The Original Sting

            There was a heavy rain shower on Thursday morning while I was doing my yoga. After sunrise it was still fairly dark when I videoed another song practice and so I turned on the overhead light in my living room. It felt like a couple of songs came through without any major errors, though I didn’t have time to review them or even those of the day before because I’d been busy writing my review of Shab-e She’r.

            I took a bike ride late that afternoon. It almost doesn’t bother me when guys my age pass me. We seem to be a pretty fast generation.

            I continued exploring the area south east of St Clair and O’Connor as far as Dawes Road. Since a lot of the streets in that area seem to have been built to curve along with Taylor and Massey Creeks, it’s hard to come up with a systematic way of covering them. I went down Plaxton and then back to Chapman because there’d been a crescent that ran off of it that I’d missed the day before. Then I took Glen Albert to Dawes Road.

            I think that I’ll be done riding on all the streets between O’Connor and Victoria Park south of Eglinton by the middle of August, and then I can enjoy taking pictures of more alleys behind Danforth between Woodbine and Victoria Park.

            I stopped to take a photo of the downtown skyline from Woodbine because there were some nice clouds overhead in the western sunlight but my battery was dead.

            I stopped to use the washroom at the second Starbucks but they were both occupied and then a staff member needed to clean the one that became free. A woman arrived to also wait. Then a guy opened the door of the other washroom and stood there as if he wasn’t planning on leaving. He wanted to tell us that somebody’d put too much paper in the toilet. He stood there and told us, “It wasn’t me!” like he was on a witness stand and then once he was convinced that he’d made his case, he left.

            That night I watched a famous episode of Maverick from the second season. Bret Maverick (James Garner) wins $15,000 in a poker game. Even though the bank is closed, he sees the banker through the window and gets him to come to the door. He asks him to deposit the money for him in the safe and to give him a receipt. He does so, but the next day when Maverick comes into the bank to withdraw some money the banker denies having ever seen him or his money. Maverick remains perfectly calm and tells Mr Baits, almost cheerfully “You owe me $15,000 and I’m gonna get it back.” Over the next several days Maverick just sits in a rocking chair, whittling. He becomes somewhat of a town joke and people passing will ask him if he’s got his $15,000 back yet. His answer is always, “I’m working on it!” which causes laughter every time. A stage arrives carrying Bret’s brother Bart, who ignores his brother and checks into the hotel under a different name. He poses as a speculator and the investment deals he speaks of draw the interest of the greedy banker. They strike up a friendship and Bart lets him in on a deal involving worthless silver mine stocks. There unfolds an elaborate sting with several of the most popular of the Maverick brothers’ conniving friends who have appeared in past shows posing as important people. Baits ends up putting money in and voila, Bret gets his money back as the banker winds up ruined.

            This episode with the title of “Shady Deal at Sunny Acres” is widely considered to have been the inspiration for 1973 hit movie, “The Sting”.