On Tuesday I posed from 9:00 to 16:00 in room 356 of the Ontario College of Art.
Thursday, 12 November 2026
Wednesday, 11 November 2026
John McLiam
On Tuesday after midnight I added fresh carpet tape to the edges of my mattress where it had gotten less sticky. I lint-rolled the curtains between the bedroom and the living room, the top of my bed and the pillow and picked up a few of bedbugs from the curtains and one or two from the bed. I had to reset the thermostat from 21.5 to 22.5 so the heat would kick on because the temperature in the hall was just staying at 21.5. I went to bed at 1:30, slept until 3:00 when I got up to pee, then slept right through to the 5:00 alarm. After yoga there was one bedbug stuck to the carpet tape on my mattress and a few on the walls and on the baseboards around my bed.
I’m sure it will be different when it gets colder outside but right now with the new thermostat I have to set it at 22.5 to turn the heat on and then back down to 21.5 to turn it off.
I finished memorizing “C’est ici (This is the Place) by Boris Vian. On Wednesday I’ll start revising my translation.
I finished working out the chords for “Yes Man” by Serge Gainsbourg. Tomorrow I’ll run through singing and playing it in French and English and then upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog to begin preparing it for publication.
I weighed 89.4 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since July 15.
I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice and it stayed in tune about half the time.
I removed all the old carpet tape from the edges of my futon and put fresh tape all around. I lint-rolled the curtains between the bedroom and the living room, the top of my bed and my pillow. I picked up a couple of bedbugs from the curtains. I shook out my sheet and comforter on the deck.
I weighed 90.3 kilos before lunch. September 25 was the last early afternoon when I was so kind to the scale.
I took a bike ride downtown and on the way back stopped at Freshco where I found only three bags of grapes firm enough to buy. I also got a pack of Sponge Towels. I did a $4:15 a kilo price match on the grapes. Priscilla borrowed the swipe from Isabella to do the price match and absent mindedly almost handed it to me. I said maybe I should have one of my own since I come here so often. They thought that was funny.
I weighed 90.15 kilos at 18:30. On the evening of July 11 I was a little lighter.
I was caught up in my journal at 20:25.
I went through February, 2023 in year 10 of my journal to harvest bedbug events and add them to my Bedbug Timeline document. The first bedbug sighting in 5 and a half years, marking the beginning of the current infestation was June 8, 2021.
I roasted a sirloin beef tip roast and had a third of it with a potato and gravy while watching episode 11 of Daniel Boone.
A man named Guthrie McCanders is at his solo campsite near his canoe when he is confronted by William Russell, Charles Bane, and John Hawkins. Guthrie knows them and appeals fearfully to the leader Russell. He says he meant to share but then Russell stabs him with the retractable blade in his cane.
Boone is sleeping in his chair at home and dreams of a time during the French and Indian War when he served as a wagon driver for British General Edward Braddock. At the Battle of the Monongahela in Western Pennsylvania the British army is attempting to seize Fort Duquesne (which is now Pittsburgh). The British are being ripped apart and Boone climbs a mountain to get away. At the top he finds a British soldier named McCanders burying something. Guthrie attacks Boone but falls down the mountain.
Boone wakes to a knock on his door and it’s McCanders saying he’s come for him. He wants him to take him back to the mountain because he can’t rest until he gets there. Boone goes with him to his campsite but leaves saying he won’t help him. Guthrie says he’ll meet him there anyway but Boone is still dreaming.
There is another knock and this time Boone is awake. It’s Russell, Bane, and Hawkins also asking him to guide them back to the mountain. Boone finally agrees because all of these coincidences are nagging at him.
Yad and Mingo find McCanders’ body and come to tell Boone only to learn he’s gone. Rebecca tells them about Daniel’s meeting last night with McCanders. Mingo says that’s impossible since McCanders has been dead for at least an entire day. She asks them to go after Daniel and so they do.
Camping with Russell and his men, Boone tells them about meeting McCanders and of course they are surprised. Boone thinks McCanders must also be on his way there and so he goes to look for the light of his campfire.
Russell sends Bane out to look for Boone but he staggers back and drops dead with a knife in his back. Russell and Hawkins are captured by Shawnee but Boone comes to rescue them without a fight. He calmly walks across some coals to prove he’s Daniel Boone so they let them go.
When they reach the mountain, Russell knocks Boone out and ties him to a wagon wheel. Boone is told that McCanders, Russell, Bane, and Hawkins had stolen the 10,000 Pounds of gold sovereigns that was the payroll for Braddock’s army and it’s still buried on the mountain. Boone has been grinding his ropes against a stone and now he escapes.
Russell climbs to the top of the mountain and Boone follows. In their confrontation Russell falls from the cliff and dies. Boone finds there are only ten gold pieces left, and that’s exactly what McCanders offered to pay him.
Russell was played by Canadian actor Leslie Nielsen.
