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!