Sally Demay

            On Sunday morning I continued memorizing the ninth verse of “Ballade de la chnoufe” (Ballad of the Snuff) by Boris Vian and the last five lines of the first monologue in Zizi Jeanmaire’s performance of “Les millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg. I’m pretty sure I’ll at least have the latter nailed down on Monday. 

            I weighed 89.2 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Kramer electric during song practice for the first of two sessions and it went out of tune a lot. The last time I played it a couple of weeks ago it hardly went out of tune at all. 

            Around midday I cleaned the warm mist humidifier that’s been working all week and started the other one going. I also started cleaning my cool mist humidifier. I didn’t finish either machine before lunch. I’d descaled the warm mist but didn’t have time to rinse it so I just left it soaking in water. 

            I weighed 89.65 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with peanut butter, five-year-old cheddar and a glass of iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride. There was a narrow path on the Bloor bike lane. My wheels slipped a bit when I was going over one of those metal ramps they put up for some reason on the bike lane. I decided to only go as far as Ossington and then went south to Queen and west to home. 

            I weighed 89 kilos at 18:00. 

            I finished cleaning both humidifiers. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:01. 

            I recorded from cassette through audio interface to Audacity, then to my hard drive, side one of the recording of set two of my first 20.000 Poets Under the League poetry slam that was hosted by Cad Lowlife (now known as Cad Gold Jr.). 

            I reviewed the video of my song practice performance of “The Deserter” on September 6, 2024 but the camera battery charge ran out before the song was finished. 

            My upstairs neighbour Jacob was blasting his music and I thought he’d just turned his speakers to shoot out of his window again but I looked out the window and he was down on the street with a blaster. He had the speakers up against the glass of the Shambala Tibetan restaurant and he was also banging on the glass. Then the cops showed up and he tried to get back inside our building but they grabbed and handcuffed him. He immediately calmed down and turned on the charm. It must have worked because after half an hour or so they let him out of the back of the patrol car, unlocked his cuffs and let him go. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with marinara sauce, tomato pesto, a chopped grass-fed beef burger, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore while watching season 2, episode 23 of Car 54 Where Are You?

            Muldoon and Toody are still trying to help out Charlie Adamopolis (just called “Charlie the drunk” in this episode), who spends every night in a cell because he can’t stay off the booze. They bring him in without arresting him and Captain Block complains about being in the hotel business. Toody and Muldoon have gotten the precinct Helping Hand Committee to give Charlie money. The last time it was $75 to pay tuition for TV repairman classes but he used it to get drunk. The next day he’s released and he apologizes. Toody immediately wants to help him again and eventually Muldoon gives in too. But Charlie starts talking about all the bars he’ll pass and gets drunk just describing the drinks. 

            Toody decides giving Charlie money won’t work but they need to instead get him a job. Schnauser reminds him that they got him a job at the funeral home and he drank the embalming fluid, then they got him a job at a barbershop and he drank the hair tonic. They get him a job at a bakery but the baker decides to make rum cake. He gets a job in a garage and drinks the anti-freeze. They decide Charlie needs to get in shape before he can get a job so they take him to a gym. The trainer sweats the poison out of him and has him, rowing, skipping and lifting weights. Then they give him an alcohol massage and he gets drunk again. 

            Toody looks for a job for him where the employees don’t drink and finds the diamond cutting business. They get him a job at McNaughton and Vandermeer Diamond Cutters but decide to check in on Charlie on a regular basis to make sure he’s staying straight. But they don’t tell the people at the company why they are there other than a random check. Charlie goes two weeks without drinking but the constant police checks are making everyone at the company nervous. The diamond cutters’ hands are shaking and so they begin drinking to steady their nerves. The company heads start boozing as do the clerks Miss Powntleroy and Miss Tizzy. When Muldoon and Toody come in they find the only one sober is Charlie. 

            Charlie helps them through and they are determined to stay sober. The boss lights up a cigar but the lighter is empty and so they ask Charlie to get the lighter fluid, then Charlie gets drunk again. 

            Miss Tizzy was played by Sally Demay, who was born on the same day as Betty White. She studied ballet and ballroom dancing. Her dance instructor was Sid Moore, who drew her into show business. At the age of 14 she was passing for an older woman and part of a comedy dance team called Demay, Moore and Martin on vaudeville. Her mother died when she was 15 and at 16 she married Moore. In 1938 she and Moore appeared in the film Skyline Revue. They toured Europe just before WWII then Sally did a solo act while Moore was in the armed forces. After the war they toured for ten years until Moore retired and Sally started acting. She played Mammy Yokum in a tour of Lil Abner. She was in the Broadway show How Now Dow Jones and then formed a group with female cast members called The Wall Street Widows. She did commercials for Scope, Tootsie Pops, and Doan’s pills. She had a recurring role on the soap opera The Doctors. Her memoir was called Almost Famous.