Baby It's Cold Outside!

Began the morning with breakfast and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Plus. "Minnie's Rubber Ducky Doozy" has everyone decorating rubber ducks at her Clubhouse for the Rubber Ducky Parade on Star Lake. Willie the Giant blows them across the lake at first, until seahorses decide to toss them around. After they retrieve them, an old friend helps them figure out how they can have their parade and involve the seahorses, too.

Called Uber after that. It was barely in the 30's today, too cold for biking. Unfortunately, neither Uber showed up quickly. The one going to work took 13 minutes. The one going home took 10. At least there was no traffic either way, but it did make me slightly late to work.

That was the worst thing that happened all day. Between the cloudy, cold weather and most people focusing on gift shopping right now, we were steady at the most during 11:30-12. I ended up sweeping and doing the carts and trying to figure out how to explain to customers early this morning that there was a water main break and our toilets weren't working for the first hour I was there. 

It took them forever to put it up, but I did get my schedule at work. In good news, back to regular hours. In bad news, not enough hours, and I forgot to ask for the 10th off because the school is on half-days next week due to parent-teacher conferences. I'll have to come in late on Wednesday. 

After I got home, I had lunch while watching the Rankin-Bass Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I went further into this at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog way back in 2018.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Called Uber again even before the special ended. Though they took 10 minutes to arrive, I called them early. Too early, as it turned out. I went for a walk around the block until school ended. Though it was still somewhat cloudy and very cold, at least it wasn't windy this time. They only took 7 minutes to come going home.

I don't know if they were tired of being stuck inside or it was just end of the week jitters, but the kids were really rowdy today. They just would not listen and sit down, even when a teacher spread blankets on the floor and let them pretend to have a pajama party while she read stories. The older kids were taken to the library to do crafts while we helped the younger ones build with wooden blocks or magnetic tiles, color, or play with plastic dinosaurs. I got recruited near the end to help the head teacher greet parents and sign them out.

When I got in, I had dinner while watching Match Game '78. The first hour featured the infamous week where Jack Klugman and Brett Somers appeared together well after they'd divorced or separated. For some reason, the second hour jumped back to earlier in the year. Richard Dawson was back, this time with female Welcome Back Kotter Sweathog Helaine Lembeck. 

Finished the night with Scrooged. IBC Network president Frank Cross (Bill Murray) does not hate Christmas. Far from it. He appreciates it as a time when people stay home and watch television. He's pushing his big live Christmas Carol, but he's also treating those around him badly. He fires an employee (Bobcat Goldthwait) who protests his ridiculously violent commercial for the special, won't go to his brother's (James Murray) Christmas party, and makes his secretary (Alfe Woodward) work late on Christmas Eve when she has to take her mute son to the doctor. His social worker ex-girlfriend Claire (Karen Allen) wishes he'd learn to treat people better. She gets her wish when Frank encounters a zombie version of his ex-boss (John Forsythe) and three of the scariest and most violent Ghosts of Christmas Past  (David Johanssen), Present (Carol Kane), and Future who literally frighten him into changing his ways.

This black comedy version of one of the most beloved holiday stories on the planet got a mixed reception when it came out in the late 80's, including in my own family. Dad thought it was hilarious. Mom agreed with most critics and thought it was too mean-spirited. I agreed with Mom then, but it's grown on me over the years. I've seen holiday comedies come out since then that were five times nastier than this. It's worth seeing just for Murray, who puts in one of his best performances as the cynical executive who literally needs to be knocked on the head to learn the error of his ways. The makeup work on the Ghosts was so groundbreaking, it won an Oscar. Not for those in a warm and fuzzy mood, but if you like your Christmas comedies toasty-dark, you'll want to join Frank Cross as he learns the true meaning of Christmas from four of the wildest ghosts around. 

Here Comes Santa Claus

Began the morning with breakfast and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Plus. This time, Martian Mickey comes to Earth, but he has a "Martian Mishap" when he crashes into a tree after Goofy makes a mistake getting him down. The others have to retrieve pieces of his ship from the forest, the lake, and the desert, so Martian Mickey can get the spices he needs for his Yumblatz (hot dog) Pie.

Switched to Supermarket Sweep while I made my grocery list. This was the end of their "Family Week," with three sets of sisters playing each other. Team 1 not only got almost all of the bonuses in the Big Sweep, they got twice as much time as anyone else. All of those bonuses resulted in them earning the show's biggest-ever Big Sweep total, over $1,900.

Hurried off to run errands next. I couldn't find an egg timer at Target or Dollar Tree. I want it to time me at night and make sure I go to bed and not stay up until 5 AM. Did a little better at Sprouts. Found sugar cookies and more containers of those apple fritter-flavored dried cranberries on clearance. Picked up coconut milk and sparkling water, too.

Sprouts hadn't been busy, and the Acme wasn't really, either. I mainly needed to restock yogurt and oranges here. Found Nature's Valley granola bars buy one, get one free. Cove sodas were $1.50. Got more sliced chicken, too. Bought stamps for when I get the Christmas cards together on Saturday. Found more Winter Spiced Sprite Zero and Diet Coke Lime $2 for 5. 

Newton Lake Park was gorgeous, if chilly, as I rode home. It was sunny, windy, and cold, in the upper 30's. The park is showing signs of winter now. The leaves are almost entirely gone from the trees, the grass is turning yellow, and fewer plants and animals are seen along the banks. 

Had a quick lunch when I got in while putting everything away and watching First a Girl. I go further into this British version of Victor/Victoria from 1935 with Jesse Matthews and Sonnie Hale at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog. 

First a Girl

The movie had just ended when I headed to the Thomas Sharp School. Though the older kids did get to run around on the blacktop, it was too cold for the younger kids to go on the playground. One of the teachers and I read Hot Wheels: Extreme Stunts, Tweety: The North Star's Magical Journey Home, and Move Over, Rover! After that, the kids spent the rest of the afternoon building towers from magnetic tiles that were so tall, they had to be leaned against the cafeteria wall to keep them standing, coloring, and playing with rubber play food.

After I finished, I had dinner at Crust n' Cravings. I was originally going to eat at Phillies Phatties, but Collings Avenue was closer to the school. Plus, to be honest, I just like Crust n' Cravings' pizza better. I ate a slice of cheese and a slice of broccoli and tomato while watching Action News on ABC. 

Stopped at Dollar General on my way home. I was hoping to find an egg timer, but no luck. (I just ordered one online.) I did get aspirin, ibuprofen, and cold medicine here. My head had been stuffed up and I'd had mild sinus headaches all day. Either my allergies are acting up from the wind and dryness, or I'm coming down with a cold. 

Went home briefly to park the bike and put everything away, then went right back out again. Oaklyn had its Parade of Lights and Tree Lighting this evening. They were just starting to hand out the fiber optic lights for the kids when I arrived. There was rich hot chocolate, brownie bites, and four different kinds of cookies. I tried what I believe to be butter pecan and red velvet. They were so delicious! Probably came from Shop Rite, but they still tasted good.

I only saw Rose once and I never did find Jessa, but I did get to see my 8-year-old niece Finley perform several carols with her class on the side of City Hall. Good thing she inherited her mother's height and was wearing a reindeer antlers headband! It was so crowded, I never would have seen her otherwise. At any rate, the kids did a wonderful job, their voices mostly smooth and clear. Near the end of their performance, a "snow" machine spewed foamy "snow" all over, which the kids absolutely loved. 

