Welcome to Oaklyn

Started off the morning with breakfast and Paw Patrol. Marshall falls asleep right before he and his friends are putting on a fairy-tale play and dreams that the "Pups Save a Dragon." More specifically, they save Katie, who was put to sleep and is being guarded on top of the Pups' tower by a dragon. "Pups Save the Three Little Pigs" when their homes keep getting knocked over. Farmer Yumi swears she hears a wolf, but Ryder has a more practical explanation for where the howling comes from.

Switched to The Busy World of Richard Scarry next. Sprout the goat is disappointed when he has to work on his father's farm instead of going on "The Field Trip" with his scout group. He learns how much fun his job really is when Sergeant Murphy breaks down near the farm and the kids help him in the fields, and he shows them around. Two of my favorite Scarry characters, detectives Dudley and Sam, solve "The Great Pie Robbery" in Paris when thieves make off with Madame Dog's cherry pies. Mr. Cat wants a "Clean Garage" to have room for the car, but Mrs. Cat's not so eager to get rid of their stuff.

Headed out to hit the grocery stores next. First stop was Sprouts before the high school kids started coming over to the Westmont Plaza for lunch. This time, the Minneola Tangelos were two for a dollar. Decided to try Annie's Organic Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookie granola bars along with the Olyra blueberry breakfast sandwich cookies. The unsweetened vanilla coconut milk I like is still on sale there, too. 

Went down the hill and past Haddon Township High School to the Westmont Acme after I finished at Sprouts. Restocked apples, mozzarella cheese for snacking, the big box of Jolly Time Simply Popped popcorn, Kind granola bars, and yogurt; had online coupons for the latter two. Found a bag of coconut macaroons on clearance in the Jewish food section that were so cheap, I thought they'd be worth trying. Grabbed bagels for lunch this week. Propel hasn't been on sale, but I haven't been able to find the mixes cheaper anywhere else.

Cut through Newton Lake Park going home. I wasn't the only one who had that thought. It couldn't have been a nicer day in late April. Sunny, breezy, and warm but not too hot, with a sky so blue, it hurt to look at it. I took the back path and still dodged many people out for jogs, walks, and strolls with friends. The park is looking very spring now, too, with tiny lime green leaves, brilliant pink-white flowering dogwoods, and bright yellow buttercups and dandelions.

Had lunch and watched Let's Make a Deal when I got home. Monty offered people a sporty red coupe four times...and four times, they opted for something else or didn't win it. Three people in the opening opted for furniture and money instead of the car. A spunky young cowgirl and an older gentleman dressed as Rooster Cogburn from True Grit kept money and handed appliances over to a big man in a cowboy's hat. Another lady in a lavender headband kept her $1,000 rather than use it on the Door 4 Wheel. She and the cowboy ended up trading in for the Big Deals of the Day. She got appliances worth a bit more than the $1,000 she gave up; he got furniture worth probably about what he gave up. The Big Deal, however, wound up being both their deals, plus the car seen earlier.

Switched to Vega$ while getting organized, dusting my rooms, and cleaning all reflective surfaces. Seemingly mild-mannered butcher Jack Schulman (is obsessed with becoming the "Ghost of the Ripper" and repeating the Jack the Ripper murders. Dan gets on the case after the man kills a prostitute who asked for his protection. He and his friend on the force Lieutenant David Nelson (Greg Morris) get the help of a professor and criminologist to figure out Jack's patterns. Then the female cop  Dan is dating offers herself as bait, and Dan worries that she may be in over her head.

"The Eleventh Event" is a sadder story. Dan's close friend Leon Hazlett (Clifton Davies) was a five-time Olympic gold medalist who lost the use of his legs in a car crash. He's a little embarrassed to return for a telethon in his honor. Rock singer Paul Baker is supposed to be the host, but he's kidnapped shortly before the broadcast. Dan has to figure out who really wanted Paul out of the way while assuring Leon that there's a lot of things he can still do in a wheelchair, and he may be down, but not out.

Fiddled online for a while before putting on my new Taylor Swift 1989 (Taylor's Version) record and doing some writing. I hear hits like "Welcome to New York" and "Wildest Dreams" everywhere from the Acme to blasting through the open windows of cars. Of the older material, the wild and upbeat "Shake It Off" has always been my favorite; I also like "This Love." "Now That We Don't Talk" is my favorite of the newer "vault" songs she added for this re-release.

Got my schedule at this point as well. In good news, far more hours than I have been getting, and I still have three days off. They're all pretty early, though one is a floral department day. I figured the only reason my hours have been so lousy was April really didn't have much going on. There are a ton of holidays and events in May, including prom season, Mother's Day, college graduations, Cinco De Mayo, the Kentucky Derby, and Memorial Day. 

Worked on writing for a little bit next. Kathleen realizes that the lady and Lord are definitely up to no good, especially when she looks down and realizes that the cold has made the flowers in her basket wilt. She wants to follow them back to the village and warn the town council, but it's getting very cold, and kind of dark...

Broke for dinner and Match Game '77 around 7PM. Buzzr skipped way ahead to one of my favorite episodes of that year. In the opening, we see Betty doing a very funny imitation of Charles in his seat, including his pipe, scarf, and hat, and Charles in Betty's seat. They remain in those seats through the first half of the episode. Hans Conried and Sarah Kennedy join in as they help a contestant with "Practice __" in the Audience Match.

Finished the night at YouTube with a special short Match Game marathon. Long-time soap star and writer for General Hospital, among others, Meg Bennett passed away on April 11th. Match Game Productions put together the two weeks she appeared in during 1977. I didn't realize he did the first week last night, but I did catch the second week and that week's nighttime episode today. By far the most notable event of that week was Richard Dawson arguing over whether "plastic baggie" matched "bag" when "paper sack" matched. He tried to start a riot like he had a few weeks before, but no one was on board with him this time.

At any rate, honor a lovely woman and a very good Match Game player with this delightful marathon!

Meg Bennett Tribute - Match Game '77 (Episodes 1076-1080) and PM (Episode 93) 

Getting It Together

Began the day with breakfast and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. "Goofy Babysitter" finds himself taking care of five tiny Disney characters when his friends all walk through the same time machine that turned him into a baby two seasons before. Clarabelle helps out by encouraging the toddlers to help her act out famous nursery rhymes.

Bluey and her friends Snickers and Coco are having fun playing what they call "Shadowlands." They have to follow the shadows and not fall into the non-shadowed "crocodile-infested water," no matter what. Coco keeps wanting to change the rules when she has a hard time, but Bluey won't let her. The fluffy pink poodle finally understands why rules are important when they all make use of fleeting cloud shadows to race to their parents' picnic blanket.

Took my comforter and fuzzy deer print blanket downstairs to be washed, then came back up and spent the next hour re-organizing the larger closet. Move the other air conditioner as best I could to make room for more plastic crates. I put the baskets with the dust cloths and microfiber cloths on top of them, then filled the crates with cleaning and laundry supplies. The bag with my linens now went on top of the old air conditioner.

Put on Buzzr as I worked. Press Your Luck began with two guys and a female Naval officer. Alas, she got hit with Whammies in the second round. One of the guys won a huge trip and money. He promptly lost in the next episode to a perky young woman who picked up a gambling table and a trip to London.

Vacuumed and Swiftered my rooms while Split Second was on. The one man and two ladies were neck and neck most of the episode. After he made it to the Bonus Round, he actually got the car on his first try. Ironically, he admitted he didn't drive, but the lady who was with him sure seemed happy! The next episode wasn't nearly as close. The one guy was ahead the whole round. This time, he missed the car and said he'd come back and try again.

Headed out after I put the blankets in the dryer. I'd been hanging out inside all day and wanted to get some fresh air. Strolled down to Dollar General first. Looked for Propel-type electrolyte drink mix, but they were out. I ended up with lightly salted mixed nuts, a Cherry Coke Zero, and a small box of tissues. I spent the morning sneezing from all the dust I stirred up in the closet and went through most of the remaining box in my bedroom. 

Stopped at the Pretzel Shop on the way home for a treat. This time, they did have the stuffed cheese steak pretzel. Asked for two pretzels for later...and the nice gentleman gave me three additional ones. 

I'd already seen the Let's Make a Deal episode, so I put on Vega$ instead while eating pretzels and an orange for lunch. It's "Serve, Volley, and Kill" when Dan Tanna is hired to keep an eye on a temperamental tennis star (Robert Mantooth) who keeps insisting he's fine. Turns out he's far from fine. Two gangsters want him to throw the big tournament, and they do everything from tossing a pretty girl (Lynda Day George) at him to kidnapping his little sister (Pamela Ferdyn). Meanwhile, Bitzer insists that con artist Tommy Cirko (Red Buttons) seems to have traded his con artists ways for becoming a minister in a Vegas chapel, but Dan knows that once a con, always a con.

Made my bed and did some bills while watching Give a Girl a Break. I go further into this small-scale MGM dance-a-thon about three talented young women who audition for the part in a Broadway revue after the star quits at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

A Salute to TCM - Give a Girl a Break

Did some job hunting, then worked on writing for a while. Lord Jerrick more-or-less hits on mousy Kathleen, insinuating that he wants her to be a lot more than a florist for him. She turns him down cold, claiming she'd rather be caught in snow than with a jerk like him.

Broke for dinner at 7 PM. Watched Match Game '76 as I worked. The first week of 1976 featured Isobel Sanford and the only appearance of songwriter Marvin Hamlisch, who is best-known today for A Chorus Line and his work on The Sting and The Way We Were. At one point, Richard got up and actually tucked Gene's shirt in for him. Marvin was more interested in playing the show's think music on a tinkly toy piano.

