The Sunny Side of Valentines

Began the morning with breakfast and The Valentine's Day That Almost Wasn't. I go further into this unique 1982 puppet special from later ALF creator Paul Fusco at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Valentine's Short Subject Special - The Valentine's Day That Almost Wasn't

Ran downstairs to catch an Uber before the special ended. I forgot today is a holiday and it's a holiday weekend. It took me two tries to get a driver, and the second one came in 11 minutes. I ended up being late to work. Thankfully, the one I took to Oaklyn only took 7 minutes.

The Acme was insanely busy for most of the day. First of all, it's Valentine's Day. A lot of people were buying flowers, candy, and stuffed toys for their sweethearts and children or big dinners for those they loved. Second, it's not only a holiday weekend, for many workers, this is the last major holiday weekend until May. Third, the weather was gorgeous. It was the nicest day we've had since early January. Sunny and warm, with not a breeze or a cloud to be seen, probably in the upper 40's-lower 50's. I had no help. The head bagger was in a register. They had to get two different male cashiers to do the carts with me at one point. No matter how many I gathered, the carts kept vanishing.

Took Uber into Oaklyn after work instead of going home. I brought the cupcakes for Rose and her family with me and kept them in the refrigerator in the employees' lounge. I got off near her house, and since it looked like she and the kids were probably out at sports or Finley's dance recitals, dropped the bag on her front stoop.

Had a late lunch at a very busy Common Grounds Coffee House. I hadn't eaten there in a while. There were lots of people studying on laptops, or groups of ladies chatting over coffee and muffins. I treated myself to a Vanilla Rose London Fog Tea, a slice of their delicious crumb cake, and a slice of broccoli bacon cheese quiche. Oh yum! They make great crumb cake, with a nice, thick crumb topping, and the tea was just sweet enough.

I strolled home to enjoy the weather, despite my knee still being sore. The snow is finally starting to melt here. I can see ground and grass and sidewalks that haven't shown in weeks, and it's no longer slippery to walk in some places. Other places are still a tiny bit icy and I had to walk around them. We're supposed to get rain and slushy snow later in the weekend. Hopefully, that'll start getting rid of the old snow.

Went straight into Valentine's Day specials when I got in and changed, starting with the Valentine's Day episode of Happy Days. Joanie's thinking "Be My Valentine" when she gets her first real boyfriend and dreams her family and friends into romantic musical situations. Potsie sings "Save the Last Kiss for Me" to his girlfriend while dressed as a Naval officer. Ralph, of course, wants "My Funny Valentine." Chachi says "Thank Heavens for Little Girls" in his idea of a tux-and-cane number. Fonzie recites love poetry to besotted co-eds. Laurie and Richard do a surprisingly good apache dance. Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham steal the show with their hilarious recollection "I Remember It Well."

Called my mother while Happy Days was on. She started calling me earlier, then realized I was likely either at work or asleep and ended the call. She was right - she originally called me when I was heading out the door to pick up the Uber to work. She's doing fine. My 3 1/2-year old niece Aurora is in pre-school in her area now. In fact, one of the reasons my brother chose the town where they live is it's in a really good school system. Aurora loves school and loves learning. Mom says she loves the books I sent for Christmas, too, especially the one about being a big sister. 

Rose and Craig aren't doing nearly as well. Craig apparently moved in with his mother in Westmont a few weeks ago...and they're not sure he's going to move back. They seemed fine when I last saw them at Christmas, but Mom says it's been ongoing. I know they both have their own issues, so I'm not sure what's going on there.

Bugs Bunny's having an even more complicated Valentine's Day in Bugs Bunny's Cupid Capers. An Elmer Fudd-like Cupid spreads love among the Toons, but Bugs insists he's meddling. He's just as good at finding the Tasmanian Devil a mate or keeping Yosemite Sam from pursuing Granny (and her money). Cupid sends a semi-innocent dame after hard-boiled private eye Daffy, French Legionnaire Pepe Le Pew after desert kitty beauty Penelope, and a plump, love-crazed, European-accented bunny after Bugs.

Moved to DTV Valentine next. From 1984 to 1989, Disney rode the wave of the music video craze by creating videos of their own to run between cartoons on their channel, or be strung together in a themed episode. I enjoyed the wide variety of music they used, from jazz standards to the most recent rock hits to their own songs. I first heard Lena Horne's rendition of "Stormy Weather" in a DTV video. Rock hits figure into this hour-long syndicated special. Most of them are more recent, like "I Just Called to Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder and "You Give Good Love to Me" by Whitney Houston, but we do get Elvis Presley's "Teddy Bear" accompanied by bits featuring Disney bears like Baloo, Bongo, and Humphery.

Stayed at YouTube to finish the night with tonight's Match Game marathon. Romance abounded on a show where many of the panelists and more than a few contestants were single. Many audience members frequently gived the panelists flowers, too. There was the time Gene held flowers on his microphone to keep it from crackling, or when a woman gave everyone small wrapped roses. Charles went into macho mode, while Richard's was in a pocket and almost hid his face. Fannie once gave Brett a huge arrangement of dead yellow roses as a joke, and she and Lee Merriweather wore rose-print t-shirts. Someone gave Jamie Lee Curtis a rose on a PM episode.

Sometimes, contestants could get a little too amorous. In 1974, a red-haired guy who looked something like a leprechaun in a suit got so excited, he kept trying to kiss Fannie and Brett! Charles and Richard defended their honor (such as it was). On that PM episode, the contestant ended up in Jamie's lap while Brett, Charles, and Richard Paul sang about the Eyes of Texas and Gene showed off his snazzy bright red shoes. 

Give flowers to those you love and celebrate Valentine's Day in all its forms in this adorably loving marathon!

Match Game Saturday Classics - Valentine's Day Marathon (Featuring Hearts, Flowers, and Love)

And here's even more classic Valentine's Day specials for this holiday weekend!

The Popeye Valentine's Day Special: Sweethearts at Sea

The Smurfs: My Smurfy Valentine

The Woody Woodpecker Valentine's Day Special: I'm With Cupid, Stupid

Buttons and Rusty In the Honey Bunch (A Chucklewood Valentine)

For Better or for Worse: A Valentine from the Heart

Cathy's Valentine

A Special Valentine With the Family Circus

From Disney With Love

Night of the Superstitions

Got a quick start this morning with breakfast and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Mickey makes "A Surprise for Minnie" for Valentine's Day and wants to give it to her at the park. First, they have tire trouble on the car, then have to pay Pete in flower petals. When they do arrive, Minnie loves her gift, but Donald realizes he forgot something for Daisy. Toodles, of course, has the answer.

Called Uber after the episode ended. It took them over 10 minutes to arrive. I just barely got to work on time. It was 7 minutes going home at 1:30. No traffic or trouble either way.

