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Bark louder, little dog.

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Hot air and ill-informed banter

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You are here: Home / Popular Culture / David Simon Explains the Writers Strike

David Simon Explains the Writers Strike

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Popular culture is Anne Laurie’s beat, but this is pissing me off so I’m gonna step into her lane for just a minute.

We are quite possibly in the golden age of TV (including streaming).  The writing is where it all starts, and greedy shareholders have lost the plot.  They are making it impossible for writers to make a living wage.

Reader Interactions

136Comments

  1. 1.

    WaterGirl

    The video is really worth watching.  They appear to be making it literally impossible to make a living as a Hollywood writer.  I swear, money is the root of all evil  greed, power and hate are the root of all evil.

  3. 3.

    narya

    Wow–that’s really good. As I’ve said, I (re)listen to the podcast for The Good Place, and Mike Schur, the showrunner, was talking about the end of Season 3, where Eleanor tells Janet that Chidi tricked Eleanor into reading “Paradise Lost,” and that Pandemonium is the place of all demons. Schur noted that one of the two writers for the episode had that knowledge, brought that to the writing room, that he didn’t know that–and it was so perfect and in context that it became the title of the episode. THAT is what is being eliminated with the crap they’re pulling with writers. The other thing the podcast makes clear is just what the clip above notes: it’s a training ground, and trying to save money by screwing the writers means the whole thing goes to shit.

  4. 4.

    kindness

    I’m missing my mainstays.  The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight, The Tonight Show.  Finding different things to do where I used to spend watching them.  I support the writers.  I’m not watching re-runs.

  7. 7.

    The Thin Black Duke

    The CEOs behind this bullshit strike think of writers as replaceable cogs in Hollywood’s infernal machine. They’re not of course, but we’ll have to put up with a tsunami of garbage TV reality shows before the clueless bean counters figure it out. As to an AI replacing a writer? Get back to me when it’s able to create the equivalent of Citizen Kane.

  8. 8.

    S cerevisiae

    More power to the writers! make the greedy bastards pay a living wage. if they don’t, it’ll be all “reality” tv on every network and service.

  11. 11.

    Matt McIrvin

    @The Thin Black Duke: They always figure, we don’t need Citizen Kane, we need a crank you can turn that makes content on the level of Mack Bolan: The Executioner stories come out, and maybe ChatGPT can already bang out acceptable content on that level, or will be able to soon.

    But if you don’t have some art in there, can you really maintain human interest for that long? Maybe the solution is to have AI viewers too.

  16. 16.

    WaterGirl

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m glad to see some BJ peeps taking the time to watch the clip from David Simon.

    It took me beyond ” of course the writers need to make a living wage” to “with the crap they are doing with the writers, they are biting the hand that feeds the whole process.”

    Without the writers, there is nothing.  With crap writing, there is crap.

  17. 17.

    Salty Sam

    My younger son, a comedian and actor, is also an aspiring writer in LA.  It isn’t an easy career to break into, and this strike has him so demoralized that he has talked about finding something else to work towards.  He has a passion for performing and storytelling, and I continue to counsel him to (as trite as t sounds) “follow your passion”.

    Simon’s quote about this strike being “for the younger and wannabe writers” is hopeful- I hope it gives my boy some encouragement.

  19. 19.

    trollhattan

    @WaterGirl: ​Frickin’ “reality” teevee is a cancer on scripted shows, as it dispenses to a large degree with writers (not that I don’t think they’re largely fake). Also, lighting, sound design, cinematography, etc. GIGO teevee.

  21. 21.

    NotMax

    It’s an unusual syzygy of unions this time. Both the Directors Guild and the SAG-AFTRA contracts expire at the end of June.

  22. 22.

    WaterGirl

    Is it naive to think that the big name stars could insist on having protections for the writers for their shows written into their own contracts?

  23. 23.

    Math Guy

    FWIW, I’m trying to write and sell short fiction now that I am retired and I’m finding that some magazines in the genre I am interested in have suspended accepting submissions because they are being flooded with AI generated manuscripts. It sounds like the Hollywood CEOs are hoping to replace the writers with AI.

  24. 24.

    Salty Sam

    @WaterGirl: Is it naive to think that the big name stars could insist on having protections for the writers for their shows written into their own contracts?

    Probably not, but have you ever heard the phrase “You’ll never work in this town again”?  No actor wants to hear that…

  25. 25.

    gene108

    If studios keep this up writing is going to go the way of teaching or social services.

    A bunch of enthusiastic 20-somethings want to do something good, but the poor pay, lack of recognition, and other hurdles causes them to burnout and quit before their 30.

    I can see writing going this way. Young creative people want to a medium to display their talents, but lack of pay and job security causes them to look for other jobs, and disincentives others from wanting to get into the profession.

  26. 26.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Math Guy:

    magazines in the genre I am interested in have suspended accepting submissions because they are being flooded with AI generated manuscripts.

    Oh, lord.  That one didn’t occur to me, the damage done by scammers choking the field with AI-generated garbage because they really don’t care that the AI can’t do it.  They only care that a thousand zero-investment attempts might get one payout by accident.

  27. 27.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WaterGirl:

    Is it naive to think that the big name stars could insist on having protections for the writers for their shows written into their own contracts? 

    I think that goes against the  point of a union.  Only having some writers protected isn’t why labor organizes.

  28. 28.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Frankensteinbeck: Amazon’s on-demand publishing service has been flooded with automatically generated “books” for a while now. Most of them are just wads of raw text scraped directly off of web pages with a search engine. The actual content doesn’t matter, just the hope that the title and preview will look just informative enough to entice a few people to buy the downloads.

  29. 29.

    Another Scott

    @The Thin Black Duke: +1

    It’s a great clip.

    (This isn’t fully formed in my head yet, but …)

    One of the hallmarks of modern society is the division/specialization of labor.  We don’t all have to know how to be brickmasons and plumbers and roofers and electricians and auto mechanics and farmers and butchers and coopers and tailors and … to have food and shelter and clothing.  We pay people to do those jobs so that we can do our jobs.  It works better for everyone than the alternative.

    However…

    When the MotUs try to have the output of the work without paying the people to do the job, it breaks down.   Similarly, having AI “do” everything and firing all the people won’t work – who is going to buy the company’s products if nobody can earn a living??  And Simon’s right that it’s great for derivative stuff, but won’t “create” anything really new and different – it’s only as good as the training (and the logic behind it).

    It seems to me that the banksters and the MotUs are positions most in danger of being made redundant by AI.  Or being outsourced.   Why should a company spend tens or hundreds of millions a year on the corporate suite when GPT3 or 4 or n can do the job just as well (or maybe better)??  Talking head videos and auto-signature boxes are easy to make.  People who know how to make perfect tool-and-die things from real materials using real machines, aren’t.

    Power to the writers!!

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  31. 31.

    WaterGirl

    @gene108: Seems like it would take just ONE of the groups that does original programming – Netflix or one of the others.

    That entity pays good wages to writers and creates an environment where those writers can thrive – then they get all the good writers and the others have to settle for mediocre talent

    Then the other big companied end up following suit.

  32. 32.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I know.  Amazon scamming is actually pretty big business.  It didn’t occur to me that these AIs would make scammers target magazines.  Who cares if the AI can only manage a page of coherent text before breaking down?  Their favorite tactic is flooding the zone, and the flooded zone causes problems for everyone else.

  33. 33.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    It’s great hearing from David Simon. He’s an excellent explainer.

    @kindness:

    I’m missing my mainstays.  The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight, The Tonight Show.

    I’m also missing The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and SNL’s Weekend Update

    We’re experiencing a national comedic emergency, so I hope this strike can be wrapped up soon.

  34. 34.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @WaterGirl:

    Seems like it would take just of the groups that does original programming – Netflix or one of the others.

    This has happened.  The problem is that the next manager moves in, decides they only want spinoffs, and cancels everything.

  35. 35.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Another Scott: If you could reeeally completely automate production of all goods and services so nobody needs to pay anyone for product, that’s the moment when it’s really time for the communist revolution and if we’re lucky we end up in some Star Trek: The Next Generation world. The thing is we’re obviously not there.

  37. 37.

    Citizen Alan

    @The Thin Black Duke: What’s funny to me is that a well-programmed AI could probably perform the job of a CEO much better than it could the job of a writer. Can you imagine the howling if Disney fired all of its management staff and replaced them with an AI, and the AI’s first decision was to increase pay for the actual content creators because that was the actual source of profitability?

