James Hong

            On Friday after midnight I did my usual search for bedbugs before going to sleep and for the first time in five days I found one trying to hide in a small depression on the side of the the top right corner of the frame of the old exit door. It didn't have fresh blood inside of it but it wasn't dry inside either. That makes three I've found since September 1. 

            During yoga I was able to raise both arms in front of me and spread them further apart than the day before. I've also got about 10 degrees more bend in my elbow. 

            I almost finished memorizing "La p’tite Agathe" by Serge Gainsbourg. I would have probably nailed it during the ten minutes I'd planned on dedicating to it after song practice but Open Office seemed to crash and all my documents opened empty of text. I tried closing them and reopening them. I tried shutting down Open Office in the Task Manager and managed to do so but everything showed up as barely recognizable icons in the Task Manager. I recognized the Open Office icons and ended the tasks but that didn't help. I was alarmed because I thought I'd lost everything, but finally I restarted the computer and the text returned. 

            I weighed 90.5 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I did my first full shave since before my accident on Friday. It's still somewhat painful to bend my right arm that much and especially on the right side of my face. I found I could manage most of the left side but for the right I had to go slowly with my left hand. It was time consuming and so after shaving and showering there wasn't much time for cleaning the rest of my muffin pan, except for a little bit of the bottom. 

            I weighed 89.7 kilos before lunch. 

            I considered early voting today but decided I'd rather vote on election day, maybe for the same reason I don't open presents on Christmas Eve. The tradition has a hold on me, plus I never found it to be crowded whenever I've gone on election day anyway. Maybe it's because I don't go at rush hour. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Queen's Park and Bloor and then went south to Staples to buy some lecture notebooks and some canned air. I didn't have to buy pens because I still have an unopened pack from last year. Since the British Literature parts 1 and 2 lectures were both asynchronous I was able to stop and start the video and just type my notes. This year even the online course is synchronous and so I wouldn't be able to type as fast as I can write. 

            When I got home I weighed 89.6 kilos with my cargo pants on and 89 kilos in my sweat pants. Yesterday the difference was 0.4 kilos. 

            For my US Literature course I read a 1773 petition by slaves to the city of Boston written as an appeal for freedom. For the same course I read the 1784 poem "On the Emigration to America" by Philip Freneau. He mentions being free from enslavement by priests in Europe and so once again there is that anti-Catholic element. 

            I also read the first scene of Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors" for my Shakespeare course. In the play, Egeon, a merchant from Syracuse has come to Ephesus. He has to pay a fine for that or be put to death. But the duke lets him tell his story before the sentence is carried out. Egeon and his wife had twin babies and also bought two more twins from a poor mother so they could grow up and be servants. But while travelling at sea their boat was split in two by hitting a rock and half of each set of twins ended up with the separated husband and wife. Now Egeon is looking for his wife and the other twin. 

            I had french fries with gravy and a chicken breast for dinner. I'd planned on watching only one episode of Gomer Pyle but the first was so insubstantial that I decided to watch two.

            In the first story Gomer has gotten a bunch of cheap musical instruments by mail order and has chosen to play them rather than go on liberty. But the music is annoying Carter and he tells him to quit. But then Carter gets an idea that since Gomer really does have musical talent this would be his way of getting rid of him. He talks to the sergeant in charge of the marching band and learns they are about to go to Iceland on the first stop of a world tour. Carter begs the sergeant to let Gomer audition and he agrees. The sergeant lends Gomer a tuba to practice with all weekend for his audition on Monday. Carter has to take Gomer off base to practice without annoying everyone. Gomer passes and Carter gets Gomer's transfer papers ready but then he learns Gomer turned the transfer down when he found out he'd be leaving. 

            In the second story one of the members of the platoon has been accepted for officer's training. The men decide to throw him a dinner party as a going away present with Carter as guest speaker. Gomer is in charge of finding a cheap restaurant and he walks into Wong's Pagoda. Mrs Wong is surprised that someone wants chow mein because the place is really a front for gambling that takes place in the kitchen and they aren't really prepared to cook any meals. Mrs Wong tells Gomer he wouldn't like her chow mein but he thinks she just lacks confidence and insists on ordering it. She goes to Mr Wong who is dealing cards in the back and they decide they'll have to make chow mein for the marine in order to get rid of him. He finds it to be delicious and then arranges for a dinner the next night for fourteen people. The Wong's try to disuade Gomer but again he thinks they are showing low self esteem and insists. The Wongs have no choice but to actually function as restauranteurs for one night. They had previously tried running a legitimate place and almost went broke and so gambling has been good to them but they have to take over the kitchen for this dinner and the gamblers all leave. It's such a big success that they may continue serving food instead of taking bets. Mrs Wong was played by Frances Fong whom I've already featured in a blog. 

           Mr Wong was played by character actor James Hong, who was born in Minneapolis and studied Civil Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He became a road engineer in California but did films during time off. His big break came from a guest appearance on Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life on which he did impersonations of Groucho and attracted an agent. When acting started to make money he quit engineering. He is a co-founder of the East West Players theatre company and served as president of the Association of Asian Pacific American Artists. He has had more than 600 acting credits. He played the number one son in the New Adventures of Charlie Chan. He auditioned to play Sulu on Star Trek.