Started a windy, slightly cloudy morning early with breakfast and chores. I turned the mattress, stripped the sheets off the bed, put on the light summer sheets and the summer quilt. and made the bed. Tidied up around the apartment, too. Cleaned and fixed up the Disney Princess Toddler dolls, who got messed up from sitting next to the bed.
Ran The Great Mouse Detective while I worked. Since I just finished the Sherlock Holmes novels A Study In Scarlet and The Sign of Four, I figured it was appropriate. The Holmes in this case is Basil of Baker Street, mousedom's most famous detective. Dr. Dawson arrives at Baker Street with little Olivia Flaversham, who is determined to see Basil. Her father, a toymaker, was kidnapped by a bat...a bat with ties to Ratigan (Vincent Price), the most famous rodent criminal. An altercation in a toy shop costs them the kid as well. Now they have to rescue not only the girl and her father, but Queen Mousetoria herself from Ratigan's scheme to take over the British Empire!
This was overshadowed by American Tail when it came out in 1986, but it ended up being a decent-sized hit on its own, enough to convince Disney to give animation another chance after The Black Cauldron flopped. Today, it's something of a cult classic, thanks to the nifty animation (including that intense showdown at Big Ben in the finale), suspenseful mystery, and wonderfully hammy characters. Price had apparently wanted to do a Disney movie for years. He took to the role of Ratigan with a relish usually reserved for flesh-and-blood villains and later said it was his favorite role. I have fond memories of seeing this in the theater with Rose when I was barely older than Olivia.
If you love mysteries, Sherlock Holmes stories, or are looking for a more action-oriented Disney movie, this is still as much fun as it was when I was a kid and is highly recommended.
Ran Max & Ruby as I got ready for work. "Grandma's Berry Patch" is a great place for Ruby to pick berries for Grandma's special surprise recipe...and for Max to eat them. Ruby and Louise want to make "Ruby's Bunny Scout Banner" the best their troop ever had, but Max's running around doesn't make that easy. When Mrs. Quack, one of Ruby's favorite toys, vanishes, it's "Ruby's Detective Agency" to the rescue!
Work was mostly dead, though we did start getting busier during the evening rush hour. There were some annoying customers. One woman threw a fit when I asked to look at the pamphlet in her WIC Check holder, after she'd gotten at least three items wrong and held up the line. We don't have any other way of finding out what's part of the WIC program and what isn't. They got rid of the pamphlets we had up front after they revamped the program in January and never replaced them. And nobody bothered telling me my relief came in early and I was supposed to shut down on my own - I figured that out for myself.
I had a few things to pick up on my way out. I don't drink a lot of soda, but Lauren does. I picked up a 1-liter dollar bottle of Pepsi and a couple of bottles of Sparkling Ice and the Acme's generic version of it for her when she arrives tomorrow. They were also having a good sale on my favorite jam, the Smucker's Orchard's Finest. I went with Triple Berry Preserves.
When I got home, I ran more Max & Ruby while getting organized. Ruby and Louise go on "Ruby's Safari" to find exotic creatures, but they keep finding Max's toys instead. The girls make their spa cleaning products from all-natural fruits and vegetables, but "Max's Mud Bath" proves to be the most natural beauty ritual of all. "Max's Lost Lizard" is a chameleon who gets loose while the girls are preparing his terrarium, much to Max's delight.
Switched to Moonlighting as I had sauteed spinach and mushrooms and the last leftover chicken leg for dinner. "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice" for Maddie and David in this classic second season episode. The two are bringing photos to a husband who wants to catch his wife cheating. He may be buying a famous old nightclub...one that saw a murder in the later 40's. A woman and a man killed the woman's husband and went to their graves claiming the other did it. Maddie thinks the man did it; David thinks it was the woman. Their argument turns into two black-and-white spoofs of 40's movie cliches. Maddie's pokes fun at wronged woman melodramas like Mildred Pierce and Humoresque. David's is a satire of film noir and prison dramas.
While David and Maddie never did decide who was at fault, they gave me an excellent idea for my own Remember WENN film noir spoof. I was never quite satisfied with my first fanfiction venture into 40's mystery. From what I've heard, Rupert Holmes had originally planned a spoof of The Maltese Falcon for the fourth season, but it was dropped, for some reason. I always wondered what that would have been like...
It's set during the late third or early fourth season. Hilary and Scott hear the story of a woman who was arrested for her role in a smuggling ring or some similar crime and who had been involved with a private detective who was also implicated on the news or in the paper. Hilary instantly takes the woman's side - the detective probably betrayed her. Scott takes the detective's side - he got into trouble for doing his job.
As with Maddie and David, we'll see each of their sides of the story. Hilary is the woman who got involved with the thieves through no fault of her own. She's ultimately thrown over by both the detective (Scott) and her ex-husband (Jeff), who is always chasing other women. Scott's the private eye whom Hilary drags into the case and into bed, losing him the love of the sweet girl he really cares for (Betty). Pruitt will probably be the Sydney Greenstreet who is in charge of the smuggling operation. I want this to be a little darker and more adult than my first mystery spoof and The Adventures of the Crimson Blade, closer to what I had in mind for the first mystery I did.
And...as of tomorrow, I'm on vacation! I'm kind of glad Lauren doesn't arrive until late. There's a lot I have to get done tomorrow, including laundry, counseling, and library trips.
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