Dads and Matches

Started off the morning with breakfast and Silly Symphony shorts on DVD and Disney Plus in honor of the summer solstice. "Summer," "Night," and "Frolicking Fish" are all variations on the "animals sing and dance in time to classical music". "Fish" has the title sea creatures dodging an overly playful octopus. "Playful Pan" starts out as Pan brings out the animals and trees of the forest to play, but he's the only one who can save them when the woods catch fire. "Bugs In Love" are rescued from a nasty crow by their fellow bugs, who use everything from paste to needle-and-safety pin bows and arrows to get rid of it. 

"Flowers and Trees" is the first three-strip Technicolor short and the first animated short to win an Oscar. It's a bit like "Playful Pan," this time without Pan. Here, a boy and girl tree are very much in love. A withered old tree wants her for himself and attempts to burn the forest down in order to get her.

Worked on writing between cartoons. Brett's starting to think Charles the Mad Hatter is almost pretty funny, even when he starts rambling about time. Richard's just trying to recruit him and the others against the Red King, who wants everyone in the under-kingdoms to play the game his way. 

Headed out shortly after "Flowers and Trees" ended. Work wasn't busy when I arrived. It didn't pick up until after 1:30, when people returned from the Shore and realized they now had kids at home for two months that needed to be fed. At least everyone was in good moods, especially those out-of-school kids. I got two compliments on my new watch (including one from a sweet girl) and another on my smile. It did pick up later in the afternoon, to the point where I was glad that it died enough by 7 for me to leave without a relief.

Rushed home the second I got out. I wanted to catch at least a little of the Match Game Father's Day Marathon on YouTube. More fathers than you might think played this game, from actors like Tom Bosley who played dads on TV, to real dads who mentioned their children on the show. Richard Dawson had two sons, Gary and Mark, whom he was a single dad to. Gary Burghoff's little girl Gina appeared an in adorable episode where Gene carried her in with Patti Deustch and Donald Ross' son Max Ross. CHIPs actor Robert Pine's son is Chris Pine, best known for playing Steve Trevor in the current Wonder Woman films. McLean Stevenson's cute and intelligent daughter Jennifer appeared on the end of a 1978 episode. He'd bring two equally adorable and funny kids out of the audience and onto the panel to play along with them in two episodes of the 1981 syndicated shows.

Bring your dad to play along with some of the wildest fathers to ever appear on television! 

Match Game Father's Day Marathon