Angels and Games

Began the day with breakfast and a double dose of The Scooby Doo Show. The kids are saying "Jeepers, It's the Jaguaro!" when they encounter the legendary creature in the Amazon jungle after an emergency landing. Shaggy and Scooby dodge the creature while the others try to decide what it's really after and why pieces of glass seem to be so important. Shaggy's yelling "Make a Beeline Away from That Feline" after they encounter the literal cat burglar in New York City. Daphne's Aunt Olivia thinks it's her, but the others suspect she's being set up after she's sent a strange pendant. 

Switched to Supermarket Sweep while getting organized. Came just in time for the Big Sweep. None of the contestants did especially well, but for once, it was team 2 that got the most. (Including a stuffed tomato bonus that reminded me of a smaller stuffed tomato we had in the 80's and 90's.) They made up for a relatively small Big Sweep with a fast win at the bonus round.

Headed out to run errands after the show ended. Couldn't have picked a nicer day for it, either. Though it was sort-of cloudy, it was also far warmer, into the upper 40's-lower 50's, and windless. Good thing it was a nice day. I was able to find new hair bands, Valentine's cards and treats, and honey at Dollar General...but not what actually went there for, which was an undated weekly and monthly planner. Ended up buying that at Family Dollar. (And remembered why I don't like going in Family Dollar when an older woman yelled at the perfectly nice man behind the counter for no reason. He says she always goes in there and throws a fit over nothing, and he's always telling her to not come back.)

Had lunch at Jalapeno's Bar and Grill about two blocks from Family Dollar. They're one of the only restaurants on the Oaklyn side of the White Horse Pike that's open on Mondays. Enjoyed a yummy shrimp quesadilla and home-made tortilla chips. It was pretty quiet, other than the mother and her two small children and the younger couple chatting over chips. 

Strolled home after lunch and straight into baking. Instead of cake, I thought I'd try something a bit simpler. I bought the honey to make Honey Bee Cookies from the Alpha Bakery cookbook. I've made them before, for myself and to give away at Christmas, and they came out well. Added the unsweetened coconut I bought at Christmas and made Honey Coconut Cookies. Oh, yum! The bottoms on the first batch got burnt, but it wasn't too bad. Otherwise, they came out very well, just sweet and chewy enough. 

Took the laundry downstairs and into he wash after the cookies were in the oven, then got them out, cleaned up the cookie mess, and went back upstairs to vacuum, dust, and Swifter my rooms. Watched The Mystery Man while I worked. Chicago reporter Larry Doyle (Robert Armstrong) ends up stranded in St. Louis after he really gets drunk one night. He uses his last cents to pay for broke Anne Oglivive's (Maxine Doyle) coffee and donuts. They manage to con their way into a hotel room before he convinces a local paper that he has a line on the Eel, a local mob boss. Trouble is, his boss in Chicago is tired of his drunken antics and won't vouch for him. He attempts to pawn his gun, only to get mixed up in one of the Eel's robberies and arrested for murder. Now, he and Anne have only 24 hours to clear Larry's name and get that scoop, before he ends up writing the prison newsletter.

Slow-moving B crime comedy-drama takes forever to get where it's going. We get nearly a full half-hour of obnoxious Larry and bland Anne conning everyone in sight before the real story kicks in. The title is a cheat, too. There's no mystery man. The Eel is hardly hiding his identity, and the audience knows who Larry really is (even if the publisher in St. Louis doesn't want to believe it). Ehh, fine for just background noise when you're cleaning or working around the house, but nothing you absolutely need to see.

Switched to Buzzr for Match Game after I put the laundry in the dryer. To my surprise, they were running Match Game '90. The Halloween week with Brett and Charles sitting next to each other and Scorch the Dragon excited for the holiday is fun, but I've seen it before. Looks like they've temporarily moved that Match Game 90 marathon that's been going on for the last two weeks to the evening shows. 

Went to the Roku Channel for Charlie's Angels instead while eating dinner and bringing the laundry upstairs. The girls get involved with "The Sammy Davis Jr. Kidnapping Caper" when Davis's (himself) manager reveals there have been several kidnapping attempts in the past few weeks. The girls act as bodyguards...and while they are able to protect the real Sammy, the kidnappers end up with his double (also Davis), the owner of liquor store chain. Bosley brings the kidnappers the money they request, while the ladies do more research to find out who is trying to profit off of Sammy's disappearance.

Finished the night after a shower with game shows featuring more beloved black performers. Nipsey Russell was known as the "Poet Laureate of Television." He had a witty rhyme for every occasion and was a favorite on every panel he appeared on, including this 1977 episode of To Tell the Truth. Soupy Sales sits in for Bill Cullen, who is hosting while Garry Moore is on vacation. Southern natives Nipsey and Soupy Sales don't have a hard time figuring out which North Carolina mayor pushed his town as "the capital of chitlins" (pig intestines). They do even better deciding which lady was an authority on dreams and dreaming.

What's My Line featured Mystery Guests of every stripe, including rock stars. The Supremes appeared on the show twice, and in fact started off this 1966 episode that also featured Lana Turner. Dionne Warwick, Vanessa Williams, and Gladys Knight (without the Pips) played Bobby McFarrin, Luther Vandross, Little Richard, and members of the Manhattan Transfer on a 1989 Family Feud syndicated special. Though the men won in the episode I have here, the ladies generally beat the pants off them that week.

Whoopi Goldberg was one of the first women to headline a game show with her version of Hollywood Squares. I used to look forward to watching this in college, switching between this and Jeopardy before staying with Wheel of Fortune after they ended. You never knew which funny people would be tossing out quips or what you'd see next. I have an episode from very early in the run, when it's still Whoopi in the center square.

Singer and actor Clifton Davies was appearing on the sitcom That's My Mama when he did this 1975 episode of Tattletales with his then-girlfriend Lorraine. Ironically, this episode features two men who are now best-known for playing priests on TV. Davies would go on to appear as the younger preacher on Amen in the 80's, while William Christopher was playing Father Mulcahey on MASH when this episode first ran.

Like Davies, LeVar Burton was best-known as a character actor when he appeared on this 1986 episode of $100,000 Pyramid. For kids who grew up from the 80's through the 2000's, he's the gentle and soft-spoken host of Reading Rainbow, the PBS show that adapted children's books, then gave segments related to them and a list of related books. Here, he gets to witness history as that $100,000 is won for the second and last time.

Celebrate Black History Month with these beloved African-American Greats!

What's My Line? (1966)

Tattletales (1975)

To Tell the Truth (1977)

The $100,000 Pyramid (1986)

Family Feud Syndicated (1989)

Hollywood Squares (1998) 

Groundhogs and Matches

Began the morning with breakfast and Strawberry Shortcake and the Winter That Would Not End. I found this album version of the picture book my sisters and I loved in the early 80's at the Barrington Antique Center about a decade ago. Strawberry and her friends try to find the thief who stole the Snow Crystal when winter seems to go on for too long. It's too bad the specials didn't go in for the charming rural fairy tale of the original two books. This ends up being really sweet, with the lovely rustic artworks from the books on the disc.

My arms and wrist are still really sore, so I called Uber one more time. No trouble getting anywhere in the morning. The driver came in less than 2 minutes and got me to work in 5. Had a harder time when I got off at 3:30. The first driver canceled, and it took the second 9 minutes to come. And he ran into traffic on the White Horse Pike. Thankfully, it cleared out once we got past Cuthbert and took a little over 5 minutes.

No trouble at work, either. It wasn't bad when I arrived, but it started picking up around noon. Thankfully, this time I had the Sunday bagger and afternoon bagger helping me...and they're both college students who don't double as cashiers. I gathered the trash, but they did the sweeping and put away cold items. I was in and out with no problems whatsoever. 

Spent the rest of a gloomy, gray, cold afternoon eating dinner and watching tonight's Match Game marathon. There were even more episodes that are skipped, banned, or just plain rare than we saw last night. Some of them have answers that would never fly today, like Brett and Dick Gautier's naughty word for gays that that they used in two shows and Bobby Van and Elaine Joyce's response to what Batman and Robin were doing as a couple. Others just have bad tapes, like the Friday episode of the second week of '73 with Michael Lerned and Richard Thomas, who are both drowned out by loud buzzing on the end. 

Gene had the bad habit of letting out racial epithets that he probably thought were funny, but came off as more than a little offensive even then. Greg Morris tossed it right back at him in 1975 and Jimmie Walker was too full of himself to pay attention to it in 1981, but I'm not sure how happy a contestant was about the language later in '81. Buzzr doesn't appreciate midget jokes and, until the last few months, tended to skip or censor any episode that mentioned them. Game Show Network skipped some especially offensive Eskimo jokes in the syndicated era.  

See how standards have changed in the past 50 years in these thought-provoking and still often hilarious rarities! 

Match Game Sunday Classics - Rare, Skipped, and Banned Episodes (Best of the Best) (Part 2)

Oh, and considering what the weather was like here, I'm a bit surprised to hear that Phil the groundhog saw his shadow. It was cold enough today for me to believe that six more weeks of winter prediction, even if it is supposed to warm up later in the week.

Matches On a Windy Day

Began the morning with breakfast and Snow Day. I go further into this TV remake of Nickelodeon's 2000 comedy at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog

Family Fun Saturday - Snow Day (2022)

I'm still pretty sore from skating the other day, so I ended up calling Uber for a ride to work. No trouble there. The driver going to work arrived in 3 minutes. The one going home came in 8 minutes, and that was at quarter of 5 at the height of rush hour. Both got me there within five minutes with no traffic whatsoever.

Work, on the other hand, was a mess from start to finish. We were crazy all day. It's the beginning of the month. A lot of people likely just got their money today or will on Monday. I had a hard time keeping up with the carts and the sweeping and putting cold items away. And I had to sweep spilled blueberries and clean up a broken plastic gallon water jug, and do it all with no help. The head bagger ended up in a register all day. I never did get to the other side of the parking lot. Needless to say, I was very happy when I managed to get out with no trouble.

At least the weather was nice for all the trouble. It was sunny and bright blue, chilly but nothing like last week. If it hadn't been so windy, it might have been just about perfect.

