October 6, 1996: My daughter and I played video games and real games

                                       

Thirty years ago today

            On Sunday my daughter and I played games on my new computer and we also played out on the back roof of my place. Her mother picked her up in the evening.

Wayne Maunder

            On Friday after midnight I added fresh carpet tape to the edges of my mattress. I lint rolled the curtains between the bedroom and caught a few bedbugs. I lint rolled my bed and pillow and found none. I couldn’t shake out the sheet and comforter on the deck because it was raining. I went to bed around 1:40. It felt like it took an hour to go to sleep. I woke up at 4:00 to pee and then went back to sleep until 5:00. I got up without grabbing my phone as I would normally do. After washing up, before yoga I started yoga later because I went to get my phone. After starting yoga I was lying on the floor and realized I’d forgotten to turn on Radio Canada so I got up to do that. I fell behind a couple of minutes because of those slips of memory. 

            I finished memorizing “Elle voulait toucher du pognon” (She Wanted A Little Money) by Boris Vian. On Saturday I’ll start revising my translation based on understanding the rhythm and the meaning better after memorizing it. 

            I published “The Lucky Tap Dance”, my translation of “La fille aux claquettes” by Serge Gainsbourg on my Christian’s Translations blog and posted the lyrics on Facebook. The next untranslated song on my Gainsbourg list is “L’île enchanteresses” (The Enchanted Isle). I listened to it once and tomorrow I’ll start learning it. 

            I weighed 91.25 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice for the first of two sessions and it stayed in tune most of the time. 

            I cleared some more stuff out of the storage area in the bedroom. I threw out some items but most of it is now crowding the kitchen. 

            I weighed 91.85 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I weighed 91.6 kilos at 18:10. 

            I was still three days behind in my journal and worked on catching up. 

            I baked a salmon fillet and had half of it with wedge oven fries and gravy while watching episode 3 of the TV series Custer. 

            Custer’s 7th Cavalry comes to escort a trail drive and stops it from being raided by Sioux warriors. The trail boss, Kermit Teller says they’ve been attacked more than once since they left Texas and wonders why the escort wasn’t there sooner. Custer argues that Teller is a week ahead of schedule. He has 1200 steers and 200 horses to deliver to the US Cavalry. 

            Teller arrives with the herd at Fort Hays and says the Cavalry owes him $18 a head plus $20 for each horse. General Terry reminds him his contract states that the cattle must be delivered to Fort Wallace. Teller says he’s lost too many drovers to make that trip. Terry says Custer and his men will help with the drive and take orders from Teller. 

            Custer learns that Teller had been in the infantry in Michigan during the Civil War and has a grudge against Custer and the cavalry because they weren’t there when they needed them. 

            That night some of the cattle get spooked and stampede because the horse soldiers are wearing their swords and such which make clanking noises as they ride. Teller says that’s got to stop. 

            Custer and Teller get into a gratuitous fight. Custer beats him and then Crazy Horse’s warriors attack. Teller is wounded and so Custer takes over the role of trail boss. 

            Three Sioux not associated with Crazy Horse come begging for food, so Custer gives them a steer. When Teller complains Custer tosses him a $20 gold coin and says he owes him change. But when the Sioux men are preparing to slaughter the steer, Crazy Horse stops them and refuses to allow them to beg from the white man. 

            California Joe catches one of the drovers trying to escape the cattle drive and brings him back. Custer says the next man who tries to desert the cattle drive will be shot. 

            Custer tells Sergeant Bustard that if Teller tries to resume control of the drive, tie him to the supply wagon.

            Custer plans on taking the herd through Rocky Gorge but Joe sees 300 Kiowa and Sioux at the gorge cutting that route off. Custer says they’re going through anyway. He tells the men that when they get to the top of the gorge every man should fall back to the rear of the herd. They do so and as the Kiowa and Sioux start charging towards them, Custer has his men stampede the herd through the gorge. The warriors are overwhelmed and the herd gets through. 

            Custer returns control of the drive back to Teller the rest of the way to Fort Wallace where Custer and teller have the fight they’ve been itching to have. Custer wins and then they just continue dissing each other in a friendly way as they go for a drink. 

