Linda Henning

            On Thursday morning I memorized the seventh verse of "Sans blague" (No Joke) by Boris Vian. There are a lot of repetitions of verses and so there are only three new verses left to learn. 

            I finished working out the chords to "J'envisage" (I Imagine) by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through the song in French and English. I uploaded it to Christian's Translations and will probably have it published on the blog tomorrow. 

            I weighed 85.4 kilos before breakfast. 

            I finished reading Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain. Unlike the romantic King Arthur stories, this only has descriptions of battles and betrayals. Merlin only appears in the account of Arthur's father Uthur using magic to disguise himself so he could sleep with another man's wife and that's how Arthur was born. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and on the way back I stopped at Freshco. I bought five bags of grapes, a pack of strawberries, two packs of blueberries, a pack of raspberries, some bananas, a sirloin tip beef roast, a jug of orange juice, a jug of limeade, and a bag of kettle chips. I forgot to buy milk but what I have might last until Saturday. 

            I finally got an email back from my TA Alex. I suspect that my message compelled her to finally post a general email to everyone with the links to the sign-up and to Discord. 

            I weighed 84.4 kilos at 17:50. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:55. 

            I finished reading "Yellow Woman" by Leslie Silko. I read "Sautu" by Subramani, Sudesh Mishra's "The Grand Pacific Hotel", and Nalo Hopkinson's "Habit of Waste". The last one is a science fiction story from the point of view of someone who had a body transplant and changed her race. It also has a character who lives off the land in Toronto. 

            I found a bedbug on my shoulder while I was sitting at the computer. It didn't have blood inside but it looked healthy. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken leg while watching episode six of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            The story begins with Elly May wearing a ball gown that Jane Hathaway got for her. Her father, Jed tells her she looks like a queen. She goes out to meet boys but comes back all dirty because she thought a ball gown was for playing ball and she joined a bunch of boys in a football game. 

            Granny is homesick and wants to move back to Tennessee. All of the livestock that Jed bought in the previous episode was taken away by the city. Jed sends Jethro out to hunt but he gets arrested and the cops take his shotgun away before he runs away from them and escapes. The main gripe that Granny has is they've made no friends in Beverly Hills. If someone new moved next door back home they would go and visit them with food. 

            Jed decides that maybe the way it's done in Beverly Hills is that the new people visit the neighbours first. So they venture out to ring doorbells even though they aren't supposed to know what a doorbell is since they don't know their own. At the first house they visit, a woman who may be a governess welcomes them in and gives them treats because it turns out that it's Halloween. As they are leaving they see two children in masks asking if they can go out but the governess tells them not until after dark. The Clampetts don't realize that the children are wearing masks and just think they are horribly ugly children who aren't allowed outside except under the cover of night. The Clampetts continue on and every house gives them treats, so now Granny thinks that the neighbours are friendly after all. 

            Meanwhile back in Tennessee, Jed's cousin Pearl and her daughter Jethrine visit the oil tycoon Mr. Brewster at Jed's old place, which he's using as a field office for the oil excavation. Pearl leaves Jethrine in the wagon while she flirts with Mr. Brewster in the house. A flashy hipster named Jazzbo pulls up in a hot rod and starts flirting with Jethrine. He says he likes big girls and adds, "You carry me away!" Jethrine jumps out of the wagon, picks him up and carries him away. Jed talks to Pearl through Brewster's field telephone and tells her and Jethrine to come and visit. 

            I suspect that Pearl was originally supposed to be Jed's sister since her son Jethro is referred to as Jed's nephew. If Pearl is a first cousin then Jethro is Jed's first cousin once removed. Maybe he just calls him "Uncle Jed" out of respect. 

            Jethrine and Jethro were both played by Max Baer but Jethrine's voice was dubbed by Linda Henning. She is the daughter of Paul Henning who created The Beverly Hillbillies. She played Betty Jo on Petticoat Junction for seven years. She played Mrs. Mallory on Sliders. 

            I didn't find any bedbugs in the bedroom but I don't know where the one that I found earlier on my shoulder in the living room came from.