Godspeed, Laverne

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When some famous people die, it’s like a family member passed. I don’t know why, but they are such a big part of our lives, it feels like that. That’s how it is with Penny Marshall. She was a part of the family.

From what I see on tv, on social media and from friends, I can see many people felt the same.  Chuck Todd on Meet the Press Daily, quoted a few lines from the “Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated,” theme yesterday. He didn’t say what they were, he just used them in sentences.  He said, “Give us any chance – we’ll take it Read us any rule – we’ll break it,” and that was it. Later on he said, “There is nothing we won’t try.” He just fit it into a sentence. It was his way of paying tribute, because it meant something to him.

I remember the first episode of Laverne and Shirley. I was a kid, it was 1976 and I was on the floor of our family room on our orange shag carpet. Just as the show was starting, on a Tuesday night after Happy Days at 8:30 pm, my father entered the house with my grandparents who he had just picked up from the airport, they had come down for a visit – they entered just as the show theme song started! I’m not sure what happened after that. Did I ignore them to watch Laverne and Shirley? Probably not, but talk about the worst timing.

Jane Pauley interviews Garry Trudeau

Jane Pauley interviewed Garry Trudeau, here husband, and Doonesbury creator on CBS Sunday morning today. Doonesbury is celebrating 50 years.

You can read it and see some strips here.

Charles Addams; mysterious and spooky

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Charles Addams posing with a mural he painted that once hung in a Hamptons hotel. (Look magazine Library of Congress)

The Long Island Press has a nice feature on cartoonist Charles Addams. I didn’t realize there was a Long Island Press. When I was a kid I delivered the Long Island Press newspaper. I like seeing Long Island Press stretched across the monitor, sort of like the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which has also been reborn as a website. You can read the original Brooklyn Daily Eagle online, the digitally scanned pages are here. The Long Island Press is also printed monthly. I’m in Long Island often, I’ll have to look for it.

I love the names of newspapers. Some I don’t get, like the Hartford Courant and the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

An outtake from the article on Charles Addams says, “When he was 12, a New York Herald newspaper cartoonist said he was untalented and should forget his dream of an art career.” I had a similar experience from one of the syndicate heads, I’m way more than 12 years old now, but it’s interesting how great artists (Addams, not me) are usually turned down until their time comes. How many times was Charles Schulz turned down? 80?

Being told I can’t, makes me work harder to prove that I can, which seems to be the case with Addams and Schulz.

I always liked tv shows based on comics and comic strips, it wasn’t a deliberate thing, but I realize that I love The Addams Family, Hazel and Dennis the Menace, to name a few. Whenever I see them on tv, I stop to watch.

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The Peanuts gang singing

Here are a couple of great videos of the Peanuts gang performing famous songs. This is so good. The one above is “La Grange” by ZZ Top and the one below is Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and below that is “Barracuda” by Heart.

You can see a bunch of them here, at YouTube.

NY Comic Con 2018

Last day of NY Comic Con 2018. Here is a short video of Sunday’s activities.

Lots of superhero cosplayers

Day two of New York Comic Con was a madhouse, there were more people than I think I have ever seen before over the years. The weekend will probably be nuts!

I noticed many super heroes this year – lots of Spider-man cosplayers and lots of Batman, there was Superman and their villains, too. Lots of color. Lots of fun.

New York Comic Con 2018

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Stephan Pastis signing autographs at NY Comic Con 2018

Saw one of my idols Stephan Pastis of Pearls Before Swine today at New York Comic Con, he was signing autographs at the GoComics booth. I was manifesting as he interacted with his fans, I do that every year and one of these years, I’ll be part of the GoComics family.

I got there early today and it wasn’t as crowded and sweltering as it usually is. They are expecting 200,000 people this year, so it will get mobbed. And while it was crowded, it was manageable.

It’s such a great event that I look forward to every year. Usually October in New York is the icing on the cake, but it’s 80 degrees today, so no fall weather or red and yellow leaves this week!

 

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I won on HQ Trivia!

I won HQ Trivia last night! It was there 1 year birthday and after one full year, I won my first game.

I won 40 cents. Yup, 40 cents.

I don’t think you can even buy a gumball these days for 40 cents, aren’t they like 50 cents?

No, it wasn’t fun just because I won, sort of like being nominated is good you don’t need to win. I wanted to win money.

They have given away $400,000 in one game, shared by those who won, my game last night was $5000 shared by over 12,000 people, so that’s where the 40 cents comes in.

Don’t know HQ Trivia?  I did a story awhile back on Medium, you can read about HQ Trivia here.

Hello Dolly!

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Saw “Hello Dolly” the other day, starring Bernadette Peters. She’s been taking over for Bette Midler, who will return later this month.

The show was incredible. So fun, so beautiful, the music is fantastic. When Dolly/Bernadette came out all in red at the top of the red staircase and started singing the “Hello Dolly” song with the waiters in the scene, I got goosebumps.

During the show I kept picturing Bette and Barbara Streisand, the original Dolly, in the role, going back and forth in my head from Bernadette to them and back again.

The play is so much fun. And so colorful, every scene is more colorful than the next. I don’t want to ruin anything, but some surprises happen during certain scenes and they just blow you away.

At a couple of points in the show, Bernadette had Victor Garber, who plays Horace Vandergelder, cracking up, out of character, like they used to do on the Carol Burnett Show. So great.

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