After the kids sang their carols, the Parade of Lights arrived at City Hall! They had a few actual floats this year, including one lavish gingerbread-themed one, and another with a costumed Grinch. There was one fire truck "pulled" by dalmatians, and others covered completely in lights. Santa arrived in the last truck for Oaklyn. 

Surprisingly, there was no speech or fanfare for the tree lighting this year. The tree just lit up. One minute, I had turned to City Hall to find Finley. The next, the massive "tree" blazed with reds, blues, greens, and yellows, with a huge glittering star on top. After the tree lighting, I gave up trying to figure out where Rose and Finley had gone and just walked home.

Finished the night working on the First a Girl review and listening to two more new (to me) Christmas CDs after my shower. I'm not as familiar with many of the artists in A Very Merry Christmas 5. Most of it is rap or pop that I'm just not that fond of, but there are a few good numbers. We get Stevie Nick's gorgeous version of "Silent Night," B.B King and John Popper doing "Back Door Santa," and Sheryl Crow getting into "Run Rudolph Run."

The Carpenters' Christmas Portrait is on more familiar turf. The most popular number from this one by far is the wistful standard "Merry Christmas Darling." Some of the covers are nice too, notably "Sleigh Ride," the aching "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear." Richard Carpenter plays a lively "Selections from The Nutcracker." 

Winter Is Just Around the Corner

Got a quick start with breakfast and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Plus. "Martian Mickey's Clubhouse" was damaged in a sandstorm, so Mickey and the others help their space counterparts build a new one. Martian bubbles are ten times stronger than Earth ones and make splendid walls and furniture, but they need to call in a friend for the books and games needed to make it truly a home.

Hurried off to work soon as the cartoon ended. Work was off-and-on busy, likely due to it being the beginning of the month. I was constantly called to put away cold items, including during my break. Otherwise, there were no major problems, and I was in and out. I even helped a co-worker who couldn't bend over clean up the ice she spilled from her drink in the break room after I finished.

Put on the 2002 Strawberry Shortcake when I got home and was settled down for lunch. It's a "Merry Berry Christmas" as Strawberry struggles with what to give her friends, especially Huckleberry Pie. She and ever-bragging Honey Pie Pony travel to Holidayland to find just the right gifts. Honey Pie keeps dropping obvious hints and insisting on buying horse things for everyone, even though Strawberry constantly admonishes her that she needs to buy gifts that the recipient actually wants, not just her. Strawberry even gets to meet Santa. When one gift makes a mess, Strawberry thinks she has nothing to give the others. They insist they're just glad to have her back...and are even happier with the surprise at Strawberry's front door.

Headed back out even before the show ended. I don't know if it's early holiday jitters or the full moon, but the kids were really rowdy today. They played with dreidels they got in class, grabbed each other's chocolate coins, and put up a fuss about wearing their coats outside. While the weather was beautiful, sunny, breezy, and bright, it was also in the 40's. Not freezing like it will be by Friday, but not exactly warm, either. Definitely not weather to go without coats!

With two teachers having left for good last week, I ended up in charge of the swings again. Most of the kids were pretty good about it, but I had to argue one of the older boys off when he wouldn't listen and kept saying "whatever." I wasn't the only one who had problems with him and the other older boys, too. I was too busy with the kids on the swings to see it, but apparently, the older boys spent their time outside fighting. It got so bad, we ended up calling them inside earlier than planned. One of the younger girls was so upset she hadn't been able to get on the swings, she cried all the way inside, even after we swore she could go on tomorrow.

Things weren't a whole lot better inside. We had two managers come to check out the new assistants. One of them separated the older kids and younger kids, even though we usually just let them mingle when we came in. I couldn't do anything right. I sat with the group coloring and was told to go with the younger kids. I sharpened colored pencils for the kids coloring and was told to sit with the kids building with Duplos and magnetic tiles. I spilled a teacher's coffee cup when I couldn't find a place for my coat. At least it only had water, and one of the new assistants helped me clean it up, but it was still embarrassing. One of the managers said I was doing fine, but I felt like a klutz. 

Hurried straight home after that mess. Watched Match Game '78 during dinner. Richard Dawson was still around and still playing pretty well at this point. He got to see David Doyle make his debut next to Brett, along with Betty White and glamorous Eva Gabor.

Worked on writing The WENN Nutcracker Suite throughout the evening. Mr. Eldridge tells the story of how the Nutcracker came to be the way he is, aided by Gertie Ginger's fireplace. Queen Gloria, King Benjamin, and their con-artist son Prince Scott were the beloved, benevolent rulers of the Land of Sweets, adored by their people. Mr. Eldridge was Scott's mentor and tutor, but he spent most of his time keeping Scott from brawls and sailing around the world with him. King Benjamin finally gives his son the sacred Christmas Star Sword that is fueled by Christmas spirit before he takes a carriage to Santa's Workshop on Christmas Eve. He does talk to Santa, but never makes it home before his carriage goes over a cliff during a blizzard.

Finished the night with My Little Pony: A Very Minty Christmas. Sock-loving Minty is the title character of the Christmas special for the mid-2000's version of the franchise. The "Here Comes Christmas Candy Cane" tree topper is supposed to guide Santa to Ponyville with its fabulous light. Fussy Minty's attempts to make it "just perfect" end with her knocking it over and breaking it. She first tries to play Santa herself and gives her massive sock collection to her friends. When Pinkie Pie catches her doing that, she insists on going to the North Pole herself to tell Santa what happened. Half of Ponyville ends up following her to tell her that she matters more than any candy cane. 

Rainy Day Angels

Began a rainy morning with breakfast and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. "Daniel's Winter Adventure" has him first learning to sled with Prince Wednesday, then skating with his father. In both cases, he's encouraged to try it a little bit at a time until he gets used to it. Margaret walks for the first time too, right to her brother. Daniel ends up performing in the "Neighborhood Nutcracker" when Prince Wednesday gets sick. Henrietta, who plays the Sugar Plum Fairy, and Katerina, who plays Clara, helps him learn his part a little bit at a time.

Put up the winter decorations next, or at least the ones that I could fit out now. I mainly put out the winter stuffed animals, my Webkinz Groundhog Phil, Marie in her little winter collar and hat, and the penguin in the green knit hat. The folksy wooden snowman with the dangling legs and arms was small enough to fit now, as was the snowman candy dish.

Watched Evergreen as I worked, and later when I went online. I go further into this charming British musical with 1930's dance star Jessie Matthews at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Evergreen (1934)

Barely had the time to grab something for lunch and call Uber before work. It took 14 minutes for the driver to arrive, but I was able to get a few quick chores done. It took 10 minutes for the driver home to arrive. In both cases, there was no traffic, and the driver was pleasant. 

Considering it continued to pour even as I arrived at the Thomas Sharp School, I suspect you may already have guessed that we never went outside today. The kids listened to Horton Hears a Who, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and If You Give a Moose a Muffin in the library instead. After the stories ended, some of the kids danced, while others colored, played with blocks (that they kept knocking over), or worked with stencils on enormous sheets of paper taped to the tables. They were all pretty rowdy - they hadn't gone outside earlier in the day, either. Enough of them had gone home by 5 that we finally moved them to the cafeteria, where they colored, played with dolls, and played ball games with the older kids.

After I got home, I did a few chores around the house before Jessa picked me up for dinner. I'm not normally a fan of fast food, but a Roy Rogers just opened in Cherry Hill. I hadn't seen one of those in years, not since they took out the one on the Garden State Parkway. Jessa had chicken tenders, fries, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a strawberry shortcake. I had a Southwestern Grilled Chicken sandwich with bacon (and got to use their famous "Fixin's Bar"), huge onion rings, a peppermint milkshake, and the strawberry shortcake. 

