Osa Massen and Gigi Perreau

            I took a siesta at noon on Thursday so I’d be rested up for work and so I’d have time for lunch before heading out. I worked for Nick Aoki at OCADU, doing mostly short poses, but not as short as the back killing ones that I did two weeks before.

            At some point during a drawing course students usually have to hand in their sketchbooks to their instructor to be marked. This was the first time that I’d heard about the teacher asking for the sketchbooks to be scanned rather than physically handed in. Nick was telling them that “I couldn’t find a scanner” would not be accepted as an excuse since there are a hundred scanners all over the university. Also, if they didn’t know how to use a scanner he told them that he would take them to a scanner and show them how right after class.

            During my breaks I got some writing done.

            On the way home I stopped at Freshco. The grapes were cheap but a lot of them were soft and so I felt several bags to see which one had the firmest. One woman was carefully pulling out the best bunches and making up her own bag. I bought blackberries and raspberries from Mexico. There was a 1 kg jar of Casablanca honey for $5.99 but didn’t trust it because it was part Canadian and part Russian honey. The thing is though that I’d never checked where the Aurora honey I usually buy comes from, which turns out to be six different countries, including the Ukraine and Bulgaria. I don’t know why I mistrust eastern block countries. There was a test online where you put water in a metal pan, drop a spoon of honey in and then swirl the pan around. If the honey forms a honeycomb pattern then it's real. I tried it and both brands formed a honeycomb shape.

            I watched an episode of Perry Mason. In this story a man named Riker comes to a ranch outside of LA claiming to be the cousin of Lisa the wife of Bannister the rancher. Riker is from East Germany. Lisa is not happy to see him. Later her stepdaughter Doris catches her trying to take an overdose of sleeping pills. She knocks the pills away. Lisa says she would rather die than go back. Lisa tells Doris that Riker is a friend of her father’s and that her father is the head of the Communist party in East Germany. Lisa is in the United States illegally and so she can be deported. Doris says she’ll think of something. Next we see Doris all dolled up and showing up at Riker’s apartment. She comes onto him and becomes his lover. Days or weeks later and after midnight Doris shows up at Perry Mason's office where they are working late. Her face is dirty, her hair is messed up and she seems woozy. She seems to have amnesia but she explains that she found Mason’s address in her pocket. She says someone gave her a ride from Sunset Canyon Road. Mason puts Doris in a hospital and posts an ad with her picture asking for identification. Her father calls Mason. He tells him that Doris has been seeing Riker on Sunset Canyon Road. Mason goes to see him but the police are already there and Riker is dead. The cops find jealous letters from Doris to Riker accusing him of seeing another woman. Doris is arrested but kept in medical care. Bannister and Lisa come to visit her in jail but she says she doesn’t know them. There is some doubt as to whether Doris really has amnesia but Mason’s detective, Paul Drake finds her wrecked car in a ditch. In court the doctor says that there is no physical trauma that would have caused her to lose her memory. Lisa testifies that she hated Riker. Mason concludes as well that Doris is faking because the car accident was phoney. Later when Mason talks to Doris privately she finally admits that she was faking and confesses to killing Riker. Mason doesn’t believe she killed Riker. He thinks she must be trying to protect Lisa. She says that when she found Riker’s body there was a medallion in his hand that Lisa wears around her neck. She pretended to be in love with a man she hated to keep him away from Lisa. She says she’ll never tell what Riker had on Lisa. Mason proves in court that Bannister killed Riker and put the medallion in his hand to incriminate Lisa.
            Doris was played by Gigi Perreau, who was seventeen at that time. She was successful in movies as a child actor but after her teens she moved on to teaching and stage direction. She was a drama teacher for Meghan Markle and at her wedding to Harry Meghan spotted Gigi in the crowd after the ceremony.

            Lisa was played by Danish actor Osa Massen who was brought over to Hollywood in hopes of finding the next Greta Garbo. She starred in Rocketship X-M, which was the first post WWII space adventure. They were on a mission to the Moon but ended up on Mars, as so often happens.