Friends at Christmas

Began the morning with a really quick breakfast and Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis. This is one of Johnny's later albums from 1986. It features one of Mathis' best Christmas recordings, a delightful version of "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" that later turned up in Home Alone 2. He also has lovely versions of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" and a medley of "Happy Holidays" and "Caroling, Caroling." We also get music from lesser-known 80's projects, including "Where Will I Find Christmas" from The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas and the Leslie Bricusse and Henry Mancini songs from the notorious cult flop Santa Claus: The Movie, "Giving" and "Every Christmas Eve."

It took me longer to make my bed than I thought it would, and I didn't get out the door until 11, when I was supposed to meet Amanda. Good thing she was picking me up at the parking lot of Oaklyn's City Hall, less than a five-minute walk away. She was there when I arrived. I jumped in her car, and we headed down the White Horse Pike to the Legacy Diner. 

We had a hard time finding a place to park at the diner. They were so busy! There's a church just a block from there, and a lot of people probably went straight from church to brunch. At least it only took about 10 minutes to seat us. We both had pancakes and bacon. She had chocolate chip, I had coconut pineapple. Hers was part of the Legacy Sampler, which meant she also got scrambled eggs. She had hot tea, I had iced tea. The Legacy Diner makes wonderful pancakes, fluffy and huge, the size of the plate, and full of fruit. They were also too big to eat in one go. Neither of us finished our pancakes.

Amanda loves coffee, so we headed back down the Pike to Common Grounds in Oaklyn. They too were busy, but Amanda got us a seat at one of the wrought-iron tables along the brick wall. She just had a cup of coffee. I had a matcha latte. We spent the next hour or so discussing our triumphs and difficulties with our students - she teaches kindergarten at a private academy outside of Vineland - and that she's not really close with most of her family.

It had been raining all morning, since before I left Amanda, not hard rain, but a persistent shower that would continue for most of the day. Between the bad weather and Amanda wanting to get home and decorate her own tree, we ended up calling it early and exchanging gifts in her car. She gave me two fancy tins of hot chocolate, a cute kitten playing with a laptop Hallmark ornament, and another bag of scone mix, this one chocolate. 

After Amanda dropped me off, I went straight into putting all the ornaments on my tree, including the Strawberry Shortcake I bought in Vermont and the one Amanda just gave me. I have so many ornaments! Mom made the folksy-themed stitched Santa and heart, the Christmas tree with the buttons, and Holly Hobbie in the 90's. Later, she bought us all ornaments from Winterwood in Rio Grande, like the beautiful flowered heart, the gingerbread Man in the chef's hat, and the Willow angel with the heart. Mom gave Rose and Anny and me Willow Angels the year they came out. Rose's angel holds a rose, mine has a heart, and Anny's has a child. (She gave birth to Skylar that year.) There's all kinds of pop culture characters and figures I love, Lucy Ricardo in a snazzy green dress, a soft BB8, Yogi Bear, the Disney Cinderella (they both came from half-price after-Christmas sales), Pusheen, Shaggy and Scooby out sledding, Winnie the Pooh dressed as an angel while eating honey, Rudolph and the Misfit Toys. Even my star holds fond memories. I bought the silver-tinsel-trimmed topper from Family Dollar in the late 90's, well before I had a tree. I just thought it was too cute and retro.  

I had a little time after I finally got the ornaments done. Since I just rearranged my stuffed animals on my bed anyway, I got the Christmas bears out. This dates to 1987, when Dad gave Mom a big white teddy bear from K-Mart wearing a knitted hat and scarf. She named him Chester and put him on her hope chest, then dressed some of our other bears in old baby clothes and scarves and hats and had them join him. It was an interactive display. We'd change their clothes throughout the season, even putting tiaras and top hats on them at New Year's.

By the early 2000's, only Keefe was left at home, and Mom was tired of putting the bears out. She gave Chester and the remaining Christmas-only bears and clothes to me after I moved to Wildwood in 2002. I had no idea where to put them. I don't have a hope chest, but I did realize it looked a bit bare under my Christmas tree. The Christmas bears and stuffed animals have gone under the tree almost every year since.

Listened to Christmas records all afternoon while I worked. I picked up Volumes 20, 22, and 23 of the True Value Happy Holidays series on eBay. Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas" and the Carpenters singing "Sleigh Ride" are probably the big ones on Volume 20. Leontyne Price also does a nice "I Wonder as I Wander," and Ronnie Milsap's "It's Christmas" is very sweet. Volume 22 gets its country on with Milsap returning for "Silver Bells," Alabama doing "Homecoming Christmas," and Dolly Pardon covering "White Christmas." Ella Fitzgerald ends the album with a gorgeous "Silent Night." Bing Crosby's immortal version of "White Christmas" ends Volume 23, which Mom bought to play while we decorated the tree when I was a kid. It gets a lot more late 80's with "This Christmas" by the Jets and "Greatest Little Christmas Ever Wuz" by Ray Stevens.

Switched to 80's kids Christmas albums while I dressed the bears. The Pac-Man Christmas Album has a rather sappy story about the Pac family inviting the ghosts over for Christmas, but it does have some good songs. "Snowflakes and Frozen Lakes" and "An Old-Fashioned Christmas" are my favorite numbers here. 

A Cabbage Patch Christmas is even better. In fact, I bought this album because it has four songs by the Sherman Brothers along with numbers by other hands. Ironically, the clear winner was one of the numbers by other hands. "Children Go Where I Send Thee" is the attempt by the Colonel to tell the Kids the story of Christ. The Sherman Brothers' best song is "Gimmie Gimmie Take Take." The resident villains in the Cabbage Patch are confused and annoyed by a time of year when their usual adversaries are more likely to give them gifts than run away from them.

Did True Value Happy Holidays Volume 38 after I got off. The Bing Crosby/David Bowie version of "Little Drummer Boy" that ends the album and "Wonderful Christmastime" by Paul McCartney are by far the most famous numbers here. I loved the jazzy Dave Koz "Winter Wonderland" too. Sawyer Brown's "Please Come Home for Christmas" was the best of the country numbers.

Finished the night after a shower with dinner and tonight's YouTube game show marathon. We leave Match Game behind tonight to honor one of the channel owner's favorite game show hosts, Dick Clark, whose birthday would have been next week. Clark, the world's oldest teenager, had already been hosting American Bandstand for almost a decade when he did his first game show. The Object Is..., which had celebrities describing a famous person by using objects associated with them. It was too confusing to last more than a few months in late 1963 and early 1964. 

After the similar Missing Links also failed, Clark focused on radio and Bandstand until 1973, when he hosted The $10,000 Pyramid. He became so associated with the show, he'd host all versions through 1988 except the syndicated $25,000. I have fond memories of watching the CBS daytime New $25,000 and $100,000 Pyramids when I was a kid. 

Clark hosted many lesser-known shows, too. It Takes Two debuted on the Family Channel in 1997. Three couples have to decide between the averages tied to some kind of event, like a huge meal or how much three San Diego Chargers weigh. Not a whole lot too this one. He ended his career with two short-lived Who Wants to Be a Millionaire imitations. Winning Lines and the two-off special Challenge of the Child Geniuses were clearly designed to steal Millionaire's thunder. They both asked questions of a large group of people before narrowing the field down and asking questions in Millionaire style ladders. Winning Lines was slightly more interesting; the kids on the Child Genius specials were more uncanny than brilliant.

Clark appeared as a panelist on other game shows, too. He was either on the panel of What's My Line? or a Mystery Guest many times, both on the network and in syndication. Likewise, he was also a frequent panelist on To Tell the Truth, including its rare 1980 version. He helped a couple with some pretty wild stunts in the 1970 version of Beat the Clock with Gene Wood. His stint on I've Got a Secret in 1964 coincided with their "teenager day." They introduced famous young teenagers, including Carol Lynley, future basketball star Oscar Peterson, and Bobby Fisher, and showed Paul Anka singing a new song he'd written. 

Celebrate the life and times of the man who could climb Pyramids, challenge child geniuses, and kept New Year's Eve and daytime rockin' for 40 years!

Sunday Classics - Dick Clark Happy Heavenly Birthday Marathon

O Christmas Matches

Got a quick start today with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Plus. "Mickey and Pluto Go Camping" at Friendship Lake. While they enjoy their time together, they also admit that they miss their friends. Turns out the others had the same idea and eventually join them.

Hurried off to work after that. Work was pretty much the same as yesterday. Surprisingly busy in the morning, slowing down as afternoon hit. The fact that it's still sunny, windy, and cold probably helped scare some people off. By the time I finished, I had no trouble whatsoever with the carts. I stopped on the way home to buy Finley one last Christmas gift. Saw these cookie-tart things filled with icing on the clearance rack and thought I'd try them.

The other important thing I did at work today was get my flu and Covid shots. I'm overdue for both. Since the pharmacist goes on break around 1-1:30, I couldn't get it after work. I scheduled the appointment during my break. It was worth losing the extra time just to get it over with. 

As soon as I got home, I changed, had lunch, and went straight into Standing Ovation. I go further into this cute but heavily cliched teen dance movie from the early 2010's at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Family Fun Saturday - Standing Ovation

After lunch, I dusted my rooms, then started putting up the Christmas decorations. The miscellaneous items always come first. I hung the wreath with the gold foil stars and big red velvet ribbon on my door. The needlepoint magnetic poinsettia I bought from a church bazaar, the red and green coasters I crocheted myself, the poinsettia place mats, the huge old Nativity that once belonged to my grandmother went in the living room. The bows and tinsel Garland got hung up in the bedroom and draped over book shelves. Decorated the feather-style tree I bought from Dollar Tree a few years ago with tiny ornaments and chenille candy canes I found at the Vermont Country Store.

The tree went up next as I put on tonight's YouTube marathon. I'll do the ornaments with Amanda tomorrow, but I put up the tree itself, the lights, the star, and the garlands tonight. Watched tonight's game show marathon while I worked. Match Game is far from the only older game shows to have episodes missing or can no longer be shown on Buzzr. In addition to being sensitive about the word "midget," Buzzr also skips episodes where people use the word "Oriental," which is now reserved for things, not people.

