Sondi

            Thursday there was a 60% chance of rain in the late afternoon so I didn’t take a long bike ride. I did pedal down to Freshco though where I bought more peaches, cherries and raspberries. There was also a good deal on grapefruit so I got a bag of six for $3. I picked up some milk and yogourt too. The cashier asked me three times if I wanted bags, I think because she'd been flustered by the guy in front of me who after paying for some stuff suddenly decided that he wanted his money back for some of the items. She sent him to another cashier because she was at the express.

It didn't rain after all but I got caught up on my writing.

            I heated a chicken leg, boiled three small potatoes and sautéed a vegetable marrow for dinner.

            I watched the last two episodes of the Darren McGavin Mike Hammer.

            The first one had one of the best titles I’ve ever heard for a show: “Siamese Twinge”. Hammer has been hired by the wealthy Mrs. Milford to offer some money to a Siamese nightclub singer named Sondi as long as she signs a paper saying she will not marry her son, Gary. Sondi tells Mike to assure Mrs. Milford that she will not marry Gary but she refuses to take the money. Later that night a sailor named Slade steals a picture of Sondi from the sign just inside the club. Slade shows the picture to another sailor named Sam who later follows Sondi home and forces his way into her room. She recognizes him as her husband whom she ran from many years ago. He reminds her of how he found her in Singapore and threatens to reveal details about her past unless she comes up with some money. It’s never revealed what was so bad about her past but one assumes that she’d been a prostitute. How else would a sailor have met her in those days? Sondi calls Mrs. Milford and agrees to sign the paper in exchange for the $5000 but when she gives the money to Sam on the stairway leading up to the club he tells her that he will be asking for more and also tells her that she’d better be nice to him and grabs her. She pulls his gun out of his pocket and shoots him. He tumbles down the stairs as the money falls about him. He’s still alive and tries to climb back up the stairs as Sondi escapes into the club. Sam collapses and Slade comes out from where he’s been hiding. At first his intention is to help his partner but then he looks at the money and sees the state that Sam is in so he decides to finish him off by slamming his head several times into one of the steps and takes the cash. Sondi is imprisoned for murder but Hammer is suspicious when he hears about the money when there was no money found on Sam’s body. He finds out from Billy, the hatcheck girl at the club about the man that stole the picture and when he finds out he was a sailor he figures he must be with the same ship as Sam. He gives Billy’s description to the captain of the vessel and he identifies him as Slade. Hammer intercepts Slade before the ship sails and makes him confess. Hammer becomes the best man at Sondi’s wedding.
            Sondi was played by Sondi Sodsai, who was Miss Thailand of 1959 and competed in the Miss Universe pageant of 1960. She won the title of Miss Congeniality, which came with scholarship money that she used to enroll in drama at UCLA. She worked a lot on the show Adventures in Paradise and recorded one album of cutesy novelty songs with Asian themes before returning to Thailand where she eventually founded the dramatic arts department at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, which is the oldest and best institute of higher learning in Thailand. Admission requires test scores in the top ten and diplomas are traditionally handed out by the king of Thailand. Formal education in dramatic arts did not exist in Thailand until she founded the program. She wrote and directed several plays and also translated many classic western dramas like The Glass Menagerie. She is considered to be the most influential woman in the Thai entertainment industry.

            The last episode of the series had an old gambler named Al call Hammer to get him to ask a mobster to whom he owes money to be patient rather than to come after him. But Hammer refuses to help him and so Al lams it out of town. Two weeks later Hammer stumbles on a small report in the paper mentioning that Al had been charged with murder in a small New England town. Hammer feels somewhat responsible because he’d refused to help Al in New York, plus he knows Al was not a killer, so Hammer makes his way to Forge River to find out what was going on. He visits Al in jail and Al tells him he's innocent. The woman that was killed had been an old friend of Al’s from when she'd come to New York a few years before. In Forge River he'd worked at her diner up until she was shot and robbed. The gun was found in his room but he tells Hammer that Janet lent him the $2500 that the police found. Janet had gotten the money from a man named Striker who's wife owns the Forge River lumber company and Striker runs it, making him very powerful in the town. Upon leaving the jail Hammer immediately encounters Striker, who makes it clear that he wants Hammer to leave town. Hammer fights off Striker and two of his men before the sheriff breaks it up. Hammer goes around asking questions but no one in town will cooperate. When he returns to his hotel room there is an attractive, middle-aged woman waiting for him. She explains that everyone’s key at the hotel fits everyone else's room and suggests that it would explain how a gun could be planted in someone’s room without them knowing anything about it. She says her name is Kate and she hasn't been in town long, explaining that in her line of work she never stays anywhere for long. Hammer asks Kate what her line of work is and she answers, “I’m aahhh, a waitress?” The implication seems to be that she’s a prostitute. She tells Hammer that for $2000 she can tell him who planted the gun in Al’s room. He agrees but first wants a sample to show she’s got something worth buying. She offers, "Do you think Janet Price could get $2500 out of Todd Striker just cause he liked her blue plate special?” The next day Hammer is on his way to meet Kate when the sheriff approaches him to tell him Kate has disappeared. Later Hammer gets a call from Kate telling him to meet her in a lumber camp outside of town. It’s a trap but she's been coerced by Striker. When Hammer gets there he's roughed up for a while but then Striker offers him $5000 to leave town. Hammer refuses and so they are about to send him to the bottom of the lake when the sheriff intervenes and he and Hammer win the day.

            Kate was played by Melanie York, who was married to Darren McGavin from 1944 to 1969.