Jane Asher

            On Tuesday morning I started posting "On n'est pas la pour se faire engueuler" (We Didn't Come Here to Be Shouted At) by Boris Vian on Christian’s Translations. For some reason those long Vian songs always end up with the chord letters in different sized fonts and so to avoid that I pasted the lyrics and chords directly into HTML. That way the text turns out all the same with no indentation and I can just edit it from scratch while following the model of the document on my computer.

            I finished posting Marilou Reggae by Serge Gainsbourg on Christian’s Translations and on Facebook. I started memorizing “Transit

            I worked on my journal.

            Around midday I removed the front of the cage of my fan and washed it. I tried to remove the blades but the seemed permanently attached to the bolt. On my previous fan the blades just slipped off. I struggled with this one for a while but finally concluded that any cleaning behind the blades would have to be done by reaching around with a toothbrush. I cleaned the front and back of the blades but left the rest to do on another day.

            I had two pepperoni sticks and some yogourt with honey for lunch.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. This story was a continuation of the previous story. Andy had been engaged to marry Theresa Tompkins but the wedding invitations had accidentally been made from his eighty page black book of ex-girlfriends. Several of those exes, upon receiving the invitations, came forward to give testimony to Andy’s infidelity. When Andy saw that his former fiancé Madame Queen was in town he went to discourage her from trying to tell Theresa’s father what a cad he was. While Madame Queen was attacking Andy’s character she remembered all the things she like about him. The result was that Andy broke his engagement with Theresa and renewed one with Madame Queen.

This episode begins with the wedding just a few days away. Theresa calls Andy one last time to tell him goodbye but she is speaking so sweetly and reminding him of the good times they had that suddenly he wants to be engaged with Theresa again. He goes with Kingfish to break it off with Madame Queen but she sweet talks him too and he becomes confused. Finally he does realize that he wants to be with Theresa but then Madame Queen’s ex-prize-fighter son Junior shows up. He threatens to twist Andy’s neck until it looks like a corkscrew and so Andy loses his nerve. Andy is scheduled to marry Madame Queen at 16:00 the next day, but then he gets a call from Theresa's father who has arranged for him to marry Theresa on the same day at 15:00. Amos advises Andy to marry Theresa and so he goes down to the licence bureau to get the licence to marry Theresa but it turns out that the clerk is Madame Queen’s son Junior.

It was a cloudy day and there were some puddles on the street, plus I wanted to get caught up on my journal and so I decided not to take a bike ride.

I worked on my journal and almost got caught up.

I rubbed four chicken legs with olive oil, cayenne and seasoned salt and roasted them. I had one with a potato, broccoli and some gravy while watching two episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood.

In the first story a freeman named Arthur comes home to tell his son Oswald and his daughter Alice daughter that he has to go away for a while and he’ll have to leave them on their own. He tells them to remember that they are free and no one can make them do anything that’s servile. After he leaves the sheriff’s guard bangs on the door and says that Arthur is wanted for murder. Later we see Arthur telling Robin Hood about how he found a corpse in his field with his dagger in his body. But Sir Walter, the owner of the estate on which Arthur has his land has taken Arthur’s children to his castle. Because Arthur has been outlawed his land has been confiscated and so the children are now serfs. The boy refuses to chop wood for Sir Walter because he insists he is free. Sir Walter demands that he put his boots on him and he refuses. The boy is placed in the dungeon until he asks Sir Walter for permission to put his boots on for him. The girl is put to work in the kitchen but the cook is a kind man and when the jailer is away and has given him the keys he gives Alice food to take to Oswald. She takes Oswald out of the dungeon to the kitchen where they hide in the two garbage barrels. When the trash man comes he puts them on the wagon and leaves the castle. When the wagon is in the forest he rolls the barrels down the hill. It seems odd that he doesn’t dump the garbage and retrieve the barrels. We didn’t our barrels away when I was a kid. The barrels roll in the forest and the children find their way to their father. Marian offers to take the children to Castle Fitzwalter but they want to stay in Sherwood. Robin says that they need grown-ups in their band that can perform brave exploits. Oswald asks what an exploit is. Little John says that if they could bring Sir Walter out to the forest and make him chop wood, that would be an exploit. In order to stay, the children plot to lure Sir Walter to the camp. Oswald knows that he goes hunting in a certain place every morning. They see a wolf pit in the area where Sir Walter is hunting and plot to have Oswald go into the pit and then for Alice to ask Sir Walter to help him out. When Walter goes to the edge, Alice pushes him into the net which trips the trap and the net rises into the trees with Sir Walter caught inside it. Robin finds the children just then and they take Sir Walter back to camp. One of Sir Walter’s guards is also captured and disarmed. The dagger he carries turns out to be Arthur’s and the soldier admits to having killed the man that Arthur was accused of murdering. Arthur is a freeman again. Later Sir Walter sees Oswald chopping wood and says, “So the freeman doesn’t mind chopping wood after all.” Oswald says, “I don’t mind as long as it’s not keeping you warm.”

Alice was played by Jane Asher, who is the sister of actor, musician and producer, Peter Asher. Jane was a big part of the British music scene in the 60s because of her engagement to Paul McCartney. She inspired the Beatles songs “Yesterday”, “And I Love Her”, “You Won’t See Me”, “We Can Work It Out”, “I’m Looking Through You” and “Here There and Everywhere”. In addition to also being a musician, she has been acting in film, on television and in the theatre since the age of five. She has written three novels and also has a cake business. Her father was the psychologist who identified and named Munchausen Syndrome.

In the second story the shield of Lord Donnington is returned from the Crusade, indicating that he has died. His son Walter is now head of the estate. He and Genevieve have been waiting for her father Lord Blackstone to declare a marriage date for them. But now that Lord Donnington is dead Blackstone sees this as an opportunity to merge his estate with Walter’s. and to become the most powerful force in the region. Walter says that would not please the king and he might see it as treason. Blackstone contacts Count de Clifford, whose estate is on the other side of the Donnington lands. Lord Donnington had been an enthusiastic gambler but died with no debts. Blackstone plots with de Clifford to claim that Donnington owed him money. Blackstone would bear witness that Blackstone had said the debt should be settled with the sale of his estate. In order to make sure that they can trust one another in this alliance Blackstone offers him his daughter Genevieve’s hand in marriage. Later Walter stands before the sheriff and insists that his father told him he had not debts before leaving for the Holy Land. Walter says that this is a false claim to steal his land. De Clifford says he has been insulted by this claim and demands satisfaction. The sheriff says they will meet in combat on the field of honour at the May Festival. But it is also within De Clifford’s rights under Norman justice to hire a champion to fight on his behalf and he enlists a warrior who has never been defeated. Walter is told that he can also hire a champion but he has no money to do so. When Robin hears of this he and two of his men to the May Festival. Robin knocks Walter out and then puts on armour and a helmet to fight in Walter’s place. Genevieve is the May Queen and she is forced to signal the combat to start. Robin defeats de Clifford’s champion and then goes back to untie Walter so that he can go out unhelmeted to face the crowd. At first he is against stealing another man’s honour but Robin says there is no honour with men like de Clifford. Blackstone says Walter can marry Genevieve tomorrow.