Finished Snow Day when I got home, then took a shower. Had dinner while watching more Out of Control. Dave takes Herm on a flight to the North Pole in search of real "Eskimo Pies," despite Herm being terrified of heights. Meanwhile, Diz runs the studio and speeds up a little boy's paper route and Angela profiles Katz's Delicatessen in New York (which according to research still exists to this day and still serves everything). (Oh, and look for Dennis Miller as the guide explaining how to survive in the desert in the "Are We There Yet?" segment.) 

Diz is worried that Fred Thompson, the guy Dave is interviewing, will "Mouth Off" and take over his job. She encourages the others to help her get rid of the guy. Herm, however, smells an opportunity to brown nose to the new host. Dave, however, is friends with the guy and actually wants to share hosting duties with him.

Stayed at YouTube and finished the night with the Match Game marathon. For all of the episodes of this show that do exist and are in frequent rotation on Buzzr and Game Show Network, there's many that can only be found at YouTube. For instance, Buzzr skipped an episode of that recent week with Mary Ann Mobley and Richard Kiel that had a question about the Klu Klux Klan that would never have flown today (despite Gene's angry insistence that they were terrible people). Valerie Bertanelli only just cleared her one week of episodes from 1978 two years ago (mainly because she was 18 at the time and had been uncomfortable around randy old men Gene Rayburn and Ed Asner). There was an offensive Nazi-related answer to an Audience Match in a PM episode with Roz Kelly and Jimmie Walker. Other episodes don't turn up anymore because they have bad tapes, like two from the 1978 Christmas week that also features Joe Santos and Fannie Flagg (including the episode before Charles and Brett playing Santa and Bretzy La Bratt). 

See some of the rarest Match Game episodes of all in this though-provoking and very popular marathon!

Match Game Saturday Classics - Skipped and Banned Episodes (Best of the Best) 

Rainy Day at Home

Slept so late, it was noon by the time I finally got to breakfast and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. "Goofy's Gone," so the "Go-Getters," Detective Minnie, Secret Spy Daisy, and Captain Clarabelle, follow the trail of huge footprints to find him. Donald's feet are too big to be the footprints. Pete claims he saw a monster who scared him and got him tangled in his hammock. The girls figure Pete saw something, but they're not sure what until they follow the honey and see a familiar figure in a wet suit...

I had originally planned on going for some kind of a walk. One look at the weather ended that idea. It was pouring, and would continue to rain hard off and on pretty much for the rest of the day. This was not the time to be wandering around. Not to mention, my left shoulder and wrist and my knees remain really sore from that fall yesterday.

Got my schedule for the upcoming week next instead. Not bad. Three days off, more hours. I suspect I'm working all next weekend including Friday due to the Super Bowl. That's always a big deal regardless of who's playing, but it'll be even crazier with the Eagles involved.

Puttered around online a bit, then decided to do an Mystery Science Theater 3000 marathon as I ate lunch. Began with Joel and Manhunt In Space. Actually, the episode really began with a bit of TV history, an episode of General Hospital from shortly after it went on the air in 1963. One doctor is invited to the engagement party of the woman he's having an affair with, while another reports a woman's diagnosis.

Even the early form of my parents' favorite soap opera was more interesting than the main feature. This movie compilation of three episodes from the 50's sci-fi series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger shows its TV origins all too plainly. The special effects are minimal, mainly miniatures against a painting. While I admit I did like the head pirate and their leader Queen Vena, everyone else (including Rocky Jones) were bland or stereotypes. Nothing I'd recommend without robot wisecracks unless you're a huge fan of 50's sci-fi.

Worked on writing later in the afternoon. Sir Michael Redmayne, Prince Andrew's gentle tutor, neither trusts Kathleen, nor believes she's the one who can help them. He and Mother Nature explain that he's now little more than a shadow, his voice too soft to hear. He can only appear in a human form when it's dark enough for shadows to emerge. 

Switched to Match Game Syndicated after the movie ended as I ate a late dinner. We started off with the week featuring Fred Travelena and his 800 voices in the first seat, next to Brett. Goofy Betty Kennedy and deadpan Robert Donner weren't any weirder than he was, including Robert's actually quite good artwork on his cards. We briefly got the week with Don Galloway and Holly Hallstrom before they moved on to Jon "Bowser" Bauman, Eva Gabor, and a plethora of Gabor sisters jokes.

Finished the night back at Mystery Science Theater 3000 with a Mike episode. Samson and the Vampire Women had nothing to do with anything biblical. The last episode of the sixth season is actually a Mexican horror film featuring beloved masked wrestler El Santo, who rescues a beautiful young woman from a coven of female vampires who gain their youth from the blood of their victims. Seems the lady is an ancestor of their kind, and they want her to be their queen. This one is a bit more fun, with slightly better special effects and the genuine spectacle of watching a huge masked wrestler throwing guys in black capes around. No wonder El Santo apparently remains a legend in Mexico. Not the greatest thing in the universe, but fun with or without robot wisecracks if you're into vampire movies or other Santo films. 

Guardians On Ice

I was getting dressed when I checked my phone and saw a message from Dawn to call her immediately. Turns out, not only was she unable to get together today, she was leaving her job. Apparently, she had a scare riding over black ice coming back from that job fair last Friday and was worried that her car insurance wouldn't cover constantly taking people to job fairs and interviews. Her boss Sue would take my case until they could find another counselor. 

That left me rather at loose ends, and very disappointed. I had intended to do my grocery shopping and run errands today anyway, since it's supposed to rain tomorrow. I'd just have more time for them now.

I had breakfast and made my grocery list while watching Sailor Moon. Usagi and the girls are thrilled when an English gentleman who is friends with Mamoru invites them to a genuine ball. Usagi dreams of "Usagi Dancing the Waltz," until she realizes she'll have to speak English to all his friends there. Nervous, she grabs the wrong drink at the party and ends up drunk. She'll have to sober up in a hurry when Eudial crashes the party with a tone-deaf phonograph monster whose music is a lot less sweet than a waltz!

Let Supermarket Sweep run while getting organized. I came in for the "Snack Attack Movie Game." The contestants answer three trivia about movies of the time. The one who gets the third question also taste-tests a popular snack and has to guess what it is. (In this case, Snackwell Sandwich Cookies.) That team also had a clear advantage in the Big Sweep, starting well before the other contestants and amassing more in bonus items than the second team did in their whole sweep. They didn't do quite so well with the bonus round, though.

Headed out after that. I first stopped at PNC to get money from their ATM machine. Ran in, got the cash, and got out in five minutes with no lines and no trouble.

Took the back roads in Collingswood to avoid traffic as I headed to the Westmont Acme to begin my big shopping. Found bagels on the bakery clearance racks, picked up parchment paper, Kind kids breakfast bars and Fuji apples with online coupons, and restocked yogurt and soda. 

The last thing I expected to find among the probiotic sodas in the big coolers in the front of the store was Slice Ginger Ale! I haven't seen Slice in at least 20 years. I thought Pepsi dropped it in favor of Sierra Mist. Apparently, someone bought the name and started it up again as a type of low-sugar probiotic soda not far removed from Olipop. The can even looked the same as it did when I was a kid. I bought it, though I haven't tried it yet. Their web site indicates that there's at least four more flavors available, including lower-sugar versions of the original orange and lemon-lime. I want to try the grapefruit - that's not a flavor other probiotic soda companies have gotten to yet.

Made a brief stop at the Haddon Township Library to drop off An Appetite For Murder before heading across the street to Sprouts. Picked up tiny mandarin oranges 2 for $1, Zevia and Nixie diet sodas, granola bars buy one, get one free, and chocolate peanut butter cookies on clearance. Decided to try the bulk "European cereal," which was really oats and chopped dates. Had a hard time with the oranges at the self-checkout. They didn't have numbers. I had to wait for the lady in charge to take the wrong ones off, then find the right number.

At least it was a gorgeous day for all the running around, especially compared to the weather we're supposed to have tomorrow! Sunny, bright, breezy, chilly but not overly so like it was last week. By the time I dodged the traffic on Cuthbert and headed home, the snow we got last Sunday had vanished from all but the thickest piles and the shadiest areas. 

Put everything away, then had eggs and an orange for lunch while watching Archie's Weird Mysteries on Tubi. Archie's lamenting nothing interesting going on, until Reggie turns up in shock, clutching an overdue library slip. Turns out "The Haunting of Riverdale" all stems from the library, where the recently-deceased librarian who worked there for decades has been turning up again. Everyone says she was sweet and dedicated to her job but Jughead, who was afraid of her. He'll have to face his fears and explain why she intimidated him in order for her to finally be able to go home.

Watched Shinbone Alley on YouTube while doing some job hunting on my own, including putting in an application for a receptionist job at YourOffice, a shared office space company. I go further into this odd 1970 adult animated musical featuring Eddie Bracken as a cockroach poet and Carol Channing as the alley cat he admires at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Animation Celebration Extra - Shinbone Alley

Watched Match Game Syndicated while getting ready to head out. Gene Rayburn burst through his doors today, smashing them to bits! That led to a round of macho jokes, especially after Gene handed a contestant a piece of the door. Joyce Bulifant did unusually well too, getting almost every answer right. 

Jessa picked me up at 5:30 to go skating and out to dinner. We were originally going to go out tomorrow night, but the nearest skating park is outdoors, and like I said earlier, it's supposed to rain. She parked along the road behind the Doubletree Hotel in Cherry Hill, across from Cooper River Park. The former mini golf course across from the hotel had been made over into a temporary ice skating rink. She bought the time and rented our skates, which we changed into in a large white tent.

I haven't skated since there was briefly a rink just outside of Wildwood in the mid-90's. I did well then...but tonight, I just couldn't keep my balance. I moved slower than a snail. My right foot kept threatening to go out from under me. I'd skate out to the ice with Jessa and the kids, only to return to the sides a few minutes later. At one point, I took a very nasty fall on my left arm and wrist and had to be helped up by Jess and the guy in charge. I was so embarrassed, though Jess said I was doing fine. It's not like all the little kids skating around us weren't falling over themselves and each other, too. 

