James Franciscus

            On Thursday morning I memorized the third verse of "Sans blague" (No Joke) by Boris Vian. 

            I memorized the fourth verse of "J'envisage" (I Imagine) by Serge Gainsbourg and finished revising my translation. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            I re-read aloud about half of the Old English poem "Judith". It seems fairly obvious that it's meant to be Christian propaganda and not really of pre-Christian origin. It's interesting that no one is really visually described other than to say that the enemies are drunk and the hero is beautiful. Most of the adjectives are simplistic descriptions of internality. The hero is good and the enemy is bad and these qualities are described in various and sometimes repeated ways. 

            I weighed 85 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 84.2 kilos at 17:30. 

            I was caught up on my journal at around 18:15. 

            I finished reading "Judith." It's pretty violent, and during the battle, when the enemy is in retreat they are attacked from behind. Then when they are dead, the good guys loot their treasures, and this is all presented as Christian behaviour. 

            I read the first branch and about half of the second branch of the collection of Welch tales called the Mabinogi. There is a lot of magic that isn't even called magic but is just treated as normal. King Sage is hunting with his dogs when he sees someone else's dogs take down a stag. The dogs are white with red ears. Sage allows his dogs to also eat the deer but then the other king arrives and says that's rude. Sage asks how he can make it up to him and the king tells him how. The king is the ruler of the Otherworld and he asks Sage to replace him for one year. He makes him look like him and himself look like Sage. The thing is that in one year the king must fight a duel. But the king of the Otherworld has fought this man before and made the mistake of striking him twice, which causes him to recover. Now that he knows this it can't be reversed and so someone else needs to act on it. Sage spends a year as the other king and sleeps with the other queen without having sex. After a year he successfully fights the duel and the Otherworld is saved. 

            Then Sage sees a woman on horseback and tries to get his servants to catch her with his fastest horse, but there is magic and she is always ahead. Finally, Sage tries to catch her but also can't. Then he calls out to her and she stops to ask why he didn't do that in the first place. Her name is Rhiannon and she wants to marry him but there's a guy trying to force her to be with him. She says she'll marry him in one year, after a wedding feast. But a year later at the feast, a man approaches Sage for a favour and without knowing what it is, Sage tells him he'll grant him whatever he wants. Rhiannon tells Sage he's an idiot because that guy is the one that wants to marry her and now Sage has to let him. Rhiannon tells the other guy she'll marry him in one year and then tells Sage what to do then. At the wedding feast in a year, Sage comes in disguise with a magical sack that can't be filled. He asks the guy for food to fill the sack and it is granted but it can't be filled. He is told that a noble has to step on the stuff in the sack and so he does. When he does so the sack is pulled over him and tied. Then everyone is told there is a badger inside and so the guests play beat the badger. Sage and Rhiannon get married and in those days there was no ceremony, so after the feast the couple just had sex to be wed. She has a baby after three years but it disappears. The baby's caregivers cover their asses by pouring blood on Rhiannon and claiming that she ate her own son. She pleads guilty to avoid hassle and is punished by having to sit outside the gate of the castle and offer to carry on her back anyone on their way to court. Meanwhile, another couple finds Rhiannon's son and raises him as their own but when they realize that it looks like Sage they know that it's the missing boy. So they return him and are rewarded with great wealth and told they could raise the boy anyway. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast pork while watching the penultimate episode of the first season of Ben Casey. John Wickware has been in a near catatonic state for eight months. Before that, he was a chemist and a genius. John changed while his wife Betty was away for one day. Betty is trying to stick by him but her parents want John committed. John has an accident and hits his head, so he is taken to County General. 

            Casey is convinced that there is something physically wrong with John but none of the tests show it. He thinks something must have happened to him on the day when Betty went away. Dr. Zorba orders John to be taken to the psychiatric ward. John begins to write down simple math equations and that shows a small improvement. Zorba is not impressed and orders John committed. But Casey and the psychiatrist try one more thing. The psychiatrist hypnotizes Johnny and takes him back in his memory to just before he changed. It turns out that he was working on his car in the garage with the motor running and the doors closed and got carbon monoxide poisoning. Now that Casey knows the problem he can tell John's wife that it's just a matter of time before John gets better on his own. 

            It seems unrealistic that a chemical genius would make the mistake of working on his car in a closed space with the motor running. 

            Betty was played by Carol Eve Rossen, who played supporting roles in several movies and TV series. She was married for 17 years to Hal Holbrook. 

                        John was played by James Franciscus, who co-starred in the 1961 TV series The Investigators. He starred for two seasons in Mr. Novak, about a school teacher. In 1971 he starred in Longstreet, about a blind detective. He co-produced the movies Heidi, David Copperfield, and Jane Eyre. 

            I looked for bedbugs and found another that was the same age as the small ones I found last night. This one was in a crack in the plaster on the left side of the frame of the old exit door. Then I saw a tiny one that looked almost transparent like glass. Neither of them had fresh blood inside.

September 30, 1992: A woman with a strange accent claiming to be dominant left me a message

Thirty years ago today

            I got a call on Wednesday morning from the Central Tech teacher that I was scheduled to work for in the afternoon. He told me that it was going to be a shortened day and so I would only be working for an hour, but I would have to come in at noon instead of 12:40. I worked until 13:00 and then went home. I called Mike Copping and told him that I wouldn't be free until 22:00 and he said that was too late. We made a tentative date for the following Wednesday. I left home at 18:00 for the Ontario College of Art. I worked for Ross Mendez, and I was surprised that he didn't remember me. He said either that he remembered my poses or that he would remember my poses. We talked about Leonard Cohen. There was a student in his class who I'd taken some pictures of six years before and she remembered me. I went home and checked out Telepersonals. There was a woman with a strange accent who left a message claiming to be dominant and left her number. I planned on calling her on Thursday.

Eddie Albert

            On Wednesday morning I memorized the second verse of "Sans blague" (No Joke) by Boris Vian. 

            I memorized the third verse of "J'envisage" (I Imagine) by Serge Gainsbourg and adjusted my translation. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos before breakfast but I only had time to eat two apples and drink a cup of coffee before leaving for English in the World class. 

            To avoid the construction on College I took the Bloor bike lane to Huron and then went south to Bancroft. That route doesn't seem to take much more time. 

            Chuanqi was just walking toward the classroom when I got there. We discussed poetry and he said he would never read his poetry out loud. I said poetry comes from an oral tradition and even if you don't read your work in public it improves it to hear how it sounds during the writing process. Frank arrived and argued that poetry doesn't have an oral tradition. He claimed Emily Dickinson's poetry wasn't written to be read aloud. I disagreed. Much of her poetry could be sung to the music of hymns that she knew. The editor Mabel Loomis Todd convinced the publisher, Thomas Wentworth Higginson of the power of Dickinson's poetry, by reading selections aloud to him. 