Finished the night after a shower listening to Sinatra albums while I worked on the Give a Girl a Break review. Apparently, Sinatra Sings...Of Love and Things is a collection of random singles and B-sides from his Capitol years. That would explain two stereo numbers, "Chicago" and "Something Wonderful Happens In Summer," mixed in with the regular songs. Other good ones here include "The Nearness of You" and "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues."

Point of No Return would be his last album of new material for Capitol before he moved to Reprise for more control over his work. That explains some of the darker songs here, like "When the World Was Young" and "I'll Be Seeing You." I'm fonder of the slightly lighter ballads "There Will Never Be Another You" and "These Foolish Things." 

Spring Harts

Got a quick start this morning with breakfast and Charlie and Lola. Lola learns to "Look After Your Planet" when Charlie tells her to recycle her unwanted things instead of throwing them away. They're excited when they see a competition to win a tree mentioned in a magazine. Even getting their whole school involved, they're still short what they need...until Marv's brother Morton steps in, having braved their older brother's smelly room to get the last bits of recycling.

Headed to work after that. No wonder my hours have been so bad lately. We were dead almost the entire morning. I was able to easily gather the carts and sweep the store, and the trash didn't need to be done. I cleaned the bathrooms and wiped down the tables and counter in the employee room. The fact that it was a decent day may have helped there, too. It was supposed to rain late this morning. If it did, I didn't see it. It remained cloudy, windy, and warm for most of the morning. By the time I went home, the clouds had even cleared.

Changed and had a snack while watching Let's Make a Deal. The deals didn't begin that well. Three people were given a purse that might have had 1, 2, or 3 dollars. Only one ended up with a trip to Hawaii. One got a Zonk, and the other 2 dollars. A woman baseball player did better, also winning a trip. Little Red Riding Hood played the same game and ended up with an organ. They both traded their items in for the Big Deal of the Day. Red likely wasn't complaining about more than $3,000 in cash, while the baseball player got the big deal of the day, furniture, a huge projection TV, and a stereo system her whole family could enjoy. 

Relaxed and napped while watching They Died With Their Boots On. George Armstrong Custer (Errol Flynn) is a rebel from the moment he steps into West Point in his own lavish home-made uniform. His pranks and general disregard for rules doesn't make him popular in the Army. Libby Bacon (Olivia De Havilland) asks him for directions while he's on a silent punishment and ends up falling for him. He's called out to Washington before he can see her. He then becomes a Civil War hero first when he defends a bridge, and then in the Battle of Gettysburg.

Bored with civilian life after he marries Libby, Custer is assigned to the 7th Calvary in the Dakota Territories, which he proceeds to whip into fighting shape. He even makes a treaty with Lakota Native American Chief Crazy Horse (Anthony Quinn). Not everyone is happy with the impending peace. Ned Sharp (Arthur Kennedy), who was at West Point with Custer, is in charge of the trading post and saloon at the fort and is selling rifles to the Natives. He and several corrupt politicians promote a fake gold rush in the Black Hills, The settlers who stream in are in violation of the treaty, but Custer won't let them cause trouble.

 Sharp gives his men liquor to embarrass them in front of politicians, which ends with Custer being relieved of his office, He tries to get the government to see reason, but they won't listen. President Grant (Joseph Crehan) is more understanding. Custer finally goes to battle with his men at Little Big Horn...but while he won't survive, Crazy Horse and Libby do, and they make sure that the right people get charged with having started the whole mess.

Um, yeah. This about as fanciful a depiction of history as you'll see in a western. Custer may have been a rogue, but he wasn't exactly a champion of Native rights. Even now, he's considered a colorful and highly controversial figure. Flynn and DeHavilland do very well with both the glory-seeking Custer and sensible Libby in their last of eight films together, Quinn is about as Native as I am, but he still does relatively well as Crazy Horse. The production is long, epic, and unwieldy, and goes on for way longer than it should. It's still recommended for fans of Flynn, DeHaviland, or those who are willing to take a ton of historical fudging with their westerns.

Tried writing for a while, but I was so tired, I ended up going out to dinner instead. Went around the corner to Crown Chicken and Gyro and picked up a tilapia sandwich with fries and a can of Diet Pepsi. Brought it home and ate it while watching Match Game '75. We got to meet Richard Dawson's then-girlfriend Jody Donovan in these episodes. Rich wasn't happy when Gene tried to give a kiss to the "new kid on the block" he happened to be dating! Fannie's post office-style outfit in the second episode prompted many jokes about the post office and postal services.

Finished the night online with more TV episodes. "Murder Among Friends" in the first season of Hart to Hart gets sticky when a lawyer and his sweet wife become suspects in the murder of a divorce lawyer who failed to promote the husband to partner. Johnathan thinks she did it. Jennifer thinks he did it. Even as they follow the duo, they discover that someone else may have had a hand in the murders, someone a lot closer to the victim than they think.

In the seventh season of The Love Boat, a mountain man (Dan Haggardy) hires a local girl (Elaine Joyce) to find out which of the officers is "The World's Greatest Kisser" who stole his fiancee. A kindly salesman (William Christopher) is "The Reluctant Father" who is awkward around his teen daughter (Danielle Briesbois). After he claims he'll send her to boarding school, she almost doesn't return to the ship. Vicki finally convinces her to talk to him. An executive (Parker Stevenson) wasn't supposed to bring his new wife (Kirstie Alley, who actually did marry him shortly after this episode aired) on this trip...and he's saying "Don't Take My Wife, Please" when his boss (David Doyle) flirts with her without realizing she's married.

Of Sunshine and Things

I slept so late, it was nearly noon before I finished my journal and got going. Ran The Backyardigans on Paramount Plus as I had brunch. "The Legend of the Volcano Sisters" has Legendary Luau Brothers Pablo the Swift, Tyrone the Strong, and Just Austin having to figure out how to appease the goddesses of the title (Uniqua and Tasha). If they can't figure out what they want, they'll make the volcano blow and destroy their luau! Pablo and Tyrone bring them large or lavish gifts, but they're not impressed until Austin figures out what it is they're really after.

Let it run into Press Your Luck as I got moving. Got to hear the questions and most of the Whammy-laden first round. I left as soon as the commercials came on.

Once again, it was too beautiful of a day to sit around and do nothing. The sun was out, the sky was blue, and it was even warmer, probably into the upper 60's-lower 70's. I decided to try another long bike ride. I had a bag of things I didn't want that I was originally going to drop off at the church in Audubon. I forgot to do it on Saturday, and since they won't be open again for another two weeks, I decided on Goodwill instead. 

Having already brought at least two bags of donations to the Audubon Goodwill this year alone, I thought I'd give the one in Pennsauken on Route 70 a try. Cut across Collingswood, hoping to avoid having to go over the Cooper River. Turned out there was no way around it. If I wanted to ride to Route 70, I'd have to cross the bridge.

Thankfully, I really only needed to cross the smaller one that went over the river, not the higher and more traffic-laden one that goes over the highway. I got turned around on the tiny streets in Collingswood looking for Cooper River Park. Finally rode to the end of a street and cut across what turned out to be a charming little park and playground. It even had thick modern versions of a merry-go-round and balance beam. I couldn't resist giving them a quick try before moving on.

I wasn't the only person who decided to walk or ride to Pennsauken today. I saw many joggers or people pushing strollers over the bridge and continuing into the park. I made the mistake of passing the park and walking on the narrow dirt path next to the exit ramp. That got me to Route 70, but it was nerve-wracking, and I kept running into low hanging branches. At any rate, I rode two blocks down from the ramp and found myself across from the Goodwill.

The Pennsauken Goodwill is twice the size of the one in Audubon. It even has a whole room for furniture. Unfortunately, the rest of the building is given over to racks and racks of clothes. There's some racks of housewares and toys as you come in and a wall of CDs, but barely any books, and one small pile of records. Despite that, I managed to walk out with three T-shirts in a pretty coral and blue flower print, a blue sea-print, and a pink Winnie the Pooh, two records, and four CDs. 

By the time I left, it was past 2:30. I did see a Dunkin' Donuts and a pizzeria about two blocks away in a small shopping center, but I ultimately decided I wanted to get back across Route 70 before the rush hour traffic started. This time, I cut through one of the modern apartment and townhouse communities bordering Cooper River Park and past the Park itself. It was really beautiful, almost glowing with the soft lime greens and cotton candy pinks of mid-spring. Needless to say, there were still a lot of people out walking the dogs, strolling with friends, or jogging as I rode past. 

Came out on Haddon Avenue across from the Genesis Counseling Center. I originally planned on eating at the Pop Shop, but not only was it 3:30 by then and too late for a big lunch, but they're a lot further down Haddon. I ended up at Grooveground Coffee Bar instead. Had a tasty egg sandwich on a bagel and a blueberry matcha, a slightly gritty blueberry green milk tea. They have a small selection of records there as well; ended up with two older Sinatra albums and one from Taylor Swift that was just released in October. 

Incidentally, between Grooveground and the Goodwill, I ended up with an awful lot of Sinatra:

Frank Sinatra - Sinatra and Swingin' Brass, Point of No Return, Sinatra Sings...Of Love and Things, and In the Wee Small Hours

Johnny Mathis - I Just Found Out About Love

Taylor Swift - 1989 (Taylor's Version)

The CDs are mainly collections in one way or another, along with a beloved jazz album:

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

Malt Shop Memories: All I Have to Do Is Dream

This Is Jazz Sampler 21

Jump n' Jive (A swing and jazz collection made during the height of the late 90's neo-swing fad for, of all companies, Bed Bath and Beyond.) 

Ironically, my musical review for today also features Sinatra. He's one of three hopefuls looking for love and romance in post-war Brooklyn in this underrated MGM charmer, one of two lesser-known MGM musicals I'm covering this week in honor of TCM's 30th anniversary.

