Bright Blue Winter Skies

Started today with the first American Top 40 of the year. We kicked things off in the heart of the 80s, as 1985 brought pop, R&B, and power ballads to the airwaves. Hits from mid-January include "Careless Whisper" by Wham!, "The Wild Boys" by Duran Duran, "We Belong" by Pat Benetar, "You're the Inspiration" by Chicago, "Run to You" by Brian Adams, "Easy Lover" by Phil Collins & Phillip Bailey, and the title song of the album Born In the USA by Bruce Springsteen. The #1 song that week was one of Madonna's most iconic 80s hits, "Like a Virgin."

Spent about an hour working on crocheting and watching public domain cartoons before heading out to run a few errands. It was a gorgeous day for it. The clouds and fog from earlier in the week had given way to brilliant sunshine, an intensely blue sky, and 45-degree temperatures, a little warm for this time of year, but not as bad as Monday. There were lots of parents out walking dogs and kids roaming around in packs, on bikes or scooters or foot.

That could be why the bank was so quiet. I walked right up to the tellers and was in and out. The Oaklyn Library wasn't much busier. There were a few people on the computers as I organized the DVDs and the children's books. The Easy Readers in particular needed to be organized; they may have gotten mixed up when the books were moved from the old metal shelves to the wooden ones against the walls.

I spent the rest of the afternoon at home. I had leftovers for lunch, then did a few things online and worked on writing for Helium. When I finished there, I decided to try that peanut butter cookie recipe I made for my Christmas presents. While they were baking, I ran another Faerie Tale Theatre episode.

Tim Burton directed a version of "Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp" that sticks closer to the original Arabian Knights story than Disney's later one while still being pretty goofy. Aladdin (Robert Carradine) is a good-hearted-but-lazy young man who discovers two genies, one in a lamp, one in a ring (both played by James Earl Jones), when a magician who claims to be his uncle (Leonard Nimoy) strands him in a desert cave. He uses the lamp to create a device (that looks strangely like a TV) to convince the sultan to allow him to marry his pretty daughter Serena (Valerie Bertinelli). The magician is still after the lamp, though, even after Aladdin marries the princess and builds his own castle. When the magician finally does get his hands on the lamp, Aladdin learns how one's fortunes can change as quickly as a sandstorm scours the desert.

With Burton in charge, you know this one is going to be more than a little odd. The candy-colored trappings are some of the best of the entire series, and Burton has a lot of fun with the setting and with the genie (he keeps threatening Aladdin, even though he can't kill him and actually likes the guy).

Continued with more public domain shorts as I prepared for work. Clutch Cargo and Betty Boop were joined by yet another weird limited animation series from the 60s. Thankfully, this one wasn't quite as limited as Clutch or Colonel Bleep. Hoppity Hooper is my first encounter with the wacky world of Jay Ward and his creations, which also include Dudley Do-Right and Rocky & Bullwinkle. Hoppity and his pals Waldo Wigglesworth (voice of Hans Conried) and Filmore the Bear (voice of Bill Scott) are constantly running get-rich-quick schemes that get their little green friend into cliffhanging trouble.

I think this is intended to be a spoof of old-time serials, since there's two parts, and the first always ends in a cliffhanger. The stories work that way too, including one that references a famous Mark Twain short story. Cute enough that I may have to dig around for more from Ward (I think there's at least some Dudley Do-Right at the Oaklyn Library).

Work was pretty much what I thought it would be - steady when I came in, empty when I left. It was so quiet, I spent the second half of the night doing returns and cleaning registers. A manager came in for me when the other person who was working the registers was late getting back from his break.