The Man Who Had a Dream

Started off a sunny Martin Luther King Jr. Day with reading. Along with Verily, A New Hope (the Star Wars Shakespeare version of New Hope), I read several essays and poems on peace from Colliers Harvest of Holidays. I usually read the pieces listed for United Nations Day (which I don't think is often celebrated anymore outside of New York) for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, since he tried to bring about peace (and won a Nobel Peace prize for doing so).

Ran the "Cinderella" Faerie Tale Theatre episode while making Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip pancakes for a special holiday breakfast. Jennifer Beals is the put-upon lass in this very straightforward retelling of one of the world's most famous fairy tales.Cinderella's fairy godmother (Jean Stapleton) helps her attend two balls held by the shy Prince Henry (Matthew Broderick). Eve Arden is her stepmother; Edie McClurg is one of the stepsisters.

Headed off to work just moments after the show ended. Work was almost exactly the same as yesterday, to my surprise - on-and-off steady. I thought it would be much worse on a holiday. I mainly bagged and mopped the bathrooms. The few times I gathered carts, there wasn't much to gather. While there were plenty of baggers around, we were short on cashiers. The lines were long not because we were busy, but because there wasn't enough help to deal with the customers that were around. (A cashier later told me he was asked to come in early because one of the cashiers called out, which explains a lot.)

Took the long way home down Nicholson Road after work. By this point, the sun had disappeared behind thick gray clouds. Despite the warnings of a co-worker walking to the Acme, Nicholson really wasn't that bad. The roads in Oaklyn were even quieter. I wonder if a lot of people took advantage of the decent weather this weekend to go away or work on getting the remaining outdoor holiday decorations down?

Spent the next few hours after I got home writing. Jabba is about to leave with his men when Han appears, dressed in his newly-repaired suit. Jabba, however, really has no intention of allowing a servant to attend the ball. He wants his sons to capture Leia's eye, so he can use her dowry to expand his criminal empire and eventually take over the kingdom.

His adopted sons, including Boba Fett, beat Han black and blue and tear his suit to ribbons. Jabba leaves him in the stable, ordering him to separate an enormous pile of hay into good and spoiled bits. Han has no idea how he can...until Chewbacca and the horses in the stable help him out.

Did an episode of Moonlighting while making pan-fried fish fillets and green beans and almonds for dinner. Frustrated with David's continually childish behavior after she finds the office having a random limbo party, Maddie bets David he can't behave like an adult for an entire week in "My Fair David." While David tries to keep his end of the bargain, the two negotiate a payment for a concert pianist who's been kidnapped...then search for the culprit when it happens again.

Finished the night on a sober note after a shower with Selma. This gripping tale from 2014 tells how Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) came to organize not one, but two marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. He wanted President Linden B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) to pass the Voting Rights Act that would end the practices that limited black voting in the south, but Johnson was afraid of losing the support of bigoted Alabama senator George Wallace and other politicians in the south and dragged his feet on the matter. (Not to mention, he was just beginning his famous "War on Poverty.") Meanwhile, King, for all his good intentions, was having his own problems, as the FBI was spying on his relationship with his wife Coretta (Carmen Ejogo), and his attempts to open up black voting in the south had already lead to several beatings and deaths.

A harrowing depiction of a subject that's begun to come back into the limelight as people realize just how far we have and haven't come from King's day. If you have any interest in US history, the history of the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr., or the 60's, this is a must-see.