During yoga I was able to push myself up into the cobra pose by lying on my stomach to pushing down on the floor with my hands beside my shoulders and unbending my arms into a backward bend for the first time since my accident fifteen days ago.
I memorized the first verse of "U.S.S.R. / U.S.A." and reworked parts of my translation with the title "Russia Versus U.S.A."
I weighed 89.7 kilos before breakfast.
Around midday I cleaned most of my steamer basket. The metal petals overlap so it took a few minutes to figure out how to get at the covered parts. I closed the petals on each side so I could get it all. I probably won't have time to tackle it again and finish it until next Friday.
I weighed 89.9 kilos before lunch. I had crackers and five year old cheddar with a glass of lemon-limeade.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. It was cool enough to wear long pants and not be too uncomfortable, although I could have also worn shorts and been fine. I weighed 89 kilos when I got home.
I composed my email assignment for Monday. Professor Lopez wants the emails sent on Mondays before 8:00 and so there's no time to write them on the days that I send them. Here's what I wrote:
This comment is on the history of chimney sweeping that you wrote about in the pdf of your September 15 lecture. While you may be correct in your assessment that Shakespeare is talking about the young coming to dust in the lines that you quoted from Cymbeline, I do not think he is speaking of children. Your reference to children being used as chimney sweeps on a significant scale in Shakespeare's time is historically inaccurate. Children didn't begin to be drafted into the chimney sweeping trade until after the great London fire of 1666, a generation after the death of Shakespeare. Before that the chimneys were bigger and more manageable by average sized adult sweepers. But new building regulations due to the fire required that the chimneys be narrower. Of course it was later on during the Industrial Revolution that buildings became taller with more complex, narrow chimneys and the use of children in chimney sweeping became much more of an epidemic. Hence the poems on the subject by William Blake and others of the Romantic period.
I read about a hundred pages of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. He says the cruelest slave masters were the religious ones, including the ones that were also ministers. His life would certainly make an interesting movie. It's surprising that it hasn't been done. Douglass has appeared as a character in movies and TV series but his autobiography has never been made into a film. There is however a play called "Frederick Douglas Now" and I've read that Spike Lee is slated to make a film version of that.
I made pizza on naan with Napolese sauce and extra old cheddar and had it with a beer while watching an episode of Gomer Pyle.
In this story Gomer rescues a crow that got its foot caught in a vine in the woods. After that the crow becomes attached to Gomer and comes to land on him during Marine duties. It also starts finding gifts to bring to Gomer and they are all from Sergeant Carter's desk. First his watch, then his pen and his lighter. Meanwhile Carter's birthday is approaching and Gomer wants to buy him a present but since the birthday falls before payday Gomer has to pawn his watch. Carter begins to suspect that one of his men has been stealing from him and while searching the barracks he finds a pawn ticket. He goes to redeem the ticket but the broker says he needs $11 and he's short. He does find out that a watch was pawned and the description of the Marine can only be Gomer. When Carter confronts Gomer he is presented with a box of cigars as a birthday present. Gomer explains he pawned his own watch and Carter is relieved until his watch falls down from the top of Gomer's locker. The other items are found as well and Carter demands an explanation. Gomer doesn't understand how he could have gotten those things until the crow comes through the window with Carter's whistle and it's all clear what happened.
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