Saturday, February 01, 2020

A Foggy Morning In Oaklyn Town

When I awoke this morning, I thought I was in San Francisco for a minute. A heavy white fog swallowed the backyard. I could barely see the trees. It mostly burned off by the time I rolled out of bed and had breakfast, but would remain cloudy and chilly for the rest of the day.

Ran Split Second as I ate. The champ on the first episode won four times in a row in previous episodes; five times, and he'd get the car outright. Two young woman put up more than a good fight and were neck-in-neck with him for the entire episode. In fact, he barely pulled ahead and won in the speed round. I have to agree with Monty Hall that it was likely the most exiting episode of the show I'd ever seen. The second one wasn't quite as exciting. The one lady dominated most of the show and went on to the bonus round, though she didn't get the car.

Watched Tiny Toon Adventures as I began making snickerdoodles. "The Acme Bowl" has the football squad from Acme Looniversity taking on the cheaters at Perfecto Prep. New quarterback Buster claims he has some great moves that could win them the game, but Plucky's defection to Perfecto may set them up for a fumble.

Switched to The Three Stooges while rolling the cookie dough in cinnamon sugar. "Three Little Pigskins" is one of their earliest shorts. Gangsters who want to place a bet on a big game mistake them for the trio of football stars they've convinced to go pro. Their girlfriends, including a sarcastic Lucille Ball, think they're the football players, but they don't know anything about the game.

Switched to shorts while pulling the cookies out of the oven. The Fleischer Brothers did two football shorts with Popeye in two years. "You Gotta Be a Football Hero" is the earlier one. Popeye's frustrated when Olive pays more attention to quarterback Bluto than to him and eventually ends up playing the whole game against Bluto's team himself. He tells Swee' Pea the story of how he became "The Football Toucher Downer" by consuming spinach in order to win a game.

Mickey Mouse is "Touchdown Mickey" in one of his black-and-white shorts. He may not exactly be your typical Patrick Mahomes material, but that doesn't stop him from making plays and showing off for Minnie and Clarabelle on the sidelines. An overly enthusiastic Goofy is an even less-likely Howard Cosell in the radio booth.

Watched a little bit of Match Game before finally heading out. The Oaklyn Library's been rearranging their DVDs again. The adult titles were shifted from shelves in the center of the main room to the ones on the side that used to hold books. I have no idea where they intend to put the books that were there, though. Did more in the kids' area, organizing DVDs and the picture books.

Part of the reason I wanted to do my grocery shopping today was to bring my cookies to the Acme's annual employee Chili Cook-Off. They always hold this the day before the Super Bowl. I had tasty peppers and sausage, the same baked ziti I ate at Christmas, macaroni salad, a hot turkey sandwich, spinach dip that was so rich, I ate it with a fork, brownies, and soft bakery peanut butter and oatmeal cookies. I also saw roast beef, the last of what had been macaroni and cheese, meatballs in sauce, a "zesty sausage and cheese" soup, Buffalo chicken dip, a yellow cake from the bakery with white icing, and an empty plate that looked like it held cheesecake.

I would have come to the store under any circumstances. I needed to get my schedule and do a little grocery shopping. Grabbed two boxes of Bigalow black tea off the discontinued shelves. Decided I'd try a brand of low-fat premium ice cream, Steve's, that also seems to be discontinued; went with their blackberry crumble. Tangerines were on sale, too. Restocked cranberries, bananas, vanilla, canned diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, butter, milk, cheese, and yogurt.

My schedule next week is an improvement over the past month or so. Same amount of hours, but I have Tuesday off along with Friday and Saturday and a later day on Sunday. Seems the head bagger wanted Monday off, but that's ok. I'll work longer hours if it means my days off are more spread out.

Got home, put everything away while watching Let's Make a Deal, then went into writing. At the end of the dinner, Bill the wolf proposes to Marcia. She tells him that she thinks he's very sweet, but she's in love with someone else - the man who wrote the letters. Bill's heartbroken, but the others encourage him to keep trying.

Broke for dinner at 6:30. Ate yogurt and cranberry sauce while watching two football-related Peanuts specials. It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown when he's tapped to escort Heather, the Little Red Haired Girl and Homecoming Queen, to the big homecoming dance and kiss her. He's a lot more interested in being her escort than in trying to keep Lucy from pulling the ball away from him during the big game.

Chuck and Linus are the ones in love in You're In the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown. They fall for a little girl named Melody who watches them practicing for the Punt and Pass Contest during their local football game. The prize is a bike and a trip to the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, Snoopy coaches his Woodstock Eagles past three teams of animals larger than them to victory.

Finished the night after a shower with Jack Frost. I go into more detail on this bittersweet Rankin-Bass Groundhog's Day fairy tale at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Happy Groundhog's Day! - Jack Frost

No comments: