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. 

Dolls and Angels

Began the morning with breakfast and Beware! I go further into this charming "race film" from 1946 with bandleader Louis Jordan trying to save his old college from closure at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog. 

Beware! (1946)

Started dressing the dolls for February while the movie was on. The current Lunar New Year outfit at American Girl is too fussy for laid-back Jessa, so she gets Ivy's more authentic Chinese New Year dress. Whitney's thick pink felt poodle skirt with the long-sleeved white blouse and lace-trimmed slip is from eBay. I found her pink cardigan sweater with the pearl trim at a yard sale. Samantha's dusky pink Talent Show Dress is so historically accurate, it's based after a real-life girl's dress from 1904 in a museum. Josefina also wears a dress from eBay, a romantic magenta floral Regency gown with an elastic collar and a delicate lace wrap. 

The white and gold knitted Sweet Spring Dress from a decade ago is short enough to pass for a minidress for Barbara Jean. She wears a white Springfield Collection cardigan with satin ruffle trim over it.  Ariel is in Julie's flowered pantsuit and zipper turtleneck. It's way too cold for the sandals that go with that outfit, so she's wearing boots instead. Kit wears her red and blue Treehouse Cardigan Sweater and blue hat with the red pom-pom. The outfit I got on eBay didn't come with the skirt, so she's borrowing the navy-blue one from Molly's meet outfit. Felicity attends tea ceremony lessons in her Laced Jacket and Petticoat. Molly wishes she could wear something more glamorous than her plaid school jumper and blouse and the black strap shoes she borrowed from Samantha. 

Switched to Charlie's Angels during lunch. The ladies and Bosley meet at the end of the third season, not for a case, but to celebrate their third anniversary as a team. Their memories and reminisces of the previous three seasons' worth of cases turns into "Angels Remembered." Yeah, this is a clip show, likely intended as a transition between Kate Jackson's last season and Shelley Hack's first.

I hadn't even finished dressing the dolls when it was time to call Uber. Thankfully, despite my late start, I had no problem getting a driver. The one going there arrived in 7 minutes and got me there a few minutes early. The one going home took 9 minutes at the height of rush hour. There was a little traffic on the White Horse Pike going home. Otherwise, no problems.

None with the kids, either. We had far fewer children today, only 20 pre-schoolers and kindergartners. I had 8 at my table today, and they did get a tiny bit rowdy in the bathrooms. (I had a hard time getting the boys out in particular.) I read a Clifford's Puppy Days story to the kids playing with Barbies and brickle blocks and talked to an upset young lady who was missing her parents after snack time. The kids loved seeing me draw Scott, Maple, and Betty as superheroes and Pruitt as an Joker-style super-villain when we moved to the library in a scene from the sequel to Captain Victor, Man of Power I have planned. By the time we moved the kids to the cafeteria, there were only three "littles" left. The last younger kids went home at the same time I did.

I brought my trash outside and carefully picked my way around snow and ice to drag out the trash bags and cans before Jessa picked me up around quarter after 6. Between the weather and the snow that was still piled up despite the warmer weather, I figured this was no time for fancy meals or going further afield. I picked the Legacy Diner in Audubon. They were a bit busy when we arrived, but cleared out quickly as she had pepper steak on rice, and I had a "Brooklyn Dodger" omelet with Swiss cheese, green peppers, onions, and tomatoes, hash browns, and rye toast. She said she snacked at work today, but I didn't have a big lunch and got a slice of a delicious, moist Chocolate Fudge Cake.

Finished dressing the dolls while watching the remaining third season episodes of Remember WENN when I got home. "The Ghost of WENN" appears as a spooky voice in the halls during a thunderstorm while the cast is performing a horror show. Hilary is terrified that it seems to target her specifically, Betty is terrified that they'll lose the transmitter, and Mackie is just terrified.

"Caller ID" tells us more about the magic of radio than any episode of the series. Mackie's playing DJ for their late-night musical show Dreamland Dance Floor when a woman (voice of Alice Playten) calls and claims she's going to jump off a near-by building. Mackie and the others end up putting on a massive crossover of most of their major shows to keep her from slipping...and show her that the real magic of radio is what our own imagination makes the characters out to be.

