The Roots of Route 66

            I didn’t go anywhere on Tuesday. I got caught up on my journal.      

            My Waterpik failed a couple of days ago as the button on the wand stopped working. I watched a YouTube video of someone fixing his wand by partially breaking it open and repositioning the spring. I don’t think I can manage that kind of operation with so many small parts involved that have to be reassembled afterwards. Someone suggested soaking the wand in vinegar so I’m trying that. I might have to buy a new Waterpik.

            I saw online that I’ll be getting my grant and I think that the first semester of my course has been paid for. I’ll be getting about $350 deposited in my account soon and the other half of the course should be paid at the beginning of 2019.

            I read all of Wordsworth’s poems in the Norton Anthology other than the long one called “Prelude”. There are lots of sad stories of nobly suffering people suffering great losses resulting from death and poverty. His style of writing poetry generally doesn’t do much for me but it has its moments.

I watched an episode of The Naked City. This one involved a soldier named

Johnny returning to his poor New York neighbourhood only to see his sister, Cora arrested for being part of a shoplifting ring. He and his army buddy from the South, Lincoln go looking for the leader of the ring and get into a big bar fight with Ace and his men. After the gang are out cold Johnny calls the cops. I guess Cora must have finally ratted on the ring because she is released and they all live happily ever after. Johnny and Lincoln go off to travel around and search for themselves and this episode turned out to be an indirect pilot for the show Route 66, which would begin from where this story left off. George Maharis would play the same character as Johnny but with a different name and Robert Morris (born Robert Morawczynski) was supposed to continue playing a version of Lincoln as well but he died while Route 66 was in pre-production, so Maharis did Route 66 partnered with Martin Milner, who looked very similar to Morris. 

            I’ve got a lot of these Naked City episodes waiting to download but none of them are complete and so I downloaded the first season of Perry Mason.