Whale of a Tale

Began the morning with breakfast and To Tell the Truth. Three members of the panel questioned women who claimed to have written a book on American wedding rituals, from huge Polish weddings to "quickies" in Vegas. Bill Cullen dropped out early, claiming he'd read the book. Once again, the choices were all over the map, but in the end, the writer was #2, the one who'd never been married. The panel didn't do quite as well on What's My Line? None of them could figure out that the candy the woman worked with was actually Cracker Jacks - she put the prizes in Cracker Jacks boxes.

Work largely went much better than it did yesterday. For one thing, it was pin-drop quiet when I got in, and it never did get more than mildly steady. I spent most of the morning alternating between putting carts away and shelving items. The weather was nice for it, too, a little cooler than it has been, but sunny and windless. Switched the focus to shelving and sweeping after another bagger came in at noon. By the time it started to pick up and I'd started bagging, I was just about done.

Needed a few things after work. Tomorrow is Jessa's birthday, and I wanted to buy her a gift card. I keep forgetting to pick up yeast, too. I like to experiment with bread recipes in the winter. Also treated myself to those delicious chocolate "everything" (peanut butter chips and pretzels) cookies.

Put on Downton Abbey when I got home while I had a snack and changed. This time, I started with the right episode, the first show of the third season. There's finally going to be a wedding at Downton as the series begins. Mary and Matthew prepare for their vows with an onslaught of relatives, including Cora's eccentric American mother Martha (Shirley MacLaine). Sybil and her Irish former chauffeur husband are also among the guests. Tom's views on Irish nationalism offends Lord Crawley, but Matthew manages to calm everything by making Tom his best man. Meanwhile, Anna is still trying to get Bates out of prison, and Lord Crawley makes a disquieting discovery about their financial status.

Worked on writing after the show ended. A little old lady in tattered peddler's rags appears at the gate. Bill smells something familiar - and unpleasant - about her, and Charles and Marcia don't trust her, either. She does seem to have a hold over Brett, enough to get her to consider her basket of trinkets, including a beautiful and deadly comb...

Broke for dinner at quarter after 6. Watched Match Game episodes while eating leftover beef vegetable stew. The late Orson Bean offered his Vermont wit to a pair of shows from 1975 that also included sweetly daffy Joyce Bulifant (who happily promoted her new country album) and TV and stage actress Pat Finley.

Decided to try something different after dinner. I found a recipe for rye soft pretzels in one of the vintage bread recipe books I picked up from yard sales last year. Thought it would be a great way to get rid of the last of the rye flour I've had forever. Turned out I didn't quite have enough for pretzels, so I added whole wheat flour and made multi-grain pretzels. It was a very simple recipe that cooked quickly and didn't even require rising...and it came out quite nicely, chewy with a nice, crusty outside.

Watched Sale of the Century while the pretzels baked. The young man from the last few days had some stiff competition from the another fellow with a long face on the other side. They kept going back and forth all day, with both buying Instant Bargains. They even tied in the speed round, with the champ just barely winning. He didn't get as lucky in the bonus round this time, though...

Finished the night after a shower with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in honor of Kirk Douglas, who also passed away last week. Douglas plays Ned Land, a rowdy sailor who is on a Navy expedition with Professor Pierre Arronax (Paul Lukas) and his loyal assistant Consell (Peter Lorre) to find the "sea monster" that's been destroying ships. The "monster" takes a bite out of their ship as well, leaving them stranded. Turns out it's actually a monster-like submarine that belongs to Captain Nemo (James Mason), a scientist who made many great discoveries, but lost his family and was tortured by an island nation that wanted them. He now attacks all ships that make war or threaten to destroy others, destroying them and killing their crews before they can be destroyed. The ship and the energy that powers it fascinates Arronax, but Ned and Consell just want out of there. They'll have to dodge a massive squid more dangerous than any "monster" if they want to get the word out and stop Nemo before he does any more damage.

Possibly Disney's best live-action sci-fi film outside of the Star Wars series. The special effects won an Oscar at the time and continue to impress. The squid occasionally looks like the rubber puppet it probably is, but sequence builds it up well, and it remains terrifying. Mason gives one of his best performances as Nemo, who wants to stop war, even if it means killing others to do it. Douglas gets to play against type as a more roguish Han Solo-esque hero than usual for him, and even shows off a fairly attractive voice for the catchy sea shanty "Whale of a Tale."

It moves too slow for younger kids, but older kids on up who love steampunk or are willing to give an older science fiction movie a try will love this one.