  40. 40.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    OT

    More proof that Kaitlan Collins is a pathetic joke

    CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins once defended then-President Donald Trump’s attacks on the press and took swipes at CNN — while being interviewed by Tucker Carlson on Fox News!

    In a March 17, 2017 appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Collins defended Trump’s attacks on the press, took some shots at CNN, and trashed her colleagues for their reactions to Trump’s criticism:

    https://www.mediaite.com/news/watch-kaitlan-collins-once-defended-trumps-attacks-on-press-including-cnn-in-interview-with-tucker-carlson/

  42. 42.

    Salty Sam

    @Another Scott:    It seems to me that the banksters and the MotUs are positions most in danger of being made redundant by AI.  Or being outsourced.   Why should a company spend tens or hundreds of millions a year on the corporate suite when GPT3 or 4 or n can do the job just as well (or maybe better)??  Talking head videos and auto-signature boxes are easy to make.  People who know how to make perfect tool-and-die things from real materials using real machines, aren’t.

    Reminds me of a great passage in “World War Z” (the excellent book, not the execrable movie)- as humans began to turn the tide of “The Zombie War” after civilization came close to being extinguished, planners realized we needed people who could twist wrenches, hammer nails, plants crops, etc.  They set up training camps to teach these so-called MOTU’s to perform the tasks needed to rebuild human civilization.  In one memorable bit, a woman who had been a Hollywood entertainment lawyer was unhappy at being taught the skills she needed by the Hispanic woman who had been her housekeeper pre-apocalypse.  Very satisfying to read!

    Your point bears repeating-  AI being directed by MOTU types can not be counted on to perform “real” work, whether it is fixing a car’s engine or writing a worthy script.

  45. 45.

    Geminid

    @Citizen Alan: You were asking me the other day about Kemal Kilicdraroglu, who is the main challenger to President Erdogan in the Turkish Presidential election. There is a lot of reporting about him, and today Al Jazeera published an article about him titled, “Kilicdaroglu: The challenger who could unseat Erdogan.”

    From what I’ve read the last few weeks, Mr. Kilicdaroglu is pretty much what he appears to be: an earnest, liberal-minded politician..

    Kilicdaroglu has managed to transform his Republican Peoples Party (CHP), which dates back to the founding of the Turkish Republic, from a Center-Right party into a more liberal one, and he has enough enough political skill to unite 5 other disparate parties behind his candidacy. A sixth, the Kurdish HDP, was not included in the coalition discussions but has since endorsed Kilicdaroglu.

  46. 46.

    frosty fred

    @Frankensteinbeck: ​

    It’s a job that most people think anyone can do.

    ​​
    Well, I salute you and all our other writers; I have tried to write fiction and I cannot; this in face of being an adequate writer on scientific subjects, and a pretty good editor.​​​​

  48. 48.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, at the New College in Florida… Wonkette:

    Over the last few months, Ron DeSantis has been working to turn the New College of Florida — a small liberal arts school known to have a very progressive student body — into the “Hillsdale of the South.” Hillsdale College being a notably wacky right-wing conservative Christian college in Michigan. This has not gone over very well with the students, many of whom plan to leave next year, whether they are graduating or not.

    But those graduating feel that they at least deserve a graduation ceremony that celebrates them, not Ron DeSantis. So when it was announced that former Trump advisor, Dr. Scott Atlas would be their commencement speaker, they would hold their own commencement ceremony instead.

    Atlas will still be speaking at the “official” ceremony, but he will very likely have to tell the inspiring story of all the ridiculous and nonscientific policies he pushed during the height of the COVID pandemic to a room full of empty chairs.

    As organizers Brian Cody and KC Casey explain on their GoFundMe page:

    The new administration that has spent the past four months attacking our students and community cannot, in good faith, celebrate our graduating students and their accomplishments. Commencement is supposed to be a celebration of graduating students and the people who have shaped this school to be what it is. And we’re proud of who we are! So, we’re taking the celebration plans into our own hands. We want this event to be a fulfilling and memorable experience for graduating students that keeps the focus on STUDENTS, rather than an administration desperately trying to maintain normality and instill conformity.

    Good for them! So far, they have raised $53,000 of their $60,000 goal and are well on their way to having the awesome graduation ceremony they deserve.

    Donated.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  49. 49.