            Professor Percy said that after I mentioned "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" on Monday she resisted the temptation to start singing it. 

            The lecture was about Ama Ata Aidoo's "No Sweetness Here". Aidoo was born in 1942 on the Gold Coast of what is now Ghana. She writes of tension between the west and African world views.

            Professor Percy says her own essays in the 1980s conclude that everything is ambiguous. 

            At the centre of Aidoo's story is a boy who is an only child. Both the teacher and the boy's mama are solitary. 

            I said I think the teacher wants to be the boy's mother but at the same time, she is focused on the child's real mother. If she hadn't been so interested in the mother's affairs she might have saved the boy's life. 

            The narrator might as well be white She talks of taking the boy away to educate him. 

            Everyone else on her way to school is at work and so she talks to elders. There is mention of Dr. Aggrey, the first educated Ghanaian educator and missionary, who promoted education for boys and girls. The elders try to talk English with the teacher in an elevation of style. They use demotic English.

            The mother as a Methodist is moving away from the local culture. 

            I said that if the gender roles were reversed and it had been a male teacher talking about taking away a beautiful female student, it would have been considered a sexual attraction, so why couldn't this be the same? She teases the boy's mother that her son is so handsome that she is going to kidnap him and take him away from her. A lot of students spoke up against this and said her saying that the boy is beautiful is just her being maternal. But she adds that the boy's beauty was "indecent". At no point does the teacher justify taking Kwesi away because he is smart, an exceptional student, or that he has any potential whatsoever. In fact, he is painted as being of average intelligence. His only assets that are praised are that he is beautiful and handsome, is a good boy, and doesn't fight and that is why chicha has the idea of kidnapping him. 

            The professor didn't have time to discuss my essay and said for me to email her. 

            I stopped at Freshco on the way home because I needed a couple of things today even though I also plan to go there tomorrow. I bought three bags of grapes, a pack of four-year-old cheddar, a jug of orange juice, a jug of lemonade, and some mouthwash. 

            I had Breton crackers with five-year-old cheddar for lunch. 

            I weighed 84 kilos at 17:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at around 18:30. 

            I wrote my Exit Slip survey about today's class. 

            I read "2 mothers in a HDB playground" by Arthur Yap, and most of "The Wizard of Khao-I-Dang" by Sharon May. The Yap poem is all in small-case and really more like a dialogue than a poem. The May story is told by a former Cambodian refugee who now works as an interpreter for meetings between immigration officers from western countries and Cambodians who have been in a refugee camp in Thailand for years. It talks about how subjective the process is for having one's application approved. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with Basilica sauce and four-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching an interesting episode of Ben Casey. 

            At the beginning of this story, Gene Billstrom, the general manager of a large corporation named Chem Tech suddenly goes berserk at a board meeting. He violently attacks all of the other executives, including the president, Henry Kessler, who is also his best friend, and whom he kills. 

            Billstrom wakes up in the jail ward of the hospital and he has no memory of what he has done. He is shocked to hear that he killed his own best friend. Casey can't find anything wrong and so he signs a release for Billstrom to be taken away. 

            But the next day as the police are escorting Billstrom away, Casey sees firsthand the symptoms that Billstrom displayed on the day of the attack. He begins to appear asleep and moves his mouth as if he is chewing gum, then he attacks the cops with incredible strength. It takes several men to hold him down. Much to the consternation of the authorities waiting to receive Billstrom, Casey orders him taken back to the ward. 

           Based on the symptoms, Casey now thinks that Billstrom has a variety of psychomotor epilepsy. It could be caused by a scar on the temporal lobes. Casey and Zorba want to run some tests. Billstrom agrees to them until his son comes to visit. It becomes clear that Billstrom was not a very good father or husband, despite providing his family with far more money than they needed. Now Billstrom feels guilty and wants to give up the tests and turn himself in. But Casey gets a court order to force the tests if Billstrom won't agree to them. Then Billstrom's alcoholic wife Ellen comes to see Casey. She is afraid to visit her husband but Casey takes her to him. The result is that they reconcile and Billstrom realizes his family needs him. He agrees to the tests and the possible brain surgery. 

            Billstrom was played by Eddie Albert, who started out in business but the crash of 1929 drove him to perform. He was a circus trapeze flier before he tried acting. In the early 1930s, he appeared a few times on Broadway. In 1936 Eddie starred in The Love Nest, which was RCA/NBC's first private live performance of a television show. He made his first movie in 1936 and had his first co-starring role the same year in On Your Toes. Just before WWII, while touring with a circus, he doubled as a spy and photographed Nazi U-boats. In 1940 he starred in An Angel from Texas, in 1941 he starred in The Great Nobody and The Wagons Roll at Night, and in 1942 Lady Bodyguard and Ladies Day. In 1943 he was the skipper of a landing craft at the battle of Tarawa and rescued 70 wounded marines while under enemy fire. He had a nightclub act with his Mexican wife Margo. In 1947 he co-starred in "Smash Up", in 1950 he co-starred with Lucille Ball in The Fuller Brush Girl, he got his first Oscar nomination in 1953 for Roman Holiday, in 1955 he co-starred in Oklahoma, the same year he played Winston Smith in the first TV adaptation of "1984". He co-starred in the 1956 film, "Attack". In 1962 "Who's Got the Action, He is best known for starring with Eva Gabor in the sitcom Green Acres. He said he took the job because knew it would be a hit and therefore a vacation from shopping himself around for movie work. He was an environmentalist and helped to launch the first Earth Day in 1970. 

            

I searched for bedbugs and found two small ones in grooves in the plaster just to the right of the frame of the old exit door at the head of my bed, about halfway up and two hands apart. They didn't have fresh blood inside.

September 29, 1992: The next bus was in 10 minutes but she made this bus wait 5 minutes. That's Nancy!

September 29, 1992 

 I was supposed to work on Tuesday at Sheridan College, but I got a call the day before from another model named Mike who told me the job had been canceled. I got some work done at home, but I was spending too much time on the phone. Nancy called later and said she was bringing the baby down to leave with me while she went to a movie. She called at around 22:30 to tell me to bring her to the bus stop. But I called the TTC line and found that I wouldn't have enough time to get there for the next bus. I was getting everything ready when Nancy shouted from the top of the basement stairs that the bus was waiting for her. I wrapped my daughter in a blanket and brought her out. The next bus would have been in ten minutes, but she kept everybody on that bus waiting for five minutes just so she wouldn't have to wait. That's Nancy!