No trouble at work, either. The head bagger said she was going to help the floral department manager with Valentine's Day bouquets, but she ended up doing carts with me instead. It was a little busy, not as overwhelming as you'd think for a holiday weekend. No trouble whatsoever. At least it was a nice day, too, still chilly but nothing like the last few weeks, sunny and with less wind.

Did my weekly grocery shopping after I got off. Restocked oranges, yogurt, coconut milk, probiotic soda, and granola bars. Found my favorite pecan shortbread cookies on the bakery clearance rack. Thought I'd try a small slice of chocolate fudge cake on sale, too. Tried a sample of sushi and liked it so much, I bought California rolls for lunch. Saw the new Coke Cherry Float Zero $2 for 5 and grabbed two of those as well. (And tried one on the way home. Oooh, they are good! They really do taste like cherry cream soda.) Found fabric Band-Aids with watercolor covers on the clearance shelves. Grabbed sliced Swiss for sandwiches next week.

Oh, and I got my schedule at work. In good news, Wednesday is the only double-shift day this week, and I work later in the day on the weekends. I even have President's Day totally off, no Acme or school. In bad news, I'm surprised at the lack of hours. I usually get a lot more in mid-February. I guess not as many employees opted to use their vacation time in February this year. It hasn't exactly been vacation weather unless you're a devoted skier. 

After I got home, I ran The Backyardigans while I put everything away and had my sushi lunch. Uniqua, Pablo, and Tasha, are the roughest, toughest, and nicest biker group you've ever met. They call themselves the Do-Gooders, and they have no desire to make trouble. Mailman Tyrone assumes they're more stereotypical bikers and takes off. The trio go after him with his mail bag, remind him that he has a "Special Delivery" for them.

Switched to the Peanuts next. Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown focuses heavily on the Peanuts' (mostly imaginary) romances. Linus has a crush on his teacher Miss Othmar and buys her a huge box of candy. Sally thinks it's for her. Lucy would be glad if Schroder would just acknowledge her and get away from his piano. Snoopy's putting on messy and melodramatic "paw-pet" shows, and poor Charlie Brown is waiting for someone, anyone, to give him a valentine.

A Charlie Brown Valentine was made to fill an hour slot with Be My Valentine, but it has some entertaining material in its own right. Chuck pursues the Little Red Haired Girl, while Peppermint Patty and Marcie pursue him. Lucy demands Snoopy write her something romantic, while Sally tries to tell her Sweet Baboo how much she likes him.

Finished the last three episodes of Remember WENN after the Peanuts ended. Gertie's writing for the brand-new medium of television this time in "The Sunset Also Rises." Hilary becomes Norma Desmond with Scott as Joe Gillis in a satire of Sunset Boulevard. The others keep intruding and re-writing Gertie's script. Hilary wants to play the ingenue, the others want to play Norma, and Victor...somehow gets in there, too. 

"At Cross Purposes" begins with a lady in a dress entering WENN...which is actually Jeff in costume for Charley's Aunt. It becomes more than a costume when a process server turns up with papers from Pavla, and the entire cast ends up in drag to avoid him. It's newsgirl Betty who comes up with far more devastating news by the end of the episode...like the attack on Pearl Harbor...

"All Noisy On the Pittsburgh Front" brings Victor back in, claiming he's now running WENN and a new military station. Betty thinks Scott is making cushy deals, but he's really doing something far more important. Jeff is rejected for military duty, then discovers Hilary is married to someone else, there's a military nut who thinks he's Captain Amazon (J.K Simmons) running around the station, and Eugenia proposes to Mr. Foley...

And that, sadly, is that. AMC ended the show on those cliffhangers, after having mangled the fourth season rather badly due to a new management that didn't respect it. "Sunset Also Rises" is a good example of this. Sunset Boulevard neither fits the show's tone, nor its time period. Rupert Holmes didn't even write it, and it's a mess of overlong and weird gags. Why they rejected Rupert's original suggestion for a spoof, The Maltese Falcon, I will never know. Maybe it wasn't glamorous enough for them. "Cross Purposes" and "All Noisy" are better, two of the best episodes of a troubled season...but they're also hard to watch now, knowing how things ended, or didn't. 

I still adore this show, and I still highly recommend it to anyone who loves historical fiction, Media history, great wordplay, or terrific ensembles...but fair warning on those sudden unresolved endings. At least AMC is actually acknowledging its existence now. The full series is on AMC Plus; the first two seasons are free on Plex. The first three seasons can currently be found on YouTube and (in part) on the Internet Archive.

Put on The Price Is Right while I did research on condos in near-by towns. I'm guessing this one was from 1984 or early '85. Johnny Olsen was the announcer and Bob Barker had gray hair. The "story" Showcase was one of the strangest I've ever seen...and certainly one of the most early-80's-centric. Johnny apparently entered a Boy George Look-a-Like contest...and won. Most of the prizes centered around all things British (including a trip to London) or music-related. The models thought it was just as weird as I did. They bundled Johnny off to a new van by the end!

Let it run into Match Game Syndicated as I had dinner. We started off with the remaining existing episodes of the Louise Sorrel week. The next week, with Charles Siebert and Phyllis Davis, is also missing episodes...but it also has one of the funniest episodes of 1980. Gene and Charles jump a mile when a bulb blows on-stage. Charles carries a prop bulb for the rest of the show...and the panelists are seen climbing on top of Gene to screw it on by the end of the episode.

Moved to The Wild Wild West at Pluto TV next in honor of Valentine's Day and Friday the 13th. Artemis Gordon and Jim West are trying to warn a millionaire industrialist that he's in danger in "Night of the Vicious Valentine," but they're too late. The man dies playing his own piano. Turns out all the victims married pretty young woman who were recommended by a certain matchmaker, Emma Valentine (Agnes Moorehead), shortly before their murders. Valentine wants to use the ladies to take control of the wealth of the entire nation. What she didn't count on was the most recent girl she groomed to actually fall for the industrialist she married, or for Jim and Artemis to interfere with her plans.

Ended the night on YouTube with The Berenstain Bears' Comic Valentine. I went further into this adorable 1983 special at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog back in 2023.

The Berenstain Bears' Comic Valentine 

My Funny Valentines

Began the morning with breakfast and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Madame Razz mistakes Adora for the "Hero" Mara, the She-Ra of a thousand years ago, when she visits her to get some answers. Mara had come to Etheria to study magic for a secret weapon called the Heart of Etheria. To her horror, it involved draining magic from Etheria and storing it in the planet's core. She sacrificed herself to make sure it was never used by anyone, pushing Etheria into Despondos, She also encourages Adora to not listen to Light Hope, who was programmed by the First Ones to set off the Heart weapon, without thought of what it would do to the planet and its residents.

Moved on to Miles Ahead next while cutting paper in half for the kids and having lunch. I go further into this biography of temperamental jazz genius Miles Davis at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Miles Ahead

Called Uber just as the movie ended. I really had a hard time getting one at quarter after 12. They didn't show up for 19 minutes, and I was 6 minutes late. Couldn't get an Uber at 4:30, either. That one took 11 minutes to get there. At least there was no trouble with traffic or on the road either way.