After an hour, my wrist and left arm were really sore, and my thighs burned. Jess kept saying "one more round," but I'd had enough. Besides, it was getting busy. More kids had showed up in the hour since we arrived, and it was starting to get crowded. We stopped to take selfies on the side, then took off our skates back in the tent. She took a few more photos of us at the wooden boards set up to look like a snowman, a reindeer, and Santa Claus, and we warmed our hands over nifty little fire pits. I wish we'd brought marshmallows to roast over those little pits!

Jess drove further down Route 70 to a small old shopping center that seemed to consist mainly of various Asian restaurants and one massage parlor and spa. We had dinner at the Japanese restaurant Rayaki Ramen. They were small, but darn cool, with black-and-white anime artwork on the wall, dark wood booths, and episodes of InuYasha playing on the TV over the counter. 

She had spicy edamame and miso ramen. I had a spiral fried potato with really spicy mayo and tasty shrimp ramen. (Which I ate with a ladle-like spoon. I never could figure out chopsticks.) We shared crispy fried squid. I tried mochi green tea ice cream. This was ice cream wrapped in some kind of weird squishy dough. The ice cream was good, but I didn't like the texture of the dough and probably won't be trying it again.

Jessa had called an older guy friend to join us tonight. He couldn't find us and didn't turn up until well after we'd already eaten and were ready to go home. Turns out he lives in Pennsylvania and had a hard time getting away from  his job as a security guard as a prison. We discussed his drive and his job before we all finally headed home.

I finished the night listening to the Classic Fairy Stories CD set I picked up last year while working on the Shinbone Alley review. British comedian Cribbins reads eight fairy tales, including one, The Princess of the Glass Hill, that you don't often see on children's albums. Glass Hill is something of a male Cinderella story, with Cinderlad taming three horses who are raving his father's crops, then using them to bring the gold apple to the princess in the title three times. Other stories on this set include a very cute Goldilocks and the Three Bears and an expanded Three Little Pigs that shows how the Wolf didn't give up and kept trying to get that last pig. 

Oh, and American Girl just re-released Samantha in her original checked dress and black stockings, with her original accessories. Unlike the re-released dolls from last year, she comes with, not her original book, but a book that explains her time period and character. I'm happy with my Samantha and aren't in the market for another one, but I am glad they put out Sam in her first outfit again for those who want it. Now, if only they'd make more outfits for her... 

Windy Day In the Year of the Snake

Got a quick start this morning with breakfast and the Goofy short "Hockey Homicide." Things get really wild when a whole platoon of Goofys take to the ice and make a Flyers game look like a walk in the park. When the fans end up spilling out into the game, the players take a seat and have more fun watching them go crazy.

Rushed off to work after that. We were totally dead for the first half of my shift. The weather was really too lovely for grocery shopping! Though it was gale-force windy, it was also sunny and much warmer, in the lower 50's. It did start picking up in the early afternoon, but I was almost done by that point.

After I got home, I changed and put on The Backyardigans. Uniqua, Pablo, and Tyrone are dismayed when Tasha insists on having a "Tea Party." It proves to be anything but boring when Tasha takes them on a trip through the treetops of Borneo, to the palace of grumpy Emperor Austin, and on a fast ride across the Gobi Desert in search of the perfect cup of tea.

Switched to the original film version of MASH while resting. Captain Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce (Donald Sutherland) and Captain Augustus "Duke" Forrest (Tom Skerritt) arrive at 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Unit in South Korea during the Korean War in a stolen jeep and proceed to really shake up the hospital. They may be hard drinking rule-breakers who flirt with anyone who looks like a nurse, but they also prove to be excellent surgeons. 

The duo convince religious by-the-book officer Frank Burns (Robert Duvall) to move out of their tent, bringing "Trapper" John McEntyre (Elliott Gould) in on their antics. Burns isn't thrilled, and neither is newly arrived nurse Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Sally Kellerman). The trio do everything they can to deflate their pomposity with the help of the head of the camp Colonel Henry Blake (Roger Bowen). They do pretty much the same thing in Japan to a Colonel who protests their doing surgical work on a sick local baby. Hot Lips gets a lot more into the football game they organize with another hospital when they realize that their black surgeon Spearchucker (real-life football player Fred Williamson) used to be a football star. Henry is more than happy to bet on the game.

As different as this is from the subsequent TV show (and is said to be from the book), I ended up enjoying it just as much. There's incidents here that are as funny as anything on the show, including the football game in the finale. It feels like a darker military-themed preview of the snobs vs. slobs comedies of the 80's and early 90's. There's the amazing cast, too. In addition to Kellerman, Gould, Duvall, Skerritt, and Sutherland, we have Jo Ann Pflug (as a cute nurse Hawkeye pursues early on), John Schuck (as the camp dentist), Rene Auberjonis (as Father Mulcahey), Gary Burghoff (who would be the only actor to carry over to the show, remaining Radar O'Reilly), and Bud Cort (as a young private). If you love military comedies or want to see where MASH came from, this is highly recommended. 

Spent the rest of the evening working on that spring-themed fairy tale I began last year but couldn't figure out how to continue. I have some ideas now. Instead of being Mother Nature's son, Sir Michael is now the tutor to her actual son Prince Anthony, a mischievous young man who'd rather be building things and eating than dealing with his place at court. The Prince is winter witch Lady Jacqueline's fiancee....or so she says. She's turned the Prince into a rabbit when he refuses to let her end spring, but no one can find Sir Michael...

Watched Match Game Syndicated while I worked, and later as I ate dinner. Both of the show's sets could be as cantankerous as any of the panelists, as in the episode with Phyllis Davis, Charles Siebert, and Richard Deacon where a light bulb broke on the air with an audible pop. Charles claims he'll sell a giant prop light bulb for $2. Gene gathers the others at the end to screw a new one in. The last episodes brought in Jamie Lee Curtis, along with Bart Braverman and Fannie Flagg.

Switched to Hulu for two early episodes of the TV MASH. Hawkeye helps a young GI marry a "LIP (Local Indigenous Personnel" whom he's had a baby with while pursuing a pretty nurse. "Carry On, Hawkeye" has him, Radar, and Hot Lips as the only ones who are able to keep working when everyone else comes down with the flu. They recruit Radar to help in the operating theater while Hot Lips does her best to get Hawkeye to respect her command.

Finished the night at Shout TV for Mystery Science Theater 3000. Prince of Space is two episodes of a Japanese TV show edited together and dubbed (badly) into English. Mike and the robots have a field day making jokes about a mysterious masked superhero who combats a group of aliens bent on taking over the Earth. 

Lovely Afternoon In Oaklyn

Got a late start with brunch and The Scooby Doo Show. "Scooby's Chinese Fortune Kooky Caper" has the gang stranded at a palace in Rampoo, China. Kim, the young owner, is about to inherit the castle's treasures...if the Moon Monster doesn't cast its shadow on him and turn him to stone! His uncle and the old caretaker insist that the only way to appease the Moon Monster is to throw the treasures in the river, but the kids suspect there's something more at work here than pleasing a legendary creature.

Scooby's All-Star Laugh-a-Lympics started off in "Florida" with the Really Rottens actually managing to win the swamp buggy race semi-legitimately. That was the last time they'd win anything for the entire episode. They got caught putting two Mumblys in the water skiing contest and using a crane to eliminate Hokey Wolf from the stock car race. Their rickshaw fell apart before they could finish that race in "China." No one was going to beat Grape Ape at gymnastics, and Blue Falcon pointed out that using Orly Octopus's eight arms and a magnet was not the fairest way to play ping pong.

Headed out to run errands after the cartoon ended. Though it was windier and a bit colder than yesterday, it also remained sunny and bright...and still not freezing like last week! Alas, CVS didn't have anything I wanted. I just bought a Propel there when my allergies started acting up. Stopped at a quiet Crown Chicken and Gyro to get a tilapia sandwich, fries, and can of Diet Pepsi for lunch.

Ate lunch, then worked on fixing my teal cardigan (and eventually gave up on it - it has too many holes) while watching The Legend of Su-Ling on Tubi. I go further into this charming direct-to-video animated Asian fairy tale from 1998 at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Honoring Chinese New Year - The Legend of Su-Ling

Watched the second half of The Price Is Right while working on the cardigan. Came just in time to catch a lady make a very big win on a "Second Chance" card during the Grand Game. The Hispanic guy who picked up a unique and very 80's bed on the Range Game eventually ended up in the Showcase Showdown. The first one had a rare combination trip and boat. The second was a hilarious take on "The Frog Prince." Princesses Dian and Janice would rather take gifts than kiss Prince Johnny, but feisty little Princess Holly doesn't care what their announcer looks like...and gets the car and the sweet announcer. 

Switched to Match Game Syndicated while eating dinner and moving older work from my Google Drive to a flash drive. They finished up the game show host week with Peter Marshall and Bill Cullen, then moved to the only week with comedienne Louise Sorrell (who looked and acted a bit like Bette Midler), along with Bill Daily, Joyce Bulifant, and Richard Deacon. Fred Grandy took over for Charles while he was out directing an opera. The last episode and the entire week afterwards are now missing due to Jimmie Walker forgetting to clear his syndicated appearances, so they went straight into the week with TV favorites Charles Siebert, Phyllis Davis, and Robert Donner for the last hour.

Finished the night with one of my children's fairy tale readings on LP. Snow White and Rose Red and The Goose Girl comes from England's Wonderland Records. They're charming musical retellings of the Grimm Fairy Tales, with Celia Johnson of Brief Encounter doing all the voices for the latter. Snow White and Rose Red has been one of my favorite fairy tales for years, and it's especially lovely, with the girls sweet even around the very annoying troll. 

Sunshine and Taxes

Began the morning with breakfast and The Busy World of Richard Scarry. "Who's Afraid of the Big Eclipse?" Everyone in town when Billy Dog forgets to give the local paper part of the article his astrologist mother wrote on the coming celestial event. Billy and the other kids in town hand out the other half of the paper to calm the citizens down. Greek sheep Toula and her father discover how to "Hold Your Breath!" when they go treasure hunting underwater in ancient Greece. Huckle, Lowly, and Sprout are "Pumpkin Heads" who have entries in the county fair's pumpkin contest. After their pumpkins get damaged, they have to put their heads together and decide what else they can enter.

