John Byner

            On Saturday morning I ran through my translation of the song “Juif et Dieu” (God and Jews) by Serge Gainsbourg and then I uploaded it to Christian’s Translations. I should have it published on the blog tomorrow. 

            I video-recorded most of my song practice and audio-recorded all of it. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday, I went down to No Frills where I bought seven bags of red grapes, a strawberry-rhubarb pie, Sunlight dish detergent, salsa, skyr, paper towels, and a large reusable bag.

            After bringing my groceries home I went back out to the liquor store to buy a six-pack of Creemore. But the cold beer room didn’t have any six-packs and so I grabbed a twelve. Once again the twelve rang up at the checkout as more than twice the cost of a six-pack and so I asked why. The cashier said, “Oh, you want two six-packs?” and then he went and got a six-pack from the warm shelves, scanned it twice, and then sold me the twelve for almost $2 less than had rung up before. 

            I weighed 85.4 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. It was a much cooler day than the last few but I warmed up as I moved. It seemed colder when riding north. 

            I weighed 84.6 kilos at 17:15. 

            I went out to buy lemons because I would be cooking salmon later. 

            I got caught up on my journal at 19:44. 

            I uploaded the videos that I shot this morning. I’ve been adjusting the height of the camera a little bit higher each morning so the lower part of my face is not covered by the microphone. This time I also tilted it down a bit so the bottom of my guitar is shown. It looks like I finally found the right camera position. 

            I fried a salmon fillet and a roti that got too crispy in the oven and had it with a beer while watching eight episodes of The Ant and the Aardvark. 

            This cartoon is from the 1960s but I never saw it, perhaps because it wasn’t produced by the US networks we got. We had three channels. One was CBC, and the other was in Presque Isle, Maine, while the other was PBS. The Ant and the Aardvark was apparently part of the Pink Panther Cartoon Show. 

            The basic premise was similar to that of the Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote cartoons. A predator is after a smarter and much more lucky prey and uses various techniques and gadgets that ultimately backfire. The main differences are that the ant and the aardvark can talk and there are jokes with a laugh track. 

            The voices of the ant and the aardvark and a few other rarely appearing characters are done by master impressionist John Byner. The aardvark’s voice was clearly an impression of Jackie Mason and the ant was performed as if Dean Martin was playing a hipster. 

            One unique thing about the show was that it had a jazz soundtrack and for the first time in an animated series the musicians were credited. 

            In the second story, the aardvark tries to use something called “Instant Hole” to catch the ant but he keeps getting trapped in his own hole. 

            In the third story, the aardvark disguises his tongue like a red carpet leading to a club inside his mouth. The ant goes inside and parties with others that absurdly just happen to be there, smoking cigars that cause the aardvark to get sick. 

            In the fourth story, the aardvark finally catches the ant but has competition from another aardvark who takes Charlie away from him. They keep tricking and trapping one another to get the ant until finally, they stick their noses down two side-by-side anthills only to get them tied together in a knot. 

            In the fifth story, the aardvark builds a computer from a kit and it gives him a lot of failing ways to catch the ant. In the end, the device tells him it’s not a computer but rather a toaster. 

            In the seventh story, the aardvark tries to catch the ant at the beach but the lifeguard keeps mistaking him for a dog and throwing him out. 

            In the eighth story Charlie the ant does not appear. The aardvark is on a desert island and sees ants through a telescope on a nearby island. He keeps trying to cross but is always foiled by a shark.

            This cartoon was apparently very popular in its day and yet only seventeen six-minute episodes were made. I’ll watch the rest tomorrow. 

            As I said, John Byner did the main voices. His first television appearance was on Ed Sullivan, doing an impression of Ed Sullivan. He was also famous for doing impressions of John Wayne, Dean Martin, and Johnny Mathis. On "Get Smart" he imitated President Lyndon Johnson. In 1970 he hosted a variety show called Something Else. In 1972 he had the John Byner Show which introduced Super Dave Osborne. In 1976 he had a recurring role on the sitcom The Practice. In the late seventies, he played Detective Donahue on Soap. 

            He was cast to play Mork from Ork on “Mork and Mindy” but he rejected the part because he thought it was ridiculous. Robin Williams was called in at the last minute and the rest is history. I doubt if Byner could have made the show a hit the way Williams did and so perhaps his instincts were right on. 

            From 1980 to 1986 he hosted and starred in the Canadian sketch comedy series Bizarre, which reintroduced Super Dave. He played Doc on Stroker Ace. He was a regular on Hollywood Squares. From 2017 to 2019 he played Patrick Boland in the horror series Lore. 

            I did a search for bedbugs before bed and didn’t find any for the first time since the pest control guy spread the dust around two days before.