Is Popeye on His Way?

            On Thursday morning I finished translating the first verse of "Complainte du progrès" by Boris Vian.

            I finished adjusting my translation of “Kawasaki” by Serge Gainsbourg and memorized the first two verses.

            I deferred my student fees and requested per-course billing, so I’m all ready for school except for having to buy a couple of notebooks and some pens.

            I called my doctor’s office and they said that if Dr. Shechtman hadn't called me then there was nothing wrong that showed up in my hip x-rays. If it were sciatica it wouldn't show in an x-ray.

            At 11:40 I took my bike over to wait in front of Bike Pirates for it to open and I was the first one. Den opened at noon and said he was having a crisis because the little tablet computer that they use to register payments had disappeared. He said it might be in the safe but he couldn’t open it. He gave me stand number three.

            The first thing I did was to look in the bins for a bolt and nut to attach my derailleur to my frame. It didn't take long and the one I'd found fit great. My next problem was that I'd gotten my chain so tangled up that Den had to cut it in order to straighten it out. But after that was done he measured the space between the links and observed that the chain had stretched. I told him I’d buy a new one. Once we had the chain on Den adjusted my brakes a bit, I took my bike for a test drive and it was fine. I’d only spent 45 minutes working on my bike. I paid $15 for the chain and gave a $10 donation.

I was home in time for lunch. I opened a jar of wild Pacific pink salmon with vegetables that had been in my fridge for a year, mixed it with green salsa and had it with potato chips.

I chatted with my next-door neighbour Benji, who told me that some Middle Eastern guys with a Popeyes franchise have been talking to our landlord about renting the space after CoffeeTime moves out. I like Popeyes!

In the afternoon I did some exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. I’d heard this one before as well. A crook that looks like Andy intercepts a letter from a woman in the south whom Andy hasn’t seen in seventeen years. She is coming to New York to invest $15,000. The crook bilks the woman of the money and then Andy is blamed. There isn’t much defence in court because Andy does have a reputation for taking advantage of women but just not to a criminal degree. When Andy is found guilty he is imprisoned in a cell across from the man that impersonated him. One distinct thing that had been mentioned earlier was that he was always whistling one particular tune, while Andy can’t whistle at all. Andy hears the man whistle and knows he’s been saved.

I took a bike ride to Bloor and St George, south to Queen and then west. I stopped at Freshco on the way home where I bought a basket of peaches, three bags of a bit soft grapes, a watermelon, a tomato and a box of spoon size shredded wheat.

I had three little potatoes, three pork ribs, sautéed onion and red pepper and some gravy for dinner while watching Wagon Train.

This story begins with a Native man named Bill Tawnee, who is travelling by wagon with his wife Lianna and their infant son. They have stopped for supplies when a drunk tries to make a pass at Lianna. Bill hits him but when he turns to see if Lianna is all right the man clubs Bill with his gun. Later, out on the trail the wagon train comes across the Tawnee wagon. The Major talks with Lianna and finds that Bill is unconscious in the wagon. The Major recognizes Bill’s name because he had served under General Sherman like the Major did during the Civil War. Bill is a decorated war hero and the Major invites them to join the train. One of the passengers, George Barry is bigoted towards Bill, accusing him of stealing his rifle. Bill decides to leave the train because if he stays he will kill Barry. Lianna stays because their baby has a fever. Meanwhile some thieves from outside make off with most of the wagon train’s horses. The next day the Major and the men follow a trail that splits in two. Half the men follow one trail and the other half follows the other. Half the horses are found by one group, but the other men find Bill’s campsite. Barry is convinced that Bill is the horse thief and are about to hang him unless he confesses but the Major arrives and rescues him. He tries to convince Bill to come back to the train but he refuses. Later Barry finds out that it was his teenage son that had taken his rifle and forgotten it somewhere and that when he had seen Bill with it he had only found it and was returning it. Meanwhile Bill stumbles on the camp of the horse thieves, kills them all, then he returns all of the horses to the wagon train. He is welcomed as a hero, even by Barry and so he decides to stay.

Neither Bill nor Lianna looked anything like Native Americans, even with all the make-up on and they both talked like Tarzan, even to each other.

Lianna was played by Joy Page, whose stepfather was Jack Warner, the president of Warner Brothers. Her most outstanding performance is considered to be the supporting role of Annina she played in Casablanca, which was her first film. Warner discouraged her acting ambitions and never signed her but when she married William T Orr he immediately made him an executive.