Password Plus and Super Password were both hit with the "oriental" clues. Orson Bean's story about a middle-eastern cab driver he met in New York in one episode probably didn't help things, either. Other episodes have bad tape that can't be seen or replaced. A 1973 episode of Match Game with Nanette Fabray only turned up this year due to tape damage. A nighttime Match Game episode had fringing around the edges of the screen. 

See some of the rarest game show episodes of all in this unique and thought-provoking marathon!

Match Game Saturday Classics - Fully Stuffed Marathon: Skipped Episodes of Family Feud, Match Game, Password, and Password Plus

Welcome to the Holidays

Began the day with apple pie for breakfast and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Plus. Daisy takes the others mini golfing, but she finds more holes than there should be on the course. She and the others have to figure out who made those holes, and how to help them and still let Daisy get her hole in one.

Rushed off to work the moment the cartoon ended. Work was busier than I thought it would be for the day after Thanksgiving, especially early-on. It did slow down later in the morning as more people focused on other types of shopping. It being a cold day probably didn't help. It was sunny, yes, but still very windy and bitterly cold, barely in the 40's. The wind didn't make gathering carts easy! They all tried to blow away from me.

And I got my schedule next week. In good news, three days off the Acme in a row, including Sunday. I'll be having my annual pre-Christmas get-together with my friend Amanda that day. In bad news, fewer hours, and working next Wednesday and Friday means I'll have two days next week where I have to rush between jobs. 

Did this week's grocery shopping after I finished my shift. Mainly needed to restock apples, yogurt, soda, and granola bars. Found the Acme's generic organic chocolate chunk-coconut granola on clearance. I've never seen Fresca at the Audubon Acme, but they did have Orange Vanilla Coke Zero. Got something small for Amanda, along with cards and candy canes for the Christmas tree (which I'll be putting up this weekend).

Went home and put everything away, then watched two episodes of What's New, Scooby Doo? while eating leftovers for lunch. "Gold Paw" is a gold-covered spook running around Fort Knox, turning military officers into gold statues. Mystery Inc is there to visit Scooby's old friends the Secret Six puppies, who have been tired and going to bed with dirty paws. Turns out they and the Gold-ade Factory next door are at the heart of a mystery revolving around mysteries military explosions that are damaging the factory.

"Reef Grief!" has one of the most unique monsters in the entire franchise, and may be one of the very few times the monster in question wasn't really the villain. Scooby, Shaggy, and the others are in Australia for a major sand castle building contest. The entrants have just begun to disappear under the sand when an enormous coral creature appears, attacking everyone. When Shaggy and Scooby vanish too, the others have to figure out why the creature has left the Great Barrier Reef, and who's the one who is really behind the disappearances.

Headed back out after Scooby ended. After a brief check around Target for one last Christmas present, I finished my grocery shopping at Sprouts. Picked up coconut milk, soda, and peanut butter cookies. They still had plenty of the apple fritter-flavored cranberries left, so I grabbed some of those, too. 

Spent the next hour after I got in and put everything away taking down the Thanksgiving and fall decorations. I'll be putting the Christmas decorations starting tomorrow afternoon. After I got everything down, I vacuumed and Swiftered everything.

Listened to two more True Value Happy Holidays records as I worked. Volume 13 from 1978 is the oldest True Value collection I currently own. 13 and 16 have pretty similar line-ups, probably due to both being from RCA. Both feature Julie Andrews, who sings "Deck the Halls" in 16 and "Jingle Bells" in 13. Perry Como kicks 13 off with "There's No Christmas Like a Home Christmas" and gets "Christ Is Born" in 16. Both feature at least one country singer. Charlie Pride performs "Christmas and Love" in 13, while Dottie West gets the sweet "You are My Christmas, Carol" in 16. Eugene Armandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra perform "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" in 13 and "Angels We Have Heard On High" in 16. Henry Mancini and His Orchestra have "The Christmas Song" in 13 and a medley of traditional carols in 16.

Volume 13 also tosses in Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass with a livelier "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town." Lorne Greene recites The Night Before Christmas on Volume 16. Also on 16, we have Roger Whittaker performing "Christmas Is Here Again," and Ella Fitzgerald's rollicking "Sleigh Ride."

Had dinner and watched Match Game '76 and '78 while eating dinner. We started out with the smoky-voiced older contestant Evelyn finishing her long run. For some reason, they skipped way ahead after that to early 1978, before the set changed and Richard left. Joe Gargiola's only week on the show coincided with the introduction of a new camera angle that showed the backs of the panelists and what they were doing. Betty White and Debralee Scott had more fun flirting with the camera and flouting the new angle.

Watched Nutcracker: The Motion Picture on Tubi next. This exquisite version of the beloved ballet was filmed in 1986, with genuinely creepy sets and costumes designed by Maurice Sendak, of Little Critter and Where the Wild Things Are fame. Certainly, the squat, big-toothed Nutcracker looks like his work. Though the first half is pretty consistent with other retellings, it's the second half where this differs. The Spanish dancers are Arabian, and the Arabian Dance is performed by a woman in a peacock costume. The Chinese dancers perform with a huge gnome. Even Drosselmeyer goes Arabian in the second half, where he directly competes with the Nutcracker Prince for a decidedly adult Clara. This is also another version where Clara and the Nutcracker Prince take over the Sugar Plum Fairy's dances. The unique sets and costumes alone make this worth seeing for fans of The Nutcracker or ballet in general.

Finished the night at YouTube for something else that's truly unique. Kevin Perjurer of Defunctland created a four and a half hour documentary on the Walt Disney Company's attempt to create "Living Characters," aka Audio-Anamatronics that can talk and interact with theme park guests. They were apparently really gung-ho on this in the 2000's and early 2010's, but mobile figures like Bunsen and Beaker in their own Muppet Lab or a dinosaur that moved and pulled a cart proved too expensive, too difficult to maintain, and too prone to breakdowns. 

Animated puppet shows like Talk With Crush at the Living Seas With Nemo that gave audiences a chance to talk (and flirt) with versions of a beloved character were cheaper and went over slightly better with Imagineeers and audiences. There were supposed to have been droids and more "living characters" in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, but cost-cutting and the difficulty with their maintenance ended that idea. I didn't know anyone could do a four and a half hour documentary on the history of Disney's attempt to make robots that interact with guests, but Kevin knows how to make even the driest bit of theme park history vastly entertaining and even hilarious. If you have any interest in the history of robots and Disney's involvement with them, you owe it to yourself to check this out, even if you have to break it down into a couple of days' viewing like I did.

Disney's Living Characters: A Broken Promise

Thanksgiving With the Family

Began the morning with the Thanksgiving material in the Colliers Harvest of Holidays anthology. The long piece for Thanksgiving is a story about a Pilgrim grandmother relating her memories of the first Thanksgiving to her family. There's also several hymns and poems, including "Over the River and Through the Woods."

The original book version of Molly's Pilgrim is pretty close to the half-hour special that debuted in 1985. The biggest difference is it's likely set in what I suspect to be the early 1900's. Elizabeth, the girl who bullies Molly, has long black ringlets rather than straight blonde hair, they go a little more into Molly and her family being Jewish, and Molly doesn't get extra help for English after school. It's still a sweet and charming story, though, a reminder that "pilgrims" continue to search for religious freedom even today.

There's a short story in the Disney Storybookland anthology called "Pilgrim's Party." Mickey takes Minnie, Donald, and Pluto to Plymouth, Massachusetts for a real old-fashioned Thanksgiving dinner. It's all fun and Pilgrim cosplay, until Pluto steals the turkey!

Changed and had breakfast while watching the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Parade. They've gone through a couple of different sponsors through the years. The current sponsors are ABC and Dunkin' Donuts, the latter of whom had an extremely pink donut float in the parade. The only balloon I saw in the air was Clifford the Big Red Dog. There was a modern Netflix Strawberry Shortcake, but I think she had deflated by the time they showed her on the broadcast, because she seemed to be laying down. I saw an Acme float, too, appropriately based around a cornucopia bursting with harvest produce. 

Thank heavens this was broadcast for free on WPVI 6's website. The Macy's Parade is the exclusive domain of Peacock online, but it was more fun to see what Philly did for Thanksgiving anyway. A huge tap group did an enormous number with dozens of kids all tapping together. We had songs from the stage Beauty and the Beast and Here's Love (under the title Meredith Wilson's Miracle On 34th Street: The Musical). The Four Tops, Jordan Sparks, and a group called Cameo performed their hits. There were marching bands from as far away as Indiana. Unlike Macy's parade, which ends with the arrival of Santa, the Philly parade ended with a huge number that included the tap dancers, the All-American Cheerleaders, Santa, and piles of confetti.

Called Mom while the parade was on. We weren't able to chat for very long. She was making pies for my brother's Thanksgiving dinner. Keefe insisted on making the rest of the dinner, including the turkey (though his wife Julia was apparently in charge of the sweet potatoes). There had been a few problems when Elijah came out, but he's as healthy as any darling baby ever born now.

Switched to two delightful Thanksgiving specials from the 1980's after the parade ended. I go further into the charming Paul Fusco puppet show A Thanksgiving Tale at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Thanksgiving Short Subject Special - A Thanksgiving Tale

The 1985 Molly's Pilgrim won an Oscar for Best Live-Action Short Subject that year...and richly deserved it. The story is now reset in the mid-80's. Molly is a young Jewish girl from Russia whose family came to a small Midwestern town in search of religious freedom. Molly is still bullied by children who envy her gymnastics abilities and don't understand her accent or her Borscht lunches. She's upset and feels out of place, especially after her mother makes a clothes pin Pilgrim that looks more like a traditional Russian peasant than the usual Pilgrim. Molly's teacher finally explains to the class that Molly's mother is right - pilgrims still exist today, and they come to America for the same reason the ones at Plymouth Rock did. As her classmate Arthur said, it does take all kinds of pilgrims to make a Thanksgiving.