"Happy Homecomings" are anything but when Betty hears a Jonathan Arnold who is definitely not Victor on the radio. Worried, she turns to sweet lawyer Doug Thompson, who recommends that she finally opens that strong box Victor gave her. What Betty finds is hardly what she expects...and it turns out to be anything but true. Meanwhile, Hilary is less than enthused at Jeff's return, Scott's found more codes going out over the airwaves, and yes, Victor comes home...but seems to be more than a little out of it as he, Scott, and Betty end up confronting a gun-wielding Pruitt in the finale.

This is the infamous cliffhanger that left everyone in the WENN fandom screaming at the top of their lungs for six months straight. Longest six months of my life until the housing mess in 2021-2022. All I wanted from December 1997 through June 1998 was to pass my college courses and find out the end of those blasted cliffhangers! They're a big part of the reason I love the third season so much. This is far and away my favorite season of the series. Many fans complained when the show was on that the third series gets too dark. I love it because it gets so dark, because it goes places most sitcoms wouldn't dare to go even today. However, changes at AMC were on the horizon during those six months, not all of them pleasant or welcome, as we'll discover in the fourth and final season...

Finished the night honoring Black History Month with jazz great Wynton and Ellis Marsallis' Joe Cool's Blues. Father and son are at the top of their game with this delightful tribute to the Peanuts specials of the 60's and 70's. While there are nice covers of classics like "Linus and Lucy," "Little Birdie," and "Christmas Is Coming," the real interest here are the Marsallis' original compositions. "Why Charlie Brown," "Wright Brothers' Rag," "Snoopy and Woodstock," and the title song fit in perfectly with Guaraldi's original music and sound like they could have come from the specials themselves. 

Sporting Games

Started off the morning with breakfast and Bugs Bunny's Cupid Capers. Bugs is annoyed that an Elmer-like cupid is trying to pair off the Toons. He shows him sequences from various shorts to prove he's much better at it than some Cupid.

Headed out for a walk to WaWa after the Toons ended. I needed rent money and wanted to use up some of those gift cards from Christmas I still have on lunch. I ended up walking in the street a lot. The sidewalks were mostly clear...from homes and businesses that are frequently used. Some sidewalks on the White Horse Pike haven't been shoveled. Snow and ice scraped against the edge of the street often made it hard to get on the sidewalk. I had to drop off three books in the kiosk on Johnson Avenue, so I just dodged ice on the street until I turned and crossed the White Horse Pike to WaWa.

WaWa was surprisingly not that busy at quarter of 1. I ended up with a chicken cheese steak junior hoagie on a whole wheat roll, broccoli-cheddar soup, a peppermint mocha hot chocolate, and a soft pretzel. The hot chocolate was more sweet than it was minty or chocolaty. The chicken cheese steak was tasty. I'd added spinach and tomato for more vitamins. Neither the lines for the register nor the ATM machine were all that long.

I was almost home when I stepped wrong on a crack on a driveway and bent my bad knee back. Owwww, that hurt! I let out a long yell when I did that. Thankfully, it didn't hurt so much that I couldn't walk the rest of the way home, but I did need to put it up and put a heating pad on it when I got in.

Watched Remember WENN when I was home and having lunch. Hilary is "Courting Disaster" when Jeff's supercilious lawyer Drake Stanley (Andrew Seear) claims he wants $100,000 in damages. Scott acts as her lawyer and Mr. Eldridge takes the stand on the WENN court program Tell It to the Judge. Betty, Maple, and Gertie trick Stanley into appearing on the show, then manage to ring up Jeff to get his side of things.

The cast is thrilled in "And How!" when they're chosen to broadcast an episode of the network western The Strange Loner. The show's notorious playboy star is leaving to appear in films and turns up at the station drunk and unconscious right before it's supposed to begin. All of the men argue over his role, while Betty talks to Joseph Grayhawk (real-life Native American activist Russell Means), who is the voice of the Strange Loner's sidekick. Eugenia's more interested in her food discovery from Italy - pizza!

Called Uber soon as the show ended. Thankfully, no trouble there again. In fact, while still not where it should be at this time of year, it was much warmer than it has been in the last week and a half, sunny and breezy but not blustery. I got the first in 10 minutes, but had called early. The one going home came in 7 minutes. Got me there on time in less than 5 minutes.

The kids honestly could have been worse. They did get rowdy at the bathrooms, and the custodian scolded them a bit for blocking the door to the boiler. (Which is rather important at this time of year, especially in a 120-year-old building.) We also had a new kid, who was thankfully pretty quiet and not any trouble. After snack time, one little girl brought me an old 101 Dalmatians book from what had been a book-and-cassette...and then, another brought me another book. So many wanted to sit on my lap (and my sore knee) and see the pictures, I stood up and read it to them instead. 

