air America, but keep the crappy ad-riddled music away!

Deja Vu

Today's Headline....

Bush says confident Iran provided weapons in Iraq

Like anyone is really interested in his level of confidence. Remember these golden oldies?

Bush says confident Iraq responsible for 9/11

Bush says confident Iraq has weapons of mass distruction

Bush says confident global warming is myth

Bush says confident of Republican gains in 2006

Bush says confident Iraq tried to obtain yellow cake from Niger

Bush says confident no one in White House responsible for Plame outing

Only a Boob would disagree!

The case for stem cell research is now closed. Who can argue with the need now that scientists in Japan claim to be able to increase the size of a woman's breasts using fat and stem cells. Much like easy access to porn has driven technological improvements over the years, increasing a woman's breast size in a way that feels natural to the touch is the driving force in medical improvements (OK, I have no proof for this last statement, but it just rings true to me)

When I first heard of this on Keith Olbermann I knew balance in the stem cell debate had forever changed.

A Big "F U" to Country Fans!

I've always considered country music to be music that was so awful you went out alone in the country to listen to it to save yourself from embarrassment. My opinion of people who listen to country music has only gotten lower over the years, particularly in the past four years.

That's because of the Dixie Chicks. No, I was not a fan, though I knew a few people who were. But I became a fan in 2003 after singer Natalie Maines told a London audience: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."

Personally I'm ashamed the president of the United States is a purported human being. But country stations, in their infinite stupidity, quit playing the Chicks in protest. But they really prove how dumb they are when they still refuse to play the Dixie Chicks after most of the country has come around to Natalie's point of view and sees the Shrub of Texas as the worst president this country has ever had.

From all of this I can only surmise that really dumb Republicans are the only people stupid enough to listen to country music. And they can have it!

On the other hand, mainstream, real American music just awarded the Dixie Chicks Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Album of the Year. Mainstream America is apparently a whole hell of a lot smarter than the ignorant Republicans who listen to country music.

How to Murder a Comedy

I remember the first time I saw Jack Lemmon in How to Murder Your Wife. No, I don't remember what year it was, but I remember what it made me feel. I wanted to be a comic artist after watching this film. How could I not?

Jack Lemmon leads a life of amazing luxury in a beautiful Manhattan townhouse, with his own "man" at his beck and call and all because he draws a daily newspaper comic strip. Who wouldn't be enticed into the business by that?

Over the years I have seen this film at least a dozen or so times. I like it so much I have it on my TiVo list to be automatically recorded whenever it comes on. It came on this week on Showtime.

The premise of the film is that artist Stanley Ford (Jack Lemmon) leads this idyllic life in Manhattan where he works on his newspaper strip, Bash Brannigan. One of the twists in the film is that Stanley actually acts out Bash's adventures while his "man," Charles, (Terry-Thomas) films it all. Stanley then uses the photos as reference for his strip.

Stanley leads the life he does because he never got married (or so the film says). When Stanley gets drunk at a bachelor party and wakes up the next morning in bed with and married to Virna Lisi, his idyllic life goes all to hell. And then... well, you may want to see the film sometime and I should leave something of the plot unexplained.

Like I said, I've seen this film many times, but this was the first time it left me cold. No, not because the film is about "murdering" your wife or how women ruin men's lives. No, the film lost me about 20 minutes in, when Stanley talks to Charles about how great it would be to blow up a Manhattan skyscraper for his next strip.

Wow, that used to be a funny gag, but in the world we live in today, there is nothing funny about that at all; in fact, it yanks you right out of the picture. I guess in comedy timing is everything.

Today a line like that is a quick way to murder any comedy.

Who Needs NetFlix When You Have TiVo?

That is the question that is going to be asked more and more often as TiVo has joined forces with Amazon.com to create Amazon Unbox on TiVo. This new service for us TiVo owners with Series II or Series III boxes connected to the Internet through our wireless networks, will allow us to rent or buy movies and TV shows from Amazon and have have them downloaded directly to our TiVos for viewing.

It rolled out for limited testing today and should be available to all very soon. One neat feature is that when you buy a video, Amazon keeps track of it forever, so you can download it to your TiVo, watch it a few times and then delete it. The next time you want to watch it, you can download it again from Amazon.

Sign me up now dammit!!!

You Snooze, You Lose!