A Salute to TCM - It Happened In Brooklyn

Worked on the computer a bit, then had dinner while watching Match Game '74. The year ended with the second and last appearance of magic-loving Juliet Mills and the only week for Philadelphia singer and TV director James Darren. At one point early in the proceedings, Jack Narz literally popped up from under Darren's desk to promote his word-based show Now You See It, which was also on CBS at that point. 

Finished the night after a shower listening to more of the records I've acquired recently. Bing, Bing, Bing! is apparently the second album by jazz group The Charlie Hunter Trio, from all the way back in 1995. I wonder if I heard this then. Some of it seems familiar. Hunter lends his guitar to bluesy compositions with nifty titles like "Greasy Granny" and "Wornell's Yorkies." I liked some of the slightly darker songs on the second disc, especially the title number and "Elbo Room."

I was feeling too upbeat after my fun ride earlier for moody ballads, so I ended with Sinatra and Swingin' Brass. Cheerfully uptempo numbers like "Goody Goody," "At Long Last Love," and "Pick Yourself Up" were way more enjoyable on a lovely evening. My favorites were a nice "I'm Beginning to See the Light" and the sweet "Love Is Just Around the Corner." 

Dolls and Interviews

Got a quick start this morning with breakfast and Charlie and Lola. "I am Going to Save a Panda" says Lola when her brother explains that they're in danger of going extinct. The kids in their school are going to do stunts to earn money. Lola wants to do it, too, but then she comes down with the chicken pox and can't go. She's badly disappointed, until Charlie comes up with a brilliant idea to use her spots to earn money.

Rushed out with my laptop the second the cartoon ended. Since Karen and I had a session this morning today anyway, we decided to do that online job interview with Camden Housing Authority together, or at least, that she would be there when I did it. The Haddon Township Library opens at 10, and then I had to get online with my laptop. That meant we signed in nearly 10 minutes late. 

At least they were really understanding when we did get there. It was pretty much your standard interview. The gentleman and lady asked me a few questions about my background, why I wanted to work there, and if I'd be willing to brush up my computer skills. I mainly asked them how you got to Camden Housing Authority and what it was like to work there. Karen said I did very well and was extremely calm and focused, considering how agitated I was when we were late. We spent the second half-hour checking Indeed, but there really hasn't been much there lately.

(And even if I don't get the job, at least I know how to use Microsoft Teams, and that I can do well in interviews when people actually give me a chance to get to them.)

When I got home, I messed around on the laptop after I got it set up again, then dressed the dolls for May. Samantha's birthday is in May, so she's in her pink striped birthday dress and white lace pinafore. Kit is in her Photographer Outfit, with its coral, white, and turquoise print skirt, yellow top, and cute crocheted cardigan. Josefina looks lovely in her Dress and Vest for Cinco Del Mayo. It pairs well with her gold wrap from the Feast Day Finery outfit. Molly's in a hand-made recreation of her hard-to-find Victory Garden Dress I found on eBay. Ariel gets to wear her new Julie outfit, Julie's second meet outfit with the "Flower Power" tank top and yellow crocheted vest. 

Felicity is ready to help me clean in her green-striped Work Gown. Her apron is actually the lower half of a pinafore I bought Samantha years ago, but rarely had her wear. Jessa mixes and matches in the magenta T-shirt and white long-sleeved shirt from the original 1995 modern doll meet outfit with Springfield Collection jean capris and the turquoise sneakers and striped socks from the 2003 meet outfits. Whitney loves her pretty purple and white Our Generation Retro rose-print dress and shiny purple shoes. Barbara Jean is the queen of Cherry Hill High East's first prom in the pink fringe-and-sequin dress and fur stole originally intended to be a play outfit for Melody and a pink princess headband "crown." 

Let Buzzr run in the background while I worked on the dolls. Press Your Luck was wild with Whammies today, particularly in the first episode. One of the guys Whammied out early in the second round, leaving the other guy and the one lady to battle it out. The guy just barely won a trip to Japan and cash. A lady hit the big time in the second.

Split Second was even more exciting, especially in the first episode. One of the women came from behind in the Countdown Round to win. I suspected she didn't want to go through that again and went home with cash and a fur coat. The next episode wasn't quite so wild. One woman dominated the entire show through the Countdown Round and opted to return for the car when she didn't choose the right numbers in the Bonus Round.

Continued into Let's Make a Deal as I cleaned up the doll mess and had lunch. I believe I'd seen both of these episodes before. The second one was familiar, at least. A lady dressed as a tourist in mixed plaids and florals and a bucket hat won a trip, then lost $1,000 on the Door 4 Wheel. She and a couple dressed as (and in) garbage bags gave up a fur for the Big Deal of the Day. The couple got gorgeous living room furniture and a TV that I'm sure he appreciated a lot more than a fur coat, and I don't think the tourist was complaining over a refrigerator and a trip to the Caribbean.

I'd seen the Super Password episodes recently, so I headed out next to run errands. I was hoping Dollar General would have Propel mixes, but they haven't in two years. I did get new hair bands, though, and bottles of Coke Zero and Cherry Coke Zero for later. 

It was such a beautiful day, I pretty much had to go for a walk in the park. Took the back paths to avoid kids coming out of school. Thankfully, they've long since dried. Someone put planks over the really muddy parts, too. The weather couldn't have been nicer here, lower 60's, warm, breezy, and sunny as can be. I was disappointed to notice someone cleared trees and brush from a short section in front of the lake. It wasn't in the main part of the park, but still. People come here to enjoy nature. They'd better have done that because the trees were in bad shape. Not the best find on Earth Day.

Speaking of Earth Day, I watched a few cartoons on being kind to our planet when I got in. "Usagi's Panic: Rei's First Date" in the first season of Sailor Moon has the Fire Guardian setting her sights on Mamoru and convincing him to take her on an outing to a local park. Jealous and annoyed, Usagi grabs Umino and follows them. Ami's more worried about the old gardener who is upset over the park being closed and paved over for a new office building. She has every right to be concerned. Nephrite intends to use the old man and every creature in the park to gather energy for his dark mistress.

Switched to YouTube for the original 80's-early 90's Muppet Babies. Gonzo insists that the future will be like something out of Star Wars, with battles and monsters. Piggy thinks it'll be more everyday, like The Jetsons. Rolf's not happy with having to play Astro in the latter, or with Nanny insisting on him taking a bath. He dodges his impending washing to learn that the future may be more like "Muppet Babies: The Next Generation" because he and the others took care of the Earth and its creatures...until the others, and at least three or four other action franchises, inadvertently end up on the Enterprise as well. 

Worked on writing for a while after that. Kathleen is shocked when Lady Jacqueline point-blank states that spring won't be coming this year. Why even bother with spring when everything is fine the way it is? Kathleen tries to stammer that they need the warm weather before the carriage moves along, leaving her sputtering and staring after it.

Broke for dinner and Match Game '74 at 7 PM. For some reason, we skipped way ahead into the next year. The first episode was from after Gary Burghoff took over Charles Nelson Reilly's seat while he directed a show in New York. Poor Gary is so embarrassed when he blurts an answer and they have to start the question over, he goes shirtless for the next question. Avery Schreiber and Phyllis Newman join in for the second episode. Avery is the only one who has to answer the first question, and surprises everyone by doing very well at it.

Finished the night at YouTube with kids' game shows from the 80's and 90's. By the time I was growing up, Saturday mornings were increasingly given over to cartoons or, more rarely, live-action shows. Game shows for kids now mostly showed up in syndication or cable, like The Disney Channel's first game show Contraption. Two teams of young kids, some as young as 5 or 6, watch a clip from a Disney movie revolving around a subject, like "Animals" or "Magic." The one who answers the most questions earns the most "Contrapt-Tiles." After answering questions, the kids ride little cars or hamster wheels in a mini-race. The kids who have the most tiles after the last round wins. 

My sisters and I loved this show when we were little. I'm surprised Disney has never tried anything like this again with updated clips and vehicles. If you're a Disney fan, it's still pretty cute to watch.

The premiere kids' game show of the 1980's also came from cable. Nickelodeon's messy stunt show Double Dare was a massive success, spawning two spin-offs and two revivals to date and providing the basis for almost every other game show on the network. My sisters and I were big fans of this one too, partially because it was filmed for its first four years at WHYY Studios in Philly and kids from South Jersey would frequently appear.

Think Fast is a less-messy variation on Double Dare. The stunts here revolve less around throwing slime and gunk at people and more about using your head and figuring out patterns. The questions would lead to removing pieces of a rebus puzzle, almost making this Junior Concentration. For the bonus round, the winners are given a crazy character popping out of a locker and having to find the identical person or object in another locker. 

Double Dare was so huge, almost every kids' game show from the mid-80's through the late 90's pretty much copied it. My favorite of the imitators was Fun House. It's basically a cross between Double Dare and Contraption, with the Disney trivia replaced by general knowledge questions and no daring. The stunts frequently followed a theme - it's all things related to the sea in the episode I chose from 1988. I actually liked the run through the Fun House better than the Double Dare obstacle course. The obstacle course was so difficult, kids frequently couldn't get more than three or four prizes out of it. Here, kids could roam wherever they wanted, and all but the slowest would walk out with cash or a few good prizes.

I never heard of Treasure Mall, another syndicated Double Dare imitator from the late 80's, until tonight. Here, the kids answer questions, then run through the store in a "mall" with stunts based around the store's theme. The Bonus Round had them going through boxes to collect as many keys to open the big treasure chest as they could. Other than it being the first shopping show for kids, there's nothing really outstanding about this one. In fact, the treasure chest bonus round seems kind of chintzy.

