Diane Jergens

            On Wednesday morning I started editing the chord positions for “Jet Society” by Serge Gainsbourg in Christian's Translations. I should have that and my translation published on the blog tomorrow.

            It looks like the computer chair that I've had for at least the last ten years has died. The height used to stay at the highest but now it immediately sinks down to the lowest so that I'm basically squatting and looking up at the screen. It was bothering my knee. I brought in one of the kitchen chairs and it's better but it's weird not having wheels because I'd gotten so used to the convenience of scooting around the room when I needed to. I guess I'll go to Staples and buy another one but I'll probably wait until the pandemic is over. I hate shopping for things that need deliberation while wearing a mask.

            I weighed 86.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            I put a folded blanket, a pillow and three large books on top of my old computer chair and then put the kitchen chair on top. It looks ridiculous but it gives me wheels in the living room, even though I still can't swivel much. 

            I finished re-reading “Modernism and the Primitive” by David Richards. There are certainly some interesting theories about the psychological effects of abstraction in art. 

            I weighed 85.7 kilos before lunch. I had the rest of the Ritz crackers with five year old cheddar and a glass of raspberry lemonade. 

            I took a siesta and when I got up to pee I had a wicked cramp in my shin. But after I limped back to bed I was able to rest it away. It was raining when I got up so I didn't take a bike ride. The snowbanks will be shrunken down to half size by Thursday but I've read there's another snowstorm coming on Friday. 

            I weighed 86.1 kilos at 16:30. 

            I finished editing the document I'd made from the text of Heart of Darkness. But I only guessed at where the paragraphs begin and end and so I'll have to go over it again with the pdf. 

            I re-read most of Simon Gikandi's “Picasso, Africa, and the Schemata of Difference.” More on the issue of whether or not Picasso was directly influenced by African art. 

            I finished editing the document I'd made from the text of Heart of Darkness. I had most of the paragraphs right but sometime two or three of my paragraphs made up one paragraph in the novella. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with sweet basil marinara sauce, a cut-up burger patty, and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching the penultimate episode of The Addams Family. 

            In this story Morticia's friend Trivia comes to visit. Lurch is immediately smitten with her and she notices but she is obsessed with the idea of being in show business and has no time for romance, although she has no talent. Various family members try to teach Lurch how to attract Trivia. Gomez tries and fails to teach him how to throw a bolo; Fester tries to instruct him in being seductive: “You dropped your handkerchief, how about a date baby?”; Wednesday shows him the latest boss rock and roll dance but once he gets it Lurch can't make his body stop; Morticia suggests he serenade Trivia but changes her mind after she hears him sing; finally Mama gives Trivia a love potion and she begins chasing Lurch. But when Lurch runs away and locks himself in his room Trivia fixates on Gomez. After he runs to tell Morticia she falls for Fester, and then finally goes after Cousin Itt before the potion wears off. After that Trivia returns to her obsession with show business. 

            Trivia was played by Diane Jergens, who in the early 50s toured with Jimmy McHugh and his Singing Starlets. She was later in High School Confidential and The Island of Lost Women.” She was a regular on The Bob Cummings Show and on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. She married Randy Sparks, founder of the New Christy Minstrels and writer of the song “Green Green.” They moved to Northern California where they opened an old-style western saloon called The Hole In the Wall.