So I'm working at home today, minding my own business, finalizing some detail design specifications for a boatload of new functionality for some of the websites at work, when I suddenly remember that today is the day that you can begin making hotel reservations for the San Diego Comic-Con.

I look at the clock and realize that I'm not a complete buffoon, they only opened up the hotel reservation system fifty-five minutes ago. What harm can being fifty-five minutes late be?

Well, as the saying goes, "You snooze, you lose!" In the world of Comic-Con hotel reservations, fifty-five minutes is a lifetime. We have stayed at the same hotel, The Holiday Inn on the Bay, for the past 10 to 15 years. We like it because it is on the water, across the street from Anthony's Fish Grotto. has a Ruth's Chris Steak House attached and is a nice walk to the convention center in the mornings or a short shuttle ride. Well, in 55 minutes it can sell out. So can all the other hotels in town.

The few that are miles away from the convention center were still available, but who wants to be way out there? Nobody, which is why they were still available.

Doing a thorough search however, I found that one hotel seven blocks from the convention center did have rooms, though not the normal rooms. The available rooms are called the "Wonderful Rooms" and they come at a not so wonderful price.

You snooze, you lose a lot more money on hotel rooms than you anticipated.

No Malfunction Here!

Well, it wasn't a great game. Rex Grossman proved once again that he cannot string three good games together (two seems to be his max) before reverting to a poor passer who makes poor decisions. The game was poorly played but the right team won. Tony Dungy deserved it all and Payton finally exorcised his big game demon.

Though the game was only so-so, the halftime show was surprisingly good. I was only marginally interested in watching Prince when it started (and I was more interested than anyone else at my house). Though it started slow, by the time he did "Proud Mary" he was really rocking the place and everyone at my house was glued to the set. And "Purple Rain" was just excellent.

A Bit of Good News

Florida will replace by 2008 voting machines that do not leave a paper trail, Governor Charlie Crist has said.

This is a bit of good news and proof that once you put someone not named Bush in charge of a place actual progress can occur.

Happy as a Clam!

Well, I am just happy as a clam and I'll tell you why...

Over the past few years I have been looking for a pastel I could stick with, one that gave me everything I wanted. I didn't think my list of requirements was that large, but finding a stick that suited all of my needs proved a lot harder than I thought it would.

First I wanted a soft pastel that was actually soft. Second I wanted a large range of colors (a must for pastels). Third I wanted a pastel that was easy to replace, so something that was sold in "open stock" (one stick at a time) was required. Fourth, I wanted something that, when sold in sets, offered a nice discount in price as pastels can really set you back.

My local Dick Blick Art Store carries two brands of open stock pastels, Rembrandt and Sennelier. I have a small set of Rembrandt pastels and I never really liked them. They are not very soft and feel a little greasy to me, but you can get them in open stock, in a large range of colors and in large sets at a discount. Well, three out of four, but the one it missed was for me the "big one."

Sennelier Pastels are from France and come in a startling array of colors. They are also softer than Rembrandts, are sold in open stock and have nicely priced sets. They meet all my requirements, right? Right, but when I was testing out brands I accidentally tested out a few Unison Pastels, and once I did that, I was hooked!

Unison Pastels are like something from another planet. They are oddly shaped, have this amazing creamy texture and come in some of the most vibrant and startling colors. The first time I picked one up I knew I was hooked.

They are handmade in England. Each stick is rolled by hand between the palms of its creator, which is why they are not uniformly shaped. You can even see the fingerprints of the roller on some sticks.

The vibrancy of their color is one of the other unique aspects of Unison pastels. Pastels are not chalk, they are pure pigment mixed with a binder and a base, usually of clay. A pastel company will start with a single pigment and call that one color, then add white to it in differing amounts and call each another color. Taking the base pigment they will then add black to it in differing amounts and call each of those another color. So from a single pure pigment, they can create 8-16 different colors. Unison doesn't do that. Each stick is a pure pigment of that color and that is why they are so vibrant.

So like I said, once I tried a Unison pastel, I was hooked, so I ordered a set and they arrived this week. I ordered the Portrait set of 72 pastels in an aluminum case with clear lid. I am just beginning to play with them, but so far I am thrilled with the results.

As I do a few pieces I'll share them here.

I can't wait! And yes, I'm happy as a clam!

National Gorilla Suit Day!

