Began the morning with the Colliers Harvest of Holidays anthology. Veteran's Day began as Armstice Day after World War I. It goes without saying that all the material revolves around that devastating conflict. Read the sad short story The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy, about soldiers who discover a live apple tree on an otherwise ruined battlefield filled with birds who lost their homes. There were also two poems, one of which was the famous "In Flanders Fields."
Tossed in the material from Book Week since I had a little extra time. My favorite piece here was a segment from All-Of-a-Kind-Family on what happens when one of the girls loses a library book and her kindly young librarian helps her figure out how to pay for it. There was also a cute story about a little boy who is determined to learn to write his name, so he can get his library card and take out a book.
Cleaned the kitchen after breakfast. The kitchen really needed to be scrubbed. I've been eating at home a lot more than usual, mostly because I can't afford to eat out. The sink in particular was bad. Not to mention, I'm still clearing out the last remains of that mouse I caught last month.
Ran the Donald Duck In the Army shorts while I ate and cleaned. World War II propelled Donald ahead of Mickey Mouse and Goofy to make him Disney's number one short subjects star. He made more wartime shorts than any other Disney character, starting with "Donald Gets Drafted." Swayed by recruiting poster who makes being in the Army look like a great way to meet women, Donald signs up for the Service. He wants to be a glamorous pilot, but ends up as a foot soldier standing on anthills while Sargent Pete barks orders. He's still trying to get in the air in "Sky Trooper." After he fails his test, Pete does send Donald up...as a paratrooper! Donald not only refuses to jump, but when he does go, he ends up taking Pete with him.
My favorite of the war shorts is "The Vanishing Private." Donald is a camouflage painter charged by Pete with making a cannon "hard to see." He takes his orders literally when he finds an invisibility paint and uses it on the cannon, then himself. Pete ends up chasing "the little man you can's see" all over the base.
"Der Fuhrer's Face" isn't technically a war short, but since it's on the same disc, I usually watch it with the others. Donald has a surreal nightmare that lands him behind an assembly line at a Nazi munitions factory. The strain from their tough regime is enough to make him go crazy, and for Disney to indulge in some of the wildest images this side of The Three Cabelleros.
The remaining shorts are a tad more benign. "Fall Out-Fall In" has a weary Donald struggling with his tent after a long march, then unable to sleep, thanks to the snoring around camp. Huey, Dewey, and Louie make their only appearance in a war short in "Home Defense," as they and Donald keep an eye out for enemy aircraft. Donald scolds the boys for playing a prank, but he's the one who's embarrassed when he mistakes a bee for a bomber. "The Old Army Game" is more disturbing today. Pete chasing Donald around camp after he's gone AWOL may have more violent consequences than either planned. Donald's last Army short was "Commando Duck." He's sent to Japan, where he proceeds to wipe...no, wash...out the enemy.
Did one more Disney short as I got ready for work. Mickey Mouse didn't figure heavily into World War II cartoons, but he did do one war-related short in 1929. "The Barnyard Battle" pits Mickey and the other animals of the farm against a group of Hun cats. Mick goes on to prove that he may be a rubber-hose rodent, but he has what it takes to kick those cats out of the yard for good.
Headed out to work shortly after Mickey ended. It wasn't too bad when I arrived. As it turned out, the head manager initially wanted me there to organize and straighten shelves. A district manager may or may not have been stopping at our store before or after the Eagles game, and she wanted everything to look perfect.
I'd finished Aisle 1 and got half-way down Aisle 2 when the manager came up to me and said they needed me in the registers after break. I wasn't happy about it, but it was only for a hour and a half...and she was right. Not only were we insanely busy by that point, but three cashiers called out and another never showed up for work. At least most people were in a good mood. A few customers gave me a hard time about our online coupon system and the turkey coupons, but everyone else was fine. It moved fast, at any rate.
