Spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon working on my resume. I really just need to update it to add my after-school program work and my new childcare skills. It needs to be reformatted, too. I added the new details, but I'll mess around with the formatting tomorrow or another time.
Watched Popeye shorts while I worked and ate lunch. Superman wasn't the only Famous Studios character to swing faster than a speeding bullet into World War II. Popeye joined the war a couple of months before the US did in "The Mighty Navy." Once the US followed, he appeared in a series of propaganda shorts that mostly depicted his adventures in the Navy and on leave. He dealt with life at sea in "Fleets of Strength" and "Blunder Below." He's not saying "Many Tanks" when Bluto dumps him in the tank corps in order to steal his date with Olive. He delivers "Spinach fer Britain" when he dodges the Nazis in order to bring cans of spinach overseas.
Of course, Popeye dealt with trouble on the home front and on leave, too. "Kicking the Conga Around" and "Aloma of the South Seas" are spoofs of South American stereotypes and culture of the time. The former involves Popeye learning to dance "the conger" to impress Senorita Olive, thanks to spinach. The latter is basically the same deal, without the dancing. "Olive Oyl and Water Don't Mix" and "Baby Wants a Battleship" have Olive and Swee'pea wrecking havoc on Popeye and Bluto's ship.
Popeye had just finished when I rushed off to the school. Thank heavens the rain that had come down all morning was long gone by 2:30. It was still cloudy, windy, and much colder, in the upper 40's, but not raining. The kids were out for about a half-hour, but it was really too windy and cold for them to be outside for too long. I did have a hard time helping one of the smallest kids in the bathroom, but I did help her out, and her parents thankfully arrived just a few minutes after I got her back. I told her they would!
We split up the kids after that. Half stayed in the cafeteria to draw or play with toys. The others went in the library to play "Would You Rather?" and "Heads Up 7 Up." "Rather" has the teacher giving the kids too choices. One group who wants one choice takes one side, the other group goes to the other.
I remember playing "7 Up" as a kid in school. Four kids are chosen. The others all lay their heads on their arms and put up their thumbs. The "pickers" push down a thumb, and those who are chosen have to guess who picked them. If they guess, they get to choose. If they don't guess correctly, the picker stays. They were still playing when I headed out.
Went straight home and into the Looney Tunes wartime shorts. Though Warners' first cartoon star Bosko did the World War I short "Bosko the Doughboy" in the early 30's, most of their war shorts were World War II propaganda. Like Popeye, they dove into the war before it even hit the US in "Meet John Doughboy" and "Rookie Revue." Most of their subsequent wartime shorts were either one-off character comedies like Bugs' in their last war short "Hare Meets Herr" and "The Draft Horse" learning that war is no action film, allegories like "Fifth Column Mouse" and "The Duckinators" on how we got into the war and how we planned on winning it, or sketch comedies about life on the home front like "Wacky Blackout" (country living during the war) and "The Weakly Reporter" (city and suburban living).
My three favorite Warners war shorts all came from the wildly warped mind of director Bob Clampett. I watched these during dinner. "Super Rabbit" has Bugs eating a carrot that turns him into a Superman parody. He fights a cowboy (who sounds like a prototype of Yosemite Sam) and his horse until push comes to shove and he dons the uniform of a real hero...a Marines officer.
"Draftee Daffy" has Daffy doing everything he can to escape "the little man from the draft board," even if it lands them...down there. "Falling Hare" may be the only time one of Bugs' antagonists gives as good as they get when he goes up against a little gremlin sabotaging planes. This fellow is no dope and leads Bugs on a merry chase through the skies, until the plane goes into a free fall!
Worked on The WENN Nutcracker Suite while everything was on. While Betty helps the Nutcracker, whose wooden arm is loose, back to his feet, she gets a chance to look around. Most of the toys and all of the tin soldiers were taken prisoner by the Mouse King's army...except one. Annie the Rag Doll (Maple) finds diminutive Lieutenant Foley hiding behind a gift. He's a new recruit and had never fought a battle until that night. Annie and Betty coax him out from behind the present and tell him it's ok to be scared. Mack the Lion (Mackie) says he's a lot more sensible than most toys.
Finished the night at YouTube with Family Feud. From 1989 through 1991, the Ray Combs Feud did a series of yearly tournaments that pit all five branches of the Armed Services against one another. In 1989, the Army kicked off by, alas, kicking the Navy's rear. The Marines did by far the best. They had the best trash-talking, some of the best answers, and won the Fast Money the most. When they won the second time, one of the largest Marines swept the only woman off her feet! I don't think her feet were on the floor for a good five minutes.
Celebrate Veteran's Day by honoring the men and women who fought and Feuded for our country with this anything-goes Armed Forces battle!
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