Since I had food to carry and I wasn't sure how late I was going to be at Rose's, I walked to her house. It was a gorgeous day for it. Yesterday's off-and-on clouds had given way to a beautiful, sunny, if chilly afternoon. It was in the 40's, cold, but really more in line with what it should be during late November.

I was greeted at the door by Rose's two dogs Cider and Oreo barking their hellos. Jessa had already arrived (in fact, she texted me earlier to ask which house was Rose's) as the Green Bay Packers-Detroit Lions game began. It was just Rose, Craig, 8-year-old Finley, 15-year-old Khai, and Jessa this year. Craig's mother apparently went up to New England to visit his brother. 

Jessa played Dinosaur Bingo with Finley and Khai while Craig and I watched the game and we all had appetizers from three huge trays. One tray had sliced vegetables and dip. One had sweet goodies - donut holes, my pumpkin bread, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, pomegranates (Finley ate most of those - she apparently loves them), Danish butter cookies. There were also bowls of chips and pretzels and a yummy shrimp cocktail.

(Oh, and the Packers did very well against the Lions, who are no slouches themselves. The Packers would run and get a touchdown, then the Lions would get one. In the end, the Packers finally outran them 31-24.)

It was well into the Kansas City Chiefs-Dallas Cowboys game before dinner was ready. Rose apparently forgot to put the turkey in early! Jessa left before dinner, but the rest of us sat down to turkey, ham, green beans with bacon and crispy onions, mashed potatoes. cubed orange and purple sweet potatoes, canned cranberry sauce, tossed salad, and rolls. Oh, yum! The two meats looked like they belonged on the cover of a food magazine or the main page of a food website. The turkey was so juicy, I saw Rose cleaning up turkey juice she'd spilled (with the help of the dogs). Even the white meat was moist and tender. The ham was almost as good.

(The Chiefs-Cowboys game didn't go nearly as well. Their game was also close and well-played, but the Cowboys just managed to push ahead at the end 31-28.)

While Khai disappeared into his "office" (a tiny storage area where he plays computer games) and Craig and Rose prepared dinner, Finley and I played something called Zingo. You get a board containing small words, like what, the, she, if, and or (along with the numbers two and three). Someone pushes a lever that makes two yellow chips with words on them slide out of a slot. You have to grab the word before the other person does to fill your card. I did win a few games, but not only was Finley faster, I was tired and couldn't really focus on where the words were.

It wasn't until almost 7 when Rose and Craig brought the sweets tray back out, along with pumpkin pie, apple pie, vanilla ice cream, and home-made whipped cream. Finley and I both went for pumpkin pie with whipped cream. (In fact, I think Finley mainly had whipped cream. There might have been pumpkin somewhere under the enormous mounds of white fluff on her plate.) Khai insisted that he wasn't a fan of pies, so he had a root beer float instead. 

Finley and Craig brought drove me and a huge bag of leftovers home around 8. I went straight online and into the annual Match Game Productions Thanksgiving marathon. This year's theme was "personal favorite episodes of the channel's owner." The marathon started much earlier, but I did get to see two classic syndicated episodes that were also personal favorites of mine. 

In a 1979 syndicated episode, Joyce Bulifant wears a crazy red fright wig that made her look like a demented Little Orphan Annie to keep from being mistaken for the other blonde on the show that week, Elaine Joyce. A later contestant was almost as weird, giving a very strange answer to what a jock centipede bought along with 100 pairs of shoes. 

Betty White turned up in a much later syndicated episode from 1981 wearing a short, flaming red and gold dress made by a friend of Sharon Farrell's. Sharon was no slouch either in her pink pants outfit. She and Richard Paul inadvertently demonstrated mud wrestling when she landed on him during McLean Stevenson's answer for what form of "wrassling" should be an Olympic event. Later on, a contestant's laugh that he supposedly used to wake up in the morning was so terrifying, it sent McLean hurrying for Gene's entrance doors.

At any rate, enjoy your own feast of favorites with this bountiful showcase!

Match Game Thanksgiving 2025 Countdown Marathon

Cranberries and Turkey Feathers

Got a quick start this morning with breakfast and Garfield's Thanksgiving. Garfield is not a happy camper when Liz not only puts him on a diet the day before Thanksgiving, but Jon invites her for dinner. Jon can't cook something the size of a turkey to save his life. Good thing Grandma from the Christmas special knows what to do.

Spent the rest of the morning working on something I've been wanting to do for almost two weeks. I bought two containers of fresh cranberries from the farm market, but haven't had the time to make them into cranberry sauce. Finally did that this morning. I think I either didn't mash them enough, didn't boil them enough, or overdid the water, because they did not thicken. I just let the sauce cool in the hope it would thicken before running off to the Thomas Sharp School.

It had rained off and on all morning. Though it wasn't raining by the time I rode there and looked like it hadn't rained in a few hours, the playground was still pretty wet. There was no thought of taking the little kids out today. After I ate lunch with them, we took them to the library to hear What Was I Scared Of?, Room On the Broom, and the Piggie and Elephant story The Thank You Book. They were rowdy, spending more time messing around with the chairs than listening...but to be fair, they were all squished up front in that small library and didn't have a lot of room to sit down.

After that, we traded rooms. The younger kids moved to the cafeteria to watch The Land Before Time on a teacher's cell phone, while the older kids watched the feature-length animated The Grinch from 2018 in the library. One of the teachers brought popcorn and pretzels, which meant everyone got a free snack. Some of the kids continued coloring turkeys and fall scenes in the cafeteria. After they got tired of that, they used play clay and made turkeys from pipe cleaners, Popsicle sticks, feathers, and glue...but that made just as much of a mess as the turkey hand project from last week. 

The head teacher said I could go early, but I did stick around for an extra half-hour to help clean up the feather mess and wipe down and organize toys and games before everyone comes back on Monday. The kids in the cafeteria were tossing around a Nerf ball and the ones in the library were finishing The Grinch when I headed out around 4. 

(Oh, and the rain returned around 6:15 and continued, sometimes heavily, off and on for the rest of the evening.)

Put on Planes, Trains, and Automobiles when I got home. All ad executive Neil Page (Steve Martin) wants is to get home to Chicago in time for his Thanksgiving dinner, but he has the worst case of bad travel luck ever. The plane is cancelled, the train breaks down, the crammed-full bus only goes to St. Louis, and there's no rental cars on the lot. He also keeps encountering Del Griffith (John Candy), a shower curtain ring salesman who is the nicest guy you'll ever meet, but is also a chatty mass of bad habits. As the two men travel in any and every way they can across the frozen Midwestern landscape, Neil discovers why Del is on the road during a holiday...and why he has a real reason to be thankful for his home and family.

What's likely director John Hughes' best movie features a hilarious script and career-best performances from Martin and Candy as the two very different men who navigate every possible obstacle on the road to Chicago. Their chemistry carries the movie, even when it takes a forced left turn into sentimentality near the end.

Switched to The Plymouth Adventure after a shower. This one goes further into the history behind the holiday. Spencer Tracy is Captain Christopher Jones, the grizzled head of the Mayflower charged with taking a group of 102 colonists to the New World on the tiny Mayflower. Among those traveling are Puritans, a strict religious sect who are going to America to avoid persecution in their native England. Jones doesn't trust them, especially after he falls for Dorothy Bradford (Gene Tierney), the wife of the group elder William Bradford (Leo Genn). Carpenter John Alden (Van Johnson) has his own sights set on pretty Priscilla Mullins (Dawn Addams), but she seems to favor Captain Miles Standish (Noel Drayton). 

Tierney and Tracy are by far the most interesting thing about this spectacular action drama. The other winner here are the special effects. They won an Oscar in 1952, and they still look darn good today, especially the huge storm near the middle of the film. 

Had dinner while watching three very different Thanksgiving sitcom episodes. Barney Miller's "Thanksgiving Story" has Miller and his men frustrated over not being able to go home for the holiday. Their Thanksgiving takes a strange turn when they have to deal with a group of mental health hospital escapees who invaded an automat and a man who stabbed his mooching brother-in-law in the hand with a fork during Thanksgiving dinner.

Things aren't much better in Korea on MASH. Hawkeye and Hunnicut hit "The Yalu Brick Road" to get an antidote for the salmonella from Klinger's cheap turkeys that left almost the entire base sick. They not only manage to get the medicine, but pick up a Korean soldier who keeps surrendering to them on the way. Meanwhile, Father Mulcahey has to keep Hot Lips and Winchester from killing each other, and Rizzo (G.W Baiely) wants to get his hands on Klinger and squeeze the life out of him when he's up to moving.

The swashbuckler spoof Jack of All Trades wins the award for most creative holiday episode. In "One, Two, Three, Give Me Lady Liberty," Jack and Emilia discover that Napoleon is building an enormous woman statue he intends to send to the US. Emilia is flattered when the diminutive emperor insists on using her face for the statue, but she's not as thrilled when she finds out why he's really sending it. Jack finally gets Napoleon to admit his plot at their Thanksgiving dinner, then insists on another Thanksgiving tradition to distract him - football! 

Here's even more specials to tide you over before your own turkey dinner tomorrow!

Looney Tunes - Tom Turk and Daffy

The Berenstain Bears Meet Big Paw

Alan King's Thanksgiving Special: What Have We Got to Be Thankful For? 

Buttons and Rusty In The Turkey Caper (A Chucklewood Thanksgiving)

Intergalactic Thanksgiving (Please Don't Eat the Planets)

Tennessee Tuxedo - The Romance of Plymouth Rock

Calvin & the Colonel - Thanksgiving Dinner

Tex Avery at MGM - Jerky Turkey

Nickelodeon's Thanksgiving Fest 1989

BC - The First Thanksgiving

Terry Toons - The Landing of the Pilgrims

Casper the Friendly Ghost - Do or Diet

Gram Bear's Thanksgiving Surprise

Rain for the Holidays

I slept so late, I had just enough time to grab breakfast and write quickly in my journal before hurrying out the door. As it turned out, I could have been infinitely late. There was plenty of help, including in the registers. That freed up the head bagger to actually sweep and help me with the carts. Frankly, after I got in, there was no trouble whatsoever. I even saw a local hard-rock radio station doing a "Turkey Drop," collecting frozen turkeys for the poor, early-on.

