Miss Redmer Meets the Mummy...and the Comedians

Though it was nicer today than it has been, in the lower 60s and sunny, I opted to start out the morning by working on the inventories in the apartment and doing some online stuff. I had the last of the Spring Pasta and Mussels Salad on a bed of organic green lettuce for lunch while finishing That's Entertainment. After that ended, I rounded up a bag of books, CDs, videos, and the Oklahoma! DVD I didn't need to bring to the Haddon Township Library.

It was windy and off-and-on cloudy for most of the day. Many people took advantage of the lack of actual rain to head into Newton River Park. I dodged dog walkers (including one with the cutest little puppy, a slender white critter with light brown spots), parents pushing their children in strollers, and a mother teaching her son to fish.

The Haddon Township Library was pretty busy by the time I finally made it there. The kids were just out of school and clamoring for books and DVDs. One little boy needed help finding SpongeBob Square Pants. A slightly older boy requested Goosebumps. There were almost no kids' books to shelve, but I did have lots of DVDs to put away.

For the first time in months, I took out a pile of DVDs myself. In addition to Scooby Doo: Curse of the Lake Monster (which I never got to last week), I took out Cowboys & Aliens, Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy, a set of Scooby Doo cartoons with an around-the-world theme, and the newest Scooby Doo animated film, Scooby Doo: Music of the Vampire. Yes, it's a musical, and I'm still willing to take my chances.

After I left the library, I rode across the street to the Westmont Plaza. My main stop was JoAnn's. I came up with an idea to spruce up the exterior of my apartment. I thought I'd try painting a couple of wooden plaques and hanging them as "Welcome to the Riverside Rest" signs the siding next to my front door. I couldn't find any large wood pieces that would work. Two thinner ones shaped like plaques would have to do. I also bought more acrylic paints, these earth-toned.

Made a quick stop at Super Fresh but couldn't find what I was looking for. I was originally going to run more errands, but the traffic on Cuthbert Road and the White Horse Pike was horrible, the wind was picking up, and the clouds were beginning to look more like yesterday' dark gray puffs. I just rode home.

It was so chilly, I was able to make baked spiral ham, mashed sweet potatoes, and steamed asparagus without making my apartment the least bit warm. Ran Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy as I prepared dinner. The final Universal film of the 40s and 50s' favorite wise-cracking, monster-chasing comic duo takes them to Egypt, where they're photographers hoping to make a quick buck. Freddie (Lou Costello) finds the corpse of a professor who recently discovered a mummy that may be cursed. His pal Pete (Bud Abbott) doesn't believe him...until he sees the corpse and ends up blamed for his murder. Meanwhile, Freddie ends up with the medallion that may be the key to getting past the Mummy and to the fabulous treasure he guards. A group of smugglers want the treasure and mummy to sell; cultists want the medallion to keep the mummy alive and guarding the princess and her hoard. Pete and Freddie do their best to outwit both groups, avoid the reanimated mummy, stay alive, and make a heap of cash besides.

Abbott and Costello are one of the few major "Golden Age of Hollywood" comic acts I don't own in any form. I do like them, especially their famous series of horror spoofs. I just haven't gotten around to getting their films yet. This is the last of the series; their vogue was winding down, having been replaced by younger, hipper comics like Martin and Lewis. While not the funniest movie they ever did, there's some nice bits, including their interplay with the shovels and the smugglers x-ray-ing Lou.

Switched to the first three episodes on the Scooby Doo cartoon set while cleaning up from dinner. Much to my surprise, all three shows were from the mid-70s The Scooby Doo Show. For kids who grew up in the 70s and 80s, this is probably the incarnation of Scooby they know best. It's pretty much the same formula as the original - kids, dog, ghosts who turn out to be local criminals - in more exotic locations. "The Fiesta Host Is an Aztec Ghost" takes the gang to Mexico, where they solve the mystery of a giant Aztec statue who has been terrorizing a Mayan temple. "The Spirits of '76" returns them to the US to explore the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC. When they're accidentally locked in, they discover a plot to steal money from the US Mint.

My favorite was the genuinely creepy "The Harum Scarum Sanitarium." Lost near the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, the members of Mystery Inc. find themselves in a sanitarium that was once owned by a mad doctor who used organ music to control animals. While the boys dodge the ghost of the mad scientist, the girls try to figure out why those patients are going out in an ambulance in the middle of the night, and how the ambulance keeps disappearing. Not only was this the scariest episode hands down, but it was nice to see Fred end up chasing Shaggy and Scooby and their appetites for once, instead of one of the girls.