Ellen Burstyn

            On Tuesday morning I dreamed I was employed by a mob boss who decided to shoot me in the stomach. We were in a parked car and he was in the driver's seat. We were both wearing those big, thick mobster suits with hats like in old movies. I knew he was going to shoot me and I didn't try to stop him because it was my job to do what I was told. He held the gun up to my stomach and repeatedly fired, more times than a pistol would have bullets. He seemed to enjoy it. I wanted to die but he kept firing and I was still alive. It didn't hurt that much. 

            I also had a dream recently about being bigger than the planet Jupiter and as I was passing it I dipped my middle finger into the eye of the permanent hurricane that swirls above it. I was surprised that it was elastic and liquid at the same time as I pressed down. 

            The radiators were still a bit warm from me having turned on the heat for about an hour late last night. It was cold outside but I felt warm during yoga and song practice. 

            There's a woman who walks up Dunn Avenue every morning to get a coffee and pastry at the Capital. The walk looks like an ordeal for her as she seems to be in pain, perhaps in her ankles. She often looks like she is losing her balance and sometimes stops to catch herself on a post or pole. But when I see her walking back down Dunn Avenue with her coffee in one hand and a little paper bag in the other, she doesn't have nearly as much trouble. 

            I memorized the first verse of "Sans blague" (No Joke) by Boris Vian. 

            I finished posting my translation of "Lavabo" by Serge Gainsbourg, (Literally "Wash Basin" but I changed it to "Toilet Bowl." I memorized the first verse of his song "J'envisage" (I Imagine). 

            I weighed 84.6 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I've been in the morning in three weeks. 

            I spent more time researching Chiac vernacular for my English in the World essay. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride, but it started sprinkling as I was riding up Brock Avenue. I took Bloor eastbound but it was starting to rain by the time I got to Ossington, and so I turned south and went home. I'd only been out for about half an hour. 

            I weighed 84.8 kilos at 16:30. 

            Professor Walton posted a link to her private Zoom room at 17:45 but it didn't open until 18:10.              We were introduced to our TA Alex Bauer. She's studying Female Transgression in Old English Literature and Witchcraft. She has worked at the ROM in the bat cave for many years. 

            For the first part of the class, we were broken off into groups to discuss what directors we thought could make a good adaptation of Beowulf. I was in a group with three others and I mentioned that I really like Terry Gilliam but he might have passed his peak. I thought Peter Jackson would be a good choice and New Zealand would be a great location. I think that they also need to use a better translation, and lean more heavily on alliteration. After we were all in the main class again we spent a surprising amount of time on this topic. 

            Someone said Guillermo del Toro could design a good Grendel. 

            The professor had a lot of praise for Pan's Labyrinth. 

            Someone mentioned Jordan Peele. 

            Almost every group had come up with Peter Jackson. 

            The professor asked for collaborations between directors and someone mentioned one between Jackson and del Toro. 

            A peasant disturbed the dragon's gold, and so a marginalized person changes the direction of the story. 

            We were asked to think of these collaborations in regard to certain scenes and with line numbers. I couldn't think of anyone. 

            Beowulf came out around the year 1000, but maybe it was composed much earlier. 

            I said that it really sounds like it came from an oral tradition of stories told in mead halls from before Christian times and that later when the missionaries wrote the story down, Christian elements were écrited on. It was written in a monastery along with a collection of texts that fill in the gap in Christian history for Britain. 

            Is Judith a monster. I said she's cowardly. I said the story reminds me of the story of how Odysseus defeated the cyclops Polyphemus by getting him drunk. Alex pointed out that Holofernes gets himself drunk in this story. There are discrepancies with the bible. There are many versions of Judith but only one of Beowulf. 

            The professor compared the poem, Beowulf, to an elaborate brooch of that era. It is symmetrical and has monsters in the design. It rewards a close look. 

            The dragon's gold was cursed but taken anyway. Maybe the curse is gone if the dragon dies.

            There are two funerals. One in fire and one in water. Interludes echo each other. Concentric jewelry. There are also two funerals in songs in the middle. Why is Siegmond's funeral story told at a feast? Is it a warning? Beowulf had just beaten Grendel. He is overcome by pride. Perhaps it is a prelude to Beowulf's own death. The story of Finn is another burial. Some say Beowulf is structured around four funerals. 

            Beowulf's family sent him to Hrothgar. His Uncle Heorot is maybe not a great person. Beowulf gives his team credit while talking to Uncle Heorot, and gratifies his uncle's self-interest. The fight with Grendel is retold by Beowulf. 

            We finished the class about twenty minutes early. But we didn't even take a break and so I was late getting dinner cooking. I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast pork while watching episode 29 of Ben Casey. 

            The story begins with a crap game. A guy that doesn't look well is winning big until he has $8000. He says he's sick and wants to stop but the guy he's beaten wants a chance to win his money back. There is a fight and the player is knocked out. At the hospital, it is discovered that he has smallpox and so a city-wide emergency is called. Everyone at the hospital is vaccinated. The player is unconscious and so they can't get any information from him to track his movements in order to know who he has infected. Casey determines that he needs surgery to relieve pressure on his brain before he can talk. They can't leave the ward and so they have to operate there. 

            There are two new interns but one of them is scared of Casey and it makes him clumsy. Casey gives Dr. Leslie Fraser the key position of assisting him during surgery but she asks Casey to give Dr. Thomas Potter a chance. He does and he works out fine. 

            One of the patients in quarantine is a dying man. His son comes to see him but he is not admitted and so he breaks down the door to be with him in quarantine until he passes. 

            After the surgery, the patient can finally say his name is Matt Kelly and that he is from Hong Kong. He tells Casey which flight he arrived on. After some coaxing, he can finally identify a sign in the taxi that read, "Do unto others before they do unto you." That narrows things down enough to vaccinate everyone involved. 

            Leslie Fraser was played by Ellen Burstyn, who went to school for a few years at St Mary's Academy in Windsor, Ontario. That was her first acting experience at the age of six when she played Little Miss Muffet. She became a dancer and model and danced on the Jackie Gleason Show. She made her Broadway debut in 1957 and joined the Actor's Studio in 1967. She appeared on several TV series in the 60s. She appeared nude in the first film adaptation of Tropic of Cancer. She won a Tony for Same Time Next Year. She was nominated for an Oscar for her role in The Last Picture Show. She co-starred in The King of Marvin Gardens. She was nominated for an Academy Award for The Exorcist and also permanently injured her back during filming. She finally won an Oscar for her performance in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. She was nominated again for Same Time Next Year. She hosted Saturday Night Live in 1980. She was nominated for an Oscar again for Resurrection. In 1986 she starred in the sitcom The Ellen Burstyn Show. She received another Oscar nomination for Requiem for a Dream. She starred in the TV series That's Life. She is one of the few to win the triple crown of acting: an Oscar, a Tony, and an Emmy. 

