Saturday, May 28, 2011

Snow White (and the Refrigerator)

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I think I mentioned our DVD player died. In looking at a new one, we decided to get a BluRay player, even though we don't have an HDTV. I have a couple of BluRay discs and today I took my first look at this technology. I have to admit, it looks pretty darned good.

But it wasn't the technology that got me, it was the film.

Wow, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I know that most people look at it and scoff, but it gets me every time. I always think back to the time it was created and what a tremendous achievement it was.

Remember, this was the first time anyone attempted to engage an audience using characters who weren't portrayed by live actors.

And engage them it did.

I remember talking with animators who worked on the film about the first showings. According to them, when those seven little men were standing around that glass coffin, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. It's a pretty powerful piece of film making.

I look at the character of Snow White and I am enamored of how lovely she is. Over the years, as a Disney collector, I've gotten used to seeing still pictures of these characters, and this is how I seem to think of them. It slips my mind that they are meant to be seen in motion, that's why they call it animation. Duh.

While I know that many people make fun of the voice of Snow White, I always remember that it is exactly the way that Walt Disney wanted his very first heroine to sound. And when you look at pictures of a young Adriana Caselotti (only 19 at the time), it's obvious that they based the look of Snow White on her fair beauty.


I had the pleasure of knowing Adriana later in her life, and she carried the delight of this character with her to the very end. If you haven't seen this classic film in a while, I urge you to give it another look. And if you have any little ones in your life, make time to introduce them to this classic.

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Now on to a completely different subject. This is for all you RVers out there.

Today I cleaned out my refrigerator. While our refrigerator is a good size, it's no where near the size of a household appliance, so it needs to be cleaned pretty regularly. While I've done this for all the time we've had Cholula Red, today I found something I've overlooked for the last five years.

When you clean an RV refrigerator, you want to clean the set of metal fins that sit at the upper back. Below these fins is a short removable shelf, which has a tube/vent that leads to the outside. This is where the condensation runs out of the fridge. What I've missed all this time is that right where the tube attaches to the back of the fridge, there's a small catch cup. Today, when I looked in this catch cup, it was full of slimy yucky goop. How had I missed this all these years? I don't know, but I won't ever miss it again!

I also went outside and checked where the fridge actually drains below the fridge. This opening has a small perforated cap and this was also clogged with goop. After cleaning both of these openings, I blasted a bit of canned air till the tube ran clear.

If you have an RV fridge, you might want to check these the next time you clean your refrigerator. Or maybe everybody else already knew about this?

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That's it for today.

3 comments:

Russ Krecklow said...

Kate,
If that was the only yucky, slimy goop you found in your refrigerator, you are fortunate! When we clean ours, there are sometimes several things that have yucky, slimy goop in them. Don't know how that happens. In cleaning the freezer, it's not hard to find things that have been overlooked for at least 5 years!

Donna K said...

I love Snow White and all the Disney animated films. From old VHS tapes to Blu Ray disks, we have kept up our Disney collection over the years...first for the kids and later for the grands. I have to admit our personal fav is a newer film, Beauty and the Beast. Russ said it reminds him of US lol!!

Thanks for the tip on the frig. Haven't had the pleasure yet since we have only had Therapy for a short time, but it is something I will remember to do.

Jerry and Suzy said...

We have cleaned that tray and cup and even the tube once or twice, but not recently. Thanks for the reminder. It's hard to clean the refrigetator when it is as stuffed as it is on this trip. We had been expecting to do a lot of cooking and using up stuff we brought from home, but here in Carson CIty we have been tied up so frequently with family meals -- either at their homes or in restaurants -- that we still have a lot of stuff to clean up. But we're leaving here Thursday and expect to work on the problem again!