Not A Category Of Their Own

I have a special story to tell in response to (or in honor of, or with relation to) today's announcement that the Oscars will be co-hosted by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.

Of those who know enough about me to be able to buy that what I am about to describe is true, some will nevertheless consider it silly of me to take the Oscars seriously enough to feel compelled to relate this. And there will be others who consider this story to be of a far more serious nature than it actually is. Therefore, I just want to first state that this is for the people who know precisely how much seriousness to attach to this. I cannot be bothered with people who are off, even by a little bit, on the how-much-seriousness-to-attach factor.

Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, in addition to being future Oscar co-hosts, were once in a "Saturday Night Live" sketch together, a sketch that never would have occurred if not for me. In a nutshell, I wrote to Paul McCartney (through an intermediary) on November 3, 2006 that, for a specific reason that I explained, it was important that Paul consider being in a comedy sketch based on my October 29, 2006 "Recipe For Fun".

As Paul McCartney is among those who know precisely how seriously I deserve to be taken, at least in certain matters, eight days later he made a surprise appearance on the November 11th "Saturday Night Live," in a sketch all about poison being in someone's drink. As everyone knows, poison in one's drink is nearly the same thing as a "recipe for fun" (though there are certain aspects of these two ideas that separate them). This was also the same sketch that Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin appeared in together, for Paul McCartney was not the only one making a surprise SNL appearance at that moment.

The following is a reprint of the November 3, 2006 email I wrote (sent precisely three years ago today) that made things happen (warning: this email may contain "too much information," as the expression goes):

Dear Paul,

While many do not know better, you don’t (not know better).
Therefore, you should be able to see from my “Recipe For Fun” video
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQSp44anrg4),which I sent to Sean
Daniel on Sunday, Oct. 29th, the day before the John Kerry “botched”
joke, that my specifically leaving out the Heinz, which I referred
to as a comedy ingredient, led Kerry to leave out the word “us” as
a comedy ingredient (“get us stuck in Iraq” vs. “get stuck in Iraq”).
Kerry is married to the Heinz Ketchup Woman, so you see my point. 
Furthermore, you certainly must know how everyone, including the
President (attached PDF a case in point), plays off of things I
originate, as do you.

I am writing in order to put this ball in your court.  Perhaps you
should make a little three-minute sequel to “Recipe For Fun”, just
to make John Kerry feel better.  This whole thing could result in
his deciding not to run for president in ’08, pretty historical.
Let’s not forget that he ran against Bush in ’04, and deserves some
kind of VIP treatment. Kerry said something wrong, so he probably
isn’t very happy with himself, and it looks as though this will be
a cloud over him that's here to stay.

Jonathan