Sunday morning toons: Special "Forgot to Subtitle It" edition

[Update: Missing Betty Boop is back!]

Is it a new rule that Obama gets heckled every time he speaks to Congress? Are Americans starting to notice congressional GOP intransigence? Is there anything left that corporations don't own? Will Sarah Palin end up giving her $100K speech to an empty auditorium where the national Tea Party convention was originally scheduled?

And what's the one development here in America this week that seems to be shaking the world?

The answers are here, starting with this week's Daryl Cagle's toon round-up.

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Nate Beeler, R. J. Matson, R. J. Matson, Larry Wright, Milt Priggee, Pat Bagley, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: John Trevor.

p3 "Exporting Democracy" Award: Jimmy Margulies.

p3 "Money Changes Everything" Award: Steve Sack.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium: Adam Zyglis.

Meanwhile, see if you can detect the subtle pattern in this week's p3 World Toon Review: Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland), Paresh Nath (India), Martyn Turner, (Ireland) and Cam Cardow (Canada).


Ann Telnaes suspects that some soapboxes are more equal than others.


Mark Fiore describes the State of the Union Address he'd like to see. I particularly like the idea of National Irony Day.


Can Supreme Court Justices still utter the phrase "framers' intent" without giggling? The answer, says Chan Lowe, could blow you away.


Ever find yourself wondering why "The Family Circus" just isn't very interesting? The Comics Curmudgeon has a thought: You could be reading it out of sequence.


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman notes that what you learned in your high school civics book may be void where prohibited.

Laughs: It comes somewhere between Giggles and Hysterics: "Ha! Ha! Ha!" is a 1934 Betty Boop toon directed by Dave Fleischer that paired her with another popular Fleischer Studios character, Koko the Clown (whose popularity didn't endure like our Betty's). There are several claims online that the film was at some point banned--the plot involves a trip to the dentist where everyone's overcome by laughing gas--although it's hard to picture that as a ban-worthy offense, then or now, and I haven't been able to document anything of the sort. (Given that a Popeye cartoon from 1946, "Rodeo Romeo," showing Popeye and Bluto bombed out of their gourds on "locoweed," got regular TV play up into the 1960s, laughing gas seems like it deserves a ticket at most, not the death penalty. And of course there the whole Betty and cocaine thing.) The fumes soon spread over the city, resulting in a hallucinatory mix of animation and live-action footage--the typewriter and mailboxes seem like they're straight out of David Cronenberg.

p3 Bonus Toon: Following the pulling-away victories of Measures 66 and 67 this week, Jesse Springer sends along this message of appreciation, "from the 97% of us who won't be affected by the tax increase to the other 3%:"




Remember to bookmark:

Slate's political cartoon for the day.

And Time's cartoons of the week.

Saturday morning tunes: "Your pedal extremities are colossal!"

It's a tough call, but of all Fats Waller's tunes, I think this may be my favorite.

One never knows, do one?

Edward Lear: May 12, 1812 – January 29, 1888

It's been one hundred twenty-two years
Since he left for the heavenly spheres.
We've since stolen, quite outright,
His form quinquepartite
But the credit is all Mr. Lear's.

(H/T to Roger Ebert, whose lengthy and acceleratingly naughty tribute to Lear's verse form is here, and to Marilyn, who gave me my copy of Lear's A Book of Nonsense about thirty years ago.)

What happened to my favicon?

[Updated below.]

Sometime overnight, the favicon for p3 disappeared, leaving the default Blogger favicon in its place. Anyone have the same problem and know what the deal is?

I checked the source file and the html header code, and there doesn't seem to be a problem there.

If any other Blogger bloggers have run into this, advice would be appreciated.


Update: Okay, and now that it's back, can anyone explain that?

Portland downtown Drinking Liberally tonight: 7pm at Lucky Lab NW

Join The Finest Minds of Our Generation^TM tonight at the Lucky Lab Brew Hall, 19th and NW Quimby, in Portland, at 7pm.

Not on the DL/PDX mailing list? Go here.

Interested in starting a DL chapter in your neighborhood (there are over 300 chapters nationwide)? Go here.

And if you appreciate Living Liberally promoting progressive action through social interaction--including keeping the whole Drinking Liberally network up and running--consider sending them a little love via Tipping Liberally.

So wherever you are, join the Drinking Liberally gang for drinks and political conversation.

And remember: DL encourages everyone to drink, and vote, responsibly.

(Cross-posted at Loaded Orygun.)

J. D. Salinger: 1919-2010

An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's.

Franny and Zooey

Howard Zinn: “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.”

You can decide for yourself what it means that Howard Zinn died on the day of President Obama's first State of the Union Address.