I did have to separate a girl and a boy when we were in the library. The girl kept shoving her chair too close to her guy friend, and she has the habit of drawing on other people's artwork. She threw a fit when I told her he wanted space. Thankfully, the head teacher brought in the speaker at that point, and she joined the kids dancing to "Pink Pony Club" and the soundtracks from Lilo and Stitch and Trolls while I colored with the boys. They really loved the artwork I did of my (hopefully) upcoming superhero based Remember WENN fanfic Captain Victor, Man of Power, depicting Victor, Jeff, Ceila, and Grace Cavendish in superhero and villain costumes.

Took a shower when I got home, grabbed dinner, and put on Match Game Syndicated. Gary Collins, Susan Richardson, Richard Paul, and Joyce Bulifant finished out their week in these episodes. Joyce had a tendency to ramble on about her answers. At one point, she talked for so long, all of the panelists got up and left! She ended up in (mock, I hope) tears.

Finished the night with sports game shows in honor of the Super Bowl next Sunday and the Winter Olympics on Friday. The granddaddy of all sports-based quiz shows is Sports Challenge from the 70's. This is what it says on the tin, a long-running syndicated sports quiz show that pit two then-popular teams against each other. It's a battle of football titans from opposite ends of the US as the New York Giants take on the Los Angeles Rams in the episode I have here.

ESPN isn't the only network that runs sports-based quiz shows. Baseball IQ from the MLB Network pit coaches and players against each other in a test to see who knew more baseball trivia. This tournament-style show only ran a month in January-February 2012, making me wonder if it was just intended to be filler programming during the off season.

Bowling was at its zenith of popularity in the 60's and 70's when Jackpot Bowling debuted on syndication in 1961. Host Milton Berle's jokes fit rather awkwardly between rounds of semi-pro players competing for a $30,000 pot. Berle had more fun introducing the celebrity who bowled for charity between games. British bombshell Diana Dors was the celeb donning bowling shoes in this episode. Keep a close watch out for her then-husband Richard (then "Dickie") Dawson in the audience. 

Baywatch was the most-watched show in the world when Sandblast debuted on MTV in 1994. Two couples compete in a series of beach-based mini games and obstacle courses to see who is top dog of Disney World's water parks. I can see why this ran for two years. The games are honestly a lot of fun, and the energy is electric. Swimmer Summer Saunders was the host in this episode.

50 Grand Slam was a unique stunt show/quiz show hybrid from 1976. Eight contestants competed on the show, two at a time, and were matched up based on their expertise in a certain category. One contestant would be asked questions while the other was in an isolation booth. Whomever answered more questions correctly usually had the option of taking the money or facing an opponent in the next episode. Although we don't see it here, some episodes had a sports theme or a game played. We have the finale here, one of only three episodes known to exist.

ESPN didn't just do sport quizzes. They occasionally had the sports personalities playing stunts, too, as in Battle of the Gridiron Stars from 2005. Football stars of the mid-2000s went up against each other in games based around other sports besides their usual one. If you remember football in that time period like I do, it's actually kind of fun to watch these big guys attempt tug-of-war or dodgeball.

Celebrate guts and glory in all their forms with these delightfully sporting games!

Jackpot Bowling (1961)

Sports Challenge (1972)

50 Grand Slam Finale (1976)

Sandblast (1994)

Battle of the Gridiron Stars (2005)

Baseball IQ (2012) 

Sweet Treats Matches

Started the day quickly with breakfast and Original Gold. This oldies-based RCA Sessions album from 1975 is a lot more eclectic than the similar collections from K-Tel. Just the first disc alone features "Let's Dance" by Chris Montez, "Sweet Little Sixteen" by Chuck Berry, "Chain Gang" by Sam Cooke, "Rebel Rouser" by Duane Eddy, the original version of "Little Honda" by the Hondells, and a rather unique rock version of "Ding Dong, the Witch Is Dead" from The Wizard of Oz by Fifth Estate. Disc 2 gets into bubblegum pop with "Yummy Yummy Yummy" by Ohio Express, "Simon Says" by 1910 Fruitgum Co, and "Born Too Late" by the Poni-Tails and country with "Guess Things Happen That Way" by Johnny Cash. 