Kids' game shows could be educational, too, and not just from trivia questions. Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego, a PBS show from the early 90's, taught geography and world history at a time when they were changing daily, sometimes seemingly overnight. Lynne "The Chief" Thigpen had a more personal connection to Double Trouble stealing the Tony Awards in "Bad Day On Broadway." She had been nominated for a Tony in the early 80's and would actually win one five years after this. (We even got to see a clip of her in the short-lived revue Tintypes. Host Greg Lee immediately made fun of the feathered hat she wore.) 

Every kids' channel got in on the games in the early-mid 90's. J.D Roth hosted the first season of Masters of the Maze on what was then The Family Channel. Three kids answer questions. The two who do the best gets to lead their partner through a twisty maze that includes a hall of mirrors and honeycombs and a room where the Guardians of the Maze asks them questions. The Bonus Round consists of the kids laser "shooting" TVs; get three prize TVs, and they win a shopping spree. The maze itself is honestly pretty nifty, though the bonus round is lame. (Apparently, Roth and the bonus round were replaced by Mario Lopez and more time in the maze in the second season.)

Nickelodeon did away with the questions all together for Guts. The 90's extreme sports fad is seen here as kids run through huge obstacle courses and tug their way across strong jets of water in a pool on a surfboard. I kind of wish I could have seen this as a young teen. No wonder this was one of Nick's bigger game show hits and would be revived in 2008 as a family competition. The kids are fun to watch, and the stunts are genuinely challenging.

Teenagers got in on the action in the 1997 show Click. This internet-based program was the last game show developed by Merv Griffin. Three pairs of teens run to answer different questions based on sections of the internet - "E- Mail" has them guessing which famous character or person wrote it, "Click Pix" and "Click Video" were photo and video questions, "Sound Bytes" was an audio clue, and "Home Page" had them guessing a topic. The Speed Round had one of each team member running to a board to answer questions. If they couldn't, someone from an opposing team had the chance to try. The Bonus Round was the Speed Round with an even shorter time limit.

The pre-social media internet theme does date this show a bit, but it's still fun to watch the kids run to all those stations and answer trivia, and for those who remember when the internet was just beginning, it's a major blast of nostalgia. 

If you grew up when I did, you'll want to relieve some fond childhood memories too with these enjoyable blasts from the past!

Contraption (1983)

Double Dare (1986)

Treasure Mall (1988)

Fun House (1988)

Think Fast (1989)

Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (1992)

Nickelodeon Guts (1992)

Masters of the Maze (1994)

Click (1998)

Winds of Spring

Slept in this morning. Started off the day with breakfast and the soundtrack from The Three Amigos. The last thing I expected to find was Elmer Bernstein's score and three songs by Randy Newman from this hilarious 1986 cult western comedy. It's an old favorite in my family. My sisters and I used to do the Amigos' "My Little Buttercup" act, with me miming playing the piano like Chevy Chase and my sisters ending up on each other's backs. I forgot how good Bernstein's score is, too, as sweeping as any actual western.

I also didn't know David Rose wrote the instrumental standard "The Stripper." Whomever named The Stripper and Other Fun Songs for the Family definitely had a sense of humor. Along with the brassy title number, we have either songs that, like "The Stripper," are associated with naughty doings ("Banned In Boston," "What Is This Thing Called Love?"), or are just more sophisticated than usual ("Mood Indigo," "Night Train"). My favorites here, along with the title number, are "St. James Infirmary" and "Black and Tan Fantasy."

Headed off to work after David Rose ended. Spent most of a chilly, cloudy, windy afternoon pushing carts. We were off-and-on steady, though it could have been a lot worse for a Sunday afternoon. The parking lot was busy. I had a hard time keeping up with the carts early in the afternoon. By the time the morning bagger went home and I took over the sweeping, it had slowed down considerably. I even had time to do the outside trash. No problems whatsoever.

Went home, took a shower, had dinner, and spent the rest of the night watching the Sunday Match Game marathon. Dumb Dora and her masculine equivalent Dumb Donald were two more characters created when the questions started getting longer in late '73 - early '74. They popped up whenever the question revolved around something someone wouldn't normally do or would probably kill anyone else. There was a Dumb Dora question in the episode where Scoey took off to hit the bathroom in the middle of an episode in 1976 and in 1974 when the cute British contestant with the perky pigtails certainly proved she was no dummy. 

The "Dumb" questions also carried over into other Match Game shows. A Dumb Dora question was heard during the wacky week with the cast of Too Close for Comfort (and Arsenio Hall and Bart Braverman) in Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour. There were also Dumb Dora and Donald questions during the Marines week on Match Game '90, one of which prompted answers that were so sexually-charged, two of them were censored. 

You won't be dumb if you join two of the most famous characters on Match Game for this wild marathon!

Match Game Sunday Classics - Dumb Dora Marathon (Part 1)

Library Matches

Got a quick start with breakfast and A Pup Named Scooby Doo on Tubi. Daphne and Scooby are besotted with handsome young rock star Buddy Chillner, to the point where Daphne buys out his latest concert. They're both horrified when he's kidnapped by "The Spirit of Rock and Roll," aka the ghost of vanished rock legend Purvis Parker. Searching for clues at Parker's former home reveals an obsessed fan who wants to be like Purvis and a cranky caretaker who resents Chillner for overshadowing his lost employer. Even after they find Buddy, they still need to figure out what the ghost is really after.

Called Uber shortly after the cartoon ended. I did so well at last year's Mt. Laurel Library book sale, I thought I'd check it out again. No trouble getting there. The driver going there arrived in less than a minute. Mt. Laurel is kind of out in the middle of nowhere, which is probably why the driver going home took seven minutes. No traffic either way, not even in Cherry Hill or on the White Horse Pike.

Unlike Cherry Hill, the Mt. Laurel Library has their sale in a tiny windowless meeting room on your left as you enter the building. It was hard to move around in there. Tables were two and three deep with older people and families with screaming children searching for great bargains in books, DVDs, CDs, and one box of records. Shelves in the center of the room held diminishing piles of textbooks and hardback novels. I had an easier time finding books as it cleared out and people went to lunch or took their children home. No interesting DVDs this time, but I did finally come up with six CDs:

Diana Krall - Love Scenes

Danny Wright - Autumn Dreams

Summer Sounds, a collection of recent songs (and the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun") that, if its amateurish computer-printed liner notes are any indication, is likely someone's home-made CD

Those Wonderful Years Disc 1 and 2

A Winter Solstice III

One record: David Rose and His Orchestra - The Stripper and Other Fun Songs for the Family 

Three hardbacks: Captain from Castile by Samuel Shelbarger

Teddy's World, a coffee table book with photos of vintage teddies in real-life settings

Woman's Day Celebrating Christmas, a 1979 collection of Christmas stories, crafts, and recipes. 

Two paperbacks: The Candymakers by Wendy Mass

You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid, or Crazy?! by Kate Kelly and Peggy Ramundo, on ADHD in teens and adults and how to deal with it. 

Headed straight home after I finished. The Mt. Laurel Library is surrounded by other government buildings, but is nowhere near their downtown or anywhere you can get lunch. Besides, it was too nice to stay in once I got home. I put my books upstairs and took my bike back out again. 

Ended up riding down to Phillies Phatties for pizza. They were busy with families and a big group of pre-teen and young teen boys in black cursing at each other and goofing off. I listened to the boys chatter while eating a slice of cheese, a slice of tomato-mozzarella-basil, and a bottle of Diet Pepsi.

Dodged the boys and another group of girls enough to get ice cream at Phillies Yummies next door. They had a lot of unique home-made flavors, but I thought I'd try their banana puddin'. Oh yum. Sweet and creamy and very banana, with thick cookie pieces. I'm not sure it was worth four dollars for two big scoops, but it was tasty. I sat at a small table in front of Common Grounds Coffee House while a little girl and her mother and sister enjoyed their treats at the other table.

Made one last stop at the pretzel shop on the White Horse Pike about a half-hour before they closed. I wanted a snack for later. I bought two pretzels, but it was so late, the girl taking my order threw in three more.

Besides, it was too nice to go home right away. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. Mid-60's, sunny as can be, breezy, warm. Spring just doesn't get any nicer than this. No wonder all the kids were out riding bikes and people were walking their dogs and toddlers in strollers.

Went home next and watched Wish on Disney Plus. I go further into their newest animated film that was intended as a homage to their earlier movies at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Animation Celebration Saturday - Wish

Finished the night back at YouTube with the Saturday Match Game marathon. After the writers started increasing the length and complexity of the questions, they began to create "characters" around them. One of the most famous was "Old Man Periwinkle," who usually anchored jokes about randy old men or old folks' homes or what old people were and weren't capable of. Gene Rayburn got really into his characterization, especially later in the series, often walking in tiny steps and using a gravely old man voice. 

This often lead to a lot of jokes in and of itself. Once, he got a little too close to Fannie Flagg while doing his schtick, and she accidentally pushed him onto Elaine Joyce. Another time during the syndicated series, he wore a white wig he was going to use as Scrooge when doing Christmas Carol in Boston and came in claiming to be Mr. Periwinkle. 

"Mr. Periwinkle" proved to be so popular, the character carried over to later versions of Match Game. Gene did a Mr. Periwinkle question during the Match Game half of my favorite episode of The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour. Things went off the rails spectacularly during the second half when the Xs and Os board broke down. All of the panelists had to hold their arms across their chest or over their heads in an X or an O shape; Jay Leno in particular loudly protested this. There was also Brian Stokes Mitchell and his massive boutonniere. Ellen Bry of St. Elsewhere gave him a whole plant to wear on his jacket. 

Mr. Periwinkle even turned up on Match Game '90, after Gene had been pushed out. Although Ross Schafer would attempt to do the character in later episodes, he doesn't here. That doesn't stop the other panelists, including Brad Garrett and Vicki Lawrence, from doing their best old person impressions.

