My Tragic Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day! I kicked off a sunny morning with The Adventures of Luke Skywalker and some holiday reading. The Colliers Harvest of Holidays book only had one story for Valentine's Day, but it was the very sweet The Valentine's Box by Maud Hart Lovelace. A little girl who just moved to a new town and is worried she won't get any valentines makes a friend when she helps her classmate gather her valentines that were blown all over the school yard by the wind.

Samantha Parkington has a more exciting Valentine's Day in Changes for Samantha. Her best friend Nellie and her sisters are now in an orphanage in New York. When Nellie tells Samantha that she's due to be sent away, Sam comes up with a plan to help the girls run away and have them stay in her Aunt Cornelia and Uncle Gard's attic until Nellie can get work. They're eventually found out, but Uncle Gard and Aunt Cornelia have a special surprise for the girls that gives Samantha the sweetest Valentine's Day gift she could possibly have.

Ran the first of my Valentine's Day specials while eating a quick breakfast. Bugs Bunny's Cupid Capers has Cupid (who looks an awful lot like Elmer Fudd) spread love among the Tunes via segments from various shorts, despite Bugs' insistence that he's meddling. Switched to "Past Perfumance" as I got ready for work. It's "lights, camera, chase!" when Pepe Le Pew chases a female cat-turned-skunk all around a French movie studio in 1913.

Work was on-and-off steady for most of the day. It only got really bad at noon, when the lunch crowds came in. I ended up briefly taking the register right before break. Otherwise, I spent the day almost entirely outside doing carts and the outside trash and recycling. I had no problems with this whatsoever. Mother Nature was feeling the love as well. It was a gorgeous day, sunny, breezy, and probably in the mid to upper 40's, too nice to be inside all day anyway.

Did a little research when I got home. I thought a mobile home might work well for me. Trouble is, it turns out that most trailer parks in this area are either buy-only, with no rental properties, or for seniors 55 and over. I'm getting so frustrated! There has to be someone with a small apartment in the back of their house or upstairs who is willing to negotiate with me.

Got a little bit of writing in. Leia poses as a princess from a remote kingdom to gain entry, with the guys as her servants. She manages to quell the guards at the gate with just a few references to Sheriff Vader. Thomas is more worried...and Luke senses that something is wrong...

Broke for dinner at 6:30. Had leftovers while watching Winnie the Pooh: A Valentine For You. Pooh sees Christopher Robin making a Valentine for a girl, and he and the others automatically think he's been bitten by the "smitten" bug. They go off in search of the bug to cure Christopher, but the child knows that true friends never leave your heart.

I'd moved on to making a Raspberry Triple Chocolate Fudge cake by the time "Un-Valentine's Day" was on. In this episode of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Rabbit cancels Valentine's Day to stem the flood of cards Pooh sent the year before. That works about as well as his canceling Easter and Thanksgiving...which is to say, it doesn't. Someone gives Pooh a pot of honey for Valentine's Day, and he feels he just has to give something in return. This ends up in a free-for-all of flying cakes and Pooh dressed as a mail box, before Rabbit finally comes up with putting on a romantic play. But who did give Pooh the original pot of honey?

Switched to playing Angry Birds Star Wars while the cake was in the oven, and later as it cooled. The second half of the Tatoonie rounds takes you into the far reaches of space. That not only involves dodging Stormtroopers and their guns, but having to make some fairly complicated curved shots through airless space, too. I did finish the round; next time, I'll be taking the birds to the Death Star to rescue Princess Stella.

Moved on to the Peanuts while frosting the cake with the raspberry goo that was originally supposed to be fondant. Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown has Chuck waiting and waiting in vain for any Valentine to hit his mailbox. Linus has a crush on his teacher Miss Othmar and buys her a box of candy that Sally assumes is for her. Meanwhile, Snoopy's putting on very messy and romantic puppet shows.

The kids have slightly more luck in A Charlie Brown Valentine. Charlie Brown wants to invite the Little Red Haired Girl to the Valentine's Day dance, but accidentally ends up taking Peppermint Patty and Marcie instead. Sally and Lucy would be happy if their crushes would acknowledge them even that much.

Finished the night with the tragic opera Carmen Jones, featuring powerful performances by Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte. I go into more detail on this dark World War II romance at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Carmen Jones

Here's some more animated specials that cover the funnier side of love. I hope everyone enjoys them, and that you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

The Berenstein Bears' Comic Valentine
The Popeye Valentine's Day Special: Sweethearts at Sea
Cartoon Planet Valentine's Day Special
For Better or For Worse: A Valentine from the Heart
From Disney With Love
A Special Valentine With the Family Circus
DTV Romancin'
DTV Doggone Valentine 
Cathy's Valentine