    Yutsano

    They just need to channel Riley Freeman when he thought he didn’t get enough presents from Santa:

    “PAY ME WHAT YOU OWE!!!”

  51. 51.

    Geminid

    @NotMax: A large majority of observers in the West dislike President Erdogan. Turkish citizens, who know Erdogan well, are almost equally divided about him.

    Polls will close at 5pm tomorrow. That would be 10am Eastern Daylight time. According to Politico,* Turkish media are allowed to start reporting on the election at 9pm local time (I guess they have a news blackout until then). Unofficial results should “start trickling in around midnight.”

    *Politico, “How to watch the Turkish election like a pro,” May 22, 2023. The article has kind of a silly title, but it gives a good overview of the different parties and discusses the elections for the 600-seat National Assembly as well.

  52. 52.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @WaterGirl: Trouble is, the word on the street is it’s Netflix that’s being hardcore about not wanting to settle with the WGA

  53. 53.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Speaking of tv writing, we’ve been watching Beef on Netflix and it is SO GOOD!  we still have two more episodes to go but so far it is one of the best illustrations of the current world of social media addiction and perpetual search for constant outrage as an outlet for unresolved trauma/depression etc.  I think that shit is incredibly widespread nowadays and that social media absolutely fuels it*.  Anyways, Allie Wong and Steven Yeun are both really great and the writing is superb.  It’s funny, dark and very moving.  One of the best series’ I’ve seen in awhile.

    *Two other excellent series’ that cover similar ground are Swarm and I May Destroy You, though both come with major trigger-warnings for violence and equal assault, respectively.

  54. 54.

    Eolirin

    We really need to rein in the shareholder/stock value side of business if we want any chance of our industries being sustainable. The incentives chasing stock value creates are perverse and counter to the interests of actual business need.

  55. 55.

    Tony Jay

    @mrmoshpotato:

    “Rex stared down at Steggy, his eyes alight with a predator’s appetite. Impatient, hungry, and yet watchful. He drew closer, his great muscular tail sweeping through the volcanic dust, filling the dry air with the heady aroma of burnt flowers. Small clawed hands caressed the herbivore’s bony plates with such delicacy that Steggy’s knees trembled and he sank, tender and submissive, before the rising sceptre of his terrible king.”

    Yeah. It’s rubbish.

  57. 57.

    The Thin Black Duke

    Another thing these parasites need to remember is that most people have gotten spoiled because TV is so damned good lately. So why would audiences settle for junk again? Sure, if I’m hungry and I’m in a hurry, I’ll have a Big Mac. But there’s no way I’m going to watch Survivor or My 1,000 Pound Life, even if that’s all there is.

  59. 59.

    JDM

    @gwangung: And it’s projection. Somewhere deep down many of the execs know damn well they themselves are actual easily replaceable cogs. So they lash out at others, especially creative types who do things the execs can’t even visualize people being able to do.

  65. 65.

    mrmoshpotato

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    Sure, if I’m hungry and I’m in a hurry, I’ll have a Big Mac. But there’s no way I’m going to watch Survivor or My 1,000 Pound Life, even if that’s all there is.

    You can find better stuff that’s made by an average Joe on YouTube!

    Hell, a lot of the camping videos I watch have great narrative structure (and scenery), and that’s just people filming their camping and talking about life in general.

    ETA – and no backstabbing, or flipping tables and calling everyone a whore.

  66. 66.

    Tony Jay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I heard about that. Nish Kumar and some of the Mash Report people are involved, I think.

    Read about it in the FTF Guardian last week, where they grilled Kumar about the UK politics of the last few years without a single mention of British History’s Greatest Monster and All That. Eyeroll

    I’m not the biggest podcast addict, but I’ll have to give it a go if only to hear Kumar getting increasingly irate and high-pitched about Sir Keir Starmer’s comprehensive duplicity.

  67. 67.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Tony Jay:

    Nish Kumar and some of the Mash Report people are involved, I think. 

    Woo hoo!  (I miss the Mash Report.  The episodes where Nish had Amit Shah on were GOLD!)

  68. 68.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Eolirin:

    The incentives chasing stock value creates are perverse and counter to the interests of actual business need.

    Yes! Instead of universities shutting down their arts & sciences schools, the world, no, the universe would be a far, far better place if we shuttered the business schools and made MBAs work for minimum wage until the last one is gone.