It had been cloudy, cold, and breezy all morning. I felt a few raindrops at work, but the showers didn't start coming down until I started riding home. They continued lightly as I changed, had lunch, and watched the infamous Thanksgiving episode of WKRP In Cincinnati. Station manager Arthur Carlson is bored with having nothing to do at the station, so he and promotional manager Herb Tarek come up with what they think will be a huge promotion. It's "Turkeys Away" when Les Nesserman is recruited to cover the event...and learns the hard way about turkeys being flightless birds when they don't exactly do what Arthur thinks they will.

Headed out early for the Thomas Sharp School. While the rain wasn't heavy, it wasn't stopping, either. I walked to the school so I could carry an umbrella and stop at Crust n' Cravings on Collings Avenue for lunch. Had quick and tasty slices of cheese and broccoli and tomato and a can of Coke Zero while half-listening to the TV on behind me.

Alas, the playground was wet enough by quarter of 3 that there could be no thought of playing outside today. Thanks to the band class running late, we had the younger kids in the library this afternoon. Though one of the teachers did read the Dr. Seuss classics Green Eggs and Ham, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and The Lorax, the kids spent most of the afternoon coloring in one form or another. After they got bored with coloring printed pictures of fall scenes and Pokemon, two of the teachers lay long pieces of paper down on the tables and let them work with stencils instead.

We finally moved the kids back to the cafeteria by quarter of 5. The younger girls and one of the boys spent the time practicing their cartwheels on the mat in front of the door, while the older kids colored and threw a ball around. It had calmed down considerably by the time I finally headed out around 5:15.

The rain slowed down long enough for me to stop at the Speedy Mart on Collings and pick up two bagels. One is for lunch at the school tomorrow, since they start early. The other had powdered sugar on it, and I just wanted to try it. Strolled home in the same light off-and-on shower that had been going all afternoon.

(I got lucky. The rain picked up about a half-hour after I got home and has been off and on ever since.)

Dug out my glass bread pan and all the ingredients for Golden Pumpkin Bread when I got home. This delicious recipe comes from my Baking Basics Land O'Lakes pamphlet I bought from the Acme's front registers so long ago, I picked it up when I worked in Wildwood. It's pretty simple to make. You just put butter, brown sugar, flour, baking powder and baking soda, and spices into a bowl together and turn on the mixer. The recipe actually calls for it to be three mini-loaves, but I only have one big loaf pan, so that's what I made. It took a while to cook, but it smelled marvelous when it was in the oven!

Watched Two for Tonight while I worked, and later as I had dinner. I go further into this sweet, small-scale Bing Crosby vehicle about a songwriter who has a few days to write a play at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Two for Tonight

Since I was already at YouTube, I switched to the QBert short "Thanksgiving for the Memories" from Saturday Supercade. I don't know how or why video game icons kept ending up in Thanksgiving cartoons in the early 80's, but this one has Pilgrims Q-Bert and Coiley competing to see who can win a horse and buggy. When Q-Bert's little brother Q-Bit gets upset and runs away, everyone, including the friendly Natives, work together to find him.

Finished the night with Christmas records while I worked on the review. Happy Holidays Vol. 21 from 1986 is one of the stronger True Value Christmas collections. Bing turns up here too, in the then-rare "A Christmas Toast." We also get Julie Andrews joining Andre Previn for "Angels From the Realm of Glory," Bobby Vinton's "Christmas Eve In My Home Town," and Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gourme's fun "Hurry Home For Christmas." They even give us two big band holiday numbers, Tommy Dorsey's version of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" and Glenn Miller and His Orchestra performing "Jingle Bells." 

The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood is probably the closest we'll get to a true English pantomime on this side of the Atlantic. This 1965 TV musical features Liza Minnelli as the impossibly naive young lady in the red cloak, Cyril Ritchard as the fussy Wolf, and Vic Damone as the woodsman who may or may not be royalty. Jule Styne and Bob Merrill didn't quite match their earlier score for Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, but there are a few pleasures here. Everyone claims "We Wish the World a Happy Yule" at the beginning and the end, and Ritchard and Minnelli really get into "Ding-a-Ling, Ding-a-Ling." 

How the Grinch Stole Christmas is far better-known today. The big song, of course, is "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," performed with absolute menace by Thurl Ravenscroft. The other vocal number is the Who's lovely "Welcome Christmas" as they herald the season and trim their homes. The album I bought from Target last year pretty much features almost the entire special, including most of the dialogue. Of the instrumental tracks, "A Quarter to Dawn" and "I Must Stop Christmas" are probably the most notable.

Favorite Christmas Carols from the Voice of Firestone kicked off what would become a seven-year tradition in 1962. Unlike the pop and jazz-skewering True Value and Goodyear collections, the Firestone albums mostly feature classical or more traditional carols. Rise Stevens and Brian Sullivan perform "What Child Is This," "The Friendly Beasts," "Deck the Halls," "Silent Night," "The First Noel," and "O Little Town of Bethlehem," among others. 

Happy Holidays Dolls

Began the morning with breakfast and Paw Patrol. "Pups Save Thanksgiving" when Mayor Humdinger tries to steal the big dinner and turkey-shaped bounce house, but ends up flying off in the bounce house with the Cat-tastrophe Crew. The Paw Patrol ends up going after them. "Pups Save a Windy Bay" from Mayor Humdinger's out-of-control wind-creating fan that has sent all of the other wind surfing contestants scattered around the bay and even on top of a lighthouse.

Spent the rest of the morning dressing the dolls for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Samantha is in her original Cranberry Christmas Dress. The red bow shoes from her green Spring Dress match it perfectly. Barbara Jean is ready to celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas in Julie's previous purple paisley mini dress with the filmy white sleeves and lace stockings. Molly loves to twirl in her velvet Evergreen Christmas Dress and black strap shoes borrowed from Samantha. Felicity can't wait to join the dance lesson at the Governor's Palace in her blue taffeta ball gown with the lace stomacher. Kit's in her first Christmas dress, long-sleeved red outfit with the triangular white collar.

Ariel also gets an earlier Julie Christmas outfit, in this case the wine velvet jumper with the flower embroidery and ruffly white blouse. I never liked the gold stockings and black platforms that originally went with that outfit, so she wears white tights and white t-straps. Whitney wears the beautiful blue-violet velvet and tulle Snowflake Ball Gown Lauren found at a yard sale with a black shrug from another outfit and black velvet shoes. Josefina is pretty as a Spanish princess in her original yellow-striped Christmas Dress with the black mantilla. Jessa honors her heritage in the first Chinese New Year's outfit American Girl released in the late 90's, which she wears with mules borrowed from Josefina. 

Watched Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving as I worked. I went further into this direct-to-home media blending of two New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh shorts and the Pooh Thanksgiving special at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog in 2021.

Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving

Switched to Thanksgiving variety show and sitcom episodes as I ate lunch. The closest The Muppet Show got to a Thanksgiving episode was when Arlo Guthrie was the celebrity. His folksy presence inspired a down-home setting and several numbers with the Muppet jug band. Meanwhile, the Swedish Chef tries to find something to make for Thanksgiving dinner that won't attack him and Fozzie attempts to read Robert Frost poetry, only to be interrupted by Gonzo singing "Hernando's Hideaway."

Marian Cunningham on Happy Days is fed up with her family paying more attention to the Green Bay Packers game than her big dinner. She tells them her version of "The First Thanksgiving" to remind them of why we celebrate this holiday. The Cunninghams are a pilgrim family, Potsie and Ralph are trappers, and Fonzie is an outsider who gets into trouble for inviting Natives to share their celebrations.

Listened to The Story of Hans Brinker album as I gathered everything for work. This is a pretty straightforward retelling of the original book by Mary Mapes Dodge. There's a few changes; his sister Gretel doesn't enter or win the race, his father falls off a dyke during a storm, and Hans now wishes to attend school for art, rather then medicine. 

Headed out after the Hans Brinker record ended. I'm glad it was an absolutely gorgeous day, sunny and in the 50's. This is the nicest day we'll have this week, and the kids got to spend most of it running around in the playground, chasing each other, playing house, and looking for ladybugs in the mulch. (And this time, we did get them to put their back packs back on the concrete where they belong, not under the playground equipment.) 

I did have trouble with two of the older boys, who got into a fight over some game one of the girls concocted. She said they'd get points for how high of a rung they could jump off of on the climbing pole. First of all, they shouldn't be jumping off of it at all. Second, the boys took it way too seriously, especially when the girl gave one of the boys extra points after he'd gotten hurt previously. We had to separate the boys when we came inside. At least the games of Heads Up 7 Up and Silent Ball we played in the library with some of the kids went a lot better. In fact, they could be downright hilarious, especially with Silent Ball.

Took out the trash and brought up the laundry after I'd taken it downstairs during lunch, then watched Match Game '76 as I ate dinner. We got the tail end of Debralee Scott's first week as Scoey Mitchilll drooled over a pretty curly-haired contestant. Picked up the next week with the debut of a very different comedienne, character actress Mary Wickes.

Finished the night after a shower with Thanksgiving game show episodes. Thanksgiving goes back a long way on game shows. The episode of I've Got a Secret I have here from 1964 lets comedian Louis Nye show off his modern method of cooking a complete Thanksgiving dinner in 10 minutes - in what looks like a huge microwave oven. 

Sale of the Century got an early start on Black Friday with their big Thanksgiving deals in 1985. Likewise, the Wink Martindale syndicated High Rollers stuffed their Thanksgiving pots with tons of cash and prizes, including a car, in 1987. Family Feud celebrated the holiday in 1989 with questions about what to do with turkey leftovers and a big meal in the end for host Ray Combs and both families.

The Price Is Right has done Thanksgiving episodes since the mid-70's. The one I have here is from 2003. There were a lot of newlyweds that year - two turn up on this episode, and one makes it to the Showcases. One showcase shows where you can eat Thanksgiving dinner. The other gives us things to do on the big day, including watch football on an enormous big-screen TV and ride around in a black convertible. 

