Margaret Whiting

            On Saturday morning I finished translating “Barcelone" by Boris Vian.

            I memorized the third verse of “Baby Lou” by Serge Gainsbourg and finished revising my translation of the song.

            I didn’t go to the food bank for the first time since the end of April because now that school has started, writing my Food Bank Adventures cuts into my study time.

            Around midday I went out to shop at the supermarket. The grapes were mostly soft and so I only got one bag and bought two plastic baskets of Ontario peaches instead. I got a pint of strawberries and five Paula Red apples. The cinnamon raisin loaves were $2 each if one bought two and so that’s what I did. I picked up two year old Canadian cheddar, mouthwash, oil soap, Dijon, chili sauce, scotch bonnet sauce, ketchup and a tin of coffee. My cashier wasn't wearing a face mask, even though all the others were. I heard her clear her throat a couple of times. I guess I could have asked her why she wasn’t wearing a mask.

            For lunch I had cheddar, tomato, cucumber and mayonnaise on a toasted pretzel bun.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. In this story the Kingfish, Sapphire and her mother Ramona had planned on taking a holiday at Ramona’s cottage in the Catskills but it got severely flooded. They decided to try to rent it to somebody else and so Kingfish suckered Andy into taking it. At the same time however Sapphire had rented the place to a Mr Jackson. The first night Andy discovers that he must be very tired because he is snoring even before he has fallen asleep. When he pinches his third foot to see if he’s dreaming Jackson wakes up and Andy runs away. Kingfish decides to try to get rid of Jackson because Andy paid more. Andy tries to scare him from the bushes with the sound of a mountain lion but Jackson has a gun and fires. In the end both Andy and Jackson want out of their contracts and so Kingfish and Sapphire go on holiday there after all. The next morning the place floods again as ducks come swimming into the kitchen.

            I keep forgetting to recount two dreams I had earlier in the week.

            In the first there was a very big and muscular Indigenous man walking past my living room window, even though I’m on the second floor. He wasn't any taller than me and he wasn’t flying but I didn't find that curious. I had met him before and was a bit afraid of him. He passed one of my windows and when I watched him through the other he stopped and looked in. He climbed in and noticed that I had bought sandwich fixings and it seems that I had made him a sandwich before because he said, “Make me another sandwich and I'll add five years to your life." I said that the stuff was on the counter and told him to make me one too. Then I woke up.

            In the next morning’s dream I was with my daughter when she was about eight. We were looking at a close up photograph of something circular and flat but slightly rounded on top with crumbs around it. Astrid guessed that it was a cookie and I thought she was right until I realized that it was made out of wood and that the crumbs were sawdust.

            I finished reading "Névé", part one of Icefields by Thomas Wharton. The character of Sara is interesting because she is half Indian and half “Indian”. Her father Viraj came to the Rockies as the servant of an English lord but left him to live with Indigenous people and taking a wife named Athabaska. He named their daughter Saraswati, who is sort of the Hindu equivalent of the goddess Athena. In some stories she is the daughter of Brahma the creator and in others his consort. Also the name Viraj is associated with Brahma and in one story he split himself into male and female parts and the female part was named Viraj.

            It’s also interesting that this story takes place in the Rockies in the Victorian era when much of Romantic literature was obsessed with the concept of the sublime, which was particularly embodied in mountains by such authors as Wordsworth, Byron and Mary Shelley.

            I read a little bit of Beowulf for my Introduction to British Literature course.

            I had started thawing out a pack of frozen ground beef earlier in the day but around 20:00 it was still too frozen to form into patties to grill and so I broke it into four rectangles and put the pieces in the oven. For dinner I had the smallest pieces wrapped in a warmed up naan with chili sauce, Dijon and relish and a beer while watching an episode of The Count of Monte Cristo.

            In this story the count, Jacopo and Rico are riding through Lichtenburg in 1837 on their way to Berlin when they see their friend Baron Franz Wilhelm being attacked by three soldiers. They come to his aid and then go to a tavern where Franz reveals that his betrothed, Princess Anna has issued a proclamation calling for his arrest. The count and his friends leave Franz at the tavern while the count goes to see Anna. Meanwhile when some soldiers come in and bully the customers Franz draws his sword but is captured. The count sneaks into Anna’s chamber and learns that she is being held prisoner by Prince Gustav, the second in line to the throne. He is waiting for Anna’s father King Ludwig to die so he can stage a coup. He has been sowing the seeds of hatred among the people for Anna by making them think that she controls the soldiers. The count goes looking for General Steiger, the leader of the underground by claiming that he and his friends are secret police. They are captured and taken to the catacombs beneath the city where they meet General Steiger and after the count identifies himself as the Count of Monte Cristo they are welcomed. Steiger says that Gustav and his men have ways of knowing every rebel hideout and are waiting for the bells to ring announcing Anna’s ascension to the throne to sweep through the catacombs and destroy the resistance. The count says that the bells must not ring. The count goes to see Gustav, pulls a pistol on him and demands that he take him to Anna in the king’s bedchamber. Jacopo, Rico and Steiger have entered the palace from the catacombs and walk into Gustav’s room. Suddenly the bells begin to ring to announce the king’s death. Steiger tells the count and his friends to go and get Anna out of the palace. Once Steiger and Gustav are alone it is revealed that they are allies and that is Steiger that has leaked all of the rebel hiding places to Gustav. But now Steiger has decided he wants all the power for himself and shoots Gustav. Meanwhile the count discovers that Anna has been taken. They return to the catacombs and find that Steiger has taken Anna there. Anna says she is about to sign the order for her to be declared queen. When the count tells her not to sign the order Steiger and his men draw their swords. He declares his ambition to rule Lichtenburg. The count rubs his ring to signal for Jacopo and Rico to attack. The count duels with Steiger until he disarms him and now Anna can safely ascend to the throne.

            Anna was played by Margaret Whiting, who starred in the TV series “Two Women” and was nominated for a Saturn award for best supporting actress in the 1978 film “Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger”.