Bane was played by Canadian actor John McLiam, who earned a Master’s Degree from St. Mary’s College in Berkeley, California. His acting debut was in Winterset in San Francisco in 1946. He made his Broadway debut in Barefoot in Athens in 1951. He made his film debut in Decoy in 1957. He co-starred in The Missouri Breaks and The End of August. He played T.J. Hooker’s father. He played Fento in the Star Trek: The Next generation episode “Who Watches the Watchers?”. He wrote the Broadway play The Sin of Pat Muldoon.
November 11, 1996: I spent the day writing
On Monday there was no work so I just worked on my writing.
Tuesday, 10 November 2026
Brock Peters
On Monday after midnight I added fresh carpet tape to the edges of my mattress where it had gotten less sticky. I lint-rolled the curtains between the bedroom and the living room, the top of my bed and the pillow and picked up a few of bedbugs from the curtains and one or two from the bed. I went to bed at 1:35 and slept right through to the 5:00 alarm. After yoga there were quite a few bedbugs stuck to the carpet tape on my mattress and some on the walls and on the baseboards around my bed.
I’ve almost finished memorizing “C’est ici (It’s Right Here) by Boris Vian. I might have it done on Tuesday.
I worked out the chords for the first verse of “Yes Man” by Serge Gainsbourg. I’m pretty sure the rest of the verses have the same chords but I’ll find out tomorrow.
I weighed 90.25 kilos before breakfast.
I played my Martin during song practice for the last of two sessions and it went out of tune all the time.
Yugi came and installed a new thermostat. There’s no off switch. He set it at 21.5 degrees. The temperature in the hall hasn’t gone below that all day but it has in my place.
I weighed 91.1 kilos before lunch.
At 14:00 I had a phone meeting with a student lawyer about the bed bug situation. She said she thinks I have a pretty good case to file a tenant form with the Landlord Tenant Board. She says I could get up to $25,000 but I think that’s only if I lost property because of the bedbugs. I did buy two new mattresses years ago because of bedbugs. If I still have the receipts I could maybe get reimbursed but I don’t know if I do. The main thing for me is that the Board forces the landlord to treat the place until the bedbugs are gone. She was going to email me the form by the end of today but didn’t.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back.
I weighed 91.05 kilos at 18:15.
I was caught up in my journal at 19:37.
I digitized a cassette recording of my first CIUT interview. This was promoting the launch of Orgasmagazine. I didn’t get to perform but the beautiful Kelly Lynn Grace interviewed me a bit and said that she’s heard me perform and it left her breathless. The next cassette I digitize will be one of me rehearsing my song “Seven Shades of Blues” with Yehudah Culman on cello.
I had a potato with gravy and my last chicken leg while watching episode 10 of Daniel Boone.
The show opens with a deep voiced man named Pompey singing the spiritual “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?” Then we see that the man singing is chained with leg irons and linked to several other men. His singing has put the guard to sleep and at the same time it is somewhat masking the sound of the filing that he’s doing on his leg irons. He cuts through the chain but has to pretend he’s still chained as Calhoun the boss angrily wakes up the guard. Calhoun then goes to every man to check that his chains are secure. But when he gets to Pompey he is knocked down as the man runs for freedom.
Daniel and Yad are in Salem buying supplies for Boonesborough when Calhoun approaches them with a plea to help him recapture Pompey. Boone says he’s not interested but later discovers that some of the contents of a box of tools he bought is missing.
Boone and Yad follow the tracks of a man dragging a chain and catch up with him outside of town. They find him flutily trying to get the chain off. Boone tells Pompey they just want their tools back but will use them to get his chains off first and then he can go free. They remove Pompey’s chains but then Calhoun shows up pointing a rifle. Pompey says he can shoot him but he’s not going back. Calhoun is getting ready to wound Pompey when Boone kicks the gun away. Calhoun tells Boone he’s now committed a crime to help a slave escape.
Then Calhoun mentions his master and we learn that he is an indentured servant to Pompey’s master for three years. His time is almost up and then he can send for his wife in Ireland but if Pompey gets away Calhoun will have to continue being indentured to work off the 500 crowns the master paid for him and that would take years.
Suddenly they are attacked by Shawnee who want to steal their horses. Calhoon takes an arrow in the leg. Yad takes the horses away while Boone stands off against the Shawnee, but Pompey grabs his length of broken chain and swings into action, taking out several Shawnee until all that is left is the chief Tabuka. They stand off for several minutes until Tabuka smiles and walks away calling Pompey “Waka Boka”.
Pompey and Calhoun go with Boone back to Boonesborough. Calhoun reminds Boone that the Carolina Militia will come to arrest him for helping Pompey. Boone tells Pompey to take a rifle and leave but he refuses. He says he can’t let the man who removed his chains hang so he will go back with Calhoun in two weeks when he recovers from his wound.
During those two weeks Pompey comes to work for Boone and becomes close to him and his family.
When the time is up Calhoun has had two weeks to weigh it all in his conscience. He decides to let Pompey go but demands satisfaction from Boone for the trouble he has caused him. They fight and it’s pretty equal until Calhoun holds Boone in a bear hug and whispers for him to let him win. So Calhoun punches Boone one more time and he pretends to be knocked out.
