Readers of these pages know that I very often refer to postings on my friend Mark Evanier's great website, News from ME.  Anyone who clicks on the links knows full-well that I'm spot-on right in my effusive praise (like when I wrote here 6-1/2 years ago that he had "The Fourth Best Blog on the Internet" -- four years before Time magazine  finally got around to naming it the 17th best.  Well-deserving, though not high enough).  And most people who click on it I suspect stick around.

For those who haven't yet been bothered to click yet and go over there, here's another voice you might rather listen to, and interview with Mark the other day in the Washington Post.

You can read it here.

If you still need prompting, it starts -- "Mark Evanier has a way with the word that makes us laugh — the sort of right-timed verbiage and movement that blindsides us enough to delight us, and that deftly taps the funny bone instead of oafishly shattering it, like so much clumsy comedy."

And if you still need prompting to click -- see an orthopedist because I think there might be something wrong with the bone structure or ligaments in your typing fingers.

Last night I was watching Welcome to Sweden on NBC.  It was near the end of the episode, when the main character's mother has called him up and says excitedly, "We have incredible news...!!" -- and at just that moment, waiting on the edge of my seat (or at least in the general vacinity) to hear the news, the NBC News logo cut in, along with the news themse.  For just a moment, it was surreal -- wait, I thought, is this a joke?  Part of the show?  Not just the timing, but a comic way they were going to present the mother's news.  But then reality set in, as Brian Williams appeared on screen and said, "In just a few minutes, President Obama will address the nation, and..."

Hey, actual news is actual news and easily trumps not finding out the end of a sitcom episode.  It was might have been slightly more annoying years back before technology changed the landscape, but thanks to On Demand and TV online, I knew I'd be able to get the last minute.  I did first call the elves back in Los Angeles about recording the later airing thanks to the time difference, but alas they were out, partying no doubt, rather than making sure everything at the home offices were running smoothly.  But life goes on fine for such small things, and this morning the On Demand episode was active.

(I understand that the fine folks at On Demand don't want viewers to fast-forward past commercials, and so disable the feature, and that's fine, but there has to be a way where one should be able to fast-forward a broadcast but not the ads.  Having to let a half-hour show run the entire half hour when all you want to see is just a few seconds towards the end seems such a poor use of good technology.)

By the way, if you haven't seen Welcome to Sweden, I find it a very entertaining, charming show.  Though I know it's not for everyone.  Not just that it's very bucolic and whimsical, but at least a third of the show is in Swedish and uses subtitles.  (I read a funny interview with the show's creator, Greg Poehler, who joked that when he told his parents that the series had been picked up by NBC, though would have subtitles, complained to him, "You mean we have to read??!")  They've been a bit repetitive in a lot of the fish-out-of-water jokes in the first five weeks, though the last two episodes have given a sense that they're starting to branch out more, as the main character Bruce recognizes he has to get more settled.

Greg Poehler, by the way, who also stars and co-writes the show, is the younger brother of Amy Poehler, who serves as executive producer.  Up until only a few years ago, he was a lawyer.  And the show is loosely inspired by his life when he got married to a Swedish woman and moved there.  He does a very solid job on the show, with a light, comic touch.  Though the show is made in Sweden -- which adds to the fresh visual looks -- periodically a few American stars have cropped up in cameos.  Amy Poehler, of course, but also Will Farrell (who has a Swedish wife), Aubrey Plaza (a family friend), and Gene Simmons, who I believe was touring in Sweden at the time.  The only other recognizable face is Lena Olin -- hardly known for her comedy, but quite good here -- who plays the very tough-minded psychiatrist mother of his girlfriend and cuts him  no slack.  Oddly enough, although Swedish, Olin was living in Los Angeles at the time with her family, but she moved back for filming.  The girlfriend is played by Swedish actress Josephine Bournebusch, who thus far has co-written all the episodes, as well. 

(And according to the end of this week's episode, it appears that two other familiar actors will be added on occasion as Poehler's parents, Patrick Duffy and Illeana Douglas.)

The show aired in Sweden even before being picked up by NBC, and has already been signed to a second year there, though that didn't guarantee a continuation in the U.S.for the summer replacement series.  However, it was recently renewed by NBC.  Because Saturday Night Live and Parks and Rec haven't been shown in Sweden, Amy Poehler isn't especially known there, so Greg Poehler jokes that it's probably the only country in the world where he's better known than his older sister.  Though he adds that now that she's made cameos on the show they're starting to know who she is.

An amusing article here in Slate by Jeremy Stahl examines the show from the perspective of having a somewhat similar experience as Greg Poehler, being married to a Swedish women.  In one passage, he writes about a very funny scene in last night's episode --

"Episode five, which airs Thursday night, involves Bruce trying to fit in and make friends in Stockholm. The show begins with Bruce interrupting a conversation about a dying person—it’s in Swedish, so he doesn’t know what it’s about—in order to do a Swedish Chef impression, because he’s bored. 'Hurdy-hurdy-gurdy! That’s all I hear when you guys are talking back and forth,' he says.

“'That’s something you would say,' my wife notes. It’s something I did say! When we first met I brought up the meatball-cooking, borking chaos muppet and asked Kristine what she thought of him. 'I don’t see how it’s funny,' was her deadpan response."

Anyway, as I said, the show most-definitely isn't for everyone.  But apparently enough people have enjoyed to have NBC bring it back. 