Today was a half-day in the Collingswood School District. The kids are off tomorrow for a teacher's meeting. Since they won't be there tomorrow, the kids had their Valentine's Day parties today. I couldn't believe all the stuff they had in their white and pink and red bags. When I was their ages, we got paper Valentines with popular characters on them from everyone in the class and maybe cupcakes and some candy. In addition to the paper valentines, candy, and (for some of the younger ones) cupcakes, their bags were bursting with stamps, toys, tiny Slinkys, mini containers of slime, stickers, little plastic animal figurines, and plastic bead bracelets. 

After lunch, we settled some of the kids down with an art project. The head teacher (who thankfully was feeling better) handed around pages with a huge heart drawn on them. The pre-schoolers tore bits of pink tissue paper and glued those on the heart, along with metallic and die-cut bits of paper and colored feathers leftover from the turkey hand project at Thanksgiving. The older kids glued beads onto their hearts. Not all of the kids did the project, but those who did seemed to enjoy themselves well enough.

For the most part, the kids spent the rest of the afternoon playing with magnetic tiles, Duplos, or their new Valentine's toys. I brought Richard Scarry's Best Story Book Ever, Disney's Storybookland, and Strawberry Shortcake and the Winter That Would Not End with me to read. One of the littlest girls requested Snow White. A boy building with magnetic tiles asked for a Mickey Mouse story, so I went with the relatively short Mickey Mouse and Pluto Pup. They all got a kick out of making sure Hilda Hippo had the right alphabetic foods when we read Feed Hilda Hippo Her ABCs. Near the end of the day, I refereed a boy and a girl as they rolled a magnetic tile car into their towers to knock them over.

Honestly, for a four-hour day where we couldn't use the library (the teachers were meeting there), the kids weren't generally that bad. I did argue with one girl about using both sides of the paper when she drew. One of the other teachers brought some paper, too, and we didn't want to run out again. Two of the older boys roughhoused later and had to be separated (twice). One of the boys dumped his bag of loot everywhere and had to finally be admonished to clean it up when too many of the other kids wanted to play with his stuff. 

Oh, and we had a fire drill later in the day, when we were down to 15 kids all together. No one was really happy about that, least of all the kids. Though the sun was finally peeking out of the clouds by 3:30, it was colder than it has been, in the mid-30's, and still a bit breezy. Needless to say, the kids turned around and trooped back fast as they could after we counted them.

Three of the older kids even gave me Kit-Kats and a mini Rice Krispies Treat. I took a couple of the girls to the bathroom a few times and had good conversations with them. Danced as well as I could with another girl who could do some darn good gymnastic tricks while the music was on and the boys were wrestling. I read a story about the months of the year to her later. I'm so glad I took this job. I have 40 of the nicest Valentines anyone could ever wish for. 

When I got home, I went straight into making Strawberry Cupcakes for Valentine's Day. I thought they would be easier after my cake mix cookies spread too much last year. I added frosting in the middle, hoping for a Tastycake-cupcake cream filled effect. Alas, the cupcakes weren't firm enough. The frosting just seeped into the middle and made them very gooey. The crushed freeze-dried strawberries I used in the cupcakes and on top of them worked out much better.

Watched Match Game Syndicated after I had a shower and grabbed dinner. We're now on the week with comedienne Louise Sorrel, with Fred Grandy sitting in Charles' place. There were a couple of amusing matchmaking jokes when a single young lady and a single Hispanic man were contestants together. (Too bad the last episode of this week is currently unavailable, due to being on a tape with one of the Jimmie Walker weeks GSN hasn't shown yet.)

Finished the night with classic jazz music, starting with the soundtrack from Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown. "Heartburn Waltz," heard throughout the special, is the big one here. I also like the jangly "Paw Pet Overture" and the arrangement of Bach's "Minuet In G Major" as the "Music Box Dance." 

Ended with two of the most beloved albums by the real Miles Davis. Kind of Blue is from 1959 and Sketches of Spain from 1960, the height of Davis' original fame and artistic powers. Davis may not have appreciated the softer blues music on Kind of Blue later in his life, but "So What" and "Blues In Green" are among the most powerful songs he ever wrote. Sketches of Spain features genuine Spanish melodies like "Will 'o the Wisp," traditional Hispanic covers like "Saeta," and Gil Evans' "Solea." 

The Grass Is Always Greener

Began the day with breakfast and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. It's "Boys Night Out" when Bow, Swift Wing, and Sea Hawk are feeling neglected by their ladies and head to a local tavern for some fun. That "fun" ends with them kidnapped by first pirates, then the Horde, and Mermista, Adora, and Glimmer having to rescue them. Mermista's feeling better after having saved her boyfriend, but Bow isn't as happy that Adora and Glimmer are still on the outs. Meanwhile, Catra also learns a lesson about friendship when she finds Scorpia gone and realizes it's no fun doing a villain monologue when no one's there to hear it.

Called Uber after the episode ended. Unfortunately, there were few cars out at quarter of 9, for some reason. I couldn't get one for almost 20 minutes and ended up being 15 minutes late. Not a good thing, as it got busy later on. I have no idea why we were busy. All of the holidays are on the weekend, and we're not supposed to get any kind of bad weather until next week. The weather was even decent, windy and cloudy but nowhere near as chilly as it has been, probably in the mid-upper 30's. In fact, I had so many carts to do I was almost late getting out.

Grabbed frosting and cupcake papers to make Valentine's cupcakes sometime this weekend, then headed out. Had lunch at Tu Se Bella's. They were totally quiet other than a boring court show when I sat down with a slice of ham-pineapple, a slice of mushroom, and a Diet Pepsi. Both were yummy, as always. I love Hawaiian pizza.

Instead of returning to the Acme, I headed across the street to Goodwill to browse and see if I could find some Valentine's Day gifts for myself. I hit the jackpot with records. Someone donated pristine copies of classic jazz albums and a more recent jazz LP. Found a fairly rare cast album and an old-time radio show, too: 

The original cast album for the 1981 Lauren Bacall Woman of the Year musical

Two episodes of Fibber McGee and Molly (The LP was still in its original plastic!)

The Bill Evans Trio - Explorations

Jon Batiste - We Are (This was a surprise. This came out in 2021. I rarely find recent records at thrift shops. I think Explorations is a recent reprint, too. I also saw pristine reprints of Kind of Blue and Mingus Ah Un, but I have those on CD.) 

Went next-door to Five Below after I bought the records. I was there for a Rice Krispies bar to eat with the kids at snack time, but I also found a Care Bears Valentine's Day Squishmallow I couldn't resist. I never heard of the all-red All My Heart Bear before today. Online research revealed that he was originally a Target-exclusive Valentine's Day bear in the 2000's who is still used for Valentine's Day toys and online game extensions by the franchise. I wasn't originally going to buy him, but after I called Uber and had 12 minutes to kill, I went back and got him.

