Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Toons Go to War

Started off the morning with breakfast and wartime Looney Tunes shorts for Veteran's Day. Bugs Bunny starred in "Herr Meets Hare," the third-to-last Warner Bros World War II short. Here, he goes up against none other than a goofy caricatured version of real-life Nazi Herman Goring, whom Bugs eludes as easily as he did Elmer Fudd. (There's even an early German opera spoof.) "Daffy the Commando" has an even easier time with bird Nazis. "Rookie Revue" has fun with the peacetime draft, while Warners' earliest animated star, Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid, fights in World War I as "Bosko the Doughboy."

Headed off to work even before "Rookie Revue" ended. In good news, it wasn't quite as busy today as it was yesterday. I even had the time to gather the outside trash and recycling. The weather was glorious, too, sunny, bright, breezy, and warm for this time of year, in the mid-60's. 

I'm still doing everything, though. I'll be sweeping the store when someone wants me to take back cold returns, and then two seconds later someone else will want me to take recycling to the back room. And I'm getting tired of cleaning up after messes. I closed the last stall in the women's bathroom after mopping up an ugly mess there, and was late leaving because they had no one else to clean up a broken pickle jar. (The guy they pulled to help me was also supposed to be leaving; I shooed him along and finished it myself.)

At least I had no trouble with Uber. The driver going to the Acme arrived in seven minutes; the one going home got there in 10. The one going to work had a GPS that tried directing him through Audubon; I advised him to ignore it and just take Nicholson and turn at Applebee's. 

Relaxed with a snack and Whew! when I got home. A handsome young college student and a slightly older lady lead the charge today. She got him good on the first board; he barely got her on the second, while Tom Kennedy tried playing matchmaker with the pair. 

Worked on writing after that. Sir Richard the White Knight tells Brett there's a back way out of Wonderland. He'll take her and her sons to Looking Glass Land, where they may be able to find a way home. Duchess Marcia agrees it's getting too hot for her here. 

Broke for leftovers at 6:30. Charles kicks off Match Game '77 with the t-shirt featuring artwork from his father, who did commercial art for years. Later, Brett argues over her answer for "Dual __" and we get to meet Earl, the little fellow who switched the Audience Match answers in the revolving stage when Gene pulls him out to show off his natty Saturday Night Fever-esque duds. 

Match Game PM got pretty wild, too. It started off with questions about what show the Surgeon General said will make you sick (almost everyone but Patty Duke said Match Game) and what Tonto said the Lone Ranger needed to get into the native restaurant. (No one got that one.) Later, Jon "Bowser" Bauman in full 50's greaser mode helped a contestant with "Benjamin __" on the Head to Head after spending the whole episode running off backstage. 

Nearly passed out on the futon watching the remaining wartime shorts on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection volume 6 disc. "The Draft Horse" wants badly to go to war and is devastated when he's rejected. He realizes what it's really like out there when he's caught in the middle of a practice fighting session. "Wacky Blackout" and "Weakly Reporter" spoof life on the homefront, while "Meet John Doughboy" is another pre-war Army comedy. "Hollywood Canine Canteen" caricatures popular celebrities of the time (along with soldiers and their girls) as dog breeds while making fun of the real-life serviceman's hang out the Hollywood Canteen. "The Duckinators" and "Fifth Column Mouse" are allegories on how the US ended up in the War and how they planned on winning it. 

Managed to wake up long enough to finish the night with MASH on Hulu in honor of Veteran's Day tomorrow. Hawkeye becomes "Dr. Pierce and Mr. Hyde" during the second season when he works for three straight days without sleep. He's so tired, he gets Radar to fire off telegrams demanding to know who started the war...which brings a none-too-happy general around, to Henry Blake's frustration. 

Skipped ahead to season 5 for "Movie Tonight." When Colonel Potter notices everyone is at each other's throats during cleaning day, he happily runs the then-fairly-new John Ford western My Darlin' Clementine to improve morale. That does the trick. Potter gets them singing together while Klinger tries to make the camera work, along with celebrity impersonations from Radar and a performance of the Cole Porter song "C'est Magnifique" from Hot Lips. 

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