Fred Clark

            On Sunday morning, as it tends to happen every time the clocks go back or forward, even though I knew it was going to happen, I was still fooled by the alarm when it went off at what my clock still thought was 5:00, even though it was 4:00. I got washed and ready for yoga and didn't realize what time it really was until I turned on Radio Canada and heard jazz playing. After 5:00 it would have been classical and so I went back to bed, even though I didn't really sleep before getting up again at 5:00. 

            I finished posting my translation of "Sans blague" (No Joke?) by Boris Vian. I'll look for the lyrics for his song "J'ai pas d'regret" (I Have No Regrets) tomorrow. 

            I finished working out the chords for "Partie perdue" (Losing Leaving) by Serge Gainsbourg. I ran through the song in French and English and then uploaded it to Christian's Translations. I'll probably have it published on the blog tomorrow. 

            During song practice there was a loud, flashing electrical explosion and the power went out for a minute or two. There was a small fire for a couple of minutes on one of the connectors on the pole at my corner of Queen and O'Hara. When I restarted my computer there was a saved draft of my 1983 Gainsbourg document but I thought that I'd saved the original and so I deleted the draft. It turned out that some of my chord placements for "Partie perdue" didn't get saved, but I'll probably remember them or else I'll figure them out easily tomorrow. 

            Also about halfway through song practice, the neck end of my guitar strap broke and so I tied the shoe lace that connects the neck and the strap to the next unbroken hole on the strap. That hoisted my guitar up to the level of my stomach when I'm used to having it down by my hips, but there was no time to fish for a longer shoestring and so I played the guitar high for the rest of my rehearsal. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            I felt very sleepy at noon and so I took an early siesta. I was still groggy when I woke up after ninety minutes of nap. 

            I weighed 85.6 kilos before lunch at 13:30. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of lemonade. 

            After lunch I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 85.8 kilos at 15:45. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 16:13. 

            I started working on my essay but after a few minutes I decided I'd better set my alarm clock for the proper time so it doesn't go off at 4:00 again. 

            Then I found a longer shoelace to attach my guitar strap to the neck, Now the guitar hangs down by my hips where it's comfortable. Maybe in the spring I should invest in a new guitar strap. 

            I made some progress with my essay on Grendel: 

            Grendel was tortured by the loud sounds of joy that emanated daily from Hrothgar's mead hall, and by "the clear song of the scop." But Grendel could not have been simply offended by the exuberant expression of human joy as manifested by these elite Viking warriors and their poet singers. If Grendel could hear their reveling from the bottom of the lake then he must have also heard occasionally the sounds outside of the mead hall of the singing of nearby farmers, peasants, slaves, and the even more joyful shouting of common children, especially during festivals. Yet nowhere in the poem is it mentioned that Grendel attacked anywhere but the mead hall. It is more likely that what tortured Grendel was hearing the king's warriors taking joy in self congratulation, and in songs about the acquisition of wealth through conquest as for example appear in the verses of songs like Beowulf. It is not human joy that angers Grendel, but that of "lordly people" who express elation over the killing of "misbegotten things" such as Grendel and his species. And so Grendel targets the gathering place of the powerful that the poet calls "the high house", to take advantage of the drunken slumber of those who do not need to rise early for a hard day of labour to support their families. Unlike the slaves, the peasants, and the freemen, Hrothgar's men know "no human misery". 

            Grendel deliberately selects for execution those closest to the king and yet never attacks Hrothgar. Given Grendel's ability to hunt down and cull the king's thanes with no effective resistance, he could have found Hrothgar, shredded his defences with ease and killed him anytime he wanted. But Grendel leaves the king alive to be "unhappy", so that "he suffered greatly" and "grieved for his thanes." The Scylding ruler is then Grendel's psychological target. 

            Mere savagery does not explain Grendel's actions because they are fixed on Hrothgar's thanes and not just any occupant of the mead hall. When thanes seek escape from Grendel's attacks by sleeping in an outbuilding, Grendel tracks and finds them there. Although the women also must have had quarters nearby, there is no mention in the poem of Grendel ever attacking a female, even those of the same class as the thanes. Perhaps this is a respect that extends from Grendel's relationship with his mother. "He wanted no peace with any man of the Danish army". Grendel is at war with the Danes and fights only the king's officers. He not only lives outside of the monetary system and the Viking culture of payment, but he deliberately undermines that system with his attacks on the wealthy. The poet suggests that if Grendel had "settled with money" and offered payment in compensation for the thanes he killed, then his brutality would be more acceptable. 

            When the poet says that Grendel "struck old and young alike", since his clear preference of victims were thanes, the "young" are probably not children but rather young men that happen to be thanes. 

            When Grendel takes control of the mead hall named Heorot, he could effortlessly carry away all of its riches and jewellery, but "he scorned the treasures; he did not know their love." The things that the Danish nobles value are worthless to Grendel. There is a sword in his mother's cave that is ancient and priceless. The Danish treasures are the equivalent of plastic to Grendel's mind because they have no history. Many of the treasures were taken as booty in Viking raids, and are dirty gold. Grendel rejects and despises the capitalism of the Danes. 

        

            I made pizza on naan with Bolognese sauce, a sliced hot Italian sausage, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching the second season premier of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            Jed is sick and Granny is forcing him to stay in his bedroom while she treats him with her folk medicines. Elly comes to her father crying because he's never been sick before and Granny says it's serious. Jed confesses to Elly that he's only pretending to be sick to cheer Granny up because she's been feeling down lately and nothing makes her happier than doctoring. When Elly tells Mr. Drysdale what Jed is doing for Granny he decides to do his part and tells her that he's sick too. He thinks she's just going to give him some medicine to take with him but Granny insists that Drysdale be placed in the sick room with Jed and she has Jethro as an enforcer to make sure he stays there. Meanwhile back at the bank, in addition to his regular duties, Drysdale has an appointment for a checkup with his physician Dr. Clyburn. Clyburn is impatiently waiting in Drysdale's office and so Drysdale's secretary Jane Hathaway makes some calls to learn that Drysdale is sick at the Clampett mansion. Clyburn heads over there and Granny mistakes him for another patient and so Jethro forces him into bed with Jed and Drysdale. Hoping that it will get him out of there, Clyburn connects Granny with the best pharmacy in Beverly Hills and tells them to give her whatever she wants. But Granny asks for a quart of stump water, a cup of lizard eggs, a double handful of dogbane, a couple dozen dried beetles, and a Mud Dobber's nest. They hang up on her. Since she can't get lizard eggs, sometimes gunpowder is an adequate substitute but this time it causes an explosion in the kitchen. Granny has no choice but to start cutting the patients and so she has Jethro sharpen the knives. When Drysdale and Clyburn see the knives they think she's planning on performing surgery, but the knives are to take hair and fingernails from each patient and bury them in three holes, say some magic words and throw a spell on the sickness. So after Granny has done that she believes she's cured them and the men are allowed to leave, albeit with bald spots on the back of each of their heads. 

            Clyburn was played by Fred Clark, who was studying to be a doctor when he got involved in a college play and caught the acting bug. He made his Broadway debut at the age of 24. After WWII he started acting in films and his first was a supporting role in "The Unsuspected". He co-starred in "Cry of the City", "Bells are Ringing", "I Sailed to Tahiti with an All-Girl Crew", and "Daddy Long Legs". On television he played Harry Morton on The George burns and Gracie Allen Show. 

            Before going to bed I found a bedbug on my arm while I was sitting at the computer. When I searched the bedroom I didn't find any.