Monday, February 03, 2014

Beauty and the Insect

It was pouring like mad when I got up this morning. It was too wet for me to run to the laundry or do much of anything. By the time I was up and about, the rain had changed to snow....and the snow was really coming down. I worked on some online research for a while, but the snow continued. I did end up calling for a ride to work.

As I had lunch and got ready for work, I ran some winter-related Rankin Bass specials. Jack Frost tells how the mischievous winter sprite once fell in love with a human girl and asked to become human himself to win her heart. Jack's also involved in Frosty's Winter Wonderland. Here, he's jealous of Frosty because he seems to command the children's attention ever winter. Meanwhile, Frosty is lonely when the kids go home. The kids make him a wife named Crystal to make him happy. It's Crystal who finally convinces Jack that, far from being ignored, he's the most important part of winter.

Rose drove me to and from work. The roads were a slushy mess at noon. While it was too warm for the snow to freeze and ice up the roads like it did before, it was still hard to get traction. We were almost late because a truck with an empty flat bed couldn't make its way up the small hill on the end of Kendall, going to the Black Horse Pike.

Work was pretty quiet for most of the afternoon as the snow continued to fall. I spent a lot of the first half of my shift doing two full carts of returns leftover from the busy weekend. It did pick up during the second half as the snow finally ground to a halt and the roads were cleared. One of the few older women who work late was my relief. I was in and out with no major problems. In fact, I even found $.99 bags of cranberries as I was shelving items. They were a little mushy, but no matter. I'd boil them into flummery and chop them up and use them in baking.

Rose drove me home. The snow was long gone by 6PM. The main roads were wet but mostly fine. Back roads like Manor remained slushy messes. Once again, someone, probably Richard or Andrew, shoveled the path to my porch, but not the porch or the steps. I'll have to do that myself tomorrow.

When I got in, I made seasoned steak in red wine sauce with sauteed mushrooms, onions, and asparagus and cranberry flummery for dinner while watching A Monster In Paris. This French animated film takes us to 1910, where there was a great flood in the City of Light. While half the city is underwater, Emile, a projectionist (Jay Harrington) and his goofy inventor buddy Raoul (Adam Goldberg) mess around in a professor's lab...and accidentally spill chemicals on a flea that makes him grow 7 feet tall and gives him a fine singing voice (belonging to Sean Lennon). The obnoxious Commissioner Maynott (Danny Huston) wants to use the stories of the "monster" to further his political career. A lovely cabaret singer (Vanessa Paradis) discovers his voice, takes him in, and introduces him into her act. But when the Commissioner finds that her new partner isn't even human, she enlists the two Edwardian-era geeks to help out her new friend.

Considering my last encounter with French animation was the very odd Moon Madness from the 80s, I was quite wary of this when I took it out of the Haddon Township Library. I ended up very much enjoying this. If nothing else, it's definitely original. A historic fantasy that's not quite a romance, not quite a musical, it's a fun romp for older kids who can handle the violence towards the end, including some gunplay.

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