Switched to Super Password briefly while I made my grocery lists and got organized. Pat Harrington and a hilarious Edie McClurg were the celebrities here. After they answered the first puzzle, I headed out to do this week's grocery shopping.
Began at Sprouts. I mainly needed dried fruit here - went with golden raisins. Small sale on cookies. I couldn't resist their detectable peanut butter. Grabbed soda and granola bars on sale, too. Headed down to the Acme next. Also got soda and granola bars, the latter Kind Kids' Bars on unusually good sales. Grabbed bagels for work this week. Stocked up on yogurt and cherries, and strawberries were on a good sale with an online coupon. Picked up a square of strawberry cake for a treat.
Took the long way home across Newton Lake Park. The park was really busy with joggers, walkers, and bikers out enjoying the weather, to the point where I eventually took the path over the hill to get some quiet. It was cloudy, windy, and cold here today, in the upper 60's. Quite a difference from the past week, but after the past week, I'll take it.
After I got home, I had lunch while watching Remember WENN. It's "Past Tense, Future Imperfect" when Victor breaks yet another date with Betty, and Betty explains to Maple (and Scott) how she became the cornerstone of the station. On her second day, Victor's habitual "grandeloquence" leaves her thinking he's in love with her. (That comes later.) Hilary still thinks she's after Jeff, and Eugenia's got in her head that she wants Mr. Foley, too. Victor has to explain that it's Betty's raw potential he's interested in.
"The Sunset Also Rises" is Gertie's second attempt at a script, this time for the then-brand-new medium of television. It turns into a spoof of Sunset Boulevard. At least initially, Hilary is the grande dame actress and Scott is the writer she bedevils...but the others jump in with their own ideas, of course. (And...this is another episode that has always bothered me. Though there are some funny moments, and watching Hilary scare the Dickens out of Scott is amusing, Sunset Boulevard fits neither the time period, nor the show's tone. AMC should have just let Rupert do his Maltese Falcon spoof.)
Got my schedule here. It's a lot quieter than I figured for the 4th of July. I did ask for that off, but I only work Wednesday and the weekend. I guess they had a lot of help this week.
Switched to records while I finished yesterday's blog entry. Dumbo may be one of Disney's shortest films, but it's long on charm and good music. The lullaby "Baby Mine" is the heartbreaking standard here. Though many people nowadays don't appreciate how the crows who find Dumbo and Timothy on that electrical wire are portrayed, it doesn't change the fact that their "When I See an Elephant Fly" is a showstopper. We even get a jaunty instrumental demo at the very end, "Spread Your Wings."
I think I like Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook even better than her Gershwin Songbook. Every one of these songs is a sheer delight, from the hilarious "A Fine Romance" to the aching "Why Was I Born?" My favorites are her languid opener "Let's Begin," the charming "You Couldn't Be Cuter," and a gentle "Remind Me."
Put on Laugh-In next. This early 3rd season episode featured a very eager Sonny Bono and a very blase Cher at the height of their original popularity. We also get the Laugh-In ladies dressed as bikers to introduce the news and sketches on social climbing.
Watched Match Game '74 during dinner. This was the last episode of one of the last weeks of 1974, featuring Avery Schriberer, and in her only appearance in the franchise, Phyllis Newman. (I have the feeling from an episode earlier in the week that Phyllis took some of the booing and Brett's insults a little too personally.)
Spent the rest of the evening working on Hilary and the Beasts. Bear, Eagle, and Mr. Rabbit take the ladies and their luggage to their room. Not only is it decorated exactly to Hilary's taste, but Maple and Betty's couches are being made up by an eager half-human, half-golden retriever puppy (Enid) who delights at Betty's typewriter and hopes they can make up stories together. Nobody will talk about what's going on.
Betty asks the Bear his real name, but his mind is blank. He only knows his name is Bear. He also knows that the Troll bought the house and grew the roses in the hot house for "a lady," but can't remember who she is or her name. Maple is happier to pepper Eagle with questions, even as he tries to nudge Bear into remembering who he is.
Finished the night at YouTube with a pair of childhood memories that are part of the reason I'm such a huge fairy tale fan. During the 80's, Nickelodeon ran an anime called Grimm's Fairy Tales. They not only adapted the usual stories like "Beauty and the Beast," but ones that were far less familiar. I went with one favorite and one unfamiliar version of an old favorite. The favorite is "Snow White and Rose Red." This pretty much runs with the original story of two girls who help a bear defeat a gold-stealing gnome, but they do give the bear's younger brother more to do in the end.
"Beauty and the Beast" follows a variant called "The Summer and Winter Garden" where it's snowing on one side of the Beast's castle and summer on the other. Other than that and Beauty's (in this case, Maria) father dies in the end, this is a pretty straightforward retelling.
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