Larry Pennell

            On Tuesday morning I started working out the chords for the first verse of "J'ai pas d'regret" (I've No Regrets) by Boris Vian. 

            I memorized the chorus of "Entre autre, pas en traître" (I Took You for Other than a Traitor) by Serge Gainsbourg, and finished revising my translation. 

            Before breakfast I rode down to Parkdale Community Legal Services. Their new location is more modern, brighter and larger than when they were across the street. I think I was wise to go early as I was the first one there. The receptionist copied my documents and made me an appointment for next Monday afternoon. He said I could deal with both the rent increase and the bed bug issue in the same appointment. 

            I weighed 85 kilos at 9:30. 

            I spackled some more small depressions in the bedroom around the old exit door where the bedbugs mostly like to hang out. 

            I washed and scrubbed the bathroom side of my bathroom door. It's not going to look any cleaner unless I paint it, which I might do in the summer. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I started out on a bike ride but it was raining so I only went to Dundas and Brock, east to Gladstone and south to Freshco where I bought four bags of green grapes and some mouthwash. Since I was in the neighbourhood I walked over to Metro and used the $50 gift card that David gave me. I got old English cheddar, two steaks, two racks of pork ribs, a pack of hot Italian sausages, and a whole organic chicken. I was $16 and change over the card. 

            I weighed 84.6 kilos at 17:10. 

            Shortly after I got home the fire alarm went off. I couldn't smell any cooking anywhere on the second and third floors, unless it was Pope Yes downstairs that set our alarm off. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:13. 

            I continued working on editing my old Christian's Translations blog posts and made it up to the end of October, 2017. I think I started posting the titles of my translations and the copyright notices in 2020 so I might be up to date in a day or so. 

            I cut up a whole chicken and roasted it. I had a leg with a potato and gravy while watching season 3, episodes 17 and 18 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            The first story is a continuation of the previous one. Movie star Dash Riprock had been told to romance Elly May Clampett, which he'd already been doing when he thought she was an anonymous extra. He thought that Jane Hathaway was Elly and reluctantly pursued her, leaving Elly feeling jilted.

            As the story begins, Elly is depressed over Dash, while he is just learning that Jane is not Elly. Drysdale tells Dash to let Jane down gently and not to dump her until he says so. 

            Jane goes to let Jethro know that she's now with Dash Riprock. He doesn't care but she thinks he's heart broken. She tells Elly that the tides have changed and that men are now attracted to intellectual beauty. She goes to show Elly some poetry in the library to help her become more attractive to men. This is the first mention of the Clampetts having a well stocked library that came with the mansion. 

            To help Elly get over Dash, Jed calls up the studio and asks them to send over a good looking actor for her. Biff Steel arrives but meets Jane and thinks she's Elly, so he drives off with her. When Jane tells Dash that she's now with Biff, it's Dash's chance to go to Elly. 

            But meanwhile, since two good looking men have so far left Elly for Jane, Jed thinks that they need to homely Elly up. He figures that Hollywood actors don't want to be with anyone that's better looking than they are. He's heard that some of them go down lover's lane with themselves. So they put glasses and an uncomplimentary tweed suit on Elly. Dash is surprised when he arrives to see how Elly has changed. While they are in the parlour Biff returns for Elly along with two busloads of young actors including Bolt Upright, Crunch Hardtack, Race Burley, and Tab Strong. 

            Dash Riprock was played by Larry Pennell, who started out as a professional baseball player for the Boston Braves from 1948 to 1953. His first film appearance was in Seven Angry Men. He starred in "Our Man in Jamaica". He starred in the adventure series "Ripcord". He played Clark Gable in two movies and an episode of Quantum Leap. He was married to Patricia Throop for 54 years until he died.

            In the second story Elly is now dating Dash Riprock, but he has trouble getting a kiss because Granny is always spying. Meanwhile a beatnik named Shelley Epps is trying to sell an abstract painting of some fish bones to Mr. Drysdale. Drysdale threatens to call security. 

            Dash is going to take Elly to the beach but wants to avoid Granny so he tells her to meet him out on the street. While she's waiting in her bathing suit, Shelley is driving by in his hot rod. Distracted by Elly he crashes into a wall. Because the Clampetts have never heard jive talk, when Shelley calls Jed "Daddy", Jethro "Clyde" and Elly a "chick", they think the accident rattled his brains and so they put him in a bedroom in the mansion so Granny can doctor him. When he says he wants to have a ball, Jethro brings him a bouncy ball and when he says he wants to swing with her, Elly asks Jethro to build a swing for them. Jed tells Shelley he's going to give him a box of money so he can buy a new car and some clothes. 

            Shelley paints a portrait of Granny but Jethro goes to bury it before she sees it. As Shelley and Jethro are struggling over the wet painting it slips and gets smeared against Jethro's shirt. When Jane sees the altered painting she says it's now worth $500. 

            I searched for bedbugs and found none. 

            I continued fixing my old Christian's Translations blog posts and before bed I had made it to the end of January, 2018.