Zinn, most famous for A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present, wrote history from the point of view of the people who weren't Washington and Jefferson, but who had to live with the consequences of the policies of such great men. He wrote America's history from the point of view of native Americans, women, immigrants (of the non-Pilgrim variety), working people, farm workers, and factory laborers.

If you ever wanted to know why there's a fortress-like armory a couple of blocks north from NW 10th and Burnside in Portland (not far from where Powell's Books sell's Zinn's books), the history books you had in school didn't tell you. And the books approved by the Texas State Board of Education absolutely won't tell you. But Howard Zinn's "People's History"--it'll tell you.

No wonder his job security was constantly under attack, however unsuccessfully. It's a miracle that the president of Boston University only accused him once (falsely) of arson. That was in the polite days. Today, they'd chase him up a tree and set fire to it. (Or they'd send some conservative bloggers try to break into his office and tap his phones.)

Zinn was also Alice Walker's history professor at Spelman College.

This isn't a bad epitaph for anyone; it's perfect for Howard Zinn:

On his last day at BU, Dr. Zinn ended class 30 minutes early so he could join a picket line and urged the 500 students attending his lecture to come along. A hundred did so.

Bury Adam on the South Range

Pernell Roberts, the last surviving actor to have played an original member of the Cartwright clan of the Ponderosa Ranch in Nevada, died this week at age 81.

Roberts is survived by his fourth wife. Adam Cartwright, the character for which he was best known, outlived eleven fiancées, each of whom died tragically before the couple could complete their nuptials.

Yes on 66 and 67: Ballots in by 8pm tonight

Here's the list of drop-off sites for ballots, by county.




(Toon via Jessie Springer. Click to enlarge.)

The LO/KPOJ "Lost Limerick Challenge"

This morning's Oregon news limericks, as written by me, read by quizmaster TJ of Loaded Orygun, and answered by Carl, Christine, and Paul, on the KPOJ 620AM's Carl + Christine show, are posted at LO.

Once again, despite precision accounting, there was one limerick too many, and you get to reap the puzzle-solving benefit. Fill in the blank with the word or phrase from this week's Oregon news:

Portland's streetcars cause no traffic jams;
Others point with some pride to its tram,
But the cycling-obsessed
Know why Portland's the best . . .
Well, except for one place: ________________.

(The answer can be found in the Comments below, or in this week's Spanning the State at Loaded Orygun.)

Bonus limericks: We proudly present for your politico-aesthetic contemplation Ode to Weak-Kneed Democrats and Ode to Odious Corporate Personhood, two political limericks from p3's newest blogroll buddy, Mad Kane.

Sunday morning toons: Special "Pooh-pooh Purdue!" edition

Let's start with Daryl Cagle's toon round-up this week, where Massachusetts was bad, the Supreme Court was worse, and Haiti is beyond joking. And don't get me started on the whole "Tonight Show" thing.

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Daryl Cagle, Pat Bagley, R. J. Matson, John Darkow, David Fitzsimmons, Adam Zyglis, Gary McCoy, Joe Heller, Jeff Stahler, Bill Day, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Award for Best Pink Floyd Reference That Isn't a Pink Floyd Reference: Nate Beeler.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation From Another Medium: Mike Keefe.

p3 Medal for Calling a Spade a Spade: Milt Priggee.

The Tragedy in Haiti: Jeff Fitzsimmons, Bob Englehart, Jimmy Marguiles, Steve Sack, Ed Stein, Mike Luckovich, R. J. Matson, and Randy Bish.

p3 World Toon Review: Cam Cardow (Canada), Stephane Peray (Thailand), LAZ (Cuba), Loujie (China), and Paresh Nath (India).


The new war cry is accountability for our tax dollars! Ann Telnaes agrees.


If there's good to be done, says Mark Fiore it should start now with you.


In case you've ever wondered: Courtesy of GraphJam, here's how "Garfield" gets its laughs. And it must be true--it's a graph!

Gentle humor" punctuated with unspeakable horror. Tell me that isn't reason to visit the Comics Curmudgeon.

Portland homeboy Jack Ohman watches as reality gets put into "Reality TV."


A Pox on Yale, Pooh-pooh Purdue! If you've stuck with p3's Sunday morning toons for any amount of time, you know how I love doing those mini-dissertations on the background of classic animation shorts. Well, let me save you on this one. I remember it vividly from childhood, when it was funny as hell, but made no sense. "The Dover Boys of Pimento University," a 1942 oddity by Chuck Jones, was a fairly elaborate parody of the boys' fiction series "The Dover Boys," and almost cost Jones his job because . . . oh hell. I'm dissertating. Just go read the backstory here, and enjoy the flick.