I don't believe there is anything else to say.

Sadness and Joy

Twenty-one years ago today while driving to work I heard that the Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded shortly after take-off, killing all on board. The American space program came to a grinding halt that day, and for maybe the first time we realized what a dangerous thing we had been doing for two decades in, what appeared to be, relative safety. That day we learned that we were deceiving ourselves. I thought January 28th would forever be a day of sadness for me. I was wrong.

Twenty years ago today my wife woke me up at 4:30 in the morning to say it was "time." By 5:00 we were at the hospital and at 8:07 that morning I saw my son Brian come into this world. We had picked a name for him other than Brian, though I now don't remember what that name was, but do know that when we looked at him, the name we had chosen didn't fit. So we waited a few days till he showed who he was, trying on different names and eventually he was Brian. But that morning he was just "my son."

He came to us by way of natural childbirth, the Bradley Method, and as such, he was bright-eyed and wide awake that morning as I took him from the hands of the doctor and held him for the first time. He stared up into my eyes as I lowered him into a bassinet of water and bathed him for the first time. He changed my life, he made it harder and scarier, but oh so much more richer.

Happy birthday son! You survived your teens! The world awaits!

Joy!

The Hypocrite in Chief

The jokes just keep on coming folks!

I nearly choked on my Bosco during the latest State of the Union address when I heard the Hypocrite in Chief utter this paragraph...

Next, there is the matter of earmarks. These special interest items are often slipped into bills at the last hour -- when not even C-SPAN is watching. In 2005 alone, the number of earmarks grew to over 13,000 and totaled nearly $18 billion. Even worse, over 90 percent of earmarks never make it to the floor of the House and Senate -- they are dropped into committee reports that are not even part of the bill that arrives on my desk. You didn't vote them into law. I didn't sign them into law. Yet, they're treated as if they have the force of law. The time has come to end this practice. So let us work together to reform the budget process, expose every earmark to the light of day and to a vote in Congress, and cut the number and cost of earmarks at least in half by the end of this session.

Of course the joke here is this guy tries to demonize earmarks by saying that they are evil because no one votes on them and then attaches signing statement to just about bill he signs giving him powers which nobody in Congress ever voted on.

The Republican Asshole of the Day, for the entire month of January... Your Hypocrite in Chief, George W. Bush!

The Puppet is Back!

I can't find a picture of it on-line but did anyone else notice that the one time during Bush's State of the Union speech that Cheney took a drink of water, Bush also took a drink of water? It was so odd that my wife even noticed it and pointed it out.

I said, "Well what did you expect them to do? You know Bush can't talk when Cheney is drinking."

Paddy Chayefsky and ESP

A friend over at the Tony Isabella board was mentioning Paddy Chayefsky this morning and it got me remembering a very strange thing that happened about a decade ago.

I was working at Disney, Buena Vista Home Video to be exact, as a contract programmer when the company had a get together at the Academy Theater at the Academy of Television Arts & Science headquarters. This place was brand new as was the Hall of Fame out in front of the Academy Plaza. It's the same place where you will see a mammoth golden replica of the winged Emmy Award.

I think they bussed us to the theater to see previews of upcoming Disney films, products that in a few years would be our products. We saw a rough cut of about 10 minutes of Toy Story and scenes from Mr. Holland's Opus (which they assured us would not be called Mr. Holland's Opus when it opened) and Crimson Tide. They also had a few speeches and gave out gifts (I got a spiffy Lion King sweatshirt that day). The hall of Fame is a set of beautiful bronze statues that line the walkway leading to the theater.

The strange thing happened right after I arrived. I was standing with some co-workers outside of the Hall of Fame, so I was looking at the back of the heads of half the statues. We were looking at the statues across the way and pointing out who was who when I looked at the back of the head of a statue in front of me and I said, "Hey, it's Paddy Chayefsky." We walked around in front of the statue and it was Paddy Chayefsky! Only, I had never been there before, had no idea they had a statue of Paddy Chayefsky there and I also had no idea what Paddy Chayefsky looked like especially not from the back of his head.

So, how did I know it was him? I have no clue; I just knew.

Steve Canyon

Humorous Maximus is running Steve Canyon from day one beginning Monday, January 22, 2007 and I, for one, couldn't be happier. I've never had much of a chance at reading Canyon before and I think this is a real treat for us lovers of great American adventure comic artwork. This reminds me of the long gone but much loved Menomonee Falls Gazette, which, for those who don't know, was a newspaper published during the 1970s which contained only comic strips .

