Delp Also a Suicide

Brad Delp's family has let it be known that like Richard Jeni, Brad also took his own life. "He was a man who gave all he had to give to everyone around him, whether family, friends, fans or strangers," the family said in a statement relayed by police Wednesday. "He gave as long as he could, as best he could, and he was very tired. We take comfort in knowing that he is now, at last, at peace."

I'm wondering why this doesn't move me more, why I don't feel more compassion for Brad than I do. I don't think it is because it follows so closely on the heels of the Richard Jeni revelation. It is not completely unknown for famous people to kill themselves. Hell, I remember Freddy Prinze. Maybe it's because unlike the statement from Jeni's family, this one did not speak of diagnosed illness. I know that doesn't mean it wasn't there, but the lack of those words lends the Delp family statement a different flavor and speaks to me of a man who had simply given up.

Maybe that's a harsh assessment on my part; I don't know.

Jeni a Suicide

A lot of people have been speculating with regards to the death of Richard Jeni, Today his family put that speculation to rest. This was a tragic end for a very funny man, who was apparently, also very ill.

He will be missed.

Lofty Ideas -- Part I

This past weekend my wife and I drove into downtown Los Angeles to participate in the Downtown Living 2007 Weekend. We have these constant ongoing discussions about what we should do when I retire. Do we need the big house in La Verne, or do we want to try something totally different? One option we have discussed is moving to a loft in downtown LA. It would give me a vibrant location from which to paint and write and it would force us into a downsizing of our possessions which is probably much needed. We both tend to be pack rats of one form or another. The event this past weekend afforded us the opportunity to see what was available and get a glimpse at how it might fit in with our lifestyle.

We took advantage of the trams provided by the event that took you from place to place with ease. Our first stop was Mosaic. Mosaic is not a development of retrofitted lofts, but rather new apartments. If the number one rule of real estate is "location, location, location," then Mosaic has nothing to worry about. What they lack in funk-appeal they more than make up for in location and amenities. Mosaic consists of 272 apartments located at historic Union Station, the public transportation hub of Los Angeles and directly across the street from Olvera Street and El Pueblo de Los Angeles, the 1781 birthplace of the City of Los Angeles.

Mosaic has wonderful, actually superior, common amenities (a huge gym and weight room with dry saunas, pool room, Internet cafes, pool, etc.), an amazing and historic location and a plethora of interesting floor plans. We were really impressed by Mosaic, even though it was not what we came looking for, it offers something else and we found it exciting

Our next stop was the Barker Block. This was more what we were looking for; as their literature describes: 297 one-of-a-kind residential live/work loft spaces from 738 to 2,971 square feet. The Barker Block is being reclaimed from O.T. Barker’s original manufacturing plant and warehouse complex, a new community springing to life in a true manufacturing-to-residential conversion.

They only had two models to show and they had obviously thrown them together in the past few days. Both were two story with a loft above the lower main floor, but the stairs to the loft area had not been put in yet, so our perusal was relegated to the main floor only. But even so you could get the feel of the place. I liked them a lot, my wife thought they were too dark and gloomy. It is hard to tell when you are looking at basically slabs of concrete. I have a felling the 7th floor, which appears to have large skylights in some units will be absolutely amazing, but Barker Block is very much a work in very early progress. I want to go back some time in maybe six months to a year and see what is developing there. I think it might be very special.

Next we left the events itinerary and wandered across the street from the Barker Block to an already completed loft development. More on that next time in Part II!

Arnold Drake has Died

Mark Evanier is reporting what we all hoped we would not hear, that Arnold Drake, the creator of Deadman, the Doom Patrol and Stanley and his Monster and the writer of hundreds of other comic stories, died this morning. As I wrote here and here, Arnold had collapsed in his home a few days after attending the New York Comic Convention. It was reported that he was improving, but at Arnold's age we all knew that that might not be quite true or that his recovery might not be long-lasting.

