I was a very well-rounded child, musically.

It’s 4:15 a.m. and Sam is in bed, so it’s just you, me, the Howdygram and a box of Russell Stover sugar-free marshmallow Santas. Life is good.

For your possible interest we topped off a lazy, nap-intensive Saturday with several excellent movies: Soylent Green (1973) starring Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson; Dodsworth (1936) starring Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Mary Astor and Paul Lukas; and A Hard Day’s Night (1964) featuring the Beatles — adorable, energetic and all about 22 years old — and a bunch of their best songs. Incidentally, if you’ve never seen Dodsworth please watch for it on TCM or buy the hard-to-find DVD if the price ever drops below $99.95 on Amazon. (I bought Dodsworth five years ago for $3.95. All of a sudden it’s a hot commodity.) This is one of the very best movies ever made with a compelling script, amazing performances by an all-star cast and perfect direction by William Wyler. Plus ... the ending is absolutely DELICIOUS!

As long as I’m talking about movies and Amazon, yesterday I ordered a DVD of The Pied Piper of Hamelin, a made-for-TV special musical presentation from 1957 starring Van Johnson, Lori Nelson, Kay Starr and Claude Rains, all set to the music of Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suites. My parents let me watch this on TV at age six and I clearly remember several scenes SCARING THE LIVING CRAP OUT OF ME, especially the creepy shadows of the rats being chased out of Hamelin and how the Pied Piper gets even with the townspeople for backing down on their bargain. I can’t wait to finally see this again ... almost six decades later! The DVD was a steal at $1.39. And who doesn’t love Peer Gynt? My father introduced me to this piece of music when I was still a toddler and it was always a favorite along with Rosemary Clooney’s big hit “Botch-a-Me” and my collection of 78 r.p.m. Bozo the Clown records. (I was a very well-rounded child, musically.)

I think I’ll try going back to bed now. Thank you for reading this.