"The Dover Boys of Pimento University" was ranked #49 out of the 50 Greatest Cartoons.


p3 Bonus Toon: Finding next week's ballot too complicated? Jesse Springer boils the vote on Measures 66 and 67 down to the essence:




And remember to bookmark Slate's political cartoon for the day.

Saturday morning tunes: "I dream at night, I can only see your face" (plus a bonus)

It's been a good long while since I've listened to this, the ultimate stalker's anthem (even longer since I've seen the original video). Frequently covered, never equaled.

Like more than one Police track, this one goes right up to the edge of creepy and stops. (After all, it's just those three polite, blond young men.) The late, lamented Spy Magazine once tallied up the cost of the (pre-GPS and pre-World Wide Web) technology required to monitor, detect, or record "every move you make," "every breath you take," "every smile you fake," etc.

(Bonus: David Byrne has made available "Please Don't," a track off his Here Lies Love collaboration with Fatboy Slim. Go here.)

Air America Radio: 3/31/04 - 1/25/10

What Goldy said:

I suppose you could call Air America a failure, and from a business perspective it certainly was. It never operated in the black, and seemed to be in the midst of financial and management turmoil since before it launched in April of 2004.

But it helped catapult Al Franken into the U.S. Senate, and launched a then unknown Rachel Maddow on the path toward her own show on MSNBC, and will leave behind dozens of thriving progressive talk stations nationwide. And without the ecosystem that Air America spawned, Ed Schultz and other successful progressive talkers might never have had the opportunity to reach a national audience.

And Air America was also the platform from its Portland affiliate, progressive talk radio station KPOJ was launched and continues to thrive.

I wrote at the time that Air America went live that the question would be this: Is the dreadfully self-pleased know-nothingism of conservative talk radio--and at that point, conservative talk radio was nearly all there was--a function of conservatism as it now exists, or of talk radio? If it's the latter, the pressing need for an Air America wasn't too clear to me.

And yes, Air America programming has had its drudges over the years, but for every Bill Press, cheerfully steering the conversation toward the beltway truism of the week, there were Franken, Rhodes, Seder, and Maddow. (Although, for mixed reasons, only Maddow remained part of Air America's line-up at the end.)

If you want to send a message, call Western Union

A vote is not a subtle tool. It doesn't have nuance or shades of meaning.

It's not a scalpel. It's a 5-pound sledge hammer. You either pick it up or you leave it on the bench, and if you pick it up you either hit one candidate with it or you hit the other one. That's the range of things you can express with a vote. (Actually, there's one other thing you can express; I'll get to that in a moment.)

Votes are not designed for--and are incapable of--"sending messages" other than the single, obvious, binary one. They're not designed to communicate any of these states of mind:

• I never liked Obama and I never liked health care reform.


• I like health care reform and think Obama's doing it just right.


• I used to like Obama but I think he's made a mess of health care reform.


• I like Obama but I don't like the reform bill the Senate produced.


• I'm okay with Obama, but I think that Martha Coakley's a hack.


• I'm not impressed with Scott Brown, but I'm tired of being told that I have to vote for Coakley because "this is Ted Kennedy's seat."


• A Senate candidate who once appeared naked in a magazine? Cool!


• A Senate candidate who once appeared naked in a magazine? Disgraceful!


• And so on, almost ad infinitum.

Huh-uh. The only options here are vote/no vote, and then vote for A/vote for B. The ballot contains no essay section where you explain why you voted like you voted, or stayed home. Individual voters may be thinking some of those things as they cast their ballots, but voting is such a crude way of expressing it that anyone who insists there's a simple interpretation for a vote, or even a pattern of votes, especially in a one-of-a-kind race like this one, is probably full of self-serving crap. Chris Matthews, I'm looking at you.

But there is that one exception that I promised, above. There is one other thing you can do with that metaphorical hammer: You can chuck it into the works, hope it will crash the machinery, and as a result make the people running the machinery notice that you're there.

If there was one common element among voters across the political spectrum in Massachusetts this week, it was dissatisfaction--with their candidate, with the other candidate, with their party, with Congress, with the President, with the current state of health care reform, with the American form of government, whatever. (In that regard, they were the American electorate, writ small.)

If you put a gun to my head and made me enter the tea leaf-reading sweepstakes, I'd probably say that a lot of what went on this week in Massachusetts was hammer-chucking.

Voting is not an act of subtlety.

This post is brought to you by the makers of Hostess Twinkies, who approve its content

Sigh.

Okay, people, let's review:

• Speech is speech. Money is commerce.