Oh yum. No wonder the lines when this place opened a few weeks ago were apparently out the door. The chicken sandwich was juicy and flavorful. The tenders were cooked perfectly. The strawberry shortcake was real strawberries on a biscuit with what I suspect was real, or at least local ice cream. The milkshake was perfectly minty. I wouldn't expect anything less from the King of the Cowboys! We left the place very full.

Took a shower, then watched Charlie's Angels. "Mother Goose Is Running For His Life" when the owner of a toy company learns that someone from inside the company may be trying to force him to sell to a man who would use the company as a front for gambling. Turns out a slightly unhinged toy designer is angry because his boss won't consider designing his horror-themed toys. Sabrina poses as the daughter of a toy company owner, Kris as a rag doll, and Kelly as a wire tapper to find out how he's getting information out.

Finished the night with Now That's What I Call Christmas 3. There's some really fabulous stuff here, especially on the first half. Johnny Mathis' "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" can be found here, too, along with Andy Williams' "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," Peggy Lee's version of "The Little Drummer Boy," Judy Garland's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," "Blue Christmas" by Johnny Cash, Dean Martin doing "Baby It's Cold Outside" and The Chipmunks singing "Please Christmas Don't Be Late." Side two includes "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," The Beach Boys' "Little Saint Nick," an absolutely gorgeous "Christmastime Is Here" by Dianne Reeves, Kenny Rogers' "Christmas Is My Favorite Time of Year," Celine Dion's "Feliz Navidad," Christina Agulilera singing "Merry Christmas, Baby," a really fun "Santa Baby" by the Pussycat Dolls, and "It Just Don't Feel Like Christmas Without You" by Rhianna. 

It's the Holiday Season, Charlie Brown

Began the morning with breakfast and finishing off Alice's Wonderland Bakery. Alice needs a "Clever Clover" to make her soda bread. The Queen and King of Hearts helps her wait for hers to grow. "Alice Comes to Her Senses" when the Mock Turtle chef teaches her how to make mini-casseroles that appeal to all of the senses - sight, taste, smell, touch. Her "pie-fectionist" side crops up again when the students in her baking class make a mess of the greenhouse, until she realizes that using all of your senses doesn't mean things work out perfectly the first time.

And that's that. Too bad this seems to have come to an abrupt end on Disney Junior last April. I really enjoyed it. As someone who also loves baking, I appreciated the themes of trying new foods and how food can bring communities together. Some people online has complained that Alice is too bland compared to the original. I disagree. I think she's a lot of fun. My favorite characters are sweet little Princess Rosa of Hearts and her decidedly spicy Queen of Hearts mama. Honestly, if you're a fan of Alice In Wonderland and/or baking like me, you and your little one can do far worse than the charming tales of the most splediferous young baker in all of Wonderland. 

After breakfast, I took my overflowing laundry basket downstairs, then went back up to my rooms and pulled out the remaining Christmas decorations. I always forget I have so much! There's the jolly Santa statue Mom gave me years ago and the Winter Cinderella Barbie-sized doll I found at a yard sale. There's the printed elves, angel made from fabric and a button, stuffed "gingerbread" people and the garland with the fabric stars and green grosgrain ribbon Mom made herself. The colorful wooden "Noel" candlestick holder has been in my family for years. I bought the little white frosted bottle-brush wreath from the Special Service Middle School's annual Christmas bazaar in the mid-90's. Amanda gave me the "Gretel" gingerbread Beanie Baby, and my gingerbread Squishmallow is a doggie toy I found at Target and thought was too cute to be chewed up by some dog! I have lots of holiday Beanie Baby bears, too, Gift and Herald the angels, Wallace in the plaid scarf, the bear with the jingling hat, Ginny "The Beginning" with the silver stars. Aunt Terri gave me the American Girl tin with the recipes for Christmas 2001.

Watched Christmas specials while I worked, starting with the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas. Chuck is upset by all of the grab, grab around him, from Snoopy entering a big neighborhood display contest to Lucy insisting she wants real estate for Christmas. Directing the local pageant seems to be what he needs to boost his flagging spirits, but his pals refuse to listen to him and insist on turning it into a jazz concert. It's when Charlie brings a tiny tree back to the church and the kids make fun of it that Linus reminds them of what Christmas is really all about.

It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown is a less-linear holiday special from the early 90's. Peppermint Patty avoids Christmas break homework and goes to see the Hallelujah Chorus with Marcie. Snoopy works as a sidewalk Santa, while Chuck tries to make money to buy a gift for the Little Red Haired Girl. Sally writes to Santa's wife and tries to learn her one line in the Christmas Pageant. 

The He-Man She-Ra Christmas Special is probably the least-likely holiday show in existence. Orko accidentally transfers two Earth kids to Etheria, where they teach She-Ra, He-Man, and all their friends about the magic of Christmas and peace on Earth. Horde Prime doesn't appreciate the good will they're spreading and orders Skeletor and Hordak to bring them to him. Skeletor gets to them first...but gets a rather strange lesson in the Christmas spirit when he ends up defending the kids against robot monsters.

Switched to the series finale of What's New, Scooby Doo? while eating lunch. It's an "E-scream" when Mystery Inc visits a fan convention that's overrun with Osmons, tiny furballs that are usually very popular, but seem to have gone crazy and are destroying everything in their path. As they solve the mystery, Velma notices that her friends don't seem to be acting like themselves, leading her to wonder if she's solving a real mystery at all. (Incidentally, this is one of the few times in the entire franchise where there's no unmasking, and technically, no villain.)

This is still one of the best and best-regarded Scooby series. They balanced the usual mysteries with people in masks with unique episodes like "E-Scream" (where there's no villain), "Camp Comeandscareya" (throwback to the Shaggy/Scooby/Scrappy solo shorts of the late 70's-early 80's), and "High Tech House of Horrors" (where technology was the villain). There's echoes of The New Scooby Doo Movies in episodes featuring celebrities like "Riva Ras Regas" and "Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman," too. In fact, if you have younger kids, this might be the best place to start if you want to introduce them to the franchise. It's faster-paced than the original Scooby Doo, Where are You, and has more stories that might appeal to them.

Headed out to run some quick errands before school. Hit WaWa first to use their ATM machine. I haven't had a smoothie from there in ages. Peppermint Mocha really hit the spot, very minty and even more chocolatey! I got one of the things I needed at Family Dollar, which was laundry detergent, but forgot a timer.

I barely had time to put everything upstairs and head back out again when I got home. I'm glad I just got there on time. We needed all hands on deck. One teacher left, so now the one who was taking care of the pre-schoolers had to step up and take the older kids. The kids were all antsy today, every single one. They would not stay in their seats and gave us a hard time about wearing their coats outside, too, even though it was in the 40's.

It was a nice day once we got out, though, sunny, cold, and breezy. You'd never know we're supposed to get torrential rain tomorrow. I did have to break up some of the kids who were sitting around on the top of the playground equipment, trying to push each other on the slides or blocking them. They aren't supposed to be pushing on the slides, and they certainly didn't need to block them. Other kids wanted to go down the slides, too. I also chatted with kids looking for people walking dogs and admired the beautiful gold sunset as we went inside.

When we got in, I helped the kids color and sharpened colored pencils. I wish they'd just stick to coloring and leave other things alone. Their attempts to cut out paper and use tape ends with them making messes and us with no masking tape. Some of the kids were rowdy even inside and would not sit down and play games. They were finally settling down with the magnetic tiles when I left.

