Charles Addams

            On Tuesday morning I memorized the second verse of “Bambou” by Serge Gainsbourg and made some more revisions to my translation. 

            I weighed 88 kilos before breakfast. I had time to eat some grapes and take a few sips of coffee before leaving for the final US Lit lecture. It was quite cold, plus I rode slowly so as not to strain my knee.

           Professor Morgenstern started the lecture by commenting that it was a decimated room.                          She confirmed what I suspected and said she was from the States when she talked about having had to pledge allegiance to the flag when she was a kid. She became a Canadian citizen in 2013. The thirty-something student behind me who argued with several points I'd made is from New York and talked about the same thing. I had arguments to defeat his arguments but there was no time. After the final class ended I started applauding Professor Morgenstern. Often students clap for the lecturer on the last day but this time I was the only one. It was kind of embarrassing. Maybe it's a third and fourth-year thing to applaud. I forget if second-year students had gotten into the habit yet. 

            I asked her why Sherman Alexie hadn't been canceled for sexual harassment. She said his behaviour had no bearing on the story and if we canceled him we'd have to cancel Edgar Allan Poe and many others. I agree but it seems odd then that some people are canceled and some not for the same behavior. 

            I told Professor Morgenstern that I enjoyed her lectures and that I thought she was a very good moderator of discussion. I was impressed with how she would put people's comments into other words.

            I weighed 87.3 kilos before lunch. 

            I weighed 87.5 at 18:00. 

            I expanded my shorthand typing for the November 23 US Literature lecture and most of the November 24 Shakespeare lecture. It's very time-consuming and took me up until dinner time. 

            I had a potato with gravy and my last two chicken drumsticks while watching an episode of The Addams Family. 

            In this story Lurch's mother is coming to visit but he is upset. He confesses to Morticia and Gomez that he told his mother that he was the master of the house. They decide to help him out. Mama, the children, and Fester go to stay in the cottage, while Morticia and Gomez pretend to be Lurch's maid and butler. But they regret their decision after Lurch's mother arrives as she is extremely demanding and does not trust the servants. Eventually, Lurch begins to believe he really is the master of the house and when Mrs. Lurch tells him to fire Morticia and Gomez he does so. Morticia and Gomez move into the cottage. Mama and Fester go to pretend they are the neighbours and put in a good word for Morticia and Gomez but as soon as Mrs. Lurch sees them she thinks they are the new maid and butler that she'd called the agency for. She automatically trusts Mama and Fester and says now she can go home. It takes a while for Morticia and Gomez to deprogram Lurch so that he acts like a butler again. 

            The Addams Family was created by Charles Addams who started trying to become a cartoonist for The New Yorker as soon as he was out of art school. He submitted cartoons until they took him on and he stayed until he died in 1988. He published over 1,300 cartoons. He was friends with Alfred Hitchcock and in North By Northwest three characters are described as being drawn by Charles Addams. He was also a friend of Ray Bradbury after illustrating the cover of his story “Homecoming” about a family of vampires.