• Citizens are people. Corporations are financial fictions of convenience.

This morning's Supreme Court decision was utterly predictable--ordained, one might even say--given the current composition of the Court (a state of affairs that Senate Dems bargained away any influence over, but let that pass). But it's no less harmful to the republic for that.

I take a back seat to no one in my support of the First Amendment. But whatever it is you don't like about America, I assure you that this will not fix it. Even if you believe that corporations can never be too free, this morning's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission will not make things better. At most it gives that side an ephemeral advantage, since the same ruling took the cuffs off of trade unions and their Communist masters.

Here. Watch this (again).

p3 Optical illusions--they're fun!

Sometimes our brains process visual information in unusual or unexpected ways, so that what we think we are seeing differs from objective reality.

Study these three examples carefully, then answer the following questions--and remember, things aren't always what they seem!


1. Which center circle is larger?


Answer: They're both the same size!



2. Which diagonal line is longer: AB or BC?


Answer: They're both the same length!



3. Which horizontal bar is bigger, A or B?


Answer: B is much, much bigger! In fact, A is so small it's completely powerless! It might as well just give up! Everyone can see this!

When even dreams are dreams

In an unfortunate bit of timing, the DCCC's latest fundraising ask, invoking the name and memory of Ted Kennedy, arrived in email inboxes this morning. It was written before yesterday's Massachusetts Senate vote but milks the prospect of it just the same, beginning with its subject line--"The Dream Lives On"--and starting off in the body with this:

"The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on."

Those were the words of the late Senator Ted Kennedy during the campaign of 2008.

It's a little cheeky of the DCCC to introduce that quote (from a speech given one year to the day before his death at the end of the August of No Return for health care reform), especially considering that both his Senate seat and his dream of universal health care for America have been surrendered into unloving Republican hands.

But my favorite moment from this fundraiser email is this fever-dream image, near the end:

The Tea Partiers are revved up and hoping to swift-boat their way into bringing back the Bush-Cheney economic Stone Age for America.

In a single string of mixed memes, they seem to be swinging wildly at bogeymen from 2009, 2004, 2000, and 1968.

Do they even know which election they're fighting? Wake up, folks.

(Hat-tip to Doctor Beyond.)

Yesterday's MA Senate debacle: A limerick

Mad Kane captures the moment in anapestic verse.

There is no more cruel or deserved fate for the man in question than irrelevance. May he be blessed with it in abundance (although it's hardly the point anymore).

(Hat tip to Lance Mannion.)

Happy birthday, Richard Lester: "Their hair started growing during the movie."

Today is the 77th birthday of Richard Lester, who directed "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!"

Hat-tip to Roger Ebert, who wrote the following, 'way back when:

Lester had shot documentaries and TV commercials, could work quick and dirty, and knew he had to, because his budget was $500,000 for "A Hard Day's Night.''

In his opening sequence, which shows the Beatles mobbed at a station as they try to board a train, Lester achieves an incredible energy level: We feel the hysteria of the fans and the excitement of the Beatles, intercut with the title song (the first time movie titles had done that), implying that the songs and the adulation were sides of the same coin. Other scenes borrow the same documentary look; a lot feels improvised, although only a few scenes actually were.

Ebert again:

The film was so influential in its androgynous imagery that untold thousands of young men walked into the theater with short haircuts, and their hair started growing during the movie and didn't get cut again until the 1970s.

The LO/KPOJ "Lost Limerick Challenge"

This morning's second hour on the Carl + Christine show on KPOJ had an odd vibe to it, and not just because Christine was gone for the day. The regular session with TJ of Loaded Orygun, which traditionally reaches its artistic apotheosis with my Spanning the State Oregon news limericks, ran long and there was no time left for the Poet's Corner.

Well, KPOJ listeners' loss is p3's gain. Here are a whopping four limericks for you to test your metrical mettle on. No left-overs for you guys this time--you get the Complete Works. For each limerick, fill in the blank with the word or phrase from this week's Oregon news:

They don't care about jobs--let's be "straight:"
They make money from furthering hate.
Yes, our state's tax opponents
Hired some sleazy proponents--
They're the same ones who fought __________.


They barely outlasted the drought,
But the Bushies almost wiped them out.
After years of frustration:
A new administration
Will help to restore our __________.


Some deny our economy's crippled.
"Check the GDP--barely a ripple!"
Well, here's a discovery
For the fans of recovery:
Our foreclosure rate recently ___________ .


Liberal media? Not even a kernel.
Tax fairness? They think it's infernal!
Just exactly how checkered
Is our paper of record?
They're approved now by _______.

