Jack Cassidy

            On Saturday morning I worked out the chords for the first line of the chorus of “D’où reviens-tu Billy Boy?” by Boris Vian. 

            I finished memorizing “Love Fifteen” by Serge Gainsbourg. I searched for the chords and found a set on Ultimate Guitar. I transcribed the ones for the intro and the first verse and I’ll do the rest tomorrow. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the third of four sessions. 

            I weighed 87.2 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I hitched my bike trailer and rode to No Frills. The grapes were very expensive but I did a price match with Metro and got them for almost half the No Frills price at $5.38 a kilo. I also got a pack of raspberries, some bananas, a pack of lean ground beef, three bags of skim milk, dental floss, a jug of iced tea, two containers of skyr, and a bag of Miss Vickie’s sweet chili chips. 

            I weighed 87.05 kilos before lunch. I had Breton crackers with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

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

            I weighed 86.85 kilos at 17:42. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:45. 

            I published my Movie Maker project of my electric performance of “Dance and Sing to Baby Pop”. Whenever I use the “sharpen” effect it seems to slightly desynchronize the audio and video but in this case it wasn’t that noticeable because of the threshold and watercolour effects being used as well. I made three thumbnails from the video and then uploaded it to YouTube. 

            I reviewed the song practice video of my August 4, 2023 electric performance of “Like a Boomerang”. I fumbled the chords a few times and finally just finished the song without trying to do a clean take. I also watched my performance of “Annie C’s Aniseed Suckers” and that song didn’t get completed before the battery charge ran out. 

            I made four burger patties from the ground beef and grilled them in the oven. 

            I digitized the cassette recording of part 1 of Slamnation 1999 at Lee’s Palace. Cad Gold Jr. was the MC again and in addition to being a judge I was also playing background music on my electric guitar. The other judge was Michelle Ferman, who had been the winner of the previous year’s slam. The recording came out kind of crackly. My background music didn’t sound bad as atmospheric wallpaper. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with Basilica sauce, one of the burgers cut in half edgewise and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 6, episodes 25 and 26 of Bewitched. 

            In the first story Darrin tries to leave for work but all the doors seem to be jammed. He can’t get out through the window either. Finally he takes a hammer to break the window but the glass is impenetrable. As a last resort he allows Samantha to use magic to pop him out but that doesn’t work either. Her powers work inside the house but not for getting out. She figures another witch has cast a spell and her mother is the prime suspect. She summons Endora but she knows nothing about it. On top of that, now that Endora is in the house she can’t leave either. Samantha is wondering if it’s one of Esmerelda’s magical fumbles and she summons her but now she can’t leave either. Finally Dr. Bombay is called. He says the house is under a vapour lock. Where most witches live the art of witchcraft is practiced continually. But Samantha has been repressing her powers. This atrophy of action causes the undistributed metaphysical particles to clutter up the atmospheric continuum thereby creating a bilateral transcendental trauma or vapour lock. He can cure it with a simple incantation but he can’t cure it because it must be done from outside. But he says the solution is that Samantha can turn him into a photograph of himself and slide him under the door. Once he is outside she can re-three-dimensionalize him so he can cast the spell. It’s a success. So this doesn’t happen again Samantha suggests that Darrin allow her to use witchcraft more often. 

            In the second story Samantha has a busy day when Serena pops in to visit. Then Samantha gets a call from Mrs. Corby who is at a table in the lobby of the Huntington Hotel selling raffle tickets for the Send a Boy to Camp charity. She tells Samantha that she was scheduled to relieve her ten minutes ago. Samantha had thought she was supposed to be there tomorrow. Because Samantha has so much to do she asks Serena to take her place and pretend to be her. Serena is reluctant until Samantha says Darrin would have a fit if he found out. Serena makes herself look like Samantha but she wears her skirts shorter and so Samantha makes her lengthen it. At the hotel Serena’s flirtatious nature makes her very good at selling tickets. Then George Dinsdale, one of the McMann and Tate clients, is passing when Serena accosts him. He is smitten right away and offers to buy all of her tickets if she has a drink with him. They hit it off and agree to meet for lunch the next day. But that night Dinsdale attends a dinner party at Larry Tate’s house where he is supposed to meet Darrin, who will be handling his account. He is surprised to see Samantha is Darrin’s wife. When he gets an opportunity he corners her and talks as if he’s met her before. Then Samantha realizes that Dinsdale met Serena. She tries to explain that she has an identical cousin but he thinks it’s just a game she’s playing. That night Samantha summons Serena and tells her to set Dinsdale straight. The next day Serena meets Dinsdale and she tries to explain that he’s not Samantha but he still doesn’t believe it. Serena disappears when he's looking the other way. Dinsdale calls Larry and says he doesn’t want Darrin on his account. Then Dinsdale shows up at Samantha’s door. He still doesn’t believe that Samantha and Serena are separate people and he tries to take Samantha in his arms. She wrestles free. She tries to explain one more time but he grabs her again and kisses her, so she turns him into a parrot. Darrin comes home and learns that Samantha has turned a client into a bird. He says “poor Dinsdale” even though this is someone who was pawing his wife. Samantha doesn’t change Dinsdale back until she has summoned Serena. Once he sees her he understands and apologizes. It's strange that he is so easily forgiven for firing Darrin just so he could more freely cheat with his wife. Serena and Dinsdale immediately start the evening that afternoon. Later he shows up at Samantha’s door disoriented. He had been on a date with Serena when he whispered in her ear “Fly me to the Moon” and the next thing he knew he was on his way there.

            Dinsdale was played by Jack Cassidy, who at the age of 16 was in the chorus of Something For the Boys. He appeared in several productions before taking the lead in 1953 in Wish You Were Here. He made guest appearances on many TV series and even had his own show in Britain. In 1955 he was cast in a European tour of Oklahoma with Shirley Jones. He married her a year later. He was already the father of future teen idol David Cassidy and with Jones he had three kids, one of whom, Shaun Cassidy also became a teen heartthrob. He and Jones recorded albums together such as Love From Hollywood and Brigadoon. They had a nightclub act called The Marriage Band. According to Shirley Jones, he had an affair with Cole Porter. For his work on Broadway he became one of the most nominated actors in Tony history. He won the 1964 Tony for She Loves Me. He co-starred in the sitcom He and She. He co-starred in the film The Eiger Sanction. He died after falling asleep with a cigarette and setting his Naugahyde couch, then his entire house on fire.