Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight

Got a late start today with breakfast and It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown. Linus and Lucy's little brother Rerun makes his debut in the last Peanuts special with music by Vince Guaraldi (who died just hours after he completed the soundtrack). Sally turns the baseball field into a garden and orchard as part of an Arbor Day project. Her older brother is understandably furious, until it looks like the foliage might help them actually win a game.

Headed out after I made the grocery list. I didn't really need that much this week and I left late, so I limited the grocery shopping to just the Westmont Acme this week. I had online coupons for coconut milk, cookies, strawberries, and yogurt. Nature's Valley granola bars were two for $6. Restocked sliced chicken, soda, and apples. Thankfully, the store wasn't busy at all. I was able to get in and out with no trouble. 

Took the long way home across Newton Lake Park. It's really spring in the park now. The grass is mostly green with a few dry patches. The leaves are a bright yellow green. Sunny yellow buttercups and dandelions line the banks of the lake. Canadian geese cropped grass with their adorable brand-new goslings. It was much busier in the park at quarter after 1. I dodged dog walkers, older folks and college kids out for a stroll, and parents pushing strollers before turning on the path over the hill to the Haddon Township Environmental Center. 

Put everything away and had a quick lunch while watching Shirt Tales. The animals think they're "The Game Masters" when they sneak out to play consoles at a local arcade. They think they're getting a bargain when a game claims they can play for free, only to find them trapped in a bumper-car game. Tired of having to clean up the park for Mr. Dinkel, they don't object to being "Shirt Napped" by aliens, until it turns out the aliens just want them to clean up their planet. They finally swipe a flying saucer to get them back to the aliens' ship and get them home.

Called Alyssa at Camden County right before I left. I didn't get her, so I left a message. I hope I can get her on Monday. If she can't help me, I'm going to start looking for loan programs that might be more willing to help. 

Hurried out after the cartoon ended. Got there on time...to find the kids and their Thomas Sharp teachers, but no one from Healthy Kids. One of the heads of the program showed up shortly after I did. Turned out the head teacher had called out, and another couldn't come in. We were severely short-handed. Not a good thing, since we had 26 kids today, 11 at my table. They were crazy in the bathroom, especially the girls. I spent most of the twenty minutes or so after snack time cleaning up a little boy who had had an accident. By the time we got back, they were lining up the kids to go outside.

It was much too nice for them to stay inside. It was sunny and in the lower 70's when we first went out. Even after it clouded over and got windy later, it was still a lovely day. I did have to argue them off the swings, especially after they were all allowed on yesterday. There were too many of them and not enough teachers to keep an eye on them. Most of them were happy to draw with chalk, hug a tree, or dance along with "Zoo" from Zootopia 2, "Pink Pony Club," "I Like to Move It," the theme from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and songs from Moana, Moana 2, Trolls, and KPop Demon Hunters. 

I stayed a little later after the head teacher had to go home at 5. We were down to six kids when we moved them with the older kids on the blacktop. The weather remained cloudy and a little chillier but still too decent to take them back inside. Most of the kids kicked balls around, but I did have to argue with two boys to stop throwing around bottles of glitter-filled water they made in class (the bottles were really kind of flimsy), then stop playing around a car that did not belong to them. 

Went straight home after all that and into Match Game '90. This was the wild week where Fred Travalena dressed as Elvis Presley, complete with sequined jump suit. The Star Wheel kept landing on him, too. To give him credit, he got it right two out of three times. Pam Stone was really hilarious this week too, tossing out several British and southern gothic jokes.

Got my schedule at this point, too. In good news, slightly more hours and no long shifts. Unfortunately, I have two double-shift days this time, Thursday and Friday. No idea when I'll get to the grocery store. The head bagger must have taken those days off again. 

Finished the night with three of my newly-acquired records and CDs. The Superman book and record from Peter Pan runs with the continuity in the comic books when it debuted in 1978, which means Clark and Lois works for Galaxy Broadcasting and Jimmy is a full-fledged reporter. "The Mxyzptlk Menace" makes everyone speak without vowels, which means they can't really communicate at all, until Superman finds a way for him to say his name backwards. "Alien Creatures" is a much darker and stranger story. After aliens appear, it suddenly starts raining silver bullets that dissolve anything in their path. Superman has to convince them telepathically that Earth is not a good place for them to make their home.

The Cars were one of the most popular rock groups of the late 70's and early 80's. Their Greatest Hits include "Just What I Needed," "Good Times Roll," "Drive," and "My Best Friend's Girl." Other favorites on this 1985 album include "Since You're Gone," "Touch and Go," "Let's Go," "Shake It Up," and "Magic."

James Taylor's music was an all together quieter version of rock. His Greatest Hits include mellow ballads like "Fire and Rain," "Sweet Baby James," and "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight." "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)," "Mexico," and "Walking Man" show Taylor in a slightly more uptempo mode.

Wet Easter Matches

Actually, I'd only just gotten up when Mom called to wish me a happy Easter. She'd just gotten Play Doh "food" from my brother Keefe's daughter Aurora, who is now three and a half. Apparently, Aurora got a Donut Factory Play Doh set from the Easter Bunny. Mom says Aurora loves donuts! Her father's not doing nearly as well. In addition to his arthritis problems, he's having major trouble with his eyes. He had to have eye surgery that was so new, he was actually a documented case (with his enthusiastic permission) by doctors. He seems to be doing better, even if he can't drive at night anymore. At any rate, he was going to make Easter dinner.

Read Easter selections from the Colliers Harvest of Holidays anthology after I got off with Mom. My favorite material here is "Nino's Easter," about the Easter day of a typical Italian peasant boy and his family and community. Just reading about all the food they eat at the feast after church makes me hungry! No wonder the one boy gorged himself.  "The Country Bunny and the Gold Shoes" trains her little ones so well, they can take care of each other. The senior Easter Bunny is so impressed, he makes her an Easter bunny, too. She's worried she won't be able to bring eggs to a sick boy on an icy mountain, but the Easter Bunny gives her gold shoes to create her own holiday magic. I also read an utterly hilarious short for April Fool's Day that has two boys being run up a tree by a giraffe. They're hoping to give it back to the zoo and get a reward, but the giraffe doesn't make that easy!

Went online briefly after that before Jessa came. Mike was with her. It was still just cloudy and warm when we drove into Collingswood, parking on Haddon Avenue. We got incredibly lucky. We hadn't been at Paloma Restaurant for more than 10 minutes before it started showering heavily. I had the Churro French Toast, two huge raft-sized French toast slices with cinnamon cream, blackberries, strawberries, and bananas. Mike had a chicken quesadilla. He even gave me the last wedge. Jessa had Eggs Benedict. Oh, yum! My French toast was just crispy enough, with huge berries and banana pieces. Mike's Chicken Quesadilla was nice and cheesy and crispy.

We walked up and down Haddon Avenue for an hour, dodging showers and checking out what was open. None of us bought anything at Clutter. I found a lovely folk art-style felt heart ornament at Occasionette, sewn with a flower basket and beads. It was $16, but it reminded me so much of the similar felt Christmas decorations Mom made us in the 90's, I had to buy it. Innergroove was open again after being closed on Easter last year. I don't think Mike and Jess got anything, but I found:

John Denver - Windsong

George Benson - The George Benson Collection

The soundtrack from Sing 2

(I also found Nat King Cole's Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer, but I already have that one. I'll donate it to Goodwill.)

On our way down Haddon, we stopped to admire the shadow boxes in the window of the local newspaper the Retrospect. Each box represented a Collingswood business or landmark. In addition to obvious places like the police and fire station, there were boxes representing the Scottish Rite Auditorium, the Retrospect itself, Kismet Bagels, Flair Dance Studio, and even the water tower. To my surprise, Jessa pointed out that the pre-school children of Thomas Sharp made the shadow boxes this year! I thought some of the photographs of the children in the window looked familiar. I'll have to ask the kids about that when school starts again on the 13th.

Jessa drove me home after we left Innergroove. That rain wasn't stopping, and indeed, it would be off and on for the next few hours. Soon as we got home, I changed and relaxed while watching Easter Parade. I went further into this classic MGM musical with Judy Garland and Fred Astaire at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog back in 2019. 

Happy Easter! - Easter Parade

Switched to Easter records after the movie ended. The soundtrack for It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown, like the special itself, is highly underrated. There's some nice, bouncy tracks here, from "Woodstock's Dream" to Marcie inadvertently making "Easter Egg Soup." The bonus David Benoit track "Woodstock's Medley" is well-done, too. (And hey, if we're doing Peanuts special soundtracks, could we get David Benoit's work for the Peanuts in the 90's, too?)

Peter Cottontail - The First Easter Record for Children is just that, Easter and rabbit-themed songs for kids from presumably the mid-late 50's. Gene Autry kicks things off with the title song. He also sings "Sonny the Bunny," "The Funny Little Bunny (With the Powder Puff Tail)," and "Bunny Round-Up Time." Rosemary Clooney handles the ballads and bouncy songs, including "Bunny On the Rainbow" and a lovely version of "Easter Parade." Art Carney gets the comic stories "Flop, Mop, Cotton, and Pete" (Peter Rabbit, that is) and "A Thump, a Twinkle, and a Twitch, or How to Make a Rabbit." 

I started the Walt Disney 1987 Easter parade on YouTube, but moved to the Match Game marathon when that began at 6 during a big ham dinner. There were even more references to rabbits, eggs, or Easter on the show than what turned up yesterday. The first episode to have a rabbit question was the second week with Bob Barker, Della Reece, and the only cast members of The Waltons to appear on any version of the show, Michael Lerned and Richard Thomas. There was one on the 1978 episode where Richard Dawson argued that "Toasted Buns" matched "Warm Buns" (it did not), and the 1973 episode that introduced a hilarious Morey Amsterdam to the panel. By far the most notable episode with a rabbit reference was Charles Nelson Reilly's infamous return to the show in 1975 after being gone for nearly a year. Only Charles would make a grand entrance via wire and a stuffed bird! 

