June 30, 1996: My daughter hit another kid with the toy crossbow I made for her

Thirty years ago today

            On Sunday it was a very hot day and I took my daughter to the local playground on Dundas. She brought along the crossbow that I made for her out of an old crutch, a door latch, a big rubber band and a few other things. It wasn’t powerful enough to penetrate anything when it shot the arrow I’d made out of a stick but it could have put somebody’s eye out. She did harmlessly hit another kid with it and from then on I was very conscientious about where she aimed it.

Emmett Kelly

            On Sunday morning in my Christian’s Translations blog I finished preparing the parody of “Que je t’aime” (That I Love You) by Serge Gainsbourg for publication. But I needed a video and Blogger is only fully compatible with YouTube videos, of which there are none for this song. The only video online for this song is one for INA France so I decided to make screen shots from that video and use them to create a photo-video for the song in Movie Maker. I’ve got six images so far, leading up to the beginning of the first chorus. I might only need another twenty or so. 

            I weighed 90.15 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice and it stayed in tune through almost all the last half of my session. Before that it went out of tune for almost every song. 

            A truck went by from a company called Live Bait Incorporated. They must have an interesting warehouse. 

            Around midday I painted with the “crazy in love” pink hue the first coat for two of the four floral reliefs on the frame of my future bathroom mirror. I might have the first coat for the rest done on Tuesday. 

            I weighed 90.65 kilos before lunch. I had peanut butter and five-year-old cheddar on saltines with a glass of lemonade. 

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

            I weighed 90.35 kilos at 17:40.

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:36. 

            I recorded from cassette tape through audio interface to Audacity and then extracted to my hard drive side 2 of early recordings of “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy” at Mike’s Place with Mike on drums. I keep expecting a channel to drop out but everything’s fine now that I have all new cables. The next tape I’ll digitize is also of “Instructions…” I have more tapes of that song than any other. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with marinara, tomato pesto, three sliced Oktoberfest sausages and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore lager while watching season 9, episode 18 of The Carol Burnett Show. 

            During the audience warmup someone asks when Carol’s book will be out. She says it’s out now. “Can you just pick it up anywhere?” “I’d rather you buy it”. 

            Carol sings a song I assume was written by one of her writers about how, “Anybody named Jackson has got to wind up on top”. She lists several famous people named Jackson and then finally The Jackson 5. Then they come out and sing it with her before doing their own number, “Forever Came Today”. I could tell the songwriters without looking it up because it had the stamp of Holland, Dozier, and Holland, who wrote most of the songs for The Supremes and this song was a hit for them in 1967. Michael Jackson was developing more and more finesse. One could see it in how he spun around and grabbed the mic. 

            Harvey plays a politician about to meet the US president to receive a cabinet post. Tim is his right hand and he comes to Harvey to tell him the president is ready for him. Harvey’s wife has been sitting quietly and now Harvey tells her it’s time to meet the president. Tim says he told the president he would be coming without his wife. Harvey insists he go back and tell the president that his wife would be coming as well if Tim wants to be appointed the undersecretary.. We learn that Carol has just recovered from a severe head injury sustained by sticking her head out of a train window and hitting a telephone pole. She swings from a chandelier when Harvey isn’t looking. Tim comes back with some papers for Harvey to review. When Harvey turns his back Carol is all over Tim, first seductively and then bopping him on the head. When Harvey turns his back again Carol runs, jumps and wraps her legs around Tim as she kisses him and he struggles to get free. Tim asks Harvey to reconsider taking his wife. Harvey says if he asks that again he’s fired. When Harvey’s back is turned again Carol pours water all over Tim. This keeps happening until now she’s drawn a Hitler moustache on Tim and pulled his pants down. Harvey fires Tim and then wonders with whom to replace him. Carol says, “How about Bob Thomson?” Bob Thomson turns out to be the hat rack in Harvey’s office and they take it to meet the president. 

            The Jackson 5 pretend to teach Vicki how to dance and sing the 1974 song “Body Language” by Hal Davis and Don Fletcher. 

