Fantasy at Home

Began the morning with breakfast and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. "Daniel's Very Different Day" includes him wearing a trolley t-shirt instead of a sweater and having a picnic instead of going to Katerina's tree house. He's initially disappointed, but his parents remind him that it's okay to do things differently sometimes. When the "Class Trip to the Library" is canceled, Daniel and his friends at school find a way to start a library in their own classroom.

My day was far more pleasant than I thought it would be. Other than a half-hour towards the end of the day when I mopped the women's bathroom, I spent almost all of it outside, helping the other baggers with the carts. It was a glorious day for it. There's nowhere else I would have rather been. Sunshine, blue skies, soft breezes, and still fairly warm, into the lower 60's.

At least we had a good lunch. A retired manager sent the Acme ten boxes of pizza from a place in Audubon. I enjoyed two greasy slices of cheese and a nice, spicy pepperoni.

Yes, they were crazy inside, as I discovered later when I picked up the sugar, cheese, and laundry detergent I forgot yesterday. It's a good thing I got the toilet paper yesterday. Every single last bit of toilet paper is gone. I have no idea why. Doesn't the virus make you cough and sneeze, not go to the bathroom? I guess people think they're going to be inside for the rest of their lives.

Went straight home after work. Watched Let's Make a Deal while I changed and had a snack. The big deals of the day went to a towering cowgirl who probably could have roped Monty in a pinch and a nurse and her husband. Neither of them got the big deal, a car, but I suspect the cowgirl probably wasn't complaining about her trip to the Bahamas, but the nurse only got $422 from a giant "piggy bank."

Worked on writing for a while after the show ended. Cool cat town crier Clifton Davis shows Arlene, Fannie, and Charles a poster for a ball being held at Password Palace. Arlene and Charles wonder why the music-hating Malade is suddenly holding parties. Clifton and Fannie are just glad that she is. It'll be a great chance for musicians to find work and for nobles to strut their stuff. If only Fannie could go...

Broke for dinner at 6. Watched Happily Ever After while eating chicken tacos for dinner and making the Cranberry-Orange Muffin mix from the Acme. I go further into this infamous "sequel" to Snow White from 1993 at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Animation Celebration Saturday - Happily Ever After (1993)

Finished the night with two Match Game "premieres" on YouTube and La Belle et Le Bete from 1946 on Kanopy, one of the library streaming services that let you watch movies for free with a library card. I've always wanted to see the classic version of Beauty and the Beast by Jean Cocteau. It has a lot in common with the Cannon Fairy Tales version, actually. Here, Belle (Josette Day) only has one brother and two sisters, but they're still a layabout and spoiled and silly, respectively, and she's still expected to do all the work. Her brother's friend Avenant (Jean Marais) wants to marry her, but she insists on staying and taking care of her father (Marcel Andre). When her father comes home after picking a rose for her and says a Beast wants one of his daughters, she's the one who goes. But the Beast isn't what he seems...and neither is his odd castle of hands that hold candelabras and uncanny statues that move and shoot arrows.

Considered to be a classic of French film today, this is really a lovely and even spooky fantasy. Day makes a stunning and sweet Belle; Marais does well as both the tortured Beast and the macho suitor not far-removed from Gaston. If you're a fan of fairy tales or fantasy like me or have always wanted to check out French cinema, this isn't a bad place to start.