Took my laundry downstairs after the cartoon ended, then spent the next 40 minutes doing my taxes. I always try to get my paperwork out the day tax season begins. It doesn't take me long using Turbo Tax. I have one part-time job, own no property, and have no dependents. I'm getting about $880 and $49 from the state after I pay them. That's far less than I got last year, but I made a lot less this past year, too. After I finished my taxes, I went through papers that accumulated on top of my printer and put those away.

Got my laundry in the dryer and took out the trash and recycling, then went for a walk. It was too nice of a day to hang out inside! It jumped into the lower 40's today, with sunny bright blue skies and a nice breeze. Perfectly normal and pleasant weather for South Jersey in late January. There were a lot of people out and about, including three women chatting on a corner while one walked her dog.

Stopped at Dollar General first. I'm almost out of laundry detergent. The Arm & Hammer stain fighting bottle came with slightly more per wash than Tide. Needed granola bars, too. Grabbed chocolate fudge cake mix and cherry pie filling for a recipe I wanted to try later. 

Strolled across town for lunch. I was in the mood for decent food, not greasy or fried. I ended up at Common Grounds Coffee House. Despite it being almost 2 PM when I got there, they were busy with older women chatting in groups and college kids working on laptops. I had a cranberry muffin, the last slice of spinach-feta-pepper quiche, and a "dirty vanilla chai." The last-named turned out to be a coffee chai latte. It was ok, though I'm still not a really big coffee fan. 

I realized as I strolled up West Clinton that I forgot two things at Dollar General, and one was important. I ran out of computer paper while printing my tax return. Headed to Family Dollar a few blocks down the White Horse Pike to pick up the paper and an aluminum pan for my cake project. Treated myself to Red Velvet Reeces Cups while I was there, too. (They weren't bad, but I tasted more chocolate and peanut butter than red velvet.)

Did a few chores when I got home, including taking the recycling down to the curb and bringing my laundry upstairs, then made my cake project. I decided to try a simpler "dump cake" after my orange soda cake didn't come out so well last week. "Dump cakes" are recipes that require dry ingredients to be dropped on the wet ones, rather than mixed in. I did use butter on the cake mix, and I really should have bought two cans of cherry pie filling. Other than that, my Chocolate Cherry Dump Cake came out very well, very chocolatey and just sweet enough.

Spent the next few hours finishing the Children's album inventory. Got in everything from The Rescuers book and record through Yankee Doodle Mickey, along with my only children's CD set, a 2-disc collection of fairy tale readings. Most of these go pretty far back. The Story of Johnny Appleseed book and record is one of the original 65 albums from my late first stepmother Kaye that Dad gave me in 2006. She was a huge fan of Dennis Day, and he sings all the songs there. Yankee Doodle Mickey, Mickey Mouse Splashdance, Robin Hood, and my Sword and the Stone with the cool pop-up book were yard sale finds in 2011. 

I'm not sure what I'm going to do next. I might start the jazz and vocalists inventory, but I'm more likely to pick up that fairy tale about the young woman who tries to stop the Witch of Winter from ending spring. I've finally been getting some better ideas for it, now that we're getting closer to spring again. She now has a best friend, a half-human fire fairy who joins her. The rabbit who runs to Mother Nature isn't Sir Michael, but a feisty young prince the witch turned into a rabbit. Sir Michael was the prince's tutor, but he was bound to the shadows and stripped of his voice. 

Listened to records while I worked. The Gang's All Here is one of the many, many Sesame Street albums released in the 70's and 80's. I bought this one a while ago because I'd never heard of most of the songs listed here. In fact, the only number I was even a little familiar with is Cookie Monster's "If Moon Was Cookie." Cookie kicks off the album with "Me Gotta Be Blue," a hilarious spoof of bluesy Sinatra-esque anthems. There's also "We are All Monsters," Big Bird's sweet "Next to You," and my favorite, Bert declaring "I'm Square."

The cool thing about that British 40 Walt Disney Originals set I picked up from Innergroove Records two years ago is the inclusion of many older songs you won't find on newer American collections. For instance, there's a jaunty Annette Funicello Sherman Brothers' number, "Dream Boy," I'd never even heard of before I found this set. There's also three songs from the rare animated-live action hybrid So Dear to My Heart, "Stick-It-Tivity," "It's What'cha Do With What'cha Got," and "County Fair," and three from The Rescuers, "The Journey," "Rescue Aid Society," and "Tomorrow Is Another Day." "Maggie's Theme" is actually "For You, For Always" from the original 1961 Parent Trap.

Watched Match Game Syndicated while I finished the inventory and ate dinner. I came in for the week with Scoey Mitchilll, Dolly Martin, and Debralee Scott. The panelists for the next week were all either currently game show hosts (Dick Martin, Bill Cullen, Peter Marshall) or would be in the 80's (Betty White, Elaine Joyce) except for Brett Somers.

Finished the night with more syndicated game shows, these made for the syndicated market. Syndicated shows go way far back to the 50's, when newly-minted independent stations looked to fill airtime with anything they could find. By the late 60's, there were dozens of shows out there filling that market. Most of them, like Win With the Stars, barely lasted a year. Allen Ludden hosted this musical show where celebrities sang standards to contestants and helped them guess the song. If viewers at home had the number of points that the two groups won on a card, they too might win prizes.

Later syndicated shows had way more fun. Celebrity Bowling is what it says on the tin. Two teams of stars play each other in a typical bowling alley to earn prizes for viewers at home. This is way better than you might think, especially if you are a bowling fan. Richard Dawson and Bob Newhart play Gavin McLeod and character actor John Ericson in the 1971 episode I have here. This wound up being a long-running success, going until 1978.

The Crosswits was another long-running hit in syndication, going from 1975 to 1980. Four celebrities help two contestants figure out the subject of a crossword puzzle in what amounts to Crossword Plus. I really think this one is a lot of fun and wish more of it was available online. Jack Clark was the gentlemanly host.

My sisters and I loved Dance Fever as kids. This began in 1979 as a competition for disco dancers, basically an early form of Dancing With the Stars with celebrities as judges rather than performers. The first few years were hosted by choreographer Deney Terrio. By the time of this 1986 episode, Adrien Zmed of Grease 2 was the host, and the dancing had diversified way beyond disco. I personally prefer the 40's jazz dancers here, but Pat Sajak, Joanna Kerns, and Wally Joyner seem more impressed with the country step-dancers. 

Split Second was the 1986-1987 Canadian revival of a game show from 1972. Monty Hall asks contestants a question with three possible answers. The contestants have to give the right answers. I found an episode from early in the run, when it was still largely being shown in Canada. I'm glad Buzzr picked this one up; it's a fun show that deserves more of an audience down here in the US.

Not all syndicated trivia shows went over that well or were as enjoyable as even Split Second. 100% from 1999 is about the driest and cheapest trivia show you can possibly imagine. A narrator (Casey Kasem) reads a series of yes and no or true and false questions. At the end of the episode, whomever has the highest percentage of questions right wins the most money. The contestants are told their score throughout the show, but not which one has what score. Though it did well enough in its native England, it came off as chintzy, silly, and mind-bogglingly dull in the US. No wonder it sold to seven markets and didn't last a year. 

Check out more of the best from syndication with these rare delights!

Win With the Stars (1968)

Celebrity Bowling (1971)

The Cross-Wits (1977)

Dance Fever (1986)

Split Second (1987)

100% (1999) 

Alphabet Matches

Began a cloudy morning with breakfast and Prime Time Musicals. I picked up this collection of songs from rare TV musicals of the 50's and 60's from eBay back in 2020. I really wish more of these musicals were currently available somewhere. There's some great songs here. Music from TV shows and films that are lost or not currently online including the robust title song of No Man Can Tame Me, the sweet "Listen To Your Heart" from a version of Pinocchio with Mickey Rooney as the wooden boy, "Much Too Happy Dancing" from a Hansel and Gretel that originally featured Red Buttons and Barbara Cook, and the gorgeous "Ride On a Rainbow" from a musical Ruggles of Red Gap. 

Rushed off to work before the CD ended. We were even busier when I got in at 11 than we were yesterday, but this time, I had more help. The morning bagger swept the store until he left at 3. I only had to do it for the last half-hour. It's a good thing I was able to focus on the carts. They kept disappearing. I wouldn't get close to catching up until the Eagles-Commanders game started at 3 and cleared out our customers. Helped that the weather was largely better, too. While cloudy, it was also warmer and less windy. 

Hurried straight home and checked the score of the Eagles game, and would continue to do so all night. Unlike the last time the Eagles played the Commanders a few weeks ago, they dominated the game full-stop. The Commanders never had a chance. The Eagles steamrolled over them in one of the highest-scoring games in NFC Championship history, 55-23. (The Chiefs-Bills game was apparently a lot more interesting. The Chiefs just barely beat the Bills 32-29. Looks like the Super Bowl on February 9th is going to be a rematch of two years ago. This is going to be really interesting.)

I would eventually have dinner and take a shower, but I mostly spent the rest of the night on YouTube watching the Match Game marathon. We had another alphabet-themed marathon, with each episode having a panelist or theme that corresponded to a letter. In the first episode, for instance, A was for Arlene Francis and Avery Schriberer. Soap star Brenda Dickson represented B, singer Connie Stevens and host Bill Cullen C. D was for Dick Smothers, E was for Ethel Merman. 

The later letters were harder to find. T was for Tom Bosley, who did one fun week at Easter 1975. U was for the lady who accidentally flashed her underwear while hugging Richard in a very early 1973 episode. Vicki Lawrence was V in her 1978 week. William Shatner, who did two weeks in 1975, was W. X marked the crosses on the front of the lower tier desks from mid-1978 through 1982. Y was for the Audience Match "You've Gotta Be __" in a 1981 syndicated episode. Z was for Zorro, who was mentioned in a question in a 1975 episode with Louisa Moritz and Sheldon Leonard. Gene had to demonstrate who Zorro was when a sweet Japanese-American lady didn't recognize him.

Learn your ABCs the Match Game way in this hilarious marathon!

Match Game Sunday Classics - The ABCs of Match Game Countdown

The Old Man and the Matches

Began my morning with breakfast and Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd. I go further into this knockabout comedy featuring Charles Laughton reprising his role as the tyrannical pirate at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Family Fun Saturday - Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd

Switched to The Scooby Show while making the bed and getting ready for work. Shaggy has a scary close encounter with "The Creepy Case of Old Iron Face" while water skiing. Old Iron Face was a convict with a mask welded onto his face, and now it looks like he wants to scare everyone away from the old hotel on Skull Island. The others drag Scooby and Shaggy into investigating the terrifying island hideaway.

Hurried off to work after that. I wish I hadn't. Work was crazy-busy up until my last half-hour with people shopping before the big Eagles-Commanders game tomorrow. I wish the kids around here would find better things to do than use the parking lot as their personal bike park. One of the managers and I twice had to shoo a group of bratty 13-year-old boys away who were playing with the electric carts. As I pointed out to the boys, they weren't acting like they were 13. They were acting like they were 5. 

Not 20 minutes after they finally left, I got fussed at by an older man who complained that there were no electric carts left for him. Sorry, we only have three, and it was so busy! It's first come, first serve. I had no help today, either. They kept sending the head bagger into the registers. She wasn't able to help me until nearly 4, by which time I was almost done anyway.

Needless to say, I rushed home after that. Listened to the Manhattan Transfer and worked on the Abbott and Costello review when I got in. Their self-titled album is from when they were more into jazz and standards, before the line-up changed. "Candy" and "Sweet Talking Guy" are charming; "Tuxedo Junction" was a hit that is still associated with them to this day.

Ran into an early Nickelodeon show I haven't seen for years on YouTube. Out of Control was a very strange spoof of news shows, with Dave Coulier as the host and anchor trying to get the rest of his weird crowd together for something like a show. Each show revolved around a main plot, like Dave's birthday in the episode I saw. Too-goofy Diz tended to be more annoying than anything. Slightly sleazy reporter Herm and Dave's fellow anchor Angela were generally easier to take. Computer HaHa was the show's writer and commentator. They would introduce a variety of sketches and interviews of real and fictional people and places.

My sisters and I loved this show as a kid. We thought the sketches were hilarious and loved the sheer variety. Nowadays, some of the interviews and skits come off as dated, but other things still work, including laid-back Dave himself as the anchor for the loonies around him. 

Finished the night elsewhere on YouTube with a marathon of Match Game episodes featuring Mr. Periwinkle questions. Mr. Periwinkle was the randy old man character who generally either married someone much younger than him, or got into shenanigans at the old folks' home. Gene Rayburn probably got more into playing Mr. Periwinkle than he did any other character. He even wore an old man wig in a syndicated episode that made Brett claim he was Mr. Periwinkle come to life! Another time, Fannie Flagg pushed him over when he was playing Mr. Periwinkle, and he ended up in Elaine Joyce's lap. 

Mr. Periwinkle's antics proved to be so popular, he outlived the 70's Match Game run. Mr. Periwinkle jokes turned up on Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour (notably the crazy episode where the X-O board broke and the panel had to make Xs and Os with their hands) and even Match Game '90. Ross Schafer would sometimes do a not-bad Mr. Periwinkle voice, though he doesn't in the episode included here. 

Get to know the randiest old man in game shows in this wild marathon! 

Match Game Saturday Classics - Old Man Periwinkle Marathon

Regional Girls and Circle Skies

Began the morning with breakfast and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. Daniel and his friends are excited about "The Neighborhood Snowstorm," until it gets so bad that school closes early. Dan's even more upset when a pipe bursts and soaks his room and his beloved Tigey the Adventure Tiger books. He and his little sister Margaret spend time with Jodi and her family while his parents fix the pipe.

Watched Family Feud while making my grocery list, then headed out to run errands. Dropped by the post office very briefly to send Lilah's birthday card off, then rode down to the Westmont Plaza. At least it was a much nicer day for a ride. It's still sunny and much windier, but also warmer, probably in the lower 30's. It's now a lot closer to what it usually is here in late January.

My next stop was Target. I was hoping to find Valentine's Day decorations, but they didn't have anything interesting. I got a warm, earthy Matcha Latte from Starbucks instead. I'd return there later after I finished at Sprouts to see if they had chunky yarn for a project, but all they had was painting and drawing supplies.

I had far more luck at Sprouts. Picked up apples, coconut milk, Zevia diet soda, and coconut macaroons that were on a good sale. Decided to try buying light brown sugar in bulk for the next time I wanted to make cookies. I also got coconut macaroon almonds, and I haven't had oat bran for a nice, hot breakfast in ages. 

Dodged traffic on Cuthbert, finally making my way back to Johnson and down to the pretzel shop for lunch. Got two regular pretzels and a pepperoni-stuffed pretzel. They weren't any busier than Sprouts or Target had been. There were no lines anywhere, not even at Starbucks.

Ate lunch while watching Head. I went further into the Monkees' supremely strange magnum opus at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog back in March 2019.

Cult Flops - Head

After I finished eating, I worked on the Children's inventory for a while. Entered everything from the Disney Babes In Toyland book and record through The Official Album of Disneyland/Walt Disney World. The latter is one of my older finds. I got it off eBay in the summer of 2011. Mousercise, Mickey Mouse Disco, and my Disney book and record of Hansel and Gretel came from yard sales around the same time. My oldest find here is my vintage book and record of Bambi, which came from the Collingswood Library in 2008 when they still included records with their book sales.

I also got my schedule at this point. It's almost exactly the same as my schedule for this week, with slightly fewer hours on Sunday and slightly more hours next Saturday. Jessa's already put out requests to do more together next week, and with the weather warming up, it might not be a bad time to get out of the house for a long walk or bike ride. 

Switched to Match Game Syndicated while finishing up the inventory and eating dinner. The biggest panelist ever on the show appeared the next week. At over 7 feet, gentle giant Richard Kiel towered over even Gene. He took one look at the big man and said he could write whatever he wanted! And to add to the wackiness, super-short singer and songwriter Paul Williams was in the fifth "smart guy" seat. (And I do wish Kiel had returned. He was actually a lot of fun and played pretty well.)

Finished the night after a shower with the Monkees' two TV specials. 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee debuted in 1969, well after their show ended. It was originally supposed to be part of a series of specials...but once the networks saw the results, they canceled the others. I can certainly understand why. The guys are controlled by a devil-like pair (Brian Auger and singer Julie Driscoll) who want to use them to take over everyone's minds. They unleash their fantasies, then turn them into wind-up dolls. Then, for some reason, Darwin (Auger) turns up and regresses them to apes. Auger takes control again to make them into plastic 50's superstars.

Uh, yeah. You can see the problems here.  I think there's the kernel of a good idea in the first half with the guys beating someone trying to manipulate their minds, almost like an even stranger variation on "The Frodis Caper." Mike and Davy have the best solo performances, with Mike singing with himself to his own "Naked Persimmon (The Only Thing I Believe Is True)" and Davy dancing with dolls to "Goldilocks Sometimes." Auger, Fats Domino, and Jerry Lee Lewis turning up on stacked pianos briefly mid-way through is genuinely cool, and some of the 50's performances are a lot of fun, but for the most part, this is even more bitter and makes less sense than Head did.  

Hey Hey, We're the Monkees from 1997 is an all together happier affair. The Monkees may be in their 50's, but they're still living in a beach house and trying to make it as a band. They're trying to rehearse for a big gig at a lavish country club...if random girls, lawyers, and kids will stop interrupting them and trying to create plot lines. There's also Mike having turned the Monkeemobile into a low rider and a dimensional machine, to Micky's annoyance, and Micky trying to find them a gimmick, to everyone's annoyance. They're not even safe from plots at the country club when the owner (Chuck Woolery) and his silly daughter Princess insist they'll lose the club if the guys aren't a success.

This is more like it. While it's not perfect (some of the dialogue is a tad too goofy even for the guys, the throw-up gag in the opening goes on for too long), it's infinitely more fun than the bitter Head and 33 1/3 Revolutions. As a review online suggested, it was a far more enjoyable and appropriate finale to the series and their TV careers. 

Alas, I don't think the 90's special can be found anywhere at the moment but YouTube. 33 1/3 Revolutions is included on the Monkees TV series DVD and Blu-Ray sets. I will say that I don't really recommend either special to anyone but their most ardent fans...and seeing at least a few episodes of the original show before the 90's special is a must to get a lot of the jokes about archaic sitcom plots. 

Keep Your Sunny Side Up

Got caught up finishing Coconut Drop Dead this morning and didn't get going until well past noon today. Watched Olym-pinks while getting dressed and having a quick brunch. The Pink Panther is the skiing star of the 1980 Lake Placid Games, much to the annoyance of his long-nosed rival. The guy does everything he can to get attention and beat Pink, but only ends up with a cold and a silver medal for his trouble. Pink, meanwhile, would love to escape a piano who manages to chase him everywhere, including on an electrical wire!

Watched Family Feud while getting organized, then called Uber. Though it was warmer than it has been, probably in the upper 20's, and sunny and windless, it's still too cold for biking. The lady arrived in 4 minutes and talked about her own children all the way to the Goodwill in Audubon.

One my main reasons for hitting Audubon Crossings today was dropping a bag of donations to Goodwill. I walked around in there after I came back around front. They were still pretty busy with people shopping before their lunch break ended. I came up with the animated film Superman: Doomsday, the 2006 Wilton cake decorating book Cupcake Fun, a sweet velvety wine-colored teddy bear, and three records. One was the first disc of that Home for Christmas record set I found at a yard sale years ago. The other two were:

The Manhattan Transfer - The Manhattan Transfer

Saturday Night at Mickie Finn's, a live recording of a Dixieland-themed show performed at the San Diego title venue that was apparently famous for its renditions of early 20th century music.

Ducked into Five Below next. I was hoping to find Valentine's Day decoration, but didn't see anything I liked. I did buy a gift card there for my niece Lilah, whose birthday was on Monday. Had no more luck finding a winter dress or work pants I liked at Lane Bryant.