            Custer was played by Canadian actor Wayne Maunder, who was born in Four Falls, New Brunswick, about half an hour’s drive north of where I was raised. It’s very close to New Denmark where my father was brought up. But Maunder’s family moved to Bangor, Maine when he was 4 years old. I wonder if he was related to the Maunder family that were members of the rock band called The Common People that played at most of our high school dances. While studying Psychiatry in college in California he became interested in amateur theatre and switched to English and Drama. After college he decided to try it professionally in New York. He took lessons from Stella Adler and acted in stock theatre. He got signed to a studio in LA when a theatrical agent saw him in The Knack. He made his TV debut in a guest appearance on The Monroes in 1967. He then starred in Custer in 1968 but the show only lasted for 17 episodes. That was partly because indigenous groups protested their negative portrayal in the series, but mostly because it was defeated by being in the same time slot as both The Virginian and Lost in Space. He co-starred in the more successful western series Lancer. He co-starred in the short-lived police series The Chase. He starred in the movie The Seven Minutes. In his later career he produced independent films. In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Luke Perry played a character who was based on Maunder.

October 5, 1996: My daughter got kicked out of Montessori for kicking the teachers

Thirty years ago today

            On Saturday my daughter began another weekend with me. I don’t know if I picked her up from Scarborough or if Nancy dropped her off. She’d started pre-school and was having trouble adjusting. On my suggestion Nancy had enrolled her in Montessori but she got kicked out for kicking the teachers all the time.

Michael Dante

            On Thursday after midnight I lint rolled the curtains between the bedroom and the living room and only one bedbug turned up. I also lint rolled the top of my bed and my pillow but there were no bedbugs. I couldn’t shake out the sheet and the comforter on the deck because it was raining. I went to bed a little after 1:30 and slept until 5:00. After yoga I found a couple of bedbugs trapped by the carpet tape on the floor. 

            I memorized the sixth verse of “Elle voulait toucher du pognon” (She Wanted A Little Money) by Boris Vian. There are two verses left to learn and the final verse is just two lines repeated. 

            I uploaded “La fille aux claquettes” by Serge Gainsbourg and my translation “The Lucky Tap Dance” to my Christian’s Translations blog and started to prepare them for publication. I should have it posted tomorrow. 

            I played my Martin during song practice for the last of two sessions and it went out of tune all the time. 

            I weighed 92.55 kilos before lunch. In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and stopped at Freshco on the way back. I bought red grapes, two packs of raspberries, bananas, a container of Yoplait skyr (I’d never seen Yoplait skyr before so I thought I’d check it out, but it was as thin as regular yogourt), two packs of Full City Dark coffee, a jar of marinara, a jar of mild salsa, a lint roller, and two packs of Irish Spring soap (They had a “deal” of one pack of six for $11 but two packs of 3 were $10).

            I weighed 91.6 kilos at 18:40. 

            I was now three days behind in my journal and worked on catching up. 

            I had wedge fries with gravy and the rest of the whole chicken, mostly the wings and spine, while watching episode 2 of the TV series Custer. 

            Custer orders Lieutenant Rudford on a scouting mission with a few men and specifically tells him not to take offensive action if he encounters hostile Sioux. But he does take offensive action, killing several warriors who were just trying to get away. One gets away though and rides back to report to Crazy Horse. Custer tells Rudford he slaughtered a Sioux hunting party but he doesn’t see the problem since it’s a war. Custer says it is not an official war and their orders are only to control and contain the Sioux with less than 1000 troops to cover 800,000 square kilometers of territory. They can’t afford to provoke more trouble than they already have. Rudford reminds Custer that four dead miners were found but Custer says those miners were killed by Cheyenne and no Sioux. Rudford thinks they are all the same and they should all be wiped out. Custer says this is not a mission of extermination. 

            They are attacked by Sioux warriors and take shelter. Custer tells Rudford to take Sergeant Mason and his detachment south by Thunder Ridge. Custer says he’s going to draw their fire by heading north through the canyon. He orders Rudford to rendezvous with him at Broken Pine Summit in three hours. He warns him to not attempt to fight under any circumstances. Custer and his men get to the Summit but Rudford has not arrived. Custer sees through his binoculars Rudford’s men dead off route from the way he ordered him to go. Custer’s patrol is attacked again and they head back to the fort. General Terry says on hearing there were casualties that any expedition into the Black Hills is a slap in the face to the Sioux. Custer says he only counted four bodies from Rudford’s unit and requests to take a patrol to look for possibly two survivors. Terry says no. He tells Custer that Rudford’s father the powerful newspaperman has been condemning him in print. Now Rudford senior is there at the fort. He came with orders from Washington releasing his son from military service. Custer tells Rudford his son is presumed dead and he immediately accuses Custer of killing him with his inept command. Rudford says Custer murdered his brother during the Civil War. Custer says his brother died in the same battle he was in the thick of. 

            Meanwhile Crazy Horse says two of the soldiers got away and one is an officer, so they will hunt them. Custer disobeys orders and takes a patrol to search for the missing men. Rudford hears of this and insists on coming along. 

