Robert Nichols

            On Monday morning my cold was a week old. It no longer hurt when I swallowed but I was still a little hoarse and couldn't hit all the high notes during song practice. It feels like I'm over the worst of it but it seems to be lingering longer than usual. 

            I memorized the second verse of “Jet Society” by Serge Gainsbourg and adjusted my translation a bit. “Jet Society” is a nickname the speaker has given to the lover being addressed but it seems like an awkward thing to call someone because it doesn't roll off the tongue that well. It's spoken more quickly in French and so it flows a little better but even in French it just feels off. It makes more sense and sounds better to call someone “Jet Set” and since “Society” doesn't require any rhymes I think I'll change my translation to “Jet Set.” 

            I weighed 85.9 kilos before breakfast. 

            I read some more of Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih. Mustafa, after telling the narrator the story of his destructive seductions of women in England, is drowned in a flood of the Nile, perhaps in a suicide. Later in Khartoum, the narrator is haunted by the phantom of Mustafa because he keeps meeting people who knew him as a great man but know nothing of his dark past.

            I weighed 85.4 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon the roads were snowy again so I decided not to risk my neck by taking a bike ride. I also chose to skip doing any exercises at home. One day won't be a disaster. 

            I weighed 85.5 kilos at 17:00. 

            I read Laura Winkiel's essay “Modernism and Empire.” She says the study of English literature was a colonial pursuit whereas in England the focus was on classical literature. 

            I read more of Season of Migration to the North. There's a funny section where old Sudanese Muslims, including an old woman, are talking very explicitly about their sexual history. 

            I tried to find the essay "Modernism and the Primitive" by David Richards because our instructor hasn't posted it yet and I might need it for my presentation. I found a site that had part of it but it was a tedious process copying it because the format was not really meant to be copied so I had to copy it one page at a time and reformat it a few words at a time. 

            I had a potato with gravy and my last slice of roast pork while watching an episode of The Addams Family. 

            In this story, Morticia's sister Ophelia is in love but her mother doesn't approve of Horatio Bartholomew. She brings him to meet the Addamses. Gomez checks up on Horatio with a financial company and they've never heard of him. Morticia and Gomez set about trying to prove Horatio wrong for Ophelia even though he's crazy about her and even likes it when she judo throws him across the room. Gomez tries to defeat Horatio with swords but loses badly. Finally, they learn they made a mistake and Horatio is the second richest man in the world. They welcome him to the family but when he hears about Gomez doing zen yogi and Fester hanging from the ceiling he decides he doesn't want to be part of the family after all. 

            Horatio was played by Robert Nichols, who worked in theatre, film, and television for over 70 years. He started entertaining in the army during WWII. After the war, although he was from the US he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art while working as a song and dance man at The Victorian Music Hall. He appeared in his first film “I Was A Male War Bride” in 1949, which was shot in West Germany. Shortly after that, he was deported from the United Kingdom because he didn't have a work permit. Returning to California he met his future wife on her 19th birthday and married her two months later. He enjoyed a successful career on and off-Broadway from the 1960s on.