Called Uber just as the disc ended. No trouble here today. The driver going to work arrived in 7 minutes, surprising for quarter of 1. I got there right on time. They did take 14 minutes going home, but that was at the height of rush hour. No traffic either way, not even around the entrance to the Wal Mart.

Work was much busier today than it had been yesterday. Today is the beginning of the month. There's probably a lot of people using government money to restock after the messy and frigid weather we had last week. It's going to get a little warmer this week before going right back to being Antarctic, and today certainly didn't help. It was sunny, like it's been all week, but the strong wind made it feel far colder. I didn't have any help gathering carts that kept vanishing until they finally pulled a college boy out of cashiering in the last hour and a half. 

Did the second disc when I got home, then put on tonight's Match Game marathon. Ice cream was frequently mentioned as answers to questions on some of the best episodes of the entire series. It came up on an episode of the week in 1974 where Brett drooled over Anson Williams, who sat next to her, and later that year when the entire panel wished Charles Nelson Reilly good luck on the opening of the show he directed on Broadway, The Belle of Amhurst. There was also the week with Larry Hovis, Peggy Cass, and Rip Taylor sitting in for Charles, and the one from 1978 that introduced a towering young man with a cherubic face whose massive bulk screamed "wrestler," and the one from 1976 where Scoey and Charles switched seats and claimed they'd had the first "race change." 

They brought up ice cream in later episodes, too. There was an ice cream answer on another episode from 1978 where Fannie Flagg dressed as Greta Garbo and even did her questions in her idea of a Swedish accent. Also in 1978, we had an answer on the infamous episode where Charles moves Jack Klugman to the upper tier to sit next to his by-then ex-wife Brett. They ended up in each other's laps before the others held a mock wedding for them in the last few minutes. Ice cream came up as late as a 1990 episode where Marcia Wallace encouraged Jo Anne Worley to show off her still-trim legs (encased in the requisite sleek spandex tights of the time). Phyllis Neuman argued about Brett's constant teasing in one of the last episodes of 1974. 

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream sundaes on Sunday in this sweet as can be marathon!

Match Game Sunday Classics - Ice Cream "Sunday" and Treats 

Fairy Tale Matches

Got a quick start this morning with breakfast and The Frog Prince on Dailymotion. I go further into the charming 1971 Muppet version of this Grimm's Fairy Tale at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Family Fun Saturday - The Frog Prince (1971)

Called Uber even before the special ended. Thankfully, no trouble there. 10 minutes going there and going home. In the case of the former, I left early enough that waiting wasn't a problem. In fact, I got there with two minutes to spare for once.

No problems at work either, other than I was outside pushing carts in the cold on a sore knee for most of the day. The head bagger took over the indoor chores. I would go inside and warm up whenever I got too cold or finished the carts. Thank heavens we weren't that busy, especially later on. Most people are either avoiding the cold or waiting for the beginning of the month tomorrow. We're between holidays, too. The Winter Olympics start next week, the Super Bowl is next weekend, and Valentine's Day isn't for another two weeks. 

Grabbed a few things when I finished. The Westmont Acme didn't have the mouthwash I use, and there's an online coupon for it this week. Had online coupons for cookies, too. Decided to try the Acme's sushi (shrimp roll, cooked) and pork dumplings for dinner. 

When I got home, I went straight into the shower.  I ate my sushi, put a heating pad on my knee, finished The Frog Prince, then spent the rest of the night watching a super-long Match Game marathon on YouTube. For some reason, this show really loved its Snow White jokes. Whether it was about her relationship with the Seven Dwarfs, how impossibly innocent she was (or wasn't), or how she was depicted by parade balloons, Snow White was mentioned far more than any other fairy tale on the show. 

Rather appropriately, a question turned up during the week in 1979 with two other fantasy characters, vintage puppets Kukla and Ollie. Nipsey Russell and Jimmie Walker gave answers claiming that they wished Snow White looked a lot more like them. Fannie Flagg sure felt like Snow White being kissed by the prince when she answered a question for handsome gym teacher Ron Valenti in an infamous episode from 1975. Fannie also got to give the answer to lovely blonde contestant Darlene that made her the all-time winner to that point in 1976, with over $22,000. Roz Kelly made her own virginal Snow White jokes during her first of two appearances on the show later in 1976. There was also the PM episode where Nipsey insisted that Snow White should look more like him and the Air Force captain contestant. 