            Then we see that Lieutenant Rudford and Sergeant Mason are the two survivors and they are in the middle of Sioux territory. Rudford plans to sneak up on a Sioux camp, steal some horses and get away. Mason has more experience and tells him it won’t work but Rudford insists. They attack two Sioux and kill them but the horses run away and Rudford is wounded. 

            Mason helps Rudford to a cave on the hillside. Rudford has a fever and Mason cares for him. He also reminds him that he disobeyed Custer’s orders and attacked what he thought were only three Sioux but turned out to be a 50 strong war party of Crazy Horse’s men. Mason tells Rudford he hates his guts but he’s there because his uniform is bigger than he is. 

            Custer makes camp at the foot of the hills. Rudford senior tries to bribe some of the men with $1000 each if they’ll go with him into the hills that night but there are no takers. 

            Mason tries to get Rudford out of there under the cover of night. They stop at a watering hole where Mason is killed by two Sioux. 

            The next day Custer plants dynamite on top of a hill. 

            They find Lieutenant Rudford tied up in the middle of a clearing. It’s a trap and they lose some men but manage to rescue Rudford. They ride away with the Sioux in pursuit and Custer sets off the dynamite fuse so that when it explodes an avalanche comes down between Custer and the Sioux. They make it back to the fort and father and son Rudford are reunited. 

            Rudford senior expects Lieutenant Rudford to blame Custer but he says it was his own fault. His father wants him to quit the army but he says he’s going to stay and try to live an honourable life. 

            Crazy Horse was played by Michael Dante, who out of high school began as a professional baseball player when he signed a $6000 bonus contract with the Boston Braves. During spring training he took drama classes at The University of Miami. He made his film debut in Somebody Up There Likes Me in 1956. He starred in Westbound and Winterhawk. He co-starred in The Naked Kiss, Apache Rifles, Missile X, Beyond Evil, Return From the River Kwai, Seven Thieves, Cage, The Big Score, and Arizona Raiders. He played Maab in the original Star Trek episode Friday’s Child. He hosted the Michael Dante Classic Celebrity Radio Talk Show for 12 years (later called On Deck). He wrote From Hollywood to Michael Dante Way, Winterhawk’s Land, Six Rode Home, and My Classic Radio Interviews with the Stars.

October 4, 1996: I posed at OCA and then performed at the Cameron

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday I posed from 9:00 to 16:00 in room 352 at the Ontario College of Art. In the evening I performed on the Spit Fridays open stage in the back room of the Cameron.

Owen Painter

            On Wednesday after midnight I added some more 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 and picked up a few babies. I lint rolled the top of my bed and my pillow, then I shook out my sheet and comforter on the deck. I went to bed at around 2:00 and slept fairly well. I got up at 3:00 to pee and went back to sleep until 5:00. After yoga I only found a couple of bedbugs stuck to the floor tape at the head of my bed. 

            I memorized the fifth verse of “Elle voulait toucher du pognon” (She Wanted A Little Money) by Boris Vian. There are three verses left to learn. 

             I ran through singing and playing “La fille aux claquettes” by Serge Gainsbourg and then my translation “The Lucky Tap Dance”. Tomorrow I’ll upload them to my Christian’s Translations blog to prepare them for publication. 

            I weighed 92 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since August 20. 

            I removed some of my guitar cases and some other items from the upper storage shelf in my bedroom. I didn’t find any bedbugs nesting in those things. 

            I weighed 93.25 kilos before lunch. That’s a record high for the early afternoon since I’ve been recording my weight. I haven’t had a bowel movement for several days so maybe that’s why I’m so heavy. 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. While riding, since this was the Day of Reconciliation I counted the number of orange shirts. There were about a hundred on my trip to Yonge and Bloor and 55 on the way home. On Bloor there was a stand selling them. Most of the people wearing them were school kids. The 155 I counted were just during my bike trip. I saw more all day long outside my window. 

            I weighed 91.75 kilos at 18:10. 

            I was still four days behind in my journal and worked on catching up. 

            I made pizza on a slice of 7 grain sandwich bread with marinara, tomato pesto, a chopped slice of ham and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore while watching season 2, episode 7 of Wednesday on Discord with my daughter Astrid. 

            The story opens with a flashback to 15 years ago. The current Principal Dort was then starting an organization called Morning Song for Outcasts and he recruits Outcast and actor Arnold Hunt to be the face of the organization. On the surface, Morning Song is there to give a sense of belonging to Outcasts but its real purpose is to take criminal advantage of people with special abilities. 