Had lunch at Tu Se Bella's. I hadn't eaten there in ages. By quarter of 2, there was only one other group there and a guy picking up pizza. I had a slice of shrimp-broccoli, a slice of mushroom, and a Diet Pepsi. Enjoyed it up front while listening to cooking shows on the TV someone dropped on the soda cooler.

Since I was there, I stopped at Acme for groceries. They didn't have those blood oranges again, so I bought sumo oranges on sale with an online coupon. I had online coupons for yogurt, Poppi soda, and free eggs, too. Picked up Olipop soda on sale and cards for Lilah and Jessa (whose birthday is next month). At least they weren't busy. No wonder I had most of this week off. There was barely anyone in line, even at self-checkout during rush hour. The store was quiet as can be.

I had a harder time getting home. There was a lot more traffic on the road than in the store. I couldn't get a driver for over 20 minutes! At least it wasn't bad when he did arrive. He dodged traffic enough to get me home in a little over five minutes.

Started Forbidden Zone while I put everything away and got organized. I go further into this truly bizarre 1980 fantasy featuring some of the first music by Danny Elfman and Oingo Boingo at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Cult Flops - Forbidden Zone

Jessa picked me up at 5:30 for dinner. After getting turned around and ending up at the wrong place, we finally made it to Langhorn Steakhouse in Cherry Hill around quarter of 6. This is a pretty basic steakhouse, with heavy dark furniture and matching walls and austere photos. The food was really tasty, starting with the fragrant warm whole wheat bread the waitress brought out. We shared the "Texas tunion," aka battered onion strips cut to look more like fries. I had a 6-ounce "Renegade Sirloin" with sweet barbecue seared Brussels sprouts and a baked sweet potato with butter and cinnamon. Jessa had a larger ribeye steak (that she took home most of later), the Brussels sprouts, and mashed potatoes.

Oh, yum! Everything was so good! The bread was hot and nutty. The sweet potato was cooked just right. I never would have thought of using barbecue spices with Brussels sprouts. The sweet worked quite well with the earthiness of the sprouts. The "Texas tunion" was spicy and addicting. I especially enjoyed the crusty, perfectly blackened steak that was just enough for one sitting. And the waitress was a sweetheart to boot. I absolutely will try them again sometime. 

Watched the rest of Forbidden Zone when I got home, then finished the night working on the review and listening to Saturday Night at Mickie Finn's. Mickie Finn's was apparently a San Diego nightclub that specialized in its beer and Dixieland shows of music from the 1910's through the 30's. They were wildly popular in the 60's, eventually playing Los Angeles and Vegas, among others. They even had a summer variety series in 1965. I can understand why they were so huge. The band is obviously having a ball with vintage numbers like "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee," "Oh You Beautiful Doll," and "The Band's Back In Town." At least one then-recent song that fits the mood, the title tune from Mame, and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" manage to sneak in. 

Frozen Angels

Unfortunately, I overslept this morning and had just enough time to eat and call Uber. There was no way I was taking my bike. The high today was 17. The driver going to work barely took 4 minutes to arrive. I don't think she knew the area well. Not only was she yammering with some guy on a speakerphone about his new business and almost missed her turn-off, she couldn't tell Audubon from Camden! She had to ask me where she was. Thank goodness the driver going home came in 2 minutes, got me back in 5, and had no trouble whatsoever. 

Work wasn't busy, either. Despite the sunshine, searing blue skies, and lack of wind, it was still below-freezing temperatures on a day in the middle of the week and middle of the month without a lot going on . I spent the entire morning in and out, sweeping, putting cold items back, and pushing carts. Needless to say, I headed straight home after this and went nowhere else, sunny day or no sunny day.

Had lunch while watching the original My Little Pony and Friends on the Roku Channel. The Ponies are saying "Baby, It's Cold Outside!" when they suddenly get a cold snap in the middle of summer. The King of the Penguins is using his icy stare and a machine to turn the entire world in a place only fit for a penguin. They and the King's son whose duck friend was turned into an ice statue teach him that there's room for everyone on this planet. You just have to open your heart to them.

Spent the rest of the afternoon working on the inventory. I got a lot done. Finished the non-Disney children's albums and began the Disney albums that were books-and-records, character-based, or intended for kids and not flat-out soundtracks. I found the vast majority of these within the last five-six years, but a few go much further back. The World of Strawberry Shortcake and Sing the Hit Songs of Sesame Street came from yard sales in the spring and fall of 2011. The picture disc audio book Strawberry Shortcake and the Winter That Would Not End was a Barrington Antique Center find in 2015. 

Watched more European fairy tale movies as I worked. Sampo was another Russian fairy tale film the robots on Mystery Science Theater 3000 made fun of. In this case, the jokes were wholly appropriate. The Day the Earth Froze, the story of a wicked witch who kidnaps the sister of a blacksmith to force him to make her a mystical mill, then steals the son when the sister's sweetheart takes the mill, lacks the unique charm of Jack Frost. It moves slower than a glacier, and the US edited version never does explain what, exactly, the Sampo does. We also get a short in the beginning revolving around circus acts that Joel and the robots find a little too goofy.

Found The Salt Prince on YouTube. This is another Czech fairy tale, likely from the same people who made Three Wishes for Cinderella from the similar actors.  A greedy king asks each of his daughters how much he loves them. He's offended when the youngest claims she loves him more than salt - a common food additive found everywhere - and her lover the Salt Prince says he'll rule with charity and justice. Angry that his daughter would choose something so common to compare him to, he has them both banished. The Salt Prince's father the King of Nature turns his son into salt and curses the kingdom's salt to turn into gold. They're happy with this for a time...but gold can't flavor or preserve food. Meanwhile, the Princess seeks the Salt Prince, and not even a wise woman who wants her to fill a dry well or another prince can stop her from finding him.

Wish they'd dub this one into English. It's a lovely story, and not one that's often been told in the western world. I've read several somewhat similar tales, but not one just like this one. It's just as much fun as Three Wishes, and even lovelier to look at. 

Switched to Match Game Syndicated while finishing the inventory and eating dinner. Judy Landers and Robert Walden joined in to see a lovely lady who brought a little Buddha statue for luck get a big win. The next week brought in Rita Moreno, along with Gary Crosby and Joyce Bulifant. I wish Rita had been on more often. She was an absolute riot who clearly enjoyed doing the show, and was one of the few women who had no trouble grabbing Gene for a kiss!

Did a quick Disney short after taking a shower. Little servant Cedric becomes a "Knight for a Day" when he accidentally knocks out his master right before the big tournament. He takes his place to win the hand of the fair Esmerelda and defeat the Black Knight, if the knight doesn't knock the bolts out of his armor first!

Finished the night back at the Roku Channel with Charlie's Angels. "Angels In Chains" get themselves sent up the river to a women's prison farm to find out what happened to the sister of a young woman who was arrested on trumped-up charges. Not only are the brutal wardens abusive, but the male ones and the sheriff are using the place to force the ladies into prostitution. The Angels have to figure out how to escape with the information while shackled together. 

Baking and Other Cold-Weather Fun

Began the day quickly with breakfast and Charlie & Lola. "Snow Is My Favorite and My Best" says a delighted Lola after a storm. She and her brother and friends have so much fun sledding and making snowmen and snow dogs, she wishes it would snow all the time. Charlie takes her to the Antarctic, where it is always cold and snowy, to prove why it's good that some things only come once in a while. 

Dawn picked me up at 10:30 for our session this week. She mainly talked about signing up for government jobs. At this point, I'm beginning to wonder if anyone else will take me. None of the small offices around here are willing to give me a chance. They don't know me, and I don't have enough skills to make them look twice. I applied to two offices on Indeed, but I haven't really heard back from anyone in a while. 

She took me straight back after we finished. Though it wasn't as windy, the sky was a pearly gray, and it's still bitterly cold. This was no day for lingering anywhere. Besides, she was busy with other clients, including two who called while we were at the Haddon Township Library. 

Took the trash out when I got in, then had lunch and watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It's "Pluto to the Rescue" when Donald and Goofy are stranded behind a massive snowman on Mistletoe Mountain and can't get home. Pluto demonstrates that he's a good rescue dog when he helps Mickey off the edge of the mountain, finds a way for Pete to clear the road for his sleigh, and figures out how to get through to Goofy and Don.

Listened to local hard rock station WMMR on my mini radio as I made "Winter In the Berkshires" cookies, aka dark chocolate candy cane. Dark cocoa, crushed candy canes, chocolate chips, brown sugar, and lots of butter. There were supposed to be white chocolate chips, but I thought that sounded like overload. I probably should have added more brown sugar and milk. They came out tasty but dry and kept falling apart, though they were generally in better shape than the orange cake. They were very rich, though, with all that butter. I had candy canes leftover from Christmas and thought I'd try them, but the richness will make these a once-in-a-while winter treat.

Put on Tommy when I got upstairs. I go further into this rock spectacle about a deaf-mute British youth who becomes a pinball sensation at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Tommy (1975)

Got the children's record inventory going while Tommy was on. This should be far easier to do than the cast albums or rock records. I don't have that many children's titles, and the vast majority of them are on vinyl. I've been trying to find more children's albums since I started collecting records in 2006, but I haven't had that much luck until the last five years or so. I did find some albums before that. Of this batch, The Muppet Musicians of Bremen and Introducing the Care Bears go back the furthest. I found them at Oaklyn yard sales in 2011. I'm hoping this will only take me a week or two to finish, absolutely no longer than a month.

Switched to Match Game Syndicated while having dinner and finishing the inventory work for today. Phyllis Diller and Fred Grandy joined in for the first week, which ended with Charles Nelson Reilly turning up in the contestant's chair in the beginning. He claimed he was a 29-year-old contestant, prompting a "You wish!" from Brett. Judy Landers and Robert Walden made the panel a pleasure to look at during the next week.

Finished the night with Grimm's Fairy Tales. This collection of fairy tale retellings from RCA Camden are mostly lighter updates of familiar stories. Little Red Riding Hood tells the wolf he should be on television, Cinderella gets a cuckoo clock to make the prince notice her, and the Sleeping Beauty's prince has to make the evil fairy laugh to release her from the sleeping spell, no kissing or dragons involved. 