            I searched for bedbugs, hoping I'd make it to eight days, but in the last place I looked, above the baseboard at the foot of my bed, I ran my toothpick over a black speck and smeared it into a bright red streak. It had obviously recently fed upon me.

September 28, 1992: I made a monstrous sculpture of a nude woman in the sandbox

Thirty years ago today

            Nancy brought my daughter down on Monday morning and we went to the park. But then I ripped my pants and so I left the baby with her mother while I went home to change. On the way back I bought some grapes and shared them with my daughter in the sandbox. I made a monstrous sand sculpture of a naked woman lying on her back. Nancy went to the library and my daughter and I played by the phone booths before I took her home and put her to bed at around 16:15. I went back to the library where I found Nancy sleeping. I woke her up to remind her that I had to leave for work in an hour. She came to my place an hour later and I left her the key. I worked at the Ontario College of Art from 18:30 to 21:30 for Greg Damery and he remembered me. There was another model named Johanna posing across the room. I went home and listened to Telepersonals. I had nothing to show for it so far. After I posted an ad, women would call for a while out of curiosity and then stop.

Ronnie Haran

            On Monday morning I listened to the recording of "Sans blague" (No Joke) by Boris Vian and used it to organize the text of the lyrics in their proper order. Tomorrow I'll begin memorizing the song.

            I finished revising my translation of "Lavabo" (Wash Basin) by Serge Gainsbourg. I played and sang it to make sure everything fit and then I uploaded it to Christian's Translations. I began the editing process to prepare it for blog publication and I should have it posted tomorrow. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos before breakfast. But as usual for a Monday I only had time for a bowl of grapes before leaving for class, despite the fact that I left five minutes later than I did last Monday.

            There is track renovation being done on College east of Spadina and so I had to walk to St George. I might as well go to Bloor and take the bike lane from now on to go south on St George on Mondays and Huron on Wednesdays. The bike lane might be faster anyway despite the detour. 

            I was there several minutes before the prior class let out. Chuanqi was already there, pacing nervously back and forth. Once we were in the classroom he sat next to me rather than a few seats away. He complained that the wifi was down and another student named Frank or Fred added that the wifi at U of T has been horrible this year. I asked Chuanqi if he needs wifi for class and he said, not really but he spends the whole day on campus. I inquired if he had wifi at home and he said he does but he has no life at home. His entire life is at the university. I commented that he's going to have a tough time when he graduates but he said he'll be going to post-graduate school. I added that he'll have to become a professor just so he can continue the only life that interests him and he agreed. I guess my situation is different since I had several lives before coming to U of T as a mature student. 

            We looked at screenshots of articles on outer circle circumstances. 

            Jamaica shows a weakness in Kachru's model because it doesn't fit as either an Inner or Outer circle country. 

            Hindi is more prominent as an educational language in its part of India than the mother tongues of other regions.

            Professor Percy says "Outer Circle" is a negative-sounding name. 

            The context of Kirk Patrick who coined the phrase. He thinks British English should be the standard but Kachru says all forms are valid. 

            English Today by Cambridge Press has a good reputation. They may return your work for editing but being asked to make changes is not a big deal. 

            English is still official in the outer circle and used. It changes and varies and norms reflect its use in social conventions such as apologies. Some apologies are not as distancing as here. 

            I ask if she thinks the term Outer Circle is negative because it gives a sense of being an outsider. She says yes. I ask, "What would you call it?" and she says, that would be a good question for an exam.

            There are various categories in the world. 

            Singapore is more friendly to English than Malaysia. 

            The domination of English affects culture. 

            Bangladesh is the only monolingual country in South Asia. 

            Expanding circle countries have not been collective. 

            Singapore - Singlish. 

            There are many official local languages in South Africa. 

            Look for inconsistencies and weird juxtapositions in articles. 

            Swahili is becoming a global language. 

            Colonial inertia in Malta. 

            State schools are under pressure to support local languages. 

            The Philippines is a destination for learning English. But English is displacing Filipino as a mother tongue. UNESCO said in 1953 that mother tongues are best for teaching literacy. But in 2003 it said that a balance between global and local languages is better. India has a three-language format for education. But state schools may not have prolific teachers in global English. 

            Ethnic relationship to English.

            The Chinese in Singapore are less interested in the use of English. 

            RP (Received Pronunciation) or standard English accent. 

            English is associated with science and math. 

            There are no countries in the EU with English as their official language. 

            EF used to mean "English first" but now it is just an acronym. 

            English as a global language has competition from Swahili and Mandarin. 

            We took a break. 

            Mulk Raj Anand. 

            How to pronounce E.M. Forster (Fawster?). I think the British people who pronounce his name just naturally soften the "R" with their accents as they would when saying "foregone". 

            Anand put the word "samosa" into the OED. 

            Of the opening of his story "Duty", I said it reminds me of the Noel Coward song, "Mad Dogs and Englishman". A native Indian would not traditionally be out there in that heat but because of colonialism introducing the police force, people take on British roles such as that of a police officer and have to suffer the sun. Noel Coward wrote "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" in 1931 and so there is little doubt that Anand would have heard the song before writing this story. I wonder if when he wrote the opening he was thinking of it: 

Mad Dogs and Englishmen 

In tropical climes there are certain times of day 

When all the citizens retire 

To tear their clothes off and perspire 

It's one of those rules that the greatest fools obey 

Because the sun is much too sultry 

And one must avoid its ultry-violet ray 

The native grieve when the white men leave their huts 

Because they're obviously definitely nuts! 

Mad dogs and Englishmen 

Go out in the midday sun 

The Japanese don't care to 

The Chinese wouldn't dare to 

Hindus and Argentines sleep firmly from twelve to one 

But Englishmen detest a siesta 

In the Philippines 

There are lovely screens 

To protect you from the glare 

In the Malay States 

There are hats like plates 

Which the Britishers won't wear 

At twelve noon 

The natives swoon 

And no further work is done 

But mad dogs and Englishmen 

Go out in the midday sun 

It's such a surprise for the Eastern eyes to see 

That though the English are effete 

They're quite impervious to heat 

When the white man rides every native hides in glee 

Because the simple creatures hope he 

will impale his solar topee on a tree 

It seems such a shame 

when the English claim 

the earth 

that they give rise to such hilarity and mirth 

Mad dogs and Englishmen 

Go out in the midday sun 

The toughest Burmese bandit 

Can never understand it 

In Rangoon the heat of noon 

Is just what the natives shun 

They put their Scotch or Rye down 

And lie down 

In a jungle town 

Where the sun beats down 

To the rage of man and beast 

The English garb 

Of the English sahib 

Merely gets a bit more creased 

In Bangkok 

At twelve o'clock 

They foam at the mouth and run 

But mad dogs and Englishmen 

Go out in the midday sun 

The smallest Malay rabbit 

Deplores this foolish habit 

In Hongkong 

They strike a gong 

And fire off a noonday gun 

To reprimand each inmate 

Who's in late 

In the mangrove swamps 

Where the python romps 

There is peace from twelve till two 

Even caribous 

Lie around and snooze 

For there's nothing else to do 

In Bengal 

To move at all 

Is seldom if ever done 

But mad dogs and Englishmen 

Go out in the midday 

Out in the midday 

Out in the midday 

Out in the midday 

Out in the midday 

Out in the midday 

Out in the midday sun 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPnJM3zWfUo 

            In "Duty" Mangal quotes "I go for a pice worth of salt. Bring me a palanquin" but is it a literary quote? I'm guessing not. 