Let's give thanks for food, family, and games with these hilarious and heartfelt episodes!

I've Got a Secret (1964)

Sale of the Century (1985)

High Rollers (1987)

Family Feud Syndicated (1989)

The Price Is Right (2003)

Count On Matches

Began the morning with breakfast and Here's Love. This musical version of Miracle On 34th Street wasn't a hit when it debuted on Broadway in 1963, but has apparently done better on regional stages during the holidays. Janis Paige is Doris Walker, Fred Gwynne is Mr. Shellhammer, and Laurence Naismith is Kris Kringle, the man who believes himself to be Santa Claus. The best song is an interpolation. Meredith Wilson added his own "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas," joined by Kris singing "Pine Cones and Holly Berries." There's also the charming "My Wish" for Susan (Valerie Lee) and Fred Gaily (Craig Stevens) and "That Man Over There" for Mr. Macy (Paul Reed) during the court hearings. Not the most necessary show in the universe, but a lovely listen for the holiday season if you're in the mood for a cute Christmas musical you probably haven't heard.

True Value Happy Holidays Volume 15 from 1980 is the second-oldest Happy Holidays LP I own after Volume 13. The heavy-hitters here are classic choral and instrumental numbers. The Robert Shaw Chorale does a lovely medley of "Carol of the Bells," "Lo, How a Rose 'Er Blooming," and "Go Tell It on the Mountain." Eugene Ormandy, the long-time conductor for the Philadelphia Orchestra, leads "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," while Arthur Fielder and the Boston Pops Orchestra does "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town." Lana Cantrell's "White Christmas" is one of the prettiest versions I've heard of that song. We also have Harry Belafonte's "Mary's Boy Child," and "There's No Christmas Like a Home Christmas" from Perry Como.

Hurried off to work even before the album ended. I got there just in time. I actually spent most of the day sweeping. There was another college-age boy there who gathered most of the carts. It was busy early-on, but cleared out somewhat near the end of the day. I needed a few things I'd forgotten yesterday after work, notably molasses to make pumpkin bread next week and vitamins.

Went straight into dinner and tonight's Match Game marathon when I got home. Having had good responses to his "alphabet games" marathons, the owner of the Match Game Productions channel did a "numbers game" and let everyone guess where the next number was going to be spotted. It might be in the Audience Match, like "Sixteen __" or "4 __." It might be in an answer, like the time Arte Johnson answered "25 cent pancake" to a question about what flat thing a person turned into. It could just be the number of the episode itself, like when we saw PM episode #23. 

A lot of wacky contestants and unique panelists helped count the numbers down. A very tall and handsome young man from Maine turned Brett's head in 1979. Fannie Flagg flirted and danced with another handsome young contestant, Ron Valenti, in 1975. Jack Narz helped count down number 6. Raymond Burr, who never seemed to quite understand what he was doing there, perked up a little bit as he helped count number 8. 

You can count on Match Game to deliver the laughs in this hilarious numbers-filled marathon!

Match Game Sunday Classics - The Numbers Code Game Marathon

Oh, and I finally got around to posting Maplepunzel at my blog tonight. Here's part 1. It ended up in 20 parts, not as long as Hilary and the Beasts, but longer than my earlier Remember WENN fairy tale fanfics. I hope you enjoy it!

Maplepunzel, Prologue

And my new Timex watch was waiting for me on the porch when I arrived. It's actually a men's watch, but unlike my last Timex watch, it has a fabric strap. It's white, so it'll be dirty in very likely a few weeks, if not a few days, and I just hope the velcro lasts. On the other hand, it's easier to change the time than it was on my old Shark watch. 

Witches and Matches

Started off the morning with breakfast and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Plus. Mickey tells the others to "Say Cheese" when he takes pictures of them in their favorite places for his picture wall. After he sees them taking Minnie's picture, Pete keeps trying to photo bomb the shots, until he finally reveals where he'd like to get his picture taken.

I would have called Uber even if the weather hadn't been windy, cloudy, and damp this morning. I intended to hit the movies later. The Uber driver arrived in 8 minutes. Thankfully, there was no traffic, allowing me to arrive at work just in time.

To tell the truth, I could have been infinitely late. We were pretty dead the whole morning. They didn't even need the head bagger in the register this time. I spent almost the entire morning pushing carts, and there wasn't that much to do until the last hour. Even that could have been worse. I was in and out with no trouble whatsoever.

Soon as I finished, I changed into a regular shirt and grabbed a few things I wanted at the Acme. Got a snack pack with cheddar chunks, grapes, crackers, and chicken salad to eat at the movie theater for lunch. The Propel and small bag of popcorn was for later in the movie. Also picked up two boxes of Kind Kids' Granola Bars that were on clearance and sugar cookies I found at the bakery clearance rack.

Called Uber after I finished. The driver arrived in less than the 7 minutes the app said they would. Once again, there was no traffic, not even in Haddon Heights or around the shopping center in Lawnside. It was a little over 10 minutes when the driver pulled up in front of the Cinemark.

There was no way I was going to miss Wicked: For Good! I came with ten minutes to spare before the 1:50 showing. Cinemark has a new ticket purchase system. It's experimenting with contact-less ticket purchases that look more like buying them online. I don't know if it's better, but I did get my ticket and one of the last seats in a full showing.

Frankly, most of the commercials were for romantic comedies and action films that just don't interest me that much. I may check out the Christian animated musical David when it comes out on streaming, and I absolutely must see The Super Mario Galaxy Movie after I enjoyed the first one so much. It'll even be out right before my birthday in April. I don't give a fig about the Avatar films. I wasn't a fan of the first one and still haven't bothered with the second. The first one was pretty, but overly complicated and kind of boring. 

I go further into the main feature Wicked: For Good at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Family Fun Saturday - Wicked: For Good

(Oh, and my Shark watch died in the middle of the movie. I ordered a new Timex one with a fabric strap that was on a good Black Friday sale from Amazon.)

The sun was going down, even as I left the theater. It was too late to linger anywhere. I strolled past the Wal Mart to the White Horse Pike to wait for the bus home. It was probably about 20 minutes late, not bad for rush hour on the White Horse Pike. I watched a lovely pink sunset as the bus runbled down the highway. It pulled into Oaklyn about 15 minutes later.

Worked on my Wicked: For Good review for an hour while listening to another one of my new K-Tel collections. Starlite is very much an album from 1983. We have heartfelt ballads like "On the Wings of Love" from Jeffery Osbourne and "Eye In the Sky" by The Alan Parsons Project, one of Elton John's best ballads in "Blue Eyes," and the dance number "Steppin' Out" from Joe Jackson. "Wasted On the Way" by Crosby, Stills, and Nash, "You Can Do Magic" by America, and "Love's Been a Little Bit Hard On Me" by Juice Newton get a little more into the country aesthetic.

Finished the night with today's Match Game marathon. Suave character actor Greg Morris was just coming off the run of Mission: Impossible when he first turned up on the show in early 1974. In fact, only Richard Dawson was more suave than this cool cat. He was laid-back enough to not only handle a racial comment from Gene Rayburn well in an episode from 1975 (that got this episode banned from the airwaves), but toss it right back at him. He was around to see squeaky-voiced Marlena lose her shoe when she ran to embrace Morey Amsterdam in 1974 and Richard's hand be crushed by a very strong contestant in 1976. 

Greg appeared on the show sporadically through 1978. Half of his last week on the show was lost until very recently. They were on the same tapes as the week with Valerie Bertanelli's episodes, and she wouldn't let them be seen until 2023. We can now see how wild that week got, especially Greg turning up in the beginning in oversized lime-green sunglasses.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to play along with the tech man of Mission: Impossible and Vega$!

Match Game Saturday Classics - Featuring Greg Morris on the Panel

Waltz of the Children and Flowers

Began the morning with breakfast and new episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Plus. "Daisy Can't Say" because she screamed so loudly cheering on her frog for a big show, she lost her voice. The others help her gather ingredients to make tea with honey and lemon to soothe it.

Hurried off to work soon as the episode ended. Actually, I spent a lot of the first half of my shift working with the floral department manager. The head bagger did the sweeping and carts at that point. I took the last of the Halloween stuffed monsters and mini-Beanies-type toys to the clearance racks in the back, put teddy bears in their place, and watered poinsettias. After break, I took over sweeping and pushing carts from the head bagger, who went in a register to help with the lunch rush hour.

I was also able to get my schedule at work. In good news, I took Thanksgiving and the day before off, the latter due to the after school program starting earlier than usual, and I got Monday off, too. Alas, I work early the rest of the week except Sunday, which means I'll miss the Collingswood Christmas Parade again and I'll be rushing on Tuesday.

Headed straight home after work. Changed, then had lunch while watching more Clubhouse Plus. Minnie wants to make muffins, but all of her friends are working in every room. Somehow, Professor Ludvig Von Drake creating a "Minnie Mouse Clubhouse" shaped like a pink shoe turns into bringing a baby bear home to his family when the bear wanders into Minnie's new home looking for treats.

The Go-Getters - Detective Minnie, Super-Spy Daisy, and Captain Clarabelle - use their collective powers to solve "The Ice Cream Mystery" in a hilarious spoof of Charlie's Angels. The ladies follow the trail of melted ice cream to find out who stole the goodies intended for Ice Cream Day. Mickey is "Agent M," their own rodent Charlie.

Headed to the Thomas Sharp School even before the cartoon ended. There weren't quite as many kids today, probably due to it being close to a weekend, but it was still pretty rowdy. The kids decided they wanted to create their own home and set up their backpacks and coats under the jungle gym and slides. I wish they'd at least left their coats on their bodies. It was hard enough to talk most of them into wearing their coats. Though it wasn't raining or windy at that point, it was cool, in the lower 50's, and in-and-out cloudy. Not a day to go without a jacket. The few remaining kids ended up in the cafeteria when it started getting dark, coloring or playing with Duplos and magnetic tiles.

When I got home, I had dinner while watching Match Game '76. Most of the night finished out the week with Dick Gautier and later Angel Della Reece. The last episode of the night brought in Scoey Mitchelll, and in her debut on the show, Debralee Scott. Deb was more than happy to get that "welcome to the new kid on the block" kiss from Gene. 

