Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Winter's Comin'

Started off a late morning with breakfast and spooky shorts from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Piglet tries to turn "Frankenpooh" into a not-so-scary story of a very nice scientist. Tigger finds this too boring and has that scientist create a giant Pooh who is after honey. "Things That Go Piglet In the Night" sends Piglet, Pooh, Rabbit, and Gopher into the woods looking for spookables when they hear noises in the night...but it isn't anything like they expect. Piglet and Pooh think they've been launched into the "Pooh Moon" after accidentally flying over a tree. The others think they've been taken by the "Grab Me Gotcha" monster Tigger made up and go looking for them. 

Switched to Match Game '77 while making the bed. Fannie Flagg is thrilled to get a standing ovation from Gene and the audience when she's the only one to match a contestant. She and the others don't do nearly as well helping the contestant with "__ Feather" in the Audience Match.

Headed out after the episode ended. I had a lot of errands to run at the Westmont Plaza. Picked up a kind of breakfast sandwich cookie that was buy one-get one free with a digital coupon and the vanilla coconut milk I like at Sprouts. Target had the Made Good granola bars on sale, and I needed to restock disinfectant wipes. Grabbed more almonds there, too. Started my Halloween shopping at Dollar Tree by buying bags and stickers for the Mystery Bags. I enjoyed the bagels I bought for breakfast and lunch last week so much, I bought five more for this week, plus a cranberry muffin for today.

No wonder Dollar Tree was the only store that was even remotely busy. The weather couldn't have been more perfect for mid-October, sunny, breezy, and cool but not cold. I took the long way home, across Newton Lake Park and over the trail on the hill to the Haddon Township Historical and Environmental Center. The woods are just starting to turn yellows and reds, but most trees still remain green.

Went straight upstairs when I got home, then put everything away and brought down the laundry. Pulled out the container with the winter clothes to sort them out. It's going to be in the 60's this week and drop into the 50's by next week. I think we're done with warmer weather for more than a day or two until April. Sorted out the piles of what would stay out year-round and what got put away while the laundry was downstairs.

Finished it while watching Rhapsody In Blue. I go further into this 1945 biopic featuring stage actor Robert Alda as George Gershwin at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog. 


Worked on writing for a while after that. Richard the Tin Man vaguely recognizes Charles. He too barely remembers who he was. He knows he was once a member of the Queen's court, chased away by the Wicked Warlock of the West when she invaded Televisia City.

Broke for dinner at 7. Watched Match Game '79 while I ate. The first episode introduced a very funny contestant named Bert (for Roberta) who got an interesting answer for what Dumb Dora asked a doorman about. The second skipped ahead to the second episode of the week with Brianne Leary of ChiPS, Bob Barker, and Jon "Bowser" Bauman. Jon reads everyone his poem about being on the show in character, while everyone else teases Gene about matching his brown suit with blue socks and Brianne's newsboy-style outfit and answer of Tiger Beat for "Tiger __." 

Finished the night after a shower on YouTube with the two Miss Switch After School Specials from Ruby Spears. The Trouble With Miss Switch is that the substitute teacher (Janet Waldo) is a genuine witch. She's not a bad witch, though the Witch Council considers her old-fashioned. Her students consider her fair-minded and kind, especially Rupert Brown (Eric Taslitz) and his friend Amelia Dally (Nancy McKeon). Rupert and Amelia try to use her magic to let their school win their homecoming game, but evil head of the witches Saturna (June Foray) sabotages the game. Now Miss Switch may be banished, unless she and the kids can find a way to prove that the witch is really up-to-date.

Miss Switch to the Rescue has the kids accidentally opening a bottle and releasing the evil warlock Mordo (Hans Conried). He kidnaps Amelia and takes her back in time to the 1600's. He wants revenge on the witches who shut him up in the bottle and turns their Mayor (Walker Edmiston) into a troll. Rupert and Miss Switch have to find Amelia, then save her from fading away all together when it turns out she has a closer connection to the Mayor than anyone could have guessed.

While the animation is nothing special, these are otherwise charming adventure comedies with more than a touch of the supernatural. Waldo makes a lovely and warm Miss Switch, while Conried had his last role as the vengeful warlock. They're both based after children's books - I might have to look for those, too. Too bad YouTube seems to be the only place besides long-gone videos that you can find the specials nowadays.

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