There's an interesting, well-researched article here on ScreenCrush.com about an episode that was written and rehearsed for Seinfeld, but never filmed.  It had to do with Elaine buying a guy for protecting.  Apparently, the cast felt very uncomfortable about some of the lines, and were not interested in doing it.  The episode was pulled, and Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David quickly wrote a replacement -- which was pretty good, about George leaving a phone message and deciding it wanted it deleted.

The article includes comments from the episode's writer Larry Charles suggesting that the episode probably came too early in the show's run (only their ninth), and so no one was quite settled with what later becomes the program's standard.  The director of the episode, Tom Cherones, was outspoken at the time -- and quoted extensively today -- that the episode was wrong, and that "You can't make a funny show about guns, in my opinion."

I don't agree with that statement, nor does Larry Charles, though from what they write about this specific episode, it does seem like they have things in it that are pretty uncomfortable, and it probably was right to pull.

As a side note, the article also contained a sequence about what Kramer's first name was.  And it was different from what we later learned.  But because the episode was dropped, so was the idea of naming Kramer, and they didn't deal with it until years later.

(Note: in the first draft of this, I referenced Larry David for all the "Larry's."  I've since corrected the appropriate attribution, and noted Larry Charles properly.  Sorry.)

As is pretty well-known by now, even if you don't follow sports in the slight, Uruguayan soccer star Luis Suarez bit another player from Italy during their World Cup soccer match.  I actually was watching the match at the time -- I didn't see the bite itself, but my timing was such that I walked into the room as I heard the announcers saying how unfortunate the incident was, and that it certainly looked like the Italian player was complaining he'd been bitten.  They couldn't be sure from the replays, they said, but it looked possible.  That's when I reversed the DVR a few seconds, watched the play and the replays and just laughed.  "Boy, are you guys bending over backwards being polite," I thought to myself, "Of course that's a bite!!" -- especially considering that they were saying that Suarez had previously been suspended two other times for biting.

It was clearly obvious, and that was confirmed when the FIFA governing body suspended Suarez for four months for his third violation of biting.

But what do you do when you have a soccer player who consistently bites other soccer players?

Well, the funniest response I'm come across by far is this posting by...Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer!

As far as I can tell, this is absolutely on the level, not an fake article being sent around.  I say that because the article I read the article on Millan's own website, Cesar's Way.  So, unless his site got hacked, this is the real deal.  And it's pretty amusing.

"If you're having problems with your players," Millan writes, he gives suggestions on what you can do to address the ongoing problem, Like the suggestion -- 

"You can reduce aggression by having your soccer player spayed or neutered. Many low and no cost options are available."

You can read the whole article here -- and all the suggestions to do with your own soccer player problems, if you have one of your own...

There's a new Alexander in town.

I've posted several things here from the Maven of Happiness, Valerie Alexander, in the past.  But this comes from her sister, Carol Fox, who works in business recruiting.

It's an interesting, real-world look at ageism in the real-world marketplace.  From a real-world perspective.  (Did I mention this is about the real world?)  What's intriguing is that she lays out not only the reasons why some companies might not hire an older worker, but the legitimate reasons why not.  However, she then points out a number of very specific suggestions an older, prospective applicant can take to break past the barriers.

(Apparently the Alexander sisters love giving advice to others...  Family get-togethers must be an experience.  The good news is that they're all from a nurturing stand-point, so I suspect there's a lot of hugging.)

It's a bit long, and some of the suggestions are bluntly specific (and many are very interesting, explaining for example what you should leave off your resume...and why), but again, it's the real world being discussed, not a feel-good seminar. After all, there are biases and preferences in life we come in contact with all the time, and the trick is dealing with them.  What the piece offers is well-considered advice from someone who does this for a living and talks with others who do it for a living.  So, when people like that say very bluntly, "You should be sure to dress this way, not that," it comes from a life of experience doing the job of interviewing.  You can say in return, "Sorry, this shouldn't be about outward,surfaces appearances, I'll dress how I feel comfortable because it's who I am," but it's always good to listen to the person who is hiring -- because if they disagree, no matter how comfortable you feel, you're not getting the job, 

Mainly, what I found interesting is not so much it's advice on applying for a job -- because if you're not in the market, who cares? -- but the general psychology of how we view people different from us, and dealing with that in return.  You can read it here.

It's difficult to choose which articles on my pal Mark Evanier's website are my favorite to read, but among them -- and very possibly at the top of the list -- are when he decides to play along with unsolicited phone calls.  Usually these concern contractors, of which Mark (for some unknown reason) gets an inordinate amount.

I admire that Mark is so witty and clever and quick with these play-alongs, though almost more I admire that he takes the time to do so.  Me, I tend to say, "no," the instant I get that initial pause and then a voice comes on the line (my "no" means the call is registered by them as having been completed) and then instantly hang up.  On a rare occasion when I'm just in the mood I'll hang on and do something odd, but it's very rare.  (My 92-year-old dad, on the other hand, tends to get very angry and tells the caller off at length.  My most common response when I'm visiting is calling out across the room, "Dad, just hang up the phone!")

But my own efforts, on those rare occasions when the spirit moves me, are paltry compared to Mark.  Mark, he's an artist at these.  This recent article isn't necessarily his finest -- if there was a Nobel Prize for fake response to unsolicited calls, he'd win it for those -- but it's pure Evanier.  And there might well be a follow-up from it, as he points out.  I suspect there will be.  Basically, he tells the roto-dialer person calling (who clearly isn't a contractor) about how he wants specific work done on his house -- work that he...well, let Mark tell you about i.  You can read the latest tale here.