Listened to In the Heights while I worked. Lin-Manuel Miranda is Usinavi in the original cast of the Broadway show about a hot summer in the largely Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights in New York. It's more of a slice-of-life tale than a straightforward musical. I think that baffled me when I first heard this back in the late 2000's, but after seeing the excellent 2021 film version, I understand it a little better now. By far my favorite song that didn't make it into the film is "Everything I Know." Nina admits that their Abuelita had been the driving force in many of their lives after she finds boxes with their things at her home in this touching number.
Hurried off to work just as the second disc ended. Work was a mess from start to finish. I didn't mind helping the floral manager water plants and rush bouquets of roses and spring flowers out to the floor. There was almost nothing left in the floral department when I came in. The only flowers remaining on the shelves and tables were either potted plants or dying. They must have stripped all the bouquets for the area high school proms last night.
After the Sunday morning bagger left at 3:30, I took over. I wish I hadn't. The carts kept vanishing, no matter how fast I put them out. We were just that busy. It rained lightly when I went to work, but the rain was long gone by 4 PM, and it was just humid and gloomy. I spotted a stack of Coke 24 packs with soda leaking out by the meat department. I think a Dr. Pepper box got knocked off the pile, and the cans broke. Even as I cleaned up, the manager called me three times to do the carts. I hadn't even finished sweeping! In fact, I never did finish sweeping. The second I cleaned up the soda mess, I had to dash back outside, because the carts had disappeared again.
Rushed straight home fast as I could after that. Took a shower, then finished the night with today's Match Game marathon. Given how wild Match Game can get, it'll probably come as no surprise that many of its episodes now only exist on YouTube and are banned from the actual airwaves. In some cases, it's because of a bad tape, like a 1978 Christmas week episode with Carolyn Jones and Joe Santos. (The Monday episode for the week with Santa Charles and Bretzy La Bratt, in fact.)
Most episodes, however, aren't shown due to questions and answers that would absolutely never fly today. There were several flat-out gay slurs in a few early shows. Even after Charles Nelson Reilly became a regular later on, a gay stereotype joke or two occasionally slipped in. A Confucius question about whether a man who talks to __ needs help got two episodes banned, one in 1977 and a nighttime show from 1981. Fred Travelena's attempt to give himself slanted eyes in the latter didn't help. Gene's idea of a Native accent on a Tonto/Lone Ranger question in 1976 doesn't sound so hot today, either.
And sometimes, Gene meant well but couldn't watch his mouth. He made several comments about black panelists like Nipsey Russell and Greg Morris going to the "back of the bus." They handle it well, but it certainly wouldn't be amusing now. Fannie Flagg gave an answer during the Steve Allen week that was so offensive, it was actually censored when the episode came out. Another show from '77 managed to reference the KKK and midgets in one question. (Buzzr is extra-sensitive about midget questions, though they have been better about not skipping or censoring those in the last year or so.)
See the rarest Match Game episodes of all in this controversial marathon!
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