            They do a parody of the 1946 film A Stolen Life starring Bette Davis as identical twins with opposite personalities. Carol plays the Bette Davis roles. We first meet the shy and reserved Patsy who is obsessed with the lighthouse she can see from her window. Then she meets Bill the lighthouse keeper played by Harvey and they have a lot in common. They fall for each other but then he meets Patsy’s outgoing and glamourous sister Vera. By the time Patsy returns to the room they have run off together. Months later Vera and Bill are married and living in New York where Bill is a big success. Vera returns for a visit and she and Patsy go sailing. Vera drowns and Patsy assumes her identity so she can be with Bill. She has to deal with the fact that every man she meets is Vera’s lover. She learns that Bill wants to divorce her so she reveals herself to him and he says he is now free to be with the one he truly loves, which is his maid Docina. So Patsy lets all of Vera’s lovers fawn over her as consolation. 

            The final sketch is an almost exact remake of one from season 4, episode 8. Carol’s Charwoman is at a circus. She meets a clown who gives her a dead rose. He tries to juggle while balancing a feather on his nose but he can’t juggle and the feather is glued to his nose. He sweeps the spotlight into a small circle, picks it up and hands it to her. She puts it in her pocket. She sings “It’s Only a Paper Moon” by Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg and Billy Rose from 1933. Then she sings “Look for the Silver Lining” by Jerome Kern and B.G. De Sylva from 1919. At the end she thanks “the world’s greatest clown”, Emmett Kelly. I would think if he was really the world’s greatest clown he would have come up with another routine in five years. 

            Emmett Kelly wanted to be a newspaper cartoonist but couldn’t get work in that field so he became a chalk-talk artist. He would tell stories and illustrate them in chalk. He then became a trapeze artist. His first appearance as a clown was with Howe’s Great London Circus in 1921 in Iowa. The sad faced clown persona he played on the Carol Burnett Show was named Weary Willy and he was based on the many hoboes that that were a common sight during the Depression. A “weary willy” was another name for a hobo. He performed as a cartoonist dressed as a clown in night clubs. His nightclub act attracted the attention of several circuses and he eventually joined Coles Brothers Circus. He helped to rescue several children after a circus tent caught fire. He had a nightclub act in the 1930s with Linn Sheldon. He made his Broadway debut in Keep Off the Grass in 1940. In 1942 he joined Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey where he did an act called Panto’s Paradise in which he played a hobo clown in Fairyland. He made his film debut in The Fat Man in 1951. His 1954 memoir is called Clown. In 1956 he was the first guest on What’s My Line? In 1958 he co-starred in Wind Across the Everglades. In 1959 he was hired by Pacific Ocean Amusement Park for 19 weeks as vice president in charge of fun. He was a regular for 15 years at Harrah’s in Lake Tahoe. He became known to millions when he started performing on TV. He was in Bette Midler’s first TV special and she sang John Prine’s song “Hello In There” to his Weary Willy character.

June 29, 1996: It was a rainy day

Thirty years ago today

            On Saturday I picked up my daughter from her mother’s place and brought her to mine to spend the weekend. It was a rainy day and so we played indoors.

Nick Benedict

            On Saturday morning I memorized the first chorus of “La complainte de Bonnot” by Boris Vian. Now that I know the first two verses and the first chorus, there is just two verses and one chorus left to learn. 

            I ran through singing and playing the parody of “Que je t’aime” (That I Love You)” by Serge Gainsbourg in French and English. Then I uploaded it to my Christian’s Translations blog to prepare it for publication and I should have it done tomorrow. 

            I weighed 89.55 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice and it went out of tune a lot more than usual. It only fully behaved through four songs. 

            At around midday I went to Freedom Mobile to pay for my July phone plan, to Vina Pharmacy to pick up a prescription and then rode down to No Frills for groceries. I got five bags of cherries, a pack of blueberries, some bananas, a pack of five-year-old cheddar, some mouthwash, a jar of tomato pesto, a jug of lemonade, a jug of orange juice, two containers of PC skyr, and a bag of Miss Vickie’s chips. I did a price match for the cherries with the Metro price. The Freshco price is cheaper but I couldn’t find it on their flyer. 

            I weighed 90.1 kilos at 14:40. I had peanut butter and five-year-old cheddar on saltines with a glass of lemonade. 

            I took a siesta at 15:30 and got up at 17:00. By the time I’d brushed my teeth it was too late for a bike ride. 