Went straight home and watched Match Game '78 during dinner and as I finally brought the laundry upstairs. We finished the Joe Gargiola week and went on to one with Avery Schriber and Lee Merriweather. At one point when told to "show us your G-string" (answer), Betty White took off her vest and scarf and did a mock striptease, to the delight of the audience and the annoyance of Gene!

Finished the night at YouTube with shopping game shows. People have been shopping or bidding for items on game shows for a long time. Bid n' Buy is a short-lived Price Is Right imitation from 1958. Players began with $5,000 to bid on clues to a prize. If they could guess the clues, they got the prize. If not, they still got to keep any money they had left from the bidding. This one was kind of confusing, and I can understand why it didn't last longer than its summer replacement slot on CBS.

The Price Is Right itself, on the other hand, is still very much going strong today on CBS. This episode from 1977 has a lot going on. There's a big Showcase win, a buxom blonde in a dress barely containing her cleavage that Bob couldn't take his eyes off of, a rare sighting of the extremely short-lived Professor Price trivia game, and an even rarer sighting of a model in a fur coat (before animal-loving Bob Barker banned them). 

Two shopping games from the 1980's exemplify the good and bad sides of shopping shows. Done right, they could be genuinely exciting ways to see people get a bargain, as in this 1986 episode of Sale of the Century. Bargain Hunters from a year later was far less interesting as people attempted to figure out the price of an item. It seemed far more interested in selling the item to home viewers than playing the game.

Supermarket Sweep went through many different mini-games during its runs on Lifetime and Pax TV, but this episode from 1993 is one of the most emblematic. For all the mini games, the hook - that "Big Sweep" where everyone is running around, gathering items - remains genuinely exciting, and it feels like a real win when they get the bonus clues!

Mall Masters from 2001 was filmed in America's largest mall, the Mall of America in Minnesota. There's echoes of Bargain Hunters here, as mall shoppers team up with contestants to help them answer questions about stores or other places in the mall. Slow-moving and not the most exciting, I can see why this cross between Bargain Hunters and Family Feud only lasted a few months. 

Look for good deals on Cyber Monday with these unique ventures into shopping shows past!

Bid n' Buy (1958)

The Price Is Right (1977)

Sale of the Century (1986)

Bargain Hunters (1987)

Supermarket Sweep (1993)

Mall Masters (2001) 

Friends at Christmas

Began the morning with a really quick breakfast and Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis. This is one of Johnny's later albums from 1986. It features one of Mathis' best Christmas recordings, a delightful version of "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" that later turned up in Home Alone 2. He also has lovely versions of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" and a medley of "Happy Holidays" and "Caroling, Caroling." We also get music from lesser-known 80's projects, including "Where Will I Find Christmas" from The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas and the Leslie Bricusse and Henry Mancini songs from the notorious cult flop Santa Claus: The Movie, "Giving" and "Every Christmas Eve."

It took me longer to make my bed than I thought it would, and I didn't get out the door until 11, when I was supposed to meet Amanda. Good thing she was picking me up at the parking lot of Oaklyn's City Hall, less than a five-minute walk away. She was there when I arrived. I jumped in her car, and we headed down the White Horse Pike to the Legacy Diner. 

We had a hard time finding a place to park at the diner. They were so busy! There's a church just a block from there, and a lot of people probably went straight from church to brunch. At least it only took about 10 minutes to seat us. We both had pancakes and bacon. She had chocolate chip, I had coconut pineapple. Hers was part of the Legacy Sampler, which meant she also got scrambled eggs. She had hot tea, I had iced tea. The Legacy Diner makes wonderful pancakes, fluffy and huge, the size of the plate, and full of fruit. They were also too big to eat in one go. Neither of us finished our pancakes.

Amanda loves coffee, so we headed back down the Pike to Common Grounds in Oaklyn. They too were busy, but Amanda got us a seat at one of the wrought-iron tables along the brick wall. She just had a cup of coffee. I had a matcha latte. We spent the next hour or so discussing our triumphs and difficulties with our students - she teaches kindergarten at a private academy outside of Vineland - and that she's not really close with most of her family.

It had been raining all morning, since before I left Amanda, not hard rain, but a persistent shower that would continue for most of the day. Between the bad weather and Amanda wanting to get home and decorate her own tree, we ended up calling it early and exchanging gifts in her car. She gave me two fancy tins of hot chocolate, a cute kitten playing with a laptop Hallmark ornament, and another bag of scone mix, this one chocolate. 

After Amanda dropped me off, I went straight into putting all the ornaments on my tree, including the Strawberry Shortcake I bought in Vermont and the one Amanda just gave me. I have so many ornaments! Mom made the folksy-themed stitched Santa and heart, the Christmas tree with the buttons, and Holly Hobbie in the 90's. Later, she bought us all ornaments from Winterwood in Rio Grande, like the beautiful flowered heart, the gingerbread Man in the chef's hat, and the Willow angel with the heart. Mom gave Rose and Anny and me Willow Angels the year they came out. Rose's angel holds a rose, mine has a heart, and Anny's has a child. (She gave birth to Skylar that year.) There's all kinds of pop culture characters and figures I love, Lucy Ricardo in a snazzy green dress, a soft BB8, Yogi Bear, the Disney Cinderella (they both came from half-price after-Christmas sales), Pusheen, Shaggy and Scooby out sledding, Winnie the Pooh dressed as an angel while eating honey, Rudolph and the Misfit Toys. Even my star holds fond memories. I bought the silver-tinsel-trimmed topper from Family Dollar in the late 90's, well before I had a tree. I just thought it was too cute and retro.  

I had a little time after I finally got the ornaments done. Since I just rearranged my stuffed animals on my bed anyway, I got the Christmas bears out. This dates to 1987, when Dad gave Mom a big white teddy bear from K-Mart wearing a knitted hat and scarf. She named him Chester and put him on her hope chest, then dressed some of our other bears in old baby clothes and scarves and hats and had them join him. It was an interactive display. We'd change their clothes throughout the season, even putting tiaras and top hats on them at New Year's.

By the early 2000's, only Keefe was left at home, and Mom was tired of putting the bears out. She gave Chester and the remaining Christmas-only bears and clothes to me after I moved to Wildwood in 2002. I had no idea where to put them. I don't have a hope chest, but I did realize it looked a bit bare under my Christmas tree. The Christmas bears and stuffed animals have gone under the tree almost every year since.

Listened to Christmas records all afternoon while I worked. I picked up Volumes 20, 22, and 23 of the True Value Happy Holidays series on eBay. Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas" and the Carpenters singing "Sleigh Ride" are probably the big ones on Volume 20. Leontyne Price also does a nice "I Wonder as I Wander," and Ronnie Milsap's "It's Christmas" is very sweet. Volume 22 gets its country on with Milsap returning for "Silver Bells," Alabama doing "Homecoming Christmas," and Dolly Pardon covering "White Christmas." Ella Fitzgerald ends the album with a gorgeous "Silent Night." Bing Crosby's immortal version of "White Christmas" ends Volume 23, which Mom bought to play while we decorated the tree when I was a kid. It gets a lot more late 80's with "This Christmas" by the Jets and "Greatest Little Christmas Ever Wuz" by Ray Stevens.

Switched to 80's kids Christmas albums while I dressed the bears. The Pac-Man Christmas Album has a rather sappy story about the Pac family inviting the ghosts over for Christmas, but it does have some good songs. "Snowflakes and Frozen Lakes" and "An Old-Fashioned Christmas" are my favorite numbers here. 

