Barbara Stuart

            On Thursday morning I worked out the first two chords for the intro of "La java des chaussettes à clous" (The Dance of the Studded Stockings) by Boris Vian. 

            I edited the chord placement for the first two verses of "Manu Manuréva" by Serge Gainsbourg in my Christian's Translations blog. I should have it published tomorrow. 

            I weighed 89.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            From the late morning up until 13:00 I scraped the black caked in grease from under the rim of my square baking pan and then started on the outside sides. It will take at least another session to finish and move on to the two muffin pans that I need to clean. 

            I weighed 88.8 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. On the Bloor bike lane from the Annex on there was a short middle aged man wearing a white robe and riding a small child's bicycle. The man is short but definitely too tall for a bike that size. I've seen him once before in the same area and time of day. When he rides he constantly jerks his head back to see who's behind him and when he gets to a red light, if the traffic isn't too heavy he just keeps on going while blowing steadily on a high pitched whistle. Like the last occasion that I saw him, I passed him several times but then whenever I was stopped at a light he'd just pedal on through and get ahead again. I passed again just before Yonge and then headed south. 

            I stopped at Freshco on the way home where I bought three bags of cherries, one bag of grapes, a basket of nectarines, a pint of strawberries, a bag of kettle chips, a pack of five year old cheddar, a pack of chicken drumsticks, two cans of  peaches and some lemonade. I weighed 88.5 kilos when I got home. 

            I worked some more on the first poem in "My Blood In A Bug." 

            I opened the video I'd downloaded yesterday of episode two of season two of American Horror Story and saw that it has the FX watermark. I decided to try to figure out a way to crop out the watermark. I learned that niether Movie Maker nor the Windows 10 Video Editor can crop videos but that VLC Media Player can. But with VLC it's a complicated process and my first attempt while following online instructions failed. I bookmarked a site with more detailed instructions and I'll try again tomorrow. 

            I had a potato with gravy and two small steaks while watching two episodes of Gomer Pyle. 

            In the first story boot camp graduation is approaching and Sergeant Carter has still not been able to make Gomer hate him. He hated his own drill instructor and considered him the greatest because of it. He tries making Gomer his house mouse who cleans his quarters, makes his bed and shines his boots. Carter deliberately messes up any work Gomer does but Gomer happily does it again. For bunkhouse inspection Gomer is particularly good at polishing things but Carter pretends he isn't. Gomer thanks him for correcting him. Finally Carter goes to a Marine psychiatrist who thinks Carter's problem is strange since most come to him because they don't feel loved. He finds out that Carter had loving parents who called him "Num Num." He concludes that Gomer sees through Carter's facade straight through to Num Num. He suggests to Carter that he give up being a drill instructor for a while and ask for a transfer. After graduation Gomer comes to say goodbye and Carter tells him happily that Gomer is going to South Carolina while he's going to Camp Henderson in California. But later at Camp Henderson Carter is unpleasantly surprised to find that the Marines decided to transfer Gomer and the rest of the platoon out to Camp Henderson as well.

            In the second story Gomer screws up during scouting training by stopping to pick daisies for Carter's desk. Because of that Carter punished the whole platoon by cancelling their first leave. Later while Carter and two other sergeants are having beers at Hannah's Bar and they see how the attractive Hannah handles fresh Marines by throwing them across the room, Carter gets an idea to make Gomer a victim of Hannah the Dragon Lady and so he uncancels his platoon's first liberty. Carter makes up the tradition of the "first liberty kiss" and makes a fake contest in which the winner goes and asks for a kiss from Hannah. He arranges for the winner to be Gomer. But Gomer comes from traditions of long courtships before even kisses are exchanged and he doesn't want to do it. Duke convinces Gomer to let him be his proxy and to go and get the kiss in his place. Gomer goes to see a Ma and Pa Kettle movie while Duke goes to try to kiss Hannah and gets thrown across the room. Carter had come to see Gomer get thrown and Duke explains what happened. Duke decides to lure Gomer to the bar and when he comes Carter tells him that because he broke the tradition he's going to leave the Marines. Gomer decides to go ahead and do what Carter wants but when he approaches Hannah he does so as a perfect gentleman, explaining the whole story to her. Hannah gives Gomer a big and long kiss and later Gomer explains to Carter that it's because she loves tradition. Carter decides to try for a kiss as well but gets thrown across the room. 

            Hannah was played by Barbara Stuart, who started out as a model to pay for her acting classes. Her first acting gig was in the play "Lunatics and Lovers." Her first job on screen was in the TV series "I Led Three Lives." She played Skippy the Fun Girl on The Andy Griffith Show. She would later become a regular on Gomer Pyle as Carter's girlfriend Bunny. She was married to Dick Gautier, who played Hymie the robot on Get Smart.