Worked on The WENN Nutcracker Suite for the rest of the night. Mr. Eldridge leads the group to a gingerbread cottage. Cookie children dash out, petting Mack the Lion and asking Betty if she's a princess. Mother Gertie Ginger - Gertie in a huge icing gown - calls them in and tells Betty she'll explain what's going on when they've warmed up and had cocoa.

Finished the night with several different versions of The Nutcracker currently on YouTube. The 1977 American Ballet Theatre recording with Mikhail Baryshnikov is an old favorite of mine. As you can guess, the emphasis here is on Clara (Gerry Kirkland) and her Prince. They replace the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier in their dances in the second half of the show. We also get a short dance with a man in the Mouse King outfit showing what happened, and Drosselmyer showing the children a puppet show about a prince defeating a Mouse King.

Hello Kitty's Animation Theater from 2001 did their own version of "The Nutcracker." This one generally follows the original E.L Hoffman story, complete with the Nutcracker's tragic back story, the Mouse Queen, and Princess Pirlipat. Clara is able to help defeat the Mouse King by way of a magic amulet, though. Utterly adorable little rodent Kiririn is "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse" when he joins his friend Michael at his palatial urban home. Michael may tout the fine food,  but Kirirn's too scared by people trying to hit them with frying pans and dogs chasing them to eat it. He returns to his friend Sakura and decides he'd rather eat seeds in peace than luxurious food in constant fear.

The Russians took a crack at an animated Nutcracker in 1973. Their half-hour version is dialogue free, using music and sketchy visuals to tell the story of Marie, a servant girl who takes the ugly Nutcracker doll to heart. He tells her his story, which is pretty close to The Hard Nut other than he was enchanted by the Mouse Queen as a baby, not as a young man. After Marie throws her shoe at the Mouse King and changes him back, we get a series of dream-like snow imagery, including what I suspect to be fairly advanced Scanimate effects for 1973.

(Oh, and it did finally rain hard around 1 PM. It hasn't rained since then, though I think we might get a little more early next week.)

Lady On the Playground

Began the morning with breakfast and Alice's Wonderland Bakery. Alice, JoJo, Fergie, and Hattie discover "Captain Dodo's Snack Shack" abandoned in the jungle near the beach. Captain Dodo explains it was his dream to run a snack shack, but no one came, so he gave up on it. They encourage him to try again...but it would seem he's not much of a baker. Alice helps him perfect his recipes and teaches him to never give up on a dream. Alice thinks it'll be "A Piece of Cake" to teach a shy little violet, Fergie's younger siblings, and the Cheshire Cat how to bake. The tea cakes she chooses have way too many steps, which ends in chaos before Cookie points out that sometimes, the best way to teach beginners is to begin at the ending.

Hurried out to run errands after the cartoon ended. Had quite a bit of shopping to do, starting at Sprouts. Mainly needed coconut milk and more of those tasty containers of lemon curd-flavored dried mango slices and apple fritter-flavored cranberries there. Also picked up soda and found bakery chocolate chip cookies on clearance. 

The Acme was even busier, with long lines at self-checkout. I won't be getting to the last day of the farm market this week, so I grabbed a bag of clementines. Restocked granola, granola bars, shrimp, soda, and yogurt. They were out of Fresca...but they did have Coke's holiday flavors Winter Spiced Cranberry Sprite Zero and Holiday Creamy Vanilla Coke Zero. Picked up butter to make pumpkin bread next week and pumpkin cake roll slices for a treat.

Headed across Newton Lake Park next. The weather was still a little chilly, but nicer than it has been. The clouds were just parting by then, and the sun was out. The park was surprisingly quiet by 1 PM. Everyone must have gone back to school or work. It's really fall now. The leaves are all stunning shades of gold, green, and rust, and many of the trees are almost totally leafless. It was almost eerily quiet as I pushed my bike up the path over the hill. 

Stopped at the A&A Pretzel Shop for lunch. They did indeed have stuffed cheese steak pretzels this time. I went in, bought the cheese steak pretzel and two regular pretzels, and hurried out.

Put on The Lottery Bride when I got home, put everything away, and had lunch. I go further into this unique Norwegian-set early talkie operetta featuring Jeanette MacDonald as the title mail-order bride at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Cult Flops - The Lottery Bride

Rushed off to the Thomas Sharp School next. I don't know what got into the kids, but they were really rowdy, especially in the bathrooms. The girls in particular took forever, and the boys weren't much better. We reminded the kids of the rules for the bathrooms and the playground before we went outside, and they were still crazy. I did manage to cheer up one of the girls who was upset, but another threw a fit when I told her she'd have to wait for the swings and took off her boots and jacket just to be obnoxious, despite the mid-40's day.

They settled down a bit when we all went inside. The kids were really fascinated by my artwork of the Nutcracker Prince (Scott) rescuing the Sugar Plum Fairy (Hilary) from the furnace in my current WENN Nutcracker Suite story. One of the smaller girls really loved hearing me explain the story and what was going on in the picture. 

Finished The Lottery Bride when I got home, then watched Match Game '76. Most of tonight's episodes featured Lyle, the go-getting contestant from Las Vegas with the worst toupee this side of Howard Cosell. I think his self-promotion (and ugly suit jacket) really grated on Richard Dawson's nerves, and Ed Asner didn't seem to be a fan of his, either.

Finished the night with some of my recent record cast album finds. Ballroom was a 1978 stage adaptation of the 1975 TV movie Queen of the Stardust Ballroom. Dorothy Loudon is the widow who re-discovers life when she starts dancing at a local ballroom and falls for a mail carrier (Vincent Gardenia). I think people were expecting something more dynamic and youthful as Michael Bennett's follow-up to A Chorus Line, but I think this is charming. Some of the music is really lovely, especially Louden's "Fifty Percent" and "I've Been Waiting All My Life" and "More of the Same" for the orchestra and singers. If you love Louden or are looking for a musical that's understated and sweet, this is highly recommended.

Rise Stevens sings the lead role of fashion magazine editor Liza Elliott in the truly unique Lady In the Dark. Liza is undergoing psychoanalysis, as she can't decided between the three men in her life. All of the songs are represented by lavish "dream" sequences. Adolph Green does the tongue-twisting comedy number "Tchaikovsky and Other Russians" more than justice, while Stevens gets a soaring "Princess of Pure Delight" and has fun with "The Saga of Jenny." 

Kids of a Feather

Got such a quick start today, I barely had the time to write in my offline journal, eat breakfast, and hurry downstairs. Though it was only lightly showering when I finished eating, it was wet and cold enough for me to call Uber. They arrived in 6 minutes, getting me to work with literally no time to spare.

Work was much quieter than it has been. Everyone must be waiting for the weekend to do their Thanksgiving shopping. The ongoing light showers probably didn't help there, either. Though the wind was gone, it remained cloudy and cold, even after the rain finally ended around 11:30. Other than that, there were no major problems. It didn't even take me that long to gather carts. The Uber driver going home barely took four minutes to arrive.

Once I got home, I hurried upstairs, changed, and watched The Care Bears Nutcracker Suite while eating a chicken sandwich and dried fruit for lunch. A woman in charge of a ballet class putting on The Nutcracker tells the story of how the Care Bears helped a young girl named Anna whose best friend had just moved away. As she laments her lack of friends and her brother Michael complains about wanting an adventure, a Rat King and a human-sized Nutcracker suddenly appear in her home! Anna, Michael, and the Care Bears and Cousins go on a trip through Toyland to help the Nutcracker save the Sugar Plum Fairy from the evil Vizier. Meanwhile, Michael helps cubs Hugs and Tugs find their own special ornament for the Care-a-Lot tree.

Hurried off to the Thomas Sharp School before the cartoon even ended. Though the rain was long gone at that point, the playground was still too wet to go outside. Needless to say, the kids were inside the entire time. As we did last month with the skeleton Q-Tip bone hands, we traced the kids' hands on construction paper. This time, they would cover them with colorful feathers and googly eyes and turn their hand prints into turkeys. At least, that was the general idea. More feathers ended up on the floor than on the construction paper...and at one point, some of the kids ended up under the table with them before we coaxed them out with the feathers.

The older kids had been moved to the library to do a more complicated project, as I discovered when a teacher had to go home early and the teacher in charge of the big kids asked me to help her clean up the mess. The kids were supposed to be making houses out of popsicle sticks. Some of them did make the outlines of houses, but mostly, they were slabs of piled popsicle sticks, marker, and way too much glue. It took forever to clean up the library because of the massive amounts of glue all over the tables. I saw one of the girls trying to wash the glue out of her shirt when I was helping one of the pre-schoolers in the bathroom. 

Though one of the teachers was trying to read to the kids when we came back to the bathroom, we quickly came to the conclusion that the kids would rather play with blocks and magnetic tiles. That got even noisier once the older kids came in. Two of the older boys in particular really made a mess with the Duplos, and a few more kept throwing tiles at towering tile buildings, knocking them down and sending tiles scattering everywhere. I stayed later to help deal with them.

Finished the Care Bears when I got home, then watched Match Game '76. Ed Asner made his debut on the show in the last episode of the night. He discussed the miniseries Roots, which indeed, would not only be bigger than his previous miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man, would wind up being one of the biggest TV blockbusters of all time.

Put my new jeans in the washer, then worked on The WENN Nutcracker Suite. Enid, the youngest Snowflake Fairy, no sooner explains how the Snowflake Fairies were attacked by mice troops and bats than suddenly, bats swoop down over them! They try to make off with the toys and Betty, but the Nutcracker defends Betty, and the toys manage to free themselves. Betty finally gets one of the bats to tell them that the Mouse King has Hilary trapped in his furnace and turned Jeff into a dancing doll on a music box and gave it away. Mr. Eldridge takes them down a path through the woods to the home of his friend Mother Gertie Ginger to recover and repair the Nutcracker's broken arm.

Finished the night with the Disney Babes In Toyland from 1961. I went further into this version of the venerable early 20th century operetta at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog back in November 2018.