A Cabbage Patch Christmas is even better. In fact, I bought this album because it has four songs by the Sherman Brothers along with numbers by other hands. Ironically, the clear winner was one of the numbers by other hands. "Children Go Where I Send Thee" is the attempt by the Colonel to tell the Kids the story of Christ. The Sherman Brothers' best song is "Gimmie Gimmie Take Take." The resident villains in the Cabbage Patch are confused and annoyed by a time of year when their usual adversaries are more likely to give them gifts than run away from them.

Did True Value Happy Holidays Volume 38 after I got off. The Bing Crosby/David Bowie version of "Little Drummer Boy" that ends the album and "Wonderful Christmastime" by Paul McCartney are by far the most famous numbers here. I loved the jazzy Dave Koz "Winter Wonderland" too. Sawyer Brown's "Please Come Home for Christmas" was the best of the country numbers.

Finished the night after a shower with dinner and tonight's YouTube game show marathon. We leave Match Game behind tonight to honor one of the channel owner's favorite game show hosts, Dick Clark, whose birthday would have been next week. Clark, the world's oldest teenager, had already been hosting American Bandstand for almost a decade when he did his first game show. The Object Is..., which had celebrities describing a famous person by using objects associated with them. It was too confusing to last more than a few months in late 1963 and early 1964. 

After the similar Missing Links also failed, Clark focused on radio and Bandstand until 1973, when he hosted The $10,000 Pyramid. He became so associated with the show, he'd host all versions through 1988 except the syndicated $25,000. I have fond memories of watching the CBS daytime New $25,000 and $100,000 Pyramids when I was a kid. 

Clark hosted many lesser-known shows, too. It Takes Two debuted on the Family Channel in 1997. Three couples have to decide between the averages tied to some kind of event, like a huge meal or how much three San Diego Chargers weigh. Not a whole lot too this one. He ended his career with two short-lived Who Wants to Be a Millionaire imitations. Winning Lines and the two-off special Challenge of the Child Geniuses were clearly designed to steal Millionaire's thunder. They both asked questions of a large group of people before narrowing the field down and asking questions in Millionaire style ladders. Winning Lines was slightly more interesting; the kids on the Child Genius specials were more uncanny than brilliant.

Clark appeared as a panelist on other game shows, too. He was either on the panel of What's My Line? or a Mystery Guest many times, both on the network and in syndication. Likewise, he was also a frequent panelist on To Tell the Truth, including its rare 1980 version. He helped a couple with some pretty wild stunts in the 1970 version of Beat the Clock with Gene Wood. His stint on I've Got a Secret in 1964 coincided with their "teenager day." They introduced famous young teenagers, including Carol Lynley, future basketball star Oscar Peterson, and Bobby Fisher, and showed Paul Anka singing a new song he'd written. 

Celebrate the life and times of the man who could climb Pyramids, challenge child geniuses, and kept New Year's Eve and daytime rockin' for 40 years!

Sunday Classics - Dick Clark Happy Heavenly Birthday Marathon

O Christmas Matches

Got a quick start today with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Plus. "Mickey and Pluto Go Camping" at Friendship Lake. While they enjoy their time together, they also admit that they miss their friends. Turns out the others had the same idea and eventually join them.

Hurried off to work after that. Work was pretty much the same as yesterday. Surprisingly busy in the morning, slowing down as afternoon hit. The fact that it's still sunny, windy, and cold probably helped scare some people off. By the time I finished, I had no trouble whatsoever with the carts. I stopped on the way home to buy Finley one last Christmas gift. Saw these cookie-tart things filled with icing on the clearance rack and thought I'd try them.

The other important thing I did at work today was get my flu and Covid shots. I'm overdue for both. Since the pharmacist goes on break around 1-1:30, I couldn't get it after work. I scheduled the appointment during my break. It was worth losing the extra time just to get it over with. 

As soon as I got home, I changed, had lunch, and went straight into Standing Ovation. I go further into this cute but heavily cliched teen dance movie from the early 2010's at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Family Fun Saturday - Standing Ovation

After lunch, I dusted my rooms, then started putting up the Christmas decorations. The miscellaneous items always come first. I hung the wreath with the gold foil stars and big red velvet ribbon on my door. The needlepoint magnetic poinsettia I bought from a church bazaar, the red and green coasters I crocheted myself, the poinsettia place mats, the huge old Nativity that once belonged to my grandmother went in the living room. The bows and tinsel Garland got hung up in the bedroom and draped over book shelves. Decorated the feather-style tree I bought from Dollar Tree a few years ago with tiny ornaments and chenille candy canes I found at the Vermont Country Store.

The tree went up next as I put on tonight's YouTube marathon. I'll do the ornaments with Amanda tomorrow, but I put up the tree itself, the lights, the star, and the garlands tonight. Watched tonight's game show marathon while I worked. Match Game is far from the only older game shows to have episodes missing or can no longer be shown on Buzzr. In addition to being sensitive about the word "midget," Buzzr also skips episodes where people use the word "Oriental," which is now reserved for things, not people.

Password Plus and Super Password were both hit with the "oriental" clues. Orson Bean's story about a middle-eastern cab driver he met in New York in one episode probably didn't help things, either. Other episodes have bad tape that can't be seen or replaced. A 1973 episode of Match Game with Nanette Fabray only turned up this year due to tape damage. A nighttime Match Game episode had fringing around the edges of the screen. 

See some of the rarest game show episodes of all in this unique and thought-provoking marathon!

Match Game Saturday Classics - Fully Stuffed Marathon: Skipped Episodes of Family Feud, Match Game, Password, and Password Plus

Welcome to the Holidays

Began the day with apple pie for breakfast and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Plus. Daisy takes the others mini golfing, but she finds more holes than there should be on the course. She and the others have to figure out who made those holes, and how to help them and still let Daisy get her hole in one.

Rushed off to work the moment the cartoon ended. Work was busier than I thought it would be for the day after Thanksgiving, especially early-on. It did slow down later in the morning as more people focused on other types of shopping. It being a cold day probably didn't help. It was sunny, yes, but still very windy and bitterly cold, barely in the 40's. The wind didn't make gathering carts easy! They all tried to blow away from me.

And I got my schedule next week. In good news, three days off the Acme in a row, including Sunday. I'll be having my annual pre-Christmas get-together with my friend Amanda that day. In bad news, fewer hours, and working next Wednesday and Friday means I'll have two days next week where I have to rush between jobs. 

Did this week's grocery shopping after I finished my shift. Mainly needed to restock apples, yogurt, soda, and granola bars. Found the Acme's generic organic chocolate chunk-coconut granola on clearance. I've never seen Fresca at the Audubon Acme, but they did have Orange Vanilla Coke Zero. Got something small for Amanda, along with cards and candy canes for the Christmas tree (which I'll be putting up this weekend).

Went home and put everything away, then watched two episodes of What's New, Scooby Doo? while eating leftovers for lunch. "Gold Paw" is a gold-covered spook running around Fort Knox, turning military officers into gold statues. Mystery Inc is there to visit Scooby's old friends the Secret Six puppies, who have been tired and going to bed with dirty paws. Turns out they and the Gold-ade Factory next door are at the heart of a mystery revolving around mysteries military explosions that are damaging the factory.

"Reef Grief!" has one of the most unique monsters in the entire franchise, and may be one of the very few times the monster in question wasn't really the villain. Scooby, Shaggy, and the others are in Australia for a major sand castle building contest. The entrants have just begun to disappear under the sand when an enormous coral creature appears, attacking everyone. When Shaggy and Scooby vanish too, the others have to figure out why the creature has left the Great Barrier Reef, and who's the one who is really behind the disappearances.

