Saturday, January 27, 2024

Flowers and Matches

Began the cloudy morning with breakfast and Arlo the Alligator Boy on Netflix. I go further into this charming animated film about a half-alligator, half-kid who goes on a journey to find his birth father in New York City at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.


I wasn't even able to finish the movie before heading to work. Uber was absolutely no trouble at all. Took the driver four minutes to drop me off and five to take me home. There was a little traffic on the White Horse Pike, but nothing crazy.

Work, however, was nuts all afternoon. In addition to it being close to the beginning of the month, we apparently have a group of big-shots from Acme's corporate offices visiting. The front end managers are frantically trying to get everything cleaned and organized in time for their arrival. The floral manager was up to her ears in bouquets when I arrived. Two college boys blew up balloons, but they didn't put them in the right places and forgot to put prices on half of them. I did make one very lovely pink and purple arrangement, but I mostly put out the ones she made. I was so nervous and scared that I'd do something wrong! They say I'm learning, but why can't I learn faster? 

I got my schedule online yesterday and confirmed it today. That visit, coupled with the weekend morning bagger taking off tomorrow, would explain a 7 hour bagging day tomorrow and a very early 8 1/2 hour day on Wednesday. I'm dreading both. The rest of the week is my usual middle of the day schedule in the floral department.

Did grab some things on the way home. The boxes of Kind bars are still on sale, and I needed to restock my yogurt and mozzarella snacking cheese. I'm not the biggest fan of donuts, but I couldn't resist a free coupon. Went with my favorite cream-filled. Picked up four bagels and a bag of apples for lunch next week. 

Once I got home, I finished Arlo, then finished out the second season of WKRP In Cincinnati. "The Doctor's Daughter" comes to visit when Johnny's daughter Laurie stops in Cincinnati on her way to "find herself." He's happy to let her and her obnoxious boyfriend stay with him at first, until they start making a mess of his place and he realizes that he needs to start being a father to Laurie, not a friend, even if she doesn't think so.

A sleazy photographer Herb hired to take pictures of Jennifer and Andy in bathing suits turn them into "Filthy Pictures" when he takes nude shots of Jen in the changing room and threatens to sell them to a major magazine. Andy, Johnny, Venus, and Arthur attempt to steal them, but they're not exactly Mission Impossible-worthy secret agents. Johnny and Bailey finally come  up with a way to trick the guy instead.

"Venus Rising" has the silky-smooth soul-loving DJ excited over a job offer to a big local station. He reconsiders his interest when it turns out that the station is automated, uses no DJs, and he would be there as a token minority hire. Herb tries to get attention and a raise by claiming he's also had a job offer, but no one really cares if he has or hasn't.

The staff of WKRP are very disappointed when they don't win the coveted "Most Improved Station" award. Worse yet, Johnny actually does get an award and lets it go to his head. The arguing among the staff gets so bad, Arthur finally calls a meeting and forces them to talk out their problems.

Worked on writing for a while after that. Joyce knows about the poppy field, but she can't see any way around it. The guys don't and are eager to get across to the Emerald City. 

Finished off the night on YouTube with a repeat of two premiere Match Game '75 episodes from earlier this week in better copies and tonight's marathon. Foster Brooks was known for playing lovable drunks (despite the fact that he never touched the stuff himself) in movies and on TV for decades. Needless to say, he had a great time doing three memorable weeks in 1979 and 1980. 

His first week ended with him attempting to frisk Betty White when Dick Martin claimed someone took his wallet. His second during the early run of the syndicated series featured one of the great walk-outs when the entire panel was so upset that an audience member came up with the top answer to "__ Balsam" and they didn't, they left the set. Unfortunately, an episode from that week also features Foster telling a joke that would be considered so racially insensitive nowadays, the episode is now banned from the airwaves. Foster was also the second answer on an Audience Match for "___ Brooks" in 1977. (Mel Brooks was on top.)

You'll be falling down with laughter from the antics of the funniest non-drunk who ever lived!

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