(The answers can be found in the Comments below, or in this week's Spanning the State at Loaded Orygun.)

Sunday morning toons: Special "Moon-a and June-a" edition

It's been quite a week: The Haitian disaster let the American right show its warm and fuzzy side. The one person left on the planet who still hadn't acknowledged Mark McGuire's obvious use of performance drugs spoke up. The annual holiday that John McCain opposed is almost upon us. NBC wished it knew how to quit Jay Leno. And airline travelers faced heightened security measures in order to experience diminished airline service.

Where to begin? How about, as always, with Daryl Cagle's toon round-up for the week?

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Nate Beeler, Pat Bagley, John Darkow, Jeff Stahler, Nate Beeler, Mark Lester, Randy Bish, ,
Steve Sack, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Legion of Honor: Jeff Parker.

p3 Peter Venkman Prize: Daryl Cagle.

p3 World Toon Review: Frederick Deligne (France), Ingrid Rice (Canada), Arcadio Esquivel (Costa Rica), Stephane Peray, (Thailand) and Cam Cardow (Canada).


Ann Telnaes offers some some much-needed advice on counter-terrorism.


Mark Fiore invites you to play along on the game show that's sweeping America


"Mad tea party," indeed: This morning's Frank Rich NYTimes column on the iffy relationship between Palin, Steele, and the Tea Partiers is accompanied by this uncredited Barry Blitt hat-tip to John Tenniel.


Yesh! Patrick McDonand's strip Mutts is charming, and one of the few graces retained by the ever-diminishing Oregonian. As the O's Sunday comics section began to shrink, several years ago, one of the earliest casualties was the title panel for most strips--the initial panel with the title and artist's name, and usually not much else. (Look! Here's one now!) McDonald has often used that panel to slip in a tribute to famous images, including not only should-have-learned-in-college artists like Magritte and Dali, but also iconic political posters, magazine and comic book covers, and album jackets--always featuring cameos by Earl, Mooch, and the other characters populating his strip. Take the trip and see how much you remember from Art Appreciation class.


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman takes a look at NBC's woes.


"Owl Jolsen"--get it? The "Merrie Melodies" series was originally created by Warner Bros. as a way to further promote the songs from its musicals by building them into the story of a seven-minute animated short. This 1936 Tex Avery toon, "I Love to Singa," features a song originally sung on screen by Al Jolsen and Cab Calloway. The result is something somewhere between "The Jazz Singer" and "American Idol"--and a hell of a long way from Avery's later adventures in sight gags, popping eyeballs, and ah-ooga horn sound effects:

p3 Bonus Toon: Jesse Springer thinks that opponents of Measures 66 and 67 may be missing something obvious. (Click to enlarge.)




Don't subject yourself to the shame of being the last p3 reader to bookmark Slate's political cartoon for the day.

The ongoing "Tonight Show" bitterness: A footnote

This week, Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics, took time out from putting the finishing touches on NBC's destined-to-lose-money coverage of the 2010 Olympics to call Conan O'Brien "chicken-hearted," "gutless," and an "astounding failure"--mainly, it appears, for not following Ebersol's advice about humor:

Mr. Ebersol chided Mr. O’Brien for declining to take advice about how to adjust his show to the 11:35 p.m. slot from the style he had used on NBC’s 12:35 a.m. “Late Night” show for 16 years.

He said he had met personally with the host three weeks before he stepped behind the “Tonight” desk for the first time to urge him to take steps to expand the appeal he had built up in his “Late Night” years, saying that NBC hosts beginning with Johnny Carson had recognized the importance of making the show appealing first and foremost to cities in the central time zone like Chicago and Des Moines.

You might recall that Ebersol, who dined out for years on the story that he had been the one with the vision to recommend Lorne Michaels to produce "Saturday Night Live" in the first place, was the executive producer of SNL in the early 1980s, during four of the five seasons since the beginning of the series when Michaels didn't hold that job.

Then again, you might not recall that, since the episodes from the Ebersol era haven't been seen in syndication for years. And there's no indication they've been missed. Anyone from the cast and crew of the Ebersol years who is known today is known for something other than SNL--e.g., Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Christopher Guest, Martin Short, and Billy Crystal.

In short, this is not someone whose opinions about comedy as a craft or a career O'Brien should be listening to, and apparently he's not listening. So that's a good thing.

Here's the promised footnote:

When Ebersol took over SNL from 12-episode disaster Jean Doumanian in 1981, he was desperate to create a link in the public mind back to the Michaels SNL era--when, not to put too fine a point on it, the show was still good. To this end, he sought out Michaels for his blessing, rehired some of the show's original writers, and brought back some of the old cast as guests.

