Knock On Woody

I slept in again today, having stayed up late writing Bowery Boys fanfiction with Lauren. I wasn't really interested in the Brunch With the Beatles theme (their failed audition for Decca - ever wanted to hear the Beatles perform "The Sheik of Araby"?), so I switched to Woody Woodpecker cartoons.

Good ol' Woody. The shorts here were from what many considered to be his golden years, about 1945 to 1948. First of all, he was helpfully redesigned, eliminating those weird fat legs and adding his white stomach. He now looks far more like the Woody who delighted my sisters and I with his antics on Channel 29 in the late 80s and early 90s. My favorites here were The Dippy Diplomat (Woody invades Wally Walrus' barbecue), The Reckless Driver (who on EARTH gave Woody a driver's license?), The Coo Coo Bird (the bird in Woody's clock won't let him sleep), and The Mad Hatter (Woody does battle with a top hat).

Poor Andy Panda was redesigned and re-characterized even more often than Woody. I suspect Universal may not have known what to do with him. He started out as a cutesy cub (Life Begins For Andy Panda), segwayed into a Huey/Dewey/Louie-style mischief-making kid after a few cartoons, and ended up a Mickey Mouse-style every-panda. It's rather a shame. Some of his later cartoons, including the devilish Apple Andy, weren't bad. (According to several online cartoon sites, Andy had a bigger career in the comics, where he even picked up a girlfriend, Miranda Panda.)

I called Mom briefly while running Woody cartoons. She was babysitting my nephews, who were attached to SpongeBob Squarepants. Nothing much going on in her neck of the woods - she'd spent most of it working.

I did some things online after I finished with the cartoons, but I ultimately got bored and went for a short walk. It was a nice day for it. It's still cold, probably in the lower-mid 30s, but not out of line for mid-January in southern New Jersey. The sun was bright, the sky was icy-blue, and there was a nice little breeze. The snow has been slowly but surely melting here. All of the roads are clear, though some of the sidewalks remain icy.

(Also got to say "hi" to Uncle Ken and my cousin Ethan, who were working on taking down Uncle Ken's Christmas lights. Most of the rest of Ethan's family is sick; he was on a camping trip and managed to avoid their illness.)

After I came back in, I had a quick lunch of escarole salad and half of a turkey cutlet, then changed into my work uniform and headed to the Acme. I had a very pleasant ride. I wouldn't mind getting more snow like this, snow that looks pretty without lingering for too long or causes more than a day's worth of trouble. The snow is vanishing quickly from sunny patches and is more than half-gone from my porch.

I thought work would be busy all night, but the lines were only long when I came in at 3. By the time I finished at 7, it was dead. I was able to leave without a relief, and there were no major problems.

Went straight home for the second half of The Dress Circle. The theme tonight was "Everybody Sings Harold Arlen." You may not recognize the name, but you very likely know this composer's songs, some of the most famous written between 1930 and 1960 - "Over the Rainbow," "Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe," "Stormy Weather," "Ac-Cen-Tu-Ate The Positive," and "One For My Baby (And One More For the Road)," among many others.