  69. 69.

    Obvious Russian Troll

    @Math Guy:

    Apparently some indie writers have glommed onto AI as a way to generate more fiction faster. A lot of them write as fast as possible to begin with, in order to keep their fans and Amazon happy.

    Additionally, some people are pushing courses which suggest using AI-generated fiction as one way to make money. I don’t think they understand how little money there is in the modern short fiction market.

    Not to say that we aren’t going to see some shitty AI-generated movie and television shows in the near future; I’m absolutely certain they’ll try it. But I think that’s a separate issue.

  70. 70.

    Tony Jay

    @MattF:

    Serious lack of oddballs this year. Everything seems to be geared to Tik Tok dance-mimes or BANGING IBIZA FLOORFILLERS.

    And with that… here come The Germans!

  71. 71.

    Feathers

    @WaterGirl: If that is what they want to do, they start a production company and become producers on their film. That gets them an active role in pre and post production, hiring, etc. Note, “producer” can mean a wide variety of things in Hollywood. Often, it’s just a way of getting paid.

    @WaterGirl: That doesn’t happen, because they would find it hard to raise money for their projects and Wall Street would hammer their stocks. Here’s a (long) thread about the new production company Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are starting, which becomes a warning about how previous attempts have been taken over by the money guys, as well as the current sad state of the sports world. https://twitter.com/labuzamovies/status/1657448742793154560?s=46&t=mG9oWY_sUs8FMjuoMPDDQQ

    @Citizen Alan: No, it isn’t. It’s nowhere near that point. This sort of facile nonsense is part of why we’re in the mess we are in, with corporate America thinking they can replace all the workers with AI. Hollywood scripts are continuously doing things on multiple levels. It might be able to write lines for a scene, but it can’t get the scenes in the right order, or with emotional pacing, or with callbacks to earlier films in the series.

  72. 72.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    I’m missing Guillermo and Kimmel’s “jewish” comedy (clip)

  73. 73.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @mrmoshpotato: Copy that. When I want smart and funny sports analysis, there’s a YouTuber I follow named Tom Gossi. It’s low-budget as hell (he’s shooting his show in his basement), but give him a dozen football jerseys and he’s fucking hilarious. And the commentary is right on point.

  75. 75.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @NotMax: Hey, I don’t judge them for what’s on their menu. What pisses me off is when they want everyone else to order the same cold thin gruel from their menu.

  77. 77.

    NotMax

    @Tony Jay

    And with that… here come The Germans!

    A sentence rife with baggage in Europe.

    BTW, for those who don’t already know, Eurovision was to be held in Ukraine this year. For obvious reasons that did not come to pass and Liverpool stepped up to the plate as a substitute.

  78. 78.

    Tony Jay

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Said everything that needed to be said about the current Tory leadership of the Beeb that they dumped the Mash Report for insufficient crawling even though they regularly had that humourless plank Geoff ‘conservative comedian plc’ Norcott on for ‘balance’.

  79. 79.

    Tony Jay

    @NotMax:

    Oh, we forgave them for that when they started hosting Liverpool bands in Hamburg in the 60’s and taught them not to be shit.

    That German entry was the first song in this year’s Eurovision where they seemed to be enjoying themselves. Crazy over the top schlock-metal in the style of Lordi from Finland. Love it.

  80. 80.

    Captain C

    @Citizen Alan: Even before AI, I wondered why shareholders didn’t demand their mediocre CEOs making tens or hundreds of millions be fired and replaced by more competent European or Asian CEOs who would probably be happy to do a much better job for salary and benefits that were an order of magnitude less.

  83. 83.

    Feathers

    @Tony Jay: Have to confess that as I was scrolling by, BANGING IBIZA FLOORFILLERS registered as AI generated porn, not music.

  86. 86.

    Feathers

    @Captain C: Took a sociology course on white collar crime. Prof gave the explanation that sociopaths are highly motivated by money, and that there actually aren’t that many people who have the ability to run a major corporation AND don’t care about the humanity of the people working for them.

  87. 87.

    MattF

    And here’s a WaPo story on an all-of-a-sudden large pile of $$$$$ given to Trump’s social media company from someone somewhere (gift link).

  89. 89.