Join the Easter parade of weirdos and enjoy a whole lot of ham with these hilarious episodes!

Match Game Sunday Classics - Easter Sunday Marathon (Easter Part II)

Finished the night with the Walt Disney Easter Parades on YouTube. Ben Vereen joined Joan Lunden in 1987, appearing in the opening "Trolley Song" number himself. One of the things I like about the Easter specials is that they're just lavish enough. They don't get nearly as over the top as the Disney Christmas and Fourth of July parades do. The 50th anniversary of Snow White was the big push that year, along with Disney's Cruise Lines. Alan Thicke chased Mr. Smee and Captain Hook around the cruise ship and to a beach party in the Bahamas, where they danced to a Beach Boys cover group. Regis Phillbin worked the crowd here.

By 1995, the Disney Renaissance was in full swing. There were floats devoted to Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and The Little Mermaid. Philbin joined Lunden in the host's chair this time. Comedians Dave Chappelle and Dave Bruer were the goofballs interviewing viewers on Main Street. The main focus here was on Pocahontas, which would debut that June. Max and Goofy promote A Goofy Movie while grown-ups battle kids at the newly-opened Blizzard Beach, and we get to see bits of the ultra-colorful, ultra-blocky, ultra-90's "Mickey Mania" parade and the new vintage space-themed revamp of Tomorrowland.

Celebrate Easter at Walt Disney World and relive some fond memories of your own with these delightful trips into Disney's past!

1987 Walt Disney World Easter Parade

1995 Walt Disney World Easter Parade

Warm Spring Matches

Began the morning with breakfast and Daffy Duck's Easter Special. Daffy is the host and lead character for these three all-original shorts with springtime themes. He dodges an animator's paint brush with a strange sense of humor in the "Duck Amuck"-esque wrap around segments. The first short has him and Sylvester chasing a gold egg. The second pits Daffy against Speedy Gonzalez as Daffy tries to stop Speedy from taking Chocolate Easter bunnies from a factory for the children of his village. Daffy's solo in the third short as he tries to find ways to go north for the spring other than flying.

It was so late when I finally finished eating and dressing, I called Uber. Plus I had a few things I needed to get later in the day. This may not have been the best day for Uber. The one in the morning took 9 minutes to arrive, and I ended up being late for work. The one going home took 15 minutes.

Between it being the beginning of the month and the day before Easter, we were mobbed all day. We're also short-staffed this week. Seven Acme employees, including the head manager and the head bagger, went on vacation this weekend and next week. There were long lines for most of the afternoon. I did have to clean up a broken Mexican soda bottle that put me behind gathering carts, which is probably why they pulled a couple of college boys from cashiering and the self-checkout lane to help me later. Other than the clean-up (which no one told me about - I found it while sweeping), there were no problems whatsoever.

At least the weather was nice for all of this. It was in the 80's, hot, breezy, and sunny for most of the day. It clouded up a little later in the evening before the sun returned, but it was mostly gorgeous. 

I needed a few things after work that I didn't get yesterday. I didn't think I'd have room for the small bottles of Persil laundry detergent that are on a really good sale. (That brand is expensive, but I've heard such good things about it, I want to try it.) Grabbed tulips as an Easter gift for a friend who isn't a fan of sweets. Got Rose her birthday card and Dunkin Donuts gift card...and was able to give them to her right away when she spotted me waiting for the Uber while she was trying to get Pokemon cards for Finley from the Pokemon vending machine. There was a crowd of young men around it at that point, and they weren't leaving. She said she'd try later. 

(Oh, and Rose said she's going to send Finley and Khai to their grandmother's house in Westmont for Easter and will just spend the day resting and cleaning. I'm going out to brunch with Jessa tomorrow instead.)

Listened to my new It's Arbor Day/Charlie Brown's All Stars album when I got home. It's Arbor Day was Vince Guaraldi's last Peanuts special. In fact, he literally died just hours after completing it. It didn't affect the quality of his work. There's some really nice music here with hilarious titles - "Ships Sail Into Arbor," "Young Man's Fancy," "Seeds for Thought," "Sprinkle Your Bird," "Happy Arbor Day, Charlie Brown." Alas, Charlie Brown's All Stars seems to be the only special whose master audio tapes Craft Recordings hasn't turned up at press time. The music here was taken directly from the special itself, which is why "Charlie Brown's All-Stars!", "Oh Good Grief!", "Surfin' Snoopy," and "Pebble Beach" sound slightly lower in quality than the other Peanuts soundtrack albums. 

Oh, and at this point, I got Easter goodies from a friend and her teen daughter. They gave me chocolate truffle eggs, two Reeces Eggs, and a pretty card with a butterfly on a flower on it. That was so sweet of them!

Watched The Easter Promise next. Addie Mills (Lisa Lucas) is looking forward to coloring Easter eggs with her best friend Cora Sue (Franny Michel) and to the big school dress design show. Addie and her friends are thrilled when Constance Payne (Jean Simmons), a genuine Broadway actress who grew up in Clear River, returns to town. She goes to her home to ask for her autograph, then invites her to judge the style show and have dinner with her family. Neither works out especially well. Constance drinks too much wine when Addie's father James (Jason Robards) constantly criticizes her life choices and turns up at the style show drunk. Addie still manages to talk her into giving acting lessons to her and her friends. That seems to go well, until Constance gets drunk again before the second lesson. Addie's ready to give up, but Grandma (Mildred Natwick) reminds her that you never know what kind of lives people have lived, and everyone deserves a second chance, especially at Easter.

This lovely tale is my favorite of the four Addie Mills movies that ran on CBS between 1972 and 1976. It brings back so many memories of my own childhood Easters, from Addie and her friends reminding me of my sisters and me coloring eggs and giggling together in our bedrooms to the hilarious style show. (I like Cora Sue's peach "Hollywood" dress the best, but Addie's blue and magenta rickrack trimmed dress is cute too...and very Addie!) Jean Simmons is an especially warm and lovely eccentric actress...which makes those drunken binges all the more heartbreaking. My only complaint is I wish they'd filmed on location in Canada like they did for the Christmas and Thanksgiving films; this one looks a tad less authentic. At any rate, this is charming springtime viewing, especially for families with girls Addie's age.

Switched to It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown after the movie ended. Addie and her friends aren't the only ones excited for the holiday tomorrow. The Peanuts are also preparing for Easter in their own ways. Lucy colors and hides her own eggs and pesters Schroeder for gifts. Chuck takes Sally shoe shopping, while Snoopy buys Woodstock a bird house to get him out of the rain. Peppermint Patty and Marcie attempt to color eggs, but Marcie does everything but hard-boil them! Don't bother with all the fuss, says Linus. The Easter Beagle does all that. Sally is quick to remind him of the Great Pumpkin incident at Halloween, but Easter morning brings more than one surprise for the kids!

Moved to YouTube for The Smurfs' Springtime. The Smurfs are also looking forward to Easter. Smurfette is more interested in the cute duckling who thinks she's its mother. Gargamel wants to turn six Smurfs into gold after he steals a magic book from his godfather Balthazar. He puts Mother Nature to sleep, then kidnaps the Smurfs in order to boil them for gold. Papa Smurf knows that if Mother Nature doesn't herald the start of spring soon, it won't start at all...and then Balthazar figures out what's going on and wants in on it. 

Went straight into tonight's Match Game marathon. The show only did one full-on Easter episode in 1975. Fannie and Brett turned up wearing ugly Easter bonnets that somehow migrated onto the heads of Tom Bosley and Gene Rayburn. Other episodes had questions with eggs or rabbits, or were filmed around Easter weekend. Match Game '91 had "Easter __" on the Audience Match in the episode that introduced Ronn Lucas' obnoxious punk puppet Chuck Roast. (Deborah sitting next to him got so fed up with that puppet, she shoved his felt arm into his mouth!)

Other Easter moments were more welcome, like the episodes in 1975 and 1976 where Fannie wore her fried eggs t-shirt. Chuck wasn't the only puppet to turn up around Easter on the show. Kukla and Ollie of Kukla, Fran, and Ollie fame appeared with Eva Gabor and Arte Johnson during a memorable week in 1979. In 1975, Betty White once again managed to roll up Gene's pants legs and socks without him knowing. (You'd think he would have caught on that ages before.) There was also the time in 1978 when we met Earl, the little guy behind the Audience Match board, when he was late with one of the answers.

Celebrate Easter and spring the Match Game way with this adorable marathon!

Match Game Saturday Classics - Easter Marathon 2026 (Part 1)

And here's even more classic Easter specials to watch while the bunny hides the eggs tomorrow!

Buttons and Rusty and the Easter Bunny (A Chucklewood Easter)

A Family Circus Easter

A Claymation Easter

The Fat Albert Easter Special 

Easter Egg Mornin'

Veggie Tales: An Easter Carol

The Pink Panther: The Easter Panther

Thumpkin and the Easter Bunny

The Jack Rabbit Story: Easter Fever

Follow That Bunny!

The Easter Egg

Dolls and Harts of My Dreams

Actually, I began today with a phone call. The lady from the Camden County First Home Buyers loans was calling me back to do an online application. Awesome! She sounded really pleasant and interested, too. I gave her my information and explained why I'm doing this. I want to get out of this attic, and soon, preferably between mid-October after I get back from my vacation in Pittsfield and mid-January. 

After I finished with her, I had breakfast while watching Bugs Bunny's Easter Funnies. The Easter Bunny is sick and can't make his usual rounds this year. Granny wants Bugs to do it, but he's busy making his shorts, so she searches for a replacement among the Toons. With a story that flimsy, this is less of an Easter special and more "Oscar-winning shorts from Termite Terrace." Among the shorts seen are bits and pieces of "Knighty Knight Bugs," "Hillbilly Hare," "Birds Anonymous," "Robin Hood Daffy," "Sahara Hare," and "For Scent-imental Reasons." 

Switched to Tale of the Bunny Picnic after I ate. I go further into this charming Muppet spring cable special from 1986 that introduced Bean Bunny at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog. 

