Outside the Beltway

Marvel has created an alternate universe in which Spiderman is a half-black, half-Latino teenager. Some people are angry.

Kurt Vonnegut on teaching a computer to write a story.

Fascinating exchange from the late 1970s.

More people are chasing careers in film than there are careers in film. And not just in front of the camera.

It’s often said that 1950s sex symbol Marilyn Monroe was a size 12. It just isn’t so.

Ann Coulter explains why she’s not a fan of the late Princess Di: “”I find it a little baffling when Americans get so gaga-eyed over a princess. In particular Lady Di, who was just this anorexic, bulimic narcissist.”

The Stephen Colbert Super PAC that began as a satire has now been blessed by the real FEC. What exactly this means is not yet clear.

Is it worse for a child to see pornography or graphic violence?

While his best-known solo effort was “anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, [and] anti-capitalistic,” John Lennon became a Reagan Republican a few years later, his assistant claims.

Some people have no sense of humor.

Jack Kirby’s heir are trying to posthumously renegotiate half-century old deals with Marvel.

Daily Show host Jon Stewart spent 15 minutes on yesterday’s Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace trying to explain why he thinks Fox is a propaganda machine.

Samuel L. Jackson was the natural choice for the audio book version of Go The Fuck to Sleep.

DC is once again resetting the clock on its universe and starting all its books over with issue #1.

A company called Hero Builders is offering this for sale

Actor Alec Baldwin may run for mayor of New York.

James Arness, best known as the iconic Marshal Dillon on Gunsmoke, has died at 88.

Broadway actors are aiming a familiar lament at Hollywood stars: They’re taking our jobs!

Actor Jeff Conaway, best known for his role of Bobby Wheeler on “Taxi,” is dead after a drug overdose.

Stephen Colbert has been running an ongoing shtick in which he’s trying to start a political action committee, gets letters from his Viacom bosses poo-pooing the idea, and then inviting his lawyer on to explain ways to get around these concerns.

Willie Nelson is torn between Gary Johnson and Dennis Kucinich.

When one realizes that Trump is basically a brand, rather than anything else, his PR foray into politics makes more sense.

Go The Fuck to Sleep, the children’s book aimed at parents, has become an Internet sensation and reached #1 on Amazon well before its release owing to a leaked copy.

Superman doesn’t hate America after all!

An item in the Extra Bases baseball notebook last Sunday misidentified, in some editions, the origin of the name Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver, which Mets pitcher R. A. Dickey gave one of his bats. Orcrist was not, as Dickey had said, the name of the sword used by Bilbo Baggins in the Misty Mountains in “The Hobbit”; Orcrist was the sword used by the dwarf Thorin Oakenshield in the book. (Bilbo Baggins’s sword was called Sting.)

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver have announced their separation after 25 years of marriage.

Mashup videos: Iron Maiden and The Monkees (“The Trooper Believer”) and Pink Floyd and Bee Gees (“Stayin’ Alive in the Wall”)

Superman will renounce his American citizenship!

Singing the 1974 Carl Douglas classic “Kung Fu Fighting” can get you arrested in England.

Roger Ebert lays the smack down on the Atlas Shrugged film — but not for the reasons you’d think.

Zsa Zsa Gabor’s 67-year-old husband says he and the 94-year-old actress are seeking to have a child through a surrogate.

Donald Trump is waiting to announce whether he’s running for president until after taping of “The Apprentice” concludes. Some thing NBC shouldn’t allow him to wait.

The Federal government is funding a Pakistan version of Sesame Street for $20 million.

Bristol Palin was paid $262,500 by Candies Foundation as an anti-teen pregnancy spokesman. That’s 7 times what they spent on teen pregnancy prevention.

The iconic WKRP in Cincinnati is not being syndicated or available on DVD in its original format because it’s classic rock soundtrack is hamstrung by copyright laws and music licensing fees.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has mastered the worlds of bodybuilding, show business, and politics. Next, he’s going to try his hand at being a Marvel superhero.

This letter from legendary music journalist Lester Bangs is making the rounds