Míriam Cólan

            The screaming homeless woman was screaming right under my window on Tuesday morning. I know that she can’t help herself but it’s very distracting during song practice.

            Someone across the street feeds the pigeons every day and there are sometimes a hundred there. A woman walking two dogs had to struggle hard with the leashes as the dogs lunched and suddenly there was an explosion of rock doves. They would settle seconds later and the dogs would lunge again causing the same sudden scattering. This went on a few times while stem rose from the grates nearby.

            I had almost made u my mind to go out to the supermarket and buy grapes because I’d run out, but better judgement prevailed. I had mandarin oranges and apples at home and I can always stop to buy grapes on my way home from class on Wednesday, so it would have been silly to go out just for grapes.

            I fished all my lecture notes out of my journal entries and created a separate file for them, which I began reading in preparation for my test on Thursday.

            I re-read John Clare’s "The Lament of Swordy Well", since it will be the last poem we will be looking at this year.

            I watched the penultimate episode of the first season of Peter Gunn. The story begins with an armoured car robbery. A car cuts off the armoured car and an inside man shoots the driver from the back where the money is. After the money is loaded into the car the inside man is shot. At Mother’s, Edie sings “Brief and Breezy” by Henry Mancini and Sammy Cahn. A woman named Maria, wearing mourning clothes comes to see Gunn. She wants to hire Gunn to take her brother’s casket to Mexico and to deliver it to her father. She can’t go because her father blames her for her brother’s death. She breaks down during their conversation and Gunn agrees to go. At the Mexico City airport, before Gunn can meet with Maria’s father Ramone, he is arrested and questioned by Captain Noriega about the coffin. After being released, a car with Ramone in the back is waiting for Gunn outside the police station. As Ramone did not come in to vouch for him to the police, Gunn is now suspicious. Ramone asks for the shipping certificate of the coffin but Gunn says he left it with the police. He leaves the car and punches one of Ramone’s men that tries to stop him. He is chased down an alley but escapes. Gunn goes back to the airport and bribes someone to let him into the storage area. He opens the coffin and finds no body but over a million dollars in cash. Noriega finds him there and after some discussion decides that Gunn probably did not steal the money. He suspects that it’s from the armoured car robbery. They arrange to work together. The money is removed from the coffin and Gunn gives Ramone the shipping certificate. When they find it empty they come after Gunn and take him to Ramone and Maria. She seems to be in charge. Gunn demands $100,000 in exchange for the money. Maria agrees. Gunn also demands an unarmed escort. Maria tells them to put heir guns down and Gunn starts swinging. Captain Noriega arrives but does not let his men interfere. After the last man is knocked out Gunn wonders why he didn’t help. Noriega explains, “I just wanted to see some good old American know how!” Talk about an unrealistic ending!

            Maria was played by Míriam Cólan, who played Al Pacino’s mother in Scarface even though she was only four years older than him. She received an Obie award for lifetime achievement in theatre in 1993.

            A very good Mexican dancer in a bar was played by Elvira Corona