CHEKIT: He's back! With digitally-rendered oompa-loompas in tow!

I’ve been busy. Real busy. Busy like a bee. Like a bee on deadline, hopped up on methamphetamines and Mountain Dew. I know I’ve been AWOL. But I’ve had work and freelance stuff dropping off the top rope on me. I'm sorry. I know you've been worried. But I'm here now. Dry your tears, little one.

And speaking of little ones...

Once again, technology takes food out of the mouths of hardworking American men and women – and even though I really liked Deep Roy’s performance in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I sympathize with Mr. Pidgeon and his ilk:

Roy’s multifaceted performance has caused some controversy among his peers. In 2004, in a Los Angeles paper, Eugene Pidgeon, an actor and writer turned labor activist for dwarf performers, published a manifesto entitled “Little People’s Progress.” In it, he addressed two key problems: a dearth of decent roles for little people, and the threat to their livelihoods posed by animation technology. “My argument is that if you’re going to computer-generate us out of roles that we have traditionally taken, you have to provide others,” Pidgeon said over the phone from Hollywood. “Oompas, trolls, elves, cupids are just going to disappear en masse.”