Isle of the Tortoise

            On Sunday morning I continued memorizing “Le complainte du progres" by Boris Vian.

            I finished working out the chords for “La noyée” by Serge Gainsbourg but I still have to place them properly with the written lyrics.

            I washed the book and record shelf at the southwest corner of my kitchen. I had originally kept my records on the bottom shelf but then the cats had scratched the shit out of them and so I moved them to the top. Since the cats are gone now I put the encyclopaedias back on the top shelf and will eventually return the records to the bottom. But first I need to clean the first floorboard in front of the shelf because the records overlap a bit and they would be in the way.

            I had the rest of my crackers with cheese for lunch.

            I did some exercises in the afternoon while listening to Amos and Andy. In this story Andy and Kingfish take a break from doing nothing in the office and spend the day at the movies. One of the films is Double Indemnity, which makes Kingfish think that it could give a man’s wife ideas about bumping off her husband for the insurance. When he goes home he finds that Sapphire has taken out an insurance policy on his life and he also finds two train tickets to Georgia. When he learns that she has also recently seen Double Indemnity he is convinced that Sapphire wants to murder him. He stays away from the window in case she might push him out and he refuses to eat her cooking but just wants unopened bread with unopened ketchup. Finally he learns that she has gotten $500 from an insurance policy and she has bought tickets to take them both on a trip.

            I didn’t take a bike ride in the afternoon because I had reading to catch up on for Indigenous Studies. I finished chapters two and three of Ways of Knowing. Chapter two was about how different Canadian environments shape how politics and economics are done in various Indigenous cultures. Chapter three talked about Indigenous art in the same way but also listed a lot of Indigenous Canadian artists of modern times and their accomplishments.

            That caught me up with last week’s readings and for this week there was a PDF posted online of two creation stories and a Thanksgiving address. I read the creation stories twice. A woman was falling but there was no Earth to land on and so the animals below tried to find the right animal to hold the Earth up. After several auditions the turtle won. They needed mud from the bottom of the ocean to put on top of the turtle and so several animals dived but died. One that died had a little mud in its paw when it floated up and that became the basis of the Earth.

            I hated the rest of the pasta and sauce I’d made on Saturday and had it with a beer while watching Wanted Dead or Alive starring Steve McQueen.

            In the first story a banker named Walker hires Josh to track down George Whiteside, the man that robbed his bank. The money was recovered but he is still wanted for the crime. Walker’s real motivation is because Whiteside killed his son. Josh learns from Mrs Walker that her son forced Whiteside to kill him in self-defence. She also informs him that her husband is not well. Josh and Walker travel together until Walker has a heart attack and has to recover in a farmhouse. Josh goes ahead to find Whiteside with only one-way of identifying him: after drawing his gun he holds his right wrist with his left hand.  No one in Banner, Texas has heard of Whiteside. But Josh runs into an outlaw named Phil who wants revenge for Josh putting him in prison. As Phil and his men are about to kill Josh the sheriff draws his gun and saves Josh’s life. It’s clear from the way he shoots his gun that the sheriff is Whiteside. Josh goes back and tells Walker he couldn’t find Whiteside.

            In the second story a murderer named Kidder has been captured but his gang have kidnapped a novice nun named Sister Grace and say they will kill her if Kidder is not released. The mother superior of the convent directly appeals to Josh and he turns her down but immediately goes about helping her. He asks the sheriff to deputize him so he can escort Kidder to Tucson. Josh then takes Kidder to his gang’s hideout and exchanges him for Sister Grace. After they are on their way he tells Grace to go back to the convent on her own while he goes back to recapture Kidder. But Grace insists on following him everywhere he goes because he saved her life and she doesn’t want him harmed. Kidder and the gang have left the hideout but Grace heard them say in Spanish they were going to Mission Junction. Josh goes there and she follows him. He sees Kidder’s gang are about to rob a bank. He ties Grace up in the church and goes after them. Though bound Grace manages to ring the mission bell. Josh turns to the sound just as one of Kidder’s men is about to shoot him from behind. Kidder and his gang are killed in the subsequent gunfight.

            The 17-year-old Sister Grace was played by the 22 year old Claire Griswold, who worked mostly in television. She was considered for the title role in Alfred Hitchcock’s Marnie but lost out to her friend Tippi Hedren. She married director Sydney Pollack and retired in 1963 to raise their children.