            I weighed 90.35 kilos at 17:25. 

            At 18:52 I was caught up in my journal for the first time in about two weeks. 

            I returned to my project of digitizing my cassette tapes for the first time since I got all the proper cables so I can record with two channels. I recorded side one of a session of early recordings of my song “Instructions for Electroshock Therapy” at Mike’s Place with Mike on drums. There’s no more frustrating dropping out of the right channel. Tomorrow I’ll do side 2. 

            I grilled five Oktoberfest sausages. I then made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with marinara, tomato pesto, two sliced sausages, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore lager while watching season 9, episode 17 of The Carol Burnett Show. 

            During the audience warmup Carol introduces in the audience Don Sutton, the pitcher for the LA Dodgers, who is there with his wife. 

            Carol says she watches one soap opera and everybody knows that because she talks about All My Children all the time. She found out that Nick Benedict who plays Philip was in the audience so she brings him up and gets the audience to ask him questions. Someone asks where he got his curly hair and he says from his Italian father. Are the shows live? No they are always a week ahead. A woman asks if he’s married and he asks, “What are you doing tonight?” No. 

            Carol and Harvey play a couple who hardly ever have time for each other because they lead very busy lives. She suggests that they have lunch today at noon but then realizes she can’t. She says “How about 13:00?” but he has a meeting. He says at 15:30 he has a free eight minutes but she can’t do it. She says one of them has to pick up Bob at 16:00. Harvey says he’s not ready to discuss that merger but she reminds him that Bob is their son. Harvey says, “Let’s have lunch sometime”. Suddenly Carol says, “I think it’s time” then stands up and we see she’s pregnant. He asks, “Do you need me?” She says, “No, I won’t be long” then she leaves. Harvey wonders how that happened. 

            Steve Lawrence sings “In the Still of the Night” by Cole Porter from the 1937 film Rosalie.

            Carol plays Marge and Vicki plays her co-worker Carla. Carla says she has a great riddle but Marge says she doesn’t want to hear it because riddles give her a headache. Carla tells it anyway: “You’re in a room with all southern exposure. A bear walks by. What colour is the bear?” (It would be white because if the view is south from all sides that’s the only colour a bear would be). Marge says brown and Carla starts laughing. Marge asks what colour it is. Carla says, “It’s a riddle! Figure it out!” “I don’t want to. I’ve got the headache that I told you riddles give me. Just tell me what colour is the bear”. Carla says, “I can’t. I don’t know the answer”. Steve sits with them and hears about the riddle. He knows the answer but wants to share a different one. “You’re driving a bus. There’s ten people on the bus. At the first stop two people get on and four people get off. At the next stop three people get on and four people get off. At the next stop nobody gets on and two people get off. What’s the name of the bus driver?” (Obviously if you’re driving the bus it’s your name). Marge thinks there’s no answer. Carla figures it out and whispers the answer to Steve. Marge asks for the answer but Steve says it’s not fair to tell her. But he whispers to Clara the colour of the bear. Marge starts shouting at them. Carla says, “If you’re gonna get this upset you shouldn’t get involved in riddles in the first place!” Carla and Steve leave, but then Harvey comes up to tell her the riddle about the bear. She starts beating him up. 

            Tim plays a boss with a Swedish accent. He’s just gotten an intercom for himself and his secretary Mrs. Wiggins (played by Carol) so they can communicate more efficiently. But every time he tries to communicate with her she pushes the button to talk without hearing what he is saying. This goes on back and forth until he gives up on the intercoms. 

