I didn't like the way it looked outside at all. It hadn't rained by 8:30, but it was cool and humid, and the clouds were heavy and pitch black. I decided not to take chances and called Uber. The morning driver came in 9 minutes. It took him a little longer due to Nicholson Road being blocked off for repairs, but I still got to work on time. The afternoon driver arrived in 7 minutes. He must have read the road reports and cut through Oaklyn instead of trying for Nicholson.
Work wasn't really much of a problem. It was dead the entire morning. It picked up a little bit before the rain finally started around noon. That really cleared things out. I did get a little wet gathering carts, but by the end of my shift, it was so quiet, and there the carts were so full, I ended up watering plants just to have something to do.
Soon as I got home, I changed and had a snack while watching Faerie Tale Theatre. Did "Rapunzel" in honor of the show's producer and the title character of this episode, Shelly Duvall, who passed away last week. Gena Rowlands is the witch, Duvall is the title character and her mother who craved radishes, and Jeff Bridges is the father the witch caught taking them and the prince who climbs up Rapunzel's hair. This one follows the Grimm version of the story, up to and including Rapunzel being sent out to the desert and the prince being blinded. As Duvall herself points out, harrowing stuff, but very interesting (even if I do wish they'd broken with the Grimms and actually shown the witch getting in trouble for everything she did).
Switched to Disney Plus for The Rescuers in honor of Bob Newhart. He was the voice of Bernard, the janitor for the Rescue Aid Society, a group of mice who are devoted to helping save humans in trouble. Hungary representative Miss Bianca (Eva Gabor) recruits him to help her save Penny (Michelle Stacy), an orphan who was kidnapped and taken to the Louisiana bayous by bumbling Mr. Snoops (Joe Flynn) and frightening Madame Medusa (Geraldine Page), who want her to find a lost diamond. Bernard, Bianca, and the residents of the bayou help save her and the gem, proving that you don't need to be a big creature to do big things.
This has been one of my favorite Disney movies since I first saw it during a nasty bout with pneumonia in the early 90's. Newhart and Gabor play wonderfully off each other, Stacy and the character actors playing the bayou natives are a hoot, and Page is marvelous as one of Disney's most underrated villains. Although this isn't a flat-out musical, there are some lovely late 70's ballads on the soundtrack; "Someone's Waiting for You" was nominated for an Oscar. The animation definitely shows the hand of Don Bluth, with its earthy sketchiness that almost looks like a warm-up for The Secret of Nimh.
If you or your kids love animal or adventure stories, you'll want to join Bernard and Bianca on their trip down to Devil's Bayou, too.
Watched The Scooby Doo Show after the movie ended. Shaggy and Scooby are "Scared a Lot In Camelot" when they arrive at the castle owned by Shaggy's uncle, only to find him missing and the castle occupied by the ghosts of Merlin and the Black Knight! Merlin even manages to hypnotize Shaggy and Scooby, but Velma knows how to get them out of it. Food does the trick every time with those two.
Worked on the inventories for a while. Finally finished up the rock collections with the Reader's Digest Remembering the 60's 4-disc set, Soul of the 70's, and the A Year In Your Life trio. While I got the other two sets within the last two years, the Year In Your Life collections go back to when they were sold at the North Cape May Acme in the early 2000's. I'd buy them after work. Since I still had time after I finished, I started the soundtracks. Did all the A record titles, from the TV musical The Adventures of Marco Polo to the soundtrack from The Aristocats.
Watched Match Game '91 while I did the inventories, and later as I ate dinner. Betty White figures into all of these episodes, along with Bruce Baum, goofy Jacklyn Zemen, and Stuart Damon from General Hospital (whom I know best as the prince from the 1965 Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella). Mixed feelings on the Match-Up mini-games that end each round. On one hand, it's fun to play along at home and see if you can match the contestant and the panelist yourself. It also breaks up the flow of the game and doesn't really add a whole lot else.
Finished the night on The Roku Channel with Hart to Hart. They're saying "Which Way, Freeway?" when their dog turns up with a new sweetheart, an attractive Irish Setter. Turns out her owner was an old business colleague of Jonathan's whose pretty young assistant ended up being a con woman after his money and jewel business. She and her associates are desperate to kidnap or kill the dogs to keep their humans from finding the gun with her fingerprints,
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