Ebersol's first SNL episode had Chevy Chase as host. And there was also this moment:

Later in the show, Al Franken appeared on Weekend Update. He too addressed the traditions of the past, but in considerably harsher terms. He began by saying that he had "suffered countless instances of personal embarrassment" when people stopped him on the street to ask if he was still in volved with Saturday Night Live. He wanted everyone to know he had nothing to do with it, which prompted the audience to break into a hearty round of congratulatory applause. Then, resurrecting the style he'd used in his old Al Franken Decade commentaries, he went on to give his own version of what had happened to the show.

You see, he said, "Lorne Michaels the producer of Saturday Night, decided after last season that it was time to go on to different things. Now, he figured the first season had been great. Then Chevy left, and the show of course got even better. Then after the fourth year, Danny and John left. Now them, them we missed. So after five golden years, Lorne decided to leave, and so did those close to him, including me, Al Franken. So NBC had to pick a new producer. Now most knowledgeable people, as you might imagine, hoped it would be me, Al Franken. But instead, without consulting the show's staff or cast, NBC picked Jean Doumanian, an associate producer on the show. Now I don't want to be cruel to Jean, because it might make you think less of me, Al Franken. Anyway, it took NBC twelve shows to figure out their horrendous mistake, and a month ago they fired Jean.

"Okay, now who do they pick to rectify the original error? Someone who knows what he's doing, someone like me, Al Franken? No, they picked Dick Ebersol. Now I know Dick because he was a network executive in charge of late-night programming when Saturday Night started, and as such was the first person to steal credit for the success of Saturday Night. Credit which should rightfully go to Lorne Michaels, and me, Al Franken. Now let me give you some background on Dick 'Mr. Humor' Ebersol. His credits [as a network executive] include the Waverly Wonders starring Joe Namath, Roller Girls, and a show show called Joe and Valerie, about a kid from Brooklyn who dances every night at a disco. Now, to this day Dick claims that he never saw Saturday Night Fever and it was all an amazing coincidence. Anyway, I know Dick, and I can tell you that he doesn't know dick.

"Okay. Now the show's going to be a little better. No English-speaking person could do a worse job than Jean. But it's clearly time to yank this tired old format off the air. So if you're wondering what you can do for me, Al Franken, please write a card or a letter to 'Put SNL to Sleep,' 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, New York, 10020. Let's put this show out of its misery. You'll be doing a great favor for yourselves, and for me, Al Franken. Thank you. (Franken tacked on a plug for the next week's show, which he and his partner Tom Davis were set to host. "Watch next week," he said, "but not after that.")

And, again, that was 1981. Franken's now a United States Senator, and O'Brien's host of the "Tonight Show" which, even after the Leno era, is still one of NBC's most valuable properties. (O'Brien was in fact a writer for SNL, hired by Michaels a few years after his return and Ebersol's departure.)

Ebersol has spent the last twenty years in sports. His plans after after returning SNL to Michaels in 1985 involved producing pro wrestling specials to fill the SNL time slot during the one Saturday night each month when the show was on break.

I think Conan can probably look after his own career.

Saturday morning tunes: "A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed"

Difficult to say just why this song came up this morning. Tribute to an earlier life, I suppose.

RIP Teddy Pendergast: "Just appreciate the little things I do"

Cause of death: One insult too many to his body.

Portland, Portland Metro-West, and Vancouver Drinking Liberally meet this week

Here are the regular schedules for the DL chapters in the area. (Click on their link to join their email list. To find the DL chapter near you--there are over 300 hundred of them--go here.)

Vancouver: Next meeting: Tuesday, January 12th.
Meetings: Second and fourth Tuesdays, 7pm, at the Back Alley Bar and Grill, 6503 E. Mill Plain Blvd. (West of Andresen, in a strip mall 1/2 block west of Safeway on the south side of Mill Plain. It's deep in the lot.)

Portland Metro-West: Next meeting: Wednesday, January 13th.
Meetings: Second Wednesday of every month, 7:00pm at Ringo's, 12300 SW Broadway St, (just east of Hall Blvd).
Guests: Current gubernatorial candidate and former Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, and guest host Ellie Burch.

: St. Helens Next meeting: Wednesday, January 13th.
Meetings: Second Wednesday of each month, 6:30 pm, at The Village Inn, 535 S. Columbia River Hwy (in a side room off the bar).

Corvallis: Next meeting: Wednesday, January 13th.
Meetings: Second Wednesday of each Month, 5pm - 7pm at Squirrels, 100 SW 2nd St.
Guest: Dan Rayfield, candidate for Oregon Senate District 8 (currently held by Frank Morse).