Good adventure comics are so hard to find these days and it's great to have a classic like this available on a daily basis.

Not To Be

Well, it didn't happen and it's not going to happen this year, but the Saints will be back. Like I said, you have to believe.

I got an email from my brother today; it's a Cajun joke. If you've never heard a Cajun joke you might be taken aback. Most Cajun jokes have to do with Boudreaux a, well let's face it, a dumb Cajun. Some people find them offensive, but I'm Cajun and I don't. In this joke Boudreaux goes to hell...

Boudreaux died and was on his way down to Hell. In anticipation, the Devil turned up the thermostat to make it extra warm for Boudreaux. When Boudreaux arrived, the Devil asked, "Hey Boudreaux, how do you like the heat down here?"

Boudreaux says, "Mais, it's just fine. It reminds me of Bayou PonPon in July."

That made the Devil mad. That night, he turned the thermostat up all the way it could go. Man it was hot! When Boudreaux woke up, the Devil asked him, "NOW how do you like it down here?"

Boudreaux says, "Mais, it's fine. It reminds me of August on Bayou Lafourche."

As you might expect, that made the Devil all the more mad. Well, that night he turned the thermostat down all the way it could go! The whole place frosted over. Icicles started forming from the rafters. When Boudreaux woke up, the Devil asked him, "How you like it NOW, Boudreaux?"

Boudreaux, shivering, through blue lips, says, "Mais cher, I'm one happy Cajun!"

The Devil was infuriated! He yelled, "What do you mean you're one happy Cajun?!!"

Boudreaux, still shivering says, "The Saints done won the Superbowl!"

The Unknown Territory

The NFC Championship game. For the New Orleans Saints, this is rarefied air they have never breathed before; this is their unknown territory. To say I am jazzed about this game would be an understatement. If ever a team deserved to go to the Super Bowl, the Saints are that team.

Those of us with our roots in the south, we believe. We have to believe!

Go Saints!!

Rice gives "morale boosts for the terrorists"

What with our liberal press here in the US this story should be getting a whole lot more play than it is...

BAGHDAD, Jan. 17 - The Iraqi government's need for American troops would "dramatically go down" in three to six months if the United States accelerated the process of equipping and arming Iraq's security forces, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Wednesday.

The head of Iraq's Shiite Muslim-led government defended his country's independence and sovereignty and called on U.S. leaders to show faith in his ability to lead.

Maliki disputed President Bush's remarks broadcast Tuesday that the execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein "looked like it was kind of a revenge killing" and took exception to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's Senate testimony last week that Maliki's administration was on "borrowed time."

The prime minister said statements such as Rice's "give morale boosts for the terrorists and push them toward making an extra effort and making them believe they have defeated the American administration," Maliki said. "But I can tell you that they have not defeated the Iraqi government."

It's almost like this has turned into the Bizarro world where Bush and his thugs are now getting the exact same thing they have been dishing out for the last six years. I like this Maliki guy. The sad part is had Keith Olbermann not covered this tonight I would not have heard of it at all.

24 Hours of Propaganda?

Keith Olbermann brought it up this week and it is actually something I have been wondering for a while now. With each season Fox's 24 has gotten more and more cataclysmic. I think I have a pretty solid head on my shoulders and the show, which features ever increasing terrorist calamities committed against Americans on American soil, doesn't frighten me at all. But is it designed to frighten those who watch it? Is it just another cog in the Fox News as branch of the Republican party form of terrorism against Americans?

The purpose of terrorism is not to kill people but to inspire terror in them. Fear is what they are trying to create and given that definition, is not the Bush administration a terrorist organization? For years they have tried repeatedly to scare people into voting for them. They did it in November and for the first time in a while the country told them to shove it. But they did it none the less. A vote for Democrats has long been compared to a vote for mushroom clouds over America by the Bush people and the biggest support they have had on TV is the misnamed Fox News Network.

Has Fox expanded their aid to Bush through the show 24? Already this season (and it still has 20 hours to go) we have had a mushroom cloud over America and the last show seemed to indicate that the rest of the season will be devoted to four more suitcase nukes. So the question remains, is 24 entertainment or 24 hours of propaganda?