            Carol and Steve are sitting together. She tells him how beautiful his and his wife Eydie Gormé’s TV special was and that they never sang better. Steve is asking Carol trivia questions from match books, like “What was President Truman’s profession before he went into politics?” He was a haberdasher. “What was a nickname for the Model T?” The Tin Lizzy. Carol asks one: “The most Oscars won by a single person is 35. Who won them?” Steve says Walt Disney. “What musical instrument does Benny…” The answer is clarinet. “What year was the gramophone invented?” Steve doesn’t know but the answer is 1915. This is a segue to Carol and Steve’s duet. Steve sings “That Wonderful Year”, which was written by Carol’s husband Joe Hamilton for The Garry Moore Show. Then he sings the 1916 song “Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go With Friday on Saturday Night” by Sam Lewis, Joe Young, and George W. Meyer. Carol sings the 1914 song “Out Among the Sheltering Pines” by Abe Olman and James Brockman. Carol and Steve sing the 1914 song “By the Beautiful Sea” by Harry Carroll and Harold R. Atteridge. They sing the 1915 song “Memories by Egbert Van Alstyne and Gus Kahn. Then the 1914 song “When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose” by Percy Wenrich and Jack Mahoney. Then the 1915 song “I Ain’t Got Nobody” by Spencer Williams and Roger A. Graham. The Carol sings “Play a Simple Melody” by Irving Berlin from the 1915 musical Watch Your Step with Steve singing the counterpoint. Then they sing the 1914 song “Twelfth Street Rag” by Euday L. Bowman. 

            They do a salute to the oldest surviving movie studio that started in 1912: Universal. 

            In 1948 Universal won its first Oscar for Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet. Harvey plays Hamlet and Tim plays the gravedigger who hands him Yorick, the King’s Jester’s skull. He holds it with the back of the skull facing the camera and laughs. He says, “Even in death he has not lost his power to make men laugh!” Then he turns the skull around and it’s wearing the Grouch Marx mask with the glasses, big eyebrows, big nose and moustache. 

            Vicki says one Universal’s hits in 1972 was called Pete and Tilly, that starred Walter Matthau and others. The joke is that it co-starred Carol Burnett. 

            Tim talks about Universal’s Rooster Cogburn, starring Katherine Hepburn and John Wayne. Carol plays Hepburn and Harvey plays Wayne. She’s listing all the strict rules she’s going to impose on him during their journey west and so he stuffs his eyepatch in her mouth. 

            Harvey talks about the 1962 film Freud: the Secret Passion, starring Montgomery Clift. Steve plays Freud and Vicki his patient. he tells her she mustn’t be ashamed of her sexuality, then he excuses himself to go shame-shame. 

            Harvey talks about the recent film Earthquake, starring Charleton Heston. Carol and Steve play a couple having an affair. They begin kissing when the earthquake starts and are finished just when it stops, so they think it was just them. 

            Carol says in 1954 Universal released The Glen Miller Story. She sings “Moonlight Serenade” by Glen Miller and Mitchell Parish. The band plays “Tuxedo Junction” by Erskine Hawkins Bill Johnson, and Julian Dash while the dancers Jitterbug. Vicki as part of a vocal quintet sings “Perfidia” by Alberto Dominguez with English lyrics by Milton Leeds. Then Carol comes out and sings it as a lead vocal. Steve then sings “At Last” by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren from the 1941 film Sun Valley Serenade. Then the dancers dance some more in that old style to another Glenn Miller tune. Harvey pretends to play a saxophone and sings the 1942 song “I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo” also by Gordon and Warren. The dancers dance to the 1940 song “Pennsylvania 6-5000” by Jerry Gray and Carl Sigman. Then everybody sings “Jukebox Saturday Night” by Al Stillman and Paul McGrane from the 1942 show Stars on Ice. Steve sings “Serenade in Blue” by Warren and Gordon from the 1942 film Orchestra Wives. Carol returns to “Moonlight Serenade”. 

            Nick Benedict made his film debut at the age of 9 in the 1955 movie Wiretapper. He played Philip Brent on All My Children from 1973 to 1978, for which he was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award. He played Curtis Reed on Days of Our Lives from 1993 to 2001. He appeared in seven episodes of Santa Barbara. He appeared in thirty episodes of Tribes. He co-starred in The Pistol: Birth of a Legend.

June 28, 1996: I was depressed about my eviction

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday I was depressed about the court decision to evict me from 111 Sheridan Avenue. Now I had to find a new place to live and started checking out the available apartment rentals within my limited budget in the downtown area. In the evening I performed on the Spit Fridays open stage in the back room of the Cameron.

Beverly Sills

            On Friday morning I finished working out the chords for the “Que je t’aime” (That I Love You) parody” by Serge Gainsbourg. Tomorrow I’ll run through singing it in French and English and then upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog to prepare it for publication. 

            I weighed 90 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Martin during song practice and it continues to go out of tune for every song.

