Loose In Haddon Township

Started off a sunny, breezy morning with the Bowery Boys. I hadn't done them in a while; went with one of my favorites, Loose In London. Sach, Slip, and the other guys are off to Merry Old England in order to inherit a fortune. Turns out that the kindly old earl who invited them is surrounded by less-than-happy relatives who would prefer to get rid of these upstarts and have the earl's wealth to themselves.

Got the laundry done around quarter after 11. It was quite busy for a Monday morning, though I actually had a harder time finding a drier than a washer for once. I read books, listened to The Price Is Right, and ignored obnoxious middle-aged-men who thought they were funny making cracks about my reading when everyone else was staring at Drew Carey. By the time I was done, so was everyone else - the place was almost empty.

I went home, put the laundry away, and went right back out again. I was originally going to have lunch at Aunt Berta's, but I forgot they're closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. I ended up at Jalepeno's Grill instead. They were busy with the tail end of the lunch hour. A family was leaving as I came in. They had the most adorable baby boy I watched them play with. Two police officers had lunch behind me. I had a chicken quesadilla with a tomato/shredded lettuce "salad" and guacamole. It was quite tasty, with lots of cheese.

Made a few stops at the Westmont Plaza after lunch. Mom's birthday is on Friday. I bought her a card; I'll send it out tomorrow or Wednesday. Also bought some plastic containers for doll separates. They're outgrowing the plastic shelves I have. Made a brief stop at Tuesday Morning, but they had nothing new.

The Haddon Township Library wasn't too busy when I came in. I had no problems shelving kids' DVD's. I even had more room for S titles than usual, though there was still an overflow. It was the adult shelves where I had a problem. The M through Z titles were so full, I couldn't get almost anything into them. Even going through them for kids' and foreign titles that didn't belong was no help. I ultimately couldn't shelve much of anything besides a few audio books.

I won't have the time for a lot of long movies this week, but I did take out a few new animated DVD's. They got in two more My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic sets, The Adventures of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Keys To Friendship. Paramount finally got around to putting out the remaining Peanuts movies on DVD, probably in response to the new one that's supposed to come out later this year. I found Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown, which I haven't seen in at least 20 years.

Went straight home this time. Put on My Little Pony when I got in. I'd met "The Cutie Mark Crusaders" in the horror-themed set I took out a few weeks ago. Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom are three adorable colts with one thing in common. They have yet to get their "cutie marks," aka the symbol on their rears that represents their talents. This leads them to such desperate ploys as Apple Bloom taking a potion that gives her "Cutie Pox," or Scootaloo trying to fly despite her tiny wings in "Flight to the Finish." "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" reveals how the five main ponies got their Cutie Marks. The colts aren't impressed. They'd rather show off their friendship with Twilight Sparkle to their snooty classmate Diamond Tiara in "Twilight Time."

Switched to Lovely To Look At as I made a fried-egg and escarole sandwich on bakery rye bread for dinner and Pineapple-Carrot Muffins for work this week. Lovely To Look At is MGM's Technicolor remake of the Astaire-Rogers 1935 vehicle Roberta. Three performers (Red Skelton, Gower Champion, and Howard Keel) head to Paris when one of them inherits a dress shop. The shop, however, is saddled with massive debt. It may not be financially attractive, but it is run by two lovely sisters (Kathryn Grayson and Marge Champion). The arrival of Keel's girlfriend (Ann Miller) throws a wrench in the works. So does a big producer offering to take their show to Broadway. Will Roberta's rise again?

This is one of the few times I like a remake better than the original. All the Astaire/Rogers in the world can't mask that the original story (a football player was the one who inherited the dress shop) was even flimsier than this. Making the ones who inherit performers and turning the four-person, two-couple structure into an ensemble opens things up quite a bit. The Champions have some nice dances, especially "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes," and the finale, with some fabulous outfits by Adrian, has to be seen to be believed. If you love vintage fashion or MGM musicals, this is worth hunting down at the Warner Archives.

Oh, and Rose called earlier tonight. Dad's fine. They got all the cancer out. He and Jodie will be at the hospital for a couple of days, then he'll be home to recover for the next three months. Rose wants to get Dad something and flowers for Jodie for helping him out. She also said she'll help me get to the Camden City Hall next month if I do get stuck with jury duty. She works with a judge there. She mentioned seeing a 30's-40's revue a friend of hers is appearing in as well sometime in the next couple of weeks.