Happy Easter! - Tale of the Bunny Picnic

Spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon dressing the dolls for the spring holidays. Samantha looks so pretty and grown-up in her pink and magenta Flower-Picking Dress with the asymmetrical lace collar. I'm glad I bought that outfit when I did. It's hard to find now. Josefina is in her Feast Day Finery ruffled camisa and turquoise skirt. Felicity is pleasantly salmon pink in her Birthday Dress and flowered Pinner Apron. Kit may not appreciate the ruffles, but she does look cute in her Candy-Making Dress. The soft fall colors on Julie's original Birthday Outfit look even better on redheaded Ariel. Jessa gets the original late 90's Girl of Today Birthday Outfit with the fruit-print purple jumper and t-shirt. 

Whitney, Molly, and Barbara Jean wear home-made outfits, Whitney and Barbara Jean's from eBay. Barbara Jean's minidress has a fashionable 60's pink, yellow, and brown geometric design. It's sleeveless, so she wears a white ruffled sweater over it. Whitney's white dress has pastel polka-dots, a wide skirt, and purple ribbon trim. I bought Molly's pink and red striped dress with the flowers and the smocking from a booth at a church book sale last spring. 

Listened to records as I finished the dolls, and later as I ate lunch. Dreamy Serenades with Sammy Kaye and His Orchestra are exactly what it says on the cover - dreamy ballads or songs about dreams, done in a soft, breathy style, almost Hawaiian. These lovely ballads make gentle background music for a soft spring day, including "I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All?," "I Had the Craziest Dream," "With My Eyes Wide Open, I'm Dreaming," "My Isle of Golden Dreams," and "Girl of My Dreams."

The Tale Spinners Aladdin is a pretty straightforward retelling of the original Arabian Knights story. It's even set in China, rather than the Middle East as in the Disney version, and Aladdin lives with his mother. This does cut the Genie of the Ring, probably for time, but otherwise, it's action-packed and actually rather charming.

Swashbuckler is a rousing original pirate yarn from 1976. John Addison wrote an appropriately lush score that works with the old-fashioned adventure and derring-do. In fact, the title of the second-to-last number is "Derring Do!" Other notable pieces here include the Main Theme, "The Coach Robbery," "The Pickpocket Monkey," and "The Incredible Chase."

Soon as I finished eating, I jumped on my bike and headed off to the Thomas Sharp School. We had far fewer children today, 22 younger ones all together, 6 at my table. They messed around a little in the bathroom, but otherwise, they were just fine. They're still getting too wild in the cafeteria after snack time, though. Pinching, biting, name-calling and then tattling about it, running around. Several kids pulled plastic eggs out of their class Easter bags when they were told not to. Two actually got them open, revealing Play Dough. One girl was really good about putting hers away. Her friend just got upset and had to be talked into it. I couldn't get the eggs back together, so I wrapped them up with plastic and paper towels and put them in their backpacks. 8 kids had to be held back by the head teacher while we got the ones remaining outside.

It wasn't as nice of a day to be on the playground. For one thing, it was windy and considerably chillier, barely in the 50's. For another, it was also cloudy and kept spitting lightly on and off the entire time we were outside. We also had to ban the kids from using the bouncy balls they got for Easter when they bounced them over the fence around the playground twice and the teachers had to retrieve them. The kids still had fun, though. They chased each other, played hide and seek, and gathered flowers that had fallen from the tree over their heads and made tiny bouquets. Others danced to "Try Everything" from Zootopia, "Zoo" from Zootopia 2, "I Like to Move It," and songs from Moana, Moana 2, and Trolls. 

The sprinkles had picked up slightly before the kids started to complain about the cold. We finally got the remaining four inside around 5 PM. I spent the 15 minutes I had left sharpening colored pencils. I also discovered there was a reason the kids took their Easter bags home today. I thought their Spring Break started Monday, but it begins tomorrow. That means I get a full day off I hadn't planned on, as I'm also off of the Acme tomorrow. Sweet. I'll move my grocery shopping to tomorrow instead of Saturday and see if I can get some things done in Westmont that I originally planned on doing next week.

There was a package from Amazon waiting for me when I got home. My first birthday present to myself are the most recently-released Peanuts specials soundtracks. Apparently, Craft Recordings couldn't find the original audio masters for Charlie Brown's All-Stars, so they paired what they could get off the actual special with It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown. I'll listen to it tomorrow or this weekend.

Watched Match Game '90 during dinner. Jo Anne Worley finished the previous week with a record on the Match Up mini-game, getting 7 matches in a row. Brett Somers turned up for the first of three weeks on the next show, sitting between Fred Travelena and his one-man White House and her old drinking buddy Charles Nelson Reilly. She got to flirt with a handsome young contestant who had no trouble choosing her for that Match Up game.

Finished the night with Hart to Hart. "A Couple of Harts" are on a picnic outside of Acapulco when the junker car Max loaned them break down. They walk to a nearby mansion to ask for directions to a repair shop, only to fall right smack in the middle of a conspiracy when the wealthy woman owner assumes they're the new butler and maid. Turns out the woman is the head of a group of revolutionaries who just assassinated a senator and intend to do even worse at a dinner that night...and a close friend of the Harts may be involved as well. 

It's Really Truly Spring, Charlie Brown

Began the morning with breakfast and The Bernstein Bears' Easter Surprise. I went further into this 1981 special at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog for Easter 2023.

Easter Short Subject Special - The Bernstein Bears' Easter Surprise

Headed out to run errands after the Bears ended. For one thing, it was too gorgeous of a day not to. It was sunny, breezy, and warm as could be, in the upper 70's by noon. I strolled down Johnson and up to the big WaWa on the White Horse Pike to get money for the rent. Tried a Raspberry Chip Smoothie, too. It was delightfully tart and cooling, with real raspberry and chocolate chips mixed in. Stopped at Family Dollar on the way home to get Easter cards (and forgot two - I'll pick them up after work tomorrow). 

Put on Yogi the Easter Bear while I got the cards ready. Ranger Smith is incredibly nervous about this year's Easter Jamboree. The super-tough park commissioner is bringing his grandchildren, and he expects them to have the time of their lives. He's really furious with Yogi when he doesn't act "smarter than the average bear" and eats all the Easter candy. Yogi and Boo Boo go off to find the Easter Bunny so he can replace the lost eggs and candy and end up having to save him from a pair of truly bizarre plastic-obsessed villains who want to replace the Bunny's real eggs with their fake ones.

Watched It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown during lunch and as I got ready for school. Each of the Peanuts crew prepare for spring in their own way, from Peppermint Patty and Marcie's hilarious attempts to color eggs to Sally going shoe shopping and Snoopy getting Woodstock a new birdhouse. Don't bother with all the fuss, says Linus. The Easter Beagle does that. Sally's more than a little skeptical after the Great Pumpkin incident at Halloween, but Easter Sunday brings more than one surprise for the kids!

Despite the nice day, I called Uber for a ride to Thomas Sharp. Jessa was picking me up later. Considering how late I called, I surprisingly got a ride in 6 minutes. I even had a little time to rest in a little garden before I went inside.

Good thing, because it was crazy today. We had 24 kids, 10 at my table. My kids behaved just fine. They all cleaned up this time, and they weren't that bad in the bathrooms. It was after snack time when the trouble started. They were absolutely wild in the cafeteria, running around, screaming, calling each other names and then tattling on each other. Even worse, one of the teachers called out so late, they didn't have time to replace her. It was just the head teacher and me today. The head teacher had to gather a rather large group of them to tell them that name calling isn't nice, tattling is for emergencies, running around and climbing under things is for outside, and they need to remember that we're all in a small space without a lot of room for all of that.

Things went much better once we got outside and the kids were able to enjoy that hot weather. To be honest, it was too hot. It was almost in the 80's by 4 PM on the last day of March. I had to take several kids inside to use the bathroom, and then to fill their water bottles, but they behaved much better when there was only a few of them. When they were on the playground, they happily ran around, looked for tiny pinecones on the ground, and danced to "Try Everything" from Zootopia, "Zoo" from Zootopia 2, the theme from Bluey, "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride" from Lilo and Stitch, "Ghostbusters," and songs from The Little Mermaid, Moana, Tangled, Encanto, and KPop Demon Hunters. 

By 5 PM, we moved the remaining 6 kids to the blacktop to play with the 9 remaining older kids. I stayed slightly longer to help with them, since Jessa didn't arrive until 5:30. They were down to 3 older kids and 2 younger ones when Jessa arrived with a newly cleaned-out car.

We had no idea where we wanted to eat, so we drove around a little. Jessa originally suggested Freddy's, a burger-and-hot-dog fast food chain in Cinnaminson, but we spied something far better behind it. Hibachi Grill and Buffet's enormous size belies its location in a generic shopping center. It was huge and gorgeous in there. The bright center area with the food counters are between rows of warm dining areas hung with Japanese paper umbrellas and separated by graceful wooden trellises. I had sushi, a spring roll, salad, two pan-fried pot stickers (I gave one to Jessa), a meat skewer, coconut shrimp, two steamed mussels, a spring roll, fried rice, a little bit of baked white fish, chicken and broccoli, and for dessert, a slice of white cake with tasty vanilla ice cream.

After we got home, I watched the last episode of Match Game '90, then finished the night with Spring for Strawberry Shortcake. Strawberry is worried that winter is taking much too long to recede. If spring doesn't come soon, she won't be able to plant her berries, Orange Blossom's trees won't bloom, and Ginger Snap won't have grain and eggs to make her delicious cookies. Huckleberry Pie and Custard the Cat are more interested in goofing off than helping. Strawberry, Orange, and Ginger go in search of spring...and learn a lesson about putting duty before pleasure, the importance of spring's place in the calendar year, and that working together not only gets the job done faster, but is a lot more fun. 

Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year

Began the morning with breakfast and Donnybrook! This 1961 musical version of The Quiet Man has Art Lund as the former prizefighter title character, Joan Fagan as the spirited Irish woman he falls in love with, Eddie Foy Jr. as a matchmaker, and Susan Watson as the village widow. Watson and Foy have the lion's share of the good material here, including their comic numbers "I Wouldn't Bet One Penny" and "Dee-lightful Is the Word." Most of Lund's songs are pretty dull, but Fagan does have a rather nice ballad, "He Makes Me Feel I'm Lovely."

Called Uber after the record ended. I hadn't been to Sprouts in ages, and I needed something at Target, too. Ironically, considering the cloudy and chilly weather and all the trouble I've had getting rides from them lately, they arrived in 4 minutes.

In fact, I started at Target. I was walking past the coolers in the grocery area when I noticed they had a lot of new Slice flavors I'd never seen at the Acme. I wanted all of them, but since I'd also have to carry them, I just got Apple and "Pacific Pop" (likely their version of Mountain Dew) to try. I was really there for a gift card for Mom. I didn't see what I wanted, but I still got her something. Stopped at Starbucks for a tasty Iced Double Berry Matcha (lavender berry foam, berry syrup on the bottom, very sweet). 

I saw a young woman holding a box of Thin Mints when I was at Starbucks. Sure enough, there were two Girl Scouts dancing around outside of Target, attracting customers by singing their idea of "Girl Scouts" horror sales songs with rather macabre themes. They were too funny. I had to get Peanut Butter Sandwiches and their new "Explorermores" (chocolate sandwich cookies with almond cream middles) with that kind of a sales pitch!

Sprouts was the busiest I'd ever seen it! Good thing I didn't need a whole lot. Their coconut milk is a lot cheaper than the Acme's, and they have smaller bottles of buttermilk, too. Raided the bulk bins for lemon-raspberry dried mangoes, dried cranberries, and raisins. Found one of those kids' lunch bags with a sandwich, applesauce, cookie, chips, and small bottle of water on clearance; grabbed the almond butter-jelly. 

I walked home. I won't be doing any walking tomorrow! It's supposed to pour all day. The weather today wasn't much better. It was cloudy, breezy, and chilly, into the lower 40's. Even so, I still sat at a black metal picnic table near a clearing for my first picnic of 2026. You'd never know we're so close to the first day of spring. Though green grass is sprouting through the yellow, the trees remain bare gray husks, and the flowers haven't bloomed. There weren't even many Canadian geese around. It was such a depressing scene, I hurried over the stone steps and down East Clinton to home soon as I finished lunch.

Spent the rest of the afternoon trying to focus on writing and listening to spring or Irish-themed music and Broadway cast albums. Finian's Rainbow debuted in 1947, when the story of a leprechaun who follows the title Irishman and his daughter to the deep south after his pot of gold and end up helping sharecroppers was a breath of fresh shamrock-scented air. Scotswoman Ella Logan headed the original cast, introducing "If This Isn't Love," "Look to the Rainbow," and "How are Things In Glocca Morra." Impish David Wayne joined Logan for "Something Sort of Grandish" and got the hilarious "When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love." 

The Music of Spring and Tune Up for Spring are two collections Columbia made to sell at tire dealerships in the early 60's. Ray Conniff's bouncy "Younger Than Springtime" is my favorite from both albums. Rosemary Clooney's "I Could Have Danced All Night" and Jerry Vale's "Camelot"  are a bit more out of place in Music of Spring. Leslie Uggams doing a lovely "April In Paris" and the New Christy Minstrels' "Green Green" are more fitting. Al Jolson's "April Showers," Polly Bergen singing "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year," and the Hi-Lo's "Everything's Coming Up Roses" are the standouts in Tune Up. 

The Broadway version of Once was a surprise hit in 2012 that ended up winning the Tony for Best Musical that year. The 2007 film was already lovely, but it ended up making a rather nice intimate stage show, too, if bittersweet numbers like "Leave," "Sleeping," "When Your Mind's Made Up," "The Moon," and "Falling Slowly" are any indication.

The other famous modern Irish musical is probably The Commitments. I loved my cassette version of the soundtrack as a kid, and I was just as happy to find it on CD a while back. The cast's passionate renditions of "Mustang Sally," "Destination Anywhere," "Try a Little Tenderness," "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man," and "In the Midnight Hour" wound up being an even bigger hit than the film and introduced teens of the early 90's like me to classic R&B and blues.

Jessa dubbed Snoopy's Classiks - Beatles on Toys for me last Easter. This is exactly what it sounds like, Beatles songs played on toy pianos, with Sally and Chuck introducing the first number "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" "She Loves You" is just the kids singing that over and over. They do much better by a charming "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds" and "Yellow Submarine." "Here, There, Everywhere" and "When I'm Sixty-Four" are the best of the instrumental numbers. 

I couldn't focus on the writing, but I did get a little done. C.J, Sir Scott Sherwood's squire, is guarding the oddly silent and closed gates. Hilary demands to know what's going on. King Rollie the Snake King has taken over, he tells them in a whisper. Lord Comstock opened the gates and let the snake men invade. Sir Sherwood and King Jeffery were supposedly killed in the invasion. Betty and her Heart-Quill are horrified. How could that happen? Scott had his men. He was overwhelmed, C.J softly explains. His men were out searching for Pavla, and he had little protection left at the castle. Betty doesn't believe him, even as he takes the ladies and their mounts through the silent gates and into a quiet, motionless town...

Finished the night with a late Match Game marathon. Handsome Robert Walden was playing a cocky young reporter on the drama Lou Grant when he first turned up on Match Game late in 1978. He had once been a pupil of Charles Nelson Reilly, and Brett Somers certainly had no problems ogling him either. Neither did Patty Duke when she ended up wrapped in his sweater after he stripped it off once. He was there for the infamous syndicated episode where the contestant Ginger gave an extremely strange answer for what a jock caterpillar buys, and he was the one who had to answer her when she gave an even weirder answer for "Cuckoo __" in the Head to Head. His most memorable nighttime appearance pit a handsome Naval officer against a pretty young Israeli woman who didn't seem to grasp the language very well. Marcia Wallace was much happier to match an unusual answer for "He's So __" in another memorable Head-to-Head. 

Go "cuckoo" for this disco-era hunk turned dedicated reporter in these hilarious episodes!

Match Game Sunday Classics - Robert Walden On the Panel 

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

I went to sleep as the snow continued to come down heavily. When I awoke the next morning, it was...still coming down, though not as heavily. In fact, it was hard to tell if it was snowing, or just blowing around. I tried to figure it out while eating breakfast and watching Paw Patrol. "Pups Save a Tiny Penguin" when it's stranded with Alex and Everest on a bridge made of canoes and snowboards. They first have to save them from a whirlpool, then get them to shore. "Pups Save a Cat Show" when the robot kitty Mayor Humdinger made goes out of control and makes all of the real cats scatter.

Switched to Frozen: The Musical on Disney Plus next. This is a recording of the English cast of the stage version of the show. It's pretty much the same as the film with a new prologue showing Anna and Elsa as children with their parents at a summer festival ("Let the Sun Shine On"), a random Act Two chorus number for the owner of the trading post where Anna buys her winter clothes ("Hygge"), a duet after Kristoff first meets Anna where Kristoff points out that her engagement is pretty unrealistic ("What Do You Know About Love?"), a number for Kristoff where he finally admits his feelings about Anna ("Kristoff's Lullaby"), a second song for the sisters where Anna confronts Elsa at her ice castle ("I Can't Lose You"), and a second song for Elsa when she realizes she has to return to Arendelle ("Monster"). 

The adorable "What Do You Know About Love?" is probably the best of the new songs, but most of them aren't as good as the ones from the original film. Though there are some decent lead performances from Laura Dawkes as Anna and Samantha Banks as Elsa, the film isn't really enhanced by stage effects and light shows. The pandemic killed this after two years on Broadway, and Disney saw no reason to reopen it. It did a little better in London, running three years. Honestly, it's not bad, but I suspect it's mainly for stage musical nuts or those with little girls who can't get enough of Frozen and don't mind that it isn't the original.

Moved to Tubi for Good Times during lunch. James and Florida are worried that J.J won't make it his senior year of high school. He focuses entirely on art and girls and has never been seen to crack open a school book. They're surprised when "Junior the Senior" passes anyway. Turns out the principal just wanted to move him along because they're overcrowded and underfunded and can't afford to keep him there. Junior agrees to it at first...but then decides that if he's going to move to the next grade, maybe he'd actually start learning about something along the way.

"The Visitor" is a man from the Chicago Housing Commission who comes in response to an angry letter Michael wrote about conditions in the housing development to his local newspaper. The plump little fellow has obviously rarely left his office, and he gets an eye-opener when he's stranded at the apartment building and learns about the real-life conditions that the Evans and their neighbors live in.

After Good Times ended, I started my next Remember WENN fanfiction. It's over a year and a half after "All Noisy On the Pittsburgh Front." Betty Roberts is waiting for Scott Sherwood to come home from North Africa, even though she's still trying to convince herself that they're only friends. Hilary Booth is furious that Jeff Singer is walking out on her and their shows to seek a correspondent job in London. She was hoping they could remarry and become queen and king of Pittsburgh radio again now that she's gotten her divorce from Scott. Maple LaMarsh is frustrated that Victor Comstock has gone to Washington to deal with W.E.N.N business and has been constantly breaking dates again. 

Maple wonders why it's the men who always run off to war. Why can't the women be the ones who get to run off and leave the men behind? Betty thinks this is a brilliant idea, and the perfect catalyst for a story the head of the Pittsburgh Public School District, the new sponsors for A Book at Bedtime, asked for. They requested an original, slightly dark fairy tale to make the younger children shiver and the older ones cheer. Hilary suggests, of course, that she is the Queen of Pittsburghia, returning home with her scribe and music magician, to find all isn't well in WENN Castle...

Tentatively titled Legends of WENN, this is intended to be a much shorter 80's-style fantasy story than my ongoing Once Upon a Time In the Land of WENN, less Game of Thrones and more Willow or darker Princess Bride. I'm hoping I can actually finish this one. I love the idea, and not only is it not tied to a holiday, it's a fully-new idea, not something I came up with years ago. 