I'm rather glad I did. I showed him to the kids when I got to the Thomas Sharp School (right on time), and they loved him. They all wanted to give him hugs and pet his soft fur. Two of the girls even gave him kisses. Though I had 10 kids at my table, they were generally pretty good. No trouble cleaning up this time, and though they were a bit rowdy at the bathrooms, I at least got them in and out with a minimum of fuss.

We got them to the library a little earlier this time. By and large, things went a bit better than yesterday. First of all, no coloring. We're out of any kind of regular coloring paper, and the kids are too inclined towards ripping the rolled paper we tape on the tables after they get bored stenciling on them. Second, the head teacher was out sick, and she has the dance music, so no dance parties, either. We played calming instrumental music on the big speaker instead. I read books to the kids and admired their magnetic tile towers and space stations. 

Two of the older boys still threw fits. One got angry when I told him to share the building blocks with the younger kids. The other just ran around, threw himself on the floor, and wouldn't do what he was told. The first ended up going back to the cafeteria. The second got into trouble with several teachers, including the head of the company who was in for the head teacher today. He behaved slightly better when we moved the remaining six kids to the cafeteria right before I left.

When I got home, I went straight into Match Game Syndicated. They're on the week in 1980 where all of the panelists but Brett either were currently game show hosts (Dick Martin, Peter Marshall, Bill Cullen) or would be in the future (Betty White, Elaine Joyce). Elaine got to prove she's a lot smarter than she lets on with a big $10,000 Head-to-Head.

Finished the night with Remember WENN. Everyone at the station agrees to a "Work Shift" after Mr. Eldridge's mix-up with the scripts leaves the entire staff feeling frustrated. Smarmy inspirational guru Arden Sage (Greg Germann) claims he has the answer - they should "walk a mile in each other's shoes" and switch jobs for the day. That works about as well as can be expected. Eugenia is too nice to sell time to sponsors, Maple can't type well enough to write shows, Betty can only play "Chopsticks," and Hilary absolutely cannot handle the switchboard. They learn a lesson all right when it turns out Sage's "money" is more hot air than cold cash. (If nothing else, this episode does end the running gag about what Mr. Eldridge does at the station. He's the go-fer, the one who fetches the coffee and runs all the errands no one else has the time or inclination to do.)

Betty tells Maple and Scott about her first day at the station in "Past Tense, Future Imperfect." Victor's habitual "grandeloquence" and his long words just mixes her up and makes her think he's coming on to her. She tells Mackie...and before you know it, the entire station is convinced that Betty is a loose woman. Victor finally explains why he hired her - because she may lack polish, but he appreciates her energy and her ability to come up with ideas on a dime.

Wild and Crazy Kids

Got a quick start today with breakfast and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. "Mer-Mysteries" begins as a spoof of film noir when the Rebellion return to Bright Moon from a failed attempt to retake one of their previous strongholds. Mermista comes to the conclusion that there must be a spy in their midst, which leads to accusations flying wildly all over Bright Moon and clues being found in black and white. As it turns out, Mermista is right. There is a spy at Bright Moon...but it turns out to be a distraction when Double Trouble reveals that Mermista's kingdom is in grave danger.

Dusted the rooms, filled a bag with clothes I didn't want, and got the Valentine's Day cards together while watching Scott Joplin. I go further into this 1977 biography with Billy Dee Williams as the "King of Ragtime" at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Cult Flops - Scott Joplin

Headed out to have lunch and run errands on the White Horse Pike after the movie ended, starting with dropping all the cards in the mail box. Thank heavens it wasn't freezing anymore. It was cloudy, windless, and in the 40's, perfectly normal mid-February weather. I don't know why I thought the clothes donation bin was behind the Family Dollar. It's behind Dollar General. Since I was down that way, I had a quick lunch at Dunkin' Donuts to finish that gift card one of the kids gave me for Christmas. The turkey sausage and egg sandwich and mini-hash browns weren't bad, and the brownie batter donut was a bit dry, and the "brownie batter" thin and messy. The hot chocolate was really sweet and creamy, though.

I went home to take out the trash and wait for Uber. No trouble there today. The driver to work didn't even take four minutes to arrive. The one going home took 10 during rush hour. No traffic, no trouble getting there.

The kids were a lot wilder. If they weren't battling colds and sniffling, they were battling cabin fever. I don't think any of them have been outside to play since the middle of last month. Two of the littlest girls got so crazy after lunch, throwing rubber food everywhere and running all over, they were kept in the cafeteria instead of joining the rest of us in the library. Two older boys were even worse in the library, arguing, yelling, pointing fingers, breaking magnetic tiles, and building too-tall skyscrapers and letting them fall and make a mess. Two more girls ripped the paper one of the teachers taped to a table for stenciling so badly, we finally gave up, removed the paper, and gave everyone regular sheets of paper to color on instead. At least we managed to get them together enough to help clean up and get everything back to the cafeteria before I left.

On the other hand, I had 10 kids at my table, and they did clean up quickly when we went to the bathroom early. They were a little crazy in the bathrooms, but I got them back with no trouble. Two of the girls even gave me (or my arms) a big hug. 

I read inside for a little while when I got home, then went out to dinner with Jessa around quarter after 6. We ate at the Philly Diner in Runnemede. This is the huge chrome diner and sports bar with the massive panels on top that the bus passes on the way to the Deptford Mall. Their food was pretty tasty, too. Jessa had a gyro. I had a crab cake sandwich. We both had fries, cole slaw, pickles, and chicken orzo soup. My sandwich was so gigantic, half the crab cake ended up on the plate, but it was really tasty. The coconut cake I had for dessert was even better.

Since we were in Runnemede, Jess drove us to the shopping center next to the Acme. She wanted to show me a store that sold closeouts and overstocks, but it was closed by 7:30. We ended up a few doors down at Dollar Tree instead. I just got a birthday card for Jess, freeze-dried strawberries for a recipe I wanted to make later this week, and a Zootopia bag. Jessa got notebooks and cards. 

Finished the night after a shower with the third CDs from two of my favorite series. Unsung Musicals covers shows that closed on the road or had such short runs on Broadway they were never recorded. On the third volume, the second is represented by two lovely songs from short-lived musical versions of popular plays and books, "Reveille Sun" from Here's Where I Belong (musical East of Eden) and "Simple Words" from Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen (musical Teahouse of the August Moon). We also have "Nothing To Do With Love" from a show called Personals that definitely sounds like it was written by the creators of Friends, the hilarious teen lament "At the Same Time" that was from the first attempt at a musical Freaky Friday, and two songs from a musical version of It's a Wonderful Life that has yet to play Broadway, its title number and "In a State." 