Babes In Toyland (1961)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like the Holidays

Began the morning with breakfast and What's New, Scooby Doo? It's "Gentlemen, Start Your Monsters" when the car race Fred has joined is attacked by a skeleton in a monster truck literally destroying the competition. While Fred tries to figure out his modifications for the Mystery Machine and Daphne fends off a sexist older man who does not think a woman should be running a pit crew, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby wonder why two kids are so cagey about where their father is and who is really riding in the race.

Headed out after filling up one last bag with what will likely be my last Goodwill donations for the year. After I dropped them in the back, I rode around the front and did some Christmas shopping. Got a second pair of work pants and a book on British afternoon tea at Goodwill. Picked up a book for Lilah, a stuffed animal for Elijah, and a gift for Amanda at Marshalls, along with a huge, beautiful holly-print bag. Found cute lip glosses for Amanda and Lauren at Five Below. I was thrilled to find the new Holiday Creamy Vanilla Coke Zero there, too. I haven't seen that at the Acme in 20 ounce bottles yet. Went across the parking lot to Lane Bryant and took advantage of that $10 off Rewards coupon to get two pairs of jeans, one replacing my black pair that's starting to go in the thighs, one for work.

Had lunch when I got home while watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Chuck's not happy when Peppermint Patty invites herself, Marcie, and Franklin over for Thanksgiving dinner. Chuck and Sally are supposed to be visiting their grandparents. Charlie Brown, Linus, Snoopy, and Woodstock make a "dinner" of popcorn, sundaes, pretzel sticks, jelly beans, and toast to appease them. Peppermint Patty is furious, until Marcie and Linus remind her of what the holiday really means.

The Mayflower Voyagers goes even further into the history behind the holiday. The Peanuts, Snoopy, and Woodstock play pilgrim children and pets on their way to the New World. The trip is harsh, and life in New England is even harder when it turns out they've been blown thousands of miles off-course. It's not until spring and they make friends with Chief Massasoit and Squanto that they finally learn to farm the land. They have such a bountiful harvest, they invite the Natives for dinner too, creating the first Thanksgiving.

Headed out after Mayflower Voyagers ended. It had been cold and windy but sunny when I was at Audubon Crossings. It was clouding up again even as I rode to the Thomas Sharp School. We were getting the kids finished up with their snacks when the teacher for the older kids came in and told us it was raining and hailing. She pulled the older kids in early, and we would not be able to take the little ones outside.

The pre-schoolers, who had already been rowdy before that, were really noisy when they found out they couldn't go outside after we said they could. They ran around and chattered all through the two books one of the teachers read for them. One of the teachers played games with some of the kids. Those who didn't want to run around sat at the tables pushed to the back. They were supposed to be coloring or looking at books, but some of the kids had made their own play dough in art class earlier and insisted on playing with it, even when I told them not to. Other kids insisted on playing with it too, and yes, it all got mixed together, it dried out, and it made a mess I had to sweep up. I was rather grateful when we had few enough kids to move back to the cafeteria for the rest of the session.

(At the very least, the rain and hail were long-gone by the time I went home from work. It rained hard around 1 AM, but not before or since.)

Hurried right home after that. Jessa picked me up at quarter after 6 for dinner. I saw Red Lobster in Cherry Hill on our way to Olive Garden last week. That's another place I haven't eaten at in literally decades. My family used to eat at the (now closed) one in the parking lot of the Hamilton Mall whenever we'd go up there for a shopping trip in the 90's. I told her the infamous story of how Dad once put the container with all our leftovers from Red Lobster, including the cheddar biscuits, on the top of the car before we left...and didn't remember until he heard the thump and we all saw the container blowing down the highway. Only thing we saved from that was Rose's slice of key lime pie that she would not let go for anything. Jessa had a southwestern shrimp bowl. I had a tasty salmon-soy bowl. We enjoyed a quiet meal in a mostly-empty restaurant.

Finished the night at home after a shower with The Desert Song. I go further into the original 1929 film version of this romantic operetta at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

The Desert Song (1929)

Winds and Games

Began the morning with breakfast and Garfield's Thanksgiving. Garfield is thrilled that the holiday with the biggest feast and the most food is coming up, until Liz the veterinarian puts him on a diet right before the holiday. Even worse, Jon invites her over for Thanksgiving dinner. Not only does Garfield ruin the vegetables, but Jon has never cooked a turkey in his life, and his mind is too focused on his date to do much cooking anyway. Good thing Grandma Arbuckle from the Christmas special knows what to do.

Switched to Pac Man, which is now at Tubi, while I stripped the sheets on my bed, then put the warmer tan striped flannel ones. This is the original 1982 Hanna-Barbara show my sisters and I loved when we were kids. Premise is pretty simple. Pac Man (Marty Ingalls) and his wife Ms. Pepper Pac (Barbara Minkus) chomp ghosts to save their Pellet Forest from the evil Mezmeron. "Rip Van Pac" has Pac Man sleeping for 20 years after drinking a witch's potion. When he wakes up, he discovers Mezmeron has taken over Pac Land and has to help the younger generation find new Power Pellets. "Happy Pacs-Giving" is Grandma Pac's retelling of the first Thanksgiving. The Pac-Pilgrims are so grateful to have chomped the Native ghosts, they hold a big feast...and invite the ghosts, too.

Moved to Dailymotion for The Mouse On the Mayflower while I put all of the CDs I've listened to lately in my CD books. I went further into the only Rankin-Bass Thanksgiving special at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog in 2020.

The Mouse On the Mayflower

Headed out early after Mouse On the Mayflower ended. I had a few things I wanted to pick up at Dollar General before I went to work. Got bags for the Christmas cookies next month and a card for my brother Keefe's birthday tomorrow. Stopped at Crust n' Cravings for quick slices of cheese and tomato, basil, and mozzarella pizza.

Rushed in slightly late, which wasn't a good thing. The kids were really rowdy today. We had a hard time with some of them on the playground. One of the boys took his shoes off (forgetting he had to step on mulch once he got off the slide), and it took forever to get several of them into their jackets. They don't want to acknowledge that it's just not summer weather anymore! It's barely fall weather. In fact, it was darn cold today, cloudy and gale-force windy, probably in the upper 40's. 

The kids weren't out for very long anyway. The wind was so bad, we took them inside early. We tried to let them play silent ball and musical chairs in the cafeteria while other kids colored printed pages or built with Duplos and magnetic tiles, but they got too crazy and made too much noise. Two of the teachers moved the musical chairs group to the library. The ones who stayed made enough noise. I had to fight with one of the younger girls who shouldn't have been messing around with scissors, and scold two of the older boys for making a mess of the Duplos.

Hurried home, took my laundry downstairs, and watched Match Game '76 while eating a quick dinner. Ron Pallilo of Welcome Back Kotter became the actor from that show who appeared the most on Match Game along with Debralee Scott. He was sweet, funny, not a bad player, and handled Brett's flirting pretty well. I actually kind of wish he'd turned up more often with Deb after the show ended.

Worked on The WENN Nutcracker Suite as well. Betty's surprised when a tiny white fairy flutters to the ground. When she grows to human-size, she resembles Enid, the young intern who joined the station a few months before. Mr. Eldridge finally gets the horrified Snowflake Fairy to admit that the Mouse King's guards attacked the fairies and kidnapped Sugar Plum Fairy Hilary and Cavalier Jeffery. She's a prisoner in the Mouse King's furnace. He was turned into a dancing doll on a music box and given away.

Finished the night on YouTube honoring the career of Jack Clark, whose birthday would have been next week (after I finally remembered to bring up the laundry). Gentlemanly Jack Clark was a true California native who is mostly today remembered as an announcer, but did host a few shows. His first hosting gigs was as a substitute for vacationing hosts on major shows. He stood in for Allen Ludden several times on the original Password and Bill Cullen on The Price Is Right. 

He seemed to be the go-to man for pilots that never quite sold. In fact, he wouldn't get a full hosting gig on his own until the show Dealer's Choice in 1974. Three contestants play a series of gambling and number-inspired mini-games. The winner gets to roll for prizes. Kind of a mess, and I can understand why this only lasted a year. 

Clark's only hit as a full-on host was The Cross-Wits from the late 70's. In this cross between Password Plus and crossword puzzles, two celebrities help a contestant guess the answers on a crossword that is really a series of clues. The contestant who guesses the most puzzles gets help from one of the celebrities in guessing 10 crosswords in a minute in the bonus round. Fast-paced and fun, I really wish more of this show would turn up online. Nipsey Russell, James Hampton, Elaine Joyce, and Rosemary Forsyth are the stars who help out in the episode I have here.

He's best-remembered today as the announcer for Wheel of Fortune from 1980 to 1988. I wish I remembered him better. My family was just starting to watch the nighttime show when he passed away in 1988. I have a typical syndicated episode from 1985 here to give you an idea of why he was so beloved on the show.

Clark was one of the hosts who took part in that three-week Game Show Hosts Tournament on Card Sharks in 1980. He did really well, too. He came in third after Bill Cullen and Alex Trebek. He played Gene Rayburn in the consolation round...and it made me wish Clark had turned up on Match Game. There can't be two more different MCs than dirty old man Gene and gentlemanly Jack. Watching them butt up against each other was hilarious. 

Spin wheels, guess the crossword puzzle, and take on the house with the gentleman announcer of game shows!

Password (1963)

The Price Is Right (1965)

Dealer's Choice (1974)

The Cross-Wits (1979)

Card Sharks Host Tournament Semi-Finale (1980)

Card Sharks Host Tournament Week Finale (1980)

Wheel of Fortune (1985) 

Blowing In the Matches

Began the morning with breakfast and the original Broadway cast of Young Frankenstein. After the wild success of The Producers, Mel Brooks opted to turn another one of his films into a musical. I have to admit, while this would not have been my first choice for a musical and I don't think it quite matches The Producers, it's still a fun show. Sutton Foster is hilarious as Inga in "Roll In the Hay" and lovely in "Listen to Your Heart." Roger Bart's "The Brain" and "Fredrick's Soliliquy" are hilarious, and he and Christopher Fitzgerald as Igor get the show's best song, "Together Again." I'm not as sold on Megan Mullally as Elizabeth. Her "Surprises" is cute, but "Please Don't Touch Me" and "Deep Love" are more annoying than funny. All in all, if you loved the film or The Producers, this one is honestly worth trying as well.