Listened to a couple of my recent record acquisitions while I worked. We Are was one of Quincy Jones' last collaborations, this one with jazz fusion artist Jon Batiste. The opening title song smacks of gospel. "Tell the Truth" and "Show Me the Way" get more into the rock, while "Whatchutalkinbout," "Boy Hood," and "Freedom" lean more on the soul side of things. Recommended if you love Batiste or are looking for something that moves out beyond the traditional jazz. 

Despite being listed as the soundtrack from A Boy Named Charlie Brown, what I picked up at Barnes and Noble last week is actually a reprint of the non-special Peanuts Vince Guaraldi album Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown. As such, there's some really good performances here. Along with "Linus and Lucy," we have "Oh Good Grief," "Blue Charlie Brown," "Baseball Theme," and "Happiness Theme (Happiness Is)." (I am going to keep looking for the real soundtrack to A Boy Named Charlie Brown, though.)

Moved to the first disc of that Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II set next. "Lay Lady Lay" is my favorite number here, and possibly the best-known number on this half of the set. "Watching the River Flow," "Maggie's Farm," and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" are other stand-outs.

The snow had long vanished by 4:30, and the roads were largely clear. It wasn't even that windy anymore. I figured it was ok to run errands and use up the last WaWa gift card I got from the kids for Christmas. I had been right about the snow. There was a lot of it, true, at least 9 inches, but it was wet, heavy, and fluffy. In fact, most of it was melting even as I dodged unshoveled sidewalks and huge piles of icy slush. I did drop off two books in one of the library kiosks, but I decided the sidewalks on the back roads were too messy to take them home.

WaWa wasn't that busy, despite it being one of the few places open on a snowy Monday. I got money for a friend, then used the last of my gift card on a soft pretzel and a Chocolate Coconut Smoothie. I tasted more chocolate than coconut, but it was still sweet and wet, which was really all that mattered at that point. 

Maybe I should have done the back roads again instead. The sidewalks on the White Horse Pike were only slightly less messy than the ones in the neighborhood. No one had shoveled or plowed around Family Dollar at all, not even their parking lot. I hope they weren't open. At least it wasn't that cold, either, probably in the perfectly normal upper 30's-lower 40's. 

Put on Match Game Syndicated while I had dinner. Bob Donner, former beauty queen Marjorie Wallace, Bill Daily, and Marcia Wallace figured into this week. Marcia spent the week joking about how much she and Marjorie looked alike (they didn't) and trying to rein in Bill Daily's perpetual nervousness. Bob Donner spent it writing unique artwork for his cards.

Finished the night at YouTube with more Match Game, this time at YouTube, in honor of Black History Month. The second African-American panelist to appear on the new Match Game after Della Reece was comedian Stu Gilliam early in 1973. No wonder he never came back. He spent most of the week trying to meditate between Jack Klugman and Brett Somers and their perpetual battles. Mannix's secretary Gail Parker had more luck joining the panel in dealing with overly excited contestant Dorothy the day after New Year's 1974. Comedian and impressionist George Kirby appeared later that year, just in time to see Richard literally throw Brett's shoe out when she asked him to fix it. 

Isobel Sanford of The Jeffersons turned up on the show twice, most memorably early in 1976. She helped win big money for a very sweet contestant who was such a doll, Marvin Hamlisch and Charles Nelson Reilly wrote a song about her. 

Nipsey Russell and Scoey Mitchelll probably appeared the most of any black panelist and got the most out of their appearance on the show. Nipsey appeared off and on from 1973 through 1979. Scoey first turned up in 1974 and would appear through early in 1982. I have a typical episode with Nipsey and his famous poems from 1978, and Scoey's last appearance in 1982 (that also included a brief but memorable striptease from Betty White). 

Arsenio Hall was probably the most memorable of the black panelists to appear exclusively on The Match Game Hollywood Squares Hour. His quips and jokes really made that show, and he was frankly one of the best things about a wildly uneven format. Jimmie Walker of Good Times first turned up in 1974, when the show was just starting its five-year run. He became so associated with the show, he would appear throughout the original run and turn up on Match Game-Hollywood Squares and Match Game '90 as well. Like Marcia Wallace and Vicki Lawrence, Jimmie probably did his best work in the 90's show, where he was slightly more subdued and less obnoxious. I have his first episode (and Mary Wickes') here, where he ogles a very pretty contestant.

Celebrate Black History Month with some of the most memorable panelists ever on Match Game!

Stu Gilliam (1973)

Gail Parker (1974)

George Kirby (1974)

Isobel Sanford (1976)

Nipsey Russell (1978)

Scoey Mitchelll (1982)

Arsenio Hall (1983)

Jimmie Walker (1990)

Night of the Superstitions

Got a quick start this morning with breakfast and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Mickey makes "A Surprise for Minnie" for Valentine's Day and wants to give it to her at the park. First, they have tire trouble on the car, then have to pay Pete in flower petals. When they do arrive, Minnie loves her gift, but Donald realizes he forgot something for Daisy. Toodles, of course, has the answer.

Called Uber after the episode ended. It took them over 10 minutes to arrive. I just barely got to work on time. It was 7 minutes going home at 1:30. No traffic or trouble either way.

No trouble at work, either. The head bagger said she was going to help the floral department manager with Valentine's Day bouquets, but she ended up doing carts with me instead. It was a little busy, not as overwhelming as you'd think for a holiday weekend. No trouble whatsoever. At least it was a nice day, too, still chilly but nothing like the last few weeks, sunny and with less wind.

Did my weekly grocery shopping after I got off. Restocked oranges, yogurt, coconut milk, probiotic soda, and granola bars. Found my favorite pecan shortbread cookies on the bakery clearance rack. Thought I'd try a small slice of chocolate fudge cake on sale, too. Tried a sample of sushi and liked it so much, I bought California rolls for lunch. Saw the new Coke Cherry Float Zero $2 for 5 and grabbed two of those as well. (And tried one on the way home. Oooh, they are good! They really do taste like cherry cream soda.) Found fabric Band-Aids with watercolor covers on the clearance shelves. Grabbed sliced Swiss for sandwiches next week.

Oh, and I got my schedule at work. In good news, Wednesday is the only double-shift day this week, and I work later in the day on the weekends. I even have President's Day totally off, no Acme or school. In bad news, I'm surprised at the lack of hours. I usually get a lot more in mid-February. I guess not as many employees opted to use their vacation time in February this year. It hasn't exactly been vacation weather unless you're a devoted skier. 

After I got home, I ran The Backyardigans while I put everything away and had my sushi lunch. Uniqua, Pablo, and Tasha, are the roughest, toughest, and nicest biker group you've ever met. They call themselves the Do-Gooders, and they have no desire to make trouble. Mailman Tyrone assumes they're more stereotypical bikers and takes off. The trio go after him with his mail bag, remind him that he has a "Special Delivery" for them.

Switched to the Peanuts next. Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown focuses heavily on the Peanuts' (mostly imaginary) romances. Linus has a crush on his teacher Miss Othmar and buys her a huge box of candy. Sally thinks it's for her. Lucy would be glad if Schroder would just acknowledge her and get away from his piano. Snoopy's putting on messy and melodramatic "paw-pet" shows, and poor Charlie Brown is waiting for someone, anyone, to give him a valentine.

A Charlie Brown Valentine was made to fill an hour slot with Be My Valentine, but it has some entertaining material in its own right. Chuck pursues the Little Red Haired Girl, while Peppermint Patty and Marcie pursue him. Lucy demands Snoopy write her something romantic, while Sally tries to tell her Sweet Baboo how much she likes him.

Finished the last three episodes of Remember WENN after the Peanuts ended. Gertie's writing for the brand-new medium of television this time in "The Sunset Also Rises." Hilary becomes Norma Desmond with Scott as Joe Gillis in a satire of Sunset Boulevard. The others keep intruding and re-writing Gertie's script. Hilary wants to play the ingenue, the others want to play Norma, and Victor...somehow gets in there, too. 

"At Cross Purposes" begins with a lady in a dress entering WENN...which is actually Jeff in costume for Charley's Aunt. It becomes more than a costume when a process server turns up with papers from Pavla, and the entire cast ends up in drag to avoid him. It's newsgirl Betty who comes up with far more devastating news by the end of the episode...like the attack on Pearl Harbor...

"All Noisy On the Pittsburgh Front" brings Victor back in, claiming he's now running WENN and a new military station. Betty thinks Scott is making cushy deals, but he's really doing something far more important. Jeff is rejected for military duty, then discovers Hilary is married to someone else, there's a military nut who thinks he's Captain Amazon (J.K Simmons) running around the station, and Eugenia proposes to Mr. Foley...

And that, sadly, is that. AMC ended the show on those cliffhangers, after having mangled the fourth season rather badly due to a new management that didn't respect it. "Sunset Also Rises" is a good example of this. Sunset Boulevard neither fits the show's tone, nor its time period. Rupert Holmes didn't even write it, and it's a mess of overlong and weird gags. Why they rejected Rupert's original suggestion for a spoof, The Maltese Falcon, I will never know. Maybe it wasn't glamorous enough for them. "Cross Purposes" and "All Noisy" are better, two of the best episodes of a troubled season...but they're also hard to watch now, knowing how things ended, or didn't. 

I still adore this show, and I still highly recommend it to anyone who loves historical fiction, Media history, great wordplay, or terrific ensembles...but fair warning on those sudden unresolved endings. At least AMC is actually acknowledging its existence now. The full series is on AMC Plus; the first two seasons are free on Plex. The first three seasons can currently be found on YouTube and (in part) on the Internet Archive.

Put on The Price Is Right while I did research on condos in near-by towns. I'm guessing this one was from 1984 or early '85. Johnny Olsen was the announcer and Bob Barker had gray hair. The "story" Showcase was one of the strangest I've ever seen...and certainly one of the most early-80's-centric. Johnny apparently entered a Boy George Look-a-Like contest...and won. Most of the prizes centered around all things British (including a trip to London) or music-related. The models thought it was just as weird as I did. They bundled Johnny off to a new van by the end!

