Florence Halop

            On Wednesday morning I continued gathering images for my photo-video of “Les millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg.

            In my preparation for tomorrow’s CT scan of my colon I mixed the barium but mistakenly added a liter of water instead of 750 ml. I don’t see why it would matter though since I’ll still be drinking it all in three doses anyway. I had the first dose and the taste was not horrible but the consistency was disgusting. I was supposed to take the Pico Salax in the morning but I was worried I’d start to purge in the early afternoon while I was in the hygienist’s chair so I decided to wait until I got back. 

            I weighed 90.7 kilos after my liquid breakfast. 

            I played my Martin acoustic for the last of two sessions and it stayed in tune into the next song only twice. Tomorrow I’ll begin a four session stretch of playing my electric guitars. I had three songs left when I had to stop to get ready to leave. 

            I left for the U of T Graduate School of Dentistry at about 12:15 and got there pretty much exactly on time. Villi told me I’ve been doing an excellent job of brushing. My next appointment is in the middle of July. 

            When I got home I took the second dose of barium and the first packet of Pico Salax. 

            I finished the last three songs of my rehearsal and drank a glass of cranberry juice. 

            I took a siesta from 16:00 to 17:53. 

            I weighed 89.35 kilos at 18:10, which is the lightest I’ve been in the evening since February 9. 

            I started to purge my bowels at around 18:30. 

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

            I recorded from cassette tape through audio interface to Audacity and then extracted to my hard drive side 2 of the rehearsal with Steve Lowe of my song “Snow on a Poppy”. We also talked about Indian gurus. Steve was a disciple of Sai Baba. 

            I made a folder for photos of Sarah Louise Young in my SSD and deleted several pictures of her from my hard drive. 

            At around 20:00 I drank the last of the barium and then the last of the Pico Salax. 

            I had a glass of cranberry juice and a bowl of vegetable broth while watching episode 5 of Captain Nice. This one was funnier than the previous scripts. 

            It’s Carter Nash’s birthday and his mother Esther, his friend Candy and his uncle Mayor Finney are feting him in a nightclub called Medulla where the featured performer and the owner is Medulla the Mentalist. 

            Medulla suddenly acts possessed. He says there’s a wanted killer in the room and then Carter sees a man at a table draw a gun. He goes to the coat check to change to Captain Nice then flies in front of Medulla to shield him from the bullet just in time. Then the man pulls a knife but Medulla tells him he wasn’t talking about him and the man puts the knife away saying, “Oh, well no harm done”. As the police take the man away Medulla says, “If there’s one thing you get used to in this business, it’s hecklers”. 

            The next day Carter is with the mayor and the police chief and the mayor is complaining about the current crime wave. The chief explains that every thug in the country is in Big Town because Joe Kowalski is about to be released from prison. Joe is the only surviving member of the gang that made the Great San Perdu Train Robbery and he’s the only one who knows where the $2 million is buried. The mayor asks the chief if he questioned Joe and he answers, “With every rubber hose in the station house”. Carter is surprised and asks, “You struck a prisoner?”. The chief explains, “We talk to them through rubber hoses. It throws them off their guard”. 

            Mayor Finney has the idea for Medulla to read Joe’s mind and find out where the money is”. Carter urges him not to consult Medulla because he’s a fraud. Finney tells Carter to test Medulla’s powers in his lab. Carter says he’ll do it but warns that if they use that charlatan for official business they’ll be the laughing stock of Big Town. He asks, “How would you like that?” The chief answers that it hasn’t bothered them so far. 

            The scene switches to the home of Joe Kowalski’s wife and two sons as they prepare for the celebration of Joe’s return home after twenty years. Mrs. Kowalski is overjoyed about seeing her husband again. Her son Lennie asks why she never visited Joe in prison and she says because Thursday is canasta night. Lennie asks why Joe never told them where the money is. Mrs. K says, Maybe because you turned him in”. 

            Joe arrives but while starting to tell his family where the money is he has a heart attack and dies. All he says is, “Check … room… Medulla”. Jake knows Medulla is the name of a nightclub and the mentalist who owns it. He says they’ll go to search Medulla’s room. If they don’t find anything they’ll bring Medulla back there and beat it out of him. Jake will break his arms, Lennie will break his legs, and Ma will step on his face. Mrs. K gets sentimental and says, “It’s been so long since this family has done anything together”. 

            Carter tests Medulla and confirms he’s a fake but Finney takes his findings as confirmation of Medulla’s powers and puts him on the case. Carter goes to Medulla’s room to find evidence that he’s not a real psychic but while he’s there Jake and Lennie arrive and think Carter is Medulla. They force him back to their place and when they threaten to kill him Carter pretends he’s going into a trance to find the money. They follow Carter back to the Nash house where Carter is looking for his super power serum while pretending to be guided to the money. Carter’s mother has the serum and gives it to him, telling the brothers that it’s Medulla’s memory juice. The brothers are defeated. 

            Carter concludes that what Joe told his family: “Check room Medulla” means the money is in the check room at Medulla’s night club and it has been there for twenty years. 

            Mrs. Kowalski was played by Florence Halop, who started performing on radio at the age of 4. Her radio debut was on “Coast to Coast on a Bus”. Also on the radio she played the man crazy daughter of owner of Duffy’s Tavern and Hot Breath Houlihan for two seasons of The Jimmy Durante Show. Her film debut was in Nancy Drew Reporter in 1939. Her TV debut was as Millie’s mother on the sitcom Meet Millie in the early 50s and she played the character at the same time on the radio. She played the bailiff Florence Kleiner on 22 episodes of Night Court until she died. She was a regular guest star as the annoying patient Mrs. Hufnagel during the third season of St Elsewhere.