Switched to A Goofy Movie while having lunch and getting ready to go. Goofy Movie is about as mid-90's as you can possibly get in a Disney animated film. The anthems "I 2 I" and "Stand Up" reek of the early-mid 90's. "After Today," in which we see every teen stereotype - and Max and his friends - and their excitement over the last day of school, is much better. There's also the charming "Nobody Else But You," in which Goofy and Max admit that, no matter how much they fight over their generational differences, they still have each other, and the hilarious chorus number "On the Open Road," in which Max ignores all the weird and wild things on the road (including Mickey Mouse!) while pining for his crush Roxanne. Probably not necessary unless you grew up in the era or really love the movie, but there are some fun tracks here.

Hurried off to work after the Goofy Movie CD ended. It was cold and windy, and though the sun was coming out by the time I arrived, it and the football games beginning were likely enough to get most people to stay home. It was relatively busy early-on, to the point where I needed help with the carts again. That died around 2:30-3 and was just picking up again when I left at 6. Other than I wish the old ladies would stop telling me I shouldn't be pushing carts because I'm a woman (I know they think they're being funny, but I find it offensive - I'm perfectly capable of doing my job), there were no major problems.

Went straight home and into a shower and dinner. Finished the night with today's Match Game marathon. Comedian and impressionist Fred Travelena didn't appear on the show until the syndicated era, when he turned up alongside Joyce Bulifant and fellow comedian Phyllis Diller. Like Kaye Stevens earlier in the run, he tends to be controversial among fans. Some, like me, generally find his many, many impressions of celebrities and presidents to be funny. Others just think he's annoying and best taken in small doses. 

He did turn up on a few classic episodes. He was there for the week where McLean ditched his famous sweaters and wore western-styled cowboy shirts instead. There was also the week where the contestants just kept tying and tying and tying and took forever to get to the Audience Match. He was also around when Fannie Flagg and Lee Merriweather did that kick line to explain the Rockettes for a British woman who didn't know about them. 

Fred continued turning up through Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour and into Match Game '90. In fact, he probably did his best work in 1990. He dressed as Elvis (or a low-rent version of Elvis) in a sequined jumpsuit. In another, he helped an excitable young man become one of the biggest winners ever on that version of the show. He also saw Richard Simmons, another very excitable person, jumping around under him. 

You never know who Fred will be next in this wild and wacky marathon!

Match Game Sunday Classics - Fred Travalena Laugh-a-Thon

Harvests and Matches

Started off the morning with breakfast and Alice's Wonderland Bakery. "Alice's Wonderful Baking School" emerges from a mushroom when she wants to teach Rosa and one of the Card Guards how to make the Rose Crisps snacks the Queen of Hearts loves. It even has a solarium with many kinds of herbs and vegetables, some of which can't be found elsewhere in Wonderland. Cookie makes use of the solarium to make "Ze Cookie Pizza" with toppings representing her memories. She thinks she's failed to teach the kids when their pizzas are all different, until they tell her they made the pizzas based after their own memories.

Hurried off to the Collingswood Farm Market after Alice ended. Though the farm market continues for another week after this, I'll work too early next week to get to the final day. Pears are gone, but winter fruit and vegetables - apples, cranberries, Brussels sprouts, winter squash, collard greens, peppers - still abound. I ended up with tiny fuji apples, tangerines with the leaves and stems from the Hispanic fruit and vegetable booth, cranberries, an orange-key lime muffin, and more of those pretzel buns. The lady who sold the pretzel buns even threw in a cranberry-nut oat cake for free.

When I got home, I had lunch while watching the 1996 Golden Films version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I go further into this ridiculous Disney imitation at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Animation Celebration Saturday - The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

Went to work before the movie even ended. The carts were a mess when I arrived. It had apparently been busy earlier, and it was still pretty crazy for most of the afternoon. Thankfully, it had slowed down considerably by the time I left at 6. The weather may have scared some people off. It's still cloudy, windy, and chilly, not the kind of day anyone wants to be running around. I had no trouble whatsoever and was in and out.

Had dinner, then finished things up with tonight's Match Game marathon. Match Game Productions celebrated Thanksgiving with episodes that were either filmed around Thanksgiving or mentioned food in some way. Richard ate the apple an audience member gave Brett. Mary Wickes brought cookies that Gene joked about. Audience Matches mentioned mashed potatoes and Thanksgiving turkey. 

Some of the episodes filmed in late November were pretty interesting, too. Thanksgiving 1973 coincided with the insane week featuring McLean Stevenson and Nancy Dussault. In November 1976, we were introduced to Lyle, a real go-getting contestant from Las Vegas with the worst toupee this side of Howard Cossell. Orson Bean discussed his voice work in the animated version of The Hobbit during Thanksgiving 1977. 

Give thanks for food and matches with this very tasty marathon!

Match Game Saturday Classics - Give Thanks Marathon

When the Autumn Winds Blow

Began the morning with breakfast and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. It's the "Moment of Truth" when Angela, fearing losing more people, refuses to help Glimmer rescue Adora. Glimmer turns to Shadow Weaver to get her, Bow, and the Princess Alliance into the Fright Zone instead. Hordak and Catra are obsessed with using Adora's sword to open a portal to another world. Entraptra discovers this is a very bad idea, but Catra, who wants revenge on Hordak and Shadow Weaver for their abuse, goes through with it anyway.

Hurried off to run errands after doing some things online. Started with grocery shopping at Sprouts. I mainly needed coconut milk here. Those apple fritter-flavored dried cranberries were so tasty, I got another container. Grabbed peanut butter cookies, soda, and sparkling water. 

The Acme was slightly busier when I arrived. Yogurt and granola were the big things here. I had online coupons for yogurt and for Kellog's "Extra" granola. Got two sodas, plus Sprite White Spiced Cranberry Zero soda and the Diet Coke Lime - no Fresca this time, alas. Also needed a Dunkin' Donuts gift card for my brother Keefe, whose birthday is next week. Treated myself to two small slices of pumpkin cake roll.

Made a quick stop for pretzels at the A&A Pretzel Shop on the way home. They said they baked too many, so I got three extra regular along with the stuffed cheese steak pretzel. 

Put everything away and had lunch while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. "Mickey's Thanks-a-Bunch Day" has Mickey and Minnie trying to make a vegetable and fruit salad for their Thanks-a-Bunch Day feast, but Minnie's garden isn't growing. Professor Ludvig Von Drake gives Minnie a spray to make it grow...but the fruit and veggies get too big! Now not only do they have to get the vegetables to where they can cut them, they have to figure out what to do with the leftovers.

It's also Thanksgiving on Mickey Mouse: Mixed-Up Adventures. "Mickey's Thanksgiving Fun Race" has the Racers and their friends and family driving together in vehicles that look like giant Thanksgiving meal foods and containers. Donald and Mickey are driving the gravy boat, but Donald keeps rushing, while Mickey wants to plan ahead. Their arguing lands everyone down a creek without a paddle when all of the cars end up in the river. Daisy's nervous about making her Gram Quaker's famous Double Berry Cranberry Sauce in "Happy Thanksgiving Helpers." She gets upset when she can't find the cranberries, and then all of their friends bring something besides the traditional meal items. Gram finally points out to her granddaughter that the people they're eating with are far more important than what they're eating.

Got my schedule at this point as well. In good news, more hours. In bad news, I work on Friday, which means I'll be running around all day, and work early on Saturday. I'll miss the last day of the Collingswood Farm Market, but I'll make up for it by going to see Wicked: For Good Saturday afternoon. (There's no way I'm missing that. I'll deal with the crowds.)

Hurried out to the Thomas Sharp School after the cartoons ended. Once again, we got the kids outside soon as they finished their snacks. I'm glad we did. It's supposed to get colder next week. Indeed, it was windy and cloudy outside today, though not as cold as it could have been. I talked with several children. I chased one of the littlest boys, and he chased me. I made sure everyone went down on the slide the right way. 

When we got back in, I joined the group playing Heads Up 7 Up and Silent Ball in the library. I even played Heads Up myself. First time I've played that probably in almost 40 years. "Silent Ball" involves kids sitting on a table, throwing a ball around while not talking. If you talk or miss the ball, you're out and have to sit down. I opted out, since I'm not the best at catching balls. Some of the kids were really got at that one! It was down to two boys and the other teacher when enough kids went home that we gave up and returned to the cafeteria for the rest of the session.

When I got home, I watched Match Game '76. Wish Soupy Sales had come back. He's not the greatest player on the planet, but he could be really funny. Betty White got really offended by a hurt-an-animal question in the last episode, to the point where she protested.

Finished the night with a shower and The Nutcracker and the Mouse King at Kanopy. This is the most unique production of this show I've seen that didn't get into The Hard Nut turf. I believe it was filmed in the Netherlands, so the story is set on the night before Saint Nicholas Day in the early 1800's, instead of Christmas Day in the vaguely late 1800's. We even see Old Saint Nick himself at one point. For some reason, Herr Drosselmeyer has created a magical movie projector, and the dream takes Clara into the projector itself. The Nutcracker doesn't turn into the prince right away, but fights the Mouse King a second time in the projector, and it's insinuated that he's eaten by the family's cat. We have Greek dancers instead of Spanish, Clara's brother Fritz turns up in the second half of the dream as the Mouse King's prisoner, and Clara and her Prince replace the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier.

Worked on The WENN Nutcracker Suite while I watched. Mr. Eldridge emerges at this point, wearing a black cape and top hat. The Nutcracker keeps staring and tugging at Betty like he knows her, but can't place her. Annie just wants to move along. Mr. Eldridge says the Sugar Plum Fairy Hilary and Cavalier Jeff will be able to help the Nutcracker and get Betty to her right size in the Snowflake Woods. Mr. Eldridge leads them there through the mouse hole in Betty's kitchen.