I overslept this morning. I didn't get up until 8:50...and I had work at 10! That proved to be just enough time to make buttermilk pancakes, clean up after breakfast, change, pack lunch, and hurry out. It was cloudy, damp, and humid, and looked like it might have rained earlier, but it wasn't raining when I left.
Work was only steady when I arrived, but it picked up quite a bit in the afternoon. (Good thing the Eagles play Monday night this week, or it might have been even worse.) They kept throwing me in the register. There were plenty of baggers and not enough cashiers, even with half the registers open. Thankfully, things calmed down enough by later in the day for me to do the inside and outside trash and recycling, and help one of the teen baggers gather carts. What I could see of the carts, anyway. By 2 PM, heavy fog had rolled in. I wondered if we'd moved to San Francisco. It blanketed everything with a heavy veil of white and gray.
Headed home as soon as I finished. I changed, then went into continuing the Christmas cleaning. Today was vacuuming day. I did not only the floors, but around the baseboards and under furniture I usually don't bother with. I also vacuumed the tons of dust off my big black tweed suitcase. I also sorted through bills that had been dropped on my printer and put them in the appropriate folders.
Did a little writing after I finished. Leia leads the others to hers and Han's party and their townhouse. Leia is concerned about Ben, who showed up late after staying to work. Poe and Finn are more concerned with chasing the pretty Vietnamese Tico sisters.
Didn't break for dinner until quarter of 8! I had leftover chili and made Dark Chocolate Chip Muffins while listening to a few cast albums. Goldilocks debuted on Broadway in 1958. Elaine Strich is a Broadway star who wants to retire to marry a sweet but bland socialite (Russell Nype) in the 1910's. A silent movie director (Don Ameche) reminds her that she has to make his western...which somehow turns into an overblown Egyptian epic. While the movie just gets bigger and the budget gets more extended, the two find themselves falling for each other, even as she tries to put her fiancee off and he dodges a star-struck ingenue (Pat Stanley).
Despite the star power (Nype and Stanley won supporting actor Tonys) and good music, this was a flop in late 1958-early 1959. While the story is thin and the characters are a bit shrill, the music by Leroy Anderson is quite a lot of fun. I especially like Stritch's "I Never Know When" and "Who's Been Sitting In My Chair," "I Can't Be In Love" for Ameche, and the comic number "Bad Companions" for Ameche's sidekicks (including a non-green-faced Margaret Hamilton).
Switched to Mame as I sat down to chat with Lauren. I did this one mainly because the score by Jerry Herman features a holiday standard, "We Need a Little Christmas." Mame (Angela Landsbury) sings that with her servants and her nephew Patrick after she's lost her latest job and wants to make everyone - including herself - feel better with gifts. While I do enjoy the movie with Lucille Ball, the original cast is a lot of fun too. Landsbury and Beatrice Arthur had so much fun as sniping best buddies Mame and drunk actress Vera Charles, they remained close friends for the rest of Arthur's life. Landsbury, Arthur, and child actor Frankie Michaels all won Tonys. (The show lost Best Musical to the equally good Man of La Mancha.)
Finished out the night with one of the Great Songs of Christmas albums I own. I did album four tonight, from 1964. Mary Martin kicks things off with a lovely "Silent Night," and we also get a nice "Toyland" from Doris Day, but the bulk of this one is classical or orchestral recordings. I must mention a nice "Joy to the World" from the Philadelphia Orchestra, plus two selections from Mitch Miller, "The First Noel" and "Coventry Carol."
(Incidentally, from what this site says, it looks like I have all of the first nine albums but Volumes 2, 6, and 9, plus the later Henry Mancini Selects Great Songs of Christmas from 1975. There is a Goodyear Tire store on the Black Horse Pike, which explains why I've found these so easily in this area.)
No comments:
Post a Comment