I'm sure Mark and others will have much more to say about Arnold in the days to come. All I can say is that the few times I saw him at the SDCC, I was touched by his energy and drive. I will certainly miss him at this year's con. As he often does, Mark put it so very well:

Arnold was one of my favorite comic book writers of all time. Much of his early work was uncredited and I was delighted, as I learned more about who'd written what, to find him as the common thread among some of the best comics DC produced in the sixties. (The Showcase issues of Tommy Tomorrow are especially brilliant, and they were written by Arnold.) I was privileged to get to know Arnold and to spend many a convention panel and telephone conversation, hearing him discourse on his favorite subject in the world, which was creativity. At the time of his death, he had several projects in the work and the urge to write something wonderful was undiminished. We are all a little worse off that Arnold isn't writing and I can't begin to measure what those of us who considered him a good friend have lost.

You can read all of Mark's thoughts on his excellent blog.

Lying Sack Strikes Again

That lying sack of shit, Dick Cheney, has once again besmirched the name of anyone who apposes him. "When members of Congress pursue an anti-war strategy that's been called 'slow bleeding,' they are not supporting the troops, they are undermining them," Cheney said in a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

What the Dick fails to say is that Republicans are the only ones who have ever called it a 'slow bleed' strategy. They made the phrase up, then lied and said that Democrats were the ones using it. For the Dick to continue to use it, shows how out of touch with reality he is. Of course he is the idiot who told us all how the insurgents were in their last throes. This guy just makes shit up, throws it at the wall of right-wing TV and sees what sticks. God let's send this cretin to jail where he belongs.

I'm in no mood to listen to this lying sack of shit anymore.

More Than A Feeling

Brad Delp, the lead singer for the band Boston, was found dead Friday in his home in southern New Hampshire. He was 55. I remember the huge impact that that first self-titled Boston album had. Everyone had a copy and everyone wore out the copy they had. Though I was a big fan I didn't see Boston live till 2004.

The Los Angeles CBS oldies rock station was know as Arrow and they had these great yearly concerts called Arrowfest. The last one was in 2004 (the next year the station went from being Arrow to being Jack and I think they are a little worried about how people might react at something called a Jackfest).

I took my son, a friend from work and his friend. The concert lasted somewhere between ten and twelve hours as we slowly worked our way through The Edgar Winter Group, .38 Special, John Kay and Steppenwolf, Styx, REO Speedwagon and finally Boston. Everyone played mostly their hits, in particular, Styx and REO were solid hits, one after the other. They were awesome, playing extended sets. It was maybe 10 or 11:00 PM before Boston took the stage. Everyone was, first, pumped up by the last two acts and second, tired as hell. Burnout was beginning to set in.

Boston opened with something I had never heard of before and followed it with something else I had never heard of. I think More Than a Feeling or Long Time was the next song, and whichever it was, it was spectacular. But it was followed by another song no one knew and these were not just short little ditties, they were long songs, with what appeared to be a lot of improvisation and jamming. Normally these are two things I have no problem with, but after ten or eleven hours I was tired. We all were tired and most didn't have the patience for what Boston was playing. My son wanted to go, I wanted to go, eventually my friend from work wanted to go but his friend didn't and we finally had to force the issue.

I know we heard both More Than a Feeling and Long Time, but I don't think I knew any other song they played in the hour or so we listened before leaving. I felt bad about leaving in the middle of their set, but they should have read the crowd better and adjusted to the long day we had all spent in the hot California sun.

I told my son that the next time they played we would go see them and hopefully be in a frame of mind to appreciate what they were trying to do. With Brad's death I have more than a feeling that this will never happen.

Or Perhaps an Exorcist Would Work

Mayan priests will purify a sacred archaeological site to eliminate "bad spirits" after President Bush visits next week, according to the AP.

We should hire these guys to purify the Constitution after Bush leaves. Lord knows he's defiled it enough.

40 Years Ago Today From DC Comics -- Adventures of Jerry Lewis #100

Adventures of Jerry Lewis #100 (On Sale: March 9, 1967) has a cover by the late, great Bob Oksner (who died just last month). I saw Bob a couple of times at Mark Evanier panels at the San Diego Comic-Con over the years and I don't think there was a nicer guy in comics.