Headed back out after Scooby ended. After a brief check around Target for one last Christmas present, I finished my grocery shopping at Sprouts. Picked up coconut milk, soda, and peanut butter cookies. They still had plenty of the apple fritter-flavored cranberries left, so I grabbed some of those, too. 

Spent the next hour after I got in and put everything away taking down the Thanksgiving and fall decorations. I'll be putting the Christmas decorations starting tomorrow afternoon. After I got everything down, I vacuumed and Swiftered everything.

Listened to two more True Value Happy Holidays records as I worked. Volume 13 from 1978 is the oldest True Value collection I currently own. 13 and 16 have pretty similar line-ups, probably due to both being from RCA. Both feature Julie Andrews, who sings "Deck the Halls" in 16 and "Jingle Bells" in 13. Perry Como kicks 13 off with "There's No Christmas Like a Home Christmas" and gets "Christ Is Born" in 16. Both feature at least one country singer. Charlie Pride performs "Christmas and Love" in 13, while Dottie West gets the sweet "You are My Christmas, Carol" in 16. Eugene Armandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra perform "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" in 13 and "Angels We Have Heard On High" in 16. Henry Mancini and His Orchestra have "The Christmas Song" in 13 and a medley of traditional carols in 16.

Volume 13 also tosses in Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass with a livelier "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town." Lorne Greene recites The Night Before Christmas on Volume 16. Also on 16, we have Roger Whittaker performing "Christmas Is Here Again," and Ella Fitzgerald's rollicking "Sleigh Ride."

Had dinner and watched Match Game '76 and '78 while eating dinner. We started out with the smoky-voiced older contestant Evelyn finishing her long run. For some reason, they skipped way ahead after that to early 1978, before the set changed and Richard left. Joe Gargiola's only week on the show coincided with the introduction of a new camera angle that showed the backs of the panelists and what they were doing. Betty White and Debralee Scott had more fun flirting with the camera and flouting the new angle.

Watched Nutcracker: The Motion Picture on Tubi next. This exquisite version of the beloved ballet was filmed in 1986, with genuinely creepy sets and costumes designed by Maurice Sendak, of Little Critter and Where the Wild Things Are fame. Certainly, the squat, big-toothed Nutcracker looks like his work. Though the first half is pretty consistent with other retellings, it's the second half where this differs. The Spanish dancers are Arabian, and the Arabian Dance is performed by a woman in a peacock costume. The Chinese dancers perform with a huge gnome. Even Drosselmeyer goes Arabian in the second half, where he directly competes with the Nutcracker Prince for a decidedly adult Clara. This is also another version where Clara and the Nutcracker Prince take over the Sugar Plum Fairy's dances. The unique sets and costumes alone make this worth seeing for fans of The Nutcracker or ballet in general.

Finished the night at YouTube for something else that's truly unique. Kevin Perjurer of Defunctland created a four and a half hour documentary on the Walt Disney Company's attempt to create "Living Characters," aka Audio-Anamatronics that can talk and interact with theme park guests. They were apparently really gung-ho on this in the 2000's and early 2010's, but mobile figures like Bunsen and Beaker in their own Muppet Lab or a dinosaur that moved and pulled a cart proved too expensive, too difficult to maintain, and too prone to breakdowns. 

Animated puppet shows like Talk With Crush at the Living Seas With Nemo that gave audiences a chance to talk (and flirt) with versions of a beloved character were cheaper and went over slightly better with Imagineeers and audiences. There were supposed to have been droids and more "living characters" in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, but cost-cutting and the difficulty with their maintenance ended that idea. I didn't know anyone could do a four and a half hour documentary on the history of Disney's attempt to make robots that interact with guests, but Kevin knows how to make even the driest bit of theme park history vastly entertaining and even hilarious. If you have any interest in the history of robots and Disney's involvement with them, you owe it to yourself to check this out, even if you have to break it down into a couple of days' viewing like I did.

Disney's Living Characters: A Broken Promise

Thanksgiving With the Family

Began the morning with the Thanksgiving material in the Colliers Harvest of Holidays anthology. The long piece for Thanksgiving is a story about a Pilgrim grandmother relating her memories of the first Thanksgiving to her family. There's also several hymns and poems, including "Over the River and Through the Woods."

The original book version of Molly's Pilgrim is pretty close to the half-hour special that debuted in 1985. The biggest difference is it's likely set in what I suspect to be the early 1900's. Elizabeth, the girl who bullies Molly, has long black ringlets rather than straight blonde hair, they go a little more into Molly and her family being Jewish, and Molly doesn't get extra help for English after school. It's still a sweet and charming story, though, a reminder that "pilgrims" continue to search for religious freedom even today.

There's a short story in the Disney Storybookland anthology called "Pilgrim's Party." Mickey takes Minnie, Donald, and Pluto to Plymouth, Massachusetts for a real old-fashioned Thanksgiving dinner. It's all fun and Pilgrim cosplay, until Pluto steals the turkey!

Changed and had breakfast while watching the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Parade. They've gone through a couple of different sponsors through the years. The current sponsors are ABC and Dunkin' Donuts, the latter of whom had an extremely pink donut float in the parade. The only balloon I saw in the air was Clifford the Big Red Dog. There was a modern Netflix Strawberry Shortcake, but I think she had deflated by the time they showed her on the broadcast, because she seemed to be laying down. I saw an Acme float, too, appropriately based around a cornucopia bursting with harvest produce. 

Thank heavens this was broadcast for free on WPVI 6's website. The Macy's Parade is the exclusive domain of Peacock online, but it was more fun to see what Philly did for Thanksgiving anyway. A huge tap group did an enormous number with dozens of kids all tapping together. We had songs from the stage Beauty and the Beast and Here's Love (under the title Meredith Wilson's Miracle On 34th Street: The Musical). The Four Tops, Jordan Sparks, and a group called Cameo performed their hits. There were marching bands from as far away as Indiana. Unlike Macy's parade, which ends with the arrival of Santa, the Philly parade ended with a huge number that included the tap dancers, the All-American Cheerleaders, Santa, and piles of confetti.

Called Mom while the parade was on. We weren't able to chat for very long. She was making pies for my brother's Thanksgiving dinner. Keefe insisted on making the rest of the dinner, including the turkey (though his wife Julia was apparently in charge of the sweet potatoes). There had been a few problems when Elijah came out, but he's as healthy as any darling baby ever born now.

Switched to two delightful Thanksgiving specials from the 1980's after the parade ended. I go further into the charming Paul Fusco puppet show A Thanksgiving Tale at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Thanksgiving Short Subject Special - A Thanksgiving Tale

The 1985 Molly's Pilgrim won an Oscar for Best Live-Action Short Subject that year...and richly deserved it. The story is now reset in the mid-80's. Molly is a young Jewish girl from Russia whose family came to a small Midwestern town in search of religious freedom. Molly is still bullied by children who envy her gymnastics abilities and don't understand her accent or her Borscht lunches. She's upset and feels out of place, especially after her mother makes a clothes pin Pilgrim that looks more like a traditional Russian peasant than the usual Pilgrim. Molly's teacher finally explains to the class that Molly's mother is right - pilgrims still exist today, and they come to America for the same reason the ones at Plymouth Rock did. As her classmate Arthur said, it does take all kinds of pilgrims to make a Thanksgiving.

Since I had food to carry and I wasn't sure how late I was going to be at Rose's, I walked to her house. It was a gorgeous day for it. Yesterday's off-and-on clouds had given way to a beautiful, sunny, if chilly afternoon. It was in the 40's, cold, but really more in line with what it should be during late November.

