Strike Day 93 (18 A.D.)

Another beautiful day in Southern California -- and a great way to start the week, with a strong turnout at the Warner Bros. and NBC picket lines (I drove past NBC on my way from an early morning dental appointment to Gate #5 at WB).

I'm thinking things were the same over at FOX and the various other picket lines across town.

The weekend news frenzy threw a challenge at the WGA membership and it appears we rose to the occasion -- at least for one day.

That's terrific -- one day at a time is the best way to approach it.

Out on the line today we had more than the usual showing -- it was "The New Adventures of Old Christine" crowd in the morning, followed by familiar faces from "Smallville" and "Jeopardy," along with the return of a caustically funny stand-up comedian/comedy writer who'd been picketing at other spots for a while.

There was a funny moment when one Warner Bros. employee stopped on his way out of the lot and asked if any of us were registered Republicans. I was the only one -- which came as no surprise. He asked me to vote for Ron Paul in the primary tomorrow. I told him I couldn't do that, since I'm a big McCaine supporter and have been since the 2000 election. He shrugged and headed across the street to get lunch.

I have to say, Ron Paul fans are a dedicated bunch. I have seen more "Ron Paul for President" signs in front yards throughout the San Fernando Valley than I have seen signs for any other candidate -- Democrat or Republican -- despite the fact that he will garner less votes than anyone else on either ballot, except for Mike Gravel, the former Alaskan senator who is still officially running to be the Democratic nominee. It seems the people who like Ron Paul, REALLY like Ron Paul.

The aspiring director who showed up for the first time last week came back out and got to talk with some more writers -- since I wasn't the only one on the picket line this time.

Somehow today he got to hear about "Koyaanisqatsi - Life Out of Balance" -- the one-of-a-king feature documentary from the early Eighties, about mankind's dysfunctional relationship with the planet earth, with a memorable score by Philip Glass.

We had a few cars honking as they went into the studio and a few honking on their way out, which is better than average. Most days we're lucky if we get one honk of support headed in and one more headed out.

We had tourists from Nebraska, Australia and Spain all come over to talk to us about the strike and express their support for the writers after taking the Warner Bros. tours -- and to take some pictures with us.

A familiar face drove out and pulled over to say hi and talk with me for awhile -- it was the costume designer from season 2 of "Sleeper Cell." She's incredibly talented and incredibly hard-working and she made a huge contribution to the success of our second season by paying excruciating attention to the details of African, Middle-Eastern, South Asian and Balkan dress, which helped make it possible for our show to appear as if we had actually gone to shoot scenes in places like Sudan, Yemen and Bosnia. She was excited because tonight she's flying to Morocco to work on a movie that's set in Afghanistan. Well, they certainly hired the right person for the job.

All in all a good day for the morning and early afternoon shifts at Warner Bros. Gate #5 in particular and for the WGA in general.

Now all we need to do is the exact same thing again tomorrow!