Thursday, December 16, 2021

Warm for Christmas

Started off the morning with breakfast and A Pink Christmas. I tried watching it the other day, but Rose called, and I didn't get to see much. In this special based after the O'Henry story The Cop and the Anthem, the Pink Panther is a vagrant wandering through New York in the early 1900's, searching for any kind of a meal. He tries everything from shoveling walks to attempting to end up in jail in order to get a meal, but to no avail. It isn't until he shows kindness to a stray dog that he and his new friend are given a special surprise...and learn a lesson about the real holiday spirit.

Went online after it ended. Printed out more copies of my bank statements and pay stubs. Still no luck finding apartments. Everything is either too expensive or too big or both. 

Had a banana-pear smoothie for lunch after I got off. Ran Santa Claus Is Coming to Town as I enjoyed my drink and did the dishes. I went further into this classic Rankin-Bass special at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog in 2018. 


Headed out after the cartoon ended. My first quick stop was the clothing bins behind Dollar General. I ordered a new coat with that Amazon gift card from Lauren, and it arrived yesterday. While the shoulders are a bit tight, it's otherwise thick and comfortable, and with a far less cheap zipper than the other one. I dumped the other coat in the heavy metal bin and moved on.

The house in Collingswood turned out to be on the very edge, in the neighborhood between Knight Park, the White Horse Pike, and Crescent Boulevard. I didn't pull into the driveway until 2:56. There was no one in front, so I assumed I was late and they must have all gone inside. I rang the doorbell, and rang it again. I knocked, and knocked again. I waited ten minutes, then twenty, then a half-hour. I saw nothing and no one but a few cars. Heard no voices and saw no people. I finally decided at 3:30 it was too late to wait any longer and left.

At least it was a nice day for a ride. I don't often get to explore that neighborhood. It was sunny, bright, and unusually warm for mid-December, probably in the mid-60's. Rode past a school and an enormous church before I made it back to the White Horse Pike. It was almost 4 by that point, the height of rush hour, and traffic was a mess. I figured I was safer crossing at the corner of the Pike and Collings. 

When I got home, I went online and called Kelly Ferrante to find out what happened; got her cell phone and left a message. (I e-mailed her later, too.) Watched Press Your Luck while I worked. The champ was the one who came a-cropper this time and got slammed with Whammies. The one young man managed to earn enough money to beat her and the other lady. 

Worked on writing for a while next. In addition to Brett's already-odd assortment of friends from Wonderland, there's a very strange group of people sitting with them on the train. Jimmie the Dodo accidentally lands on the lap of a grumpy goat who looks and acts a lot like Ed Asner. There's also a man wearing a suit made entirely of newspapers (Steve Allen) and a young nasal-voiced beetle (Ron Pallilo) who seems a bit thin-skinned. 

Broke for dinner at 6:30. Watched Match Game '74 while eating leftovers with pasta and roasted Brussels sprouts. Brett and Charles happily spend a lot of this episode wisecracking at each other and making fun of Donald Ross' unending collection of matching psychedelics floral ties and shirts. (He keeps blaming Patti for them.) Meanwhile, Charles is happy to show off his leg for a question (revealing that he really didn't wear socks!), bring up his friend Hope Lange from The Ghost and Mrs. Muir as an answer to "Hope __," and tell everyone about the scarf Richard's sons sewed for him.

Brett was an even better sport in Match Game PM when everyone answered a question about what happened when Fannie Flagg loaned her a t-shirt of a mountain. (Let's just say Brett had a far more slender and boyish figure than curvaceous Fannie.) Richard had an even more incredible match in the Head-to-Head with "__ Curtain." 

Finished the night on YouTube after a shower with Skinflint: A Country Christmas Carol. I go further into this southern-fried version of the classic Dickens novella at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog. 

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