            In the present day Principal Dort finds Bianca hiding her mother in the tunnels under Nevermore. He reveals that he is Morning Song and forces them to work for him. Agnes continues to devotedly serve Wednesday and now she is even wearing Wednesday’s clothes and a black braided wig. She gives Wednesday the student file on the zombie genius Isaac Night. Wednesday learns that Isaac and her father were roommates at Nevermore and confronts him about it. He says he and Isaac were best friends. Wednesday informs her parents that Isaac has now teamed up with his sister Francoise and her son Tyler. 

            Wednesday reveals that her premonition has changed and that now an Addams is destined to die. She tells her mother she would like to sacrifice her brother Pugsley. 

            Professor Capri warns Enid that she has to keep herself locked up during the full moon because if she transforms into an Alpha Werewolf at that time while still young she could become trapped in that form for the rest of her life. 

            Because Isaac has yet to cure his sister, Francoise is still dying and coughing blood. She needs medicine and so Isaac, Francoise, and Tyler go to steal some from the animal hospital. 

            With the help of Eugene, Wednesday uses moths that nested in Isaac’s body to track him as they return to their host. 

            Dort has been seeking a donation from Wednesday’s Grandmama Hester. She meets with Dort in his office with the intention of crushing his hopes. But Dort has arranged for Bianca to Siren Hester and compel her to donate her entire fortune to Nevermore. 

            At the animal hospital Tyler tricks the vet into letting him come in to use his phone. Isaac feasts on the vet’s brains. Francoise starts to get worse and so Isaac gives her a transfusion of Tyler’s Hyde blood. 

            When Wednesday learns Grandmama is donating her fortune to Nevermore she is suspicious. Bianca is practicing her fencing when Wednesday challenges her to a duel. While they fight Wednesday says she knows Bianca sirened her Grandmama. Wednesday defeats Bianca who admits she was forced by Dort to manipulate Hester. But then Bianca sirens Wednesday and tells her to forget everything, then she leaves. But Wednesday anticipated this and arranged for Agnes to invisibly watch and record the encounter. Agnes tells Wednesday everything Bianca made her forget. 

            Once Hester has transferred her fortune to the Nevermore account, Dort plans on taking the money and escaping to Venezuela. 

            Enid has broken up with Bruno. Agnes has been rejected by Wednesday. Enid tells Agnes to stop imitating Wednesday and find her own psycho. Enid had been scheduled to perform a dance at the gala with Bruno. Agnes has been spying on the routine and offers to dance with Enid. Wednesday arrives and Agnes tells her she’s no longer her mindless servant. Wednesday is glad to hear it and so now they can all just work together. Wednesday details her plan. 

            Enid and Agnes do their dance, during which Agnes sometimes makes herself invisible. During one of those times Agnes sneaks up on Dort and removes his anti-Siren amulet from his vest. Bianca, Hester and Dort take the stage. She sirens him into confessing all of his schemes to the crowd and Hester learns that she has been manipulated. Dort grabs Bianca and threatens to burn her with his pyro powers as he tries to escape. Ajax uses his Medusa power to turn Dort to stone. The effect would have been temporary but the chandelier falls on Dort and breaks him into pieces. 

            Pugsley is alone in the graveyard feeling sorry for himself when he is confronted by Isaac. Glad to see his pet zombie he is not prepared when Isaac uses chloroform to take him captive. 

            Isaac is played by Owen Painter, who earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Screen Acting from Chapman University. He made his film debut in the short movie Soup in 2021. He co-starred in Tiny Beautiful Things.

Mary Ann Mobley

            On Tuesday after midnight I added some fresh carpet tape to the edges of my mattress where it had become less sticky. I lint rolled the curtain between the bedroom and the bathroom and picked up a couple of bedbugs. I lint rolled the top of my bed and grabbed one. I lint rolled my pillow and it was clean. I shook out my sheet and my comforter on the deck. I went to bed at around 1:35 and had a pretty good sleep until the alarm went off at 5:00. After yoga I found a few bedbugs stuck to the tape on my bed and one trying to crawl away from the tape on the floor at the head of my bed. 

            I memorized the fourth verse of “Elle voulait toucher du pognon” (She Wanted a Little Money) by Boris Vian. That’s half the song. 

            I finished working out the chords for “La fille aux claquettes” (The Tap Dancing Girl) by Serge Gainsbourg. The end of each line of every chorus seems to have a different instrumental bit but I didn’t bother to work those out. They’re just accompaniment for a tap dance and so it could be any combination of chords that sound good together. Tomorrow I’ll run through singing and playing the song in French and English and then upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog to prepare it for publication. 

