Saturday morning tunes: Keeping an eye on people (a p3 twofer)

Happy 72nd birthday (yesterday) to Hibbard MN's favorite son:

Bob Dylan Lay Lady Lay by FISHNCHIX2

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And best wishes for a quick and full recovery to all-rounder Tim Curry, who suffered a whopper of a stroke on Thursday. Curry is, of course, best known around the world as the untrustworthy and inexplicably-British Roger, friend of Roseanne and Dan Connor in Lanford IL. But the most exacting trivia specialists remember him for this:

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The “Dodged a Bullet” Affair

As an U.N.C.L.E.-phile of long standing (see the banner above – no, farther to the right – yup, there it is), there are no words with which I can adequately express what a relief this is:

It’s back to the casting drawing board for Warner Bros.’ The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Tom Cruise, who was to have starred in the studio’s big-screen take of the classic TV series, has dropped out.

I was disappointed when George Clooney dropped out of the project, but I couldn't see why that was reason just to ruin the film altogether.

“U.N.C.L.E.” as a Tom Cruise vehicle would have killed off Illya Kuryakin and Alexander Waverly in the first 10 minutes of the movie, followed by the burning of U.N.C.L.E. headquarters to the ground, followed by 139 minutes of stunts.

Is going from "Unindictable Master of the Universe" to "Unindictable Master of Half the Universe" a demotion?

Okay, this feels a little like quibbling, but I'm having a hard time seeing how Dimon being told he can be either CEO or chairman of the largest bank in America -- but not both -- really qualifies as "a major blow."

Seems like "a major blow" would be, for example, overriding Directive #4 so Robocop can blow him out a plate glass window from the executive suite atop OCP Tower.

But again, that could just be me.

Don't forget unsportsmanlike conduct and contravening the 1714 Riot Act

The Saturday Oregonian had a front-page story about a busy identity thief who came a cropper when he stole the ID, credit cards, and whatnot from the gym locker of a Multnomah County circuit judge.

The thief, one Thomas Joseph Berndt II, was found guilty of 94 counts, including identity theft, burglary, and unauthorized use of a vehicle, and sentenced to 13 years.

A few paragraphs later, though, the Oregonian's report included this graph:

Deputy district attorney Chuck Mickley said Berndt also inconvenienced victims -- twice taking their key rings from their lockers so he could drive their cars a short distance, then pillage them knowing their owners wouldn't walk up and catch him in the act.

Okay, “pillaging” at least has the virtue of being colorful, but adding “inconveniencing” to the already-considerable list of Berndt's offenses? That just feels like we're piling on.

Sunday morning toons: Why we can't have nice things

A former constitutional law professor, who never cared as much the Fourth Amendment as much as he cared about plugging leaks anyway, heads an administration that seizes AP reporters phone records.

One of the only two political parties we're allowed to have votes – for the 37th time – in the US House of Representatives to repeal Obamacare.

On the up side, one of the nation's largest talk radio syndicators finds their advertisers appear to be less and less interested in underwriting two of the nation's top conservative blowhards, so, you know, there's that.

Today's toons were found in fake emails reported as genuine by CBS News, from the week's pages at Cartoon Movement, GoComics, McClatchyDC.com, About.com, Daryl Cagle, and other fine sources.

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Jack Ohman, Joel Pett, Clay Bennett, Walt Handlesman, Nick Anderson, David Fitzsimmons, Mike Keefe, Rob Tornoe, Joe Heller, John Cole, Adam Zyglis, J.D. Crowe, Steve Greenberg, Matt Wuerker, Jen Sorenson, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show Glenn McCoy.

p3 Certificate of Harmonic Toon Convergence Clay Bennett and Kevin Siers.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium: Rick McKee (bonus points if you can name the original this reference).

p3 World Toon Review: Giacomo Cardelli (Italy), and Sunnerberg Constantin (Belgium),


Ann Telnaes presents the Orange Weeping Man, with the question of the week.


Mark Fiore's Snuggly the Security Bear explains why you don't have to worry about all that prickly First and Fourth Amendment stuff.


Taiwan's Next Media Animation has the news: Seniors in NJ are getting busy.


Heaven help “models of feminine strength" – if Disney gets hold of them.


Tom Tomorrow watches as a domestic dispute gets settled by the smartest detective out there.


Keith Knight bounces back.


Tom the Dancing Bug presents Super-Fun-Pak Comix (with slightly less content space to allow for the ads – whatever).


Red Meat's Karen and Milkman Dan discover why you have to sign a release before you go on a school trip.


The Comics Curmudgeon asks: Will Tiffany become Moriarty to Luann's Holmes? Or the other way around?


Prest-o Change-o was directed by Chuck Jones (uncredited) in 1939, with (also uncredited) animation by Rudy Larriva, Ken Harris, Art Loomer, and Robert McKimson, voice work by Portland's own Mel Blanc, and musical direction by Carl Stalling. It's chiefly memorable as the second test drive of the character that would become Bugs Bunny – with some some of his now-trademark schtick already visible even at this early stage.

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The p3 Big Oregon Toon Block:

Matt Bors unveils the Rogues Gallery.

Jesse Springer has his doubts PERS reform: Will Oregon really see any benefit from “reform” anytime soon?




Test your toon-captioning skills at The New Yorker's weekly caption-the-cartoon contest. (Rules here.)

Saturday morning tunes: Not trying to cause a big . . .

Pete Townshend wrote this song on his 20th birthday, forty-eight years ago today.

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Why is Daltrey wearing a shawl? Answer here. Maybe.

And why the hell is he stammering? Multiple theories here.

Statistically speaking, I suppose this was bound to happen

But it still seems pretty misguided on Facebook's part:

The unforgiving minute: Raining justice upon America's enemies from First Class

Now it can be told:

Congress didn't restore the sequestered funds for the FAA just so that Senators and Representatives wouldn't have to hang around in airports with the hoople when they're flying to their next fundraiser. It was all about preventing the next Benghazi!^TM

Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the GOP's Benghazi Oversight Committee, has a new theory:

They began being attacked, and were attacked for more than seven hours and we're to believe that no response could even be started that could have helped them seven hours later? Quite frankly, you can take off from Washington, DC on a commercial flight and practically be in Benghazi by the end of seven hours.

Minute's up.

Yeah, that's probably the problem

The Associated Press has my sympathy for its current First Amendment problems, but that hardly gets them off the hook for the gratuitous – and stupid – editorializing wedged into the fifth paragraph of this report on the Mothers Day Parade shoot-up in New Orleans last weekend:

The mass shooting showed again how far the city has to go to shake a persistent culture of violence that belies the city's festive image.

Let's skip down ten more paragraphs to this tidbit about a suspect in the shooting:

Police said in a news release Scott has previously been arrested for illegal carrying of a weapon, illegal possession of a stolen firearm, resisting an officer, contraband to jail, illegal carrying of a weapon while in possession of a controlled dangerous substance and possession of heroin.

This guy has all those weapons-related charges, still gets his hands on a gun, and AP reporter Chevel Johnson supposes this tells us something about the persistent culture of violence in New Orleans, as opposed to – oh, let's say – a persistent culture of gun violence throughout America in which weapons manufacturers, through their lobbying front the NRA, and through them to the lease-to-own legislators who are doing their very best to prevent things like background checks on gun sales.

True, Scott may very well have gotten all these guns in ways that would have end-run any background check system, but consider that those guns had to get into circulation somehow, and any meaningful legislative checks on that problem are being attacked and dismantled at a much, much faster rate than new ones can possibly be enacted.

There's your culture of violence, Bucko.