A Quiet Afternoon

Began a cloudy morning with early work. It was off-and-on steady for most of the morning, not nearly as crazy as it's been the past few Sundays. For one thing, there was no Eagles game today. This is their bye week. For another, it's a holiday weekend. A lot of people may have gone away for the holiday or are waiting for their day off tomorrow. I spent the first half of the day doing carts and the second half shelving candy after another bagger came in with no problems whatsoever.

Made banana pancakes as soon as I got home. Listened to Dames at Sea while I enjoyed lunch. This off-Broadway hit from 1968 is a small-scale spoof of the big-time Busby Berkeley musicals of the 1930's. A nice girl from Centerville, Ohio (Bernadette Peters) comes to New York to become a star, and ends up falling for a handsome, song-writing Navy sailor. It's a lot of fun, with some nice 30's pastiche numbers, like "Wall Street," the opening number for the leading lady Mona, or "Raining In My Heart" when little Ruby thinks her sailor has walked out.

After lunch, I spent a blissful hour or so just reading in bed. I usually read in the morning, but today, I worked so early and ran out so quickly, I didn't have the time. I don't often get to just lay around and read in the middle of the afternoon. It was wonderful, warm, and comfortable.

Put Buzzr on around 4. They saluted Veteran's Day today with episodes that had men and women from the Armed Services as competitors. I'd heard of Beat the Clock, but given it was one of the earliest hit TV game shows, running from 1950 to 1961, I'd never seen it until this afternoon. It was kind of an adult Double Dare with no trivia elements. A couple (or in one case, family) was called from the audience to perform a silly stunt, like trying to walk around an inflatable rubber tube holding one hand, or pouring milk into a bottle in your spouse's mouth from the top of a ladder.

I hope more kinetescopes exist, because the two episodes I watched from 1953 and 1954 were a lot of fun. No wonder it ran for so long. Watching the servicemen and their wives move around on tubes and drop balls from sailor's caps was hilarious.

Worked on writing after the shows ended. Charles comes up the window to find Bobby and Richard on the floor. Princess Elaine (Joyce), a pretty blonde, hit them over the head with a frying pan when they climbed into her room. Charles manages to assure her that they mean no harm. She's worried Malade will return and try to make her find the other princesses. She has no idea where they are, and wouldn't help Malade after she threatened to take her voice anyway.

Bobby is smitten with her at first sight. The other two climb down her hair to get a rope and leave him with her, giving them time together. Malade, however, isn't as gone as they guys think she is...

Broke for dinner and dessert at 6:30. Had leftovers, then tried a recipe from the Duncan Hines cake mix cookbook I picked up a few months ago. Lemon Pineapple Fluff Cake is fairly unique, as it involves spreading crushed pineapple around in a pan, mixing it with lemon cake mix, then pouring it with a sugar-water-egg-oil syrup. It came out a little soggy in the middle - I must have overdone the syrup there - but mostly quite tasty.

Listened to a few children's records retelling famous fairy tales while I worked. My recording of Hansel & Gretel is a Disneyland LP from I'm guessing the 70's, which uses the music from the children's opera to tell the tale of a brother and sister who run afoul of a hungry witch. Mickey and the Beanstalk is a retelling of the Disney featurette of the same name, with Mickey as Jack dodging Willie the Giant. My cute Cinderella is a Peter Pan LP from also likely the 70's. I like some of the songs, including the prince's love song towards the end.

Finished the night back on Buzzr, this time with Family Feud. In 1989, they did a special Armed Services Week, with each branch competing against each other. The two top winners would come back on Monday to play the grand championship. The Army gave them a tough run, but in the end, the Marines cheered their way to victory. I'm actually kind of glad. They were a delight to watch, just as enthusiastic about bad answers as good ones. At one point, one of the winners of the Big Money round picked up his female partner and swung her around! It was too cute.