            A second meaning of duty is tax. 

            I point out that Mangal "congratulated himself on his lucky position as a member of the much-feared police service" and thought the truncheon was nice. He begins beating a peasant like an animal worse than the way the man beat his donkeys. 

            Contextualized colonization. 

            The professor apologized to me after class for not spending a lot of time on the article that I posted for homework. I asked if she had time to talk because I wanted to discuss the essay but she had office hours. She will have time on Wednesday. 

            I weighed 84 kilos before lunch. 

            I weighed 84.2 kilos at 17:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:50. 

            I wrote today's Exit Slip survey for my English in the World course. 

            I started bookmarking websites for my research on Chiac for the essay that I hope to write. 

            I found a Chiac dubbed video of the song "Let It Go" from "Frozen". The title was translated to "Worry Pas". 

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of pork while watching episode 26 of Ben Casey. 

            In this story Casey has decided to moonlight for one day as an OMR (Outside Medical Relief) doctor. The job only pays $22.50 for the day and so back at the hospital, everyone thinks Casey is having financial difficulties. Nick takes up a successful charity drive to raise money for Casey. 

            Casey's first stop is a family of hillbillies named the Hopewells. Dallas Hopewell's son Boise is sick. Casey thinks it might be his appendix but he wants him in the hospital for tests. Dallas refuses to let him go. Casey heads for the door to call an ambulance but Dallas's daughter Abilene points a shotgun at him. They tell Casey he has to fix Boise today because they have to leave. They are just here for the harvest and now they have to get home so Abilene can get married before the man she wants is grabbed by somebody else. Casey gives Boise a shot of penicillin and moves on. But Abilene follows him in the family's old truck. She explains that's so she can fetch him if Boise goes sour. 

            His next stop is the home of Berle Mitchell, who is an alcoholic but she can't drink because she is allergic. She asks Casey to hold her but he says he can't do anything for her. 

            Next is a comical retirement home where one patient named Timothy has no appetite. Casey says he'll eat when he's hungry enough to forget why he isn't eating. 

            Next, in an upscale hotel, Mr. Foster is sick in bed. The manager wants to pay for an ambulance to get him out of there. Foster explains that the manager is afraid of him dying there. Foster has emphysema but doesn't want to go to the hospital because his newly married son is coming and he doesn't want to greet his daughter-in-law from a hospital bed. Casey gives him a shot. The manager tries to bribe Casey to force Foster to leave but Casey threatens to punch him in the teeth. 

            At the Ormsby residence, Casey is greeted by a man who directs him to his mother's bedroom. Casey finds the old woman's skin is raw from having been scoured from head to toe with lye by her son, who is psychotic. When Casey tries to open her bedroom door from inside to get her out of there, it's locked. The son begins ranting about a pestilence then pours gasoline over everything and sets the house on fire. Casey breaks the door but the son forces him back inside. Then Abilene Hopewell hits the son over the head and knocks him out. Everyone gets out. Casey thanks Abilene but she is indifferent. She says her pa would've tanned her hide if she'd let him die before Boise is fixed. 

            Casey is called back to the retirement home where he is told Timothy is dying. Casey tells Mrs. Castle the manager she is losing Timothy. Castle forbids him from dying because she can't afford it. Then it comes to light that he isn't really dying. He's just heart sick because Castle won't let him and his elderly girlfriend Ingrid get married. Castle gives in and suddenly Timothy is fine. 

            Casey goes back to where the Hopewells had been staying and finds them gone. The preacher who owns the house says Boise got better. Abilene has left Casey a ham. 

            At the hospital, it is discovered that Casey had only needed the $22.50 to order a set of medical books and so Nick has to give back all the money to the donors. 

            Abilene was played by Ronnie Haran, who had supporting roles in a few movies and TV series in the late 1950s and early 1960s. When she was in her twenties she became the manager and talent agent for The Whiskey Go-Go. She saw The Doors perform at The London Fog and made them the house band for the Whiskey after she got them in the musician's union and bought them some clothes. She brought the president of Elektra Records to see them and that's how they were signed. It is possible that we would never have heard of Jim Morrison if not for her. She was also the unofficial manager of the band Love. She arranged for Van Morrison and Them to come to LA and managed them while they were in town. She says one magical night Van Morrison and Jim Morrison performed on stage together. She and her husband now have a location booking company for events and movies. 

            I made it for a week without finding any bedbugs. If I make it two more days I will have broken a record that has stood for several months. 

            I did some more research on Chiac and found that some Acadian musicians are referred to as Chiac speakers when they are actually speakers of another hybrid Acadian dialect called Acadjonne.

September 27, 1992: I made sure my daughter slept before we went out so I wouldn't have to carry her later

Thirty years ago today

            On Sunday Nancy brought the baby down at around 11:30. I didn't take her out right away but waited inside for her to take her nap, so she wouldn't fall asleep while we were out. She fell asleep at 13:30. Later we went to Kew Gardens, and she seemed to enjoy the park where we stayed around the playground and didn't go to the beach this time. We went home and later Nancy came down to go to a movie. She called when it was finished, and we waited at the bus stop for her to take my daughter back to Scarborough.

Nan Martin

            On Sunday morning I finished my initial translation of "Sans blague" (No Joke) by Boris Vian. 

            I finished working out the chords to "Lavabo" by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through the song in French. Then I worked on revising my translation. 

            There was a wicked rainstorm at the beginning of song practice and it was like night outside for about an hour longer than normal. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos before breakfast, after finding a fresh battery for my scale. 

            Around midday, I read the translations of the Early Irish Lyrics in my Medieval Literature textbook. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before lunch. I had Breton crackers with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of limeade. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride. It started to sprinkle around the time I got to Yonge and Bloor. The sprinkles turned to intermittent splashes around Yonge and Queen and then it started seriously raining at Queen and Bathurst. The rain stopped around Ossington but by then I was wet. 

            I weighed 84.8 kilos at 17:10. 