See what that dirty old man Mr. Periwinkle is up to next in this salacious marathon!

Match Game Saturday Classics - Old Man Periwinkle Marathon Part 1

April Showers Bring Spring Flowers

Began the morning with breakfast and the series finale of Green Eggs and Ham. "The Mom Who Loved Me" is really trying to dismantle the bomb, not harm her son. Meanwhile, Guy has his own problems when Michellee goes into labor for real. The ladies can only hold off the Dookess for so long, while Sam can't keep the Moo-Lacka-Moo out of the Dooka's hands. Sam and his mom literally ride the missiles as they use the Goo-Lacka-Goo to stop the explosion from destroying the two countries, while E.B and Looka finally prove to the citizens that they aren't so different after all.

And that's that. I really wish they'd continued this series. I would love to have seen what other Seuss books Sam, Guy, and E.B could have gotten involved in, like helping The Lorax replant trees, showing the Sneeches that they're not all that different inside, and finding out what really happens on Mulberry Street. I did end up liking the first season slightly more than the second. Guy and Sam's interactions really made those episodes, and the B.A.D Guys were a riot. That said, the entire series is worth checking out if you're a fan of Seuss, want to see a really creative book adaption, or are looking for something fun and unique to check out with your elementary schoolers. 

Left a little bit early. Today is my nephew Khai's fourteenth birthday, and I wanted to drop off his card. He was probably in school when I came down Kendall, and his parents were likely at work. I dropped the card in their mail box again. 

Headed to work after that. There's a reason I haven't had many hours lately...and the reason is, we haven't been that busy. The floral department has nothing going on. The next holiday involving people giving gifts and flowers isn't until next month. It was so quiet, the head floral department manager left almost as soon as I came in. I helped the other manager unload bouquets of bright-colored spring flowers, dust around the newly-organized vases and stuffed animals, water the potted plants and ferns, and wipe up after the ferns when I over-watered them and they leaked. 

By the last hour, I'd cleaned everything that could be cleaned, swept the floor, dusted all the shelves, and watered everything that needed it. I spent that last hour making arrangements. Two white roses from a mixed bouquet became a lovely arrangement with additional greens and baby's breath. Likewise, three ruffly yellow roses made a fine, fancy arrangement with lots of ferns and baby's breath added. One of the rose and lily bouquets we put out earlier were added to a big vase with baby's breath and a few large, leafy greens. 

My hours are pretty much the same this week...which is to say, I barely have any. I work in the afternoon on Sunday and the morning on Wednesday, and likely only because the head bagger takes those days off. And this time, I only had one extra vacation day left, which means my paycheck won't be quite as good.

Did some grocery shopping after work. Mainly needed to restock apples and oranges. Individual navels and tangelos were on a good sale with online coupons. Grabbed some bagels for the few days I do work next week. Got yogurt for breakfast next week, too. Had an online coupon for Made Good granola bars, and the drizzled Kind bars are still on clearance.

Went straight home, then put everything away while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. "Minnie's Pajama Party" brings everyone together for a night at the clubhouse. Trouble is, they're all so excited, they can't sleep. They try to dance off their energy. When that doesn't work, Goofy tells a scary story. Trouble is, Goofy keeps taking his own story seriously when the gang hears three different noises that sound a lot more frightening than they are.

(My last birthday present arrived this afternoon. Lauren and her parents always send me 20 dollars for my birthday. Lauren sent it out on Monday, and she was getting worried. Thankfully, it got here just fine, though a bit late.)

(Incidentally, it was cloudy and cool again today. I think it did rain a little around this point, but it doesn't seem to have amounted to much. I'm guessing it was a light shower like the other day again.) 

Worked on writing next. Kathleen wonders what happened to Sir Michael. If Lady Jacqueline is his fiance, he should be with her. The lady gets snippy, telling Kathleen that it's none of her business, and that she will be handling all of his affairs from now on.

Put on Match Game '73 while eating dinner. Match Game celebrated its first Christmas Day episode with the arrival of Santa Claus, aka Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles remained in costume and in character for the rest of the episode. June Lockhart and Jack Cassidy join in to help with "Common __" in the Audience Match during the opening sequence.

Finished the night at Shout! TV for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode The Screaming Skull. This 1958 horror drama about a man whose wife keeps seeing and hearing the skull from his deceased first wife everywhere is very dark and atmospheric, but is also horribly slow, stiffly acted, with terrible dialogue and a first-time director who was actually an actor and only just figuring out what he was doing. The robots were right to make fun of how slow this was and how long it took everyone to react to anything. This one is only recommended for ardent fans of mid-century horror. 

Cold Spring

Began the morning with breakfast and Green Eggs and Ham. Pam is "On Her Dookness' Secret Service" when she's given her next big assignment - to take down Sam. Meanwhile, Michellee does an expert bit of acting when she distracts the Guy Watcher long enough for her husband to attempt to disarm the bomb. E.B and Looka have far less luck convincing his father the Dooka to not launch his missile, but Sam does manage to rescue them from Looka's room.

Did a few things online, then headed out to run some quick errands in the Westmont Plaza before the kids got out of school. I found the right D3 vitamins, but the color-safe bleach was either too expensive, or came in huge bottles I couldn't carry home. Did better at Sprouts. Grabbed Bobo's and Kodiak granola bars, coconut milk, and coconut cookies. Looked for bleach at Dollar Tree, but they didn't have anything color-safe. Ducked out just as the kids started coming over from the high schools and middle school for lunch.

I did finally find color-safe bleach in smaller containers at Family Dollar. I was in and out there once I got what I was looking for. Considered picking up pretzels for lunch, but finally decided I wasn't really that hungry and just rode home. The weather wasn't really appropriate for running around, either. It was cloudy and cold, in the upper 50's, far chillier than it has been lately. 

Had a smaller lunch while watching Classic Concentration. The first episode took place during a tournament to win a South Seas vacation. The male contestant won a Windjammer Caribbean cruise, among many other prizes, which is likely why this was part of the Spring Break marathon. I wish they'd stuck to that; I wanted to see who won the South Seas trip. Two more women started on a totally different, non-tournament week in the next episode. 

I was so tired, I went down for a nap after the shows ended. I wanted to yesterday, but I ended up curtailing it when I went out with Jessa. Passed out for over 2 hours, until 4:30, and was still tired afterwards.

Put on Sweet Kitty Bellairs while I tried to wake up. I go further into this charming and underrated operetta from the early 30's at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Cult Flops - Sweet Kitty Bellairs

Worked a little bit on writing next. Kathleen is so nervous, she can barely talk to the lady. Jacqueline dismisses her fears, insisting that she is Sir Michael's new fiancee. Her husband to be is...in dispose...and has sent her to manage his affairs.

Broke for dinner at 7 PM. Watched Match Game '73 while I worked. Game show host Robert Q. Lewis joined in for his only week on the show, along with Morey Amsterdam, comedy writer Ann Elder, and in her first week, sweetly silly comedienne Joyce Bulifant. I really wish Morey had turned up more on the show after 1974. His hilarious quips added a lot in the first and third seats, including the rather morbid "fat and skinny" poem in the second episode.

Finished the night working on my review while listening to Disney soundtracks on LP. Encanto is one of several recent Disney films that have found far more success on home media than in the theater. It's a shame, because this story of a magical Colombian family and the power-less daughter who tries to find out what happened to that magic has some terrific Lin Manuel Miranda songs. The soundtrack went over far better than the film, with the rollicking "We Don't Talk About Bruno" hitting number one. Other good numbers here include the opening "The Family Madrigal," the other hit "Surface Pressure," and beautiful sister Isobel wondering "What Else Can I Do?"

The Aristocats also came out at a difficult time for Disney. It would be the last movie Walt greenlit in his lifetime, though it was released in 1970, well after he passed on. It's slight and charming, but some of the songs aren't bad. The jazzy "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" is the standard here; Louis Prima's performance on my album may be even better than the one in the film. Surprisingly, it also includes a song written for the film, but not used, the sweet "She Never Felt Alone." 

Actually, the best song on the album wasn't written for Aristocats. Since Aristocats doesn't have much of a score, it includes three songs about cats written for Disney films of the 50's and 60's. My favorite by far of these is the Sherman Brothers' comic jazz title song for the original That Darn Cat, which I believe isn't available anywhere else besides here and that movie. (The others are "Thomasina," from the odd fantasy drama The Three Lives Of Thomasina, and "The Siamese Cat Song.")

High Hopes

Began the morning with breakfast and Charlie and Lola. He has to remind his sister that "This Is Actually My Party," and he wants a monster theme, loud music, and a scary cake. Lola would rather he had pink cupcakes, classical music, and a ballerina theme. He's not happy with the changes, but she goes too far when she starts opening his cards and his presents for him. When he argues with her, she decides she has to make things right. 

Hurried to work soon as the cartoon ended. We were steady off and on for most of the morning. That was a bit of a surprise. There's really nothing going on right now besides sports. Maybe everyone wanted to dodge the weather. It started showering lightly around 12:30, which cleared out our customers. Thankfully, it was never heavy enough to make me more than damp. By the time I rode home, the rain was vanishing, though the clouds remained.

Watched Press Your Luck as changed and had a snack. Whammies slammed everyone in this episode. The two women hit two each in the first round. They didn't get the guy until the second, but then they got him three times. He Whammied out on his last turn, allowing the champ to come out on top. Her prizes are likely the reason this was included with Buzzr's Spring Break marathon - trips to New York and Hong Kong.

Rested while watching The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex. Queen Elizabeth I (Bette Davis) is more than a little worried about Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex (Errol Flynn). Sure, he's one of her best fighters, but he's also ambitious and wouldn't mind having the throne for himself. She praises everyone but him, which angers him enough to leave for his estate. She calls him back to route an uprising in Ireland. 

