On Monday after midnight I put fresh carpet tape on 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 bedbugs from the curtains. I shook my sheet and comforter out on the deck. I turned the heat on before going to bed at 1:30. I got up to pee at 4:30, turned the heat off and went back to sleep until 5:00. After yoga I found a bedbug stuck to the tape on my mattress but a lot more were crawling around the baseboards.
I published “The Enchanted Island”, my translation of “L’île enchanteresses” by Serge Gainsbourg on my Christian’s Translations blog and posted the lyrics on Facebook. I searched for the next not fully translated Gainsbourg song on my list and found “Yes Man” in the Gainsbourg 1977 document. A quick search didn’t find audio for the song. It was sung by Zizi Jeanmaire in one of her cabaret shows and maybe there’s a full recording of the show from which I can extract that song. I’ll do a deeper search tomorrow.
I weighed 90.65 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since last Monday, though not as heavy.
I played my Kramer during song practice and it stayed in tune almost the whole time.
I called up Bylaw Officer Jamal Logan to find out if the landlord responded to his order to treat my place for bedbugs. He said the landlord sent him a report that Orkin came to my building on a certain date and inspected some of the units but I didn’t open my door. He says they came from 10:57 to 11:11 so they were here for 14 minutes. I would have been home any day at that time and would have heard a normal knock. They certainly couldn’t have had the time to even inspect one place in that time. My upstairs neighbour David says they never came to his place.
I weighed 91.25 kilos before lunch.
In the afternoon I got ready to go out and vote. I went through the list online of the mayoral candidates. There was one guy who wants to make Toronto into a province, which could not legally happen unless Ontario agreed. I decided I’d vote for Amy Rosen who wants to take the electric bikes off the bike lanes. I rode up to 20 West Lodge and voted. There was still time for a bike ride to Ossington and Bloor so I did that.
There’s been a wobble in my back tire for a while so I stopped at Metro Cycle and was told the tire is worn out and that’s what’s been causing the wobble. I left it with them and ordered the more expensive and supposedly longer lasting tire, which will cost me $119. It’s ready to pick up but I’ll get it tomorrow.
I weighed 91.45 kilos at 18:00. That’s the meanest I’ve been to the scale in a week, but not as mean.
I was caught up in my journal at 20:39.
I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast beef while watching season 4, episode 8 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Pike, Una, Uhura, Chapel, and A’Sha beam down to a moon to investigate a distress call. The signal is coming from a cave that blocks communication with the Enterprise.
Lieutenant James Kirk is on his way back to the USS Farragut and stops on the Enterprise for a medical check-up after having been stabbed by La’an on the Griffin, the inexplicably haunted ship that caused everyone to go psycho. While he is there the famous Admiral Reeger arrives. He is the hero of the battle of Zeta Reticuli when he was captain of the USS Constitution and defeated 4 Klingon warships. James Kirk’s father George Kirk was the First Officer on The Constitution.
Reeger commandeers the Enterprise to use it to track down a cloaked ship that has attacked a Federation colony and killed 5 million people. They have detected the cloaked ship and it is moving away so there is no time for Captain Pike and his away team to return so they leave behind a communications probe to explain and then leave orbit in pursuit. Even though he is only visiting briefly, Kirk happens to be the highest ranking officer on the ship, so Reeger makes him his First Officer for this mission. The Enterprise follows the cloaked ship to Argus II and sees the raider ship enter the atmosphere, which has dispersed its trail, so it could be anywhere on its surface.
Meanwhile, Pike’s team finds enough weapons to equip a small army and realizes that the distress signal was a trap by Andorian pirates to lure Starfleet officers and force them to adjust their communications equipment in order to take over the Enterprise. Pike offers to pay the pirates double what their buyers are offering rather than give them the codes. Their leader stabs A’Sha with an icicle shaped crystal formation from the planet. The crystals are highly toxic and A’Sha will die without medical treatment but the pirate leader won’t allow Chapel to have her med kit to help her until he gets the Starfleet codes.
Reeger tells James Kirk that combat was not his father, George Kirk’s strength. That’s why he never got his own ship. James finds that hard to believe. Reeger tells James that based on his service record he is not afraid of battle and not his father’s son.
James talks with his brother Sam about their father. Sam doesn’t care about whether or not their father was a hero. He’s just bitter about the fact that he was absent. He tells James he should talk to M’Benga, who was the doctor on The Constitution.
On the bridge, Reeger concludes that Argus II is the cloaked ship’s home base. Kirk says it is not established that Argus II is their home base. Reeger says they travelled directly there and met with no resistance. Kirk suggests that they were not resisted because they are invisible. Reeger says it’s highly probable that the ship was made visible by atmospheric friction. Reeger says they must make certain the cloaked ship never leaves the planet and so they have to kill all 5,000 inhabitants on the planet. Reeger argues there may be many shielded enemy ships and combatants and killing 5,000 lives is worth it to save a thousand times that many (I’m getting the impression that this story is a veiled commentary on the situation in Gaza and Israel’s justifications for killing innocent Palestinian civilians). Kirk says there must be a middle ground. Reeger says war has taught him that the middle ground is where most people die. He dismisses Kirk for arguing with him.
Kirk does some research and then goes to talk with M’Benga. He asks if he knew that Reeger had a wife and two daughters. M’Benga says Reeger’s family was killed by the cloaked ship he is pursuing and that some say Reeger was made an admiral because he was too dangerous to command a ship.