            I was caught up on my journal just before 18:00. 

            I read the essay prompt for our English in the World course and I think it might qualify for a Guinness world record as the longest essay prompt in history. I think that my interest in writing a paper on how English is used in Chiac fits mostly into the first of the eleven categories she lists. But maybe it's an alternative category that I need special permission to pursue, so I'll have to ask her. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with Basilica sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching episode 25 of Ben Casey. 

            In this story, an apparently upper-class woman named Liza Bowers lives in a nice house in an upscale neighbourhood but seems to have no money. The maid from next door has just brought her some food out of charity when Liza takes a tumble down the stairs and is knocked unconscious. The first person she sees when she wakes up is Dr. Casey and she fixates on him as her personal physician.

            Meanwhile Casey's friend Dr. Ted Hoffman is behaving strangely and forgets to follow some instructions that Casey gave him. Casey is annoyed while everyone else recognizes that there is something wrong with Hoffman. After being placed in a room, Ted thinks that he might have polio since he didn't have the whole series of shots. But his symptoms don't fully fit polio and then it comes to light that he also forgot to get his tetanus vaccination and that is what he has. The serum is less effective after the infection but they use it and Casey also performs a tracheotomy. Things are scary for a while but if someone survives tetanus for four days they are usually in the clear. 

            Meanwhile Liza continues to tell stories of her world travels and social status. She says that her husband was a pilot and explorer whose plane crashed in the arctic. She claims that she is in a public ward rather than a private room because she dislikes being alone, but in reality, she is a charity case. It is discovered that she has a lump on her breast but she refuses a biopsy because she only wants to focus on beauty. 

            Then Casey is approached by Liza's husband Curt, who is not a pilot but a grade school math teacher who left her after her delusions became too difficult for him to deal with. He doesn't approach Liza because he doesn't want to upset her. Casey gets Curt to check on Liza's medical history and he discovers that she does indeed have breast cancer and needs surgery immediately. 

            Finally Curt does talk to Liza and unrealistically is able to talk her out of her fantasy world and into having the operation. 

            Liza was played by Nan Martin, who made her Broadway debut in 1950. Her first movie was "The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit" in 1956. She co-starred in "The Mugger" in 1958. She was nominated for a 1959 Tony Award for her role in "J.B." She co-starred in "For Love of Ivy" in 1968. She played Ali McGraw's mother in "Goodbye Columbus" and Freddie Kruger's mother in "Nightmare on Elm Street 3". She won a handful of awards for her work in theatre. On television, she was a regular on "Buck James", "Mr. Sunshine", and "The Drew Carey Show". 

            For the sixth night in a row, I didn't find any bedbugs. I don't have my fingers crossed but if I believed in that kind of magic, now would be the time to keep them crossed.

September 26, 1992: When I turned down Tom Phillips' dinner invitation he said he'd never ask me again

Thirty years ago today

            On Saturday I arrived at Artists 25 with a big coffee from Second Cup. In the morning there were Tom Phillips and three other guys drawing me but, in the afternoon, it was only Tom. Apparently, most members preferred a two-one ratio of female to male models. Tom's hobby was buying broken electronics from lawn sales and fixing them. I arranged to buy an answering machine from him. He invited me to his place for dinner, and I was tempted but decided that I wanted to be alone. His strange reaction was to say he would never ask me again. 

            I went home and phoned Nancy because she'd wanted me to find out if she needed me to take care of the baby if she came downtown to shop, but she was sleeping when I called. 

            There was nothing much new on Telepersonals. A few people were curious about my ad but nothing big.

Wilfrid Hyde White

            On Saturday morning when I got up to pee at around 3:15 I turned the heat on. I went back to bed and got up at 5:00 as always. After yoga, I switched the heat off again because the place was probably going to stay warm until sunup. 

            I cut my song practice short and skipped a few other of my usual morning activities to finish my Saturday assignment for English in the World. I was finished and uploaded it at around 9:30: 

            Pidgin English and Social Media are a Match Made in Heaven Pidgin English is a simplified form of English with added elements from the local languages of former British colonies. Using English as a common base, Pidgin English is a way of bridging the language gaps between peoples, such as the speakers of over five hundred local languages in Nigeria. 

            This article by Nigerian journalist Lawrence Enyoghasu explains how Nigerian social media creates and causes the trending of pidgin English phrases as popular comic expressions. 

            Some of these are intentionally funny from the beginning, such as, "E shock you!" which is a line that originated from Nigerian comedian Broda Shaggi. He often uses the pidgin English phrase gleefully after answering a challenging question, “E shock you! You no know say I go know am!” It basically means, “It shocked you! You didn't know that I knew!” 

            But many of the pidgin expressions that become dominant on social media rise from non-comic origins and are popularized after being parodied on platforms such as TickTock and YouTube. One example of this is a statement that was first captured in a video interview of Alhaji Asari Dokubo, founder of the powerful militant Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force, in which he criticized Biafran maverick entertainer and activist, Charly Boy. Charly Boy is a singer/songwriter, TV star, and Founder of “Our Mumu Don Do” (Roughly: We are done doing foolishness) social movement, which fights against political corruption. Charly Boy supports a united Nigeria and Dokubo advocates Biafran independence. Dokubo was responding in Pidgin English to Charly Boy's name-calling of supporters of the Biafran cause, and said, “You be mumu! You think say you dey wise?” This translates roughly as, "You are an idiot! Do you think people say you are wise?" 

            Nigerian social media have added to the widespread use of certain Pidgin English phrases that may have remained local otherwise. In doing so it also uses humour to soften the tensions caused by political conflicts within the nation. 

            Pidgin English and social media in Nigeria appear to be a marriage made in heaven. No doubt these internet platforms will continue to mine many more local phrases and generate them towards a united Nigerian lexicon. 

            https://www.sunnewsonline.com/how-trending-social-media-slangs-used-by-skit-makers-nigerians-emerged/ 

            I weighed 83.8 kilos before breakfast. I didn't feel that light but I took it. 

            In the late morning, I went down to Freshco where I bought four bags of grapes and the few good apples I could find. The apples are in bad shape this year. Maybe they are shipping the quality ones outside the country. I also got a pack of strawberries, a pack of three chicken legs, Bolognese sauce, white corn and black bean salsa, and a container of skyr. I looked for Arm and Hammer toothpaste but they didn't have any. I'll have to squeeze the tube I have for all its worth each time I brush before I go to Freshco on Thursday. 

            I weighed 84.4 kilos before lunch. In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. On Brock Avenue, I found two hard-cover books. One was Keith Richards' memoir Life, and the other was Neil Young's autobiography, Waging Heavy Peace. There were a lot of people out walking today. Maybe the cold weather last night made people feel they should get their walking in before winter sets in. 