Lost In Boston gives us numbers cut from hit shows, or ones that at least made it to Broadway. The third album kicks off in high style with one of my favorite cut numbers, the hilarious "Mama's Talkin' Soft" from Gypsy. There's also another funny teen lament, "You Don't Have to Kiss Me Good Night" from The Music Man, the touching soliloquy "Pink Taffeta Sample Size 10" from Sweet Charity, "Travelin' Light" from Guys and Dolls, and two dropped songs from the troubled Seesaw, "Big Fat Heart" and "Pick Up the Pieces."

Kids and Harts

Began the morning with breakfast and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. "It's Love Day!" and Daniel is excited to show he cares by giving hearts to all his friends. He can't figure out who gave him the heart with the boat on it, though. Grandpere is there for "Daniel's Love Day Surprise." Daniel is excited to help his mom make a heart-shaped pizza and hide hearts for Grandpere to find. He gets a bit upset when his little sister Margaret finds a heart first, but Grandpere reminds him that it's her way of loving.

I decided my knee felt up to a short walk to Dollar General after breakfast. I needed laundry detergent and Valentine's Day cards. It was almost noon by the time I got there, and they were pretty busy. I dodged a lot of people as I grabbed cards, Fresca, the smaller yellow Tide liquid, and a new flavor of hydration mix, Arctic Cherry. It wasn't a bad day for a walk, either. Though it remains cold, probably in the mid-upper 20's, it's still warmer than it was yesterday. The wind's down to a slightly chilly breeze, too, and the sun shown in a pale blue sky.

Put on Hart to Hart while looking up condos for sale listings in Cherry Hill and seeing what neighborhoods they're in. Jennifer is surprised when someone destroys the chocolate hearts she bought for her charity committee members. Turns out, the chocolate shop where she bought them is a front for a smuggling operation. The owners are willing to commit "The Hart-Shaped Murder" to find that heart and keep Jennifer and Jonathan from figuring out what they're up to.

Switched to She-Ra and the Princesses of Power during lunch. "Princess Scorpia" learns a tough lesson in friendship when Catra demands that she find Entraptra's notes for her work with Hordak. Turns out they're in Entraptra's favorite robot Emily, whom Scorpia has been taking care of. She's been trying and trying to make Catra see her as a friend...but it's Emily who reminds her what a real friend behaves like. Meanwhile, Flutterina is working hard to drive a wedge between Adora and Glimmer, who have their own ways of doing what's right for Eternia.

Called Uber around 2:25...and to my surprise, I got a ride home in 4 minutes. Got one going home in 6 minutes. No problems either way. Both turned up on time, and there was no traffic. In fact, I got in a little early and went for a short walk down Comley before I headed for the Thomas Sharp School.

The kids weren't that bad, either. My group did have some trouble cleaning up the Duplos before we went to the bathroom. Once I got them there, they were fine. We also had to wait a little longer than usual to get in the library after snack time. The school band was meeting there. I read The Gingerbread Man and Positively Purple (the latter about a polar bear whose medicine turns her purple and is reassured by her fellow animal friends that she looks great) to the kids looking at books and coloring. Once we did get in the library, I joined the kids who were coloring, while the others danced or built with magnetic tiles. They were fascinated with my artwork of Jeff, Scott, Victor, and Mr. Foley from Once Upon a Time In the Land of WENN. We'd only just moved the kids back to the cafeteria when I headed out.

Watched Match Game Syndicated when I got home and had dinner. Jokes about height abounded the week towering gentle giant Richard Kiel, best known today as Jaws from the James Bond movies, sat in the male ingenue seat and diminutive singer-songwriter Paul Williams was in the fifth "smart guy" seat. It's a shame Kiel never returned. Cracks about his height aside, he seemed to enjoy himself, and he played really well.

Put on Remember WENN after I took the laundry downstairs to the washing machine. Scott wants to put on "The Follies of WENN" after an old buddy of his offers them $1,000 to stage a burlesque show on Sunday. Maple is more than happy to show the ladies how to bump and grind. Trouble is, she and Betty are trying to get nicer apartments in their women's boarding house, which is run by staid people who approve of neither show business nor burlesque. It looks like Betty may lose her home and Maple her chance to get one, until a certain Mr. Hardy (Mickey Rooney) not only approves of the show, but claims he might get it on Broadway.

Self-important awards shows and annoying hosts get skewered in "Pratfall." WENN is nominated for 16 Golden Lobes, Pittsburgh's radio award. Eugenia tries for truth in advertising and to actually exercise for her nominated aerobics show, while Jeff and Scott compete with each other for the same role when they're both nominated for Young Doctor Talbot. Meanwhile, Hilary discovers someone at the station is on the committee to nominate an actor for the overall excellence award. 

Finished the night after I brought the laundry upstairs with dating and romance-based game shows. Probably the most famous of these is The Dating Game. Three bachelors are questioned behind a screen by a young lady looking for a date. She takes out the one whose answers she liked best. Many actors turned up on this show prior to or just as they were becoming famous. Burt Reynolds is one of the bachelors in the first half of the episode seen here. Three handsome military cadets are the prospective dates in the second.

Tattletales throws the focus on the famous folk as it lets celebrity couples match stories about their love lives. While most of the 70's run and a good chunk of the early 80's run has turned up, only two episodes of the short-lived syndicated version from 1977-1978 are currently online. This episode from 1977 is one of the two surviving syndicated shows.

Relationship shows go back way further than even The Dating Game. Do You Trust Your Wife from 1956 has two of the most unlikely game show hosts ever. Edgar Bergen and his dummies Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd ask married couples with unique stories four questions. The husband can answer himself, or trust his wife to help out. The first couple had traveled around the US without spending a dime. The second was comedian Joe E. Brown and his long-time wife. Honestly, hearing Brown talk about his genuinely fascinating life in vaudeville and burlesque and seeing his real affection for his wife was more interesting than the actual game play.

Perfect Match from 1986 is a lot less interesting. This is basically a cross between Match Game, Jeopardy, and The Newywed Game. Couples bet on how well they can answer saucy fill-in-the-blank questions. Other than giving Bob Goen his start, this really isn't all that exciting or different.

The Big Date from 1996 at least tries something slightly different and more complicated with the dating game format. One man or woman chooses between three members of the opposite sex to go out on a date with. Host Mark L. Walberg asks them questions and see if they can match. It takes two matches to become a couple. Along the way, the contestant could change their choice with someone seen behind a screen. When they have two couples, Walburg would ask "me or not me" questions to see if they were compatible. The bonus round had Walburg asking the winners true/false questions. If they answer four correctly, they're eligible for a sweepstakes to win a trip to Jamaica. I can see why this lasted a little over a year on USA. The whole thing is way too complicated and hard to follow.

Blind Date from the early 2000's actually shows us the dates. Cameras follow a couple on a blind date and see how it went, and if they think it worked out. "Commentary" on the date pops up on the screen during the episode. I thought this seemed a bit smarmy, but it was a 7-year hit on syndication that would later make a brief return on Bravo in 2019. 

