Mad Monster Party? (1967)

I wasn't in really the most receptive frame of mind or mood for this (plus a brief tornado warning interrupted my viewing early on), but I've been meaning to watch this for some time, and it was Halloween.

An early Rankin/Bass holiday special, though post-Rudolph, and this time it's not Christmas. Appearances by all the favorite monsters of sixties kids. Lots of bad, instantly forgettable songs.

A few points of interest:

• Phyllis Diller plays the Bride of Frankenstein, and calls her monster hubby "Fang," which IIRC was the name Diller used in her stand up for the ol' ball and chain.
• Franesca, the "girl," falls in love with the hero after he smacks her hard. Twice. He apparently also smacked the bad out of her too. Amazing multitaskers, those smacks.
• The protagonist, Felix, is very passive. Aside from the aforementioned smacks and reflexively saving Francesca's life (admittedly heroic), his only real decisions are to travel to the Isle of Evil and to turn down his uncle's offer to succeed him (that plotline just trails off and never gets resolved). The defeat of the bad guys is accomplished by Francesca and the Baron.
• The "twist" at the end doesn't make a lot of sense, but I think if I'd seen this as a child I'd be more concerned about all those wonderful monsters being wiped out. Bummer.

This checks off an item on my "Shown on TNT's Monstervision In The Nineties" list.

The Bustle in a House

The Bustle in a House
The Morning after Death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted upon Earth –

The Sweeping up the Heart
And putting Love away
We shall not want to use again
Until Eternity –

Bitsy (February 15, 2004 - October 30, 2019)

My dog Bit (also known as Bit-Bit) passed away about 7:30 this evening. He had suffered for a long time from a long list of ailments (congestive heart failure, Cushing's Disease, and most recently, the beginnings of renal failure) and it caught up with him today.  His final descent was very rapid - he became short of breath about five. I had loaded him up in the pet taxi in the back of the car and was fiddling with the GPS to get directions for the pet emergency clinic, when I realized I couldn't hear him breathing anymore.

He was my mother's last dog, though he was my dog more than twice the time he was hers (she had him four years; eleven for me). R.I.P. Big Boy.