After Alice, I took my laundry downstairs and switched to that AI Chat I ran my long WENN fantasy story through last week. I really would like to finish it. I was about half-way through it in the fall of 2015 when all of the hype around The Force Awakens got me back into Star Wars before I could finish. No concern about that now. I think I've very much burnt out on Star Wars and have absolutely no desire to return to that overstuffed franchise at present.
Switched to Remember WENN after breakfast. Hilary and Jeff are "Strange Bedfellows" when they join opposite sides of the city council race. Scott sets up a debate to let them show off their political interests on the air, but they end up airing their grievances with each other instead. It's the laid-back former baseball player who is also campaigning who reminds them that politics has a lot more to do with civic duty than with formal lunches and pretty speeches.
The WENN staff find themselves in "Close Quarters" when the doctor on Maple's Health and Wellfare show thinks Mr. Foley has a rare disease. Everything starts out well, with a memorable spaghetti dinner and the cast dancing with each other. As the weeks wear on, the cast start to become more than a little fed up with each other and being stuck together, and there's Hilary having to comfort Jeff's nightmares about the bombing in London.
Listened to one of my recent record finds while I wrote down four pages of notes and ideas from the AI Chat and brought my laundry back upstairs. I'm guessing my double studio cast album of the romantic operetta The Desert Song and the operetta-musical hybrid Roberta are from the 1950's, from the cover designs, singers Gordon MacRae and Lucille Norman, and the fact that both saw revivals and remakes then. MacRae doesn't sound much more passionate here than he did in the 1953 Desert Song film, but Norman does get a nice "Romance" and "French Military Marching Song." I wish my favorite song from Roberta, "Let's Begin," hadn't been relegated to a chorus number, but Norman does get to pour her soprano into "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes."
Headed out after the record ended. Had lunch at Crust N' Cravings at the corner of Collings Avenue and the White Horse Pike. They're a narrow, unassuming pizza place with old wooden tables next to an ancient cooler filled with mismatched soda brands. Looks can be deceiving. The slice of cheese and slice of tomato-basil I had were amazing, with a soft, thick seasoned crust and lots of cheese and sauce. Tried their deliciously custardy tiramisu, too.
Ames Drug Store is a tiny independent pharmacy a block from the White Horse Pike. Though their prices were honestly pretty reasonable for a tiny store, they didn't have much in the way of merchandise. I was hoping to find more sugar-free vitamins, but I just ended up with a nail file and a pack of wipes for my backpack and a roll of Breathsavers. (I haven't seen the roll version in years, maybe decades.)
They're also about four blocks from Thomas Sharp School. As I rode up, I heard tinny horns playing "Hot Cross Buns." Crowds of kids, parents, and teachers watched what I presumed to be the school band hold an outdoor concert on the front steps. I had wondered why I was listed to come in at 2:45 today, instead of 2:30. The music continued even as I led my bike around to the rack near the playground and headed inside.
The kids were a bit antsy from having to sit so long and listen to that concert, but they were otherwise pretty good today. We got to play with rubbery fake food and magnetic building blocks, and this time everyone but two of the boys got to go outside. Good thing, too. It was lovely, windy and cool and sunny. It's not supposed to be this nice later in the week. Might as well get them out now while we can. I got to read two stories to them after we went in, an exciting LEGO comic book about a dedicated cop stopping robbers from stealing a blue diamond (including one who won't stop eating) and a story about Tweety Bird bringing the North Star up to the Little Dipper so it can direct people to where they need to go.
It was such a gorgeous day, I took the long way home across Newton Lake Park. Looks like there's been a lot of work done at the park since the last time I was down at the area across from the Parkview Apartments. New blacktop made the path a lot easier to navigate. I didn't have the time to take a closer look, but they did finally finish building the new playground equipment, too.
Started re-writing when I got home. The wrap-around sequences for Land of WENN are set in the early 4th season, between "And If I Die Before I Sleep" and "Hilary's Agent." Mrs. Viola Doria, whose husband owns Doria's Deli, was impressed with Betty's massive epic "When In Rome" and wants Betty to come up with a similar Tolkien-esque fantasy saga. Betty's more than happy to comply. She's still eager to write something richer and more detailed than sitcoms and soap operas, even after the "Rome" broadcast went off the rails. Scott joins her and speaks warmly with Mrs. Doria, revealing that her husband is an old friend of his. Betty does finally shoo him to his soap opera, but his presence and her frustration with Victor not being there for the meeting intrudes on her writing, making her wonder how she fell for a bad boy con man who isn't so bad and a noble broadcaster whom she might have put on too high of a pedestal before.