Make a love match and find out more about dating in the late 20th and early 21st century with these romantic shows!

Do You Trust Your Wife? (1956)

The Dating Game (1967)

Tattletales Syndicated (1977)

Perfect Match (1986)

The Big Date (1996)

Blind Date (2003)

Big Game Matches

Got a quick start this morning with breakfast and Jazz at the Olympics. The Ralph Sutton Quartet recorded this album for the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley, California. Most of the songs are winter-related standards like "Winter Wonderland," "Let It Snow," "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm," and "Winter Weather," but we do get two originals from Sutton that end each side of the album, "Hot Buttered Rum" and "Squaw Valley Blues."

Called Uber soon as I finished breakfast. Thankfully, no trouble there, though it did take me a while to get rides both times. It took me almost 15 minutes at quarter of 11 and 11 minutes at 3 PM to get Uber drivers. Thankfully, I called early enough that I got to work just in time. No traffic or trouble either way.

Work was a mess today, though not to the degree that it was on Super Bowl day last year. For one thing, the Eagles barely made the playoffs this year. The Seahawks and the Patriots were playing. For another, it was literally freezing. I don't think it hit the 20's, and that blustery wind just made it feel even colder. I would go outside and push carts for 20 minutes, then go inside and use the bathroom or wander around when it got too cold to be out there. Thankfully, the Sunday morning bagger was there to help out and take the inside chores. Another guy took over for him when he left, and they recruited still another college student to help me with the carts when they started to vanish.

With two younger guys pushing carts, I spent the last half-hour of my shift inside, putting away the few loose items around. I found a broken jar of onion dip on a shelf near the pharmacy and tried to clean it up, but I didn't realize how badly the jar was broken, and the dip went everywhere. It took me forever to figure out how to clean up that mess!

When I got home, I changed, finished Jazz at the Olympics, and spent the rest of the night watching the Match Game marathon. There were so many football-related questions on the show, this one started at 2 PM! Football was at its height of popularity on the networks when Match Game ran. If questions didn't joke about forward passes, husbands who were so obsessed with watching games that they'd call terminology even while doing other things, and just what players do when they're in a huddle, they were making fun of then-popular sportscaster Howard Cossell. Cossell, his toupee, and his big mouth were famous in the 70's and 80's when he was one of the announcers for Monday Night Football. As several panelists pointed out over the years, if you were stuck for an answer, you could write down chest areas, relieving oneself, or Howard Cossell. 

Two real-life football players turned up as panelists. Big, sweet Rosey Greer was on first, in April 1974. Alex Karras appeared over a year later in September 1975. Despite Karras not being much of a player and seeming bored for most of the week, he turned up on two memorable episodes anyway, when all the panelists changed seats, and when the winning contestant was woman wrestler Lola Kiss, "the kiss of death." 

Celebrate the Super Bowl with these touchdown-worthy questions on this extra-long marathon featuring two gridiron greats of the 1970's! 

Match Game Sunday Classics - Super Bowl Sunday Football Edition

Oh, and I didn't watch the game this year, due to it being on Peacock (and my not having that streaming service or NBC), but I did check the score. It was even more lopsided and less interesting than last year's game. The Patriots apparently got steamrolled by the on-fire Seahawks 29-13. 

Olympic Winds

The wind woke me up around 8:30 AM. It was fierce, shaking the pine trees outside and rattling the house to its core. My knee was still pretty sore, too. Between the wind, the extreme cold, my knee, and the snow on the street, there was no way I was going to work. I rang up the Acme and called out, then went back to sleep.

The wind continued to blow hard when I did finally roll out of bed. It must have blown the snow off the street, because Johnson was clear by noon. I hurried downstairs to move the recycling canister closer to the house and empty that...and it was so biting cold, that was the only time I even remotely went outside today.

Warmed up while eating breakfast and watching She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Three members of the Horde, Kyle, Lonnie, and lizard kid Rogelio, have been sent to pick up supplies by Catra. When their transport is damaged by an acid spore shower, they have to breach "Protocol" and figure out who should be the one to repair it. The same spore shower has also damaged Light Hope and the Crystal Castle while Adora is training there. Light Hope is far sweeter when she's rebooting, showing Adora how much she cared about the previous She-Ra, Mara, before Mara went rogue.

Switched to winter and winter-sports themed specials next. I go further into Frosty's Winter Wonderland, the sequel to the original Rankin-Bass Frosty the Snowman, at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Animation Celebration Saturday - Frosty's Winter Wonderland

Did the winter sports-themed specials next in honor of the Winter Olympics, which began yesterday. Peppermint Patty is hoping to become the next figure skating diva in She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown. Snoopy is her relentless manager. Peppermint Patty has to fight local hockey players to get ice time and is convinced Marcie will make her a costume. Marcie can't sew, and Snoopy ends up doing that, too. We learn what Snoopy can't do when the tape for her music gets tangled, and Woodstock ends up bailing her out.

The Pink Panther is off to Lake Placid for the Olym-Pinks in this 1980 special. He's the star of the ski team, to the frustration and resentment of his long-nosed rival with the mustache. His rival constantly attempts to one-up Pink and only ends up with a cold and second place for his troubles. Meanwhile, Pink has his own problems dodging a piano that is determined to follow him everywhere, even onto a live wire.

Put up the Valentine's Day decorations as well as I could with my knee next. I put off putting them up because of my knee, but I really wanted to get them up before the actual holiday. I have two thick red and white tinsel garlands, one of which went in front of the TV on the media center. There were also two heart-shaped candy boxes that were too pretty to throw away, a pink bear-shaped tin, two vintage cut-outs from the 70's and 80's depicting a bear holding a heart and a Holly Hobbie-type pioneer girl whose puppy is giving her kittens, a giant cut-out cardboard heart, and three stuffed animals. Valentina the Love Penguin and Amoura the Love Frog are leftover from the WebKinz fad of the 2000's and early 2010's. Valentino is a Valentine's Beanie Bear. 

Switched to Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle at YouTube next. Drawing the WENN superhero artwork with the kids got me thinking of my ideas for my (hopefully) upcoming WENN superhero story Captain Victor, Man of Power. This three-part PBS documentary covers the origins of superheroes during the Great Depression, how they flourished during World War II, then vanished in the 50's once the threat was over and all comics became suspect to high-minded intellectuals. They made a comeback in the pop-art 60's when the Batman TV show became a sensation, and superhero comics began to embrace stronger themes and more diverse characters.

Finished the night at YouTube with the Match Game marathon. Match Game is also celebrating sports this weekend with the first of two sports-themed marathons. This one revolves around questions on Olympic sports like skating, track and field, and gymnastics. The vast majority of these questions occurred in 1976, when the Montreal Olympics were running, or in 1980 during the Lake Placid Winter Olympics. There were jokes about what Pinocchio used his nose for, about a warden who lamented that he shouldn't have let his prisoners do Olympic sports that involved jumping over walls, and involving the things gymnasts do. We heard sports questions during the week in late 1975 where Richard Dawson's then-girlfriend Jodie Donovan appeared, when Fannie sat in for Brett during the last week of 1977, when Brett Somers came in wearing a West Hollywood Olympics shirt, prompting jokes from her best female friend Marcia Wallace about what she actually won at said Olympics.

