Raymond Bailey

            On Friday morning I finished posting my translation of "J'envisage" (I Imagine the Worst) by Serge Gainsbourg and memorized the first verse of his song "Je croise aux Hébrides" (I Cruise the Hebrides). 

            I weighed 84.8 kilos before breakfast. 

            At about 11:10 I left for my appointment with the dental hygienist. There was shit on the concrete beside the bicycle posts at the Parkdale clinic and I wasn't sure if it was from a dog or a human. I was surprised the clinic is still doing the mask thing. I was even more surprised to be told that I didn't have an appointment. I remember distinctly that I was offered last Wednesday or today and I chose today. I remember her repeating the date of October 7 before the call ended. But the date they had written down when I got there was Wednesday, October 12. I took the date and left but before riding away I realized I would be in class at that time and so I went back in. She gave me next Thursday at 9:50. 

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

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back and wore a scarf for the first time since early spring. 

            I weighed 84.4 kilos at 17:21. 

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

            I started doing research for the Saturday homework for my English in the World course. This time we have to find and introduce a current news article about electronically-mediated English. I settled on an article that tells how Social media and online crowdsourcing will serve as major wellsprings of information for the three-year project of compiling The Oxford Dictionary of African American English. 

            I coated the beef sirloin tip in olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, and garlic and roasted it in the oven. I had a small slice with a big potato and gravy while watching episode seven of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            In this story, Jed is preparing to plough the acre of land that makes up the front lawn of the Clampett mansion so Granny can do some farming. Elly wants to help with the ploughing but Jed tells her to put on a pretty dress. When she does so she takes it as an insult whenever Jethro tells her she's pretty or says she looks like a city girl. She attacks him more than once and throws him over the second-floor railing so that he lands on his head on the marble tiles of the foyer.

            Jed's banker Milburn Drysdale has a plan to civilize the Clampetts. He will lend them his butler and maid. His secretary Jane Hathaway tells him that the Clampetts won't take kindly to having servants. So Drysdale calls Jed and makes it look like he's doing him a favour to take on the butler and the upstairs girl. 

            But the Clampetts still don't know what a butler and a maid are and they think that Mr. Butler and Marie are relatives of Mrs. Drysdale. They also think that Marie is called "the upstairs girl" because the family is ashamed of her and keeps her in the attic. They agree to take on what they think are guests rather than servants. 

            When they see Marie curtsying, they think she has weak knees because of malnutrition. Also as soon as Ravenswood the butler sees Jethro he runs away because the last time he encountered him he carried him out of the Drysdale house. He runs away several times until he sees Elly May, by whom he is so charmed that he tells her she looks like a city girl. Elly chases him upstairs and throws him over the railing, but fortunately, Jethro catches him. 

            Milburn Drysdale was played by Raymond Bailey, who first went to Hollywood in the silent era but failed to make it. He settled on working as a banker and a stockbroker. After a second unsuccessful try at Hollywood, he joined the Merchant Marine and traveled the globe. Later, while working at a pineapple plantation in Hawaii he started acting in local theatre. This inspired him to return once again to Hollywood and this time he started getting small parts in movies, leading to bigger ones. He had even more work when television became popular. He played D.X. Beaumont on My Sister Eileen. He played Dean McGruder on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. He was forced to retire in 1975 because of Alzheimer's Disease. 

            I searched for bedbugs and didn't find any.