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.)
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