Celebrate the Winter Olympics with this hilarious Wide World of Game Show Sports!

Match Game Saturday Classics - Olympics Games Marathon

Before the Snow Came

Began the morning with breakfast and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Adora wishes the Rebellion felt a "Pulse." The keep attacking empty transports. After Bow is hurt by a new, more powerful robot, Adora takes Spinerella and Netossa to destroy it. Frustrated at being left behind, Glimmer takes her magic out to help. Adora isn't happy that Shadow Weaver is teaching her magic...but Catra and Double Trouble are thrilled with their unraveling friendship.

Called Uber right after breakfast. I had trouble with them for most of the day. They took 10 minutes arriving this morning, and I was almost late to work. They took 17 minutes to get to the Acme at 2:20, and I was five minutes late to Thomas Sharp. I was surprised I didn't have any trouble getting home. I got a ride at quarter after 5 in 7 minutes.

It wasn't bad at the Acme when I arrived. In fact, I was entirely outside today. The head bagger did the sweeping and other indoor work. I even got to see men drop green salt on the sidewalks to keep them from getting too messy later when it starts to snow. Thankfully, it was just cloudy and cold when I was at work. It didn't start picking up until I was just about ready to leave.

Got my schedule at this point, too. It's pretty much the same schedule as this week with earlier hours on Sunday and next Saturday...but it's also easier than this week. I took Thursday off because the kids have a half-day then. The Collingswood School District is closed next Friday for a staff meeting, which means I'll only be working at the Acme next Friday. 

I found something on the bakery clearance rack called "celebration cookies" (M&Ms, white chocolate chips, sprinkles) I wanted to try. Changed, grabbed them, made my way through a rut in the snow across the street to Rexy's Bar and Grill. They were still pretty busy, despite it being quarter after 1 when I arrived. I had hot tea, a warm fried fish sandwich with Asian slaw, and crunchy onion rings for lunch. Picked up the Uber at the Acme after I ate.

The head teacher took today off, and the replacement ended up working with the older kids. We had the older woman who usually works with the older kids working with us, but she doesn't know our rhythm, and she certainly didn't have any music on her cell phone for dance parties. None of this was good. We had 25 kids today, all of them wild with cabin fever from being inside the last two weeks. At least my group of 7 was helpful cleaning up their own toys and not bad at the bathrooms.

The trouble started after snack time. Since reading The Gingerbread Man and one more book to the kids while they were playing before we went to the library seemed to calm them down a little (they kept coming at me with books they wanted me to read), I replaced the dance party with me reading The Bernstein Bears and Too Much TV and half of If I Ran the Zoo. When they were too noisy, I stopped reading to talk to them and ask them their feelings on the head teacher being missing and point out that, just because she wasn't there, didn't mean they shouldn't respect the teachers who were around. The kids spent so much time ripping the paper taped down for them to stencil on, I finally gave them regular paper to color on. There was arguing over books, too, including ones the kids could not have read at their ages. At least by 5 PM, it had cleared out enough that those who remained were big helps bringing everything back to the cafeteria.

(Oh, and it started to snow lightly when I was waiting for Uber at the school. It's snowed lightly off and on ever since.)

Watched Match Game Syndicated and had dinner when I got home. The first hour finished out the Robert Walden/Judy Landers week. The second hour brought in Gary Crosby, David Doyle, and the delightful Rita Moreno. I really wish Rita could have been on the show more often. She brought a spicy Caribbean flair to the show and was hilarious flirting with Gene. Down-to-earth Gary is a lot of fun, too.

Finished the night with Remember WENN after a shower. Frustrated when her agent Brian Wilburforce (Heath Lamberts) won't get her the lead role in a local production of Antony and Cleopatra, she fires him and becomes her own agent. Rex Noble (Daniel Benzali), who is producing the show, is so impressed, he wants to meet her agent. She literally plays "Hilary's Agent" to get the part, but ends up driving Betty crazy with her demands. The others try to make Hilary see that honesty is the best policy...but as Eugenia points out, Hilary does make a lovely couple.

"The Birth of a Station" was controversial online when it first debuted. A very pregnant young woman (Debra Wiseman) wanders dazedly into the station during a public transportation strike and promptly goes into labor, begging to see Young Doctor Talbot. Trouble is, he's a character on their big hospital drama. While Jeff plays him to keep her calm, we get a glimpse of Mackie on the road when he calls.

Pure Imagination

Started the morning with breakfast and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. "Flutterina" is the young winged girl from the village of Alberon who admires Adora. She's there with her family when they attend a party after saving the village. Adora gets a swelled head, thinking she can do it all alone, but learns a very harsh lesson when she's lured away and the villagers and Bow are captured. Flutterina does so well helping She-Ra out, Adora agrees to let her join them...but Flutterina isn't what she seems...

Called Uber after that for my grocery store trip. No trouble with them, at least, not here. Waited 7 minutes for the driver to come, 10 minutes for them to go home. Once again, the weather helped. It was sunny and warm, at least warm enough to melt more of the ice and snow. It's getting a bit easier to climb around, though there's still a lot of snow around.

The Westmont Acme was pretty busy when I arrived. It's still too messy (and my knee is too sore) for multiple grocery store trips. Restocked apples, clementines, yogurt, cookies, probiotic soda, coconut milk, and sliced chicken. Grabbed a slice of red velvet cake on sale for a treat and a bag of blue corn chips to go with lunch. I'll turn the strawberry cake mix and white chocolate chips into cookies for Valentine's Day next week. Found a bag of bagels on the clearance rack for lunch next week, too.

When I got home, I put everything away and had a quick lunch while watching Jivin' In Be-Bop. I go further into this low-budget review featuring Dizzie Gillespie and His Orchestra at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Jivin' In Be-Bop 

I had a harder time getting a driver at 2:45. I went through two Uber drivers before one came in 10 minutes. Got me to the school just in time. The one going home thankfully took slightly less than the 14 minutes indicated on the app.

Actually, the trouble today was in the cafeteria, before we went to the library. I love reading to the kids, and they love bringing their books to me. Trouble is, they tend to attract a crowd, and my knee isn't up to five kids jostling to see the artwork on it. I stood up to read The Little Mermaid, 101 Dalmatians, and Clifford's Puppy Days: The Smallest Snowman so they could all see the pictures and not squash me in the process.

Everything else went fine. I only had 7 kids at my table today, and there were 25 all together. My group did very well in the bathroom. Other than some jostling at the door to the main hall, I was rather proud of them. I do wish two "best friends" hadn't spent all their time giggling and looking at toys during snack time when they should have been eating. They were the last ones done. 