Joe Gill

Mark Evanier is reporting that long-time Charlton scriptor Joe Gill died in December. Joe wrote a number of Don's horror scripts and his first issue of the Phantom. Quoting Evanier:

For several days now, the rumor has spread through comic book forums on the 'net that Joe Gill, one of the most prolific writers in the history of the medium, passed away last December. I've received many an e-mail asking me if it was true and why I hadn't posted something about it. Easy answer: I didn't know if it was true...and the people I knew who knew Joe Gill didn't seem to know if it was true, either. Mr. Gill had little or no family so there didn't seem to be a simple way to check and find out. Finally, sadly, I think I have sufficient confirmation.

Gill was born in 1919. His earliest known work in comics was for Timely (now Marvel) in the early forties and he was among the many writers who wrote Captain America after the departure of Simon and Kirby. In the late forties when the company switched over to teen comics and westerns, he was one of their busiest writers but he eventually fell into disfavor with the editor there, Stan Lee, and work began to become sporadic. By the early fifties, he was doing most of his writing for a company called Funnies, Inc., which supplied publishers with stories and artwork.

One of those publishers was John Santangelo of Charlton Comics. The comic book business was entering a rocky period with many companies going under and Santangelo decided he wanted to build a stable of writers and artists who'd work primarily in the firm's plant in Derby, Connecticut. For many, this meant relocating to that area but the deal included a certain stability along with very low rates. Someone once described the terms as "We'll pay you a third of what the other houses pay but we'll give you three times as much work."

Santangelo was familiar with Gill's work (and legendary speed) via Funnies, Inc., and offered Joe a contract. Joe accepted and for the next three decades — until Charlton shut its doors — he was their star scripter, producing thousands of scripts for every kind of comic they published. In a business where some writers were pressed to write a book a week, Gill often produced a finished manuscript in a day.

His work included westerns (Billy the Kid, Wild Bill Hickok), war comics (Marine War Heroes, Fightin' Army), romance comics (Love Diary, Teen Confessions), crime comics (Crime and Justice, Vengeance Squad), science-fiction comics (Space Adventures, Doomsday Plus 1), comics based on movies (Konga, 1776), comics based on books (Jungle Tales of Tarzan), comics based on newspaper strips (The Phantom, Popeye), comics based on cartoon shows (Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw), comics based on live-action TV shows (The Bionic Woman, Emergency), comics about martial arts (Yang, House of Yang), ghost comics (Ghostly Tales, Haunted), comics about car racing (Hot Rod Racers, Grand Prix), comics about surfing (Surf Kings) and anything else Charlton put out. He handled (and in some cases, co-created) a number of recurring characters and super-heroes, including Captain Atom, The Blue Beetle, Hercules, Peacemaker, The Fightin' Five, Sarge Steel, Son of Vulcan and Judomaster. In addition to all this, he worked often as a writer and/or editor on Charlton's many non-comic magazines, many of which featured pulp-style romance or crime fiction.

Charlton kept Gill so busy that he rarely had time to work for other publishers. He scripted a number of books for Dell in the sixties...for not much better money than he was receiving from Charlton. In 1968 when former Charlton editor Dick Giordano began working at DC, he brought Gill along and gave him work — at DC rates, which seemed astronomical to Joe at the time — on The Secret Six, Hot Wheels and a few other titles...but Gill's association with DC did not survive Giordano's ouster and it was back to the lousy money in Connecticut. He professed not to mind very much. Charlton's editors accepted whatever he did and rarely, if ever, asked for revisions. After the company shut down in 1986, Gill largely retired. In the company's waning days, he sold a few more scripts to DC for their ghost comics but when Charlton ceased publishing, Joe largely retired...and I'm afraid that's all I know about his later period.

Sandy Eggo Sucks!

Gawd was that a dreadful game. The San Diego Chargers deserved to lose the sloppy way they played, but the New England Patriots were just as sloppy, if not more so. Kickoffs out of bounds, interceptions, fumbles, interceptions that are fumbled; this game had it all. What it didn't have was quality football. Ugh! What a mess!

If this team shows up next week Indy will be playing New Orleans in the Super Bowl (not a bad match up actually!).

Also did anyone else notice that the announcer on CBS seems to think the town is named Sandy Eggo? He repeatedly referred to the Sandy Eggo Chargers. CBS has got to get some better commentators.

