Though the rain had slowed down considerably by 9 AM, it was still raining. I called Uber. No trouble there. The driver going to work arrived in 8 minutes. It took me a while to get a ride going home and cost me a bundle, but when I did, they came in 7 minutes. No trouble either way, not even with some flash flooding in Oaklyn in the morning.
It's probably a good thing it did stop raining. Though I did have to return cold items for a half-hour, I spent most of the morning and early afternoon outside. In fact, the sun came out later on, and it got hot and murderously humid. It was really busy from about 11 AM onward, too. People were getting ready for the first Eagles game of the season against the Commanders at 4:25. It wasn't until almost before I left that we managed to corral the carts again.
Stopped at the pharmacy after work to get my Covid vaccine. I don't want the kids getting sick or making me sick. I've been meaning to get this done and kept putting it off. Talked to the pharmacist. She figured out my insurance. I waited a minute, then went in the room next to the pharmacy. They gave me the injection and covered it with a Band Aid, and I moved on.
When I got home, I changed...and went straight into bed for a nap. I was up way too late last night and had to get up early this morning (and will for most of this week.) Put my head on the pillow at quarter after 3 and didn't get up until 5:30.
I originally woke up just in time for tonight's Match Game marathon...but YouTube kept giving Match Game Productions a hard time. It blocked two marathons before we found out that the YouTube Studio was glitchy and blocking all new uploads.
(At least things went better for the Eagles. They hit the ground running to start and were up 14-9 when I checked at half-time. The Commanders caught up in the second half, but it wasn't enough. The Eagles finally outran them 24-22.)
I finished up the night with CDs featuring two true characters of American film and theater instead. Jimmy Durante may not have been traditional leading man material, but darned if he couldn't put over a ballad almost as well as Julie London. His "As Time Goes By" on As Time Goes By: The Best of Jimmy Durante was so iconic, it's on the Sleepless In Seattle soundtrack. That also features his delightful version of "Make Someone Happy." As Warners Archives says on the back of the CD box, only Walter Huston did "September Song" better. I've also never heard "Try a Little Tenderness" done as a jazz ballad.
Elaine Stritch was an entirely different type of character, but one who was just as memorable as the gentler Durante. I remember hearing great stuff about her one-woman show Elaine Stritch at Liberty when it opened on Broadway in 2002, and no wonder. The 2-disc cast album was recorded live at the original off-Broadway show. Stritch is obviously having a ball telling her life story. And what a life it was! She really had been there, known everyone from a young Marlon Brando to Noel Coward.
I kind of wish we could have gotten one song from the charming flop Goldilocks, where she played a silent film star and Don Ameche was her exasperated director and ex-husband. Her other famous roles were far better represented. In addition to her first song "Civilization" from the 1947 revue Angel In the Wings, "The Ladies Who Lunch" from Company, "Zip" from Pal Joey, and "Why Do the Wrong People Travel?" from the Coward show Sail Away, there were bits of "There's No Business Like Show Business," "I Want a Long Time Daddy" as she recalled getting into trouble for sneaking out to see a drag queen in Detroit, "Broadway Baby" (which she sang in the 1986 Follies concert), and the Coward song "I Went to a Marvelous Party."
This may be a party of one, but no one can party like Elaine Stritch can. If you love her or just want to hear someone tell a few great, slightly drunken stories, this is an absolute must-find.
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