He thinks she's scorning and ignoring him when she doesn't answer his letters. Turns out the letters were intercepted by Lady Penelope Gray (Olivia De Havilland), who also loves Robert. Elizabeth equally thinks he's ignoring her and calls him back to London. He leads an army against her, then assumes they'll rule together. But Elizabeth isn't the type of woman to share with anyone, and Robert's more likely to lose his head than rule beside her.

Strong acting from everyone here, from Davis playing Elizabeth for the first of two times to Flynn as the nobleman who is too caught up in his own ambition to realize the queen has no desire to let him sit on the throne. DeHavilland gets to play a slightly stronger character than usual in these dramas as the lady-in-waiting whose love for Robert leads her come between him and Elizabeth. Look for half the character actors on the Warners lot at the time as members of the Queen's court, including Vincent Price as Sir Walter Raleigh and Donald Crisp as Sir Francis Bacon.

The Elizabeth and Essex DVD came with several extras, including the Warners musical short The Royal Rodeo. John Payne, still a few years away from his Fox musicals, here plays a singing cowboy whose wild west show delights a boy king (Scotty Beckett) when it visits his country. He and his sidekick Shorty (Cliff Edwards) rescue him and his Aunt Marianne (Lucile Fairbanks) from conspirators who want to take over the country. 

Jessa texted me during work. She apparently had extra tickets to the Phillies-Rockies game this evening and couldn't find anyone to go with her. Did I want to come? Sure, why not? Beat sitting at home, messing around on the laptop. 

She picked me up at 5:30 to catch the 6:05 game. Fortunately, the traffic wasn't bad, not even around the stadium. Once we actually got into the parking lot, it was a different story. The Phillies weren't the only team playing this evening. The Sixers were at the Wells Fargo Center as well, playing the Miami Heat. Jess parked in the back, which means it took a while for us to dodge cars and people heading to both venues.

Citizens Bank Park is huge, with tons of food and shopping options. We walked around a bit before getting in line at a Shake Shack. She wanted a hot dog later, so she just bought fries and the "MVP Shake" - vanilla ice cream with various cookie bits and red, white, and blue sprinkles. I got the Shake with a single burger. 

We sat at the tables next to the booth as the game began. The Phillies couldn't have started off stronger against a team that's currently one of the worst in the National League. Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner hit home-runs almost as soon as the game began. The Rockies couldn't get anywhere near them. By the time we'd joined 35,000 screaming fans in the stands, the Phils were up 2-1.

Jess got great seats, too, 108 on the right outfield. I could clearly see all the pitching and current batters. That was actually the last scoring anyone did for a while. At least the game moved quickly. I worried it would drag on, especially given it remained cloudy and windy all evening. Far from it. Pitcher Cristopher Sanchez struck out most of the Rockies up to bat...until a disastrous 7th inning, when he allowed 5 guys to make it through. 

Maybe the weather distracted him. The clouds that had hung on since I got home from work finally burst around 8 PM. At least the rain was neither heavy, nor did it last long. It showered lightly for about twenty minutes. By that point, it was almost the 8th inning, too late to call the game. Thankfully, the Phils managed to hang on and win the game 7-6.

The crowds were a lot of fun, too. Considering tonight is a school night, I'm surprised how many families with kids I saw in the stands. If the kids were ecstatic, the adults around them were even more so, especially once they had a few dozen yards of beer in them. The guys two rows behind us kept yelling at right fielder Nick Castallan. (Frankly, considering some of it wasn't complimentary, I hope he didn't hear them.) 

I got up during the 7th inning stretch to use the bathroom and get a snack. Jessa had done a similar run about two innings before. I liked the nifty souvenir cup she brought back, so I thought I'd get one, too. I also wasn't leaving a Philadelphia sports venue without having a soft pretzel. I found a booth that sold Aaron Nola Coke Zero cups and huge pretzels in the shape of a P.  

It once again took us a little while to get out of there. Jessa stopped for a second bathroom break before we headed out for good. When we got into the parking lot and found Jess' car, everyone was trying to leave at the same time. We pulled out at the same time as two other cars, and everyone was inching along.

Once we got away from Citizen's Bank Park, it was smooth sailing. There was no traffic anywhere going home, not even in South Philly. Jessa's husband Joe even called and gave us the play-by-play on the Sixers game, which was literally in its last seconds. Oh, yeah, and the Sixers also just barely won over the Heat by one point, 105-104, which apparently gives them the seventh seed in the playoffs. 

On the Road Again

Began a beautiful and sunny morning with Green Eggs and Ham. "The Sam Who Came In From the Cold" is proud to deliver the Moo-Lacka-Moo to the Dooka (Hector Elizondo) with his mother. Even though he's glad to be eating green eggs and ham with her again, he's not as thrilled when he learns that the Moo-Lacka-Moo will be used to destroy the Yookia...and by extension, his friends. Meanwhile, Guy makes up with E.B by helping her to get Looka out of the dungeon.

Did some things online, then headed out. After I got sunburned on my arms and took a longer walk than planned yesterday, I debated taking a long ride today. The weather was just so nice, though, I couldn't bring myself to sit inside.

I was cutting through Audubon and across from Haddon Lake Park when I got a phone call. It was the Camden Housing Authority. They wanted to do a virtual interview with me and several other people...but they wanted to do it tomorrow morning, when I had work. And apparently, they hadn't gotten my college transcripts, even though I sent them. I said I'd try sending them again, and that we'd have to reschedule my interview for next week. I had so few hours this week, I really couldn't call out.

After checking Google Maps on my phone, I finally made my way through Haddon Heights and down to the Black Horse Pike. As I rode down the Pike, I saw a huge black horse statue with Del Buono's Bakery painted on it that was very hard to miss! In fact, the plain white building was surrounded by huge statues of the Blues Brothers, Pinocchio, a pink pig dressed as a baker, and enough animals to start a farm. 

The inside was equally interesting. An enormous machine in the very back spit hot, fresh rolls onto a conveyor belt. Shelves were jammed full of rolls, soft bagels, butter and chocolate chip cookies, cake, cannoli, soft pretzels, eclairs, and pastries. There was a deli in the main room as well. I ended up with a bag of two soft bagels and a raisin roll and two containers of Italian butter and chocolate cookies buy-one, get-one.

It took me a few more wrong turns (including my nerve-wracking cross over busy i-295), but I finally made it to Bellmawr around quarter of 1. After getting turned around near their massive library, I finally found what I'd come to see. The Community Thrift Store was tucked away in a random shopping center with a Mexican restaurant and dry cleaners. Frankly, they were a total mess. The clothes on the racks didn't look bad, but every other piece of junk had been dumped onto shelves every which way. There were only a few DVDs and no books, and all of the records were 12-inch-singles or damp and ruined. I was barely there for five minutes before I walked back out again with nothing.

It wasn't a total loss. In addition to the bakery, I passed the Club Diner on my way up the Pike. The red, blue, and chrome building was worth crossing the street for. I slid into a small booth and had a tasty Monte Cristo ham and turkey sandwich on French toast, with fries, an iced tea, and a salad. (There was also a tiny cup of cole slaw, but it was kind of sour.)

Backtracked a block to Royal Farms. They're pretty much identical to WaWa, down to the gas station and the exact same set-up for their self checkout kiosks. They even have identical sales. I bought a Strawberry Lemonade Propel for the ride home and the buy Mountain Dew Zero and Baja Blast Zero, get them for 2 each for later.

This time, I stuck to the Black Horse Pike going home. Checked out a party store in Mt. Ephraim on my way down the road. They were better-organized, with what amounted to a dollar store in front and a party store in back. Once again, there was nothing interesting.

Followed the Black Horse Pike all the way down to the exit into Oaklyn. Thought about getting ice cream, but Phillies Yummies was two and three deep with kids just out of school. I opted for a tart elderberry hibiscus iced tea at Common Grounds Coffee House instead.

Went straight into today's movie for review when I got home. I go further into the Paramount early sound musical Honey at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Honey (1930)

Rebought the transcripts while the movie was on. This time, I send them to my e-mail, then e-mailed it to the Camden Housing Authority. I hope it worked this time. I haven't heard otherwise, at any rate.

Switched to writing after the movie ended. Kathleen can't help noticing that all of the spring flowers and leaves retreat when Lady Jacqueline and Lord Jerrick appear, and the temperature drops at least ten degrees. She wonders where Sir Michael is, as he's nowhere to be found in the coach. Jacqueline claims he'll join them at a later date.

Broke for dinner and Match Game '73. Buzzr is now on the wild week that introduced "Dean of Game Shows" Bill Cullen to the show. We also have Loretta Swit, and one of the few rock stars to appear on the show, jovial Cass Elliot. I really wish Cass could have turned up again. Despite the barrage of weight jokes she got from Richard and Brett, she was laid-back, very funny, and a good player. It's too bad she passed away before she could come back.

Finished the night listening to some of the record collections I acquired this weekend, starting with Make Believe Ballroom Time. As I mentioned a few days ago, I first heard this in college, when someone donated a pile of old records to the Stockton Media Center.  I'd only read about songs like the movie theme song waltz "Jeannie, I Dream of Lilac Time" and the sweet "I'll Always Be In Love With You" in books before I found this. Other songs are less obscure today, including the original "Charleston," "The Sheik of Araby," "Me and My Shadow," and "Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye." (And one, "Happy Days are Here Again," is actually a cheat - it's from the 1930 movie Chasing Rainbows.)  