Portland: Next meeting: Thursday, January 14th.
Meetings: Second and fourth Thursdays of the month, at the Lucky Lab Brew Hall at 19th and NW Quimby, Thursday at 7pm.

Salem: Next meeting: Thursday, January 21st.
Meetings: Third Thursday of each month, 7:00 pm, at Browns Towne Lounge, 189 Liberty St NE # 112 (Old Sportstop next to Read Opera House)

And if you appreciate Living Liberally promoting progressive action through social interaction--including keeping the whole Drinking Liberally network up and running--consider sending them a little love via Tipping Liberally.

So wherever you are, join the Drinking Liberally gang for drinks and political conversation.

And remember: DL encourages everyone to drink, and vote, responsibly.

(Cross-posted at Loaded Orygun.)

Sunday morning toons: Special "Unsettling Car-Based Sexuality" edition

(There. Let's see what that title does for traffic.)

No time for dilly-dallying this week; we'll cut straight to the chase, beginning with this week's toon round-up by Daryl Cagle.

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Pat Bagley, R. J. Matson, Joe Heller, Bill Day, and Monte Wolverton,

p3 President’s Award for Fitness, 2010 Edition: Joe Heller.

p3 World Toon Review: Cam Cardow (Canada), Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland), and Stephane Peray, (Thailand).


Ann Telnaes examines a punctured balloon.


Mark Fiore highlights this bit of good news: At least they don’t insult your intelligence with that silly euphemism “In the event of a water landing . . . “


You've waited long enough: Time for The Comics Curmudgeon's examination of one factor that might help you decide if you’re uncertain whether to remain a regular Oregonian reader (although I’m not sure in which direction it might tip the scales for you): “Unsettling car-based sexuality in the comics.”


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman is grateful for small miracles.


You know what? I’m happy. Now it can be told—the lost story of how Joe Lieberman financed his first Senate campaign! Directed by Tex Avery in 1949, in fabulous Droopy-Vision, here’s “Wags to Riches:”

p3 Bonus Toon: Jesse Springer examines the anatomy of a hollow threat (click to enlarge):





And if you haven’t bookmarked Slate's political cartoon for the day, now’s the time.

Saturday evening tunes

Just slipping this under the wire, while it's still Joan's birthday.

The LO/KPOJ "Lost Limerick Challenge"

This morning's Oregon news limerick, as written by me, read by quizmaster TJ of Loaded Orygun, and answered by Carl, Christine, and Paul, on the KPOJ 620AM's Carl + Christine show, are posted at LO.

As you'll hear from the podcast, a wounded TJ was having to do his on-air performance while one-handing it on his iPhone this week, so we've ended up with not one but two lost limericks for your puzzle-solving pleasure this week. For each rhyme, fill in the blank with the word or phrase from this week's Oregon news:

As a bomb squad case, this one was rare,
Still, some caution was sensible there.
It lacked fuses or wire--
Its crotch wasn't on fire--
It was simply a lost ____________ .


In Corvallis, it's beavers and coaches
They applaud as the season approaches.
But a time's drawing near
When they'll all raise a cheer
For those six-legged wonders, __________ .

(The answer can be found in the Comments below, or in this week's Spanning the State at Loaded Orygun.)

Sunday morning toons: Special "Goodbye to 2009 and all that" edition

Seriously: Iran is bubbling over. After a year, no one knows where the health care reform process is going--except that the best we can hope for is that it won't get much worse. And the decade ended with America going to Def Con 5 because a guy tried to blow up an airliner by setting fire to his underwear. Can you really miss 2000-2009 that much?

Only one way to find out: Let's start with Daryl Cagle’s toon round-up for this week (and this decade).

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Adam Zyglis, John Cole, Joe Heller, Jeff Stahler, Steve Breen, Rob Rogers, and Monte Wolverton.

That Was The Decade That Was: Pat Bagley, R. J. Matson, Jeff Parker, John Trever, David Fitzsimmons, and Milt Priggee.

p3 Legion of Extreme Honor, with Fruit Clusters: Daryl Cagle.

p3 World Toon Review: Stephane Peray (Thailand), Dario Castellejos (Mexico), Pavel Constantin (Romania), and Frederick Deligne (France).


Ann Telnaes brings us her year in review.


Mark Fiore wonders: Will 2010 be the one we're waiting for?


When political nerds argue about the decade's best film adaptations of comic books: Things can get ugly.


