I sold them a few humor pieces early on, but then I started doing some of the Q-and-A interviews, and I was listed on the masthead (John Carney) for a few years as a “contributing editor,” which basically meant I was one of the regular freelancers. I also wrote a tribute to Mike Yaconelli after his passing.

Sadly, I never dealt with him directly, but I was involved in a religious satire magazine called The Wittenburg Door (aka The Door) at a time when it was being published by a not-for-profit foundation that Joe Bob was involved with. This was about the time that Joe Bob, under his real name John Bloom, was doing the…

Could spring roll wrappers be used, or would they be too thin?

I can’t believe you didn’t even mention “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell!”, which (while a very, very different movie) was at least a partial inspiration for the “Mamma Mia!” plot. It’s a 1968s comedy in which an Italian villager (Gina Lollobrigida) has sex with three American servicemen (Telly Savalas, Peter Lawford and…

Bojangles’ (a sort of Popeye’s-ish chicken chain in the Southeast) wasted no time jumping on the calendar thing. Just now, I got an email from Bojangles offering to let me sign up for a free, printable calendar, emailed to me each month with some sort of Bojangles’ coupon. It remains to be seen how valuable the…

You’ll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.

I make my own yogurt in the Instant Pot and I always use whole milk. I just like the consistency of the finished product better. (I also add a little nonfat dry milk at the same time I’m adding the starter culture.)

Be sure and set aside a few spoonfuls of each batch to serve as the starter for your next batch. Although freezing yogurt for consumption doesn’t work so well (it separates and looks curdled when you thaw it), it’s absolutely fine to freeze a small amount of yogurt for use as a starter. Even if it looks curdled, the…

I think superhero origin stories (especially for the most-familiar characters) in movies are wildly overblown. I would not mind at all for a movie to just start with the character as he or she exists, and then, if it’s absolutely necessary, we mention the origin story in passing later on. Nothing wrong with that *at…

If you’re wondering how Joel eats and breathes, and other science facts, repeat to yourself, “It’s just a show; I should really just relax.”

VH1 resurrected MTV2's “Hip Hop Squares” in 2017, but I’m surprised that, given the success of ABC’s “Match Game,” no one has come up with a new prime-time version of “Hollywood Squares.”

How is this going to affect Joel McHale? Won’t somebody please think of Joel McHale?

I first heard about the Jack Parsons thing from, I admit it, “Drunk History.”

Agreed on every point (although I’ve always wanted to try poutine, just to say I did).

Your reference to the dead first lady made me think of Darrell Hammond occasionally doing movie reviews as Clinton on “Weekend Update,” and pointedly cheering any movie where the president is a widower. https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/weekend-update-segment—-bill-clinton/n10878

“Though Comedy Central cancelled the show after only twelve episodes, they invented all three of the performers to pitch ideas for new projects.”

Exactly right. The 1937 version starred Janet Gaynor and Frederic March. And author Ethan Mordden has actually implied the 1937 version to be a sort-of-remake of “What Price Hollywood?” (1932), with Constance Bennett, in which the main character eclipses her director/mentor, although in that version the director is…

I first heard of them back when I used to watch Japanese “Iron Chef,” and they would be used to make broth a lot on that show. In fact, one of the Iron Chefs had a secret recipe called the “broth of vigor,” and I think bonito flakes were an ingredient.

You know, Paul, I bought my first car at Harrison Ford. I still remember their slogan: “We’ll treat you right at Harrison Ford.”

On my first mission trip to Kenya in 2004, we went to Carnivore, a touristy restaurant in Nairobi. At the time, I was not familiar with the concept of a Brazilian steakhouse, and so I didn’t recognize what it was supposed to be. It was basically a Brazilian steakhouse except with a variety of exotic African meats —…