I was greeted at the door by Rose's two dogs Cider and Oreo barking their hellos. Jessa had already arrived (in fact, she texted me earlier to ask which house was Rose's) as the Green Bay Packers-Detroit Lions game began. It was just Rose, Craig, 8-year-old Finley, 15-year-old Khai, and Jessa this year. Craig's mother apparently went up to New England to visit his brother. 

Jessa played Dinosaur Bingo with Finley and Khai while Craig and I watched the game and we all had appetizers from three huge trays. One tray had sliced vegetables and dip. One had sweet goodies - donut holes, my pumpkin bread, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, pomegranates (Finley ate most of those - she apparently loves them), Danish butter cookies. There were also bowls of chips and pretzels and a yummy shrimp cocktail.

(Oh, and the Packers did very well against the Lions, who are no slouches themselves. The Packers would run and get a touchdown, then the Lions would get one. In the end, the Packers finally outran them 31-24.)

It was well into the Kansas City Chiefs-Dallas Cowboys game before dinner was ready. Rose apparently forgot to put the turkey in early! Jessa left before dinner, but the rest of us sat down to turkey, ham, green beans with bacon and crispy onions, mashed potatoes. cubed orange and purple sweet potatoes, canned cranberry sauce, tossed salad, and rolls. Oh, yum! The two meats looked like they belonged on the cover of a food magazine or the main page of a food website. The turkey was so juicy, I saw Rose cleaning up turkey juice she'd spilled (with the help of the dogs). Even the white meat was moist and tender. The ham was almost as good.

(The Chiefs-Cowboys game didn't go nearly as well. Their game was also close and well-played, but the Cowboys just managed to push ahead at the end 31-28.)

While Khai disappeared into his "office" (a tiny storage area where he plays computer games) and Craig and Rose prepared dinner, Finley and I played something called Zingo. You get a board containing small words, like what, the, she, if, and or (along with the numbers two and three). Someone pushes a lever that makes two yellow chips with words on them slide out of a slot. You have to grab the word before the other person does to fill your card. I did win a few games, but not only was Finley faster, I was tired and couldn't really focus on where the words were.

It wasn't until almost 7 when Rose and Craig brought the sweets tray back out, along with pumpkin pie, apple pie, vanilla ice cream, and home-made whipped cream. Finley and I both went for pumpkin pie with whipped cream. (In fact, I think Finley mainly had whipped cream. There might have been pumpkin somewhere under the enormous mounds of white fluff on her plate.) Khai insisted that he wasn't a fan of pies, so he had a root beer float instead. 

Finley and Craig brought drove me and a huge bag of leftovers home around 8. I went straight online and into the annual Match Game Productions Thanksgiving marathon. This year's theme was "personal favorite episodes of the channel's owner." The marathon started much earlier, but I did get to see two classic syndicated episodes that were also personal favorites of mine. 

In a 1979 syndicated episode, Joyce Bulifant wears a crazy red fright wig that made her look like a demented Little Orphan Annie to keep from being mistaken for the other blonde on the show that week, Elaine Joyce. A later contestant was almost as weird, giving a very strange answer to what a jock centipede bought along with 100 pairs of shoes. 

Betty White turned up in a much later syndicated episode from 1981 wearing a short, flaming red and gold dress made by a friend of Sharon Farrell's. Sharon was no slouch either in her pink pants outfit. She and Richard Paul inadvertently demonstrated mud wrestling when she landed on him during McLean Stevenson's answer for what form of "wrassling" should be an Olympic event. Later on, a contestant's laugh that he supposedly used to wake up in the morning was so terrifying, it sent McLean hurrying for Gene's entrance doors.

At any rate, enjoy your own feast of favorites with this bountiful showcase!

Match Game Thanksgiving 2025 Countdown Marathon

Cranberries and Turkey Feathers

Got a quick start this morning with breakfast and Garfield's Thanksgiving. Garfield is not a happy camper when Liz not only puts him on a diet the day before Thanksgiving, but Jon invites her for dinner. Jon can't cook something the size of a turkey to save his life. Good thing Grandma from the Christmas special knows what to do.

Spent the rest of the morning working on something I've been wanting to do for almost two weeks. I bought two containers of fresh cranberries from the farm market, but haven't had the time to make them into cranberry sauce. Finally did that this morning. I think I either didn't mash them enough, didn't boil them enough, or overdid the water, because they did not thicken. I just let the sauce cool in the hope it would thicken before running off to the Thomas Sharp School.

It had rained off and on all morning. Though it wasn't raining by the time I rode there and looked like it hadn't rained in a few hours, the playground was still pretty wet. There was no thought of taking the little kids out today. After I ate lunch with them, we took them to the library to hear What Was I Scared Of?, Room On the Broom, and the Piggie and Elephant story The Thank You Book. They were rowdy, spending more time messing around with the chairs than listening...but to be fair, they were all squished up front in that small library and didn't have a lot of room to sit down.

After that, we traded rooms. The younger kids moved to the cafeteria to watch The Land Before Time on a teacher's cell phone, while the older kids watched the feature-length animated The Grinch from 2018 in the library. One of the teachers brought popcorn and pretzels, which meant everyone got a free snack. Some of the kids continued coloring turkeys and fall scenes in the cafeteria. After they got tired of that, they used play clay and made turkeys from pipe cleaners, Popsicle sticks, feathers, and glue...but that made just as much of a mess as the turkey hand project from last week. 

The head teacher said I could go early, but I did stick around for an extra half-hour to help clean up the feather mess and wipe down and organize toys and games before everyone comes back on Monday. The kids in the cafeteria were tossing around a Nerf ball and the ones in the library were finishing The Grinch when I headed out around 4. 

(Oh, and the rain returned around 6:15 and continued, sometimes heavily, off and on for the rest of the evening.)

Put on Planes, Trains, and Automobiles when I got home. All ad executive Neil Page (Steve Martin) wants is to get home to Chicago in time for his Thanksgiving dinner, but he has the worst case of bad travel luck ever. The plane is cancelled, the train breaks down, the crammed-full bus only goes to St. Louis, and there's no rental cars on the lot. He also keeps encountering Del Griffith (John Candy), a shower curtain ring salesman who is the nicest guy you'll ever meet, but is also a chatty mass of bad habits. As the two men travel in any and every way they can across the frozen Midwestern landscape, Neil discovers why Del is on the road during a holiday...and why he has a real reason to be thankful for his home and family.

What's likely director John Hughes' best movie features a hilarious script and career-best performances from Martin and Candy as the two very different men who navigate every possible obstacle on the road to Chicago. Their chemistry carries the movie, even when it takes a forced left turn into sentimentality near the end.

Switched to The Plymouth Adventure after a shower. This one goes further into the history behind the holiday. Spencer Tracy is Captain Christopher Jones, the grizzled head of the Mayflower charged with taking a group of 102 colonists to the New World on the tiny Mayflower. Among those traveling are Puritans, a strict religious sect who are going to America to avoid persecution in their native England. Jones doesn't trust them, especially after he falls for Dorothy Bradford (Gene Tierney), the wife of the group elder William Bradford (Leo Genn). Carpenter John Alden (Van Johnson) has his own sights set on pretty Priscilla Mullins (Dawn Addams), but she seems to favor Captain Miles Standish (Noel Drayton). 

Tierney and Tracy are by far the most interesting thing about this spectacular action drama. The other winner here are the special effects. They won an Oscar in 1952, and they still look darn good today, especially the huge storm near the middle of the film. 