David Levine, the caricature artist whose work graced the pages of The New York Review of Books since 1963, died last week at age 83. I’m not sure which is more difficult to get my head around: That his one-of-a-kind voice gone, and that there are politicians, philosophers, and pop culture icons that will never know his stinging caress? Or that he was only at it for 44 years? Although he stepped down from TNYRB in 2007, his images seem inseparable from the world of books and ideas. When I imagine God giving the Ten Commandments to Moses, I imagine Levine to one side, capturing them both in an unforgiving drawing--both summed up by their hair, their eyes, and their noses.

TNYRB has a gallery of Levine’s images. And the NYTimes obituary (which also includes a Levine slide show) is surprisingly decent, given that TNYRB was born during a printers’ strike when the Times’ own Sunday book review section disappeared:

Mr. Levine’s drawings never seemed whimsical, like those of Al Hirschfeld. They didn’t celebrate neurotic self-consciousness, like Jules Feiffer’s. He wasn’t attracted to the macabre, the way Edward Gorey was. His work didn’t possess the arch social consciousness of Edward Sorel’s. Nor was he interested, as Roz Chast is, in the humorous absurdity of quotidian modern life. But in both style and mood, Mr. Levine was as distinct an artist and commentator as any of his well-known contemporaries. His work was not only witty but serious, not only biting but deeply informed, and artful in a painterly sense as well as a literate one; he was, in fact, beyond his pen and ink drawings, an accomplished painter. Those qualities led many to suggest that he was the heir of the 19th-century masters of the illustration, Honoré Daumier and Thomas Nast.

Especially in his political work, his portraits betrayed the mind of an artist concerned, worriedly concerned, about the world in which he lived. Among his most famous images were those of President Lyndon B. Johnson pulling up his shirt to reveal that the scar from his gallbladder operation was in the precise shape of the boundaries of Vietnam, and of Henry Kissinger having sex on the couch with a female body whose head was in the shape of a globe, depicting, Mr. Levine explained later, what Mr. Kissinger had done to the world. He drew Richard M. Nixon, his favorite subject, 66 times, depicting him as the Godfather, as Captain Queeg, as a fetus.

Whether you’re already familiar with Levine’s drawings or not, you owe it to yourself to follow the links.


No sense of humor: The Danish cartoonist accused of blasphemy for political toons showing the likeness of Mohammed was attacked at his home last week.


Tom Tomorrow presents "2009: the Year in Crazy" Part 1, and Part 2. The only problem: He ran out of room before he ran out of crazy.


Do not miss: Portland homeboy Jack Ohman's end-of-year series on poverty in Portland: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.


Don't get poisonal! By 1938, one-time jazz girl/flapper Betty Boop had paid her dues to the production codes of the day, becoming less of a sexpot and more of a typical woiking goil. Here she is, a pre-Starbucks coffee-shop worker having a tough go-round with the job market, in "On With the New:"

No p3 Bonus Toon this week. Jesse Springer is still on holiday.


But remember to bookmark Slate’s political cartoon for the day.

Saturday tunes triple-play: There is one question I'd really love to ask

Is it just me, or does enlightenment seem in short supply these days?

There is one question
I'd really love to ask:
Is there a place for the hopeless sinner,
Who has hurt all mankind just
To save his own beliefs?

Guess that's what we're gonna find out.

New decade and all that.

(Hat tip to Wendy.)

Never odd or even

The smoke has not even cleared from the decennial debate over whether the new decade actually began yesterday or a year from yesterday, but calendar experts are now celebrating today as Palindrome Day:

Thoreau never had one during his lifetime. Neither did George Washington nor Albert Einstein. Today in the United States, which uses the month/day/year format for dates, there is a rare chance to celebrate a palindrome date - 01/02/2010 - which reads the same forward as it does backward.

Jan. 2, 2010, is the second such date out of 36 that occurs this millennium. The first was 10/02/2001.

And--couldn't be prouder--the story has a Portland angle:

Aziz Inan, a University of Portland electrical engineering professor, has been studying this phenomenon and speaks with great enthusiasm as he describes the history of palindrome dates.

Before 2001, he excitedly pointed out in an interview yesterday, the most recent was in 1308, since days of the month never exceed 31. The next date comes next year: 11/02/2011.

What is the technical term for “calendar expert,” I wonder?

Somehow, though, numeric palindromes just aren't as interesting as their literary cousins. Let this be the final word:

Saturday morning tunes: Boy you've got a prayer in Memphis

Let's say goodbye to a dubious year at the end of a dreadful decade with a beautiful song about redemption.

I call it "'50s Pulp Sci-Fi"

Anyone got a problem with that?

I didn't think so.

New Year's cycling, Oregon style

Here's how you do it.




Props to Trailhead Coffee Roasters and the Bicycle Transportation Alliance.