Whistle while you work with the fairest question character of all, because good things grow with these wacky weirdos in this extra-long marathon!

Match Game Saturday Classics - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Marathon

As Time Goes By

Got a quick start today with breakfast and Paw Patrol. They're trying to figure out a song for "The Pups' Winter Wonder Show," but there's more immediate problems on hand. They first have to help repair the Winter Wonder Show stage when a girder is accidentally knocked over, then save the dancing penguins from Mayor Humdinger, who wants them to dance for him. Meanwhile, Tracker, who normally lives in the jungle, takes his time getting used to this cold white stuff.

Called Uber after the cartoon ended and I made my grocery list. No trouble with Uber at all today, other than some long waits. I had to wait 10 minutes to get to the Westmont Acme and 11 to get back from the Thomas Sharp School. At least there was no traffic anywhere, and only the ride home from the School took longer than 5 minutes (due to the icy roads in West Collingswood). 

I'm going to continue to shop at only the Westmont Acme until it finally warms up and my knee feels better. Neither my knee nor the weather are up to stops at multiple stores. Thankfully, it wasn't insanely busy this time. There's still a few empty spots on the shelves, but they've mostly restocked after the mess last week. It doesn't sound like we're going to get anything from the next storm, either. I think it's mostly going to hit Cape May and Atlantic Counties. I restocked apples, oranges, yogurt, granola bars, granola, coconut milk, and probiotic soda. Had online coupons for free peanut butter and tissues. Got golden raisins here, since I don't know when I'm going to get back to Sprouts. Grabbed bagels for lunch later this week, and a pack with grapes, pretzel chips, and two turkey and cheese sliders on Hawaiian rolls for lunch today. Found cranberry scones on the bakery clearance rack for a treat. 

When I got home, I went straight into lunch and Remember WENN. "From the Pen of Gertrude Reece" is one of my two favorite episodes of the entire series. Gertie proudly shows Betty her first radio script...which turns out to be a parody of Casablanca, "Rendezvous In Rabat." Scott is Rick, Betty is Ilsa, Victor Comstock is Victor Lazlo, Mr. Eldridge is Carl the waiter, Maple takes the place of the bar singer and the desperate refugees, Mackie is Major Renault, Hilary as Rick's previous girlfriend, C.J as the bartender and a young Nazi officer, Jeff as the waiter/pickpocket, and Mr. Foley, of all people, as a German officer. Like the real Casablanca, Gertie doesn't have an ending to her play. She and Hilary offer up several suggestions, none of which Betty approves of. Betty starts typing which man she thinks her character ought to be with before she finally tells Gertie it's better to draw your own conclusions.

"Eugenia Bremer, Master Spy" also involves espionage. Desmond Quist, a British intelligence officer (Daniel Davis) insists that there are still codes going out over the airwaves. He has the cast paraphrase their scripts, then removes the sound effects. He effortlessly charms sweet middle-aged organist Eugenia (Mary Stout) after having overheard what sounds like conversations in German. Eugenia does have a reason for those conversations, and they're nothing like Quist thinks they are.

Got my schedule for next week at this point as well. In good news, more hours, and I don't think I'll need to call out all weekend this time. In bad news, an extra day on Friday means two days of rushing between jobs instead of one. My knee still isn't feeling right, and it's only going to be slightly warmer next week. 

(I also discovered at this point that my tax return money showed up more than two weeks early. Sweet! Most of it will probably go into my rent.) 

Called Uber at 20 after 2 for a ride to the School. I had a hard time getting a driver and was five minutes late. Once again, we didn't have that many kids. I only had six in my group today, and I think there were 19 younger ones all together. At least they were better-behaved in the bathroom today. It was the library where there were problems. One of the boys grabbed another and knocked him off his chair while they were building with magnetic tiles. Later, one of the littlest girls ran over to me in tears. Another girl wanted to look at books instead of playing with her. I led her to the bristle blocks and built with her instead, assuring her that her friend was just doing something else, and she'd play with her later or tomorrow. 

When I got home, I went straight into dinner and Match Game Syndicated. Most of the episodes finished off the 1980 season opener week. Gene dragged out the guy who was supposed to be in the Audience Match box when he forgot and didn't open the question. Charles spent his first week back dodging jokes about the flop play he'd just appeared in and complaining about sitting "with the other patients."

