Useless Professors

            On Thursday morning I finished memorizing “Est-ce est-ce si bon" by Serge Gainsbourg. It was a real struggle to nail this one because of the tongue twisting “S" sounds that are sung in a rapid-fire manner.

            I worked on updating my journal.

            I had a 10:30 appointment at Woodsworth College and normally might have left for it at 10:00. But there had been a fairly heavy snowfall overnight and so I left a little early just in case the snow would slow me down. It’s good that I did because after riding through the slush and snow I was only five minutes early.

            My appointment was with Associate Registrar Cheryl Shook to discuss the inappropriate ambush staged by my Indigenous Studies instructor Kevin White the day I came to an appointment in his office on January 9. I told Cheryl the story of the meeting. I also told her about the accusations that I’d been disrespectful in tutorial.

She admitted that it may not have been appropriate for White to ambush me as he did but she said there is no real rule against it and chances are any attempt to make it against the rules would go nowhere. She offered to send an email to the third party that had been there. I forget her name (Wendy?) but I guess she works for the provost. Cheryl said she could email Wendy and ask her to advise White that in the future he should warn a student ahead of time if a meeting is going to have a different topic and that a third party would be there. She said that she would wait until after my exams to send the email just in case it creates bias against me while the exam is being marked.

She said that I would have been within my rights at the time of the appointment to leave when I saw the third party and when the topic of the meeting had changed. This was very new to me in my twelve-year career at university and so I was in shock when it happened. I doubt if it will ever happen again but if it does I will certainly walk out.

As a matter of conversation I complained that Indigenous Studies is the most intellectually stifling course I’ve ever taken. She said it’s understandable that the people involved in Indigenous Studies are more sensitive. I told her that it should be a social science and I’ve seen how Indigenous issues can be presented in a balanced way by APTN. She admitted that a lot of courses have been taken over by activists over the last few years and advised me not to take any more Indigenous Studies courses.

I brought up the fact that back in July I had applied to switch from English Major to English Specialist and I’d been told that I would be informed if I were accepted by last September. She said that it might have been because July is past the deadline for applying for programs. She said she would look into it but meanwhile I should just try to switch to English Specialist online on March 2.

I mentioned that I’d taken Creative Writing with Albert Moritz and she lit up. She said she’s known Albert for years and he’s a very nice person. I agreed.

I stopped at Freshco on the way home. Since I’m easing into my annual vegetarian diet I only bought three bags of black grapes and a half pint of blackberries.

I had a chicken leg, the last of my yogourt and a glass of soymilk for lunch.

I got caught up on my journal.

For dinner I had my last chicken leg, a potato and some gravy while watching the four bonus features that came along with the Zorro box set that I’d downloaded.

The first was about Guy Williams and how charming he was. He made women feel feminine. After a riding accident he’d taken up fencing as physical therapy and it helped prepare him to play Zorro. A lot of actors in Hollywood wanted the part but he won it. He had a very good working relationship with Walt Disney who took up many of his suggestions. He did his own fencing and some of his own stunts but not the ones where he was jumping around on rooftops. He was a sailor and he dreamed of sailing around the world. He bought a boat that became a hangout for Zorro cast members on weekends. He died at 65 in Buenos Aires and the whole city mourned.

The second was just a short bit featuring Walt Disney talking about Zorro to the Mickey Mouse Club.

The third showed the history of the character of Zorro from the pulp story The Curse of Capistrano by Johnston McCulley in 1919. The first actor to play the part of Zorro was Douglas Fairbanks Senior, who was one of the biggest actors of the silent era. His portrayal of Zorro in the 1920 adaptation of The Curse of Capistrano as The Mark of Zorro was a big hit. He played Don Diego as a lazy rich man who was suddenly full of energy when he changed to Zorro. Next Republic produced a series of Zorro serials that were also popular. When The Mark of Zorro was remade starring Tyrone Power it was an even greater success than the original. Disney purchased the rights to Zorro in 1952 but he didn’t find a network to produce it until 1957. The set was the first permanent set on the Disney lot. Previous actors had played Diego as effeminate but Guy Williams thought it would be tiresome to see that on a weekly series and so he played Diego as just an ordinary man to contrast with the exceptional man that Zorro was. Unlike most TV shows of the time, Zorro had an original soundtrack for every episode. Even though the series was still very popular, Zorro was cancelled because a legal battle between Disney and ABC.

The final feature was just a tour of Disney’s Zorro museum with Guy Williams Jr. and Leonard Malton. Apparently Disney put Annette Funicello in three episodes of the second season of Zorro as a sixteenth birthday present to her because she had a crush on Guy Williams.