I awoke to heavy dark clouds that were pouring dogs, pigs, chickens, cows, and rabbits! It was no day to be out running around. I had breakfast while enjoying two episodes of the 1986 game show Split Second. Monty Hall hosts this trivia show that has contestants answering a question with three possible right answers. They had to give the answers, or the right version of the answers. As in Sale of the Century, the second-to-last answer was a speed round. The contestant with the most money had to answer the least questions. The one who answered all their questions first went on to the bonus round, where they had to find three panels that said "car" from five panels. If they found the panels, they won a car. If not, they could either take another prize, like a fur or money, or come back and try again.
I think I have vague memories of catching this one as a kid, and while it's not as exciting or silly as panel shows like Match Game, it's fun in it's own right. There's not many pure trivia shows on Buzzr, and it's been interesting to learn about things I was too young to understand in 1986 or had forgotten. Plus, it's kind of fun to see Monty Hall in a different, slightly more serious setting than the goofy Let's Make a Deal. I don't think Buzzr quite knows what to do with this one. It was briefly on weekday mornings at 10, but they replaced it with Press Your Luck, and then yanked it from Sunday nights. Currently, it's only on weekend mornings at 10:30.
Did some Match Game while cleaning up after breakfast. Loni Anderson of WKRP In Cincinatti and two MASH veterans, McLean Stevenson and Gary Burgoff, join Gene, Brett, Charles, and semi-regular Patty Duke for two episodes from 1978. Gene's eyes tended to rove towards Loni more often than not, to the annoyance of his two remaining regulars!
Worked on my mall essay for a while after I ate. The Rio Mall wasn't pretty. It was a pretty basic white corridor, with only about 20 stores, not counting Staples and K-Mart and Thrift Drug and the movie theater, but it was our mall. There weren't too many other places near-by we could do real shopping. Visiting there was always a treat...at least until it started to decline in the mid-90's, when most of the stores moved further east to two newer shopping centers near the ramp to Wildwood.
I remember how dark and dreary it was after everything closed, with only the movie theater, K-Mart, and The Deb Shop still there. It was like a ghost town. I hated running through there. They demolished the main mall in 2000. The movie theater finally moved to what used to be Super Fresh, and then Staples, and is currently in the midst of being remodeled. Thrift Drug is now Save-a-Lot; the record store is Rent-a-Center. I'm just hoping those new county offices and the "entertainment center" can put life back into a complex that meant so much to my childhood.
Broke for lunch around 2:30. Finished off The Magic School Bus while I had yogurt, an apple-cinnamon fig bar, and peanut butter on celery. The class "Takes a Dive" when Ms. Frizzle turns them into various animals who work together in a coral reef. Wanda doesn't want to have a partner, including Dorothy Ann, but she changes her mind after seeing how various creatures help each other find shelter or food or ward off predators. Her real interest, though, is finding a treasure that Ms. Frizzle's ancestor buried.
What kind of animals live "In the City?" Ms. Frizzle turns the class into raccoons, possums, falcons, and foxes to show them how animals survive in a busy environment. They get along because they're smaller and can easily hide and find food and shelter...but the bus turns into a bear! There's no place for a bear to hide or find food among skyscrapers and junk yards. The kids search their own backyards to make sure the bear-bus isn't carted off to the zoo.
The disc ends with "Gets Programmed." The class is assigned to open the school and put together their principal Mr. Ruhle's new computer. They can put it together, but they don't know how to program it. Carlos invites his computer whiz brother Mikey to help out. Mikey manages to get all their tasks onto the computer...but they keep replaying them every second, instead of every morning! Even worse, Mikey went inside the computer to see how it works and isn't there to fix things. The kids, Liz, and Ms. Frizzle follow him.
And that's that. While a few episodes have outdated information (Pluto was still a planet in the late 90's, for instance, and most computers work a bit differently nowadays), most remain a blast to watch, to the point where these continue to be used in classrooms to this day. If you have fond memories of the original books or cartoons, loved the more recent Magic School Bus Rides Again, or are a science geek yourself, you'll want to check out the adventures of Ms. Frizzle, her class, and the most remarkable bus to ever exist.
Worked on my story after the cartoon ended. Marcia uses her own magic to open the heavy door to the Summer-Winter Castle and get them in. The castle itself is remarkably clean for a forbidding abandoned edifice, and appears to have residents, though no one can be seen. Invisible hands bring them food and stokes a fire to warm them.
Marcia's the one who sees a familiar furry rear darting into the dungeon and follows him. They find Bill the wolf down in front of a cell, with Cullen the bookshop owner behind bars. Seems the bespectacled man took a rose from the wolf's garden, and the little canine insists he should be punished for stealing. Marcia jumps in between them, scolding the wolf for harming an older man and making such a fuss over a flower.
Moved on to dinner around 6:30. Finished the night while watching Mulan in honor of Chinese New Year. I go further into Disney's first venture into Asian folk tales at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.
Honoring Chinese New Year - Mulan (1998)
(Incidentally, the rain finally ended around 2; the sun even popped out at one point, though it mainly remained humid and cloudy. I considered running to the Acme, but I'll be there tomorrow. I checked my schedule online, and I work early tomorrow, at 8. I'll do my shopping after work.)
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