Lennie Weinrib

            On Tuesday morning I finished working out the chords for "Scènes de manager" (Unsightly Public Scenes) by Serge Gainsbourg. I ran through the song in French, made some adjustments to my translation, ran through it in English, and then uploaded it to Christian's Translations to prepare it for blog publication. 

            During song practice, I heard a guy shouting and swearing very loudly in his car in the Dollarama parking lot. He got out with his shirt off, which showed that he was a muscular guy with a big beer belly. He kept swearing as he walked to the edge of the parking lot and then gave a very fast and hard series of punches with both fists to the metal parking sign. Then he walked back to his car and drove away. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I finished cleaning the last of the sliding windows in the kitchen and I installed it back in the set. I started washing the window frame in the living room. The leak in the roof that the landlord will never repair has washed a lot of sediment down that has pushed the underside of the top of the window frame down. I cleaned out as much of the sediment as I could and then pushed the sagging part of the frame back up so there is less of a gap. I washed the top and sides of the frame, but I still need to wash the underside of the top of the frame and the frames of the glass before I start to actually clean the glass. 

            I weighed 84.6 kilos before lunch. That's the lightest I've been at that time in 18 days. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 84.5 kilos at 17:13. Again, that's the lowest I've weighed at that time in 18 days. 

            I was caught up on my journal just before 18:00. 

            I opened the audio for my July 10 song practice in Audacity and amplified it as much as possible without clipping. I imported the two videos for that same morning into Movie Maker and made them into one movie. That took almost an hour. 

            In the Movie Maker project for my song "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy" I finished editing the Oral Roberts faith healing videos down to one minute of all his laying on of hands. There are five people he "heals", so I'll pick one of the sessions to inject into the main video tomorrow. 

            I chronologized several more hard copies of transcriptions of the Gumby Bible group poem. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a pork chop while watching the movie "1001 Rabbit Tales" from 1982. This story has more new animation than usual to thread together the old cartoons to make them part of one story. 

            Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are salesmen for a big book company, and they've just been assigned the locations for them to sell books. Bugs is being sent to Pismo Beach and Daffy will be going to Wyoming. 

            It's cold and so Daffy decides to wait for the next flock of ducks and join them on their journey south. But on the way, he gets lost in a blizzard and slams into a house. He looks through the window and it's quite a prosperous-looking house. On top of the fireplace mantle, he sees a duck and thinks he's done quite well for himself and so he decides to pay him a visit. It takes a one-sided conversation followed by a one-sided fight for Daffy to realize the other duck is dead and stuffed. He decides that this is a perfect circumstance. He'll pretend to be the stuffed duck for the rest of the winter, but when no one is looking he'll raid the refrigerator. The house is owned by Porky Pig who has a pet dog that likes to sleep by the fireplace. Time passes and Daffy is getting tired of standing still for so long and so he kicks a nearby urn off the mantle to break near the dog. The dog begins barking and Porky comes to angrily prove to his dog that he's barking at a stuffed duck. He grabs Daffy by the legs and begins banging his head on the floor before putting him back on the mantle. That night Daffy raids the fridge, but the dog sees him just after he's finished eating. Daffy however gets the dog excited over the leftover bone and tosses it out the window into the snow. The dog jumps through the window and Daffy closes it. Daffy is walking away but sees the dog looking forlornly inside. Daffy says, "I can't stand to see a dumb animal suffer!" He goes back to the window and pulls down the shade. The dog goes to Porky's office window, and he lets him in. Rover is back by the fireplace when Daffy makes it look like the stuffed duck is walking past the room. Rover attacks and tears out the stuffing. Porky says, "Now I'll have to stuff that duck all over again!" He grabs Daffy and starts filling him up with cotton. Now Daffy is sitting on the mantle all lumpy and full of cotton. A flock of ducks are flying by when they see him and decide to visit. They are all having a party when Porky discovers them. He grabs his shotgun and starts firing and so Daffy leaves with the flock. 

            Meanwhile Bugs Bunny is still on his way to Pismo Beach. He emerges from his tunnel and realizes he's not there yet but decides to camp for the night. This part blends with the story of the drunken stork who loses the baby gorilla he's been carrying. He decides to knock Bugs out and deliver him to the gorillas. After posing as a baby gorilla and dealing with the angry father, the real baby is delivered, and Bugs moves on. 

