Amrita Sher-Gil

            On Saturday morning my phone rang at around 5:30 while I was doing yoga. I saw it was my landlord’s number and he was probably calling to scream while blaming me for the leaking downstairs that was caused by his faulty drain.

            I finished memorizing “Laide jolie laide” (Ugly Pretty Ugly) by Serge Gainsbourg. There is a line or two near the end that are repeated, and I may not have memorized the sequence but that’s not important since I know the lines. 

            I weighed 87.6 kilos before breakfast. 

            Benji knocked on my door and told me that this morning our upstairs neighbour Caesar called the landlord to complain that Benji had turned the heat off all day yesterday. The thermostat battery had died. Nobody turned the heat off.

            Around midday I went to No Frills where I bought eight bags of grapes, a bag of oranges, a carton of soymilk, and two bags of kettle chips. 

            For lunch I heated a slice of spinach pizza with added five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of raspberry lemonade. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Bloor and Ossington. It was minus four out and so there’d been some more melting of snow and the way was fairly clear. 

            I weighed 87.1 kilos at 17:00. 

            I got caught up on my journal at 18:30. 

            I read some more of The Triumph of Modernism. The chapter on Amrita Sher Gil is very interesting. She was half Hungarian and half Indian and fiercely independent. It really reminded me of how strong-willed all the Hungarian women I’ve known are. She was one of the greatest female artists of the early 20th Century and a pioneer of Indian Modernism. Her family moved from Hungary to India when she was eight. She began painting at an early age. She studied art in Paris and began to gain recognition and many lovers like Malcolm Muggeridge. When she returned to India, she began a project of studying her roots and of doing modernist paintings of rural people in their ordinary lives. She died at the age of 28. 

                      

           

            I began re-reading out loud Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih. 

            I found out that starting Tuesday our Global Modernisms classes will be in person. That’s a relief. 

            I thawed out two slices of spinach pizza that my upstairs neighbour David gave me last month. I added a little sauce and some extra-old cheddar and heated them in the oven. I had them for dinner with a beer while watching an episode of Adam-12.

            In this story the character of Ed Wells is introduced. He’s a “heroic” cop who fearlessly rushes into dangerous situations and by dumb luck he tends to win. Reed is very impressed with Wells and that has Malloy worried because he wants his partner to continue living. 

            Adam-12 gets called to a domestic dispute in which the husband has a gun. Malloy and Reed arrive on the scene and Wells and his partner come in as back-up. It’s supposed to be Malloy’s call and he starts to plan things out carefully with someone going around to the back door. But Wells just decides to take over and kicks down the door. The husband fires wide because he’s drunk, and Wells easily takes him down. Malloy gets in trouble with the sergeant for letting Wells take charge. 

            Next Malloy and Reed respond to a report of a man chasing a young boy. Malloy handcuffs the man, but it turns out that he’s the boy’s father and the kid ran away because they were on their way to the barbershop. 

            Next there is a call for Wells and his partner to deal with a man with a gun who is holed up in a house. Malloy decides to come in as backup. Wells charges toward the house and is immediately taken out by a shotgun. Malloy takes charge, first to get Wells out of there where he is lying on the lawn. Malloy takes off his leather jacket and has Reed do the same. They use them to cover the back, side windows of their car and then he has Reed lie down in the back. Malloy drives the car onto the lawn between Wells and the shooter. Shots are fired through their jackets. Malloy gets Wells in the back seat with Reed and then they drive to safety. Malloy then takes command of all the cars that arrive. He has some direct traffic away from the area and others evacuate the houses across the street. He calls for an ambulance and for the sergeant to come with tear gas. When the sergeant arrives, he uses the loudspeaker to warn the shooter of what they are about to do if he does not come out. The shooter comes out. Malloy and Reed are praised by the sergeant for their level-headedness. Malloy and Reed go to visit Wells in the hospital. Outside of his ward, they talk with Ed’s wife Betty who thanks Malloy. Inside they get no thanks from Wells who has learned nothing. He just thinks he’ll be luckier next time and is about to tell one of his many “heroic” stories about his exploits as a cop when Malloy and Reed leave. 

            Wells was played by Bing Crosby’s oldest son Gary, who was the most successful of the Crosby boys. Two of his brothers committed suicide. 

            Betty Wells was played by Barbara Baldavin, who played Angela Martine on Star Trek. She played Nurse Holmby on Medical Center. She became a casting director for Trapper John MD.