While it wasn't raining, it was still very damp outside. I suspected there would be no town-wide yard sales or Audubon Day festivities, or any kind of outdoor activities today. Instead, I called Uber for a ride to the Mount Laurel Library. They advertised a big book sale on Facebook. On Saturday, you could get a bag of books for five dollars. That would more than make up for the outdoor festivals being washed out. The Uber driver arrived in less than 7 minutes and took about a half-hour to get to Mt. Laurel.
The Mount Laurel Library is a large, beautiful, and very modern building situated across the street from equally modern government buildings, surrounded by lovely forests. The book sale took place in a hot, stuffy, windowless room off to one side. The room was way too small for everyone who wanted to check out their wares. It was jam-packed with older people and families riffling through everything, often packed two or three at a table. It took me a long time to search the boxes of paperbacks, shelves laden with hardbacks, and tables groaning with picture books, DVDs, and CDs, but I finally came up with:
The Best of Muppet Babies (1986) (I suspect this is a bootleg, since the original Muppet Babies has never been on DVD, but it's a nice find anyway.)
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Seasons 1 & 2 (I dropped HBO Max back in the fall. It was one streaming service too many.)
Commercial copy of Bugs Bunny's Easter Funnies (My current copy was dubbed off the original video back in 2011; this one comes with an extra short and is still in its original plastic)
The New Pillsbury Family Cookbook (Binder-style cookbook probably from the 70's-early 80's, from the recipes and illustrations.)
Classic Fairy Stories (2 CD set with BBC radio actor Bernard Cribbins' readings of fairy tales; some, like "The Princess On the Glass Hill" and "Dick Whittington," don't often turn up on collections of this sort.)
Compact Jazz: Best of Dixieland
Three paperback cozy mysteries: Flour In the Attic by Winnie Archer, Caught Read-Handed by Terrie Farley Moran, and Sugar and Vice by Eve Calder
The hardback young adult fantasy novel The Princess and the Bear by Mette Ivie Harrison
The Hippopotamus Pool by Elizabeth Peters in hardback (one of the few Amelia Peabody books I didn't have)
The Case of the Stepdaughter's Secret by Earle Stanley Gardner/A Fine and Private Place by Ellery Queen (I've heard of these series on TV, but I'd never read the actual books. I found a bunch of Perry Mason Detective Book Club pairings from the early 70's, but took this one because I'd always wanted to know more about Queen, too.)
(They also had two boxes of records right as you came in, but I found nothing interesting.)
Hit the bathroom, then settled down on damp wooden benches outside to figure out what to do next. I thought I'd go to lunch in Mount Laurel, but the library and government buildings are almost literally in the middle of nowhere. They're certainly not within walking distance of any restaurants or shopping centers. Besides, that bag was getting heavy. I decided to call Uber and eat back in Camden County. Got a driver within three minutes, a cheerful fellow who chatted with me all the way to Oaklyn.
Soon as I got in, I put the bag upstairs, then went right back out. It was gloomy and cloudy but not raining, and it hadn't rained in hours. Might as well take advantage of Mother Nature's continuing generosity and get out while I could. Strolled down the White Horse Pike to Jalapeno's Bar and Grill for lunch. They were relatively busy for past 2:30, but cleared out even as I ate my delicious shrimp quesadillas. The service remains rather slow there, but I wasn't really in a hurry anyway and didn't mind waiting.
The reason I ate there is it's two blocks from our brand-new, just opened WaWa. Truth be told, we do not need another WaWa, even if it is the 1,000th store. We don't really need another gas station, either. There's two in Oaklyn alone. The older WaWa across from the Ritz moved across from the Arts Building. It is a somewhat larger building, with more room for counters, including self-checkout. I haven't had an Icee in ages, so I went with that. Glad I did; the Aqua Fresca Strawberry Hibiscus was sweet but very tasty. Surprisingly, given they've been open for two days, they weren't that busy. Everyone must have come on opening day or were getting gas.
Went right online and into The Puppetoon Movie on Tubi when I got home. I go further into this showcase for pioneering stop-motion animator George Pal at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.
Worked on writing for a while after that. Richard modestly calls Gene the real genius behind their trap. Fannie doesn't like being bait, but she has no choice. No one else will take the gold.
Finished the night after a shower with dinner and tonight's Match Game Classics marathon. Jokes about stripping, strippers, and clothing removal abound on Match Game. Most of the time, it's questions about strippers and what they do, but occasionally, someone actually will take clothes off. Gene stripped off his jacket at least three times, the last to show off his new gold brocade vest from China, and there was the time he gave a lady his argyle socks. Bill Daily got so excited when he matched a contestant on a big Head to Head once in 1979, he nearly took off his sweater and shirt. Gary Burghoff went shirtless in 1974 when he missed an easy answer to a question. McLean Stevenson also went topless the year before, though he claimed it was because no one would lend him any clothes. Richard Dawson briefly showed off his still-muscular chest in '77.
No one got more into stripping routines than Betty White. She would roll up Gene's pant legs to show off his knees. (That's how those argyle socks were exposed to begin with). She did her own version of stripper's routines at least three times, notably in a syndicated episode when the others teased her about her see-through ruffled blouse.
Have a great time takin' it off with this hilarious marathon!
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