Things mostly went better in the library. Enough kids had left by then that there were a few dancing, while the others played with magnetic tiles or colored with me. Impressed by one boy's superhero comics and another's rocket ships, I explained my own artwork of Once Upon a Time In the Land of WENN and Captain Victor, Man of Power and the importance of using their imaginations to tell stories. 

Watched Match Game Syndicated and had dinner when I got home. They started off finishing the week with Fred Grandy and Phyllis Diller (the latter wearing a very bright and rather unique purple hat). Robert Walton and Judy Landers made the next week a pleasure to look at. There were more jokes about a sweet young man with glasses and curly hair from Wisconsin, who was funny and cheerful even when he didn't win.

Switched to Remember WENN next. Hilary takes over WENN's proto-Love Connection dating show, "You've Met Your Match," to make Jeff jealous. After a mix up with ribbons on chocolate boxes, she ends up with a bruised Scott instead. Jeff tries to flirt with Betty to make Hilary jealous, but it backfires in the worst way possible. Not all of the matches turn out badly. Maple is thrilled to finally get to know Victor, Mr Eldridge and Gertie always enjoy each other's company, and Eugenia and Mr. Foley have so much fun on their date, they're late getting back!

"And If I Die Before I Sleep" gets really wild when Betty and the cast perform her 54-hour blending of Shakespeare's Italian-set plays on the air to break a record. Victor, Scott, and an ailing Maple discover there's chicanery afoot when the man from the newspaper sent to watch their feat (John Ratzenberger) and the nurse who came with him (Marceline Hugot) turn out to be more interested in sabotaging the broadcast than watching them break the record.

Finished the night with more Original Gold and more Rupert Holmes. There's some real classics on the third disc of this RCA Sessions record set, especially if you're a fan of crooners, R&B, or girls' groups. We get the Shirrells' "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?," "Stagger Lee" by Lloyd Price, "Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen" by Neil Sedaka, "Twist and Shout" by the Isley Brothers, "I Saw Her Again" by the Mamas and the Papas, "One Fine Day" by the Chiffons, and "Sea of Love" by Phil Phillips, among others. 

Holmes wrote the book and some lyrics for the 2008 stage musical Curtains after John Kander's long-time partner Fred Ebb died during its development. I wasn't a huge fan of this murder mystery about a musical-crazy cop (David Hyde Pierce, who got the show's only Tony win) who figures out the person behind the killing of a no-talent star when I first picked it up in 2008, but it's grown on me over the years. I'm especially fond of Pierce and understudy Jill Paice's "A Tough Act to Follow," "It's a Business" for hard-nosed producer Debra Monk, and "Thinking of Him" and "I Miss the Music" for the songwriting duo who have broken up, but are reconsidering their relationship (Karen Ziemba and Jason Danieley). 

Remembering Muppets

Began the morning with breakfast and two episodes of Bluey. Chili wants to make Bandit an "Omelette" for his birthday. She tries to make it quickly when he insists he's hungry, but Bingo's attempt to help slows things down. When Chili takes over the job herself, she sees how upset her daughter is and agrees to let her help out. "Unicorse" is a unicorn puppet Bandit's playing with who disrupts Chili and Blue while they're reading. They first try to change the annoying unicorn's behavior, then decide they're better off ignoring him.

I called Uber as soon as the second episode ended. The driver was supposed to come in 12 minutes, but...ten minutes passed, and it still said 12 minutes. I canceled them. Their replacement arrived in 7 minutes, but he missed the turn off for the Acme and had to go down the Black Horse Pike to turn around. Between those two, I ended up being 20 minutes late.

Thankfully, that was the worst thing that happened the entire morning. The Acme was surprisingly dead for the beginning of the month. Everyone must have come over the weekend. I swept the store and pushed carts with no trouble whatsoever. Nicer weather helped, too. It's still sunny, but I think it got into the lower-mid 30's today, closer to what it should be this time of year. I even found two bags of the super-expensive Michele's Granola on clearance - their Christmas flavor Cranberry Pecan. I bought two. 

Since it was nicer, I strolled to the shopping center in the back of the mall and had lunch at the Vietnamese Pho restaurant. They were pin-drop quiet when I arrived, too. I had shrimp and pork rolls in sticky clear rice wraps and a huge pho bowl with shrimp, rice noodles, sprouts, and scallions. Delicious and filling on a day that remained relatively cold.

Headed back to the Acme and picked up the Uber there. Had no more trouble getting a driver. The one going to Thomas Sharp School arrived in 7 minutes. The one going home came in 11. The one going home hit a little traffic on the White Horse Pike, but otherwise, there were no problems. Got to the school right on time.

That was a really good thing. We were crazy today. I had 8 kids at my table alone. They were noisy in the halls going to the bathrooms. Two of the boys threw Duplos at my back when I tried to read 101 Dalmatians to a couple of the other kids. The head teacher had to stop the music three times because the kids who were dancing kept laying on the floor and running around, things they weren't supposed to be doing. I had to separate a girl and a boy when she kept poking at him. I spent the rest of the time coloring artwork for Once Upon a Time In the Land of WENN at one of the tables with a couple of the boys once the girl got up and danced with the others. 

Went straight into Remember WENN when I got home. The fourth season kicks off with "Some Time, Some Station." After he accidentally shoots Pruitt, Victor thinks it's 8 AM and time to start their broadcast day. While the others trickle back in and Scott tries to keep Victor from finding out the truth, Betty attempts to find out who Victor's contact is from Pruitt and Jeff tells Hilary why he really married Pavla.

Mr. Eldridge is saying "Thanks a Lottery!" after he wins the Irish Sweepstakes. Everyone at the station has definite ideas of how he should spend the money. Meanwhile, though he's now in jail, Pruitt isn't done making trouble for the station. He's shunted WENN into another company that slashes the budget and insists on a mandatory age for retirement that Mr. Eldridge is long past. The others think his winnings go up in smoke when Hilary burns her letters from Jeff, but Mr. Eldridge is a lot smarter than everyone thinks he is. 

Watched Match Game Syndicated during dinner. Phyllis Diller and Fred Grandy joined in during the episodes I saw. Fred mostly protested the Star Wheel landing on his name three times in a row. 

Finished the night with the new Muppet Show special on Disney Plus. They've been advertising this to high heck online...and yeah, they were right to. It's the Muppet Show you know and love, with Kermit in charge, Statler and Waldorf in the balcony, Piggy angry that her number has been cut, and Gonzo's attempt at "performance art" going haywire. We even get some Muppet Labs. (I hope they found Beeker's eyeballs.) I don't know who Sabrina Carpenter is, but she had so much fun and played off Miss Piggy so well, I might have to look up her albums. Also look for Seth Rogan (who apparently executive-produced this) and Maya Randoph. If you're a fan of the original Muppet Show or the Muppets in general, this is definitely worth braving flaming rings for.