Minerva Urecal

            On Friday I got caught up with posting some stuff on Twitter and it overlapped into the early afternoon. Because of that I got started about an hour later than planned on doing my laundry. On my way to put my clothes in the dryer I stopped off at the drug store to pick up my filled prescription of cortisone cream.

            I took the last of the three months of the act-terbinafine pills. I didn’t experience any of the possible side effects such as liver problems during that time but I’m glad that I no longer have to remember to take one every day.

I had a late lunch followed by a late siesta.

I cut up and roasted a chicken that had been thawing in the fridge for 24 hours and was still half frozen. I made gravy from the liquid left over from the ginger garlic ribs I'd cooked last week but I made it too thick. I'll see if I can thin it out later.

I watched the first episode of the second season of Peter Gunn. The story somewhat paralleled the premier of the first season with some hoods trying to sell protection to Mother. The only difference was that in the first story there was a bomb that wrecked Mother’s and in this one the crooks wrecked the place by hand. But this story begins with them bombing a grocery store that wouldn't buy protection and killing the owner. There is a new Mother because Hope Emerson died in between the first and second season. She has a similar look and manner but she’s much shorter. Minerva Urecal had a similar background in Vaudeville to Hope Emerson. I don’t know if she had the same musical talent though. Anyway, the hoods walk in after Edie finished singing "Deed I Do" by Fred Rose and Walter Hirsch. 

The hoods offer Mother protection and she tells them to get lost. When Gunn hears about the shakedown he begins to investigate. Gunn goes to see Lieutenant Jacoby and finds him on the police shooting range hitting the bull’s-eye every time. Gunn asks, “What do you win?" Jacoby says, "I get an extra $16 a month for taking pistol practice". Gunn says, “You don’t look like you need the practice”. Jacoby says, “I need the $16". That night Gunn goes to a rooftop to seek out an elderly man with a British accent known as “The Owl”, who is one of his quirky informants. The Owl spends his nights looking at the stars though his telescope, but in particular he watches Sirius, which is his “baby" because those nights behind the wall, Sirius was the brightest star he could see. The Owl reluctantly tells him that the boss behind the protection racket is a man named Clegg and his front is a certain novelty company. Gunn goes there and is confronted by one of Clegg’s hoods that'd threatened Mother. The hood won’t let Gunn talk with Clegg and threatens him not to come around again. As Gunn is walking away he tells Gunn to say hello to the Owl. Gunn goes back to the rooftop and finds the Owl dead. Back at Mother’s, three of Clegg's hoods come to once again offer to sell her protection. When she refuses they begin to trash the place. Mother punches one of them across the room and the whole club breaks into a brawl. Even Edie is hitting guys with her shoe. Gunn comes in, gets Edie out of the way and tells her to call the police and tell them to meet him at the novelty company as he goes to confront Clegg. As soon as he enters the place he has a gun to his head and he’s disarmed and escorted to Clegg’s office. He tells Clegg the police will be there any minute and when Clegg and his man turn to look out the window Gunn knocks a shelf over on them and escapes into the warehouse. There’s a lot of fighting in the dark as they go after him. Clegg accidentally shoots his man while he’s fighting with Gunn. Among the novelties lying around is a boomerang which Gunn throws and strikes Clegg’s forehead causing a terrible wound. Clegg begs for a doctor. Gunn reminds him of the people he killed and asks what he would have done if they’d asked for a doctor. Gunn walks away from Clegg as he begs but the police arrive and he tells them that Clegg needs a doctor. Mother’s place is trashed but she will rebuild like she did last year.

The new Mother, Minerva Urecal was a veteran of Vaudeville, radio, film and television. She starred in the 1957 TV series “The Adventures of Tugboat Annie”, which was based on the film series of the same name, which was based on a series of stories in the Saturday Evening Post and on the real life character of Thea Christiansen Foss, who built and owned the largest tugboat company in the western United States. I vaguely remember "The Adventures of Tugboat Annie" from when I was a kid. The 39 episodes of the show were filmed in Toronto Harbour. It was popular in Canada but didn’t catch on in the States.