The Factory

            On Saturday after midnight I did my usual search for bedbugs and saw none. I found one sick or dead one on Friday morning, a day after the pest control treatment on Wednesday and that makes four since September 1. 

            I memorized the first chorus of "U.S.S.R. / U.S.A." by Serge Gainsbourg and reworked my translation. I found there were two verses that I hadn't translated at all. In my translation I've tried to update the song and since the USSR no longer exists I wanted to find ways to use the name "Russia" instead. 

            I weighed 88.6 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I went out to No Frills where the only grapes they had were green and the peaches and nectarines were $2 more a basket than they were last week. It's the time of year for apples and so I decided I'd get some. The loose apples were not in great shape but they looked better in the bags and so I got a bag of Macintosh and another of Gala. I also bought a strawberry-rhubarb pie, a pack of three striploin steaks, two containers of Greek yogourt and some orange juice. 

            I weighed 89.6 kilos before lunch. I had Breton crackers with five year old cheddar and a glass of lemonade. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. At Yonge and Dundas someone was arguing with one of the evangelists who kept on telling him he was forgiven. There is no logical argument against any belief and so it's a waste of time trying. I weighed 89 kilos when I got home.

            Before settling in at home I went out to the liquor store and got a six pack of Creemore.

            I finished reading Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors." All of the characters accidentally come together in the end as the twins meet when their father is about to be put to death and the abbess at the nearby nunnery is revealed to be their long lost mother. We'll be working on this play next week and the week after.

            For my US Lit course I have to finish reading the 600 page autobiography of Frederick Douglass by Tuesday. I'm not quite a third of the way through. I read a few more chapters. Douglass talks about having been sold to another master and sent from the plantation to Baltimore. He says there is a striking difference between the treatment of plantation slaves and city slaves. On the farm there is less food and more beatings whereas in the cities there is a culure that compels slave owners to keep their slaves well fed. He talks about how his new mistress was kind towards him at first and started teaching him to read but her kindness had resulted from having never had slaves before. As she became used to commanding slaves she became more and more cruel and tried to deny him the opportunity to be literate. 

            I made pizza on naan with Napolese sauce and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching Gomer Pyle. 

            This story sees the return of the colonel's daughter Janice although it treats Gomer and Janice as only having met once before. They actually dated twice and each time had a great experience. The colonel specifically asks Carter to have Gomer take his daughter out because Gomer is safe. Gomer's plan that Janice's parents have approved is to take her to a movie, then for a hot fudge sundae and then home. But as soon as they are out the door of her parentts' house Janice asks Gomer for the keys to the car. She drives like a maniac and not to the movie theatre but to a gogo club which is packed with hippies and beatnik types. She says she's never been to this type of place and insists they go in. When Gomer says they aren't dressed like everyone else Janice pulls off her dress to reveal underneath a horizontle striped tight top and a tight black mini skirt. Inside everyone is doing the frug and the place is so crowded that Gomer loses Janice. He leaves and goes back to the base to fetch Sergeant Carter who comes to help look for Janice. Gomer finds Janice just as she's leaving with some friends she's just made. She tells him to follow them to Eddy's place. Eddy's place is in an apartment building where the landlady is threatening to write the newspaper and her congressman about the noise. There is more dancing until the cops arrive. Both Carter and Gomer take the blame but then Janice says it was her fault but finally the colonel says it's his fault for not giving his daughter more freedom. 

            At the party Gomer is accosted by a beatnik played by Rob Reiner who says he's going into the service soon and wants to ask him some questions. He says he's having trouble figuring out who he is but Gomer tells him that won't be a problem because they will give him dog tags with his name on them. The guy also wonders if he'll have trouble communicating in the Marines and Gomer answers, "Not if you keep your mouth shut." 

            The landlady was played by Bella Bruck. 

            Janice's mother was played by Grace Albertson, who costarred in "Arson Squad." Her youngest daughter and her father died in a car accident in 1956 when her daughter lost control of her car. 

            The band at the go go club was the real band The Factory with members such as Lowell George, who later became a member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention and went on to form Little Feet. Other members were Warren S. Klein, who became a member of Fraternity of Man and also played with Iggy and the Stooges for a short time. Another member was Martin F. Kibbee, who was also a member of Fraternity of Man and co-wrote songs with Lowell George that were played by Little Feet. They wrote the song "Don't Bogart Me" which was featured in the film Easy Rider.