Inside we have our cover story "A-Haunting We Will Go!" once again written by the recovering genius Arnold Drake and Bob Oksner. Continuing the further mis-adventures at that training center for demon damsels, "The Little Bo-Peep School for Girls".

Rounding out the book are Jerry Lewis Gallery of Art Messterpieces pin-up also by Bob Oksner featuring Jerry as the Mona Lisa and Bat-Jokes for Jerry featuring reader submitter Batman jokes.

The Adventures of Jerry Lewis started life as "The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis" and ran under that title for 40 issues, from 1952 to 1957. After Martin and Lewis broke up the magazine continued as "The Adventures of Jerry Lewis."

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

Hypocrite of the Year

When you talk about Republicans and hypocrisy, it is hard to believe you will hear anything new. The Republican party is the bastion of blatant hypocrisy, but sometimes the gross excess of it all surprises me. Stupid me for having any faith in Republicans.

You think you have heard and seen it all and then a slime like Newt Gingrich once again rears his foul head. Gingrich was having an extramarital affair even as he led the charge against President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, he acknowledged in an interview with a conservative Christian group (is there really any other kind anymore?).

Yeah, this is the party of morals. They believe you should be forced to have them and they should be allowed to do whatever they wish.

A Ruling on Judges?

"Personally I would like to see all judges and district attorneys made to do some time. Not for the crimes they commit from the bench. For those they commit out of ignorance. Which is precisely why time in prison should be part of their qualifications. So that they might come to know what they don't know they don't know. "

Lee Stringer

Glass Wall Up High

I couldn't help but notice that the Hualapai Indian tribe, which has built the glass bridge 4,000 feet over the Grand Canyon, is pronounced WALL-uh-pie, or perhaps WALL-up-high?

Coincidence? I think not so.

For those interested, it opens this month.

40 Years Ago Today From DC Comics -- Doom Patrol #111

Doom Patrol #111 (On Sale: March 7, 1967) sports a Bob Brown cover.

Inside the cover story is "Zarox-13, Emperor of the Cosmos" written by Doom Patrol creator Arnold Drake (get well soon Arnold!) and drawn by Bruno Premiani. Zarox-13, Garguax's criminal superior from his home planet comes to Earth with his followers. The Doom Patrol attempts to trick him into believing that Earth possesses an unconquerable high-technology civilization, but Garguax intervenes to expose the ruse.

The backup story is "Neg Man's Last Road" also by Arnold Drake and Bruno Permiani. Negative Man becomes a pawn in Dr. Death's scheme to seize control of the U.S. government by driving its leaders to madness and suicide. We need Dr. Death more than ever today.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.

Who are the Doom Patrol?

The Doom Patrol first appeared in 1963, when the DC title My Greatest Adventure, a supernatural anthology title, was being converted to a superhero format. The task assigned writer Arnold Drake was to create a team that fit both formats. With fellow writer Bob Haney and artist Bruno Premiani, he created the Doom Patrol, a team of superpowered misfits regarded as freaks by the world at large. It first appeared in My Greatest Adventure #80, June 1963. The series was such a success that My Greatest Adventure was officially retitled The Doom Patrol beginning with issue #86.

Another Lie to Add to the List

"I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action."

George W. Bush

All the President's Men

A few weeks ago I watched William Goldman's All the President's Men on TV. I have told my TiVo for a few years now to record this whenever it is on in hopes of finding a very nice print. The one I watched was dreadful, from AMC and had not only been edited but had commercials as well. Normally I would not watch such a print, but it's been a long time since Woodward and Bernstein and I got together and took down that little shit Richard Nixon and, well, good print or bad print, I had to watch it.

Goldman's screenplay is as good as ever, even when messed up by the AMC sensors. He takes a very complicated book and breaks it down masterfully. By cutting out the last half of the book he reduced the amount of history he had to cover and created an amazing detective story from the perspective of the only journalistic institution in the country who seemed interested in investigating the Watergate break-in.

Goldman's script is masterful, but I think it is telling that the "gotcha" moment for me was not scripted. It's a tape of an interview with then U.S. Attorney General Richard Kleindienst. In it he attacks the Washington Post for continuing to look into Watergate and spews off this long rant about how the government's own investigation of Watergate was the single greatest, most thorough investigation in the history of our country. Then the interviewer asks a simple question about something that had just come out in the Post and he admits that they didn't know about it.

