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I have a list of topics I want to write about, and I'm not finding any time when my brain is working to write. So on this topic I'm taking the easy and totally lame way out and posting a Facebook share. And that's fine, because no matter how much time I had and no matter how my foggy brain is functioning, I couldn't say this any better than one Omari Newtown , whose withering sarcasm is both hilarious and dead literate. I never  follow people I don't know on Facebook, but for this guy, I'll make an exception. I don't want to miss a word!

In late 2015, I blogged about a remarkable documentary: " Call Me Lucky ," about the life and times of Barry Crimmins. Barry died last week at the age of 64. Describing Barry as a comedian somehow seems wrong. He was a social critic who used biting humour and righteous anger to enlighten and to skewer. He was a fierce opponent of any system that furthers war, poverty, and repression, and a stalwart advocate for equality, justice, and peace. He was also a master of wicked one-liners, as his thousands of Twitter followers knew. Barry was in many ways a cynic and a curmudgeon, but that didn't stop him from being an idealist. He constantly called attention to the mistreatment of children, the kind that happens every day in our own communities. Barry went public with his own horrific story of child sexual abuse. In the 1990s, he became an activist against child pornography, after discovering that AOL chat rooms were harboring pedophiles. As Barry often said, "Child por...

Barry Crimmins might be the most famous person you've never heard of. In "Call Me Lucky," a documentary tribute to Crimmins created by Bobcat Goldthwait, an A-list of comics talk about the influence Crimmins had on them and their community: Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Margaret Cho, Marc Maron, Steven Wright, among others. Crimmins toured with Billy Bragg. He won a peace award, handed to him by Howard Zinn; the other recipient sharing the stage: Maya Angelou. In his younger and wilder days, Crimmins was hugely influential in the rising stand-up comedy scene, although the word influential doesn't quite describe it. In Boston, he was comedy's midwife, and his club was its incubator. Allan and I met Barry through a baseball discussion list in the 90s, quickly bonding over our politics and, for me, a shared identity as survivors of sexual abuse or assault. We stayed at Barry's place on the Cleveland stop of our 1999 rust-belt baseball tour, and went to a few games...

One day, as I was getting off the subway on my way from Brooklyn to my workplace on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, people were handing out these tabloids. I never learned who made them, where they came from, or where they went. But I'm so glad I saved my copy all these years. It's a whole newspaper - news, sports, weather, ads for fake movies, personal ads. Brilliant. In case you can't read the date, it was 1984. And special bonus from one decade later, The National OJ . I had to scan them in two parts, but they are each tabloid size.

I think The Onion has outdone itself this time. From the Structural Steel Melt on Tower 7–Grain bread to the Twin Chowers cold cut combo with Ground Zero–Carb vinaigrette on a Let’s Whole Wheat Roll, we’ve got something for everybody this Subtember 11. Click here.

Love and happy holidays from all of us at chez wmtc. In 2013, raise your voice! Howl for peace, howl for justice. Howl for change.

Some of us found it more than a little strange to learn that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been named World Statesman of the Year by the Appeal of Conscience Foundation. Perhaps this is to expected in a world where Barack Obama - now Commander in Chief of a military presence in more than 150 countries , waging no less than 75 "special ops" wars - is given the Nobel Peace Prize. Even Resident Bush managed to hold the number of secret wars to 67. Fear not, Canada. We will not be outdone. " A coalition of international and community groups " announced that Harper has won the first ever Richard Nixon Prize. The selection committee applauds the Prime Minister's "principled, forthright and steadfast international policies in the interests of the rich and powerful" . Because the Prime Minister will be in New York to receive another award, this one will be presented using the "empty chair" technique recently used by Clint Eastwood. The prize w...

A collection of stuff I saved from Facebook, courtesy of Snipping Tool. If only this were true! Then it might be a little more difficult for governments to sell people wars. In my usual way of getting sucked into Facebook trends that I dislike, I created this card because I love this saying. Now can the whole quote-card thing go away? This is not from Facebook, just a good item by my favourite cartoonist, Charles Barsotti . (I love The Pup !) And finally, an enduring image, and an insane injustice.

Don't forget to visit Big Fat Whale for more McFadden funnies. Even better, subscribe to his feed in the New York Times ' Sunday Review: The Strip .

I've just learned of the untimely passing of a very funny man. Those of us old enough to remember the brilliant and subversive "The Franken and Davis Show" bits on the old Saturday Night Live may have sometimes wondered what happened to Al Franken's less famous partner. Tom Davis died last week at the too-young age of 59. In 2004, contestants on “Jeopardy!” were stumped by the clue “He was the comedy partner of Al Franken.” Tom Davis, that comedy partner, sighed as he watched. He was so inured to playing second fiddle to Mr. Franken, now a Democratic senator from Minnesota, that he called himself Sonny to Mr. Franken’s Cher. But the fact is that Mr. Davis helped shape Mr. Franken’s comedy, and vice versa, from the time they entertained students with rebellious, razor-edged humor at high school assemblies in Minnesota. In 1975, Mr. Davis, brilliant at improvisational comedy, and Mr. Franken, a whiz at plotting funny sequences, became two of the first writers on a new s...

Revolutionary Thought of the Day: the KFC Double Down is a plot against white America. The Negro Rioting Plan that's been put in place is a terribly complicated strategy that has taken hundreds of thousands of Negroes to plan and thousands of years to come together. Sleeper agents, technological advances and an unwavering patience has been our friend on this path to finally achieving our rioting plans. Only one man has ever come close toppling our years of work to destroy then redistribute good earnest White folks wealth with epic rioting. That man is the brilliant and perceptive Glenn Beck. Glenn Beck has been our arch nemesis for years. His amazing detective skills has outed many of our operatives and leaked several plans to the world. Our only method of battling his spectacular abilities is to paint him as being a fucking crazy person who clearly doesn’t understand ANYTHING and is simply out to profit from fear mongering and race baiting. But we Negroes know the truth. We know ...

Books, bookstores, and New York City! Plus hip hop girls. This video has it all. Thanks to Stephanie.

Thanks to Jere .

Further to our chat about the tone-deaf 1%: go here for Brian McFadden 's latest in the New York Times .

Further to the saga of dumping Rogers , this morning I ordered internet service through TekSavvy. (I had already called for information on how to switch and called Rogers to cancel my service.) The customer service rep was friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful. I wasn't 100% certain of my disconnect date with Rogers, so after I hung up with TekSavvy, I called Rogers, just to double-check. Ever since cancelling Rogers, we've been inundated with calls, paper mail, and email offering us deep discounts to return. I expected more of the same, but I didn't expect this. LK: I recently cancelled my Rogers services. I already have a disconnect order, and I need to check on the date of the disconnect. Are you able to help me with that? Rogers: Why are you leaving Rogers? Are you unhappy with the service? LK: I appreciate your asking, but I am cancelling my service, and I'd prefer not to discuss it. Could you please check the date of my disconnect order? I believe it is March 6. Ro...

Ah, here's the real New York. This one's much closer to the mark. To be honest, these are not limited to native New Yorkers (except "I grew up in..."), but to anyone who lived in the City during the 1970s or 1980s. I would replace yoga studios with nail salons , but "that used to be..." is a staple of that town. "I remember when this place was a...." earns you a merit badge towards your Real New Yorker ID. And muggings and dead people on the subway, but no masturbators? What's up with that? Many thanks to johngoldfine!

I love this town!