Had dinner while watching three very different Thanksgiving sitcom episodes. Barney Miller's "Thanksgiving Story" has Miller and his men frustrated over not being able to go home for the holiday. Their Thanksgiving takes a strange turn when they have to deal with a group of mental health hospital escapees who invaded an automat and a man who stabbed his mooching brother-in-law in the hand with a fork during Thanksgiving dinner.

Things aren't much better in Korea on MASH. Hawkeye and Hunnicut hit "The Yalu Brick Road" to get an antidote for the salmonella from Klinger's cheap turkeys that left almost the entire base sick. They not only manage to get the medicine, but pick up a Korean soldier who keeps surrendering to them on the way. Meanwhile, Father Mulcahey has to keep Hot Lips and Winchester from killing each other, and Rizzo (G.W Baiely) wants to get his hands on Klinger and squeeze the life out of him when he's up to moving.

The swashbuckler spoof Jack of All Trades wins the award for most creative holiday episode. In "One, Two, Three, Give Me Lady Liberty," Jack and Emilia discover that Napoleon is building an enormous woman statue he intends to send to the US. Emilia is flattered when the diminutive emperor insists on using her face for the statue, but she's not as thrilled when she finds out why he's really sending it. Jack finally gets Napoleon to admit his plot at their Thanksgiving dinner, then insists on another Thanksgiving tradition to distract him - football! 

Here's even more specials to tide you over before your own turkey dinner tomorrow!

Looney Tunes - Tom Turk and Daffy

The Berenstain Bears Meet Big Paw

Alan King's Thanksgiving Special: What Have We Got to Be Thankful For? 

Buttons and Rusty In The Turkey Caper (A Chucklewood Thanksgiving)

Intergalactic Thanksgiving (Please Don't Eat the Planets)

Tennessee Tuxedo - The Romance of Plymouth Rock

Calvin & the Colonel - Thanksgiving Dinner

Tex Avery at MGM - Jerky Turkey

Nickelodeon's Thanksgiving Fest 1989

BC - The First Thanksgiving

Terry Toons - The Landing of the Pilgrims

Casper the Friendly Ghost - Do or Diet

Gram Bear's Thanksgiving Surprise

Rain for the Holidays

I slept so late, I had just enough time to grab breakfast and write quickly in my journal before hurrying out the door. As it turned out, I could have been infinitely late. There was plenty of help, including in the registers. That freed up the head bagger to actually sweep and help me with the carts. Frankly, after I got in, there was no trouble whatsoever. I even saw a local hard-rock radio station doing a "Turkey Drop," collecting frozen turkeys for the poor, early-on.

It had been cloudy, cold, and breezy all morning. I felt a few raindrops at work, but the showers didn't start coming down until I started riding home. They continued lightly as I changed, had lunch, and watched the infamous Thanksgiving episode of WKRP In Cincinnati. Station manager Arthur Carlson is bored with having nothing to do at the station, so he and promotional manager Herb Tarek come up with what they think will be a huge promotion. It's "Turkeys Away" when Les Nesserman is recruited to cover the event...and learns the hard way about turkeys being flightless birds when they don't exactly do what Arthur thinks they will.

Headed out early for the Thomas Sharp School. While the rain wasn't heavy, it wasn't stopping, either. I walked to the school so I could carry an umbrella and stop at Crust n' Cravings on Collings Avenue for lunch. Had quick and tasty slices of cheese and broccoli and tomato and a can of Coke Zero while half-listening to the TV on behind me.

Alas, the playground was wet enough by quarter of 3 that there could be no thought of playing outside today. Thanks to the band class running late, we had the younger kids in the library this afternoon. Though one of the teachers did read the Dr. Seuss classics Green Eggs and Ham, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and The Lorax, the kids spent most of the afternoon coloring in one form or another. After they got bored with coloring printed pictures of fall scenes and Pokemon, two of the teachers lay long pieces of paper down on the tables and let them work with stencils instead.

We finally moved the kids back to the cafeteria by quarter of 5. The younger girls and one of the boys spent the time practicing their cartwheels on the mat in front of the door, while the older kids colored and threw a ball around. It had calmed down considerably by the time I finally headed out around 5:15.

The rain slowed down long enough for me to stop at the Speedy Mart on Collings and pick up two bagels. One is for lunch at the school tomorrow, since they start early. The other had powdered sugar on it, and I just wanted to try it. Strolled home in the same light off-and-on shower that had been going all afternoon.

(I got lucky. The rain picked up about a half-hour after I got home and has been off and on ever since.)

Dug out my glass bread pan and all the ingredients for Golden Pumpkin Bread when I got home. This delicious recipe comes from my Baking Basics Land O'Lakes pamphlet I bought from the Acme's front registers so long ago, I picked it up when I worked in Wildwood. It's pretty simple to make. You just put butter, brown sugar, flour, baking powder and baking soda, and spices into a bowl together and turn on the mixer. The recipe actually calls for it to be three mini-loaves, but I only have one big loaf pan, so that's what I made. It took a while to cook, but it smelled marvelous when it was in the oven!

Watched Two for Tonight while I worked, and later as I had dinner. I go further into this sweet, small-scale Bing Crosby vehicle about a songwriter who has a few days to write a play at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Two for Tonight

Since I was already at YouTube, I switched to the QBert short "Thanksgiving for the Memories" from Saturday Supercade. I don't know how or why video game icons kept ending up in Thanksgiving cartoons in the early 80's, but this one has Pilgrims Q-Bert and Coiley competing to see who can win a horse and buggy. When Q-Bert's little brother Q-Bit gets upset and runs away, everyone, including the friendly Natives, work together to find him.

Finished the night with Christmas records while I worked on the review. Happy Holidays Vol. 21 from 1986 is one of the stronger True Value Christmas collections. Bing turns up here too, in the then-rare "A Christmas Toast." We also get Julie Andrews joining Andre Previn for "Angels From the Realm of Glory," Bobby Vinton's "Christmas Eve In My Home Town," and Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gourme's fun "Hurry Home For Christmas." They even give us two big band holiday numbers, Tommy Dorsey's version of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" and Glenn Miller and His Orchestra performing "Jingle Bells." 

The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood is probably the closest we'll get to a true English pantomime on this side of the Atlantic. This 1965 TV musical features Liza Minnelli as the impossibly naive young lady in the red cloak, Cyril Ritchard as the fussy Wolf, and Vic Damone as the woodsman who may or may not be royalty. Jule Styne and Bob Merrill didn't quite match their earlier score for Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, but there are a few pleasures here. Everyone claims "We Wish the World a Happy Yule" at the beginning and the end, and Ritchard and Minnelli really get into "Ding-a-Ling, Ding-a-Ling." 

How the Grinch Stole Christmas is far better-known today. The big song, of course, is "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," performed with absolute menace by Thurl Ravenscroft. The other vocal number is the Who's lovely "Welcome Christmas" as they herald the season and trim their homes. The album I bought from Target last year pretty much features almost the entire special, including most of the dialogue. Of the instrumental tracks, "A Quarter to Dawn" and "I Must Stop Christmas" are probably the most notable.

Favorite Christmas Carols from the Voice of Firestone kicked off what would become a seven-year tradition in 1962. Unlike the pop and jazz-skewering True Value and Goodyear collections, the Firestone albums mostly feature classical or more traditional carols. Rise Stevens and Brian Sullivan perform "What Child Is This," "The Friendly Beasts," "Deck the Halls," "Silent Night," "The First Noel," and "O Little Town of Bethlehem," among others.