All that smokescreen he tried to lay down, all that cover he tried to give that crook Nixon evaporates and you see it in his face. You know that he knows that he is toast.

And that is what I love about this film, because it points out that what Woodstein and the Washington Post did was not only save our country, but they gave the power to others to assist. Had it just been the Post and no one else, Nixon would have gotten away with his obstruction of justice. Had the Post given up, Nixon would have gotten away with it.

And though the action in the picture stops at a time when the circle around Nixon is tightening because Woodstein have made a mistake and we are not shown how the final fall of Nixon occurs, that one scene with Kleindienst illuminated the way. The institutions that should have been asking the hard questions started to ask them and it didn't matter that Bob and Carl had fucked it up. What they had done up to that point had righted the ship enough, that others could join in the struggle to find the truth.

God how we need Woodstein today. The Washington Post took the role of exterminator in the 1970s and rid the White House of traitorous vermin out to undermine the Constitution, but today rodents of the exact same ilk infest the White House again and a good exterminator is once again needed. That will only happen if we have an actual free press and a responsive Congress with the guts to do what must be done and to hell with the goose-steppers who will call them unpatriotic (or as we learned last week, "faggots") for doing it.

Just today I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was found guilty of perjury as he shielded the vile Vice President from his own traitorous acts; so progress can be made. But if it stops with Libby, if Cheney is allowed to go free, then it will be the equivalent of convicting Donald Segretti and letting Nixon and his other henchmen evade justice.

I leave you with some wonderful William Goldman dialog, the last real lines in the film, spoken by Jason Robarbs as Ben Bradlee:

You know the results of the latest Gallup Poll? Half the country never even heard of the word Watergate. Nobody gives a shit. You guys are probably pretty tired, right? Well, you should be. Go on home, get a nice hot bath. Rest up... 15 minutes. Then get your asses back in gear. We're under a lot of pressure, you know, and you put us there. Nothing's riding on this except the, uh, first amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country. Not that any of that matters, but if you guys fuck up again, I'm going to get mad. Goodnight.

Driving May Not Be His Forte

50s and 60s singing heartthrob Fabian Forte escaped serious injury twice this weekend, first in a car crash and then in a concert accident. He is not a guy you hear a lot about, but he is a guy I was thinking of a couple months ago, not for singing but for acting.

Now acting is not the word that most people would use to describe what Fabian (or Frankie and Annette or any number of other teen heartthrobs who made the transition from pop records to the movies) did. Some would not even call the vehicles they performed in, movies. I'm not one of those guys. I love those silly beach movies. The Frankie and Annette variety are just as bad as you remember them to be. No, actually, they are a lot worse than you remember them to be.

But Fabian starred in one beach movie that was different. It was so different that 40 years after seeing it, I still remember it fondly. Even stranger, when my TiVo picked it up a couple months ago, I remembered whole scenes of dialog from the film. That freaked even me out!

The film is called Ride the Wild Surf and if you ever see it coming on TV, give it a chance. I think it will pleasantly surprise you. A couple of things set this film apart from the typical teen "beach" movie.

First, it takes place in Hawaii where the surf really is as wild as they show, rather than Malibu or Redondo Beach where they never get the kind of wave you see in a Frankie and Annette movie. The film follows its stars as they hit one beach after another on the North Shore of Oahu, ending up at Waimea Bay.

Second, not only is it packed stem to stern with some amazing surfing shots, it actually has a story, following three friends from Malibu as they try there hands at Hawaii for the first, and maybe last, time. They come from different backgrounds and they are all on different paths in life. Maybe the stars are a little too old for a "coming of age" drama, but they do discover direction for their lives in what they find in Hawaii.

I was eight when I saw this film, but even at that age I could tell it was a step above the average "beach" fare. OK, it's not a giant step, but the dang step is there, I tell ya.

