On Sunday I finished posting “Transit à
Marilou” by Serge Gainsbourg and then memorized the first four lines of his
song "Flash Forward".
I
worked on writing about the previous day’s Food Bank Adventure. While
researching the history of the building beside which we line up I also looked
up my own building and found a photograph of it from the mid 70s when one of
the chain of BiRite clothing stores owned by the landlord was just going out of
business after twenty years. There was a big sign on the window of what is now
my living room advertising that what twenty years later would become my
apartment was for rent.
The
Parkdale Village Historical Society website mentions that my building was
constructed in 1885 for Thomas Wood. But someone named “Woods” owned part of
lots 4-6. Parkdale had its own address numbering system that was independent of
Toronto and so instead of 1404 Queen West the number would have been much
smaller. Benjamin Wood was a stationer at 108 Queen and Catharine Woods sold
dry goods at 156 Queen. My building has a Second Empire style mansard roof with
Italianate dormer windows on the third floor.
Around
midday I washed the hearth area of my kitchen mantel. The area has blue sheet
metal covering the opening to what used to be the fireplace. Years ago I
plastered it all over because the area was infested with cockroaches. Some of
the sheet metal is showing through again but I got the plastered area cleaned a
little whiter. The last time I saw a cockroach in my apartment was when I
killed one on Christmas day and that was the first I’d seen in several months.
My neighbour Benji and I had worried that when the Coffeetime closed down there
would be cockroaches moving up to us but nothing happened. Benji said he has
seen a few so I guess the building isn’t totally rid of them.
I
had a turkey and cheese sandwich on a bagel for lunch.
I
didn’t exercise or take a bike ride in the afternoon because I wanted to get my
Food Bank Adventure finished.
For
I had a fried egg and a toasted bagel with a beer while watching two episodes
of The Adventures of Robin Hood.
The
first story begins with Robin pranking Tuck and then they wrestle like boys.
They end up betting whether Tuck can make more money by praying than Robin can
by begging. Tuck’s first stop is an inn where he learns that retired Norman soldiers
have started an abbey so they can scrounge off the villagers. A the tavern Tuck
sings “Jolly Good Ale and Old” which was written by William Stevenson 200 years
after the era in which this story is set. “I cannot eat but little meat/ My
stomach is not good/ But I do think that
can drink with all that weareth the hood/ Though I go bare I nothing
care/ I nothing am a cold/ I stuff my skin so full within of jolly good ale and
old.” Tuck latches on to the two Norman monks and travels with them to teach them
a lesson. Meanwhile Robin encounters a beggar and tells him he’d like to try
his hand at the profession. The beggar tells him that he would have to
apprentice for years before he’d have a copper in his hand. Robin engages the
man in a knife throwing contest in exchange for pieces of one another’s
clothing. The beggar is a good shot but Robin deliberately throws just short of
winning. He ends up with all of the beggar’s clothes. Now dressed as a beggar,
Robin comes across the camp of a gang of beggars who say they prey on farm
wives whose husbands are away and take their purses. The beggars suspect Robin
is a spy and attack him. He fights them off and takes their money to return it
to Mistress Rawlins, whom they robbed. Meanwhile Tuck forces the two Norman
monks to stop at the shrine of St Cedric who he claims is the patron saint of
brewers, gamblers and riders on donkeys. (Cedd was a Saxon bishop but I can
find no reference to him being a patron of those things. The patron saint of
brewers is St Arnold of Soissons). Tuck prays that these two monks will no
longer be penniless as they claim and then reaches into their robes to pull
from each a bag of coins. Meanwhile one of the beggars that Robin fought
recognized that he was Robin Hood and goes to tell the sheriff’s lieutenant
that Robin is on his way to the home of Mistress Rawlins. Rawlins recognizes
and welcomes Robin and he returns her money. Suddenly the sheriff’s men arrive
and Robin escapes. He runs into Tuck who helps him to hide. Tuck won the bet.
The
second story was the last of the first season. The story begins with someone we
can’t see singing the 19th Century song “All Around My Hat”: “I
never could refuse her whatever she’d a mind to but now she’s far away, far
away across the sea. So all around my hat I will wear a green willow/ All
around my hat for a twelve month and a day/ If anybody asks me the reason why I
wear it/ It’s all because my true love is far, far away”. It turns out that the
song is in a dream that Prince John is having. Marian arrives at Robin’s camp
to tell him that Prince John has announced that King Richard is dead and that
he will be crowned king the next day. Both Marian and Robin head for London
separately. All they know is that the last courier from King Richard vanished as
soon as he reported to Prince John. Robin poses as a fabric peddler and meets a
maid from the palace. He charms her into inviting him there to watch the ball
from her room. But as she leads the way to her chamber he lags behind and
sneaks off. At the ball Marian tells Robin that she’s learned that John wears a
key to the dungeon around his neck. Robin scales the wall to John’s bedchamber.
John’s jester Jacques gives John a sleeping potion and takes the key from
John’s neck with the intention of killing King Richard’s courier. Robin knocks
him out and takes the key. Robin finds the courier in the dungeon and
recognizes him as having been his father’s courier. Blondel has Richard’s
signet as proof that the king lives. They run to Sally the maid’s room for help
to escape. She’s pissed off but when she learns who he is she helps him. The
coronation is about to take place but the archbishop arrives with Blondel and
reveals that he has learned that Richard is alive. The disappointed Prince John
lets his kingly robe drop to the floor.
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