ASK ME ANYTHING! Covid has me too tired to do any of the work I should be doing, so hey, let's make it my first AMA. Comics, publishing, Peanuts, just being Nat... what you got for me?

Ezekiel 25:17

“Here, Mr. President, let us show you the special storage space we are making just for Amontillado…”

“When the man in the back says ‘everyone attack,’ we shall be prepared.”

Made it to… but, alas, not through.. 2026 before getting COVID. A false negative test early on means I’ve missed the paxlovid window. And whatever protection having had my boosters offered, I’ve got. Within that context, I’m doing relatively fine.

You cannot tell what will last in culture. If you were to travel back to 1976 and tell the 18 year olds of the day that the 18 year olds in 2026 won't know who the Fonz was, what a Fembot or a Meathead was, they might believe you. But if you told them that many would know of Columbo? No way.

One of the joys of editing Wikipedia regularly is that sometimes you get to do the edit that reflects that justice has occured. I've been editing John Eastman's page since 2011. Even got to be the one to explain to him why some of the edits he was requesting to his article weren't going to happen.

A quick reminder to those Pope-should-stay-out-of-politics people that the Pope is not just the head of a religion. He is also the ruler of a nation (admittedly, a small one as such things go.)

Less than 24 hours to go on this deal, so if you've been taking time to think about it, time to stop thinking! Offer good in the US, not in the UK. I don't know about Canada, Land of Mystery.

Joe Biden is the only person to have been mentioned in Peanuts and then gone on to be US President. He'll likely remain the only one... but theoretically that could change, as there are natural-born Americans mentioned in the strip who are still alive. President Billie Jean King, anyone?

The problem with my passion parties wasn’t that I forgot to invite the sin babes, but that I invited the wrong ones, usually Sloth and Avarice.

I retain my belief that the prequel to Ocean's Eleven should be Ocean's Seven, and that it should be so named because it's set at Danny Ocean's seventh birthday party. We need a good kid heist movie.

At some point, I'll have to see if I still have the pitch one publisher had me create for a Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja comic book that, of course, never came to pass. Somehow, comics survived.

A shame to hear that we've lost Foolbert Sturgeon just as the existence of The New Adventures of Jesus seems so politically relevant. He moved the needle. I'm glad he was around.

You say that they aren’t really making America great again, but Del Taco just brought back pogs!

The peak of my TV performing career -- the first of my two episodes playing a non-speaking Ben Franklin on the 1997 sitcom Teen Angel. Honestly, I wish I was in good position to resume my movie/TV "extra" work. It was in ways the most interesting boring job one could have.

Apparently, these were not actually quality educational materials.

One of the curious pleasures of being ill is that I feel free to watch utterly crappy TV. After all, it’s not like I’d be doing something useful, nor like I’d be paying full enough attention to anything that really needs to be appreciated.

Is it true that Ikea is renaming one of their products after the long-term prime minister of Hungary and what Vance did for him?

Hope can carry us through.

Just in case anyone doubts this is possible: imagine an economy with three people. In 2024, they earned $30,000, $50,000, and $70,000. In 2025, those people earned $20,000, $55,000, and $63,000, respectively. Median income went up 10%, but 2/3s saw their income drop, and mean income dropped 8%.

It's a story of returning from the dead.... in that this pilot script was shopped around, purchased by a network, and then they killed it without shooting a pilot. The graveyard for such scripts is a podcast that does cast recordings of them. The right person heard the podcast; it's now a series.

For those who came in late: What really started the variant cover thing in American Comics was when DC Comics thought retailers had overordered the new Batman series... so they added a wrap that went around the planned cover, and they did it in four different colors. People bought all four.

Mom! Dad!! Photoshop is being mean to me!

Star Trek: TOS -- Night Shift

Today's Tubi sampling: episoide 1 of the short-lived Designing Women spin-off Women Of The House. It's not, alas, good, which is a shame because the cast they put around Delta Burke is Terri Garr, Valerie Mahaffey, Patricia Heaton, and Jonathan Banks.

Me, nodding along knowlngly to the Weekend Update on the UK version of SNL. Thot: "There's a 17% chance that none of the people they're mentioning actually exist and it's all a trick to see how many Americans they can get to nod along knowingly."

Folks, they went around the far side of the moon. That means that there was a moment there when we couldn't see them. Gotta be real sure that we got back the real astronauts, that no on made a switch.

In April 1951, Cpl. Charles Fultz got sucked into the air scoop of an F-86 at Edwards Air Force Base. His life was saved because he had a comic book in his pocket. Pages of the book were sucked into the intake screen, limiting the air flow. Comics save lives. (The series title was not released.)

Still have 22 books worth to buy with. Yeah. I know the $2.99 limit is low, but some of you have introductory volumes at that price. Point me to 'em!

Mark Evanier has had a large amount of original comics art stolen from his home; there's a list at this link. If you're involved in buying or selling art, please circulate it. www.newsfromme.com/2026/04/07/m...

Having enjoyed reading Project Hail Mary out loud, I very much appreciated the film, which caught the book quite well. Congrats to Andy Weir, Lord/Miller, Drew Goddard, and Ryan Gosling on a job well done.

Okay, I'm sitting on enough Kindle Rewards Credit to buy 24 books priced at $2.99 or less. Who has some titles in that price range that you want royalties on? I ain't gonna read it, so don't worry if it's something I like. As long as it isn't some horrendous MAGA, TERF, etc thing, I'll buy it.

Don’t know what I’ll do with it, but still, a 12” Mister Terrific for less than 4 bits? That’s better than fair play!

The world is so bad that I voluntarily made an actual phone call to my representative, a person I don't know in the hope that it will make the teeniest difference. You'd have to know me pretty well to know how much this means. To look up the phone # for your rep, Senators, etc., 5calls.org

>I< wear glasses! Gail must be inserting me!!!!

Having a tough day, but finding pride in my past self.

It's perhaps not that surprising that the #1 film on Apple TV at the moment is a half-century-old Peanuts special, given its theme... but the #3 is another special, a mere four years old, merely themed to "spring".

My printer sent me 10 copies apiece of these two books... with the covers all switched. Don't have to pay for them, but now I gotta figure what to do with them. Send them out as review copies? Do a charity fundraiser for boxes filled with misprints, proof copies, and dinged books? Third thing?

Add a food to a movie title No Country Gravy for Old Men

If speed limits ended in digits besides 5 or 0, people would take them more seriously.

If you see this, I implore you to post a picture from whatever device you’re using, with no explanation.

Hence, bee-bop!

Economic curiosity: In the wake of the Noem revelations, I wonder about the net effect on sex workers in that particular realm. Are they losing existing customers suddenly afraid of being revealed, and, if so, is it balanced out by others suddenly going "wait, that's a thing? Innnnteresting...."

Wait... that's for in the ninth inning when your team needs a rally? That means you probably have half an inning to eat the dang thing, or you have to wear it all the way home.

I shoulda been suspicious when he asked me for my Terra-PIN number…

To boldly go where no one has gone before…

I would support an Eisner for Best Balloon Or Caption, just so comics can have it on record that things like “Hurm” or “There’s this guy…” can actually be brilliant. (Best Sound Effect would have to be a separate category.)

As an American citizen father of about two dozen American-born children whose birth certificates do not bear my name (I was an anonymous sperm donor), this could be my offspring they are going after (I don’t actually know if any of the birth moms were not citizens at the time.)

Seven children’s books just erupted.