Puttin' On the Snow

I awoke to the sound of rain pouring on the roof in torrents. Yes, we were getting the huge storm everyone was talking about, though at that point, it was just rain. I ran the American Top 40 while I hoped that the rain would slow down enough for me to go to at least the bank and the farm market. They were in late October 1986 today, a year that seemed to delight in ballads - we heard Don Johnson's "Heartbeat" (yes, the Miami Vice Don Johnson), Boston's "Amanda," Genesis' "Throwin' It All Away," and that week's number one song, the classic Cyndi Lauper ballad "True Colors." (Interestingly, Phil Collins would have an equally popular remake of that number more than a decade later.)

I ended up spending most of the day at home. The rain never slowed down. Sometime before noon, it changed to sleet. I could see it on the side of my porch with fewer trees. I never did get to the farm market or the bank, or anywhere else besides work.

Spent the morning cleaning the bathroom and the kitchen. I ran horror-themed Looney Tunes and Garfield and Friends shorts while I was in the kitchen, and then during lunch. After lunch, I put on Young Frankenstein and worked on crocheting.

Young Frankenstein is one of Mel Brooks' most unusual movies, even for him. For starters, it's one of the few movies he made that he doesn't appear in, even in a cameo. It also has far more atmosphere than most of his films, thanks to the use of the real sets from the original Universal Frankenstein. The script by him and star Gene Wilder is both a funny and oddly touching homage to the films and book. The "young Frankenstein" of the title is the Fredrick Frankenstein (pronounce it "Fraunk-ensteen, please)(Wilder), grandson of the famous mad scientist, who wishes to distance himself from his infamous grandparent. He travels to Transylvania to claim an inheritance. The inheritance turns out to be a spooky castle, an assistant named Igor with a humpback that keeps moving (Marty Feldman), a far more attractive female assistant (Terri Garr), and his grandfather's library of ideas to reanimate dead humans. Believing that his grandfather's theories may work, the trio unearth a dead man and bring him to life...but Igor's mistake with brains may wind up doing a lot more damage than even Fredrick could have predicted.

I've always liked this one. It's perfect for a spooky, rainy afternoon like this one, a great movie to watch while sipping hot chocolate in a cozy room. It's not as goofy as some of Brooks' other movies, with an odd elegance all it's own.

Switched to The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters after Young Frankenstein ended. This one goes further into goofy territory. For once, both Slip and Sach are equally in trouble when they try to buy a lot off a spooky family of mad scientists who want to get their hands on both their brains. Not my favorite Bowery Boys horror comedy, but it is one of the most popular they did. There are some clever touches, notably the man-eating tree.

Obviously, even I wasn't going to attempt to ride to work in sleet. Dad and Jodie drove me to work. Dad drove me home. Work was busy with beginning-of-the-month shoppers when I came in, dead when I left. Someone told me it snowed for a little while. If it did, I didn't see it. When I came out after buying produce to replace what I wasn't able to get at the farm market, it was back to raining and sleeting. It's continued to rain and sleet for the rest of the night.