Friday, May 24, 2024

Red Hot Spring

Began the morning with breakfast and Laff-a-Lympics. Everyone starts off in the Sahara Desert with a wacky dune buggy race. The next even has the teams filling up holes in the sand to form an oasis. As usual, the Really Rottens do their best to cheat, but Babu has his own way of dealing with them. Surprisingly, Daisy Mayhem manages to legitimately win the race to photograph the Lochness Monster in Scotland. Too bad her win is negated by not only the Rottens, but pretty much everyone cheating on the Three-Legged Kilt Race (although the Rottens are the most blatant about it). 

Switched briefly to the 1986 Card Sharks on Buzzr before heading to Westmont for an errand run. My first stop was Dollar Tree. I've been meaning to buy those charcoal moisture eliminators for ages. Living in an attic does get a bit humid. Grabbed two and some sugar-free cotton candy mints I wanted to try. Didn't see what I wanted at Target, but I did pick up more Secret deodorant with an online coupon and Body Armor hydration individual packs. The line at Target's self-checkout area was so long, I switched to another long line before a third register finally opened.

The Westmont Acme was nearly as busy. I dodged a lot of people as I picked up snacks for the week. Just bought blood oranges for work, since I'll be hitting the farm market tomorrow. Had online coupons for Kind Granola Bars, Made Good bars, and Chobani yogurt. Restocked bagels for lunch next week and oatmeal cookies. Found the Listerine Clinical Solution Gum Therapy Mouthwash that I couldn't find at Target there, and with a paper coupon on the cap, too. Decided to try Culture Pop, another kombucha soda that was on sale and had even less sugar. 

Cut through Newton Lake Park going home. Given it was nearly 1 PM and in the lower 90's, even the back path was busy with people out for walks or returning to work from lunch. I opted to push my bike up the path over the hill to the Haddon Township Environmental and Historical Center instead. It's really beautiful in the park now. Spring flowers have been replaced by huge nearly-grown leaves. We must not have had much rain from that storm yesterday morning. The path wasn't really that muddy or hard to walk over.

When I got home, I went straight into Split Second while having lunch. Once again, the ladies dominated the first episode. I came in during the second half of the second round, and the two women were far above the guys. The lady who won beat everyone by a mile and a half. She missed the car and returned. This time, though the guy did much better, the winner was a sweet lady with a charming accent who collected elephant figures. She too missed the car and would try again.

Went online for an hour to putter around and check my schedule. In good news, more hours and three days off. Sunday's late again, though, which I'm not looking forward to after last Sunday. I'm also working Memorial Day and next Saturday. I'll have to miss Oaklyn's town-wide yard sale.

Had one more errand to run after I got off the computer. I realized when I got home that I forgot to pick up one of the big things I really needed - suntan lotion. Strolled down to the CVS across from Newton Lake Park, on the border of Oaklyn and Collingswood to see what they had. They had a buy one, get one 50 percent off sale on Coppertone, and I found two bottles with coupons attached. It came to almost $15 all together, not great, but better than the $12 each they originally were. 

Spent the next few hours going through the closet and baskets that held my toiletries, pulling out anything I didn't need. Watched the rest of the Peanuts: School Days episodes as I worked. Peppermint Patty and Sally got most of the attention here. Everyone needs "A Little Nap" when they can't stay awake for school, including Peppermint Patty, Sally, and Linus. Snoopy's own attempts to sleep are disrupted by bad weather in "It's Raining, It's Pouring." 

Peppermint Patty gets stuck on her back in "School Chums" and can't move her head when she passes out in front of Marcie. "Marcie" for her part seemed unusually vicious in several of these episodes. Peppermint Patty complains about Marcie being cranky after she records her sleeping habits, ending in a fight that lands them both in the principal's office. Patty also gets upset when her "Best Friend" is named Student of the Year instead of her. Sally's not great at school, either. "It's Just No Good" she says when no one appreciates her bringing leaves for show and tell, she breaks a crayon, and her report on oceans goes badly. She's happier  enjoying bean bag camp before going "Back to School' and talking to the school building in "Go to School!"

Switched to He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown after the shorts ended, since I hadn't gotten around to watching that DVD collection yet. Snoopy's driving all of the kids batty during their summer vacation. He sends him to obedience school, but Snoopy decides he'd rather have Peppermint Patty wait on him hand and foot. Eventually, he gets fed up with demanding Patty and decides Chuck isn't so bad after all.

Worked on writing for an hour after this. Michael appears to Kathleen and thanks her for getting his foot out of the snare. He also apologized for eating the flower bed earlier, but he was hungry after fleeing Jacqueline. Lady Jacqueline was angry that he wouldn't marry her or go along with her plans to prolong winter, so she turned him into a harmless rabbit and told everyone they were engaged anyway.

Broke for dinner and Match Game Syndicated at quarter after 7. Came in for the second game with Robert Pine, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Betty White. Gene bursts into laughter at one point over Betty White's rather amusing quip in response to a question about Queen Guinevere. Charles gets to play the game with the audience in the end, but for some reason, they all kept dancing around the obvious answer to "___ of Sugar." Dear Abby made her only appearance in the second episode, while Jack Carter tosses out the quips and Bill Daily jokes about his then-recent marriage.

Finished the night with They Got Me Covered for free at YouTube. Kit Kittredge (Bob Hope) may as well be a kid reporter. The American Girl Kit would probably be smarter than him, despite his Pulitzer Prize. He's fired for failing to notice that Germany invaded Russia. His stenographer girlfriend Christina (Dorothy Lamour) wishes he'd remember their engagement. Kit's excited when his Romanian informant Vanescu has big news, but he's shot and flees into the night. He asks for a stenographer to be sent to him, but they send Christina's friend Sally (Phyllis Ruth) and intend to follow her. Kit, of course, mixes up his meeting places and she ends up kidnapped to transcribe their notes. 

It turns out that Axis agents are plotting to attack Washington. They first send a female agent, Olga (Lenore Aubert), but Kit gets around her. They then try to drug him into an unwanted marriage, but Christina sees through that. It's Christina and her friends who discover where Sally's really being held and lead Kit to a whole nest of spies that could make his reputation...or break his body.

Normally I get a kick out of Hope running around and being cowardly, but this one got way too complicated. Even reviews in 1943 were less than kind, and frankly, this has not dated well. Kit comes off less like a lovable idiot and more like a dumb jerk who cares less about his fiancee or her feelings than his scoop. Even he admits it near the end. The plot has too much going on and is just way to difficult to figure out. No wonder Kit can't solve it. The audience might not be able to, either. And while the scene with Hope trying to dodge a murderous old man (Donald Meek) who thinks the Civil War is still on is funny, it doesn't have a whole lot to do with the rest of the movie.

All in all, this one is strictly for fans of Hope or wartime capers. Casual fans would be better off starting with one of his late 30's comedies like The Ghost Breakers or late 40's-early 50's comedies like The Paleface

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