Ironically, the most comic of the original stories, "The Fisherman and His Wife," actually ends up being one of the darkest here. The Grimm story ends with the fisherman and his wife simply being stripped of their wealth and returning to being poor after the wife asks to order around the sun and the moon. In this version, the fish becomes human and the wife is turned into a fish forever thanks to her greed. 

Snowy Day at Home

Began the morning with essays from the Colliers Harvest of Holidays anthology. Martin Luther King Jr  was still alive when this book came out, but the material from United Nations Day works just as well, as both worked toward peace and understanding. I read Dorothy Canfield Fisher's "A Fair World for All," "Prayer for a Better World" by Stephen Vincent Benet, and several poems.

Watched Doc McStuffins while getting dressed and eating breakfast. "Snowy Gablooey" is usually able to stretch his goo-filled arms and do tricks, but he's frozen solid after Doc's brother Donnie left him outside. Doc gives him a bath and teaches the toys how to warm up again. Sir Kirby wants to keep playing ice hockey in "Gooaal!," but has to sit out when he dislocates his shoulder. He coaches Hawaiian doll Lelani to take his place.

Ran Family Feud while getting organized, then took the laundry downstairs and went outside to shovel a friend's driveway. I was originally going to do her driveway, the sidewalks, and the front steps, but those are in direct sunlight. By quarter of 1, the fine snow had melted or blown away. The streets were also clear. Once again, I believe we only got about three or four inches. I still had a harder time shoveling the driveway than I did two weeks ago. It was sunny and bright, but also biting cold, not even in the 20's, and there was that wind. Even with all that, it still took me less than an hour to shovel the driveway and salt around the back door.

Put the laundry in the dryer, then tried another soda cake recipe. This time, I made an orange cream cake with vanilla mix and orange soda. Actually, despite the sharp orange flavor of the Fanta, the cake came out a little bland, and the layers cracked on top. I still left them to cool. They weren't perfect, but they were edible, unlike my attempt at candy last month.

Watched The Scooby Doo Show while eating lunch. "A Scary Night With a Snow Beat Fright" takes the gang to the Arctic, where they were supposed to join us with a professor friend in a native village. They arrive to find the professor vanished and the inhabitants driven off by a giant dinosaur-like snow creature. While Scooby falls for a pretty sled dog, the others try to figure out just what the creature is after.

Switched to the Rankin-Bass Jack Frost special while folding my laundry and rounding up donations for Goodwill. I went further into this bittersweet fairy tale at my Musical Dreams Reviews blog for Groundhog's Day in 2020.

Jack Frost

After the cartoon ended, I tried to frost the cake...but the top layer broke when I pulled it out, and the frosting wouldn't move. I had to microwave it to make it cooperate. I had a slice later after dinner. Not bad, but you taste icing more than cake. Next time, I'll be more careful with keeping an eye on the layers, make it as a sheet cake or cupcakes, or add more soda or more orange flavoring like orange juice. I may also add a little oil or butter.

Spent the next hour and a half finally finishing the Seasonal inventory. Added A Victorian Christmas, a collection of songs with Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, and Frank Sinatra, and titles from Manheim Steamroller, Barry Manilow, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Monkees, the Platters, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I'll begin the children's record inventory tomorrow. I have even fewer of those than I do seasonal albums, so it shouldn't take that long. 

Listened to winter-themed records while I worked. Jazz at the Olympics seems to be a live album by the Ralph Sutton Quartet, likely performed during the 1960 Squaw Valley Games from selections like "Winter Wonderland" and "Squaw Valley Blues." Their "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" and "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling" were especially jaunty.

Winter Memories is another Columbia Records collection made to be sold in a certain outlet, in this case JC Penney. Despite the title, there really isn't a whole lot here that's especially wintry. Lynn Anderson's "Snowbird," Jim Nabors' "Try to Remember," and a bouncy instrumental "Sleigh Ride" by Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra are as wintry as it gets. (Although I did find Robert Goulet's "This Is All I Ask" to be fairly touching.)

Switched to Match Game Syndicated while finishing the inventory and having dinner. After a shower, I finished the night with episodes of Chain Reaction, which celebrated its 45th anniversary last Tuesday. Bill Cullen was the original host of this 1980 word game that had contestants guessing the word letter by letter that connects to the word above it. Celebrity guests help them solve the chain, then give the clues to the words in the bonus round. 

Chain Reaction was a fun and challenging show, but alas, it ran up against Fred Silverman and his determination to make David Letterman a household word in the mornings. It was one of the three shows cleared to make way for The David Letterman Show. (Which, incidentally, flopped. It was well-received by critics, but morning audiences didn't know what to make of it.) 

It reappeared in 1986 for Canadian TV and USA Network as The New Chain Reaction. The game play remained largely the same, but the contestant and celebrity teams were replaced by regular contestant duos, and the bonus round now consisted of guessing one last word chain. I have fond memories of watching this version on USA as a kid in the late 80's and early 90's. The sets were chintzy, but the game play was genuinely interesting. Blake Emmonds was the original host, but he was replaced by the the more personable Geoff Edwards after a few weeks. Edwards continued when the show moved to a tournament format as The $40,000 Chain Reaction for its last year. 

Chain Reaction has turned up three times on Game Show Network. None of their versions lasted longer than a year, but the one from 2006-2007 in particular seems to be fairly well-remembered. The 2006-2007 show kept the original game play, with three contestant teams and the bonus round from the 1980 show. The only thing that changed in 2015 was the host, the set (which went from blue to magenta and purple), the elimination of the Speed Rounds, two contestants again, and switching back to the 1986 bonus round. They went back to three contestants in 2021 and another bonus round that had the winning team making three chains in a minute. 

See if you can make chains and guess how words are related in these hilarious and heart-pounding word association games!

Chain Reaction (1980)

Chain Reaction Series Finale (1980)

The New Chain Reaction (1986)

The $40,000 Chain Reaction (1991)

Chain Reaction Series Premiere (2006) 

Chain Reaction (2015)

Chain Reaction (2021)

Lovers In the Snow

Began the morning with a late breakfast and the musical version of Golden Boy. Sammy Davis Jr. headlined this 1964 Broadway reworking of the 30's play. Here, he's an angry prizefighter from Harlem who falls for white woman Lorna (Paula Wayne), the girlfriend of his manager Tom Moody. Apparently, just the idea of a white woman in love with a black man was shocking at the time. Nowadays, I'm more concerned that the upbeat songs by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams don't really reflect the downbeat drama. "Don't Forget 127th Street" and "The Road Tour" are completely random chorus numbers. "This Is the Life," the first act finale, is much better and wound up being a fair-sized hit at the time.

The copy of Golden Boy I got from Innergroove in 2017 also came with something called Hoboken Saturday Night by The Insect Trust. Research reveals this was a jazz-rock fusion band from the late 60's-early 70's. Hoboken was their second and last album, and though melding jazz and rock can produce some pretty strange sounds, there are some interesting songs here, with my favorites being the title number and "The Eyes of a New York Woman." 

For once, I broke with plenty of time to call Uber. The driver arrived within five minutes. I had to feed a friend's cat and rushed out just in time to catch them. Though it was raining by that point, it was still just rain, and not doing anything besides being wet. We got to the Acme in five minutes. I arrived early enough to buy chocolate chips for a recipe I plan on making tomorrow.

Work surprisingly wasn't that busy, even before the Eagles game began at 3. I guess everyone got their panic out yesterday, or the rain scared them off. I had no trouble gathering carts, not even when the afternoon bagger left at 3:30. The rain stopped around 2; the clouds even broke up at one point. By 4 PM, however, stinging, silvery sleet fell in torrents. That was gradually replaced by all snow around 5. I spent the last half-hour in the parking lot dodging the snow plow and frantically gathering the last of the carts. 

Considering how hard the snow was coming down by 6, it goes without saying I had a harder time getting a ride home. The first driver wasn't arriving for 25 minutes...and canceled about half-way through that. The second finally came in 12 minutes. For a guy driving in a snowstorm, he was very pleasant and funny. As he said, we got home slow, but we did get home without incident.

(The Philadelphia Eagles had their own fun in the snow. From what I gathered, they handled the messy weather slightly better than the Los Angeles Rams, enough to beat them 28-22.  They'll be having a rematch with the Commanders next week for the NFC Championship.)

Grabbed dinner when I got home and fed my friend's cat, then spent the rest of the night watching tonight's YouTube game show marathon. This time, the theme for Betty White's birthday weekend was game shows Betty appeared on with Allen. Considering they met while playing the original 1961 Password, it's appropriate that their first joint appearance as husband and wife was on a week in 1963 on a week with their good friend Jack Paar. Jack definitely wasn't in Betty's league as a player, blurting out at least one Password (though he did do decently at the Lightning Round).

Password wasn't the only game show the Luddens did together in the 60's. They appeared on What's My Line together as Mystery Guests twice, the first time to announce their marriage. Their friend Arlene Francis figured it out both times. They also appeared on the panel of the network Line and syndicated To Tell the Truth together in the late 60's and early 70's. (Truth ended with a man who lost his home and family in a forest fire and wrote a book about it; I hope it's still in print, considering what's going on in LA now.) Betty stumped Allen as the Mystery Guest when he was on the panel of a 1970 episode hosted by Wally Bruner. 

In addition to the famous week Allen and Betty did together on Match Game in 1975 and the surviving 1981 nighttime episode, Allen did a week solo in 1974. After he gave a really lousy answer, Brett tore it up and handed it to Betty in the audience! A few minutes later, Fannie Flagg handed Betty her bad answer, too.

Betty appeared several times on Liar's Club, which Allen began hosting in 1978. Buddy Hackett, Peter Haskell, and the show's producer Larry Hovis join her in this hilarious show that had panelists giving descriptions of weird antiques and contestants betting on who was telling the truth about it. They also appeared many times on Tattletales. I got to see the last day from the week they did with Jamie Farr and his wife Joy (who remains with him to this day) and Eddie Mekka and his then-girlfriend Shirley.

