Friday, December 20, 2019

The Password Is 'Christmas'

Began a busy day with breakfast and Yogi's All-Star Comedy Christmas Caper. The whole Hanna Barbara funny animal gang goes to visit Yogi and Boo Boo at Jellystone National Park, but they're not home. They already went to the big city to visit their friends! Yogi dresses as Santa to evade the cops in a department store. Judy, the daughter of a rich man who largely ignores her, thinks he's the real Santa and befriends him. When the gang does arrive, they end up helping the two bears get Judy home to her daddy for the holidays.

Jessa called shortly before I got going. Did I want to go out to lunch today? Sure! I just had to get my laundry done before we left.

Moved on to Buzzr while getting organized and tidying up a bit. Press Your Luck was just finishing when I got on. It came down to a young man who really wanted a trip to Australia and a woman who was after a Hawaiian vacation. In the end, the lady got her wish, the win, and her tropical trip (and only one Whammy).

I only had vague memories of Blockbusters before this morning, and I believe they were mainly of the later 1987 Bill Rafferty version. Bill Cullen hosts the original 1980 show, as one champion goes up against two challengers. The board is made up of letter-filled hexagons. If you answer a question correctly that begins with that letter, you win a hexagon. Make a chain, and you move on to the "Gold Rush" bonus round. The champion lady absolutely killed today; the challenger duo couldn't get close to her. (Blockbusters apparently did far better in England, where it ran throughout the 80's and into the early 90's and has been revived several times.)

Rushed to the laundromat as soon as Blockbusters ended. I didn't have a large load, but I wanted to get it done. I don't know when I'll have another chance to do it before Christmas. Thankfully, it was the quietest I'd seen it in weeks. There were maybe three other people there when I arrived. I was in and out as fast as I could go.

It wasn't fast enough. Jessa was just getting out of her car when I arrived. We trooped upstairs so I could hastily drop the laundry bag, grab my purse, and show off my new Roku, then were on our way.

We were going to eat at the Pop Shop...but once again, there were no parking spaces. Collingswood is just too busy during the lunch hour. We ended up at the Crystal Lake Diner. Considering they're having financial problems, they probably needed our business more anyway. Jessa had a huge tuna melt and a bowl of New England clam chowder. I had a half of a mile-high roast beef sandwich on rye, tasty crunchy fries, and a wonderful lentil soup.

Hung out at my apartment for an hour after lunch. I packed up the Christmas boxes for Mom and Anny while Classic Concentration was on. Alex Trebek hosts this cross between a rebus puzzle and Memory. People choose numbers, hoping to match two prizes. If they do, they'll reveal a little bit of a rebus puzzle. The first person to reveal the puzzle wins the game. The bonus round has them doing another timed Memory round to win a series of increasingly fancy cars.

Poor Jess! By the time Password was on, she was fast asleep on my loveseat. She works at the Post Office in Deptford and started her shift at 6 AM. I let her snooze while sorting my laundry and enjoying the show. I'm guessing this version of Password is from the mid-60's, from the ladies' hair, a considerably younger-looking Allen Ludden, and the pastel and gray sets. Here, celebrities and contestants only guessed one Password at a time, and the speed round was just random words, rather than a string of alphabetical ones. Lovely Barbara Rush and an incredibly young-looking John Forsythe were the Password givers in this episode.

I hated to wake up Jessa, but I really had things I needed to do, and I imagined she did, too. As soon as she left, I went over to the Oaklyn Post Office and sent off my two remaining packages. To my shock, the place was dead. Considering how close we are to Christmas, I figured the line would be out the door! Maybe everyone came at lunch. There was only one woman behind me, and two came in after me. At any rate, Anny and Mom's boxes are now off to Cape May County, and I'm finished with everything that needs to go out of town.

Dashed across Newton Lake Park. It was getting late, and I still had a few errands left. They were surprisingly busy for late in the afternoon, with lots of people walking their dogs, kids coming home from school, and a flock of Canadian geese looking for a snack. Winter has fully taken over the park now. The trees are barren, the grass is yellow and crackly, and the bottle-green lake is half-frozen.

The Haddon Township Library wasn't any busier than the Crystal Lake Diner had been earlier. Everyone must have come in earlier; the return cart was fairly full. I shelved adult DVDs and made my way out after a half-hour. Didn't take anything out this week. Between Roku and my own collection, I have plenty to watch for Christmas. Not to mention, I don't know what my schedule will be like next week, or if I'll have the time to return anything.

Had one stop to make on the way home. I needed a few things at Dollar Tree, including a container to keep my cake and pudding mix boxes together in the pantry, a new shower curtain, bags for Charlie's cupcakes, and sponges. The line was half-way around the store, but a second one opened up shortly after I got in, and the wait wasn't long.

Put up the shower curtain after I got in, then went into writing. Re-wrote their first encounter with Della. Brett and the guys arrive at Columbia Eye Castle in a torrential downpour. While rushing towards the main building, they see someone swimming the moat. Nipsey runs over to help her, but to tell the truth, she doesn't really need it...

Broke for dinner at 6:30. Jessa let me keep her leftover tuna melt from earlier. I had it with defrosted frozen green beans and almonds. Watched an episode of Match Game while I ate. Joey Bishop revels in being able to insult people who aren't members of the Rat Pack in an episode from 1976. Meanwhile, Betty White rolls up Gene Rayburn's pant legs again...twice.

Finished the night making Red Velvet Cupcakes for Dad and Charlie and the downstairs residents. The cupcakes come from a mix, but the buttercream icing is homemade. I used buttermilk because I forgot I was out of regular milk...and I ended up rather liking the tangy taste.

Watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation as I worked. Clark Grizwald (Chevy Chase) is looking forward to the perfect old-fashioned family holiday, with all his relatives gathered around the table for a turkey dinner, a huge tree, lots of presents, and a big surprise on Christmas Day. As usual for this series, what Clark imagines and what actually happens are two entirely different matters. The two sets of grandparents don't get along. His yuppie neighbors next door think he's off his rocker. His boss (Brian Doyle Murphy) is a grouchy jerk. Their tree is bigger than their house, let alone the living room. His gigantic lights display shorts out the neighborhood power grid...and even when he does get it working, Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) shows up with his family and causes even more chaos. By the time the SWAT team is coming through the windows on Christmas Eve, Clark has finally figured out that no Christmas is perfect...but that doesn't mean we can't make it memorable.

My favorite holiday comedy from my childhood along with A Christmas Story. If nothing else, Clark's crazy Christmas Eve always made me appreciate how comparatively quiet my family's Christmases were. Thanksgiving was the big "gather all the relatives" holiday in my family. Though my sisters would have friends over Christmas night and the occasional relative might pass through between Christmas and New Year's, Christmas Eve and most of Christmas Day were generally reserved for the family. Considering there were six of us, including four kids, this may have been a good thing.

Scatological humor makes this one more appropriate for older kids and young teens going on their own holiday vacations, and adults who have probably gone through just about everything that Clark does here at one time or another.

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