Lovely to Look At is MGM's 1954 version of the 30's musical-operetta hybrid Roberta. It wasn't a hit at the time, but some of its songs live up to the title. Ann Miller has fun with "I'll Be Hard to Handle." Howard Keel does well by the title song and is joined by a supremely sarcastic Kathryn Grayson for "You're Devastating." Grayson also gets this show's major standard, the ballad "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes," while Marge and Gower Champion do a lively "I Won't Dance."

Brigadoon is also an MGM Broadway adaptation from 1954 and also wasn't a hit at the time. Otherwise, this bittersweet Scottish fantasy is about as different from Lovely to Look At as you can get. Though you can't see Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse's stunning ballet to "The Heather On the Hill," you can hear Kelly sing my favorite song from this score, "Almost Like Being In Love." 

Hot In Springtime

Began a sunny, hot morning with being startled away by the phone. It was Karen. The only day she can get together this week is Friday, and that's my day in the floral department. I'm not going to miss that. We're going to attempt getting together next week instead.

Jessa also texted me. Turns out she wanted to get together today after all. Could I meet her somewhere we could eat outside? She originally suggested Sonic, but that would be too far to walk. I mentioned Collingswood. Many of the restaurants and cafes there have outdoor seating. 

Read Death by Dumpling, then hurried out. At least it was a nice day for a walk. Almost too nice for mid-April. It was hot, windy, and sunny, already in the upper 70's at 11:30. I'm surprised there weren't more people in the park, but they might have all been at work or on their way to lunch.

Jessa met me near the PATCO station with her fluffy little black dog Midnight. Turns out she'd ridden her bike all the way from Deptford, with Midnight in the back. It took her over an hour to get there on the back roads. She hadn't mentioned that when she texted me. No wonder she wanted to meet by a place with bike racks and eat outside. 

I suggested Collingswood because it's closer to me, but the truth is, most stores in town are closed on Monday. Haddon Culinary is one of the few that's open all week. In addition to selling overpriced gourmet food and produce, they also have small meals, sandwiches and salads and soup and the like. Jessa had soup and a chicken sandwich. I had the Haddon Sunrise egg sandwich, with bacon, melted cheddar, tomato, scrambled eggs, and spicy aioli on multi-grain bread. I was still a bit full from yesterday, so all I had with it was a bottle of unsweetened iced tea. 

There's wooden benches all along Haddon Avenue next to the market and their next-door neighbor, a juice shop. Midnight curled up in the shade under the table while we had our sandwiches. Yum! Mine was really good, a nice blend of flavors. Jessa seemed to enjoy her sandwich and especially her Italian Wedding Soup, too. Midnight came out from under the table when a man came by with a young black lab and a couple passed walking their little king's spaniel.

We talked for a long time after we ate, probably for almost an hour. She told me about her job at a warehouse and running the Broad Street marathon in Philly. I told her about my vacation days and my enjoyable weekend off. 

I originally suggested taking Midnight to Knight Park, but we talked for so long, she ended up walking me home across Collingswood. We walked down Lees Avenue until we saw the park, then turned on that. They were even more busy than Collingswood with people and their dogs and children out enjoying the warm, sunny day. When we got to my house, I filled her water bottle, so she and Midnight could wet their whistles before they started back on their long ride home.

After I got in, I did job hunting while watching Match Game PM. I enjoyed the episodes I saw last night so much, I decided to keep my usual birthday Match Game marathon going another day. Brett is delighted when an older man with a twinkle in his eye is sweet on her. She's nervous when he chooses her for the Head-to-Head, but everyone's delighted when things work out - most of all him!

The first season of the nighttime shows ended with an episode where Gene demonstrated his ability to do push-ups. Brett then showed off hers, which weren't bad, either. Soap star Janice Lynde managed to steal the spotlight from both of them by doing "push ups" on her stomach!

At that point, I was tired and not really having much luck with job hunting. I went down for a nap instead. Fell asleep at 4:30 and was so out of it, I didn't get up until almost 6:30.

To my annoyance, I realized after I wrote in my journal that I forgot to take my laundry downstairs earlier. I did that, then put on Match Game '73 while eating dinner. Ran straight into the infamous episode where Gene turns up in a red and green plaid suit that was so butt-ugly, even for the early 70's, the panel wouldn't look at him when he came out. Comedian Jack Carter even said he looked like "a station break in Poland." Near the end of the episode, everyone is so excited when the contestant wins, Bert, Jack, and Fannie Flagg ran into the audience and gave random people hugs and kisses.

Brought my last birthday present to myself up after I ran the laundry downstairs. Make Believe Ballroom Time was among the records and videos the Stockton Media Center received from a donor when I worked there around 2000. I enjoyed listening to the charming 20's songs so much, I actually recorded the two-disc set onto a cassette. I still have it, but alas, it's in storage, and I'm trying to replace my cassettes with other formats as much as possible anyway. I finally found it again on eBay. (There's a 30's collection under the same title I may eventually pick up as well.)

Put my laundry in the dryer, then brought it up again as I finished the night with more Match Game PM. Gene wasn't happy in one Season 2 episode when he had to open his own door because the stagehand forgot to do it. Another classic episode had Richard pretending to be Brett and Betty White playing Charles when they already matched the contestant and had to sit out a round. Brett brought her elegant fan to a long-lost episode that Buzzr restored to the line-up in 2021. Gene's comments to an Asian man who was in World War II may have had something to do with its disappearance.

Gene wasn't the only one who said things he probably regretted on the nighttime show. Marcia Wallace's answer to a question about where a guy lost a few inches got censored in a 1977 episode. Another infamous episode from a year later featured a bored Richard and two of the most hapless people to ever play the game. They just could not match anyone. The only reason the guy made it to the Audience Match was Charles matched each of them once, then matched him in a tiebreaker.

Some of the later episodes after Richard left were pretty fun, too. I wish Buzzr still showed them. Gene brought his daughter Lynn's sweet old dog Trotter to the show in one 1979 episode, to Betty White's delight. Charles was a lot more skeptical and teased Gene about his furry friend throughout the show. Debralee Scott flashed her bare leg in heels and stockings in another show. Bill Daily quickly covered it with his coat! A few weeks later, Charles kindly gave his toupee to a balding but personable young man who frankly looked a lot better with it.

Betty White and Allen Ludden made one of their last appearances together in a 1981 syndicated week, and the only time Allen sat in the "smart guy" seat next to Betty. Alas, the full week is currently unavailable, but the nighttime version survives. Jimmie Walker and Jonnelle Allen join in to see how much Betty and Allen clearly loved sitting next to each other, happily teasing and helping one another.

Here's all of the episodes I watched today (including today's YouTube "premiere" chat episode and the one I watched on Buzzr), so you can enjoy lots more Match Game after dark too!

Match Game '73 80- Gene's Wild Suit

Match Game '76 651 - Joey Bishop's First Show

PM 33 - Hose Down Brett

PM 39 - Brett and Gene's Dueling Push-Ups

PM 51 - Gene Opens His Own Door

PM 66 - Richard Plays Brett and Betty Plays Charles

PM 74 - Gene and the Japanese Contestant (Formerly Skipped Episode)

PM 91 - Marcia Gets Censored

PM 119 - Worst Contestants Ever?

PM 201 - Meet Trotter the Dog

PM 207 - Debralee's Leg Flash

PM 210 - Betty and Allen Together

PM 215 - Charles Rips Off His Toupee

Birthdays and Matches

Started off my birthday with breakfast and Match Game '73 on YouTube. Brett and Charles made their first appearances on the show's third week, while Bert Convy and Betty White appeared outside of the pilot for the first time. It's also the first of many, many times Brett chides Charles for not wearing socks, and the first time Betty and Brett trade quips.

Headed out after that. The Uber driver didn't even need a minute to arrive. Thankfully, there was very little traffic as he headed down the highway and turned off to Deptford. He dropped me off at the front Boscov's Deptford Mall entrance around 11 AM.

Explored Boscov's first. I didn't see any clothes I liked, but they were having good sales on socks. They always have a great selection of decent socks. I walked out with a 3 pack of tan and brown cotton Goldtoe socks that came to $12 with 25 percent off.

FYE is a few doors down from Boscov's. While they no longer have the wonderful selection of DVDs and CDs they once did, they do have a decent pile of records. I found jazz group The Charlie Hunter Trio's Bing Bing Bing for $15. 

Made my way down to the other side of the mall and into Round 1 Arcade. They were a lot busier than usual, with far more small kids running around with parents. The ring toss and Lane Master bowling game were down, but everything else worked. I ran from the Monopoly dice spin to the Nerf Arcade to the giant Pac Man game to skee ball to the spinning pirate wheel to Mario Kart Deluxe (I ended up with Luigi). Came up with over 2,900 points. Normal-sized Beanie Babies were only 400 points each. I got fluffy Tundra the Snow Leopard and sweet Chopper the Dalmatian, along with two tiny popping candy bags and one of those Chinese yo-yos for 10 and 30 points each. And I still have over 2,000 points left for when Lauren visits in June.

It was past 1:30 when I finally had lunch at the food court. I really loved Pitas and Salad, the Greek food booth where I had lunch when Lauren visited last year. Had a delicious lamb and beef gyro with thick, dry fries and big tomato chunks. 

Bubble Bear Tea literally just opened a few days ago. Thought I'd finally give bubble tea a whirl. Tried their coconut milk tea. The "bubbles" were tapioca pearls, and they had a rather strange, gummy mouth feel. The coconut milk tea was good, but the bubbles were weird. I think I'll stick to green tea from now on when I want to do an exotic tea drink.

JC Penney is right behind the food court, so I went there next. They were having big clearance sales, including buy-one, get-one free on any items with a pink label. It took me forever to decide, but I finally came up with brown jeans (my old pair are starting to go in the thighs - I don't know if they'll survive another winter) and a gold cable sweater. The buy one, get one was more like buy one, get them half-off. With the sale, I got both for about $8 all together.

