Rainy Days and Sad Goodbyes

First of all, a very sad farewell to comedian Robin Williams and actress Lauren Bacall. Williams tragically committed suicide yesterday after years of battling depression; Bacall died of a stroke today. Williams was a huge part of my childhood and early teen years. While the only movie I have of his is Aladdin, I do have at least three soundtracks featuring him, including Good Morning Vietnam and Popeye. Bacall was a 40s movie goddess who was best known for her marriage to Humphery Bogart; she later became a fairly popular character and dramatic actress. Both will be missed badly. : (

Second, my day wasn't much better. It was just dark and humid when I rode to work this morning. Work was on-and-off busy for most of the morning, though never overwhelming. It was starting to wind down when my relief arrived. I found out why when I went outside and discovered it was pouring. I waited about ten minutes or so for it to slow down. It never did. I just rode home and got wet.

I spent an hour after that drying off and cheering myself up with some of the last of the cartoons on that public domain set Lauren gave me I hadn't watched yet. Famous Studios' little ladies, LuLu and Audrey, appeared in my favorite cartoons on the disc. LuLu creates calamity in a department store when she wants to exchange a doll and ends up flooding the place in "Bargain Basement Attack." Audrey's stories take her into fantasy. Her visit to Dream Land in "The Last Dream" doesn't go well, as despite the admonishment of her walking dream, she opens the forbidden black door. She has more fun rescuing Mother Goose Land from comic-book gangsters in "Goofy Goofy Gander" and helping to rescue Angel Cake from the Devil's Food Cake in Cake land in "Tarts and Flowers."

The ladies weren't the only ones indulging in slapstick and fantasy. Felix the Cat has to deal with two mini-versions of him in one of his early sound shorts, "April Maze." Katinka and the Skipper do their best to make sure that the Toonerville Trolley runs on time, come heck, huge mud puddles, bulls seeing red trolleys, or Mr. Bang in a bad mood in "The Toonerville Trolley" and "Toonerville Picnic."

It had continued to rain all through the cartoons. I finally decided the rain wasn't stopping and gave up on my original plan for this afternoon, which was going to the Haddon Township Library. I took a nap for an hour and a half instead. It was still raining when I got up and took a relaxing bath, reading Murder On the Orient Express and listening to Jazz On a Rainy Afternoon.

I forgot to take out the chicken I was going to have for dinner, so I improvised and made scrambled eggs and ratatouille instead while watching Spooks Run Wild. It's the East Side Kids who are running wild in the second of two horror-oriented East Side titles. When one of their friends (David Gorcey, Leo's brother) is shot while they're wandering through a graveyard, they're taken in by a spooky man in a cape (Bela Lugosi) and his assistant. The Kids think Lugosi may be "The Monster Killer" who strangles his victims, but both Lugosi and the magic-filled house have more than one surprise in store!

Oh, and the rain has continued on and off for the rest of the night. I think it's off at the moment. It's supposed to cool off starting tomorrow and be nice again for the weekend.