Back on the bridge Reeger orders La’an to go to engineering to oversee the phaser upgrades before they attack the planet. Kirk suggests that La’an might be needed if the ship appears and he volunteers to go. Kirk asks Scotty if phasers can be controlled from alternative locations. Scotty says they can be controlled from engineering and from the phaser power junction, but the latter would be highly radioactive. Scotty asks if Reeger is bluffing or if he really is planning to wipe out an entire planet. But Kirk is gone before he can get an answer.
In the cave, A’Sha’s tissue is undergoing crystallizing necrosis and Chapel needs a cellular regenerator to have any hope of reversing it. Uhura tells the pirate leader that she can configure his equipment to mimic Starfleet frequencies. Pike says, “Ensign, what are you doing? You are to do nothing to help these mercenaries and that’s an order!” “I’m sorry captain, but here my orders don’t matter. A’Sha is my responsibility and I won’t let her die!”
Back on the Enterprise bridge, Reeger tells Kirk to step back from the comm. he has caught Kirk trying to send a comms packet to Starfleet that says, “Need immediate authority to relieve Admiral Reeger of command. The fates of many innocent lives are at stake.” Kirk accuses Reeger of being on a personal vendetta against the cloaked ship. Reeger promotes Spock to First Officer and tells La’an to arrest Kirk. In the corridor Kirk takes La’an’s phaser from her and stuns her.
As Uhura works, the pirate leader says, “At their core the one simple truth that drives humans is their fear of death. You fear it so much you’ll betray your beliefs and your sacred promises”.
James goes to Sam and tell him he’s disabled the ship’s internal surveillance. He needs to get to engineering to disable the phasers. Sam says he’s accessed the declassified comms their father sent home during the war. The log ID for the last communication reads, “Acting captain of the Constitution”. The date shows it was sent right after the Battle of Zeta Reticuli.
La’an recovers and gets a lock on Jim’s biosignature. But it leads her to Sam, who has a black eye and appears stunned. Jim tweaked the bio sensors to send them after his brother.
Kirk goes to sickbay to see M’Benga and tells him he has searched the medical logs from the Constitution during the war. Reeger suffered a traumatic brain injury at the start of the Battle of Zeta Reticuli and needed emergency surgery. But the log says he was still in command. La’an arrives but Kirk beams away.
Uhura says she’s finished configuring the equipment. But when it’s switched on it generates a sonic burst that is painful to Andorians and Uhura is able to gain a plasma rifle.
La’an has corrected the bio sensors and located Kirk but he’s in the phaser power junction. They beam him out and he appears, covered in radiation burns. Reeger has Kirk brought to the bridge rather than sickbay. he asks him if it was worth a court martial. Kirk says, “To save innocent lives? Yes”.
Uhura has taken out all the pirates except for the leader. He says this will be a duel to the death but she shoots the top of the cave and sends crystal spears down to impale him. She frees the rest of the away team and it turns out that Pike was in on her ruse and she wasn’t really disobeying an order.
Reeger orders La’an to fire on the planet but Kirk says if she fires, the Enterprise will be destroyed because he changed the power distribution codes. Scotty confirms that a power imbalance could rupture the core and blow up the ship. Reeger orders Kirk to give him the codes. “No sir!” Reeger tells Spock to mind meld with Kirk and rip the codes out of his head but Spock tells him, “I respectfully refuse!” Reeger points a phaser and Kirk’s head and shouts, “Give me those codes!” Kirk says, “My father fought the Klingons at Zeta Reticuli and saved the military base. Not you. But you altered the logs and took the credit.” Reeger says, “I’m killing those bastards who murdered my family!” M’Benga says, “Admiral Reeger, I am certifying you as unfit and immediately relieving you of command!” The battle stations stand down and then Kirk admits he was bluffing and hadn’t really changed the power distribution codes.
The Enterprise returns to pick up Pike and the away team and the pirates have been captured. Reeger says he was drugged. M’Benga confesses to have drugged Reeger to declare him unfit.
A’Sha has recovered. Uhura comes to see her. A’Sha says her experience has taught her that she does not belong in Starfleet. Uhura feels she has failed A’Sha as her mentor but A’Sha tells Uhura that her feelings of inadequacy are irrelevant. “I have come to this realization logically.”
Kirk confronts M’Benga and tells him he can’t let him take the fall for him since it was really him that spiked Reeger’s coffee with cordrazine. M.Benga says, “This is my choice. I won’t let Reeger ruin your career like he did your father’s”. He tells Jim that George Kirk would not allow his crew to tell the truth because it would compromise Starfleet morale at a crucial point in the war. Chapel has overheard this and she’s angry at M’Benga for ruining his own career.
Sam tells Jim that he did some digging and found out that whenever their father asked for family leave, Reeger assigned him to a new mission.
Uhura goes to see Pike and Una. Pike says, “For courage under fire and for exemplifying the best qualities of Starfleet, I am promoting you from ensign to lieutenant junior grade.
Reeger was played by Joe Morton, who studied Drama at Hofstra University. He made his Broadway debut in Hair. He made his TV debut on Bracken’s World in 1970. He was nominated for a Tony for his role in Raisin in 1973. He made his film debut in Between the Lines in 1977. He starred in The Brother from Another Planet (that was a great movie), Lone Star, He co-starred in Stranded, Tap, The Inkwell, The Walking Dead, Executive Decision, Badland, Wherever You Are, Home, What Lies Beneath, Paycheque, Stealth, He appeared in 88 episodes of Scandal (for which he won an Emmy). He co-starred in the series Eureka, the sitcom Grady, Under One Roof, and God Friended Me (of which he also directed three episodes). He made his London West End debut in Stuff Happens in 2004.
