Fall Into Winter

Kicked off the day with Popeye wartime shorts. The Fleichers put Popeye in the Navy before the US had even entered the war in "The Mighty Navy." (The enemy wasn't even named.) He has more luck taking on the Japanese in "Blunder Below," showing the Navy what he can do in "Fleets of Strength," and competing with Bluto for lovely Senorita Olive in "Kicking the Conga Around."

Work was steady to busy all afternoon, not surprising on a holiday weekend. I spent the first half of the afternoon rounding up carts. When the afternoon bagger came in, I switched to shelving candy. It got so busy by 2, I spent the last twenty minutes or so bagging. At least it was a nice day to be outside, sunny, chilly, and breezy.

I'm not happy with my schedule at all. I don't have another day off until next Friday! I hate it when they do that. At least my days are all morning and early afternoon, and I'll have Friday and Saturday off.

I had a lot of grocery shopping to do. I wasn't able to get to the Farm Market this week, so I grabbed apples, bananas, and cranberries. Cake mix and eggs were on sale, and I grabbed pumpkin bread mix and dark chocolate chips off the clearance racks. Had a coupon for Quaker Oatmeal Squares. Restocked milk, butter, yogurt, cheese, whole wheat flour, brown sugar, tomato sauce, a salmon patty, and peanut butter.

Finished out Popeye when I got home. "Olive Oyl and Water Don't Mix" has them competing again, this time to see who can show Olive around their ship. Popeye's not saying "Many Tanks" when Bluto switches uniforms with him and he has to outrun half the Army in a tank to get his girl. Popeye has to dodge the Nazis to deliver "Spinach fer Britain."

Did writing after I got everything put away. Richard, Charles, and Bobby (Van) explore the woods, searching for the tower that holds Princess Elaine (Joyce). They finally hear a woman singing sweetly and follow her voice to a window in a tall tower. Another woman, this one in dark cloak, climbs her long, long hair. Bobby's smitten and wants to rescue her, but Richard tells him to wait for the queen to get out...

Broke for dinner at quarter of 7. Had the hot dogs for dinner with roasted turnips and cucumber salad. Watched the Famous Studios Superman shorts while I ate. Given the tenor of the comics of the time, it was probably inevitable that Superman would fight the Axis on the big screen, too. Superman rescues Lois from "The Japateurs" who are trying to steal an experimental plane. "The Eleventh Hour" is a mature story with wonderful animation about Superman committing sabotage in Japan. "Jungle Drums" switches Japanese stereotypes for native stereotypes when Lois Lane uncovers a Nazi group leading natives in Africa. "Secret Agent" has Superman rescuing a woman who has information on a spy group that she needs to get to Washington.

Made that pumpkin bread mix into Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins while watching Follow the Fleet. I go further into this Navy-themed vehicle for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers on my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Follow the Fleet