Peeked at the toy and accessories stores Box Lunch and Miniso, but it was past 3:30 by that point. If I wanted to check out Barnes and Noble too, I figured I might as well get going. Besides, the mall wasn't getting any less busy. I could barely move around in the toy stores. Went out the main entrance door, around Macy's, and past Dick's to the parking lot.

I originally tried to cross at the corner, but it was too crazy. As I headed down the street to cross closer to my destination, I saw something small and dirty laying in the street. It was a little Beanie Baby giraffe, all covered in dirt and bits of leaves. I couldn't just leave him there sitting next to the curb, so I brushed him off as best I could and stuck him in my bag. 

Ducked past the abandoned shopping center that once held Christmas Tree Shoppes and Bed Bath and Beyond before making it to Barnes and Noble. They were also busy, but there's also more room to spread out. I dug two mysteries out of the cozy section and found a book on game shows on the entertainment shelves. Deptford does have a music and DVD area, and they too now sell records.  

My Barnes and Noble finds were: 

The soundtracks for Encanto and The Three Amigos (and I never thought I'd see a soundtrack for the latter - apparently, it's exclusive to Barnes & Noble)

Dim Sum of All Fears - Vivien Chien

Rhythm and Clues - Olivia Blacke

Game Show Confidential - Boze Hadleigh

Stopped in at the Starbucks there to wet my whistle. This time, I went with a small Green Tea Frappuccino. It was cold and I was thirsty. I went through my finds while downing my drink.

Soon as I got outside, I called Uber. It took the young woman about 9 minutes to pick me up, but it was the height of rush hour on a Sunday. At any rate, we once again hit no traffic, and I was home in 20 minutes.

Put everything upstairs, then went right back out again. It was too nice of a day to sit inside. The weather was gorgeous. It remained windy, but was also sunny and warm, probably in the upper 60's. I originally wanted to get a treat from Los Amigos, but it turns out that they close early on Saturday. I considered Dunkin' Donuts, but they didn't have much left, and I didn't feel like hiking all the way to WaWa. I just went home after that.

As it turned out, someone already took care of that. A friend, two neighbors, and their daughter made a pineapple-upside down cake for me. I love pineapple upside-down cakes! I've made them myself a few times. My friend also gave me a card and a huge bouquet of pale pink roses that smell so nice. 

I heard from my family, too. Jessa texted late last night to see if I wanted to hit the Cherry Blossom Festival in Philly with her. I didn't get to it until late, and she didn't read it until much later. We decided to go bowling tomorrow or Tuesday instead. Rose texted me, and I had a nice chat with Mom (who also sent a lovely card). 

Soon as I got home, I took that poor little stuffed giraffe to the sink and gave him a good scrubbing. I hope I got all the dirt off. It took me forever just to pull the needle-like leaves stuck in him. Since he didn't come with his tag, I had no idea what his name was. My friend suggested Geoffrey, after the Toys R Us mascot. I think that will do just fine. At any rate, he now looks much better, or at least, is less dusty.

Watched more Match Game episodes after I went upstairs. One of the most famous early episodes was from the only week where Bobby Van and Elaine Joyce got to sit side-by-side (and the only time Elaine was in Brett's character actress seat). The contestant's answer to a question about Batman and Robin's relationship now has this episode banned from the airwaves. 

Switched to favorite episodes of the night time show after that. Two of the show's best early episodes has Gene questioning Richard's seemingly unusual answers in the Audience Match...and in the case of "Burns and __" and "Admiral __," let's say Richard was right both times. Another show begins with several panelists standing up and saluting a Scottish officer in full regalia. 

The Match Game Sunday Classics marathon began around 7:30 and ran until past 3:30. Ira Skutch, the show's producer and judge, was in the spotlight tonight. A tall gentleman with high cheekbones and a fondness for leisure suits, Ira generally appeared on camera when he had to replace a question that had been compromised in some way with a new one, or to explain his rulings. Among the time he had to do the latter was during the week Donald Ross and Patti Deustch played together. Donald said "a little yellow spot" as to what a dog did on the floor and it was passed. Two other people said "spot," and it was buzzed. Ira told them he passed yellow spot because it was specific.

Ira's rulings could cause a lot of trouble, most notoriously during the infamous "School Riot" in 1977. Ira let "college" and "scuba diving school" slide as answers to where Dumb Dora took her cultured pearls to, but not "finishing school" or "night school." Debralee Scott and Richard Dawson threw a fit. Patti Deustch was so scared, she could barely show her "night school" answer. Brett and Charles tried to defuse the situation by showing Charles as "the first victim of the school riot," but the damage had been done. The lower tier kept their answers up in protest for what little remained of the episode.

On the other hand, his decisions could benefit the contestants. When one woman struck out completely in the Audience Match in a 1976 PM episode and couldn't do the Head-to-Head, they let her match the panelists for 100 dollars each. She ended up going home with 600 dollars and a smile on her face. 

See if you can match answers with the show's infamously finicky producer and judge! 

Match Game Sunday Classics - Featuring Producer Ira Skutch On Camera

And here's the other episodes I watched today!

1973 - First Appearances of Brett, Betty, Bert, and Charles

1973 - Batman and Robin are What?!

1975 PM - Burns and Cuts

1975 PM - Stand Up To Salute!

1975 PM - The Admiral TV Incident

Oh, and the nice weather didn't last forever. The rain returned somewhere around 10:30. It rained hard for a while, but thought it remains windy, I don't think it's rained since. 

Blown Into Matches

Started off the morning with breakfast and the first episode of Match Game '73. Along with the musical for review, I intend to spend my weekend off watching Match Game episodes for my birthday. And as someone once said, the beginning is a very good place to start. Richard Dawson appeared on the show from the start, joined for the first week by Michael Landon, Anita Gillette, Jo Ann Pflug, Jack Klugman, and Vicki Lawrence. Of those six, only Landon, frustrated by the new rules, would never return. (And it's a shame. He was charming, and he did play well.) 

Did a few things online for a half-hour before I finally headed out for a long bike ride up to Barrington. There are several collectible or antique stores up there that I wanted to check out, starting with the Barrington Antique Center. This sprawling warehouse has everything you can imagine jammed into its tiny rooms, from depression glass and genuine antique furniture and clothes to relatively recent DVDs and Barbies. 

Normally, I love prowling around there, but they were incredibly busy today. I couldn't move without running into someone who wanted to riffle through the same shelf as me. I also rarely find records there. It's not that they don't have good ones. It's just that their records tend to be twice the price of anyone else's. I wasn't paying $10 for a rock album I could find in the dollar bin at Innergroove, but I would pay $10 for a double disc set of the MGM musicals Lovely to Look At and Brigadoon. I also found the soundtrack for The Aristocats for $5. It was scratched, but playable. Found small loaves of bread on a plate near the door for $5; grabbed a chocolate chip loaf for breakfast tomorrow.

Had no luck anywhere else. The House of Fun, a collectible toy and DVD shop in a shopping center near Lawnside, had nothing of interest. Past and Present Vintage mainly sold vintage sports shirts and jerseys. For the prices they were asking, I could buy something new. 

Besides, the weather wasn't much fun, especially for a long ride. It was cold, much colder than it has been, probably in the upper 50's-lower 60's.The sun kept hiding behind clouds. Blustery winds whipped down the streets of Barrington and Haddon Heights, nearly blowing me over at one point. I hurried down Atlantic Avenue, under King's Highway and into Audubon.

Had lunch at the Legacy Diner. It's been a while since I've eaten there. Even at well past 2 PM, they were busy. It took 10 minutes to get a waitress, but they did bring my lunch quickly. I do like their pancakes. Had coconut-pineapple pancakes with bacon and unsweetened iced tea. The pancakes were tasty, if slightly dry. The bacon could have been cooked more, but I like mine crispy.

I was originally going to try the new ice cream parlor on the corner of Cuthbert and the White Horse Pike, but despite the sign out front claiming they open at noon, the young man behind the counter said they weren't opening until 5. Oh well. I went back across the street to WaWa for a treat instead. Pineapple is the flavor of the summer there this year, so I tried a Pineapple Pie Milkshake. Not bad. Very pineapple, with crunchy bits sprinkled on top, if a bit too sweet.

Soon as I got home, I put Alice In Wonderland on as I got organized and rested. I go further into this all-star musical miniseries from 1985 at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Family Fun Saturday - Alice In Wonderland (1985)

Finished the night online after a shower with tonight's Match Game marathon. Bill Cullen, the Dean of Game Shows himself, knew more than a little bit about panel shows...but he seemed to do better on more typical examples of the genre like To Tell the Truth. He was mainly there because he and Gene Rayburn were good friends. For all that, he played relatively well, and he certainly seemed to enjoy himself.

He's another one who turned up almost from the beginning in 1973. He was on the week with "Mama" Cass Elliot, including the episode where Brett's insulting response to a question now has that show banned from the airwaves. He joined Patti Deusch in 1974 to meet a sweet lady who wore those thick yarn ribbons in her pigtails and in 1977, saw a man be so happy to win, he did bell kicks Gene Kelly would envy. 

He turned up sporadically through 1981, well into the syndicated run, by which time he was announced as being from Blockbusters. He was on the all-game show host week mentioned during the Peter Marshall marathon on Easter with people who had either been hosts, or would be one. His last appearance was during a 1981 episode where Gene showed up wearing a white old man wig, claiming to be Mr. Perriwinkle. Actually, it was the wig he wore as Scrooge when he and Bill did A Christmas Carol in Boston. His last appearance on Match Game was Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour in 1983 to promote his new Hot Potato on NBC. 

Join the Dean of Game Shows and make a few blockbuster matches yourself in this wild marathon!

Match Game Saturday Classics - Featuring Bill Cullen On the Panel