Wild Is the Wind

Got a quick start today with breakfast and the Mickey Mouse short "Mickey's Rival." We're introduced to Mortimer Mouse, the taller, slicker character who makes a mess of Minnie and Mickey's picnic. Mickey's annoyed and jealous, but Minnie's amused...until Mortimer annoys a bull. When he runs out, Mickey and his car are the ones who have to placate it.

I knew it was supposed to rain later...and even if it wasn't, the wind was howling something fierce, even at quarter of 9 in the morning. I called Uber. Had no trouble getting a ride. The one going to work barely took two minutes. Surprisingly, the one going home only took seven, and that was in a downpour and during the tail end of rush hour. 

My first eight and a half hour day wasn't much fun. It started off with all of our computer systems going down for an hour. No one could use credit or debit cards, and we couldn't even open the self-checkout. Good thing it was still early at that point. By the time things began to pick up around noon, everything was long back online. There were a lot of seafood sales for Ash Wednesday, too, and a lot of people stocking up for Lent, even in bad weather. 

The wind only got worse as the day continued. By 3 PM, the gales had been joined by a heavy downpour. Not only did I have to gather carts in it and get soaked, I tried to clean up a mess in it, too. Someone dropped a hot sauce bottle right outside the store. I started to gather the glass, but not only did I cut myself, I plain ran out of time. A manager finished while I got a band-aid and swept the floor. (Fortunately, the cut was neither wide, nor deep, just a little one on my finger under the nail.) The hot sauce still managed to get all over my jeans and my work shoes, though. 

Needless to say, I was very happy when I finally got home. Changed into dry clothes, had dinner, and watched Match Game Syndicated. Bill Anderson proudly brought a photo of his new baby son to show the panel, while Bart Braverman was equally happy to flirt with the pretty lady contestants. Charles pushed his new gig directing opera star Diana Sorvino in a show. (Sorvino would become the only opera star to appear on Match Game a couple of months later.)

Got finished the night at YouTube with a spooky episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The Touch of Satan has Jodie (Michael Berry) falling for beautiful young Melissa (Emby Mellay), who turns out to have more than a few skeletons in the closet. An ancient woman who lives in her family's house and has a face scarred by burns (Jeanne Gerson) first kills a farmer, then a policeman, the latter right in front of Jodie. Melissa told Jodie she's her grandmother, but she's actually her sister Lucinda (Sharon Crabtree) who was burned at the stake as a witch. Melissa gave her soul to Satan in order to save her sister. Now they're cursed...and Jodie may end up being cursed too, if he wants to save Melissa's soul...

Too bad a genuinely scary and interesting story is brought down by amateurish acting and long, arid pauses where no one does anything. Even Mike and the robots made fun of how slow this moves. On the other hand, this does have some effective make up and effects for the time, especially on the homicidal "grandmother." Worth checking out for vintage horror nuts with or without robot wisecracks if you can handle the sluggish pace and bad dialogue.