Let it run into Match Game Syndicated as I had dinner. We started off with the remaining existing episodes of the Louise Sorrel week. The next week, with Charles Siebert and Phyllis Davis, is also missing episodes...but it also has one of the funniest episodes of 1980. Gene and Charles jump a mile when a bulb blows on-stage. Charles carries a prop bulb for the rest of the show...and the panelists are seen climbing on top of Gene to screw it on by the end of the episode.

Moved to The Wild Wild West at Pluto TV next in honor of Valentine's Day and Friday the 13th. Artemis Gordon and Jim West are trying to warn a millionaire industrialist that he's in danger in "Night of the Vicious Valentine," but they're too late. The man dies playing his own piano. Turns out all the victims married pretty young woman who were recommended by a certain matchmaker, Emma Valentine (Agnes Moorehead), shortly before their murders. Valentine wants to use the ladies to take control of the wealth of the entire nation. What she didn't count on was the most recent girl she groomed to actually fall for the industrialist she married, or for Jim and Artemis to interfere with her plans.

Ended the night on YouTube with The Berenstain Bears' Comic Valentine. I went further into this adorable 1983 special at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog back in 2023.

The Berenstain Bears' Comic Valentine 

My Funny Valentines

Began the morning with breakfast and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Madame Razz mistakes Adora for the "Hero" Mara, the She-Ra of a thousand years ago, when she visits her to get some answers. Mara had come to Etheria to study magic for a secret weapon called the Heart of Etheria. To her horror, it involved draining magic from Etheria and storing it in the planet's core. She sacrificed herself to make sure it was never used by anyone, pushing Etheria into Despondos, She also encourages Adora to not listen to Light Hope, who was programmed by the First Ones to set off the Heart weapon, without thought of what it would do to the planet and its residents.

Moved on to Miles Ahead next while cutting paper in half for the kids and having lunch. I go further into this biography of temperamental jazz genius Miles Davis at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Miles Ahead

Called Uber just as the movie ended. I really had a hard time getting one at quarter after 12. They didn't show up for 19 minutes, and I was 6 minutes late. Couldn't get an Uber at 4:30, either. That one took 11 minutes to get there. At least there was no trouble with traffic or on the road either way.

Today was a half-day in the Collingswood School District. The kids are off tomorrow for a teacher's meeting. Since they won't be there tomorrow, the kids had their Valentine's Day parties today. I couldn't believe all the stuff they had in their white and pink and red bags. When I was their ages, we got paper Valentines with popular characters on them from everyone in the class and maybe cupcakes and some candy. In addition to the paper valentines, candy, and (for some of the younger ones) cupcakes, their bags were bursting with stamps, toys, tiny Slinkys, mini containers of slime, stickers, little plastic animal figurines, and plastic bead bracelets. 

After lunch, we settled some of the kids down with an art project. The head teacher (who thankfully was feeling better) handed around pages with a huge heart drawn on them. The pre-schoolers tore bits of pink tissue paper and glued those on the heart, along with metallic and die-cut bits of paper and colored feathers leftover from the turkey hand project at Thanksgiving. The older kids glued beads onto their hearts. Not all of the kids did the project, but those who did seemed to enjoy themselves well enough.

For the most part, the kids spent the rest of the afternoon playing with magnetic tiles, Duplos, or their new Valentine's toys. I brought Richard Scarry's Best Story Book Ever, Disney's Storybookland, and Strawberry Shortcake and the Winter That Would Not End with me to read. One of the littlest girls requested Snow White. A boy building with magnetic tiles asked for a Mickey Mouse story, so I went with the relatively short Mickey Mouse and Pluto Pup. They all got a kick out of making sure Hilda Hippo had the right alphabetic foods when we read Feed Hilda Hippo Her ABCs. Near the end of the day, I refereed a boy and a girl as they rolled a magnetic tile car into their towers to knock them over.

Honestly, for a four-hour day where we couldn't use the library (the teachers were meeting there), the kids weren't generally that bad. I did argue with one girl about using both sides of the paper when she drew. One of the other teachers brought some paper, too, and we didn't want to run out again. Two of the older boys roughhoused later and had to be separated (twice). One of the boys dumped his bag of loot everywhere and had to finally be admonished to clean it up when too many of the other kids wanted to play with his stuff. 

Oh, and we had a fire drill later in the day, when we were down to 15 kids all together. No one was really happy about that, least of all the kids. Though the sun was finally peeking out of the clouds by 3:30, it was colder than it has been, in the mid-30's, and still a bit breezy. Needless to say, the kids turned around and trooped back fast as they could after we counted them.

Three of the older kids even gave me Kit-Kats and a mini Rice Krispies Treat. I took a couple of the girls to the bathroom a few times and had good conversations with them. Danced as well as I could with another girl who could do some darn good gymnastic tricks while the music was on and the boys were wrestling. I read a story about the months of the year to her later. I'm so glad I took this job. I have 40 of the nicest Valentines anyone could ever wish for. 

When I got home, I went straight into making Strawberry Cupcakes for Valentine's Day. I thought they would be easier after my cake mix cookies spread too much last year. I added frosting in the middle, hoping for a Tastycake-cupcake cream filled effect. Alas, the cupcakes weren't firm enough. The frosting just seeped into the middle and made them very gooey. The crushed freeze-dried strawberries I used in the cupcakes and on top of them worked out much better.

Watched Match Game Syndicated after I had a shower and grabbed dinner. We're now on the week with comedienne Louise Sorrel, with Fred Grandy sitting in Charles' place. There were a couple of amusing matchmaking jokes when a single young lady and a single Hispanic man were contestants together. (Too bad the last episode of this week is currently unavailable, due to being on a tape with one of the Jimmie Walker weeks GSN hasn't shown yet.)

Finished the night with classic jazz music, starting with the soundtrack from Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown. "Heartburn Waltz," heard throughout the special, is the big one here. I also like the jangly "Paw Pet Overture" and the arrangement of Bach's "Minuet In G Major" as the "Music Box Dance." 

Ended with two of the most beloved albums by the real Miles Davis. Kind of Blue is from 1959 and Sketches of Spain from 1960, the height of Davis' original fame and artistic powers. Davis may not have appreciated the softer blues music on Kind of Blue later in his life, but "So What" and "Blues In Green" are among the most powerful songs he ever wrote. Sketches of Spain features genuine Spanish melodies like "Will 'o the Wisp," traditional Hispanic covers like "Saeta," and Gil Evans' "Solea." 

Olympic Winds

The wind woke me up around 8:30 AM. It was fierce, shaking the pine trees outside and rattling the house to its core. My knee was still pretty sore, too. Between the wind, the extreme cold, my knee, and the snow on the street, there was no way I was going to work. I rang up the Acme and called out, then went back to sleep.

The wind continued to blow hard when I did finally roll out of bed. It must have blown the snow off the street, because Johnson was clear by noon. I hurried downstairs to move the recycling canister closer to the house and empty that...and it was so biting cold, that was the only time I even remotely went outside today.

Warmed up while eating breakfast and watching She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Three members of the Horde, Kyle, Lonnie, and lizard kid Rogelio, have been sent to pick up supplies by Catra. When their transport is damaged by an acid spore shower, they have to breach "Protocol" and figure out who should be the one to repair it. The same spore shower has also damaged Light Hope and the Crystal Castle while Adora is training there. Light Hope is far sweeter when she's rebooting, showing Adora how much she cared about the previous She-Ra, Mara, before Mara went rogue.

Switched to winter and winter-sports themed specials next. I go further into Frosty's Winter Wonderland, the sequel to the original Rankin-Bass Frosty the Snowman, at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Animation Celebration Saturday - Frosty's Winter Wonderland

Did the winter sports-themed specials next in honor of the Winter Olympics, which began yesterday. Peppermint Patty is hoping to become the next figure skating diva in She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown. Snoopy is her relentless manager. Peppermint Patty has to fight local hockey players to get ice time and is convinced Marcie will make her a costume. Marcie can't sew, and Snoopy ends up doing that, too. We learn what Snoopy can't do when the tape for her music gets tangled, and Woodstock ends up bailing her out.

The Pink Panther is off to Lake Placid for the Olym-Pinks in this 1980 special. He's the star of the ski team, to the frustration and resentment of his long-nosed rival with the mustache. His rival constantly attempts to one-up Pink and only ends up with a cold and second place for his troubles. Meanwhile, Pink has his own problems dodging a piano that is determined to follow him everywhere, even onto a live wire.

Put up the Valentine's Day decorations as well as I could with my knee next. I put off putting them up because of my knee, but I really wanted to get them up before the actual holiday. I have two thick red and white tinsel garlands, one of which went in front of the TV on the media center. There were also two heart-shaped candy boxes that were too pretty to throw away, a pink bear-shaped tin, two vintage cut-outs from the 70's and 80's depicting a bear holding a heart and a Holly Hobbie-type pioneer girl whose puppy is giving her kittens, a giant cut-out cardboard heart, and three stuffed animals. Valentina the Love Penguin and Amoura the Love Frog are leftover from the WebKinz fad of the 2000's and early 2010's. Valentino is a Valentine's Beanie Bear. 

Switched to Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle at YouTube next. Drawing the WENN superhero artwork with the kids got me thinking of my ideas for my (hopefully) upcoming WENN superhero story Captain Victor, Man of Power. This three-part PBS documentary covers the origins of superheroes during the Great Depression, how they flourished during World War II, then vanished in the 50's once the threat was over and all comics became suspect to high-minded intellectuals. They made a comeback in the pop-art 60's when the Batman TV show became a sensation, and superhero comics began to embrace stronger themes and more diverse characters.

