Veteran's Day Weekend at the Riverside Rest

Kicked off a cloudy day with this week's American Top 40. Casey hopped back to 1977 for some disco, country, R&B, and ballads. Hits in mid-November of that year included "Boogie Nights" by Heat Wave, "Blue Bayou" by Linda Rondstat, "Baby What a Big Surprise" by Chicago, "Heaven on the 7th Floor" by British star Paul Nicholas, "We're All Alone" by Rita Coolidge, "Just Remember I Love You" by Firefall, "How Deep Is Your Love" by the Bee Gees, "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" by country sensation Crystal Gayle, "Nobody Does It Better" by Carly Simon (from the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me), and "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer.

"Nobody Does It Better" was one of two eventual Oscar nominees in the Top 40 that week. The other one, and the unstoppable #1 juggernaut of late '77 (and the Oscar winner), was the title song of You Light Up My Life by Debbie Boone.

I got a call from Andrew, my landlord, towards the end of the Top 40. He would be around in an hour with a real estate appraiser who wanted to look at the house. That didn't give me a lot of time to tidy up a bit. I made the bed, then quickly swept the porch, vacuumed, and swiped cobwebs off the window in the back room. Thankfully, I was done by the time the appraiser arrived. She was a good-natured older woman in a plain black suit. She praised how I had my apartment organized and had nothing but good things to say.

Ran the wartime cartoons on disc 2 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 6 during most of the morning. Though the usual characters only figured into a few cartoons on the set, most of these shorts are fascinating for fans of World War II history. Some, like the black and white "Wacky Blackout" and color "The Weakly Reporter," spoofed what Americans were going through on the homefront. Others, such as "Meet John Doughboy" and "Hollywood Canine Canteen," put a poke in the ribs in life for soldiers, both at home and in camp. "Bosko the Doughboy" took the earliest Looney Tunes star to the War (That Didn't) End All Wars, World War I, where he proceeds to do his best to defend his fox hole against every bit of weapons the enemy can dish out.

After the Tunes petered out, I switched to this year's first showing of the Peanuts Thanksgiving specials. In A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, Peppermint Patty invites herself, Marcie, and Franklin to Charlie Brown's house for a big Thanksgiving dinner. Trouble is, Chuck is going out of town for the holiday. He, Linus, Snoopy, and Woodstock improvise a simpler dinner of toast, popcorn, and jellybeans instead. When Peppermint Patty throws a fit, Linus and Marcie remind her and Chuck of the real reason behind the holiday.

The reason behind the holiday is also the subject of The Mayflower Voyagers, an episode of the history-themed miniseries This Is America, Charlie Brown. The Peanuts, Snoopy, and Woodstock play Pilgrim children and animals who are among those who traveled to the New World and had one of the first Thanksgiving dinners.

After lunch, I decided to take Molly and Felicity outside and finish the photo story I started last week. I got some shots of them in the pine tree in the front yard. A couple of (real) kids climbing all over the World War II-era gun parked in front of the VFW inspired me to take a few shots of Molly and Felicity having fun on the gun as well. (The one of Molly pretending to be a gunner came out especially well.) My camera was running out of batteries again; I only had enough time to get a few quick shots of them laying against the tree on the edge of the park by the river to finish it out.

Veteran's Day at the Riverside Rest

Spent the rest of the cloudy, chilly day inside. In honor of Veteran's Day, I played two "Bowery Boys in the Armed Services" movies as I worked on Chocolate Mint Chip Muffins. Slip and the Boys accidentally join This Man's Army in Bowery Batallion after they see an air raid drill and think it's a real raid. They spend more time in jail than in camp...until they have to keep spies from getting their hands on Louie Dumbrowski and the formula for his hydrogen ray.

Let's Go Navy is a bit of a misnomer. This time, the Boys do join on purpose. They're looking for two sailors who stole the money they were supposed to be giving to charity. However, the sailors weren't really sailors, but thieves. Sach is the only one causing trouble this time, including climbing into a gun that's about to go off and constantly getting an officer's clothing wet...even when he's nowhere near the ocean.

Switched to a couple of animated movies after Let's Go Navy ended. Actually, Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse is really an episode of Disney's House of Mouse padded to (barely) feature length with the addition of Mickey's Christmas Carol in its entirety. It's out of print, but worth digging around for on YouTube just for the hilarious John Cleese-narrated version of The Nutcracker. (You've never lived until you've seen Donald as the Mouse King and Goofy as the Sugar Plum Fairy.)

I started a small crocheting project while House of Mouse was on. One of the crocheting books I bought from JoAnn's a while back has a very simple pattern for making loops of single crocheted lines into daisies. I thought those "daisies" could make great small wreaths and stars for ornaments. The tiny wreath I made with dark green yarn came out misshapen, with some loops larger than others. I got it right on the second try. My bright yellow "star" was perfect. I think I'll make some of these for friends I would normally shop for. Maybe I'll see if I can do other small things, too, like pot holders and dish rags and more ornaments.

Finished the night with broiled flounder and carrots for dinner and The Great Mouse Detective. Like The Black Cauldron, this is an underrated Disney action tale from the mid-80s. The similarities end there. Based after the Basil of Baker Street books by Eve Titus, Basil is the "Mouse Detective" of the title, the Sherlock Holmes of Mousedom. He finds himself in a race against time to rescue Queen Mousetoria from the dastardly plot of the evil Professor Rattigan, with the help of his new partner Dr. Dawson and feisty young mouseling Olivia Flaversham.

A fun ride for all ages and genders, this is one of my favorite lesser-known Disney films. Vincent Price had apparently been wanting to do a Disney movie for years, and he throws himself into the role of Rattigan with a relish usually reserved for flesh-and-blood characters. Also check out the finale in and around Big Ben - this sequence was one of the first uses of CGI in an animated film.