Nellie Burt

            On Wednesday morning I finished working out the chords for "Martine boude" (Martine Broods) by Serge Gainsbourg. Tomorrow I'll run through the song in French and English and then upload it to Christian's Translations. 

            I weighed 84.8 kilos before breakfast. That's the least I've weighed in the morning in twelve days. But I didn't have time to eat more than a bowl of grapes before heading out for my second English in the World class. 

            Our Wednesday class is in the Earth Sciences building at 5 Bancroft, but I had a hard time finding it. Professor Percy had posted pictures of it to guide us and I looked it up on a map online, and I know I've had courses at Earth Sciences before, but still missed it. I turned off College onto Huron and went north and I did turn onto Bancroft without knowing it. The street looks more like a comfy little courtyard and I was oblivious when I rode past 5 Bancroft. I rode around the courtyard and looked at all the building addresses but I missed that one. I rode back out, up to Harbord, across to Spadina, and then south on the sidewalk, hoping to find Bancroft but failed. I went back to Huron and back to the courtyard, this time seeing that it is indeed Bancroft and after riding all around the courtyard again I finally noticed number 5. 

            I almost locked my bike to the posts for Bike Chain next door until I saw the sign saying that bikes not belonging to Bike Chain customers would be removed. There were other posts in front of 5 Bancroft. 

            Our lecture hall is in the basement but it was occupied by another class. I talked to Chuanqi and mispronounced his name again. He corrected me and told me again that I could call him John. I told him that I didn't want to do that and he thanked me. He said that even in China his name is difficult. he said it means "legendary" and also relates to a dragon. Now I see from looking it up that "chuanqilong" is the name of a dinosaur. He said he came to Canada on his own to go to high school. When applying for university he was rejected by McGill but was surprised that U of T accepted him. He plans to go for a Ph.D. and become a professor. 

            The class ahead of ours did not seem to be a formal class. Maybe it was a tutorial. Many of the students left early and I went in to take a seat. I took an end seat in the front row near the far wall where there was a plug for my laptop. 

            Professor Percy spent the first half of the class continuing to introduce us to the course. She went over some of the students' responses to the Exit Slip, which I missed on Monday. She also showed us the results of yesterday's student survey. 

            She talked about the use of category terms like "queer" as insults. 

            Our Saturday homework will help with citations. 

            I asked where to find the news link and she said in "schedule" or "module". She mentioned that I could find a recent article on chiac by searching that source. She didn't want to tell me what the article was so I could find it myself, but I asked if it was the one about Lisa LaPointe's "Chiac Disco" album and she said yes, but I made a mistake because her name is actually Lisa LeBlanc. 

            The lecture was on Pauline Johnson's "The Cattle Thief". Pauline Johnson was of mixed Mohawk and English heritage. Her father's death forced her to earn money as a performer. She had a double life and began to prefer her stage name Tekahionwake which means "double life". She wore a Mohawk costume for the first half of her performance, and then a European-style dress after the intermission. Settlers exchanged the bible for land. She wrote similar poems to "The Cattle Thief" around the time she started performing. 

            Cursing in religious terms is a weaker sense of cursing. The power that speaking words have to effect change through cursing or blessing. 

            "Eagle chief" is repeatedly rhymed with "cattle thief". The reference to "tawny skin" is animalization. "And they cursed like a troop of demons ..." "... they hissed" suggests snarkiness. 

            I'm thinking that "white skins" may be a trapping reference. 

            Insults can function to make awkward situations easier. 

            Johnson's audiences associated her with nature and they were impressed that someone like her could do that. 

            Only an in-group can say "Karen". 

            I said the references to the chief being a lion are ironic since the lion is a British symbol representing the ideal British person: courageous, strong, and noble. Since the settlers behave in a cowardly manner, the poem shows the chief to be ideally British. 

            Chuanqi said the poem begins from the settlers' perspective and then from that of the chief's daughter. 

            "Let the wolves eat the cursed Indian ..." 

            I talked with Professor Percy after class about my idea for a research paper on Chiac. She said as long as the focus is on English it will be fine. 

            I weighed 84.4 kilos before lunch. That's the least I've weighed at that time in a week. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos at 17:00. 

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

            I went online and answered the questions about today's class in the Exit Slip survey. Most of the questions were about "The Cattle Thief". 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with Basilica sauce, a beef burger sliced in two lengthways, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching the eighth episode of Ben Casey. 

            Dr. Jean Howard is the new chief of pediatrics and is as tough on her staff as Casey is on his. A child is brought in with possible meningitis, which is a disease of the brain and so Howard calls neurosurgery. 

            Meanwhile Casey is trying to convince an elderly woman named Mrs. O'Banion to agree to spinal surgery that would relieve her back pain but might leave her numb. She is reluctant to have surgery because she doesn't want to be a burden to her sister. 

            Casey and Howard clash because they are both used to being in charge. Howard is impatient to treat the child but Casey insists on observation first because surgery would be dangerous unless absolutely necessary. 

            Meanwhile, the parents of the sick child are pressuring them for results. 

            Howard and Casey hook up in a very strange and unlikely manner. She asks if he doesn't like her because she's a woman. He answers that he sees her as a female doctor but more doctor than female. She thinks that's funny and wonders how he performs socially. He says he's not very good at it. She says she finds overtones of modesty very attractive. He asks if he's supposed to thank her and she says, "Yes, after you've asked me out to dinner." They go out and hit it off romantically but back in the hospital they clash again over the child. 

            As Mrs. O'Banion's pain increases she finally realizes that she can't depend upon morphine and agrees to the surgery. The operation is fairly successful although she has some numbness, but not much. She insists that the little people or leprechauns helped Casey with the surgery. 

            The child goes unconscious and finally, Casey agrees that it's time to operate. The child makes a full recovery. Mrs. O'Banien was played by Nellie Burt, who started out acting in silent films. 

             She starred in at least one of the "Bound and Gagged" and "The Lightning Raider" serials in 1919. In the 1960s she started appearing on television, particularly in science fiction and supernatural stories. She came from an eight-generation line of actors, going back to England. 

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