Finished the night at YouTube with the Match Game marathon. Match Game is also celebrating sports this weekend with the first of two sports-themed marathons. This one revolves around questions on Olympic sports like skating, track and field, and gymnastics. The vast majority of these questions occurred in 1976, when the Montreal Olympics were running, or in 1980 during the Lake Placid Winter Olympics. There were jokes about what Pinocchio used his nose for, about a warden who lamented that he shouldn't have let his prisoners do Olympic sports that involved jumping over walls, and involving the things gymnasts do. We heard sports questions during the week in late 1975 where Richard Dawson's then-girlfriend Jodie Donovan appeared, when Fannie sat in for Brett during the last week of 1977, when Brett Somers came in wearing a West Hollywood Olympics shirt, prompting jokes from her best female friend Marcia Wallace about what she actually won at said Olympics.

Celebrate the Winter Olympics with this hilarious Wide World of Game Show Sports!

Match Game Saturday Classics - Olympics Games Marathon

Dolls and Angels

Began the morning with breakfast and Beware! I go further into this charming "race film" from 1946 with bandleader Louis Jordan trying to save his old college from closure at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog. 

Beware! (1946)

Started dressing the dolls for February while the movie was on. The current Lunar New Year outfit at American Girl is too fussy for laid-back Jessa, so she gets Ivy's more authentic Chinese New Year dress. Whitney's thick pink felt poodle skirt with the long-sleeved white blouse and lace-trimmed slip is from eBay. I found her pink cardigan sweater with the pearl trim at a yard sale. Samantha's dusky pink Talent Show Dress is so historically accurate, it's based after a real-life girl's dress from 1904 in a museum. Josefina also wears a dress from eBay, a romantic magenta floral Regency gown with an elastic collar and a delicate lace wrap. 

The white and gold knitted Sweet Spring Dress from a decade ago is short enough to pass for a minidress for Barbara Jean. She wears a white Springfield Collection cardigan with satin ruffle trim over it.  Ariel is in Julie's flowered pantsuit and zipper turtleneck. It's way too cold for the sandals that go with that outfit, so she's wearing boots instead. Kit wears her red and blue Treehouse Cardigan Sweater and blue hat with the red pom-pom. The outfit I got on eBay didn't come with the skirt, so she's borrowing the navy-blue one from Molly's meet outfit. Felicity attends tea ceremony lessons in her Laced Jacket and Petticoat. Molly wishes she could wear something more glamorous than her plaid school jumper and blouse and the black strap shoes she borrowed from Samantha. 

Switched to Charlie's Angels during lunch. The ladies and Bosley meet at the end of the third season, not for a case, but to celebrate their third anniversary as a team. Their memories and reminisces of the previous three seasons' worth of cases turns into "Angels Remembered." Yeah, this is a clip show, likely intended as a transition between Kate Jackson's last season and Shelley Hack's first.

I hadn't even finished dressing the dolls when it was time to call Uber. Thankfully, despite my late start, I had no problem getting a driver. The one going there arrived in 7 minutes and got me there a few minutes early. The one going home took 9 minutes at the height of rush hour. There was a little traffic on the White Horse Pike going home. Otherwise, no problems.

None with the kids, either. We had far fewer children today, only 20 pre-schoolers and kindergartners. I had 8 at my table today, and they did get a tiny bit rowdy in the bathrooms. (I had a hard time getting the boys out in particular.) I read a Clifford's Puppy Days story to the kids playing with Barbies and brickle blocks and talked to an upset young lady who was missing her parents after snack time. The kids loved seeing me draw Scott, Maple, and Betty as superheroes and Pruitt as an Joker-style super-villain when we moved to the library in a scene from the sequel to Captain Victor, Man of Power I have planned. By the time we moved the kids to the cafeteria, there were only three "littles" left. The last younger kids went home at the same time I did.

I brought my trash outside and carefully picked my way around snow and ice to drag out the trash bags and cans before Jessa picked me up around quarter after 6. Between the weather and the snow that was still piled up despite the warmer weather, I figured this was no time for fancy meals or going further afield. I picked the Legacy Diner in Audubon. They were a bit busy when we arrived, but cleared out quickly as she had pepper steak on rice, and I had a "Brooklyn Dodger" omelet with Swiss cheese, green peppers, onions, and tomatoes, hash browns, and rye toast. She said she snacked at work today, but I didn't have a big lunch and got a slice of a delicious, moist Chocolate Fudge Cake.

Finished dressing the dolls while watching the remaining third season episodes of Remember WENN when I got home. "The Ghost of WENN" appears as a spooky voice in the halls during a thunderstorm while the cast is performing a horror show. Hilary is terrified that it seems to target her specifically, Betty is terrified that they'll lose the transmitter, and Mackie is just terrified.

"Caller ID" tells us more about the magic of radio than any episode of the series. Mackie's playing DJ for their late-night musical show Dreamland Dance Floor when a woman (voice of Alice Playten) calls and claims she's going to jump off a near-by building. Mackie and the others end up putting on a massive crossover of most of their major shows to keep her from slipping...and show her that the real magic of radio is what our own imagination makes the characters out to be.

"Happy Homecomings" are anything but when Betty hears a Jonathan Arnold who is definitely not Victor on the radio. Worried, she turns to sweet lawyer Doug Thompson, who recommends that she finally opens that strong box Victor gave her. What Betty finds is hardly what she expects...and it turns out to be anything but true. Meanwhile, Hilary is less than enthused at Jeff's return, Scott's found more codes going out over the airwaves, and yes, Victor comes home...but seems to be more than a little out of it as he, Scott, and Betty end up confronting a gun-wielding Pruitt in the finale.

This is the infamous cliffhanger that left everyone in the WENN fandom screaming at the top of their lungs for six months straight. Longest six months of my life until the housing mess in 2021-2022. All I wanted from December 1997 through June 1998 was to pass my college courses and find out the end of those blasted cliffhangers! They're a big part of the reason I love the third season so much. This is far and away my favorite season of the series. Many fans complained when the show was on that the third series gets too dark. I love it because it gets so dark, because it goes places most sitcoms wouldn't dare to go even today. However, changes at AMC were on the horizon during those six months, not all of them pleasant or welcome, as we'll discover in the fourth and final season...

Finished the night honoring Black History Month with jazz great Wynton and Ellis Marsallis' Joe Cool's Blues. Father and son are at the top of their game with this delightful tribute to the Peanuts specials of the 60's and 70's. While there are nice covers of classics like "Linus and Lucy," "Little Birdie," and "Christmas Is Coming," the real interest here are the Marsallis' original compositions. "Why Charlie Brown," "Wright Brothers' Rag," "Snoopy and Woodstock," and the title song fit in perfectly with Guaraldi's original music and sound like they could have come from the specials themselves. 

This Could Be the Start of Something

Began the last day of 2025 with breakfast and Arthur on PBS Kids. Arthur is worried that his little sister DW will invade "Arthur's Sleepover." DW is more interested in taking photos of the aliens who were supposedly seen in the area. Her brother and his friends find a way to head her off. He says he doesn't want to stay up for "Arthur's New Year's Eve," but changes his mind after his friends tell him about all the cool things that happen at midnight. Grandma Thora reminds him that the important thing about the New Year is to remember the fun things you did in the past year, and make your hopes for the year ahead.

Headed out shortly after the cartoon ended. I had errands to run, starting at Dollar General. I was only going to be in Oaklyn and on the White Horse Pike, so I was on foot. They didn't have sparkling juice, but I did get disinfectant wipes and their generic electrolyte mix. 

Crossed the White Horse Pike and went down West Clinton for lunch. Common Grounds Coffee House wasn't terribly busy when I arrived shortly after 2 PM. In fact, I just missed a huge group of college kids coming in for drinks before they got ready to go out. I enjoyed a slice of spinach tomato feta quiche, a slice of crumb cake, and a Holiday Chai (a sweet cranberry chai latte) while listening to their chatter.

I am so glad The Score Records opened on West Clinton across the street from Common Grounds last August! Though they don't have the selection some of the larger record stores in the area have, they do cassettes, records, t shirts, and local crafts. I treated myself to one new album, found a K-Tel collection I didn't have, and dug two more out of the unpriced albums on the shelves under the bins:

Taylor Swift - Red (I'd get more of her albums if they weren't so expensive! Even her downloads tend to be pricey.)

David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust

Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol II (I've had Volume 1 for 20 years. It was one of the albums that came in the box of 65 records Bruce gave me for my birthday in 2006 that used to belong to my stepmother Kaye.)

Soundwaves (K-Tel collection) 

Made a couple of quick stops back on the White Horse Pike next. I still have those Dunkin' Donuts gift cards from the kids, so I grabbed a cream donut. Went across the street to Family Dollar. They didn't have sparkling juice either, but I did find what I suspect will be my last Holiday Vanilla Cream Coke Zeroes for the holiday season. I got two. 

Went straight into Happy New Year, Charlie Brown when I got home, then Rudolph's Shiny New Year. I went further into these at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews in 2023 and 2019 respectively.

Rudolph's Shiny New Year

Happy New Year, Charlie Brown!

Switched to New Year's Eve sitcom episodes after the cartoons ended. Laverne and Shirley have a difficult "New Year's Eve - 1960." Shirley is excited about her big New Year's Eve party, and Laverne is thrilled that she got a date with a guy she's been interested in for years. When the guy's girlfriend comes back and Shirley gets a cold, they end up commiserating together in their apartment. Good thing Lenny's there to drop Squiggy at midnight instead of the ball.

Stayed at Pluto TV for The Odd Couple. Felix brings Oscar and his ex-wife Blanche (Brett Somers) together on the anniversary of their divorce. It's "A Night to Disremember" when they and Felix recall the New Year's party that led to their splitting up very differently.

They're not the only one with two different views on a New Year's Eve party. Donna on The Donna Reed Show tells her teen daughter to "Have Fun" on a big date with a handsome, shy local boy (George Hamilton). She hurries back shortly afterwards, claiming the date went badly and her life is over. Donna and Alex tells her the story of their first date on New Year's Eve to cheer her up, but they also recall the night very differently.

Switched to YouTube to finish 2025 with more New Year's game shows. We had the last Family Feud episode of 1982 and of 1988. Richard Dawson and his families settled for New Year's related questions, but the Ray Combs-hosted episode ended with balloons dropping and noisemakers. 