    Tony Jay

    Slovenia are trying to tap into that 70s strutty guitar rock thing Maneskin did sooooo well a couple of years ago, but they’re just coming across creepy. Needs more super-hot Austrian bassist energy.

  90. 90.

    NotMax

    @sab

    Some have aged well (Car 54…, The Avengers, The Defenders), others wear their age mostly unshabbily (Dobie Gillis, Private Secretary, Decoy, Checkmate, Sgt. Bilko, Grindl, Hank).

    Then there are those whose period of engagement has proven to be fleeting (Love That Bob, I Married Joan, My Little Margie, That Girl, Dragnet, Branded).

    Finally the also-rans, pure curiosities sprinkled in the celestial tapestry (My Mother the Car, Captain Nice, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers).

  91. 91.

    Tony Jay

    And with Croatia we get the absurdity. At last! It’s no “We Are The Winners Of Eurovision” or the Milkmaids of Tug from a decade ago, but it’ll do for me.

  94. 94.

    Tony Jay

    @NotMax:

    It was a mountain of crazy shit. But the votes are coming in and they’re rewarding the boring end of the musical pole this year. Sweden running away with it like it’s 2007 and everyone heard it first on holiday while out of their face on poppers and gin.

  95. 95.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: From thevMiddle East Eye’s Istanbul bureau chief Ragip Soylu:

        Two ways of ending a campaign for Turkey’s elections.

    Kilicdaroglu, on the left [pic], visited Atataturk’s mausoleum in Ankara and left flowers.

    Erdogan, on the right [pic], attended the evening prayers at Hagia Sophia.

    @ragipsoylu

    Oryxspionkop,com,  known as Oryx, typically covers weapons systems and the war in Ukraine. It’s editors also take an interest in Turkish affairs, and that’s where I encountered Ragip Soylu. He and his news site seem fairly objective, and are covering the election closely.

  97. 97.

    Kay

    Trump campaign staffers are ecstatically mocking CNN’s town hall with ex-President Donald Trump as a series of “Trump infomercials” and an “in-kind campaign contribution,” according to Trumpworld sources.
    CNN’s Kaitlan Collins moderated a CNN town hall at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire Wednesday night that devolved into a chaotic spectacle of attacks, falsehoods, and abuse that sparked a barrage of criticism and recriminations at the network.

    They’re calling it “an hour of Trump informercials”

  98. 98.

    Kay

    Will Anderson Cooper or Jake Tapper or Kaitlan Collins report on the fact that Donald Trump says CNN gave him an in-kind campaign contribution and a 70 minute infomercial?

    They should. It’s news. Unflattering and embarrassing for the multimillionaire CNN personalities but still news. How would CNN treat this if Joe Biden had said it?

  101. 101.

    sab

    @NotMax: I was thinking of the shows that could have been written by AI,  as an alternative to “reality” shows.

  103. 103.

    Jackie

    Apparently Mother Nature is pissed at TFG; he had to cancel his rally due to tornado warnings in Des Moines 😂

    Posted on his social media Truth Social, Trump said, “Unfortunately, due to the Tornado Warnings in Des Moines, we are forced to cancel today’s outdoor Rally at the Lauridsen Amphitheater.

    “Stay tuned, we will reschedule soon,” he added. “Be safe out there!” He included a screen grab purporting to show details of a tornado watch update.“

  106. 106.

    Tony Jay

    @WaterGirl:

    Sizzling. Seas will boil.

    Finland have just overtaken Sweden in the Eurovision table with a HUGE chunk of the public vote.

    Sweden need 188 to win.

  108. 108.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Captain C: The people with the real power are the Board of Directors and they’re often CEOs of other companies, friendly with the CEO and in the same social circles. Rich guy class solidarity takes precedence even over profit. If the corporation really were an impersonal, purely profit-seeking entity it would probably do better.

  109. 109.

    prostratedragon

    Thanks for the explainer from Simon. Makes me support them even more.

  111. 111.

    Jackie

    @zhena gogolia: Exactly! LOL

    I wonder if Pudd’n Boots Iowa activities in Iowa are impacted.
    TFG only scheduled his rally to impact Pudd’n Boots’s speech.

  112. 112.

    karen marie

    @Obvious Russian Troll:   Donald E. Westlake wrote under several pseudonyms, because his publisher told him he was  writing so many books, he was reducing sales of individual books.

