Richard Loo

            On Monday morning I memorized the third verse of “D’où reviens-tu Billy Boy?” (“Where Have You Been Billy Boy?) by Boris Vian. There’s just one verse left. 

            I finished working out the chords for “Trente-deux Fahrenheit” by Serge Gainsbourg. I uploaded it to my Christian’s Translations blog and started preparing it for publication. I should have it posted tomorrow. 

            I weighed 87.6 kilos before lunch. 

            Around midday I put all the stuff back on the upper shelves in the bathroom that I’d taken down when I was sanding that area. I’ll have to take it all down again when I sand it after filling the holes, and then again when I finally paint, but that’s a ways down the road. 

            I took a bike ride in the afternoon but it started to rain when I got to Bloor so I turned around. It stopped seconds later so I continued but it started again at Bloor and Gladstone so I headed south. It stopped again but I went home anyway, figuring it would probably start again. After I was home for a while it did pour once more, probably around the time I would have been three quarters of the way home if I’d continued downtown and back and I would have gotten soaked, so good call. 

            I weighed 88.2 kilos at 17:00, which is the most I’ve weighed in the evening since July 14. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:15. 

            It was raining so I didn’t take my camera and tripod out to look for people to put on video for my project. 

            In my Movie Maker project for the acoustic version of “Dance and Sing to Baby Pop” I synchronized the audio with the video, I set the ending, added a fade to black effect, an edge detection effect and a warp effect. I’ll watch it again tomorrow to see if it’s ready to publish. 

            I digitized one of the cassette tapes of my 1998 Slamnation (no rules) poetry slam at Lee’s Palace. There’s one more tape for 1998, two for 1999 and two for 2000. The 1998 slam was hosted by Cad Gold Jr. I think I always had musicians accompanying the poets if they chose. I forget who I used for the 1998 slam. 

            I had a potato with gravy and two pork ribs while watching season 6, episodes 15 and 16 of Bewitched. 

            Samantha and Darrin are on the eve of their first vacation in five years. Every previous attempt to leave has been stifled at the last minute by Darrin’s boss Larry. Suddenly Larry comes to visit and brings them a parting gift of a portable bar. But then he starts talking about his wife Louise being sick and him having to go on a business trip to Chicago because Darrin is going to the Caribbean and can’t make the Chicago trip. He makes several attempts to lay a guilt trip on Darrin and Samantha and then finally leaves. Then there is a flashback to a story we never saw when Samantha was still pregnant. Darrin wanted to be there in case Samantha went into labour but he also wanted to go to Japan to land the Tanaka account. Endora splits him into two halves: the doting husband and the businessman, with one half staying and the other going to Japan. Samantha tells Endora to reverse the spell but her mother puts doubt in her mind that what she did was a bad thing. One Darrin is on the plane with Tanaka trying to discuss business while Tanaka is more interested in the flight attendant. The other Darrin is at home waiting on Samantha hand and foot. Both Tanaka and Samantha find their respective Darrins to be annoyingly focused. Now Samantha demands that Endora put the two Darrins back together. But Endora’s spell merely switches the two haves so the doting husband suddenly appears in Tanaka’s home in Tokyo while the business Darrin has appeared at home. Samantha insists Endora get the spell right and so she finally brings both Darrins together at home, leaving Tanaka puzzled over Darrin’s sudden disappearance. When the flashback is over the doorbell rings and Larry is standing there bent over and holding his back as if in pain. Samantha causes a vampire bat to fly through the living room and suddenly he’s standing fully upright with no pain. Larry leaves and Samantha and Darrin hurry to pack.

            Mr. Tanaka was played by Richard Loo, who attended the University of California. He first attempted a career in business but the stock market crash forced him to find an alternative career. He worked in theatre and then made his first film in 1931. He was typecast as villains, especially during WWII. He played Hai Fat in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun. He appeared several times on the TV series Kung Fu and was a regular in Toyota commercials. 

            In the second story Samantha summons Esmerelda to babysit Adam while she takes Tabatha shoe shopping. Samantha is trying to get Tabitha to eat her lunch but she says she’s not hungry. Esmerelda thinks Tabitha’s lack of appetite is related to her feelings about the new baby. She is expressing her emotions of rivalry by refusing to eat. Darrin sends Tabitha to her room. Esmerelda puts a spell on Tabitha’s milk to cause her to be hungry. But Samantha intercepts it and says Tabitha is being punished. Then before Esmerelda can warn her Samantha drinks the milk herself. Suddenly she has the overwhelming urge to eat and eat and eat. Esmerelda goes to the witches apothecary to look for a potion to break a hunger spell. The warlock chemist asks her if she’s got a date for the Metaphysical Barbecue. She says she doesn’t but she’s had dozens of offers. He says he can whip her up a potion as soon as he finishes his special formula of horn of unicorn, gizzard of lizard, tail of snail, caboose of moose and chicken fat. Esmerelda asks what it cures. He says , “Don’t cure nothin. It’s my lunch.” Meanwhile Samantha keeps eating and she thinks she has a virus called voracious ravenousitis. She’s tried to call Dr. Bombay but he plays buffalo polo on Saturdays. Samantha has eaten everything in the house and has to go to the supermarket where she is eating food as she shops and gets in trouble with the don’t squeeze the Charmen actor who runs the store. She steals a head of lettuce from a hippy’s shopping cart. He says, “Baby, if your bag is shoplifting don’t steal from me. Steal from the store.” When Samantha gets home she calls again for Dr. Bombay but only his beautiful new nurse appears. She says Bombay’s polo match went into overtime. She’s a trained nurse but not in medicine. At the witches apothecary the chemist is chasing Esmerelda around the store. He says he’s been waiting for a delivery from Neptune to complete the potion. Meanwhile Bombay finally comes to Samantha and gives her a sonic injection for voracious ravenousitis. It cures her of her urge to eat but now she can’t stop falling asleep. At the apothecary the potion is ready but the chemist wants a kiss for it. Esmerelda gives him a kiss on the forehead. Esmerelda goes back to Samantha and calls Dr. Bombay. He has to reverse the cure for voracious ravenousitis so she can reverse the hunger spell. It works.