"I've been wrong on just about everything..."

"...but please let me pontificate some more... "

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday the Pentagon and CIA are not violating people's rights by examining the banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage in the United States.

Cheney went on to say, "And it's perfectly legal for the Vice President to shoot anyone in the face he damn well feels like. What? You don't like that? Come stand in my line of fire and say that!"

Lost My Logo

Well I lost my custom logo when I moved to the newest version of the Blogger software. I did get to add some new stuff like the heirachical list of previous blogs and the RSS feed to Pop Thought. I'll see if I can get the logo back when I have some time.

They're Marching In!

Being a Cajun, being from the south and spending most every other summer of my youth down there I have to say that I am ecstatic with the play of the New Orleans Saints this year. It's been a miracle year so far for our no longer poor put-upon Saints. They have the Coach of the Year and an amazing offensive machine with so many parts that even Joe Horn sitting on the bench doesn't slow them down.

Who Dat heading for the conference championship game? Dat be da Saints!

Did anyone else notice during the game tonight how the camera lingered on the female fan with the shirt that read: FUCK DA EAGLES? Is the FCC going to jump all over them for that? We'll see.

Was that Lily or Morticia Who Died?

Actress Yvonne De Carlo died today. Though she had over 120 acting credits listed in Internet Movie Data Base, most people remember here as Lily on the Munsters, the devoted wife of Fred Gwynne's bumbling Herman Munster. You may remember her that way, with the pale makeup, the long black hair with the shocks of pure white running through it. I prefer to remember her as you see her here to my right, which might be from the movie Slave Girl, but who knows (Hey, you remember what you want to remember and I'll remember what I want to remember!)?

A lot of people today, when they heard Yvonne died thought, "Oh my god, Morticia is dead!" Nah, that was Carolyn Jones in the Addams Family. People are always getting the two of them confused as both shows were on in the mid 1960s and both featured pretty strange families. The Addams Family had the better pedigree, but Fred Gwynne had a way of winning people over to the Munsters.

Now when I think of Carolyn Jones I do think of the Addams Family, but I also think of one of my favorite films. Let me describe it to you.

It is directed by Michael Curtiz who directed a little picture called Casablanca. It's based on a novel by Harold Robbins and it stars Carolyn Jones, Walter Matthau, Dean Jagger, a very young Vic Morrow, Paul Stewart and a young singer in his fourth film. It takes place on the mean streets and back alleys of the French Quarter of New Orleans.

The movie is King Creole and the young singer is Elvis Presley and if you've only seen the Elvis movies made in the 1960s, this one will come as quite a shock. Elvis plays a character unlike any he ever played again.

Elvis plays Danny Fisher, a young delinquent who, as the film begins, flunks out of high school for the second time. Danny gets mixed up with a gang of delinquents led by Vic Morrow's Shark and is soon helping them rob stores. Elvis uses his guitar, singing talent and charisma to draw all the customers and staff to him, while the gang steals a store blind. In a really un-Elvis-like moment, Danny picks up a cashier from the store and takes her to a hotel on the pretence of going to a party, but they are the only ones invited. "Come on baby, you know the score" he says as he tries to get the "good girl" to go bad.

While working as a busboy in a nightclub, Danny runs into Ronnie (Carolyn Jones) who is the girl of local crime boss Maxie Fields (Walter Matthau) and his life takes an unexpected turn.

Sure, Elvis becomes a singer at a nightclub on Bourbon Street and does a number of tunes, but the best parts of the movie are when Elvis is just acting. He is really good and he and Jones have some pretty steamy scenes together.

Tough guys, tough girls, good girls who want to go bad, knife fights, muggings, shop lifting, chase scenes, set-ups, escapes and some great Elvis acting; King Creole has it all. Well, almost. If they could have figured a way to get Yvonne De Carlo's tits in the film, it would have been perfect!

Miami Thrice

No, I have not gone back to watching CSI: Miami. As I said here and again here, I think this has turned into one of the worst shows on TV. No, I have not gone over to the dark side, but you will remember that I have said that I watched the show for almost two years just to see how bad it was, mainly just to watch David Caruso and his OCD glasses on/glasses off shtick. Well, I was reading Mark Verheidens' blog tonight and he had a link to James Hudnall's blog which had a compilation of Caruso's CSI: Miami opening tag lines. Sit back and watch what an unintentional hoot this show has become.