The Shawnee are approaching the fort and everyone runs to battle stations. But Tabuka approaches alone and says they will give back the horses they stole but they invite Waka Boka to have a home with them and become a member of their nation because he is a great warrior. Pompey likes the name and the opportunity and so he goes with the Shawnee.
Calhoun is given enough furs to pay his master for his lost slave and perhaps even to buy his own freedom.
This story is a bit of a fantasy considering that the real Daniel Boone was a slave owner could very well have been on the other side of this dispute.
Pompey (Waka Baka) was played by Brock Peters in his TV debut. He attended the Music and Arts High School in New York. He made his film debut in Carmen Jones in 1954. He made his Broadway debut in Mr. Johnson in 1962. He was nominated for a Tony Award in 1973 for his performance in Lost In the Stars and reprised his role in the film adaptation. He co-starred in To Kill a Mockingbird, The Pawnbroker, The L-Shaped Room, Major Dundee, The McMasters, Black Girl, Slaughter’s Big Rip Off, Framed, Alligator II, He played Admiral Cartwright in Star Trek IV and Star Trek VI. He played Sisko’s father on Star Trek Deep Space Nine. He played Darth Vader in the radio adaptation of Star Wars. He sang backup vocals on harry Belafonte’s recording of “Banana Boat”. he had his own production company in Delbro Enterprises.
November 10, 1996: I took my daughter to her mother at the mall
Thirty years ago today
My daughter and I played on the back roof. In the evening we went to Eaton Centre to meet her mother. Then she went back to her place.
Monday, 9 November 2026
Don Megowan
I worked the chords to the first two lines of “Yes Man” by Serge Gainsbourg.
I weighed 90.5 kilos before breakfast.
I played my Martin during song practice for the first of two sessions and it went out of tune all the time.
I weighed 90.6 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 18:20.
I was caught up in my journal at 19:28.
I digitized a cassette recording of my interview on CIUT promoting the launch of my chapbook Vomit of the Star Eater. The next cassette is another radio interview, this one promoting my 20,000 Poets Under the League poetry slam.
I digitally enhanced a bit more of the old photo I’ve been working on.
I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with marinara, tomato pesto, potato wedges, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore lager while watching episode 9 of Daniel Boone.
Yad is in Salem when he stops to get a drink at a tavern where an indentured servant auction is going on. The Irish sisters Kathleen and Molly O’Hannrahan are placed on the block. Their three year contract states that they have to be sold together. The auctioneer tells Yad he’ll pay him ten pounds to bid for the sisters until the price goes up to 100. Boone arrives and asks Yad what he’s doing and when he tells him, Boone shouts out in surprise, “100 pounds?” and ends up purchasing the two women. He takes the matter to a magistrate but is told that he has to honour the transaction and so he and Yad bring the sisters back to Boonesborough.
His wife Rebecca is not happy about her husband buying two attractive women that are going to be living with them for three years. But when she hears their sad tale her heart melts and now Daniel has to sleep on the floor. He can’t sleep but she tells him he should be used to it since he sleeps on the ground all the time. He says he chooses soft ground and then leaves the house to look for some.
But he can’t sleep and so he goes to Yad’s cabin to tell him he should marry Kathleen and take care of Molly. But Yad rejects that idea so they both go and talk to various bachelors and convince several that they need a wife.
Hermann the blacksmith shows up at Boone’s cabin with some gifts he made and he’s clearly interested in Kathleen.
While Boone and Yad are still out promoting Kathleen, several of the hopeful grooms show up at Boone’s cabin. Rebecca tells them to run along and Hermann attacks them. There is a big fight amongst all the men. Boone and Yad show up and they get knocked down as well. The only one left standing is Hermann.
After supper Hermann comes calling with a bouquet for Kathleen but when they look for her they find a note telling them that Kathleen and Molly have decided to go back to Ireland and left on their own. Boone, Yad, and Hermann go looking for them.
Meanwhile the sisters are captured by Shawnee. The men find the sisters’ bags and Shawnee footprints. They catch up with them and it’s mostly Herman who takes them all out with just his fists. Then he tells Kathleen she’s going to marry him and he’s going to be the boss. They are arguing at the end and it looks like it will be that kind of marriage.
Hermann was played by Don Megowan, who won a heavy weight boxing title in the army during WWII. He made his film debut in The Mob in 1953. He starred in The Creation of the Humanoids, Snowfire, and Guns of the Black Witch. He co-starred in Hell Canyon Outlaws, The Werewolf, A Lust to Kill, The Creature Walks Among Us, and Tarzan and the Valley of Gold. He co-starred in the TV series The Beachcomber. He managed apartment buildings in North Hollywood and owned Megowan’s Clubhouse, specializing in burgers and lasagna.
November 9, 1996: My 5 year old daughter spent the weekend with me as usual
Thirty years ago today
On Saturday my 5 year old daughter came to spend the weekend with me as usual. We played video games.
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