Queen for a day was another one that capitalized on human misery.

He did a thing at the U of Redlands when I lived in the IE. One guy had a sign saying "old fart at play", and part of the crowd formed a human swastika. This must have been 81 or 82. He seemed to be pretty self aware that what he was doing was crap.

With a drill tipped with a Timex Watch!

Neither of these guys invented Trash TV. Living in Southern California growing up, there was Hot Seat with Wally George, a Rush Limbaugh wannabe who would have people on there he could taunt. He had a sidekick whose name escapes me now, whose entire job was to say things like "I would just like to say Wally, that this…

Yeah, he's gonna have to step up his game with some tweets or hashtags. Hopefully with an audible "beep!" when he presses the Return key on his green-screen CRT.

Yep, up here in the SF bay area it's ambulance/drug company chasers and "mastering your possibilities" by joining the growing field of dental hygiene.

I always joke with my wife, who is Chinese, about this. We fear silence the most. We just love!!! people who over-react to the smallest things. To paraphrase Charles Bukowski, maybe it's because our cities have never been bombed.

If I was ever on, i'd be sure to give a knowing, "undiscovered genius here" grin and say "1 dollar!" every time I bid on something.

My favorite is a Paul Frees recording on YouTube called the Genius of Paul Frees. IIRC the recording engineer tells him to do it breathier, and damned if he doesn't just totally nail it on the first take. It's a delight seeing (or hearing) professionals at work like that.

His reading of Mr. Tambourine Man is spectacular.

yeah, I mean if you've made biscuits you know that they're mostly flour and shortening. No thank you.

There also seem to be either nobody in line, or 50 people.

I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie. Ebert seemed to save his harshest criticism for directors who could make good movies, but used tired plots.

Ebert's review also provided a great book title.

Those are strong words there, Mr. Lincoln. The Maltese Falcon is darn near perfect, and has my favorite line: the cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter. I'll have to read this now.

And Polito gives the performance of a lifetime, although I can't think of any time when he was bad. He and Mink pretty much make this movie.

He was great in The Man Who Wasn't There also. Billy Bob: Was that a pass? John: …maybe.

Grumpy cat has three books. I don't even know what to say.

I know the woman from Chronicle Books who booked his book tour. She seemed to be proud of it. It made me depressed just seeing her Facebook posts.

More lIke the 22 year old who still hangs around high school with his bitchin Camaro.