Grendel

            On Sunday morning I memorized the first verse of “Barcelone” by Boris Vian and had all but the last verse of “Baby Lou” by Serge Gainsbourg nailed down.

            Around midday I washed the inside of the credenza in the kitchen.

            For lunch I had a cheddar and tomato sandwich with mayonnaise on a toasted pretzel bun.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. Suddenly their sponsor is Studebaker with Mike Douglas hawking the product. The main bragging point in the commercials was that Studebaker was the winner of the Mobile Gas Economy Run for 1954 and 1955.

            The story was recycled. Sapphire’s mother literally throws Kingfish out and down the stairs and Sapphire gets a job. When Kingfish comes to get his things he finds brand new men's clothes in the closet. He figures that Sapphire is seeing another man. He tries to figure out what kind of man he is up against by looking at the clothes but all the clothes are different sizes. The slippers are far bigger than the shoes so he figures the man must work on his feet and by evening they puff up. He concludes that he couldn’t work for the government. The fact is that Sapphire has a job as a comparative shopper for a department store. She goes to other department stores and buys clothes. Hr boss does not want her to bring the items into the store and so he says he will pick them up. But when her boss comes Kingfish thinks it’s Sapphire's new man and he knocks him down the stairs and burns the clothes in the furnace. When Kingfish hears that there is a John Doe warrant for him he convinces Andy that he hit Sapphire's boss and that he should turn himself in. But just then Amos, the voice of reason arrives and sets Andy straight. Amos organizes the lodge brothers to raise the money to pay for the clothes. Kingfish tries to turn over a new leaf and be nice to Sapphire and her mother. But when Sapphire and her mother start arguing and Kingfish tries to avoid a fight they say “How dare you accuse us of fighting" and Ramona tosses him down the stairs again.

            I took a bike ride since it was a warm day and I might be too busy later in the week. In front of the Eaton Centre at Dundas there was a young man drumming while a young woman danced. A little further down a young woman was tap dancing to recorded rap music. On Queen Street near Spadina there was a guy on a hoverboard wearing a plastic face shield under what looked like the kind straw hat that East Asian rice pickers wear.

            I read a few pages of Beowulf up until just after he tears off Grendel's hand and the Danes are celebrating his victory. The story assumes Grendel dies after running away but I didn’t read any mention of them finding the body. Apparently later Beowulf will find Grendel’s body and cut off his head for a trophy. he also battles Grendel's mother. I suspect that Grendel and his mother were historically Neanderthals.

            For dinner I heated one of the hunks of ground beef I’d cooked the night before and a naan and had them with a beer while watching an episode of The Count of Monte Cristo.

            In this story a man named Citizen Borner and his partner La Drue have come to Burgundy under the pretence of helping the grape growers pay less taxes. Borner’s cause requires money although he claims the farmers support him on a voluntary basis. But in reality La Drue is Borner’s henchman who demands a higher tribute from the farmers than they paid in taxes. Philippe is a young grape farmer who protests this arrangement and is beaten by La Drue. Philippe goes to Paris to ask for help from the Count of Monte Cristo. The count goes to Burgundy posing as a grape grower from Toulouse named Vasson. Vasson pretends to believe in Borner’s cause and begins to work for him. Meanwhile Jacopo brings the count information that Borner and La Drue are scam artists who have used the same con in several cites through France. Vasson becomes a collector for Vasson and brings in an impressive amount of money. He then reveals to Borner that he knows he is a fraud and reveals that he himself has been running similar scam. He asks to me made a partner in the business. But La Drue learns that Vasson is really the Count of Monte Cristo. Borner and La Drue prepare to clear out but first Borner sets a time bomb for 15:00 when the count is scheduled to arrive. But Jacopo has been watching and listening through the window. Before Borner and La Drue can leave, the count and Rico come in through the window and stop them. La Drue draws his sword and he and the count duel while Rico keeps Borner from leaving. One thing about this show is the fencing is at least as good as it was in Zorro. They put more into the battle scenes than they do in writing the stories. The count disarms La Drue and Pierre and some other grape farmers arrive. Borner says there is a bomb in the other room about to explode but the count won’t let him leave until he confesses. He does so and then the count tells him that Jacopo already disarmed the bomb.

            I don’t recall ever seeing a depiction of a time bomb in a 19^th Century period piece but apparently the revolutionaries tried to use a submarine time bomb against a British ship in 1776. The operation failed, although the bomb might have gone off but not where it was supposed to. The Confederates successfully used a time bomb to sabotage Ulysses S Grant’s headquarters in 1864.