            Meanwhile Daffy is unable to keep up with the flock of ducks and he's going to crash. He radios duck traffic control and is guided down, but the voice on the other end turns out to be Elmer Fudd's as Daffy falls into his trap. Daffy runs and Elmer sends his hunting dogs after him. The dogs first draw diagrams on the ground to work out their strategy. Daffy jumps down a hole where he finds Bugs Bunny. They decide to travel underground together and wind up in Arabia where this story blends with their old cartoon about finding Ali Baba's treasure. They become separated again when Daffy goes after the treasure and Bugs comes upon a palace. 

            The palace belongs to Sultan Yosemite Sam and Sam's storyteller has just escaped and so Sam needs a new storyteller to read to his brat son Prince Abba Dabba. Shortly after this, Bugs Bunny knocks on the door to sell the book "1001 Tales for Toddlers." Sam forces Bugs at the threat of being boiled in oil to read stories to Abba Dabba. 

            The first story is "Jack and the Beanstalk." The new twist on the story is that Jack's mother throws the beans out the window and they land under Silvester Cat's bed. While he is sleeping the beanstalk grows and when he wakes up, he wanders into a gigantic palace where he finds a giant Tweety Bird. Silvester enters his cage and grabs him. Whereas before he could hold him in his fist, now he has to wrap both arms around him. While running with Tweety he hears the giant coming and so he drops the bird and hides. The giant puts Tweety back in his cage and hangs it from a ceiling hook. Silvester tries to pull himself up with a fishing pole and reel. There is no explanation of how in a giant's house there is a fishing pole that is Silvester's size. Silvester wraps the line around his tail, but it unravels, and he falls, waking the giant bulldog, who begins chasing him. Silvester next ties a screwdriver to a long pole and uses it to undo the screws of the bottom of Tweety's cage. Silvester tries to pop open a bottle of champagne and ride the cork up to Tweety's cage but he winds up in a knothole in the ceiling. He forces the cork back down, but it lands in a gun that fires him back up into the hole. When he comes back down the dog is waiting to smash him between a pair of cymbals. Silvester uses a spatula as a catapult to send him up to grab Tweety. Tweety calls for help and the giant returns. He chases Silvester down the stalk and Silvester cuts it down to send the giant falling. But the giant falls on Silvester and knocks him through the Earth all the way to China. 

            Bugs tries to leave after telling the one story, but Sam informs him he has to read all 1001 stories or else. Bugs refuses and so Sam lowers him to a vat of boiling oil and Bugs decides he'll read more stories. 

            Bugs reads the story of Hansel and Gretel that was in the old cartoon featuring Bugs and Witch Hazel. 

            Next is the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears but with Goldilocks as a mouse and the three bears as cats. Bugs explains that the bears had to be replaced in the story because they were hibernating at the time. The father cat is Silvester and as in the original story, his porridge is too hot, and the mother's is too cold, but their son simply says, "Who ever heard of cats eating porridge? Why can't we have a mouse like normal cats?" Silvester suggests they go for a walk while the porridge cools, but his is the only porridge that's too hot. It certainly establishes the family dynamic. While they are gone, Goldimouse comes out of her hole in the wall and eats the porridge. Then she gets sleepy and goes to sleep on Silvester's son's bed. When the cats come home, they find her there, but she wakes up and runs into her hole. Silvester's son begins to cry and so Silvester tries to catch the mouse, but Goldilocks hits him over the head with a hammer. Silvester's son is ashamed of his father for not being able to catch a mouse and puts a bag over his head to hide his face. Silvester tries to shoot an arrow into the hole but the arrow stays on the bow and Silvester somehow flies inside the hole that's much smaller than he is. His wife has to use a plunger to get him out. He tries to blow a dart into the hole but the mouse blows first and the dart shoots out through the tip of his tail. Silvester climbs up into the rafters to lower a piece of cheese with a lit stick of dynamite down but his son is surprised when he sees him up there and shouts. That startles Silvester and he falls onto the dynamite. Silvester designs a trap that would slam a hammer down on the mouse when she walks through the tunnel. He puts it in front of her hole and puts a hunk of cheese in front, but she walks around it to get the cheese. Silvester chases her and gets slammed by the hammer. Finally, after blowing himself up one more time Silvester pours a bowl of porridge over his son's head. 

