Fun With Fairy Tales

I slept in this morning. Started late with a couple of Popeye cartoons that spoof fairy tales and fantasy. "Ancient Fistory" is the Famous Studios Popeye's version of Cinderella. All Popeye wants to do is go to Queen Olive's ball...and thanks to his Fairy God-Pappy, he gets his chance. "Greek Mirthology" has Popeye telling his nephews how Hercules started eating spinach to make him strong in order to get them to eat their greens. Olive writes her own version of "Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp," with Popeye as Aladdin and her as his princess.

Went for a short errand run after breakfast. It was too nice of a day to stay inside for very long! Today was sunny and unusually warm for late December, probably into the lower-mid 50s. I started at the Oaklyn Library. Except for me and the librarians, it was pin-drop quiet. I talked about Christmas and American Girl dolls with the librarian (her nieces have several dolls of their own) as did what little DVD and kids' section organizing there was to do.

Headed up to the Family Dollar on the White Horse Pike next. I wanted to find a long, flat plastic container for my wrapping paper and gift boxes. Nope. Their plastic containers were all tall and square or rectangular. Went across the street to Duncan Donuts and treated myself to a Vanilla Bean Coolatta.

When I got home, I had Chinese leftovers and Cranberry Flummery while watching more shorts. Mickey Mouse did two fairy tale-themed cartoons. The first, "Ye Olden Days," was a black-and-white short. Mickey is a poor minstrel, Minnie is the princess he falls for, Clarabelle is her lady-in-waiting, and Goofy is Minnie's clumsy prince intended. When the two mice are caught trying to sneak away, Mickey has to fight Goofy for Minnie's hand in marriage!

"Senorella and the Glass Hurache" is an unusual later-day Warner Bros short. While it's set in modern Mexico, all of the characters are human - no Speedy Gonzoles in sight. This is a Latin-themed retelling of the Cinderella story - the prince is a bullfighter, his father owns a ranch, Cinderella's coach is driven by former bugs instead of mice, and she loses a slip-on sandal instead of the usual high heel. It's fairly stereotypical - especially the narration - but pretty cute nevertheless.

As with the Oaklyn Library, work was dead almost the entire night. It did pick up a little during rush hour, but otherwise, I and the other college kids who worked tonight stood around a lot. (When we weren't doing all the returns that had accumulated over the Christmas holidays.) Needless to say, I got off with no relief and no need for one, and there were no really major problems.