The Luddens did other versions of Password together. Betty took over hosting for a week during Password '75 so Allen could play the game (very well, I may add). She also came out for the last episode, despite not playing that episode. Betty made frequent appearances on Password Plus, before and after Allen departed. Allen and Robert Pine helped her after she twisted her ankle coming down the stairs one week. She was also around for the infamous episode where Dick Martin argued that "French" should have been accepted for "France." 

Betty continued doing versions of Password even after Allen's untimely passing in 1981. She was a frequent guest on Super Password, including the final episode with Christopher Hewlett. I don't think anyone else would have gotten away with destroying the hated "toaster" used for the Cas$hword mini-game words! She said that Password was like a phoenix and would rise again...and though it took 20 years, she was right. Betty appeared on the 2008 Million Dollar Password with Adam Corolla, hosted by Regis Philbin. They even did a montage of her with Allen on the original Password. She did the last episode of the original Password as well, this time with Frank Gifford years before he married Kathy Lee. 

The password is...true love! See Allen and Betty through the years in this warm and delightful marathon.

Betty White Birthday Celebration - Featuring Episodes With Allen Ludden Together On Game Shows

The Queen of Matches

Began the morning with breakfast and the gospel documentary Say Amen, Somebody at YouTube. I go further into this history of gospel music and the people who brought it to the masses in the 30's and 40's at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog. 

Musical Documentaries - Say Amen, Somebody

Hurried out even before Say Amen ended. It was raining when I rushed in the Acme, and would continue coming down in one way or another for most of the afternoon. I spent most of it overwhelmed. The head bagger was in a register until the afternoon people started coming in at 3. At least, by the time she was able to help out, the rain had finally vanished and the clouds were breaking up, and there was actually a rather nice deep orange sunset. 

Took the trash and recycling out when I got home, then went straight in the shower. Grabbed dinner after I got out, then spent the rest of the night watching the Match Game marathon on YouTube. Betty White, whose 104th birthday would have been yesterday, was in the spotlight with some of her best Match Game episodes. Betty was on Match Game literally from the beginning. She started a riot not five minutes into the pilot episode over "friend" not matching "girlfriend." Her first week on the regular show also introduced Brett and Charles, whom she would become good friends with over the years.

Betty had some of the best moments on the entire show. There was the time in 1975 when her beloved Password host hubby Allen Ludden was on and Gene said "I've had Betty" when the contestant called on her for the Audience Match. The contestant was supposed to belly dance if she won the Head-to-Head, but the music department played "The Star Spangled Banner" instead of anything Indian. That didn't stop Brett and Betty from doing their own idea of belly dancing!

Some later episodes were pretty funny, too. Betty could never resist taking her clothes - or at least, her jacket - off in tune to "The Stripper." She did it at least three times, starting in 1978 and ending with her showing off a see-through black blouse in 1981. A year later, she turned up in a flaming red dress made by a designer friend of Sharon Farrell. Later in the show, Sharon inadvertently demonstrates mud wrestling with Richard Paul and McLean Stevenson is scared off by a contestant with an especially creepy laugh. 

Betty had fun on nighttime episodes, too. There was the time in 1978 when she and Richard played Charles and Brett, complete with glasses and hat and pipe, and were absolutely hilarious. Most of the week in 1981 where Betty and Allen sat next to each other is currently lost...except for the PM episode. Betty and Allen were clearly enjoying playing off each other. They're joined here by Jimmie Walker and Jonnelle Allen. 

Celebrate Betty's birthday with some of her most memorable moments!

Match Game Saturday Classics - Betty White's 104th Birthday Party

Highway 70 Brew

Began the morning with breakfast and She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown. Peppermint Patty's competing in the regional skating competition, with Snoopy as her demanding coach. She thinks Marcie's going to make her a costume, but Marcie keeps trying to explain that she can't sew. Snoopy does that, too, and helps Patty clear a bunch of boys who want to play hockey off her usual skating pond. Snoopy's less useful at the competition when his cassette gets tangled, but that's where his old buddy Woodstock comes in.

Dawn picked me up for the Cherry Hill Mall Job Fair at around quarter of 10. There were already two other people with her, the same people who went to the Burlington County Job Fair last October. At least it didn't take long to get to the mall. Having been there many times, I directed Dawn to the parking lot across from the main entrance. The job fair is usually held in the main hall across from Nordstrom.

I only did slightly better this time than in November. New York Life wasn't looking for secretaries, but the lady at the booth was really nice. I left her my resume. The Sun Newspapers are finally looking for writers, but the lady there was grumpy, and they already have my resume. The one other non-government or health care company there, a solar company based in Louisiana, was only hiring salespeople. 

Dawn was just disappointed at how tiny it was. There weren't that many more booths than in November, and this time, they had plenty of space. She's been complaining about how much work companies expect their employees to do nowadays too, too much for one new hire. I didn't think any of us were going to get much more from it, and I wasn't ready to go home yet. She took the others back to her car, and I headed in the opposite direction towards JC Penney.

Spent the next hour or so going in and out of stores. Found nothing at Build-a-Bear. Was hoping to get a Flyers jersey at Fan Treasures or Champs Sports, but they're expensive. Maybe I'll get that online, too. Found a cute soft red checked nightgown with lace trim at JC Penney. It had some kind of gunk on the sleeves, but it'll wash off. Picked up two classic records at FYE: 

Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew

Thought of doing lunch at the cafe in the back of Nordstrom, but they were expensive. I ended up at the Bistro at Cherry Hill. This small restaurant smack dab in the middle of the Macy's wing started life as the Cherry Hill Grill, the restaurant for the mall's Woolworth in the 60's. Nowadays, it sells salads, sandwiches, burgers, and pizza for hungry shoppers and office workers. I went with a turkey wrap and fries...and since they were out of the avocado for the turkey wrap and I still wanted it, the man behind the counter threw in my iced tea for free. (The turkey wrap was a bit dry, but it still tasted good.)

Bath and Body Works is across from the Bistro. I needed Chapstick. I only have one tube left. They were having a buy three, get one free on smaller beauty items at the front of the store. I bought three lip balms in Sweet Mint, Champagne Toast, and Strawberry Pound Cake and a lip scrub in Strawberry. 

Strolled around the Macy's wing after lunch, checking out Williams-Sonoma, the Squishables store, and Go! Calendars and Games. Went upstairs to the second floor for a look at Old Navy. Picked up a heavy pair of jeans for work that were listed as $19.99 on the clearance rack and came up $12.99. Grabbed a yummy pineapple coconut milkshake and a Diet Pepsi for later from Haagen Daas at the food court.

I was ready to pack it in by then and called Uber. I should have told the driver where, exactly, I wanted to be picked up. The Cherry Hill Mall is huge, and there's a lot of entrances. I went out through the main entrance I came out of, but no one ever saw me. The two trucks making deliveries to Season 52 and Urban Outfitters didn't help, either. When they finally canceled, I explored Urban Outfitters briefly to look at records before trying again. This time, I distinctly mentioned I was in front of Urban Outfitters' entrance. Got a bearded gentleman in two minutes. He chattered all the way back to Oaklyn (though he had a rather odd accent and I could only understand maybe ten words out of a hundred). 

At least the weather was nice for waiting. It remains sunny, but without the wild wind of earlier in the week. It's much warmer now, in the mid-40's. The little bit of snow we got last night was long gone by the time the gentleman drove over the frozen Cooper River and into Westmont. 

Listened to my new records when I got home. Highway 61 Revisited from 1965 was Bob Dylan's second album to use the more electric-oriented sound for his folk music. As depicted in the two movies on his life, it was hugely controversial in the mid-60's, but you can't argue with the results. Some of the best music Dylan ever wrote is on this album. I love the hit "Like a Rolling Stone," and there's also the title song, "Tombstone Blues," and "Ballad of a Thin Man."

Bitches Brew came out five years later and also featured a master of his genre experimenting with electronic instruments. If Bob Dylan fused folk and rock, then Miles Davis did equally amazing things fusing jazz and rock. Like Bob Dylan's experiments, this was highly controversial when it came out, but is now accepted as one of his best albums and the father of jazz-rock. Some of these songs can't be called anything but epic, notably the title number and "Sanctuary." The album cover alone, with its colorful surreal imagery, is worth buying this for.

Worked on the Seasonal inventory while these were on. Added the Radio City Music Hall Christmas soundtrack, A Broadway Christmas, Cabaret Noel, Jimmy Buffett's Christmas Island, and Harry Connick Jr.'s When My Heart Finds Christmas. The Broadway collections go back the furthest here. I have no idea where Cabaret Noel came from anymore, and I got Broadway Christmas from a thrift shop in the Villas in late 2005, just a few months before I moved. 

Oh, and I got my schedule at this point as well. Frankly, I'm glad they cut my hours way back. If there was any week it would be good to have four days off, next week would be it. The high on Tuesday will be 17. I only work on the weekends and four hours on Wednesday. I'll probably get some things done when it starts warming up a bit on Thursday and Friday, but I plan on spending Monday and Tuesday at home. 

Switched to Match Game Syndicated while eating dinner, then finished the night with Mystery Science Theater 3000. Jack Frost was the English dubbing of a Russian fairy tale movie from the 1950's. It seems to be a cross between "Beauty and the Beast," "Cinderella," "Mother Holle," and another Russian tale, "Baba Yaga." A handsome nobleman shows off for a pretty lass, not knowing she's being abused by her hateful stepmother and spoiled and egotistical stepsister. He's given the head of a bear by an elf in a mushroom hat until he does a good deed, then has to get around the old witch Baba Yaga and her moving house. She's abandoned in the woods and is rescued by Grandfather Frost, but is tricked by Baba Yaga's cat into touching his staff and freezing. Ivan has to finally repent - and learn that being kind is its own reward - in order for Grandfather Frost to restore her. 

Mike and the robots thought this was weird, but I find it oddly charming. I love fairy tale films, and while the dubbing was goofy and there's odd details like the elf in the mushroom hat, it's certainly far from bad. Apparently, like Three Wishes for Cinderella, it remains popular in Russia and the Czech countries as a holiday movie to this day. Once again, if you love fairy tales too, this is worth checking out with or without robot wisecracks.