            Around midday I painted with the “crazy in love” pink hue the outside half of the last of four floral reliefs on my future bathroom mirror. On Sunday I’ll start painting the inside halves. 

            I weighed 90.75 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and on the way back stopped at Freshco because yesterday I forgot to buy Sponge Towels. So this time I got a pack of three, plus some shaving gel. 

            I weighed 90.7 kilos at 17:55. 

            I worked on getting caught up on my journal at was still a bit behind at suppertime. 

            I had a potato with gravy and two chicken drumsticks while watching season 9, episode 16 of The Carol Burnett Show. 

            During the audience warmup Carol announces that in March of 1976 she will be doing a special called Sills and Burnett at the Met. She introduces Beverly Sills and her husband Peter Greenough, who are in the audience. 

            Someone asks Carol if she’s ever had electrolysis. Carol says just on her chest.

            Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip are playing rock paper scissors when their daughter rushes in to announce that she’s met the one she wants to marry. Her mother reminds her that she engaged to marry the Earl of Shikawar. Vicki says she doesn’t want to marry him because he’s “a yutz like daddy”. Elizabeth and Philip decide that the best strategy is to give in. She brings in a soldier played by Tim and it’s the same one they encountered before who wouldn’t let them into Buckingham Palace when he was standing guard. Elizabeth tells the princess that this man once swallowed a live hand grenade and as a result he has no internal organs. The princess says she doesn’t care. Elizabeth gives her permission and the princess says they must prepare the palace for the royal wedding. Tim says he doesn’t want to get married in a palace but in the middle of the ocean. She gives in and says they can get a boat from the Royal Navy but Tim says he doesn’t want a boat. He wants them to be swimming when they tie the knot. Around this time the princess realizes he’s looney. Elizabeth asks him that when he’s out in the middle of the ocean doing the back stroke at night what will he see. He says he’ll see stars. Vicki hits him over the head with a vase and knocks him out, then they all leave. 

            Rita Morino does a dance with some of the male dancers while singing the 1968 song “Some Cats Know” by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller. 

            Harvey plays a disgraced officer and Tim plays his commander at a cashiering ceremony. They start laughing from the start and find it hard to keep a straight face throughout the gag. He strips the stripes from Harvey’s right sleeve but can’t seem to get the left ones off. He can’t get his epaulettes but only threads off his shoulders. The medals won’t come off or the buttons on his coat. But during the whole process Tim’s uniform falls apart and his pants fall down until he final drops the charges against Harvey. 

            In a bank, Vicki is a new teller trainee being supervised by Carol. Tim is a novice bank robber being supervised by Harvey. Tim fumbles everything he’s supposed to say or do. Vicki and Carol are laughing because Tim hasn’t given them a note yet. Harvey is mad and tells him to give them the note. Tim is nervous and hands Vicki his gun instead of the note. Harvey takes it back from her. The note reads, “Put $300,000 in this bag, Love, Killer”. Tim forgot to give her the bag. He gives her one but it’s too small for that amount. Carol pulls out the $300,000 bag from behind the counter. Vicki starts to count out the money as she puts it in the bag: “$1, $2, $3…” Carol takes over as the teller and Harvey takes over as the robber, so now it is pro dealing with pro. She puts three $100,000 bundles in the bag, plus the bank calendar, “and a piggy bank for your little friend”. Carol and Harvey are very impressed with each other’s professionalism and are feeling mutual attraction. But she reluctantly says it wouldn’t work because she’s 9:00 to 5:00 and he’s ten to twenty. She says, “You’d better go because I pressed the silent alarm”. Two cops come in. One is a trainee and one is his supervisor. Tim mistakenly hands them his gun and they are arrested. 

            Harvey and Carol are a married couple and Harvey is going away for two days. Carol has been accident prone in the past but feels she is cured. However, just to be sure, Harvey has hired a nurse to watch over Carol for the time Harvey will be gone. Nurse Hawkins (played by Rita) arrives and refers to Carol as a “proney”. Hawkins begins to remove all potentially dangerous items from the apartment and put them in a bag. She picks up a cigarette lighter and says that it’s extremely dangerous, She lights it and burns Carol’s nose. Carol says, “You did it!” but Hawkins says Pronies are always looking for someone to blame. Hawkins takes a knife from the counter and drops it into a bag on the floor but she’s already put the bag on top of Carol’s foot so the knife goes through the bag and stabs Carol’s toe. Hawkins hits Carol in the head when she opens a door. Hawkins sits Carol down in the chair where she left her needlepoint. Carol gives up and admits that she’s accident prone and begins to direct the accidents towards Hawkins just as Hawkins did to Carol. Hawkins gets knocked around, accidentally stabbed, and has her fingers broken until she’s willing to leave. 