Finished the night with Murder She Wrote. It's a "Deadline For Murder" when Jessica goes to argue with the nasty owner of a newspaper about a libelous article he printed on her, only to be pushed away. She later witnesses the man's death at a cocktail party when he keels over after drinking liquor. Turns out, the liquor was combined with a certain drug he took for his heart. Jessica's friend who wrote the original, non-libelous interview on her before having a heart attack convinces her to follow-up on his boss' death. 

A Cold Day In the Library

Started off the morning with breakfast and Sunny. I go further into the 1941 version of this circus-set romance with British movie star Anna Neagle as the title bareback dancer who falls for a millionaire at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Sunny (1941)

Switched to Remember WENN while eating lunch and getting organized. Mackie Bloom is thrilled to take over the manager's office for a day when Betty's out, to the point where it goes to his head. His ego deflates quickly when gangster Palermo Racine (Phillip Bosco) turns up at the station trying to find him. Seems he was "A Star In Stripes Forever" and has a sketchy past with Racine that includes jail time. Racine's ready to blackmail him, until the others make use of their This Is Your Life-style show to make sure Mackie's secrets stay private.

"A Girl Like Maple" is fed up with being treated like a tomboy and loose women by pretty much everyone at the station. She falls for a handsome Governor (Boyd Gaines) while doing a prestigious show, but is afraid to let him hear her real Brooklyn accent and think she isn't a cultured lady. The others try to help her by showing off their own accents for the politician, to the annoyance of Hilary. It takes a big date for Maple to realize that what's important isn't what she sounds like. It's the big heart she has inside. 

Called Uber soon as the episode ended. I had a really, really hard time getting a ride. I had to switch to a more-expensive car just to get one that would get me to the Thomas Sharp School even remotely on time. Took them 7 minutes to come. Thankfully, I was only five minutes late.

As it turned out, we didn't have nearly as big of a group as we have the last few days. There were only five kids in my group, and 19 kindergartners and pre-schoolers overall. I did have a little trouble with the kids at the bathroom. Two of the boys took so long, I let them go back with the head teacher and her group. Other than that, it was pretty much the same as it has been the last few days. The kids just colored until she broke out the music and let them dance. There were four left by the time we returned to the cafeteria, and one went home at the same time I was leaving. 

(And yes, I got the bag I left yesterday. The school's lost and found is thankfully in their cafeteria. It was right on top of the pile.)

Thankfully, I had fewer problems getting a ride home, despite it being the height of rush hour. The Uber driver arrived in 9 minutes. Though he went around a few ice-congested streets, there were otherwise no problems getting home.

Went straight into Match Game Syndicated when I got in. The first week finished off the 1979 season with Holly Halstrom, Bill Daily giving strange answers, and Debralee Scott and Bart Braverman flirting and fighting with each other. At one point, Deb got so fed up with Bart throwing cards at her head, she went to pound him...before he grabbed her for a kiss! "I love it when we make up!" she said with a grin. Holly stuck around for the 1980 season opener. Charles returned, along with Gary Burghoff, Dick Martin, and Joyce Bulifant.

Finished the night with some traditional operettas and older musical comedies. Roberta and The Vagabond King is one of those two-for-one operetta and musical CDs Decca released about 20 years ago. Roberta is the longer one, featuring almost the entire score. Paula Laurence joins Alfred Drake for a hilarious "Let's Begin" and goes solo for "I'll Be Hard to Handle." Broadway star Drake joins Kitty Carlisle for "The Touch of Your Hand" and the standard "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" and gets the goofy Don't Ask Me Not to Sing" with the chorus.

Drake sticks around for The Vagabond King. This time, he's joined by opera star Mimi Benzell for "Only a Rose" and "Tomorrow." He gets the rousing "Song of the Vagabonds" with the male chorus. She sounds gorgeous on "Some Day." Frances Bible sings the "Hugette Waltz."

My CD copy of Rose-Marie, another Rudolf Friml operetta of the 1920's, came from the Media Theater in Media, Pennsylvania. Once again, we get almost the entire score, even the comic numbers that usually get cut from movie versions like "Hard Boiled Herman" and "Why Shouldn't We?" Honestly, the guy playing Herman and the lady doing his girlfriend Lady Jane are trying too hard (her fake New York accent is appalling), but Rose-Marie and Jim aren't too bad. Their "Indian Love Call" is as passionate as one could wish. "Pretty Things" and "Door of My Dreams" also come across well here.