Still more comics journalism that sucks

From Newsarama's front-page blurb about DC's Blue Beetle series:

Despite the odds and naysayers, DC's Blue Beetle keeps gaining fans as it moves into its second year.

From this analysis of DC's month-to-month sales at another site:

03/2006: Blue Beetle #1 — 50,678 [69,752]
04/2006: Blue Beetle #2 — 43,770 (-13.6%) [50,190]
05/2006: Blue Beetle #3 — 41,711 (- 4.7%)
06/2006: Blue Beetle #4 — 38,622 (- 7.4%)
07/2006: Blue Beetle #5 — 35,490 (- 8.1%)
08/2006: Blue Beetle #6 — 33,181 (- 6.5%)
09/2006: Blue Beetle #7 — 29,079 (-12.4%)
10/2006: –
11/2006: Blue Beetle #8 — 25,861 (-11.1%)
11/2006: Blue Beetle #9 — 23,785 (- 8.0%)
12/2006: Blue Beetle #10 — 21,358 (-10.2%)
01/2007: Blue Beetle #11 — 19,865 (- 7.0%)

Alias Shazam?

Is it just me, or does this Mary Marvel action figure kinda look like Jennifer Garner?

Jack, Jack, Jack, season's off track...

As much as I continue to enjoy 24, I have to admit that this week's sequence of Jack Bauer trying to steer the nuclear warhead-laden drone plane away from its intended target was like something out of Bloo's movie trailer.



Oh: Posting status is now upgraded to "intermittent."

I did not know that.

The Bill Richardson campaign just sent me a mass e-mail from former Kennedy/Johnson-era Interior Secretary Stewart Udall. My reaction to which was, "Stewart Udall is STILL ALIVE?!?" Turns out he's alive, kicking, and 87. Good for him.

We now rejoin our regularly scheduled hiatus.

Powers Boothe=Fred Thompson?

Monday night's episode of 24 was part of the great softening-up to prepare us all for the specter of a Fred Thompson presidency, wasn't it?

(Still on hiatus, but it needed to be said. Also: Ricky Schroeder is sufficiently annoying that he made me forget to be annoyed by the continuing presence of Eric Balfour. I did not think that was possible. Perhaps Ricky Schroeder could join the cast of Heroes and make Milo Ventimiglia bearable next.)

Hiatus

I am swamped with work at the moment and have no idea when I'll be posting again.

Guilty, guilty, guilty.

It occurs to me that Scooter Libby's indictment and conviction both took place on days that I was working from home.

I should work from home more often.

I got nuthin'

Presented without editorial comment:

Yes, that was Sen. Ted Stevens at National Airport on Sunday taking charge and flinging bags off a stalled conveyor belt to help other passengers and, of course, find his own bag. "He looked quite good and in shape for a man of 83 in the middle of the night lifting bags," said fellow traveler Joe Mendelson, who worked alongside Stevens.

When the music stopped, however, neither man had a bag. "Well, I guess we're [expletive] out of luck," the senator said.

Captain Sulu rocks the house

(Via She Who Must Be Obeyed.)

Deja vu all over again

Didn't Law & Order: No Subtitle already do a Ted Haggard episode a couple of weeks before Law & Order: Criminal Intent did one?

People I know who are running for office

Dayne Walling is running for mayor of Flint, Michigan.

Pakou Hang is running for St. Paul City Council.

Please check out their sites, and if you're a constituent, I hope you'll consider voting for them.

Our ironic cousins

Simon Pegg of Spaced and Shaun of the Dead shares some thoughts on American and British styles of humor:

It's not so much about having a different sense of humour as a different approach to life. More demonstrative than we are, Americans are not embarrassed by their emotions. They clap louder, cheer harder and empathise more unconditionally. It's an openness that always leaves me feeling slightly guilty and apologetic when American personalities appear on British chat shows and find their jokes and stories met with titters, not guffaws, or their achievements met with silent appreciation, rather than claps and yelps. We don't like them any less, we just aren't inclined to give that much of ourselves away. Meanwhile, as a Brit on an American chat show, it's difficult to endure prolonged whooping without intense, red-faced smirking.

Of course, it's the mainstream output of our respective entertainment industries that tends to shape our general opinion of each other. Ask the average American what they perceive British comedy to be and you will most likely be quoted shows such as Benny Hill and Are You Being Served? (although, thanks to BBC America, this is beginning to change). The fan demographic for both shows is markedly more diverse than in their country of origin. This is probably due to their parochial peculiarity, rather than the quality of the comedy (although both shows had their moments) and perhaps explains why the American audience took to Shaun Of The Dead with such affection. A refusal to occupy that transatlantic middle ground that sometimes scuppers British films intent on appealing in America means that the film plays as resolutely British. That approach does risk certain social and cultural references being lost in translation. But not many. The only joke in Shaun Of The Dead that never got a laugh in the States was Ed's request for a Cornetto ice cream at 8am on a Sunday morning. Overall, the cast's understated reserve in the face of flesh-eating zombies just added another layer of amusement for American viewers.

When it comes to their mainstream, America's emotional openness has often given way to a sentimentality that jars with our more guarded and cynical outlook. This is why the initially enjoyable Happy Days became blighted by saccharine lessons in family values, as Henry Winkler's originally subversive Fonzie was mercilessly appropriated by the middle-class American family, castrated by Marion Ross's Mrs Cunningham and forced to sit on it (although it's interesting to note that in outtakes from the series, Winkler and Ross would often play out an irresistible sexual tension between them with stolen gropes and kisses, solely for the enjoyment of the live studio audience, hinting at darker, more interesting themes than the show itself ever tackled). Generally speaking, sentimentality isn't easy for us. It makes us nervous and uncomfortable. We become edgy and dismissive of these brazen displays of emotion.

It just gets weirder.

Joe McDade's excellent adventure continues:

In addition to the woman near the pool, a married couple told police they had seen Mr. McDade expose and fondle his genitals.

When the wife got up from her beach chair, Mr. McDade followed her to a boardwalk that leads to the hotel and, still exposed, watched her wash her feet under a shower, the report said.

The wife told police she thought Mr. McDade was a mental patient “because he did not try to hide himself,” the report said.

First Don Sherwood, now this...

What IS it with Republicans who represented my hometown district in Congress?

February 14,2007 | SANIBEL, Fla. -- A former Pennsylvania congressman was accused Wednesday of exposing himself to two women at a beach resort.

Joseph M. McDade, 75, was issued a summons on a charge of exposure of sexual organs, a misdemeanor that carries up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

A court date was not immediately set.

Calls to McDade's Fairfax, Va., home and at the Washington lobbying firm where he works were not immediately returned.

Happy Valentine's Day

Celebrate with a card like this one from Polite Dissent!

And a little stuffed bull shall lead them.

Bully fixes the DC Universe.

One sign your fellowship application is going less well than it could

I just misspelled "strategery."

This week just keeps getting worse...

Kirstie Alley to star in American remake of Vicar of Dibley. (Via TV Tattle.)

Paging Dr. Spaceman! Paging Dr. Spaceman!

Space makes you CRAZY. I, for one, would welcome a kidnapping attempt by Zooey Deschanel.

(Headline courtesy of She Who Must Be Obeyed.)

When Homer met Jerry

A belated video post in honor of the late former president, who did not leave the country in worse shape than he found it. Would that we could say the same for all of his successors.