Monday, November 02, 2020

Against the Wind

Winds whipped down Hillcrest as I awoke this morning. I shivered, then turned on the heat and had breakfast. Watched Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood as I ate. Daniel and his friends learn about how voting works when "The Neighborhood Votes" for a swing or a slide in the playground. Dan's disappointed when he doesn't get his vote, but Mrs. Tiger encourages him to find something good about the winner. Teacher Harriet does something similar with the kids when "The Class Votes," only this time, they're deciding whether the class pet should be a turtle or a rabbit. Once again, Daniel is voted down and has to find something good about the other choice.

Switched to The Roku Channel for Silver Spoons; the first two seasons are currently available there. When the statue that's the symbol of his school is stolen, class president Ricky has to figure out how to handle it. His best friend Derek (Jason Bateman) wants him to retaliate on the ones who did it, but his father Edward (Joel Higgins) insists that fighting back will only lead to more trouble. While watching Regan making a speech on television, Ricky imagines himself to be "Mr. President" who has to deal with a similar situation of an American vessel being hijacked on Russian waters.

Let Split Second run while I changed and got organized. The two ladies dominated today, but the one who came on strong the whole show killed in the Countdown Round. She missed the car by one board and opted to return. 

Fought the wind long enough to get to work on an otherwise sunny, if chilly, day. The Acme wasn't busy when I arrived. In fact, the first two hours or so were kind of dull. It didn't pick up until past 1:30, and it stayed busy the rest of the afternoon. It's the beginning of the month, there's another holiday coming tomorrow, and a lot of people are already starting to think Thanksgiving. Other than a few annoying customers, I got in and out without a ton of trouble. It slowed down enough by 5 that I was able to shut down slightly early without a relief.

Went straight home and onto the computer to start re-writing the opening to the pirate sequence. Captain Gene Rayburn and his trusted first mate Richard Dawson are now shown dueling with hulking pirates twice their size as they attempt to get past the brutes and take their treasure.

Rose called while I was riding home. I called her back shortly before writing. She admitted that she and her family had a better time at the Hershey Park Lodge, which apparently had a ton of activities, than the sparsely-populated park. She appreciated me helping with the cats and will be around for the key to her house tomorrow.

Broke for dinner at 6:30. Had leftovers while watching Match Game '74. That gorgeous young contestant turned a lot of men's heads - even Charles'. Alas, she only won once. Her successor was a young man who was personable but, as Charles pointed out, not quite as pretty (or scantily clad). Goofy Alfie Wise got to help a fellow win money with "Price ___," while the others teased Jack Jones about some of his weirder answers on Match Game PM

Sale of the Century continues with its "End of the Summer" high schoolers week. Today, we had a young man who'd won awards for his science project, a sweet philosophy student, and a sunny cheerleader who loved math and wanted to show she was more than a pretty face. She got her wish. She came from behind to win the Speed Round and got through the Bonus Round with time to spare.

Put on House of Wax when I got online. The 1953 remake of Mystery of the Wax Museum showed up on TCM for Halloween, but I didn't have the chance to watch it until today. Vincent Price had one of his first horror roles as the mad former sculptor whose creations are a little too realistic, thanks to a few stolen corpses. Phyllis Kirk is Sue Ellen, the woman who discovers what he's up to, Carolyn Jones is her giggly roommate who was his second victim, Paul Picerni is Sue Ellen's boyfriend Scott, and Frank Lovejoy is the cop who thinks Sue Ellen was seeing things...until all the details start pointing at the remarkable House of Wax.

While I did enjoy Mystery, this one is even better, with a more interesting cast and better wax effects. I'll bet it would be even niftier in its original 3D format (it's on Blu-Ray in 3D). 

Finished the night back at The Roku Channel with The Patty Duke Show. In "Patty, the People's Voice" from the second season, Patty and Cathy learn about how politics work when they campaign for T.J Blodgett, a businessman friend of their father's who is running for the city council. Trouble is, he may talk a good game, but he knows nothing about issues or how to solve them. The girls discover when they attend a rally for his rival, a professor from a local college, that he knows all about the city's issues. The girls change their minds and their candidate...but things really get hairy when they ask Blodgett questions about those issues he really can't answer.

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