            I weighed 84.5 kilos at 17:15. That's the lowest my weight has been at that time in three weeks.

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:35. 

            I read a few more of the Exeter lyrics: "The Seafarer", "Deor", and "Wulf and Eadwacer". I also worked on trying to translate "The Wanderer" from Old English into a better version than the poem in the textbook. 

            I made pizza on naan with Basilica sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching episode 24 of Ben Casey. 

            A well-traveled and successful elderly author named Jason Fletcher is admitted to the hospital to undergo tests. He had a stroke five months before and now he is having fevers. 

            Meanwhile, a patient named Robert Stanton has just had successful surgery but he is in pain and also bitter over his wife having left him. They separated because he cheated on her but he is angry that she didn't forgive him. Melissa Stanton comes to see him but he tells her to go away. Stanton starts to develop a fever and Casey thinks it's meningitis. Stanton's body is rejecting all the antibiotics and so Casey orders a rare experimental drug. 

            Fletcher develops a fever and it is found that he also needs the same drug. The problem is that there is only enough for one patient and so Casey has to choose which patient lives. Fletcher has donated a fortune to charities that have financed the education of hundreds of doctors and so some are advising Casey to choose Fletcher. 

            Both patients need to sign a release to receive the drug, and Stanton has already done so. Fletcher has the form ready to sign but he wants to talk with Casey first. He learns that Casey ordered the drug three days before Fletcher needed it and he concludes astutely that the drug had been meant for someone else. Fletcher refuses to sign the form. The drug is given to Stanton and Fletcher dies after it saves Stanton's life. 

            Fletcher was played by Wilfrid Hyde-White, who began performing on stage at the age of 19 and by 22 he was a star of the London stage. He made his first film in 1934 and in 1960 he starred in Two Way Stretch. From 1962 to 1965 he starred in the BBC radio comedy, "The Men From the Ministry." He played Goodfellow in the second season of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. His most famous role was in 1964 when he played Colonel Pickering in "My Fair Lady." 

            I searched for bedbugs and for the fifth night in a row I didn't find any. 

            I finished reading the Exeter Lyrics.

September 25, 1992: The dominatrix called and asked me to come over

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday I woke up at around 8:30 when the phone rang, and it was Mistress. She wanted to meet me that evening but I was scheduled to get together with Mike Copping and so I turned her down. She said she'd call me early next week. I called Mike and work to plan our meeting, but he canceled on me. Damn! I should have gone to see the dom! What luck! I left a message with her service to tell her that I was free all weekend. I had breakfast with coffee. I worked at 12:40 at Central Technical School and afterward went to the Board of Education to pick up my cheque. I walked down to the Ontario College of Art and finally got a few bookings. They were only three or four sessions but at least my foot was back in the door.

Gina Gillespie

            On Friday morning it was down to seven degrees and I found myself unconsciously doing my yoga faster just to keep warm. I was tempted to turn the heat on but I knew it was going to warm up later and I thought having the furnace on would be uncomfortably hot. 

            I translated the third verse of "Sans blague" (No Joke) by Boris Vian. 

            I worked out the chords for the chorus and the third verse of "Lavabo" (Wash Basin) by Serge Gainsbourg. I might have the whole song done tomorrow but then I still have to revise my translation. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos before breakfast. 

            From the late morning until lunchtime I did some reading for my Medieval Literature course. I read the old English poem-story Judith, based on the apocryphal Bible story about the woman who seduced and rendered drunk an Assyrian general before she cut off his head. She is celebrated as a hero for this action, even though if a man had done it, it would have been considered cowardly. 

            I read the 10th Century poem "The Wanderer" from the Exeter Book. It's basically about a homesick warrior. 

            I weighed 84.6 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride and this time I wore my hoodie and my leather jacket. The hoody probably would have been enough to keep me warm though. Going down Yonge Street south from Dundas there was a long anti-fossil fuel protest march, with a couple of people carrying vegan signs. Certainly, we are moving towards non-dependence on fossil fuels but if we tried to do it suddenly I can't see how the world as we know it would not collapse. We would have to give up all air transport until I guess hydrogen-burning planes were developed. They stopped at Queen and I think they were getting ready to go west when I got ahead. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos at 17:10. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:00. 

            I worked on my weekly English in the World project. This time we need to find a recent news article about an Outer Circle country. Outer circle countries are former British colonies in which English is still an official language alongside native languages. I found an article on how social media contributes to the development and popularization of pidgin English phrases. Here's what I have so far:

            Pidgin English is a simplified form of English with added elements from the local languages of former British colonies. Using English as a common base, Pidgin English is a way of bridging the language gaps between peoples, such as the speakers of over five hundred local languages in Nigeria.

            This article by Nigerian journalist Lawrence Enyoghasu explains how Nigerian social media creates and causes the trending of pidgin English phrases as popular comic expressions. 

            "E shock you!" is a line that originated with Nigerian comedian Broda Shaggi. He often uses the pidgin English phrase gleefully after answering a challenging question, “E shock you! You no know say I go know am!” It basically means, “It shocked you! You didn't know that I knew!” 

            The next expression was first captured in a video of Alhaji Asari Dokubo, founder of the militant Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force, in which he criticized Charly Boy, Nigerian singer/songwriter, TV star, and Founder of “Our Mumu Don Do” social movement. Dokubo was responding in Pidgin English to Charly Boy's name-calling of supporters of the Biafran cause, and said, “You be mumu! You think say you dey wise?” This translates roughly as "You are an idiot! Do you think people say you are wise?" 

           

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast pork while watching episode 23 of Ben Casey. This story has three main guest characters when previously there had only been one or two. It's also the first time an African American character has appeared in the series. 

            A boxer named Gunner Garrison, who is on the fast track to the middleweight championship has a seizure after winning a fight. When he wakes up in the hospital he feels fine and refuses the tests that Casey recommends. Casey reminds Gunner that he is duty bound to report his lack of cooperation to the Athletic Commission but he ignores him. Later Gunner's manager tells the fighter that he can't box again until after he's taken the tests. 

            Meanwhile a little girl named Lucy is recovering from a successful surgery in the same ward as an elderly man named Lockerby who is recovering from spinal surgery that took away his pain but also his sense of touch. Lucy sees him grab a scalpel and try to kill himself. She screams just in time for Casey to stop him. Lucy is traumatized by the incident. 

            Gunner is placed in a room with Lockerby. The tests are performed and the result is that Gunner requires surgery and no matter whether he agrees to it or not he can never fight professionally again. Gunner's sister, whom he hasn't seen for eleven years, comes to see him and tells him that if he can't box anymore he could still come home and do athletic social work in the community. Lucy comes to visit Lockerby but he blames her for stopping him from ending his life. 

