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.