Selma Vaz Dias

            On Sunday I found the lyrics for “Burrée de complexe” (Buried in Complexes) by Boris Vian and pasted them into a document to begin working on my translation. But I got stuck on the very first rhyme. He introduces the character of Marie France and then indicates that she’s twenty one years old. He rhymes "France" with "ans" (years) but I couldn’t find a rhyme with France off the bat that indicates her age. I could change her name but I think that he’s using her as a metaphor for the nation, and besides, Marie France is a nice name. I'll have to give it some thought.

            I worked out most of the chords for “Aéroplanes" by Serge Gainsbourg.

            I worked on writing about Saturday’s Food Bank Adventure.

            Around midday I started washing the various items that go on the ends of my kitchen bookshelf and putting them back where they were before. To do that I had to go through a lot of the photos I’ve taken of the kitchen that happened to also capture the shelf. Some pictures showed the bottom of the left side, some showed the top; others showed the bottom of the right side and so on. I found out where everything goes but didn’t have time to put it all in place.

            For lunch I had a sliced turkey, cheese and cucumber sandwich.

            In the afternoon I didn’t do my exercises or take a bike ride because I wanted to finish the Food Bank Adventure by dinnertime. I was about ten minutes past dinner when I posted it.

I had a fried egg and a bagel for dinner with a beer while watching The Adventures of Robin Hood.

The first story begins with Robin still away and with Little John in charge of the band. One of the outlaws, Tom is out scouting when he meets a troupe of acrobats on the road. Tom sees them do several impressive tricks and learns they are headed for the Nottingham fair. When he goes back to camp and tells them about them they all  become nostalgic about the fair that they all used to attend before they were outlaws and to which many of their family will go. Little John says they don't have any disguises that the sheriff hasn’t seen. Tom says they could pay the acrobats to use their costumes and so Little John gives in. Herr Mielke agrees to the deal and arranges for the Flying Four to teach Tom, Harry and Will a few acrobatic tricks so they can pretend to be acrobats at the fair. At the fair Madame Zsa Zsa the fortune teller, who knows The Flying Four sees that three of them have been replaced with outlaws and she sells the information to the sheriff. They are arrested and so is Herr Mielke. Robin returns from France and to say the least he is disappointed with the leadership in his absence. He decides to go to Nottingham only with a rope and the three acrobats. None of them speaks a word of English and so Robin has to communicate with sign language. At the Nottingham wall the acrobats climb on top of one another and Robin climbs on them to get over. He only has to knock out one guard and finds another sleeping. He releases the men and they go over the wall but a guard calls the alert. The escapees run into the midway and grab bows and arrows from the shooting gallery to fight off the sheriff and his men.

Madame Zsa Zsa was played by Selma Vaz Dias, who was born in Amsterdam an actor, painter and writer who spoke Dutch, English, French and German. She was in Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes". She wrote a radio adaptation of the novel, “Good Morning Midnight" by Jean Rhys. She played the brothel madam Irma in a production of Jean Genet’s The Balcony during a time when the play was banned in Britain.

Three of the Flying Four were part of a real troupe of British acrobats called The Seven Volants. Johnny Hutch was a performing acrobat in The Seven Hindustans before World War Two and afterwards formed the Five Volants, which eventually became the Seven Volants. They performed before the Queen Mother and her daughters, including the future Queen Elizabeth. Hutch became a regular on the Benny Hill Show.

            In the second story a merchant named Master Judd is travelling through Sherwood Forest with his daughter Bess and a thousand crown dowry. They are being escorted by two of Sir Harold’s soldiers, as Bess is betrothed to Harold. That means that Bess, the merchant's daughter will become the Lady Bess and her father would become Sir Judd, according to an agreement with Prince John. One of Robin’s men, Garth has seen them and seems to have fallen for Bess from the start. Robin, Little John and Garth take out the soldiers but Bess and Judd run for their horses. Bess falls and sprains her ankle while Judd rides away with the dowry and abandons his daughter. Robin and the men are forced to care for Bess and are unable to convince her that Harold is an greedy arsehole who only cares about gold. Garth points out that Harold has been married twice before and both wives had died. Robin's policy is to never ransom women but when Bess insists that Harold would marry her without a dowry he calls her bet and makes an exception. Bess gladly writes a ransom letter to send to Harold demanding one thousand crowns in exchange for her. Meanwhile Garth tries vainly to woo Bess as she finds him repulsive. Robin and Little John help him by shaving his beard and Robin teaches him some courtly manners. The exchange is arranged and Robin is escorting Bess to the location but she breaks free on her horse and rides ahead. Robin follows on foot. She meets Harold and asks him if he would marry her without a dowry and he says that would be impossible. She learns that a trap is being set for Robin and so she rides back to warn his men. Robin is attacked and eventually overwhelmed just as the outlaws arrive to rescue him. They chase away the sheriff’s men. Suddenly Bess wants to marry and conveniently the dowry has been left behind for them.