Called Uber after the cartoon ended. It was hot and humid...and more to the point, I wanted to get home in a hurry for my second job. The driver going there arrived in 9 minutes, missed the entrance to the Acme, and almost made me late. The one going home said 9 minutes, arrived in 7, and got me home with no trouble.
Work wasn't any trouble, either. I did have to return some cold items someone didn't want. Otherwise, I was mainly sweeping and outside with the carts. We got a little busy around 11:30-12, but otherwise weren't that bad. Most people are still on vacation or are waiting for the beginning of the month next weekend. It was hot, sunny, and killer humid, but thankfully, there wasn't a cloud in the sky this time.
Changed when I got home, then had lunch while watching She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Adora literally falls into the Crystal Castle, where she encounters a hologram of "Light Hope." She tells Adora of the previous She-Ras, including one whose attachments broke her. Adora, fearing her friends being further harmed if she's around, at first agrees to stay. Bow, Glimmer, and Adora's flying horse Swift Wind finally remind her that her friendships don't make her weaker - they make her stronger. Meanwhile, Entraptra has discovered that the entire planet of Eternia is connected via runestones that belong to the princesses. Shadow Weaver is furious when they borrow her black garnet. Catra's able to subdue her, while Entraptra's experiments freeze the Whispering Woods.
Hurried off to the Oaklyn School after the cartoon ended. The kids were still doing art projects when I arrived. I kept an eye on the ones coloring in and cutting out prints of dinosaur bracelets (and sharpened a lot of colored pencils for them). The others pulled red yarn through watercolors, making flowers or rainbows. I wiped down tables after they finished and after their snacks. Spent their free play period keeping an eye on the rambunctious crowd building with Legos. I had no idea what to make. I tried a plane before I attempted Rapunzel's tower from the "Maplepunzel" story I'm developing. I couldn't find enough thick bricks in the three big plastic containers filled with every kind of brick and vehicle but regular ones.
Stopped at Crown Chicken and Gyro on the way home. It was too hot to cook, and I wasn't in the mood for leftovers. Got my favorite tilapia sandwich with fries and a Diet Coke. They were honestly pretty busy with people picking up early dinners, but it didn't really take them that long to finish mine.
I took the laundry downstairs, then had dinner while watching Remember WENN. Mackie lets Betty making him station manager for the day to his head and behaves like a "little dictator," until gangster Palermo Racine (Phillip Bosco) turns up at the station. Mackie had once been his driver, but he inadvertently got caught up in a robbery and ended up in jail. Racine wants to blackmail Mackie, but the others come up with a scheme to use their version of "Listen to Your Life" to give everything away and get Racine out of Mackie's life in "A Star In Stripes Forever."
Maple LaMarsh is tired of being "A Girl Like Maple," every guy's favorite drinking buddy, just because of her Brooklyn accent and being regarded as easy. She uses a far more cultured accent when a handsome governor (Boyd Gaines) appears on a prestigious talk show she's hosting. She really likes him, but now he thinks she talks like that all the time. She's afraid to drop her cultured accent when he's around, wrecking havoc on "The Hands of Time," until she realizes that what's more important than how she talks is staying true to herself.
Worked on Hilary and the Beasts next. A few weeks after her dinner with Troll outside, she finally gets through to Doug Thompson again. He's managed to pull strings with City Hall and reveals that yes, Jeff did buy the house. Hilary points out that Troll claims it belongs to him. She finds Betty helping Bear (Scott) learn to write on the other side of the library. She sends Betty to talk to Doug, then tries to find out more about Jeff owning the house from Bear. Trouble is, those strong mental blocks prevent him from remembering his own name, let alone Jeff's. She shakes him and calls him a moron, bringing Betty over to scold her and comfort him. Does help that, as in the actual series, Bear is jealous of the very human Doug.
Hilary doesn't have much more luck with Newspaper (Gus Kantana). His Eddie Cantor and Al Jolson voices reveal that Troll bought the house for his first wife, but his second wife claimed it - and him. Hilary is fed up with going in circles with all of these enchanted objects and creatures and finally goes to discuss this with Troll himself in his rooms, despite Newspaper's bleating that Troll doesn't allow anyone in his rooms besides him.
Oh, and it's way early, but this year's Christmas story is going to be a total re-write of my fantasy satire The WENN Nutcracker Suite. I want to add it to the Fairy Tale Series and make it deeper, darker, and more of a slow-burn on the line of what I'm doing with Hilary and the Beasts. It'll also be brought somewhat closer to the Hoffman and Dumas stories. Scott will stay a Nutcracker longer, Hilary and Jeff's Sugar Plum Fairy and Cavalier will be captured by the Mouse King (Pruitt), and we'll get the Pirlipat story with the Mouse Queen (Ruth Geddy). Depending on how long my other stories take, I'll probably start this one around or just after Halloween.
Watched Match Game '76 while I worked and after I got the laundry back upstairs. Gary Burghoff, Sarah Kennedy, and Fannie Flagg joined in this week. Gary was delighted when one contestant gave him a teddy bear, knowing how much his character on MASH, Radar O'Reilly, loved his. Smart little Sarah reminds Gene that she is perfectly capable of picking him up (as she did the last time she was on the show).
Finished the night on YouTube honoring producer Ralph Edwards, whose birthday was last month. Edwards got his start on radio, where he hosted his show Truth Or Consequences and announced Fred Allen's show and The Original Amateur Hour. Truth Or Consequences started on TV as early as 1941, but didn't see a regular run until a decade later. This wildly popular stunt show had people answering goofy "truth" questions, but mostly doing the "consequences," like re-naming towns in New Mexico and riding unicycles in the studio. Bob Barker took over from Jack Bailey in 1956, which is the episode I have here.
Truth was far from Edwards' only show. He created About Faces during Truth's long run. This 1960 show has one person trying to guess who someone in a frame was in their past. We also have a Mystery Guest who does the same thing. Xavier Cugat and his beloved Chihuahua were the Mystery Guests in the episode I have here. Place the Face was pretty much an earlier version of the same idea, with Bill Cullen hosting.
Edwards continued producing game shows into the 70's. He did the massive hit syndicated version of Name That Tune with Tom Kennedy and the enjoyable cross between Password Plus and crossword puzzles The Cross-Wits hosted by Jack Clark in syndication. Knockout didn't do nearly as well on NBC in 1977. Arte Johnson was funny, but he was hardly the host to make a game that had contestants guessing what items did or didn't belong on a list exciting.
Edwards focused on The People's Court and Superior Court for most of the 80's and 90's, but he did make one last crack at a syndicated show in 1996. Bzzz! had a bachelorette choosing between four bachelors, then a bachelor choosing between four bachelorettes. The two couples played each other in a game that tested what they knew about each other. In the end, the bachelorette could go out with her bachelor, or reject him. Annie Wood was the enthusiastic host. I've never been much for dating games, and between Wood being annoying, the butt-ugly (and very 90's) sets, and some of the sillier relationship questions, I can see why this didn't last on syndication (where it ran a year) or in re-runs on Buzzr (where it only lasted five months in 2020).
At any rate, get to know the man who brought us Miss Shush, re-named a town, and jump-started Bob Barker's career!
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