            Then Bugs reads Little Red Riding Hood. In this story Red is taking Tweety Bird as a present from the city to her grandmother in the woods. Silvester sees her with Tweety and follows. In the woods, the Big Bad Wolf sees her coming but forgets her name. He asks her where she's going and forgets her name again, so Tweety reminds him. Both Silvester and the Wolf hear that she is going to Grandma's. The wolf kicks Grandma out and she says, "One of these days, pow! Right in the kisser!" The Wolf puts on Granny's clothes and goes to get into bed but finds Silvester already there and dressed as Granny. Red knocks and Big Bad tells Silvester to get under the bed. Big Bad tells Red to come in after Silvester reminds him of her name. The Wolf goes after Red and Silvester goes after Tweety but the two predators keep getting in each other's way. Red and Tweety leave the house and they go after them but then Red and Tweety go back into the house and lock the door. Silvester tries to use a giant slingshot and a boulder to break down the front door while Big Bad rams the back with a log. Big Bad gets through first and tries to open the door for Silvester just as he gets hit by the boulder. Red runs with Tweety to the bus stop and gets on the bus. Big Bad and Silvester run ahead to the next stop. The bus stops and they get on but are immediately punched back as it turns out that the bus driver is Granny, who says, "I told them. One of these days, pow! Right in the kisser!"

            Bugs convinces Sam that he needs a carrot break from reading and so Sam gives him five minutes. Bugs escapes on a flying carpet, but Sam goes after him on another. Bugs goes upside down and so does Sam, but Sam falls because he forgot to fasten his seatbelt. Sam's turban luckily contains a parachute. Sam gets another carpet, and this time brings a fishing pole, a line, and a hook. He catches Bugs's carpet and unravels it. Bugs falls right back into the palace where he has to read another story.

            This is about the Pied Piper of Guadalupe. The town is infested with mice and the mayor hires the piper, who happens to be Silvester. He plays a Mexican folk tune on a flute and it hypnotizes the mice one by one as they dance out to him and he hits them over the head and stores them in a big, corked bottle. He thinks he's got them all but then Speedy Gonzales tells him he will get his friends back. Silvester challenges him to try. He uncorks the bottle and thinks he'll be able to put the cork back in as soon as Speedy is inside but Speedy gets in and out with a friend before the cork is replaced. Silvester tries to hypnotize Speedy with music but he only pretends to be entranced and succeeds in getting his friends back. Silvester tries to chase Speedy, but the mouse is tireless, and Silvester becomes exhausted. Then there is a knock on the door and a very slow-talking mouse introduces himself as Slowpoke Rodrigues and asks for his cousin Speedy. Silvester lets him in but just before he can grab him, Speedy pulls him into the mouse hole. Slowpoke says he's hungry and so Speedy goes to the human's kitchen to steal food for him. He brings back four hunks of cheese, but Slowpoke says he forgot the tabasco sauce. Speedy runs to the kitchen but then Silvester puts glue on the floor, so he is caught on the way back. Silvester grabs Speedy and tries to eat him but the whole bottle of tabasco sauce gets poured into his mouth. Silvester shoots up in the air and after he crashes, he winds up in casts and on crutches. Speedy plays Silvester's flute and leads him hopping out of town. 

            Then Bugs tells the story of the singing frog. A demolition worker is destroying an old building in New York when he uncovers a time capsule. Inside of a box he finds a frog that puts on a top hat and picks up a cane and begins dancing while singing, "Hello Ma Baby" from 1899. The worker suddenly thinks that he is going to get rich with this frog. But when he takes it to an agent it just acts like a frog. It is only after the man is kicked out and they are alone that the frog dances and sings The Michigan Rag. Alone in their room, the frog sings up a storm. The man puts all his savings into renting a theatre, but nobody comes until he offers free beer. But the frog only sings on a high wire while the curtain is down and when it comes up, he does not perform. The man is placed in a psychiatric hospital where the frog sings when they are alone. The man finally puts the frog in another time capsule and leaves. 

            Bugs refuses to read any more stories and throws the book into a fire. Sam pulls the burning book out and he and his son toss it back and forth until it falls as cinders. Sam says he's going to boil Bugs in oil. Bugs says, "That's okay but promise me you won't throw me in that hole in the ground!" Sam throws him in the hole, and Bugs tunnels away and outside the palace, he bumps into Daffy. Daffy decides to go and sell books at the palace. Bugs tries to warn him away, but he won't listen. Sam pulls Daffy in and says he'll be the new storyteller, or he'll pluck all his feathers. Bugs is walking away when a now totally bald Daffy runs after him and asks if he has any suntan oil. 

            Prince Abba Dabba was voiced by Lennie Weinrib, who started out working with Spike Jones and then the Billy Barnes Revue. He was the original voice of Scrappy Doo in the Scooby Doo series. He played H.R. Pufnstuf, Grimace in the McDonald's commercials. In the mid-60s he directed three Beach Party movies: Beach Ball, Wild Wild Winter, and Out of Sight. 

            I did a search for bedbugs and found one in a crack in the upper right corner of the old exit door at the head of my bed and another one about halfway down the wall just to the right of the frame. The blood inside of them was fairly fresh.