Switched to the 80's My Little Pony on The Roku Channel while cleaning up from breakfast and getting organized. The second season kicked off with "The Quest of the Princess Ponies." The Princess Ponies are supposed to be the guardians of the magic wands that protect the balance of magic in Ponyland. Truth be told, they're spoiled and silly creatures who spend their time arguing over who should be queen. They learn a quick lesson in leadership and working together when an evil lava monster called Lavan kidnaps them and steals their wands. While Spike and the Bushwoolies rescue them, the other Ponies try to figure out how to rebalance the magic in Ponyland when Lavan's attempts to use the wands throws it into chaos.
Headed out as soon as the cartoon finished. Needed to run some errands, starting with a quick stop at Dollar General. Mainly stopped there to grab a cord for my cell phone. It did say that it was for an older release of the Samsung...but why would they have cords for phones that haven't been sold in years? I bought it anyway. I have too many cast album CDs to fit into one binder anymore. Grabbed a second one in yellow. Ran out of shaving lotion last week. My niece Lilah's sixth birthday is this weekend. I did send her birthday gift in her mother's Christmas package, but I forgot her card.
Next stop was the laundromat. They weren't that busy, but the managers were installing new big front-loading washers for oversized loads and I didn't want to get in their way. I dumped my load into the smallest front-loader with the least time, then worked on story notes outside.
After my load went into the dryer, I strolled to WaWa to get a Chocolate Chocolate Chip frozen hot chocolate. While windy and cloudy, it wasn't really cold or raining, probably in the lower 50's. It actually wasn't a half-bad day for mid-January. There were a lot of people out and about, especially around Elsie's, a deli and sandwich shop across from WaWa.
I got home and tried to slide the cord into my new cell phone...but it didn't work. It was just too big. Put on Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood to cheer me up while making a quick banana-cherry smoothie lunch. "Daniel Plays Ball" with the other kids and Prince Tuesday, but he's not very good at catching it. (Me too, kid. I can't catch a ball to save my life.) Prince Tuesday shows him how to catch and encourages him to keep trying. Daniel likewise helps "O Build a Block Tower." It keeps falling down, but they look for ways to keep it standing.
The show just ended when Jodie came in. Apparently, I got a package in the mail. My Christmas presents from Linda and James Young finally arrived! She sent them over a month ago, but wrote the zip code wrong. They somehow ended up in Hartford, Connecticut, then everything was so crazy with the post office over the holidays, they didn't get here until now. I'm glad they did get here. She gave me a charming and folksy anthology of Lois Lenski Christmas stories and the TCM book Must-See Musicals. The latter is among the books frequently advertised on TCM before their movies start. I've almost ordered it a dozen times, but had put it off...and now I'm glad I did! They also sent a gorgeous gold-embossed reindeer card.
Shelved the books and my laundry, then went online briefly and ordered a cell phone cord that did say it fit my specific phone as a rush order from Amazon. After that, I took a nap for an hour and a half. I've had a very long week, had a long couple of months before that, and had no other plans for today. Even with the kids playing outside my window, I still had a nice rest.
Woke up around 5. Read Anne of Green Gables for a while, then went on my laptop and did some writing. Understandably, Gene doesn't trust Richard a bit after he threw him over in favor of Goodson. Robert Walden agrees to watch over him, mainly because he wants to ask Richard about Goodson and his corrupt government.
Broke for dinner at 6:30. For some reason, Match Game '74 skipped way, way ahead. Jack Carter, dizzy blonde Louisa Moritz, and Orson Bean joined in as Jack stuck markers in his teeth and pretended to be a walrus and then ran off the set, Richard Dawson's chair somehow disappeared, and Betty White got tied up in electrical tape. Match Game PM went in the opposite direction to 1977. Sarah Kennedy and Dick Martin of Laugh-In joined in for jokes about what the senator gave to his secretary and "Beverly ___."
Made Coffee-Cinnamon Brownies while watching Sale of the Century. The young lady champ had a lot of stiff competition today, despite buying both Instant Bargains and the Instant Cash. She barely won the Speed Round by a question; had far more luck with the Bonus Round.
Jodie brought in the cord I bought on Amazon earlier while the brownies were in the oven. Yes, this one worked just fine. Took a look at my new phone while watching Jack Frost. I go further into this unique Rankin-Bass stop-motion fairy tale at an entry from my Musical Dreams Movie reviews from last February.
Finished the night online. Jeannie tries to help Tony and Roger after they're pushed to their limits by a nutrition expert (Paul Lynde) in "Please Don't Feed the Astronauts." The expert sees all the energy Jeannie gave them and thinks they're up to his grueling trek across Skull Island. Still trying to help, Jeannie creates a "Friendly Native Village" of Arabians and makes the expert think he's having hallucinations.
Switched to TCM for The Little Princess. Shirley Temple's first color vehicle is supposedly an adaption of the Frances Hodgeson Burnett book. Here, her father goes away to the Boer War, Mrs. Minchin's silly sister becomes a shy brother (Arthur Treacher), her French maid becomes a friendly teacher (Anita Louise), and she has a handsome riding teacher beau (Richard Greene) whose grouchy grandfather (Miles Mander) disapproves of their relationship. Miss Minchin not only forces Sarah to become a servant after her father dies, she fires her two teachers in love after they marry. Here, Sarah doesn't believe her father is dead. With the help of Miss Minchin's brother, she dilligently searches the veteran's hospital for him. Ram Dass (Caesar Romero) still gives her beautiful things, but Miss Minchin finds out, and Sarah has to flee.
This one is a lot of fun in the first half, when Sarah is trying to play matchmaker, and then during her adorable dream sequence where she's a real princess, Bertie is her jester, Miss Minchin is a witch, and the teachers are peasant lovers. The last twenty minutes veer uncomfortably into melodramatic territory as Sarah desperately searches for her father; this would be done much better and more realistically in the 90's version. Enjoyable and cute if you're a Temple fan and pretty easy to find (it's in the public domain).
No comments:
Post a Comment