Began the morning with essays from the Colliers Harvest of Holidays anthology. Martin Luther King Jr was still alive when this book came out, but the material from United Nations Day works just as well, as both worked toward peace and understanding. I read Dorothy Canfield Fisher's "A Fair World for All," "Prayer for a Better World" by Stephen Vincent Benet, and several poems.
Watched Doc McStuffins while getting dressed and eating breakfast. "Snowy Gablooey" is usually able to stretch his goo-filled arms and do tricks, but he's frozen solid after Doc's brother Donnie left him outside. Doc gives him a bath and teaches the toys how to warm up again. Sir Kirby wants to keep playing ice hockey in "Gooaal!," but has to sit out when he dislocates his shoulder. He coaches Hawaiian doll Lelani to take his place.
Ran Family Feud while getting organized, then took the laundry downstairs and went outside to shovel a friend's driveway. I was originally going to do her driveway, the sidewalks, and the front steps, but those are in direct sunlight. By quarter of 1, the fine snow had melted or blown away. The streets were also clear. Once again, I believe we only got about three or four inches. I still had a harder time shoveling the driveway than I did two weeks ago. It was sunny and bright, but also biting cold, not even in the 20's, and there was that wind. Even with all that, it still took me less than an hour to shovel the driveway and salt around the back door.
Put the laundry in the dryer, then tried another soda cake recipe. This time, I made an orange cream cake with vanilla mix and orange soda. Actually, despite the sharp orange flavor of the Fanta, the cake came out a little bland, and the layers cracked on top. I still left them to cool. They weren't perfect, but they were edible, unlike my attempt at candy last month.
Watched The Scooby Doo Show while eating lunch. "A Scary Night With a Snow Beat Fright" takes the gang to the Arctic, where they were supposed to join us with a professor friend in a native village. They arrive to find the professor vanished and the inhabitants driven off by a giant dinosaur-like snow creature. While Scooby falls for a pretty sled dog, the others try to figure out just what the creature is after.
Switched to the Rankin-Bass Jack Frost special while folding my laundry and rounding up donations for Goodwill. I went further into this bittersweet fairy tale at my Musical Dreams Reviews blog for Groundhog's Day in 2020.
After the cartoon ended, I tried to frost the cake...but the top layer broke when I pulled it out, and the frosting wouldn't move. I had to microwave it to make it cooperate. I had a slice later after dinner. Not bad, but you taste icing more than cake. Next time, I'll be more careful with keeping an eye on the layers, make it as a sheet cake or cupcakes, or add more soda or more orange flavoring like orange juice. I may also add a little oil or butter.
Spent the next hour and a half finally finishing the Seasonal inventory. Added A Victorian Christmas, a collection of songs with Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, and Frank Sinatra, and titles from Manheim Steamroller, Barry Manilow, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Monkees, the Platters, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I'll begin the children's record inventory tomorrow. I have even fewer of those than I do seasonal albums, so it shouldn't take that long.
Listened to winter-themed records while I worked. Jazz at the Olympics seems to be a live album by the Ralph Sutton Quartet, likely performed during the 1960 Squaw Valley Games from selections like "Winter Wonderland" and "Squaw Valley Blues." Their "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" and "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling" were especially jaunty.
Winter Memories is another Columbia Records collection made to be sold in a certain outlet, in this case JC Penney. Despite the title, there really isn't a whole lot here that's especially wintry. Lynn Anderson's "Snowbird," Jim Nabors' "Try to Remember," and a bouncy instrumental "Sleigh Ride" by Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra are as wintry as it gets. (Although I did find Robert Goulet's "This Is All I Ask" to be fairly touching.)
Switched to Match Game Syndicated while finishing the inventory and having dinner. After a shower, I finished the night with episodes of Chain Reaction, which celebrated its 45th anniversary last Tuesday. Bill Cullen was the original host of this 1980 word game that had contestants guessing the word letter by letter that connects to the word above it. Celebrity guests help them solve the chain, then give the clues to the words in the bonus round.
Chain Reaction was a fun and challenging show, but alas, it ran up against Fred Silverman and his determination to make David Letterman a household word in the mornings. It was one of the three shows cleared to make way for The David Letterman Show. (Which, incidentally, flopped. It was well-received by critics, but morning audiences didn't know what to make of it.)
It reappeared in 1986 for Canadian TV and USA Network as The New Chain Reaction. The game play remained largely the same, but the contestant and celebrity teams were replaced by regular contestant duos, and the bonus round now consisted of guessing one last word chain. I have fond memories of watching this version on USA as a kid in the late 80's and early 90's. The sets were chintzy, but the game play was genuinely interesting. Blake Emmonds was the original host, but he was replaced by the the more personable Geoff Edwards after a few weeks. Edwards continued when the show moved to a tournament format as The $40,000 Chain Reaction for its last year.
Chain Reaction has turned up three times on Game Show Network. None of their versions lasted longer than a year, but the one from 2006-2007 in particular seems to be fairly well-remembered. The 2006-2007 show kept the original game play, with three contestant teams and the bonus round from the 1980 show. The only thing that changed in 2015 was the host, the set (which went from blue to magenta and purple), the elimination of the Speed Rounds, two contestants again, and switching back to the 1986 bonus round. They went back to three contestants in 2021 and another bonus round that had the winning team making three chains in a minute.
See if you can make chains and guess how words are related in these hilarious and heart-pounding word association games!
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