BarBara Luna

            On Thursday morning I translated another verse of "Je Suis Snob" by Boris Vian:

We swarm just like bees with all of our buddies

every Friday eve to have our snobbism parties

Although there is cocaine we just refrain

but there’s Camembert which we eat like we breathe the air

My condominium is a truly fine one

It’s heated to make diamonds and it couldn’t be more awesome

I had a TV and it just bored me

but I turned it around and now I’ve found I can't stop watching

I finished working out the chords for "Pour des haricots" by Serge Gainsbourg. I still have to run through singing and playing it in French and English and then I’ll post it on my blog.

I washed another section of my living room floor in front of the passageway to the kitchen. I guess all the plaster I’ve been scraping up was caused by me when I filled cracks above the passageway in the mid-90s. Next I’ll clean the area to the left of the passage and behind the green bookcase. Hopefully I didn’t spill as much plaster behind there when I filled the cracks in the baseboard.

I had a chicken wing and some yogourt for lunch.

I did my afternoon exercises and rode to Dundas and Dovercourt. Dovercourt was blocked because of roadwork just north of Queen and so I took the next alley down. On the way home I stopped at Freshco where I picked up grapes, cherries, strawberries and raspberries. I also got yogourt, coffee, detergent and mouthwash. The cherries and coffee are a lot cheaper at No Frills this week and so I’d brought a No Frills flyer. The cashier looked disappointed when I told her I wanted to do a price match. I saved $35 but I actually bought more cherries knowing that I was going to get a deal.

It was a hot, shirt off, fan on, windows and doors open, barefoot day.

I had a potato, sautéed zucchini and pepper, gravy and a chicken breast for dinner while watching the Untouchables.

A witness named Imbry is about to testify against the mobster Ted Newberry. Newberry wants Imbry dead but before his stuttering hit man Fanning can kill him he is removed from custody by corrupt city hall officials that are also afraid of Imbry’s testimony. Imbry is taken to Mexico and Fanning slips that information to Eliot Ness so he will be lured down there. Newberry wants Fanning to kill Ness in Mexico with the help of his accomplices down there. Ness heads for Mexico by train with a Spanish-speaking agent from Washington named Delgado. On the train he intercepts Metcalf, who has been hired to kill Imbry. Ness poses as Metcalf but Delgado convinces him to let him be Metcalf. In Delgado’s hotel his contact Max slugs him and takes him to Fanning. Fanning had expected Ness to be posing as Metcalf and so they wait for Ness to track Delgado there. Ness talks to Max’s girlfriend Lucita but she doesn’t know where he is and so it seems she’s just eye candy since she doesn’t advance the plot in any way. But Max insists on taking Imbry and Delgado out to sea to throw them in the ocean because the tide won’t wait and they won’t be washed to sea at another time. In the boat Delgado manages to drain the gas and so Max has to go get more. In town Ness jumps him and makes him take him to Delgado and Imbry. Fanning is captured and Imbry serves as a witness back in the States.

Martin Landau put in a great performance as Fanning.

Delgado was played by Vince Edwards, who in two years would become the star of the medical drama “Ben Casey”.

Lucita was played by Barbara Luna, whose genetic mixture of Italian, Hungarian, Spanish, Portuguese and Filipino allowed her to play a variety of ethnic roles. She worked on Broadway for many years from a very young age and in the late 50s and 60s she moved on to television and film. She played Lt. Marlena Moreau in the Star Trek episode, “Mirror Mirror”. Even though it was only one episode it earned her many Trekky fans and she shows up at conventions to meet them. She guest starred in nearly 500 TV shows. She starred in her own cabaret act and went on to open for Bill Cosby. She then became a very popular soap opera star but continued stage performing as well.