Freya

            On Wednesday morning I memorized the fourth verse of “Barcelone” by Boris Vian. 

            I worked out the chords for the first verse of “Baby Lou” by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            Around midday I moved all of the comics and comic magazines that I’d been keeping in my bedroom and put them back in the credenza in the kitchen. Now I won't work on any home improvement projects such as washing the kitchen floor or sanding the bedroom door until December, because I need to focus on my studies. 

            For lunch I had a toasted pretzel bun with old cheddar. 

            I spent over three hours in the afternoon reading half of Icefields by Thomas Wharton. One small part about a female character sticks out as a bit unrealistic. A woman named Freya refers to another woman in Montreal thinking that she was a vampire. Although Bram Stoker’s Dracula had already been published it was a commercial failure in that era before movies began to portray vampires. I don’t think vampires were enough on anyone’s radar for someone to have such delusions. It would have been more realistic to think of her as a witch. It’s interesting though that Freya inspired more than one false idea about her. Another being that she was a lesbian. This is the second character named after a goddess. Sara is Saraswati the Hindu goddess of healing while Freya is the Norse goddess of pleasure and adventure. 

             For dinner I heated one of the hunks of ground beef I’d grilled on the weekend and had it on a toasted pretzel bun with my last ten oven fries. I had them with a beer while watching The Count of Monte Cristo. 

            This story is set in 1838. Lieutenant Albert Lenz is sentenced to Devil’s Island for treason in a secret trial. Albert’s mother comes to the Count of Monte Cristo for help. The count takes the case because the very fact that the trial was done in secret shows that an injustice has been done. Officers are legally required to have public trials. Lenz is scheduled to be shipped away in three days but even his mother is not allowed to see him. The count and his friends have to break into the prison just to interview Lenz. Before the count, Jacopo and Rico fight their way out the count learns from Lenz that the only evidence presented against him was a forged letter to the Prussian embassy detailing information about French defences. It was Colonel Michelle who brought the evidence forward and Major Du Valle who volunteered to prosecute the case. The count finds Michelle in the middle of a card game. Michelle hints that Lenz may be innocent but that the case is closed. Jacopo and Rico steal the court files on Lenz and the count takes them to newspaper editor Maurice Ronda. He wants Maurice to write an article exposing the fact that Lenz was tried in secret, contrary to law. Just then the guards arrive and after a fight they take the count into custody. But Maurice writes the article and it is read by King Louis Philippe I. He orders the count released and a new and public trial for Lenz. The count acts as Lenz’s defence. When he calls Colonel Michelle to give testimony the colonel draws his gun and commits suicide right there in court. The count asks for an adjournment until the next day. That night the count summons Du Valle to Ronda’s office and reveals that his friends removed several IOUs from Du Valle’s home for large sums of money owed to him by Michelle from card games. The count suggests that Michelle paid those debts by producing evidence against Lenz in order to save Du Valle from suspicion. The count gives Du Valle an opportunity to win the receipts back with a game of Chemin de fer. Chemin de fer means “railroad” and it's a fast type of baccarat. That became popular in the 19th Century. They play a few hands and Du Valle loses every one, each time betting an IOU for the same amount of money on each IOU. In the end Du Valle owes 170, 000 francs. The count tells him that the very fact that he would bet that amount to get the receipts back suggests he has something to hide that the court might be interested in. The next day before court begins Du Valle pays the count the money and is given back the receipts. The count then tells the judge that Du Valle sold secret plans to the Prussians to pay his debts. He says that last night Du Valle was secretly followed by four police officers as he went to the Prussian embassy to secure the money that he owed the count. Just as the count calls the officers forward Du Valle tries to run but is pushed back into the court. Lenz is declared innocent and Du Valle is placed under arrest. 

             Lenz’s mother was played by Everley Gregg, who acted mostly on the London West End stage. She co-starred in the films, "The Private Life of Henry the VIII"; ""Brief Encounter”; and the 1946 "Great Expectations”. In the 1950s she began appearing on television.