Oiled Acquaintance

            On Wednesday I continued to adjust my translation of “On n'est pas là pour se faire engueuler" (We Didn't Come Here to Be Shouted At) by Boris Vian. Mostly that means removing or adding a syllable or finding a synonym with more or less syllables.

            I memorized the fourth and almost the fifth verse of “Marilou Reggae” by Serge Gainsbourg. That makes me two-thirds finished.

            I worked on my journal.

            At 9:30 I took the parcel for my daughter to the post office and mailed it by express. Because of the coronavirus the post office is not offering guarantees about delivery times but express is still probably faster and unlike regular mail it is delivered on Saturdays and Sundays too.

            As I crossed to the southwest corner of Queen and Jameson the screaming lady who lives in the streetcar shelter was quietly enjoying some takeout. I’ve noticed that there are familiar people in the neighbourhood that take care of her and bring her things to eat and drink.

            I rode to Home Hardware and had to excuse my way to the bike post ring that two city workers were blocking. They moved over to stand in front of their truck and after locking my bike I asked the guys when the best day is for putting an appliance out. One guy said to call 311 but the other, older man said, “No, don’t call 311 because they'll add a fee to your property taxes!" I told them I'm a renter and the man said, “In that case just put the appliance out on garbage night." The other guy added, "Or put it out and a metal scavenger will take it."

            Home Hardware didn’t have any bike chain oil but the prematurely white haired guy told me that “3-In-One Oil" works just as well. I bought it, although most serious bike people say it’s insufficient and won’t last in the rain. Someone said that 3 in 1 was developed for bikes but for 1894 bikes.

            I opened the little rusty antique Singer oil can that I haven’t used in years. It smelled rancid inside, I think because I tried using vegetable oil as a lubricant a long time ago. I washed it out several times with detergent and also with baking soda and then I left it to dry.

            I spent about half an hour washing the egg off of my cast iron frying pan using a brush. One can’t use steel wool or soap but I found out that baking soda is okay and that helped. I guess I should have cleaned it right away after cooking with it the night before but since I don’t have that problem with whole fried eggs I didn't bother.

            I had the rest of the scrambled eggs that I’d made the night before on a Montreal bagel with some mustard.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. In this story Sapphire’s sister Hortance comes to stay with her, Kingfish and Sapphire’s mother. Kingfish has to sleep on the couch and so he wants to get rid of her by marrying her off to Andy. It’s a hard sell at first because she’s very unattractive but Andy warms up to her. Hortance is a school teacher and so Kingfish tries to bring Andy up to the level of her Grade Four students. Finally Andy proposes and they plan on eloping but suddenly Kingfish finds out that Hortance is due to inherit $25,000 in two years from an eccentric aunt who stipulated that Hortance must be unmarried at the age of thirty in order to collect the money. Since Kingfish expects to have a share of the inheritance he tricks both Andy and Hortance to make it appear to each that the other doesn’t really want to marry them. He is successful but it turns out that Hortance is not the heir to $25,000 after and it was just a trick concocted by the women so Hortance could continue living there.

            For dinner I had an egg, two sausages, a Montreal bagel and a beer while watching two episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood.

            The first story centres on a jongleur named Bartholomew. A Jongleur was a type of wandering entertainer who would juggle, do acrobatics, magic tricks and sing songs. Bartholomew is heard by the sheriff entertaining the people with a song critical of Prince John and so he orders him arrested. Friar Tuck helps him to escape. Robin’s men stop him in Sherwood Forest and invite him to dinner but Little John tells him he must give them half his purse. So Bartholomew rips his purse in two and gives half of it to Little John. A large amount of tax money has been collected by the sheriff and taken to a certain castle. Robin has the idea that Bartholomew can train he and Little John to do a few tricks and the three of them can infiltrate the castle under the pretence of doing a show. But Bartholomew is secretly an informer for the sheriff and he leaks the information. So the sheriff arrives while Robin is entertaining. Robin takes an arrow in the chest and Little John is overpowered by several men. They are imprisoned. But when Bartholomew learns that Robin really was going to give the tax money back to the poor he changes sides. He comes to rescue Robin and Little John and it turns out that the arrow that struck Robin hit something that he had been carrying under his shirt as part of the magic show and he was not harmed. They escape but Bartholomew is struck fatally by an arrow as they are running away.

            In the second story Guy, son of Donald is a serf from Lord Germain’s manor and he is wanted by the sheriff. Unlike most serfs however he has been educated by Tuck and he is a scholar. Tuck is hiding him in Nottingham in the office of the stationarias where he works copying books.  Guy’s brother David is hiding at the shrine that Tuck minds. David says that the sheriff’s men have discovered where Guy is hiding. Marian rides to warn Guy but just as she is doing so the sheriff’s men burst in. With the secret help of Marian, Guy fights them off and escapes with her to Sherwood Forest. Tuck takes Guy to Whitby Abbey and the abbot is so impressed with his reading and writing of Latin that he accepts him to join the order. David is arrested under a charge of ancient law that rules that as the older brother and therefore the head of the family he is criminally responsible for his brother Guy, as a serf illegally learning top read and write. When Guy learns of this he sneaks out of the abbey and goes to Robin Hood for help. Since Guy has already taken his vows as a novice Robin has a plan. Guy goes hooded as a brother Friar when Tuck goes to the Nottingham dungeon to take David’s confession. While they are there they pass a man who has been in a cell without trial for nine years. The guard explains that the man was put there by King Henry. But Henry died without telling anyone what the man’s crime had been. Guy changes places with David and David leaves with Tuck. When Guy is taken to court before the sheriff they do not realize that he is not David. Guy and David are not twins but they resemble one another enough to cause confusion. Guy tells the sheriff he is not David. The sheriff sentences Guy to hang but Guy claims benefit of clergy because he is a novice at Whitby Abbey. He is entitled to have his case reviewed by church authorities. The abbot arrives and claims guy in the name of the church and they leave. Two of the sheriff’s men try to ambush them on the way but Robin shoots an arrow from cover and chases them off. Robin asks the abbot to take in David at the abbey as well.