Every year during the CBS run, Match Game would celebrate the end of the year and the changing of their sign with balloons, noisemakers, streamers everywhere, and a lot of drunk panelists running around. In 1975, Charles popped a 1975 balloon that revealed a smaller one for 1976, then another balloon on a paper...and his thumb. In 1976, a very ugly paper mache eagle dropped an egg with Match Game 77 on it. Brett was out doing a play in 1977. (Not in jail, like they kept joking that week.) Fannie Flagg more than adequately substituted. This is also when the balloons and streamers dropped first. Charles and Brett launched the show's new sign with detachable numbers in 1978. The activity was too much for Gene, who passed out during the credits.

New Year's Eve on Match Game Hollywood Squares Hour coincided with their Leave It To Beaver week. Though it did feature most of the cast of Leave It to Beaver (and prop comedian Gallagher), they didn't do much for the holiday besides Gallagher playing with balloons. Match Game '90, on the other hand, went all out, with black and silver balloons everywhere, the panelists and host Ross Schafer in tuxes and gowns, and Brad Garrett doing a dead-on impersonation of an on-vacation Charles Nelson Reilly. 

No TV show celebrates the New Year like Match Game! Celebrate 2026 with these hilarious episodes, plus one more 1977 Match Game episode and a bonus episode of Super Password!

Match Game New Year's Celebration Party

Family Feud (1982)

Family Feud (1988)

Match Game (1977)

Super Password (1987)

And here's hoping you have a safe and happy 2026 with all the people you love to match with!

Christmastime Is Here

Began the morning with breakfast and The Bears Who Saved Christmas. When their family is stranded in a cabin on Christmas Eve, adventurous teddy bear Holly (Mary Kay Bergman) and her brother Christopher (Charlie Adler) take it on themselves to find a tree and make their owners' holiday a little merrier. They're helped by a flashlight that's afraid of the dark (Henry Gibson), a compass with no sense of direction (Johnathan Winters), and a kindly mother beaver (B.J Ward) and her son. 

Hurried off to work after that. I was only alone for the first hour. One of the college boys came in at 10 and took over the sweeping...and then another one arrived at 11 and did the sweeping. I was outside the whole time. At least it was a lot busier today than it was on Monday! People surprisingly had some pretty big orders. I figured most folks would just be grabbing milk and wrapping paper. Even with two other boys helping, we had to work hard to keep up with the carts. 

At least the weather was right for it. It was sunny, bright blue, and very windy, probably blowing 20 miles an hour. The temperatures were in the lower 40's, chilly, but not overly so for this time of year. 

Soon as I finished, I cut across Oaklyn to WaWa. Wanted to make use of those gift cards I got from the kids and get a treat for lunch. I got a roast beef hoagie, a soft pretzel, a peppermint cookies and cream smoothie, and a bag of potato chips. Normally, I'm not a chips fan, but I couldn't resist a bag of mozzarella sticks and marinara-flavored. That's not something I've ever seen before. I did have trouble ringing up the gift cards in the self-checkout machine. Good thing one of the women working at the cash register is a friend of mine and was able to help. 

Went straight home after that. Changed, then watched Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales while I ate lunch. This series of skits was originally made to be filler in an hour slot with A Charlie Brown Christmas, but it does have some entertaining material in its own right. Love Sally writing to "Samantha Claus," her method of getting a Christmas tree when she can't cut it down, and Snoopy's troubles as a sidewalk Santa.

Pulled out the old Christmas photos after I ate. The oldest of these go back to my very first Christmas in 1979, when Bruce and Mom were still together. I'm wearing the cutest yellow Mickey and Minnie Mouse pajamas! I can see toys I'd have for years in the background, including one I still have, TJ the Dakin teddy bear. TJ is currently sitting with the smaller Beanie Baby and Meowchi stuffies on the shelf over the hardback novels. 

There's photos from later in the 80's, too. I can see my second typewriter, the gray and white plastic one that actually typed (my first was a white and orange Tomy Typer), next to me as I open Battle Cat in 1984. There's a Polaroid shot in 1989 of me holding Candi, the porcelain doll Mom gave me that year. I still have Candi, too. Her gold ringlets are messy from many brushings. Her pink ribbon is faded and has rust spots, and her white dress is yellowed and dirty, but she's one of only three porcelain dolls I've kept over the years.

The focus in the 90's and 2000's shifts to Keefe and to Rose's parties with her friends. I should show the kids in the after-school program the photo of Keefe proudly holding out the packs of Pokemon cards I got him. I'm pretty sure that picture was from around 98-99. I'll bet most of the little kids have no idea they go that far back. Keefe's always loved to build, even when he was little. He was so thrilled with the K-Nex sets Mom gave him and the Bionicles Lego sets he got from me. 

Watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation as I sorted through the pictures. All Clark Griswauld (Chevy Chase) wants is a good old-fashioned family Christmas, with tons of presents under a huge tree and all of his family surrounding him. As often happens with Clark, what he imagines and what actually happens are two entirely different matters. The two sets of grandparents he invites over don't get along. The thousands of lights on his house short the neighborhood power grid. His yuppie neighbors Todd (Nicholas Guest) and Margo (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) are ready to strangle him for the mess his antics keep making in their home. Mid-way through, Clark's cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) and his family turn up in their rattletrap RV and cause even more chaos. In the end, as the tree burns and the SWAT team comes through the windows, Clark finally realizes that we can't make Christmas perfect...but we can make it memorable.

This is an old family favorite of mine that we all watched throughout the 90's. Mae Questal and William Hickey steal the last half-hour or so as dear, senile old Aunt Bethany and her exasperated husband Uncle Lewis. Brian Doyle-Murphy has a lot of fun as Clark's obnoxious boss, too. Scatological and sexual humor makes this for teens just starting their own Christmas breaks and adults who have probably been through almost everything Clark does here at one time or another.

Switched to working on The WENN Nutcracker Suite next. With everyone on the train, Betty has the chance to ask the Nutcracker about Pirlipat. She calls him Scott at first, but he still claims that isn't his name. She gently tells him that she'd never abandon him, no matter how many mistakes he made or how ugly he was.

Watched A Disney Channel Christmas as I worked. Mom taped this blend of two earlier Disney TV specials, "From All of Us to All Of You" and "Disney's Christmas Gift," in 1988, and I've watched it almost every year since. The first half is "From All of Us," with Jiminy Cricket introducing segments from winter or Christmas-related shorts like "Pluto's Christmas Tree," "The Art of Skiing," "Donald's Snow Fight," and the gorgeous "Once Upon a Wintertime." The second half showcases segments from Disney films that depict parties, gift-giving, winter, or magic, the Donald Duck short "The Clock Watcher," the two Santa Claus Silly Symphonies, and the lovely black and white Mickey short "Mickey's Good Deed." It ends with the Past segment from Mickey's Christmas Carol, which was so new when this first debuted, Jiminy says it's "now in theaters."

Moved to the Looney Tunes for Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales. Unlike the Halloween special, this one is all-new material. The first short is a take on A Christmas Carol, with Bugs as Nephew Fred, Yosemite Sam as Scrooge, and Porky as Bob Cratchit. The second takes Wil E. Coyote and Road Runner's usual antics into snow-covered mountains as the Coyote chases his quarry on skates. The third has the Tasmanian Devil invading Bugs' house dressed as Santa and how Bugs gets rid of him.

Next up was Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus from 1974. This charming retelling of the most famous editorial letter in newspaper history has Jim Backus as the voice of Francis Church, the editor who wrote the letter, and the story's narrator. The style screams "Bill Melendez" and basically looks like Victorian Peanuts with actual speaking adults thrown into the mix. 

Put on The Bishop's Wife during dinner. Bishop Henry Brougham (David Niven) prays for guidance in building his huge new cathedral. He can't secure the funding from fussy Mrs. Agnes Hamilton (Gladys Cooper), who insists on making it a monument to her late husband. He's working so hard, he neglects his lovely wife Julia (Loretta Young) and his daughter Debbie (Karolyn Grimes) and ignores old friends like the Professor (Monty Wooley). Henry gets quite a shock when Dudley (Cary Grant), an impossibly suave angel, turns up claiming he's the answer to Henry's prayer. Henry doesn't think so when Dudley proceeds to take his place with Julia, and she falls for him. The Professor reminds Henry that he has one big advantage over Dudley. He's human, and Dudley is not.

The cast is simply luminous in this charming tale. Young is so patient and lovely, you can understand why a bishop and angel almost came to blows over her. Grant's debonair angel is a lot of fun, too - check out his quick method of decorating Christmas trees! Highly recommended during the holidays if you're a fan of the trio or looking for a quieter holiday movie.

Finished the night with a couple of specials. I went further into The Small One and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog in 2022 and 2019 respectively.

The Small One

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Raggedy Ann and Andy In the Great Santa Claus Caper has Chuck Jones' fingerprints all over it. The antagonist is a very smart Wil E. Coyote-like wolf. This fellow isn't content to chase road runners. He creates an unbreakable substance he calls "Gloopstick" that he intends to cover Santa's toys with, so the children will have to buy toys from him. When Raggedy Andy is one of the wolf's victims, Ann and Andy avoid the claws on his machine and shows the wolf that their love is stronger than any Gloopstick.

Here's even more classic Christmas specials to watch before Christmas dinner tomorrow!

The Wish That Changed Christmas

The Night Before Christmas (1968)

The Smurfs' Christmas

The Spirit of Christmas 

The Christmas Tree

A Cranberry Christmas

'Twas the Day Before Christmas (A Chucklewood Christmas)

Fleischer Brothers Classics: Christmas Comes But Once a Year

Woody Woodpecker - The 12 Lies of Christmas

The Nutcracker (Russia 1974)

For Better Or for Worse: The Bestest Present

Ziggy's Gift

Olive the Other Reindeer

The Teddy Bears' Christmas

A Wish For Wings That Work

The Adventures of Candy Claus

And as Jiminy Cricket said earlier, from all of us to all of you, have a very merry Christmas, and the happiest of holiday seasons!