Marianne Benet

            On Wednesday morning I discovered that a bar chord that I’ve been playing for years was not what I thought it was. If fully barred it would have been F minor sharp fifth but I realized that I’ve never been able to reach the low E string when I played the chord and so it was really C sharp.

            I started working out the chords for "Raccrochez c'est une horreur!” (Hang Up! You’re a Horror!” by Serge Gainsbourg.

            Around midday I washed the wall behind the two drawer filing cabinet in the kitchen and the east end of the radiator casing. Next I have a bunch of stuff to do around the credenza before I pull it out so I can wash the floor where it’s sitting. First I have to take one more crack at making that big screen monitor that I found work. If it doesn’t I'll put it outside so it’s not taking up space in front of the credenza.

            For lunch I had a sausage, cheddar, tomato and lettuce sandwich on a toasted pretzel bun.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. This story was from September 1954 and the beginning of their last season, although I don’t think that they knew that. Their new sponsor was CBS Columbia television sets. I didn’t know that the Columbia Broadcasting System tried to make televisions. In the story Sapphire’s rich uncle has invited Sapphire, Sapphire’s mother and Kingfish to visit for two weeks at his home in Florida. The problem is that they don't have any money to travel but Kingfish thinks he’s solved the problem when he buys a second hand trailer to hitch to the back of his car. Everything is compact inside and overlapping. For instance, the stove is under the bed so one can use the bedsprings as a grill. Kingfish invites Andy to come along to share expenses and they set off. But the trailer hitch is faulty and one day when Sapphire and her mother are in the car while Kingfish and Andy are asleep in the trailer, Sapphire looks back to see that the trailer is gone. Andy and Kingfish wake to find that the trailer is sitting on a railroad track and they get out just before the train hits and the trailer is smashed into pieces. They drive back to New York and Kingfish decides to sell his car for $300 so that with the addition of Ramona’s money they can buy train tickets to Florida. But when he gets home after doing so he hears that Ramona has rented a trailer for Kingfish’s car to haul to Florida.

            I took a bike ride. On Bloor Street west of Dufferin they have mounted tall metal posts in long concrete blocks to keep cars from crossing into the new bike lane. Chances are these won’t be knocked down like the plastic posts that line the lane east of Shaw.

            At Queen and Bay I saw that the homeless man and his tent are gone. Hopefully he found a better habitation arrangement and left by choice. He had been there for a long time without a tent but when he got one he sure did accumulate a lot of stuff. Apparently the city’s policy is that they do not remove a person’s tent unless they have a shelter space to offer them. But if they make the offer and the homeless person refuses to go there the tent is still removed.

            I had a fried egg, two sausages and a warmed up naan for dinner with a beer while watching two episodes of The Adventures of William Tell.

            In the first story William Tell brings his son Walter to the school run by Friar Jules. He tells the brother not to be afraid to give him a good beating when he deserves it. Suddenly the Austrian soldiers arrive to try to shut down the school but Friar Jules and William Tell beat them up and send them away. Landburgher Gessler blames the abbot of the local monastery for training Jules as a teacher. He would shut down the monastery but the brothers there make a delicious drink that he loves made from wine and herbs. If he can force the abbot to give him the recipe then he can shut it down. Gessler goes to the monastery and intends to stay there until the abbot gives him the recipe. The abbot welcomes him and at dinner Gessler offers to make the monastery exempt from taxation in exchange for the recipe, but the abbot refuses. Gessler then threatens to enslave all of the abbot's students if he is not given the recipe, but the abbot says it’s impossible. Gessler orders the students locked in the cellar and chained for travelling. That night William Tell and several of his comrades arrive disguised as hooded monks in white robes. Tell wakes Gessler and forces him to sign a declaration exempting the monastery from taxation, freeing it from harassment and allowing the schools to continue. Later Gessler gets Tell’s sword from him and is about to run him through while a guard is holding him but tell spins the guard around to receive the thrust. Later Gessler tells the abbot to give him back the document because it was signed under duress but he is told it is already on the way to the cardinal in Milan. Gessler would not want the cardinal to complain to the emperor that he is not a man of his word and so Gessler must leave the monastery alone.

            In the second story, Waldmann the leader of a village accuses a young woman named Dagmar of collaborating with the Austrians. She travels into the mountains and afterwards the enemy always has information about the operations of the resistance. Since Dagmar refuses to say where she goes she is dragged from the house where she lives with her father and mother and they prepare to hang her. William Tell just happens to be nearby and he stops the execution. After a fist fight that Waldmann loses he agrees to let Dagmar go. Tell visits with Dagmar and her father and he learns that her mother is very ill. There are special herbs that the family gathers to ease her suffering. When leaving, Tell casually leaks the information of an arms delivery at a specific place and time. That night the soldiers are indeed waiting to ambush them. The next day Waldmann arrests Dagmar but decides that there will be no ordinary trial. She is to undergo the Ordeal of being placed in a barrel and rolled off the cliff into Devil’s Drop. If she survives she will be declared innocent, although she would probably spend the rest of her life as a cripple. A young man named Ludwig comes forward and confesses that he is in love with Dagmar and because of that he watches her house all night long. He swears he did not see her leave the house and so she could not have met with the Austrians. Waldmann dismisses Ludwig as just trying to cover for her out of lovesickness. Meanwhile Tell sees Dagmar’s father Gaston climbing the hill and follows him. He sees him meeting with an Austrian soldier and receiving a small sack. Tell attacks the soldier but when the Austrian gets the upper hand, Gaston tosses Tell his sword. He explains that the herbs needed for his wife’s medicine are not available on the Swiss side and so he did trade information in exchange for a soldier collecting the herbs from the Austrian side. Tell stops Waldmann from putting Dagmar in the barrel. Dagmar’s mother drags herself out of bed to defend her daughter and dies right there. Dagmar knew that her father was selling information in exchange for the herbs but refused to rat on him. I would think that any real resistance movement would consider her complicit but in this story they decide that the family has suffered enough already and they are forgiven.

            Dagmar was played by Marianne Benet, of whom there are lots of photos online but not much information. She was born in Spain and appeared in “Shake Hands with the Devil”, “The Boy Who Stole a Million”, and “A Terrible Beauty”.

            Her mother was played by Sheila Raynor, who played Alex’s mother in A Clockwork Orange”.