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Showing posts with label Virginia Avenue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Virginia Avenue. Show all posts

39-05-01 The Donahues Move

The Donahues, leaving a ton of coal in their basement, move away from Virginia Avenue.
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We don't know why, exactly, but we do know the move was short-lived and that the Donahues move back to their old house right next to the Gooks.

We know the date of this episode because it was mentioned in a conversation in episode 39-04-26 Sade's New Luggage.

The title, however, is one made up by me, purely for identification purposes.

43-12-07 Uncle Fletcher – Veteran Man-hole Man

STARRING: DAVID WHITEHOUSE AND CLARENCE HARTZELL
  • Russell has been having a dull chat on the phone with Oyster Krecker:  "I've had a good many dull telephone conversations during the course of my career, but I believe this one takes the cake for being the dullest. Yeah. Beg pardon?  Repeat that dull remark, please, Oyster, I didn't quite catch it. It looked like rain yesterday?  Say, I believe that's the dullest remark you've made yet.  Let's hang up, Oyster.  Huh?  Draw a merciful curtain over this dull, sick telephone call."
  • Fletcher: I expect you know what and where Detroit, Michigan are.
  • Fletcher cautions Russell not to play with the telephone because he might get electrocuted.  "A little lad about your age living in Detroit, Michigan succumbed to temptation one afternoon when his mama was away from home, and he commenced to play with the telephone and what do you think happened?  Russell: (bluntly) "He got electrocuted".  Fletcher: (gently) "Yes. And all they ever found of him was one of his little patent leather booties with the tosil singed at the bottom."
  • Fletcher mentions he's due at the corner of Main and Washington Streets at 4:30.
  • He's carrying a red flag under his arm.  Russell thinks he's got the job of substituting for the watchman on the street gang.  Russell has jumped to an incorrect conclusion.
  • Fletcher: "Art McWhinniman is going to be working in a man-hole at Washington and Main and I will serve as man-hole guard."  
  • When city hall asked Fletcher to do the job, he wanted to know who'd be in the man-hole. That's important because of the need for teamwork.  He begins to explain using the example of a horse standing in the road.  
  • He and Russell bicker a little over the horse's name.  Phone rings.  Fletcher insists on answering it. Russell: "Yeah, I guess you better.  I certainly don't want to get electrocuted."  Russell recognizes the voice on the phone is that of Mis' Trogle. But Fletcher, as he's inexplicably prone to do, tells her she's got the wrong number and hangs up, goes back to talking about his man-hole job, explaining he's an old hand at this business.  Why put a rookie on the job? "I'll be as cool-headed at Washington and Main as I'd be at the corner of Virginia and Kelsey in this quiet neighborhood." - compiled by Barbara Schwarz, edited by Jimbo Mason
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It appears that Russell was snarky on the telephone.  As I've mentioned before, it's my opinion that Russell is as his best when he's being a jerk.

It's a known fact that people can get electrocuted through the telephone during a lightning storm; although on average, only one person is killed this way each year.

Why is it that Uncle Fletcher hangs up the phone of Sade's lady friends when they call?  You wonder if he ever answers the phone at his landlady's house and if so, does he do the same thing there to her lady friends?

32-07-13 Five Dogs Arrive

STARRING: ART VAN HARVEY AND BERNARDINE FLYNN
  • Vic has brought home a dog that Mr. Ruebush has bought for him.  
  • Mis' Hess over on Virginia Avenue also sent them a dog that morning, a Boston Terrier who's in the kitchen. 
  • Sade gets a letter saying the Meadows boy, Victor, is arriving tomorrow.
  • They're excited, and they laugh over Mis' Fisher's nosiness.
  • Another dog arrives, sent by Emil Croucher.  This is the Croucher who runs the market/butcher shop that we know so well from later episodes.
  • Vic admits his secretary, Miss Lutz, intimidated him as he'd never dictated a letter before. He realizes he needs to get up to speed on the job, but when the boss gave him the dog, he used the excuse to get away from Miss Lutz.
  • Yet another dog arrives, sent by Stanley Fogarty, the man at the gas station – another Boston Bull.
  • Vic practices dictating letters to Sade but stops at the salutation. Sade suggests he write the letters on his shirt-cuffs and read them to Miss Lutz. Vic loves the idea.
  • An unknown man pushes another dog in the door and leaves. the dog looks mean, and now, with five dogs in the house, they're a little upset.
  • Mis' Fisher snoops around the back door as the five dogs fight in the kitchen. - compiled by Barbara Schwarz, edited by Jimbo Mason
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The Vic we "know" is very rarely intimidated (although he surely has a problem with women intimidating him, think of the many times Sade has done so and remember his fear over Mis' Korkel's football-playing, desk-smashing mother.)  Add in the fact that Vic never talks about his mother or sister (if he has one.)

His new job and new secretary intimidate him.  It's kind of hard to fathom, since we know that Vic goes on to become the head of his lodge and is a big man around town.  Maybe Vic is secretly a misogynist?

Although not specified by Barbara Schwarz, we assume the dogs were a gift for the coming Victor Meadows (Rush.)  Everyone in town seems to have gotten the same idea.  

Mis' Fisher seems like she could really present a problem to the Gooks - IF they were doing something they didn't want her to know about.  But it seems their life is pretty tepid and therefore, Mis' Fisher is worth a laugh rather than being angry about.