            I weighed 91.7 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since September 14. 

            I played my Kramer during song practice and it stayed in tune most of the time. 

            I removed a few more strips of wood from the north side of my bedroom storage shelf. 

            I weighed 93.05 kilos before lunch. That seems off considering how little I had for breakfast. It’s the same as the early afternoon of September 6. 

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

            I weighed 92.4 kilos at 18:30. September 11 was the last evening when I was that mean to the scale. 

            I was now four days behind in my journal and worked on catching up. 

            I had wedge oven fries with gravy and a chicken breast while watching the first episode of the 1967 TV series Custer. 

            In 1868, after the Civil War and after having been demoted from general to lieutenant colonel for one year because of dereliction of duty, George Custer arrives at Fort Hays, Kansas, for his new command. He finds the fort gate open and the guard sleeping. In the stable the men are shooting dice. Custer steps on the money and confronts the winner, Private James Bustard, who recognizes him. Bustard is a former Confederate soldier as many of the new recruits are. They fight and Custer wins, then from that time on they’re buddies. Custer immediately promotes him to sergeant. 

            In the intro to the show it says that Custer was the youngest general in the Civil War at the age of 24. He was then reduced in rank and sent west. 

            Custer’s commanding officer, General Terry is away from the fort so Custer and Bustard ride to meet him. But from a high position Custer spots some Kiowa waiting in ambush for Terry’s detail. He and Bustard charge through the Kiowa camp drawing fire and causing the Kiowa to mount up and chase them as they head for Terry. Then Terry’s men drive the Kiowa back. 

            Later a rifle salesman named Tyman arrives at the Kiowa camp and the Sioux warrior Crazy Horse is there. Tyman offers them rifles in exchange for $100 in gold for each rifle (that would be $2,359 per rifle today). That seems like a lot. 

            Back at the fort we meet the general’s daughter Ann who is rebellious. 

            Custer reports to Terry who tells him he doesn’t like him but he needs all the men he can get. Terry shows him around the fort and says some of the men are the scum of the earth. No enlisted man in uniform can be arrested or tried for any civil offense. That makes the army a hideout for thieves, renegades, murderers. immigrants, former Confederate soldiers, and mercenaries. 

            Custer starts to train the men to be cavalry soldiers. 

            The 5th Cavalry returns from patrol accompanied by the fort’s scout California Joe who knows Custer and is surprised and glad to see him. Ann is with them and she invites Custer to dinner. At dinner the officers discuss the situation. Once the news spreads back east that there is gold in the Black Hills there will be a rush of fortune hunters. After the prospectors will come the whisky traders and then the land speculators. Custer adds, “and a major attack by the tribes!” He argues that’s why the 7th Calvary needs to be trained to fight. Terry says the 7th already has its assignment: training and work details. Custer leaves in anger. Ann goes after him and asks why he likes to fight. He says Napoleon always rode to the sound of the guns. 

            Crazy Horse and his warriors attack a mining camp and steal the gold. The 7th is clearing land when they hear the gunfire. Custer orders them to arm themselves and head in that direction where they find the dead miners. Custer tells Terry they need to attack the Kiowa now. Terry reminds him that the 7th’s job is to prepare the fort for winter. 

            The Kiowa and Crazy Horse buy the rifles from Tyman. Then they ambush the 5th calvary on patrol. Terry is wounded. He orders California to find Custer and tell him to defend the fort and not to relieve the 5th until he does so. Custer only sends two men to warn Fort Hays and then takes the rest of the men to rescue the 5th. The Kiowa have shotguns and Custer has the range marked at 40 meters. Custer brings his men just up to the markers and then they wait until the Kiowa fire before he orders them to attack while they are trying to reload. The Kiowa retreat. Tyman tries to shoot Custer but he kills him by throwing a Kiowa spear. 

            Later Terry gives Custer hell for disobeying his orders. Custer says he was carrying out those orders but the general hadn’t specified the route he should take on his way back to the fort. 

            Ann was played by Mary Ann Mobley, who was Miss Mississippi in 1958 and won the Miss America pageant in 1959. This led to many guest appearances on popular TV series of that era. She made her TV debut on Be Our Guest in 1960. She made her film debut with a starring role in Get Yourself a College Girl. She co-starred in Harum Scarum (which earned her a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer), Girl Happy, For Singles Only, Young Dillinger, She was the first female guest star on Mission Impossible. She appeared 50 times as a panelist on Match Game. She co-starred in the final season of Diff’rent Strokes, guest hosted Hour Magazine 11 times, She was an active participant in The March of Dimes for 25 years.