Nutty Night Courts and Daffy Duos

I decided to take a break from computer work for the morning and do some things around the apartment instead. The big one was getting my Christmas lists worked out. Given my current financial situation, I obviously won't be doing a lot of shopping this year. As I mentioned, I'll still be buying things for my nephews (and I already have something for one of them) and my sister Jessa and Secret Santa on the Cape May side of the family. My friends Lauren and Amanda are going to get home-made items. Everyone else will get the usual baked goods, and I have plenty of cards leftover from previous years.

Ran the first disc of Night Court Season 1 as I worked on my lists. The inaugural episodes were quite different from what came in later years, and not just because there were only 13 of them. (The show was a mid-season replacement.) Karen Austin was the original court clerk and Harry Stone's intended love interest; Paula Kelly was the second attorney after the pilot. Selma Diamond started her first of two seasons as the senior bailiff. The humor was also a bit drier and more realistic than in later seasons, though there were still quite a few unusual cases. It reminded me a lot of Barney Miller (which makes sense - the creator of Night Court was a writer on that show).

My favorite episode of the first 7 was "Santa Goes Downtown," a variation on Miracle On 34th Street. An elderly derelict who may or may not be the jolly old man in red helps Harry and the others deal with a pair of runaway teenagers who refuse to give their real names. (The boy was Michael J Fox, just before his own career took off in Family Ties.) I also liked "Once In Love With Harry." Harry has to fend off a prostitute who has a crush on him, while Dan is running for a City Council seat against a dead man...who is winning.

After lunch was over and the disc ended, I went outside to check the mail and sweep the porch. The porch really needed it badly. The leaves tend to build up in the fall, sometimes getting as high as my ankles. Thank goodness that last storm we had a few weeks ago seems to have taken the wind with it. It hasn't been nearly as windy this past week or so, allowing me to clear off the porch before the next round of winter weather.

Besides, it was absolutely gorgeous out today. The sun was shining, and the sky was a radiant blue. The trees around me have turned amazing shades of molten gold, flaming orange, lime green, and deep scarlet. It's like living in a paint pallet. The air was crisp and cool and had the wood burning smell of fall.

Spent the rest of the afternoon doing work on the computer, mainly writing and some research. When I finished up with that, I worked on the scarf I'm crocheting and watched March of the Wooden Soldiers. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are the stars of this 1933 version of Babes In Toyland. As in the Disney version, the evil Barnaby threatens the home of a lovely ingenue, here Little Bo Peep (Charlotte Henry). Tom Piper (Felix Knight) is once again her swain. This time, the comic duo are on the right side of the law as Stan and Ollie do their level best to rescue Bo Peep and Tom get away from Barnaby and save Toyland from his hairy, ugly minions.

Though I like the more colorful Disney version better, this is also pretty cute. Naturally, the boys have the lion's share of good moments, including the dunking, messing around with the "pee wees" in the beginning, and how Stan somehow managed to mistake an order for small wooden soldiers for large ones. Knight also gets to sing a lovely, slower rendition of "Castle In Spain."