Marooned II

Well we got around to watching Marooned this weekend and man, was it even better than I remembered from junior high. The print was a beautiful full-length letterboxed version and I have a feeling the last time (or times) I saw this film it had been substantially cut. If you get a chance to see it, do so.

King George Grasps for Even More Power

In an attempt to take even more despotic power, King George the Last, as you can read here, has given himself the right to open and read your mail without needing a warrant. He has already taken the right to listen into your phone conversations and read your email; this just makes it a hat trick.

Besides the obvious, there are two other things that really bother me here. First, this important story of an American President stealing another of your freedoms from you is absolutely buried on page 17 of the Los Angeles Times. The media's acquiescence to the extreme actions of this little twit, the blind eye they turn to his unconstitutional, treasonous acts is shameless and appalling. When they write the history of these dark days for America, when we stopped being the "land of the free" the role in all this played by the media will not go unnoticed.

Second, the courts should have long ago told this tin dictator that he cannot add "signing statements" to bills saying "I sign this into law for everyone but me." That is making a law and the President does not have that power under the Constitution. Period. He needs to be stopped and he needs to be stopped now and I pray the Democrats have the will to do it.

Marooned

Turner Classic Movies is showing 1969's Marooned tonight. This came out when I was in junior high and in "the Space Club" at school. I remember we took a bus into Hollywood to see it at the Egyptian Theater. It was a big deal for all us geeky "space" kids, a very exciting film about astronauts trapped in space in an Apollo-like spaceship. Well, we thought it was exciting at the time.

Less than a year later Apollo 13 did it for real and it was much, much more gripping. I remember going into the "Space Club" room at school during lunch-hour to watch the news as the Apollo 13 accident unfolded. Now that had us on the edge of our seats!

The last time I saw Marooned it hadn't aged well, but I think I'll give it another try anyway. It was written by Martin Caidin, the guy who wrote Cyborg on which was based The Six Million Dollar Man TV show. Also, you have Gregory Peck, Richard Crenna, David Janssen, James Franciscus, Gene Hackman, Lee Grant and Mariette Hartley and that's not too shabby of a cast.

Bush: Congress must limit pork spending

Bush went on to say, "Unrestricted and unregulated spending on pet projects is only allowed when Republicans are running Congress."

On a Wing and a Prayer

I was watching the beginning of the Rose Parade yesterday morning and as usual they had the flyover of the B2 Stealth Bomber flying wing. Such a beautiful airplane and it reminded me of a couple of things.

First was the 1953 version of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds starring Gene Barry in which the original Northrup Flying Wing figures prominently near the end. As a child that film scared me some, but not as much as the newer version by Steven Spielberg did a few years ago. That film left me feeling creepy as hell. I think it had something to do with the sound mix for the alien machines and that horrific effect of the clothes of people disintegrated by the aliens floating in the wind. Like I said, creepy shit.

The second thing it got me thinking of was the Rose Bowl game my nephew took me too a few years ago. He is from Washington and Washington State was playing that year so he got tickets with a friend and had one left over. My first Rose Bowl was quite exciting. Before the game two Flying Wings flew over the stadium. The second was the B2, but the first was the Northrop N9MB Flying Wing, the only one still in existence, which was used to train pilots on how to fly the big boy back in the day.

You haven't lived till you've seen a flying wing arc gracefully over your head. They are just amazing to watch.

Darth Strikes Again!

I saw a strange thing happen the other night while doing aerobics at my fitness club. All the machines have TVs on them and most people were watching the Ford Funeral - Part I on any number of channels (most were covering it live). Well that little lying sack, Dennis Hastert, started to speak and before I lost my lunch I turned to ESPN and some bowl game I never heard of before (which ended up being pretty exciting).

I'm in the last row of machines, so I can see most of the TVs in the room. Some are blocked by people on other machines, but most are in clear view and I'm looking up from the game every now and then to see what others are doing. So once when I look up, Hastert has completed his blathering (I'm sure he was fibbing about something) and Darth Cheney gets up to speak....and an amazing thing happens. Every TV except one changes the channel. I'm not making this up; the guy is that hated. Nobody can stomach him.

Makes me feel good about the people I get sweaty with.