            Carol, Vicki and Rita play dishwashers in a fancy restaurant. Their positions are so low that their dreams aren’t much higher. Rita fantasizes about being a secretary while Carol dreams of being a hatcheck girl. They sing “Much More” by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones from the 1960 musical The Fantasticks. They then sing “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This” by Cy Coleman and Dorothy fields from the 1966 musical Sweet Charity. 

            Beverly Sills was considered the queen of US opera. She made her debut at the age of 3 won a Brooklyn Beautiful Baby contest in which she sang “The Wedding of Jack and Jill”. She made her professional debut at the age of 4 on Uncle Bob’s Rainbow House radio show. She began to study singing at the age of 7. At the age of 8 she made her film debut, singing in the short film Uncle Sol Solves It. At 16 she made her stage debut with a Gilbert and Sullivan company touring 12 cities in the US and Canada. She sang on the radio in her teens and made her opera debut in Carmen at the age of 18. She was the first US opera star to rise to the top without European training. Her voice type was characterized as lyric coloratura. She sang with the New York City Opera from 1955 to 1980. She became an international star after playing Cleopatra in Handel’s Julias Caesar in 1966. She appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1971. She was largely associated with the operas of Donizetti. She made her Met debut in 1975 in in The Siege of Corinth and received an 18 minutes standing ovation. She recorded 18 full length operas. She won one Grammy Award. Gian Carlo Menotti’s La Loca was written for her to sing. In the late 1970s she won four Emmy Awards for her interview show Lifestyles with Beverly Sills. In later years she became the first woman to direct the New York City Opera Company. In 1994 she became the first female chairman for the Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts. She was the Chair of the Metropolitan Opera from 2002 to 2005.

June 27, 1996: The court melted when they saw my 8 months pregnant landlady and I knew I was screwed

Thirty years ago today

            Thursday was the day of my court appearance to fight my eviction from my apartment 111 Sheridan Avenue. Raven was kind enough to appear in court with me as a witness to dispute the complaints made by my landlords Helga Schlatter and Peter Bird, with whom I shared the kitchen. Raven and I were there early and so I saw the effect on the court when Helga walked in, eight months pregnant. She and Peter looked like Little House on the Prairie and the whole court melted when they saw her. I noticed the judge and all the other court officials smiling when they saw her and I knew right then that I was screwed. It didn’t matter to the judge that Helga had snuck into my apartment to take photos of my space heater, which I’d left on in the winter because Helga and Peter refused to turn on the furnace. When I was writing I often crumpled up discarded drafts into balls and threw them on the floor. Helga showed pictures she’d taken at floor level to make it look like the balls of paper were very close to the heater. She also presented pictures of some food that I’d let go bad in the fridge. Who the hell doesn’t have something that’s going bad in the fridge? She claimed that I’d damaged a baking pan of hers by playing with it in the yard with my daughter but I had an identical pan to hers and it was my pan that I’d dented, and I still have it. She claimed my daughter was poorly behaved (which is ironic considering that the child she gave birth to grew up to be a murderer). She presented a letter from someone who spent the night with her and Peter confirming that my friends and I were loud. Helga gave a dramatic performance to express how much stress I had caused her and while she was emoting I could see the court stenographer giving me the evil eye. I was shocked when Judge B. Wright wouldn’t even let me present Raven as a witness. He just said, “I’ve heard enough. You are a very bad tenant!” He ruled that I had to vacate the premises by the end of July. I was very upset but was grateful to have had Raven’s support. 

            It probably would have been a different result if I’d been able to get legal aid but 1996 was the worst year for Legal Aid in Ontario history. Ontario Premier Mike Harris had slaughtered the budgets for a lot of social programs but especially Legal Aid.