Robert Crumb

After going home from the food bank to drop off my groceries I went back out to No Frills. As soon as I walked in there was a Jamaican woman yelling across the grapefruits at a Tibetan man, “Cough on your own damn food!”

            The grapes weren’t in very good shape. I only found two bags that had moderately firm bunches in them. I got a pint of raspberries, some bulk walnuts, some mouthwash, a container of yogourt and a bag of Miss Vickie’s plain chips.

            Once I’d taken that stuff home I went back out to the liquor store to buy two cans of Creemore. I handed the cashier a $20 because I keep hoping to get back one of the new Viola Desmond $10s but she gave me back two $5s. Curses! Foiled again!

I had a toasted ham and cheese sandwich for lunch and took a siesta, even though I knew that Nick Cushing was coming over. I got about 45 minutes sleep before he shouted my name from the street. At that moment I’d forgotten that he was coming over and wondered who would be calling for me.

I tossed the clean laundry that was piled on the kitchen table onto the living room couch and we sat in the kitchen. I made tea and we chatted for an hour and a half. We talked about Robert Crumb. For some reason I’d thought that he hadn’t actually written most of the comics he drew but I was wrong.

            Nick left a little after 18:00.

I did some writing and that night I had an egg with toast and a beer and watched an episode of Peter Gunn. This story began with a clever bank robbery. A teller named Poole has strategically placed gas bombs near the stations of each of his colleagues as the bank gets ready for business in the morning. After the money has been distributed to each teller the bombs go off and they are all knocked out, except for Poole, who’s hidden a gas mask nearby. He puts it on and gathers up the money. He opens a door and the scarred hand of his partner Morrell reaches through to take it. Later a woman named Barbara comes to the still being renovated Mother’s and hires Gunn to find her boyfriend George Morrell. Later she meets with Poole and so obviously Morrell ran off with Poole’s share of the bank money and they’ve tricked Gunn into finding him. Gunn goes to see Lieutenant Jacoby, finds out the man has a record and gets a picture of him. Gunn goes to see a bookie named Willie at an arcade and finds out that Morrell has gone to a little town in Italy called Cassano. Gunn flies to Italy and takes a train to Cassano. In the station he is immediately accosted by an opportunistic man named Carlo who offers himself as a guide and a source of information but he says he doesn’t know Morrell. The only hotel is Albergo Carlotta. He meets the beautiful owner of the hotel and she is very flirtatious but she also claims not to know Morrell, although we see his scarred hand as he pours wine at another table. Gunn catches Carlo following him and Carlo tells him that Morrell is at an old winery on the hill. That night someone tries to run Gunn over and later in bed he wakes just in time to stop Carlo from stabbing him. He forces Carlo to take him to Morrell. He confronts Morrell about his attempts on his life but suddenly Poole appears from behind with a gun. Poole demands the money and tells Gunn that now that he can identify him he’ll have to die. Carlo stops towards Poole and in a strange move that appeared cowardly Gunn pushes Carlo towards Poole, causing Poole to shoot Carlo. Poole shoots Morrel and gets him to tell him the $125,000 is in the next room. Once again, a disarmed Gunn takes out the armed bad guy with fisticuffs. We don’t see him recover the money. We see him return to a now renovated and much fancier Mother’s with a scenic window waiting to have crooks thrown through it in future episodes. Edi asks Gunn if he wants to hold hands. He says, “I’ll try anything once!”

Poole was played by Ted Knight, who later became one of the many famous co-stars on the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

            Barbara was played by Sylvia Lewis, who was a series regular for two seasons of the 50s TV series “Where’s Raymond?” and was also a dancer and choreographer on that show and others.

Carlotta was played by Nina Roman Rhodes Hughes, who co-starred in a now forgotten soap opera called Morning Star that only ran for one season. She was there when Robert Kennedy was shot and insists that there was a second gunman. She now lives in Vancouver.