            Later, just after Gunner has been sedated in preparation for surgery, Lucy is about to be checked out but comes to say goodbye to Gunner. As his consciousness begins to wane he realizes that Lucy plans to give Lockerby the gift that he has been asking for. As Gunner is wheeled away he is groggily struggling to communicate to Casey what Lucy is planning. When Lockerby sees that Lucy is considering smothering him with a pillow he enthusiastically encourages her to do it. Gunner has now been wheeled into the elevator and the doors are about to close when he finally gets through to Casey about what Lucy plans to do. Casey rushes to Lockerby's room to find Lockerby's body still while Lucy weeps on his chest. But then he sees Lockerby's arm move around Lucy as he begins to comfort her. He explains that he couldn't let her do it because he realized he wanted to live after all. 

            Lucy was played by Gina Gillespie, who was discovered at the age of four by Alfred Hitchcock and appeared in one of the episodes that he produced of the TV series Suspicion. At seven she had small parts in the movies Andy Hardy Comes Home and The Lost Missile. At eight she played Tess Logan on the TV series Law of the Plainsman. At ten she starred as Pippi Longstocking in an episode of the TV series Shirley Temple's Storybook. She played the young version of Joan Crawford's character in flashback segments of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. She played the title character's younger sister Mimi in the 1964 sitcom Karen. She later became a lawyer. 

            I turned the heat on at around 22:00 just to warm up the place a bit and then turned it off at 23:00. 

            I searched for bedbugs and for the fourth night in a row I didn't find any.

September 24, 1992: I was becoming addicted to Telepersonals

Thirty years ago today

            I didn't see my daughter on Thursday. 

            I was getting addicted to Telepersonals and must have spent over $100 so far. I was thinking that maybe I should have just put another free ad in the Now Magazine personals. I seemed never to get my place all cleaned up. 

            In the evening I worked at Artists 25 and since it was their night for costumed poses I brought a sombrero, a blanket, and pants, but they just had me pose in my regular clothes.

Cliff Robertson

            On Thursday morning I translated the chorus of "Sans blague" (No Joke) by Boris Vian. 

            I worked out the chords for the intro and the first verse of "Lavabo" (Wash Basin) by Serge Gainsbourg. The set I found online claimed the only chord for the verses is E minor but I find the verse bursting with lots of chords. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            I read the two stories that are required reading for my English in the World class for next week. The first story is "Duty" by Mulk Raj Anand and it's about a cop who has no real interest in maintaining law and order but just takes on the job because it puts him one degree higher in status than a peasant. He falls asleep on the job and later beats someone for the rural equivalent of a traffic violation. 

            The second story is "No Sweetness Here" by Ama Ata Aidoo. The narrator is an educated African teacher who teaches in a traditional village that most of the inhabitants have never left. She seems more interested in local politics than in teaching, and while she leaves the school to witness a divorce, one of her students is killed by a snake. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown. It was cooler than yesterday and so I wore a long-sleeved shirt with the buttons done up. I thought it might be wise to carry my hoody in my backpack, but I planned on stopping at Freshco on the way home and so if I didn't need the hoody it would take up space for carrying groceries. I decided to leave the hoody at home but regretted it once I was underway. I would have been more comfortable wearing my leather jacket and my autumn gloves. 

            At Freshco I bought five bags of grapes, a pack of raspberries, a pack of blueberries, bananas, Cinnabon bread, kettle chips, three bags of skim milk, shaving gel, and Irish Spring soap. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos at 17:45. That's the lightest I've been at that time in almost two weeks. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:00. 

            I read most of the rest of Beowulf, until just after the hero died from killing the dragon. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of pork while watching episode 22 of Ben Casey. 

            In this story, a Navajo boy named Johnny Eagle sells papers and runs errands for Casey. He has only recently come from the reservation and he is frightened of the city. He has crossed town three times with no problem but he believes his unlucky number is four and he has a panic attack every time he tries to go and pick up Casey's laundry. At the front desk of the hospital, a patient's few possessions are about to be bagged, and among the items, Johnny notices a medal with an eagle on it. He takes the medal because he thinks it might bring him luck. 

            Meanwhile, the owner of the medal is a very difficult but also charming new patient who gives the false name of Eddie Smith. Eddie refuses to give his medical history but it is obvious that he has had several back operations. Despite the fact that he is consistently giving the doctors a hard time, he is also always very upbeat. He is constantly flirting with Dr. Maggie Graham and tells her that he loves her. His main complaint is that the hospital has lost his Distinguished Service Medal, which was his good luck charm. When Casey learns about the DSM, since only a few are given out, he uses it to track down servicemen with Eddie's injuries and discovers his real identity. He is Lieutenant Colonel Edward Stanley Owensby, an ace pilot and a veteran of both WWII and Korea. Eddie agrees to tests but refuses to go under the knife. He says he's already had twelve surgeries and thirteen is his unlucky number.

            Johnny tries and fails again to go and pick up Casey's laundry. He confesses to Casey that he took Eddie's medal. Casey tells Johnny to return the medal to Eddie and when he does they become friends. They fly kites together from the hospital sun deck and Eddie inspires Johnny to want to become a pilot. 

            After the tests, Casey tells Eddie that his life depends upon one more surgery. Eddie asks what his odds are but Casey refuses to give them. Hoffman however tells Eddie he would bet on him. Eddie says the bet is twelve dozen roses and he makes Hoffman shake on it. When Eddie goes into surgery, Johnny ventures to face his fear and pick up Casey's laundry. He begins to panic but overcomes it and returns feeling like he can fly, only to learn that Eddie died in surgery. Casey tells Johnny that Eddie wanted him to have his distinguished service medal. The story ends with thirteen dozen roses arriving at the hospital for Maggie and Dr. Hoffman being charged $127. The card reads, "I win chum - Eddie."

            Eddie was played by Cliff Robertson, whose first film part was a supporting role in "Picnic" in 1955. He co-starred with Joan Crawford in Autumn Leaves in 1956. He co-starred in The Naked and the Dead, Gidget, The Big Show, Underworld USA, and The Interns. President Kennedy picked Robertson to play his younger self in "PT109". He co-starred in The Best Man, The Honey Pot, Too Late the Hero, The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, and Obsession. He won an Academy Award for the title role in "Charly", based on the science fiction story "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes. He directed and starred in "JW Coop" and "The Pilot". He played Hugh Hefner in "Star 80" and Uncle Ben in Spiderman. 

            I looked for bedbugs and didn't find any for the third night in a row. 

            I finished reading Beowulf for at least the fourth or fifth time. There's a lot of reading for the Medieval Literature course. As with Beowulf, I read a lot of it before but I need to read it all again and it's time-consuming.