At Three PM...

...according to the folks at Emerald Nuts, while you're in your midday slump, Robert Goulet comes to your home or office and messes with your stuff.

I could appreciate, rather than admire, Robert Goulet's voice, a rich, old fashioned instrument which he used to great effect as Lancelot in Camelot. In the 60s, my formative years, he was rather a hip, swingin' kinda guy--never a rock star. Wrong kinda voice, wrong kinda presentation. But what I really have appreciated in the last couple of years is Goulet's utter lack of stuffiness. In addition to his recent, profoundly odd and funny turn as the Menace of Afternoon Doziness, a few years ago he was the singing voice of Mikey in Recess: Summer Vacation, a movie-length version of the Disney animated series. Mikey's kind of a big, dumb fifth grader--not exactly that hip, swingin' kinda image--and the cognitive dissonance of hearing Goulet's rich, theatrical voice (singing "Green Tamborine" no less!) issuing from his mouth was very funny. And then the Emerald commercials, which featured him stealing into cubicles and crawling on the ceiling, knocking over papers, stealing paperclips, generally raising hell, all with a scampish, devilish grin.

Robert Goulet has died. I hope, wherever he is, that some part of him is scurrying around on the ceiling and having a hell of a good time.

Kvell

1) Sarcasm Girl got her SAT scores for the most recent try: math stayed about the same (which, given that she forgot her calculator that day, tells you something; I'm just not sure what). She went up at least 100 points on the verbal. And her essay test? 12 out of 12. She is very happy.

2) Plus: she's just heard that another theatre company, one that specializes in pieces about mental illness, wants to produce her play.

I am proud of her, not just for the accomplishments, but for putting herself out there. Go Girl.

For God's Sake, Wait Until the Body's Cold

Went in to Walgreens this morning to pick up some candy for trick-or-treaters. As I wandered down the candy aisle I noted with horror that, almost as I advanced, a minion was gathering up all the Halloween kitsch and candy and replacing it with Christmas kitsch and candy. On Halloween day, for heaven's sake. The funeral baked meats don't even get a chance to coldly furnish forth the marriage table these days. Ads on TV have been coyly hinting at Christmas for a week now, but today was the first time I saw bona fide Holiday Shopping Season ads.

I'm becoming a crank, aren't I? Pfui.