Candy Sweet

Began the day at work. I had one of my two early shifts today. That's fine with me. I was in at 8:30 and out by 1:30. I don't mind working in the morning as long as I do it consistently and not TOO early...and I've pretty much just been working in the mornings and afternoons lately. (Also fine by me, but not likely to last when employees start coming back from vacation.) It was quiet when I came in, busy when I left. We did have several annoying beginning-of-the-month people, including one obnoxious old woman who fussed when she complained about the packs of Boost energy drinks she wanted being $14.97 all together...after two coupons AND I gave her the sale, even though they weren't coming up on sale! I'm sorry lady, but those stupid energy drinks are just expensive! Buy real water if you want something cheap and good for you. I was much happier helping the other employees on the early shift restock the candy bar and gum shelves on the registers.

I had a snack after I got in, changed, grabbed my books that were due, and went right back out again to return my books and do this week's library volunteering. I just organized the children's DVDs and helped kids find DVDs today. All the librarians were busy. After I finished, I renewed The Bloody Tower (which I still haven't gotten to) and took out two more books, the early 20th century-set novel The Temple of Music and another American Girls History Mystery, Mystery of the Dark Tower, set in 1928 Harlem.

I also finished off the Tiny Toons set as I ate home-made beef stir-fry for dinner. They could have done a better job with the set - it's obvious the print hasn't been cleaned up, there's one so-so featurette, and the packaging stinks...but the show is still funny if you get all of the jokes. Mom's right. Some of the "Tiny Toons" humor IS fairly adult and occasionally off-color, and there's a few episodes (like one spoofing early 90s Jazzy Prince-style rap and another about 90s fads) that haven't dated well. I also noticed something that never occurred to me as a kid. For all the hip humor, this show can be surprisingly preachy, maybe because of the intended audience. There's a couple of episodes on environmental concerns, one about two snotty rats smoking and annoying Babs, and then there's Elmyra and her her poor treatment of just about everything around her.

On the other hand, there's also some surprisingly strong character development for a kids' show. You can relate to the Tiny Toons in ways you weren't able to relate to the original Looney Tunes or the stars of the next big WB show, Animaniacs. They may be tiny, toony, and more than a little loony, but even after 35 episodes, you really get to feel that they're friends. They even occasionally give villains Elmyra and (more rarely) Montana Max a little sympathy.