    I got that piece of info from a forward to one of his books but don’t remember which one.

    It’s not mentioned in this Guardian obituary from January 2009 but I think it names all of the pseudonyms that he used – some I wasn’t aware of, such as  “John B Allan” (a 1962 biography of Elizabeth Taylor) and “J Morgan Cunningham” (“Comfort Station,” published in 1970, “inspired by the works of Arthur Hailey,” with a cover endorsement, “I wish I had written this book!” by Donald E Westlake.)

    Hahaha.  He was such a card.  If I were left on a desert island and could read only one author, it would be a tough call between Westlake and Wodehouse.

    I was surprised at the positive reference to Westlake’s “Hollywood” work in the obit.  It was my understanding that Westlake hated what happened with the Richard Stark screen adaptations.

  113. 113.

    Narya

    @Kay: apparently they didn’t notice the people IN THE ROOM who were not liking what they saw—people who should have been on board.

  116. 116.

    sab

    @NotMax: We love That Girl still.

    Husband has secret crush on Marlo Thomas.

    It throws me back to my adolescence when sexual mores were different. She wants to have a career but she loves her boyfriend. She continues to go for career and Donald respects that.

    Also too, she wasn’t a blonde.

  118. 118.

    karen marie

    @Narya:   Part of me says yes!  Part of me thinks it would be very difficult to get right.  There are so many ways it could go wrong, which is why Westlake never went further with film/TV adaptations.

  119. 119.

    oatler

    Edgar Rice Burroughs’ advice to writers 1939:

    1. Be a disappointed man.
    2. Achieve no success at anything you touch.
    3. Lead an unbearably drab and uninteresting life.
    4. Hate civilization.
    5. Learn no grammar.
    6. Read little.
    7. Write nothing.
    8. Have an ordinary mind and commonplace tastes, approximating those of the great reading public.
  120. 120.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Tony Jay: story idea: Barney gets lucky in the Land Before Time. Possible guest appearance by Professor Tinkerputts

  121. 121.

    sab

    @Tony Jay: Didn’t dinosaurs all lay eggs? I know lots of birds mate for life, but lots of kinky sex isn’t part of that.  Caring for the little birds is part of that.

  122. 122.

    sab

    OT  and Brits might not get it but that Chewy ad with the disgruntled dog saying “vaz” when his owner wants him to say “vace” just has my whole family howling with laughter.

    My pitbull barking  a bit when she wants to bark a lot is the same. Wee bark is actually another ” vaz”.

  124. 124.

    NotMax

    @sab

    Donald was such a dweeb. A character so colorless one could read a newspaper held behind his pack right though him.

  126. 126.

    sab

    @NotMax: That is why you hate it and I like it

    Donald a dweeb, or Donald respected her life choices and was willing to wait.

  128. 128.

    NotMax

    @sab

    Hate? Nah. Even watched it at the time. But it is strictly of its time and (IMHO) does not travel well..

  130. 130.

    dimmsdale

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: All the talk about overcompensated TV execs reminds me of a short-lived TV series called “Episodes,” about a BAFTA-winning writing team whose show (a version of “History Boys,” including the real Richard Griffiths as star) is picked up by Hollywood and turned into a rancid, predictable sitcom starring the actual Matt Leblanc). The portrayal of Hollywood producers and their hangers-on is vicious, and hilarious. Worth checking out, the acting (AND the writing!) are terrific.

  132. 132.

    CaseyL

    @dimmsdale:  There’s a movie, “What Just Happened,” that came out in 2008.  It had a stellar cast and, from the trailer, seemed to be a dark comedy about the movie business.  I was eager to see it.

    Turned out to be one of the most joyless things I’ve ever seen.  It was well made: good writing, directing, acting, etc.  But it portrayed a movie business so predatory, so careless of everything except the Next Big Score, and filled with the most awful people you can imagine… it made me wonder why anyone would want to make movies, or act in them, or have anything to do with them.

  133. 133.

    dimmsdale

    @CaseyL:  Sounds fairly joyless; from your description (and the Ebert review) I’m not sure why anyone would bother with it. What I liked about “Episodes” was the light touch–the satire definitely stings (especially of the narcissistic “suits” and their sycophantic underlings) but there are also sort of human-interest subplots that help the whole enterprise along.

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