Court Is Adjourned

I spent most of the day working on writing for Helium. The first story I did was a short story piece that was supposed to revolve around the topic of "hurricane winds." I based it after a real-life experience. In 1985, Cape May was hit by Hurricane Gloria. While the devastation actually could have been worse, there was some damage and extensive flooding. Mom and Dad actually took my sisters and I onto the boardwalk to take pictures of the mess. The wooden parts of the boardwalk had gaping holes; one building that hadn't been in great shape anyway was a wreck and was later demolished. The flood waters on Beach Avenue were up to the knees of my five feet, eleven inch stepfather in some places. It wasn't raining when we were there, but the wind was still pretty bad, and was blowing sand stung all our faces. My baby sister kept crying.

I pretty much followed my memories, but gave the father a better reason to want to take photos of a hurricane - I made him a local reporter looking for shots for the town newspaper. He brings his wife along to help, and she brings their daughters, including the story's narrator. I made all of the towns, streets, and businesses mentioned fictional, but based after real southern Jersey Shore towns. I did some online research on hurricanes and Hurricane Gloria to make things a bit more realistic.

Finished out my writing with a flash fiction quickie based around "entertaining guests." A pair of pre-teens at a slumber party have a conversation about their first crushes that end in good-natured teasing and throwing stuffed animals at each other. The amused mother of one catches them in the act, but the moment she leaves, they return to their battle.

I also worked on my budget. The result was not good. While my papers do seem to have gone through, I only got $107 this week - no back pay this time. I can push that for another week, but not much longer. I am going to have to insist on going back to work a little early.

Ran the second disc of Night Court Season 1 during most of the day. Karen Austin disappeared by the time of Episode 10, replaced by a rotating assortment of clerks for the rest of the season. (She would be permanently replaced by Mac early in Season 2.) My favorite episodes here were "Wonder Drug" (Lana has a crazy reaction to a strong cold pill that results in her passionately kissing Harry) and "Bull's Baby" (Bull tries to take care of an infant on his own; the others catch wind and come to his apartment to help out).

Switched to the 1957 Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella while making Spinach and Mushrooms in Lemon Sauce with leftover chicken sausage patties for dinner. The original version of the only musical R&H wrote exclusively for TV featured Julie Andrews in the title role, John Cryer as her prince, comediennes Alice Ghostly and Kaye Ballard as the stepsisters, and Broadway stars Howard Lindsay and Dorothy Stickney as the King and Queen. There are several differences from the later versions, including an expanded role for the King and Queen (they even had their own short number) and the Fairy Godmother (Edie Adams) being closer to Cinderella's age and played more as a girlfriend than a kindly older woman.

Having grown up on the 1965 Leslie Ann Warren version and enjoyed the 1997 Brandy rendition, I was thrilled when I heard that this had been released on DVD after being lost for decades. This is something to keep in mind when you see the fuzzy black-and-white picture on the DVD. We're lucky to have this at all. Frankly, all three versions are charming, and as I said when discussing the '65 special, the version you like most depends on which one you grew up with, which cast you prefer, and whether or not picture quality is a factor.