Took the long way home down Nicholson Road. No wonder all those kids called out. While still chilly, likely in the upper 40's, the raging wind from yesterday had gentled to a breeze and it was bright blue and sunny. The trees have finally turned colors here, gorgeous shades of scarlet, sun yellow, lime green, and sienna brown. It's like riding through a rainbow. The traffic was pretty bad on Nicholson, but it thinned out considerably by the time I made it into Oaklyn.
Swept the porch as soon as I got home. I started doing it yesterday, but it was still too wet from the heavy showers on Friday. The railings Charlie put in are a bit taller. They have a space at the bottom wide enough to allow me to push leaves through.
Did some writing after I put the broom away and changed. Even as Leia leaves, two of the workers in her charity arrive. Turns out they're both old friends of Anakin's. Ahsoka had been his apprentice as a child, but she lost touch with him after leaving Yoda Fezziwig's shop. Captain Rex Fett was an Army officer who had known Anakin in his younger years. Anakin, however, has no desire to renew old acquaintances. He refuses to donate money, siting that he pays for the poor to go to work houses and prisons. Rex and Ahsoka are shocked and disappointed; Luke makes up for it somewhat by giving them some money of his own.
Broke around 6:30 to have leftovers for dinner. Watched one last war cartoon while I ate. While Donald was convinced to join the Army by recruiting posters offering him glamour and a way to meet ladies, The Pink Panther is swayed by the power. He lands in Vietnam without a paddle in "G.I Pink." His fed-up sergeant keeps trying to devise elaborate traps to get him out of his hair, but they always backfire on him.
Called Mom after dinner. Mom's doing all right. She's hoping to return to her much-loved job at as a receptionist and ticket-taker at the Cape May-Lewes Ferry by Monday. She has to. Dad's finances are such a mess, it may be ages before she can figure them out. She may just put the house on the market after the holidays, then see if she can get a place in Wildwood. Oh, and Anny and her family moved into their new house in North Cape May last week. Evidently, it isn't as perfect as she wants, but at least it's much bigger than their old house, which is probably all that matters at this point.
Moved on to Rampage while making Cranberry Flummery. Davis Okoye (Dwayne Johnson) is a former US Army officer who now works tracking down poachers and tending to gorillas in a sanctuary. He has a special relationship with one albino gorilla named George, whom he rescued from poachers. He and his crew are shocked when George begins changing after he's exposed to rays from a meteor that touched down in his habitat. The meteor was actually debris from a spaceship that was carrying a mutagen. It makes George grow in size and aggressiveness, until he begins harming the other animals in the preserve.
He's not the only one, either. The mutagen has also had adverse effects on a gray wolf and an alligator, both of which have quadrupled in size and are running amok, eating and smashing everything in their paths. The company that developed the mutagen is run by a spoiled and greedy young yuppie named Claire (Malin Akerman) and her idiot brother Brett (Jake Lacy). Claire wants to sell the mutagen and the three animals as biological weapons. Kate, a geneticist (Naomi Harris) had tried to call her out on this and was fired and arrested. The FBI, including Special Agent Harvey Russell (Jeffery Dean Morgan), capture George and get him on an airplane. But neither George nor the other mutated critters can be contained, especially after Claire puts out a radio signal in a Chicago skyscraper that will call them to create even more havoc.
I have to admit, I enjoyed this. It's not a masterpiece or trying to reinvent the wheel or anything, but it doesn't need to. It's just big, dumb fun, and that's all it needs to be. The special effects, especially on the animals, is absolutely incredible. I love George, before and after his transformation. Johnson and Harris are also decent as the two scientists in way over their heads...literally...dealing with the massive mutants.
This was a fairly big hit last spring as people waited for Infinity War to come out. If you're in the mood for a big, silly, macho blockbuster, you can do far worse than this one.
Wish the Eagles had a couple of mutant gorillas to get them moving. They played terrible in the first half, and while they did do much better later, it wasn't enough. The Dallas Cowboys finally out-ran them 27-20.
Oh, and I hope all of you had a wonderful Veteran's Day! I'd like to give a special shout-out to the veteran in my life - my dad Bruce was in Vietnam.
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