(Incidentally, Mrs. Doria and Doria's Deli were named for Doria's Deli on West Clinton and the business that replaced it shortly before I started writing, Viola's Deli. Both are long gone. The Pudding Palace is currently in that location.)
This leads into the fantasy story. In her story, Betty is Elizabeth, the former writer for Wennaria Castle who now lives in quiet Pittsburgh Village, printing and writing books with her crusty boss and mentor Gertrude Reece. One night, while gathering berries for ink, she's attacked by ugly, dangerous monsters who are after her basket. They're chased off by a man in black who stays in the shadows, but Betty knows his voice and the touch of his hand. After she's inside, Gertie brings the book she was printing to a kindly older man who confirms that Betty was saved by the former Prince Regent Scott, and that Betty has a lot more magic of her own that she'd ever believe.
Watched Hart to Hart while I worked. It's "Operation Murder" when a woozy Jennifer accidentally witnesses a murder while staying in the hospital overnight. No one believes her but Jonathan...and an FBI agent who was also at the hospital. Turns out what Jennifer witnessed was the murder of a gangster who was supposed to be in witness protection. Among those involved are their doctor, who owed the gangster gambling debts. Jonathan and Jennifer get her back in the hospital so they can prove who really did the gangster in.
Put on Match Game '76 while eating dinner. Ironically, it was one of the episodes I saw last night on the Ron Pallio marathon, his second day from his first week. Fannie Flagg and in her last week, Jo Anne Worley also join in here.
Finished the night at YouTube with some favorite word-related game shows. The undisputed word game champs are Match Game and Password. They're both simple, addictive, fun to play, and in the case of Match Game, absolutely hilarious. They've been revived constantly since their creation in the 60's (Match Game is about to get another revival with Martin Short), but the episodes I have here are probably from their most famous incarnations.
The 70's-80's Match Game added a larger panel and upped the comedy quotient, turning the questions into epic salacious jokes about Dumb Donald and Old Man Periwinkle. Password Plus from the late 70's-early 80's and Super Password from later in the 80's had contestants guessing five words, then the subject those words revolved around. The episodes seen here are typical versions of all three; Super Password with Bert Convy is especially fun.
Their success was bound to inspire imitations. The original You Don't Say was identical to Password, only contestants had to guess the name of a famous person or phrase instead of a word. Tom Kennedy kept an eye on the proceedings. I have the only remaining color episode here, with Mel Torme and Pat Carroll doing the describing.
The $10,000 Pyramid debuted a few months before the 1973 Match Game and proved to be almost as popular. Here, celebrities describe topics or ideas rather than words. The champ moves on to The Winner's Circle, where they and the celebrity describe 9 different subjects in the shape of pyramid in a certain amount of time. Dick Clark mostly hosted the show through the late 80's and is the host that remains most associated with it. The episode I have here with Sandy Duncan and Ed Asner are among the few remaining from the original 1973 CBS run.
Wheel of Fortune also has its roots in the 70's. Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford were the original host and hostess from the show's beginnings in 1976 until late 1981. This episode featuring the Armed Forces playing each other is one of the few from the Woolery era to not feature contestants spending their money on prizes between solving phrases.
Boggle: The Interactive Game is one of the three phone-in games Wink Martindale attempted to do with The Family Channel in 1994. Frankly, this is by far the least interesting of the three. Finding words on a phone keypad isn't all that exciting, and the frequent stops so those folks on the phone can play along make this slow-moving. No wonder this didn't last more than four months.
Word games continue to turn up on TV today. Tug of Words is a recent hit on Game Show Network that has three contestants making a word chain and changing letters to make new words, with the words getting larger with each round. The bonus round has them having to change one of two words in a phrase to make a new phrase as words move on a track. This actually ended up being quite a bit of fun. No wonder it was a two-year hit on Game Show Network. Samantha Harris hosted the episode I have here.
See if you can guess the words before the contestants with these funny and thought-provoking shows!
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