After the cartoon ended, I called Uber. Not only was it getting late, but I didn't like the look of the weather. It was cloudy, cool, hazy, and heavily humid. No trouble getting there or home. The one going there came in 8 minutes. The one going home came in 5.
Got to Riverwalk Dental at the Westmont Plaza with five minutes to spare. Thank heavens after I got that tooth pulled in late April, there was no trouble here. It was just a routine cleaning. I was in and out within a half-hour, and I won't be going back until early November.
Went next-door to Target after my teeth were squeaky clean. I was hoping to find more heel gel inserts or dividers for my record collection, so I know which letter in which crate and genre, but...nope. I did pick up nectarines, cheaper anti-bacterial wipes than I've seen elsewhere, and more of those Nature's Valley wafer bars for a decent price.
Since it still wasn't raining, I walked down the hill, past the Haddon Township Library, and down to the Westmont for lunch. Tried their garden omelet, along with more of those cheesy grits and soft mulit-grain toast. The grits weren't bad, but the omelet was watery and tasteless without the vegetables. Having enjoyed their chocolate cake a while back, I gave their carrot cake a shot. (Good thing I did. The waitress said they were already out of the chocolate cake, and I was there around 1:30.) Yum! Huge (seven layers!), thick and so moist, filled with raisins and lots of cream cheese frosting.
After I got home, I was so tired, I just spent the next few hours listening to music. Beaches, with Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey as close but unlikely best friends, was a huge hit melodrama in 1988. I remember how big it was during my late childhood. The inspirational ballad "The Wind Beneath My Wings" was everywhere on the radio all through the late 80's and early 90's. Though "Wind Beneath My Wings" is pretty, I prefer some of the more upbeat numbers. Midler has a lot of fun with "I've Still Got My Health" from the Cole Porter show Panama Hattie and two hilarious chorus number spoofs Midler wrote herself, "Otto Titsling" and "Oh Industry!" She also does well by Randy Newman's "I Think It's Going to Rain Today," but the duet "I Know You By Heart" is so 80's it hurts. (Oh, and there was a stage musical version on Broadway earlier this spring, but it was said to be terrible and didn't last a month.)
Cole Porter Vol. III is one of the later releases in Ben Bagley's long-running Revisited series of little-known numbers by beloved songwriters. There's some really hilarious performances here. Elaine Stritch gets to tear into "Find Me a Primitive Man" and "When Love Beckoned." Lynn Redgrave does surprisingly well by "I Want to Be Raided By You" and a medley of marriage-themed songs from Let's Face It and the original Gay Divorce. Dolores Gray gets the ballads "You're Too Far Away" and "Who Would Have Dreamed," while I can't help but wonder if Bagley was right and sweet Georgia Engel didn't quite understand what was going on with "I Like Pretty Things."
Little Me is an even goofier satire. Hollywood star Belle Potrine (Nancy Andrews) recalls how, in her younger years (Virginia Martin), went from Belle Schlumpfert from the wrong side of the tracks who was determined to win wealthy Noble Eggleston (Sid Caesar) to a performer who had everything but her true love. Caesar played almost every man she pursued or married, from the aptly-named wealthy young man she adored to the miser whom she begged to save her family's home to a Maurice Chevalier-esque entertainer and a doomed flyer on his way to World War I. Wild though the satire is, the Cy Coleman-Carolyn Leigh score actually produced two standards. Caesar got to introduce the charming "Real Live Girl," while Sven Swenson, as a gambler who also loved Belle, pointed out "I've Got Your Number." Most of the other songs don't get close to those two, though Martin's "Poor Little Hollywood Star" and her "I want" song "The Other Side of the Tracks" are fun.
(A revival with Victor Garber and James Coco in 1983 barely lasted a month and wasn't recorded. The second one from 1998 with Martin Short taking all the Caesar roles and Faith Prince as Belle didn't do much better run-wise, but both stars were said to have been excellent in the leads. Bruce Forsyth was an even bigger hit as Belle's lovers on the West End.)
Switched to Match Game '76 while making a quick dinner. The first hour finished out the week with Jody Donovan, including Dick Martin getting his first right answer. The first full week of 1976 brought in Isobel Sandford at the start of The Jeffersons' long run and songwriter Martin Hamlisch, just as A Chorus Line was starting its own long run on Broadway. Hamlisch brought along a small toy piano and spent the week creating songs on it, including one he called "Fog Cloud" after a nervous contestant's answer to the Head-to-Head Fog __.
Finished the night at PBS Kids with more Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. Margaret and Jodie's little twin brothers are upset when their dads go to the Clock Factory while they take lessons from Music Man Stan. Stan, Daniel, and Jodie remind them that "Grown Ups Come Back to the Music Shop," especially to join a dance party! Katarina enjoys playing with O and eating X's soup, but she misses Henrietta when she goes out for the evening. The two owls do their best to cheer her up and remind her that "Katarina's Mommy Comes Back Home."
Oh, and the storms didn't finally arrive until around 8 PM. They were coming down pretty good for a while, but they seem to be gone for the moment.
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