The Stooges, the Mouse, and the Sailor Soldiers

In honor of the London Summer Olympics this week, I had a sports theme going this morning. In an episode from Sailor Moon's third season, frail Hotoru admires a young athlete who was also frail as a child, but worked himself up to being a track record-breaker. Hotoru wants to give him a letter to tell him how she feels, but she's too shy. Serena and Rini try to encourage her to talk to him while he's training. Trouble is, Mimtete of the Witches Five is also after the comely young runner...and his pure heart!

Mickey Mouse may be an even more unlikely athlete. In the 1932 short "Barnyard Olympics," he joins the cross-country race (marathon). With Minnie and Clarabelle cheering him on in the stands, he looks poised to be a winner. Will a nasty rival cat make it across the finish line first?

Went right to work after that. I was at work most of the day. Today was my 8 1/2 hour shift. It could have been worse. Actually, it was pretty on-and-off for most of the day. It did get really busy during rush hour, but otherwise, it wasn't bad. It was so quiet by 7, I spent the last half-hour doing returns.

A pair of small treats I ordered on Amazon.com last week finally arrived today. I saw Moe Howard's out-of-print autobiography Moe Howard & The 3 Stooges for a good price. Also bought The Three Stooges Career Guide. It was cheap, and I figured I could use some job-related laughs.

I'll go through Moe's book more thoroughly tomorrow, but for now, the Career Guide is a riot. The premise is simple - job-related captions to Stooge photos. I like that the book is democratic. There's pictures with all six Stooges, including Joe Besser and Curly Joe DeRita. In fact, Curly Joe nabbed one of my favorites. His expression when confronted by a guy fatter than him and Curly put together is classic. So's the caption - "Believe In Yourself and You Can Tackle Any Challenge. Probably." Oh, and "Embrace Creative Destruction" should officially become the Three Stooges motto.