Fabian, Peter Brown and Tab Hunter play the three friends and Susan Hart, Shelly Fabares and Barbara Eden (less than a year away from fame as Jeannie on TV) play the three women who discover them. James Mitchum (Robert's son) and Roger Davis (of Alias Smith and Jones) play their surfing adversaries.

Yeah, sure, they all look stupid standing in front of the film of waves during the close-ups and pretending to surf, but a lot of the other surfing scenes using the actors look really good. And I swear, there is a scene near the end of the film with Tab Hunter, Susan Hart and Catherine McCloud that I recited in my head as I saw it play out. I remembered it from 42 years ago.

It remains on my TiVo list of films to be auto-recorded. It's not a classic by any means, but it's a cut above the standard fare and dammit, I feel real young when I watch it and Shelly Fabares is just as cute as when I was eight years old.

Belushi

Twenty-five years ago today John Belushi was found dead in Hollywood of acute cocaine and heroin intoxication. A tragic end for one of the funniest people ever to grace weekly TV and the movies and the stage.

I remember the first time I heard the Lemmings album with Belushi's impersonation of Joe Cocker and then a few years later seeing him do the same bit on Saturday Night Live was even funnier. I actually recall falling off the couch and rolling on the floor laughing so hard my side ached, which only made it funnier.

The other stand outs from SNL were John as the Samurai tailor with Buck Henry and the video bit of an old Belushi walking through the cemetery past the graves of the rest of the cast and telling us how they all died and how John had out lasted them all. But that was not to be; Belushi would be the first of the SNL Not Ready For Prime-time Players to die. I remember it like it was yesterday.

I was working for SOGITEC, a technical typesetting company in Lakewood California when a woman I worked with came into the office upset and said to us all, "Pelosi's been shot!"

Rick Pelosi was one of the technical illustrators I worked with (if you're out there "Hi Rick!") and it startled me, but not my boss at the time, Bob Waterman. Bob calmly asked, "Do you mean Belushi?"

The co-worked replied, "Oh, yes, that's it. John Belushi's been shot. I just heard it on the radio."

Now I don't know if it was ever reported that John was shot or if she was just so upset she heard it wrong, but we turned on a radio (no Internet in 1982) and heard the news. What a down day that ended up being.

I think had John not self-destructed he might have ended up being not just a funny, funny man, but a great dramatic actor. I have nothing to really base this on except that the guy seemed to excel at just about every thing he did and he just oozed talent.

Mr. Belushi, you are missed.

Idle Speculation?

I love the fact that "spam" has come to mean unwanted garbage on the Internet. Every day I receive four or five offers to add three or four inches to my penis. All of which I accept. And now I have a nine-foot penis.

Eric Idle

City of Fast Food Addendum -- Der Wienerschnitzel

John Gallardi has said that Glen Bell's wife came up with the name Der Wienerschnitzel while looking in a cookbook. Do you think she told them what it meant? Lots of people now think that a wienerschnitzel is a hot dog or something close to it, but the Germans don't think that.

As Wikipedia points out:

"Der Wienerschnitzel" is a famous example of incorrect use of German by native English speakers.

The expression der Wienerschnitzel is German—however the correct article to use in this case is the neuter form das, not the masculine der. This is true for both the actual food (das Schnitzel) and the restaurant itself (das Restaurant, das Lokal), though in the genitive plural, the article does change to "der": Das Restaurant der Wienerschnitzel would be grammatically correct though at least awkward; it literally translates to "the Wiener Schnitzels' restaurant".

Strictly put, Wienerschnitzel might also be seen as incorrect, as the term is a two-word expression in German, written in two words only by the uneducated or by wags suggesting natives of Vienna (Wiener) having been processed to Schnitzel. Thus, Das Wiener Schnitzel would have been correct usage.

In addition to these linguistic flaws, Wiener Schnitzel actually means "breaded veal cutlet, Vienna style", which the restaurant chain does not sell. The name probably came from a mistaken belief that Wiener Schnitzel meant "Wiener sausage". The chain changed its name to "Wienerschnitzel" (sans article) in 1977, though many franchises retained the older name on their restaurants. Also, some older customers still refer to the chain as "Der Wienerschnitzel".

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.