Peter Whitney

           On Wednesday morning there was still no email response from Professor Percy to let me know if she received my presentation that I uploaded before midnight. I couldn't find the actual link and so I posted the URLs from My Media in another Discussion Board. I also pasted the URLs into an email to her. She finally got back to me at 7:30 and said she'd received it but gave me a link to the assignment page and asked me to submit my assignment there and she would extend my deadline. I followed the link and found an assignment page where I was able to submit the main URL. It wouldn't accept both URLs which instructions told us to copy and so I'm confused what the point of the second URL is.

            It seems to me that she should have posted the assignment page link and the link to My Media everywhere that she had mentioned the presentations. There are links on Quercus that mention the presentation but just lead back to the main course page. There's even a link on one page relating to the presentations where she actually says, "This is not the link" but doesn't provide the link. It's a confusing maze of links on Quercus for this course. 

            I finished memorizing "Con c'est con ces conséquences" (I Can't Stand These Consequences) by Serge Gainsbourg and looked for the chords. No one had posted them and so I worked a few of them out for the intro.

            I weighed 84.2 kilos before breakfast. 

            I didn't have time to shave but took a quick shower before leaving for class. 

            Professor Percy arrived as I was locking my bike. 

            The professor said we need to come up with one sentence of praise and another of suggestions for the presenters. 

            Since I was the MC, I told everyone that if anyone felt like doing a Will Smith on me, just don't punch me in the face. 

            My presentation was first. As I'd concluded by mentioning that Acadians are the ones that brought pigeons to the Americas, Rosemary asked if that was true. I said they brought them in 1606. 

            I said that I wanted to call our group "The Inner Circle Squares" but more sensible minds prevailed and settled on "Observing the Inner Circle". 

            Ava's presentation was called "A Language Lost" about Inuktitut. The Inuit people have deep identity in Inuktitut but no identity in engagement with English. 

            In between each speaker it was my job to field a question from the audience.

            Rosemary wrote "The Links Between Language and Identity in Northern Ireland." Irish pressure. All court proceedings had to be in English even when the Irish language was more widely spoken. Catholics speak Gaelic. 

            Catholicism was there first, so I assume that the reason why Gaelic and Catholicism go hand in hand is because the first missionaries converted people in their own language before English became dominant. 

            There are forty Irish schools and they are all Catholic. 

            Matthew's presentation had been originally titled, "English, Franglais, and Sociolinguistic Conflict in Canadian French-Medium Schools", but now he called it, "Words at War". Franco minorities. There is a constitutional right to have education in the official minority language. It is difficult to be admitted in Ontario. There is a controversy about anglophones attending French schools. Should French be enforced? Francophone students outside Quebec may be receiving inadequate instruction. 

            Hero presented on English and French subversion. French threatening English. The French are reactionary because of the past. It is a hostile linguistic landscape. In August 2022 a group vandalized English signs. Hostile political engagement. 

            In the end we all stood at the front and took questions. I asked a lot. I asked Rosemary about Gaelic in Nova Scotia; Matthew about the French university in Toronto; Ava about whether Inuktitut could be revived like Hebrew was in Israel; and Hero about whether conflicts between the French and English are entirely language based. 

            I enjoyed being MC. The professor thanked me several times. Matthew told me I did a great job.

            I weighed 84.7 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of limeade. 

            I weighed 84.2 kilos at 16:30. 

            I realized before dinner that I'd forgotten to buy beer and so I got dressed and went across to the liquor store. I sure am glad there's one nearby but I wish there was a Beer Store so I could return all my cans. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with Basilica sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 2, episode 18 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            In this story Lafe Crick returns because he never left for Tennessee like he said he would. He has the intention of somehow getting hold of Jed's $40 million. He has convinced Jed's banker Milburn Drysdale and his secretary Jane that he is Jed's closest friend. Jane drives him to Jed's place and Lafe sits outside pretending to be ailing until Elly May finds him and takes him to the kitchen. Lafe tells Jed that Lafe Crick is not one for receiving charity. Granny says she didn't know there was two Lafe Cricks. Lafe says he'll work for some food and Jed says he doesn't have to but if he wants to he can. 

           While Lafe is having lunch and then changing into his overalls Jed and Jethro finish sawing and chopping a large amount of firewood. When Lafe gets there they go to eat and leave him alone. Lafe immediately sits down to rest. Drysdale and Jane walk up they are impressed because they think that Lafe is the one that chopped all the wood. Lafe tells Drysdale that Jed wants him to hire him to watch Jed's money. Drysdale is impressed with Lafe and since he thinks Jed trusts him, he hires Lafe as a night watchman. Lafe is so excited because he thinks he's about to be rich after taking Jed's money that he starts chopping wood and when Jed sees him he is impressed. 

           Lafe goes to the bank and Jane escorts him to Drysdale's office. As soon as he is alone he starts looking everywhere for Jed's money because he thinks it's there in the office. When Drysdale finds him on his knees looking under the couch and asks what he is doing Lafe says he is giving thanks. Lafe says he wants Drysdale to put all Jed's money in gunny sacks so he can sit on them and guard them with a shotgun. Drysdale informs him that Jed's money is not actually in the bank in cash. Suddenly Lafe wants to go back to Jed's place and so Jane drives him. 

           She tells him that when the Clampetts first came to Beverly Hills Granny insisted on all the money being changed to silver so it could be buried in the back yard. Suddenly Lafe thinks that's what they did and he runs to the back yard. When he gets back Jed and Jethro are about to dig a root cellar for Granny. Lafe grabs the pick axe and the shovel and says he wants to do it all himself. The next morning they find Lafe still digging and everyone thinks he's turned over a new leaf. 

            Lafe was played by Peter Whitney, who started film acting in the early 1940s. His first supporting role was in "Underground" in 1941. He was typecast immediately as a tough guy whether comical or dramatic. He played the murdering hillbilly twins Mert and Bert in "Murder He Says" and Peter Lorre's partner in Three Strangers. His massive frame and his talent for being fearsome and funny at the same time landed him lots of guest roles on television in the 50s and 60s. He played Buck Sinclair on the western TV series The Rough Riders. 

            It took until after dinner to finish editing all my lecture notes from yesterday and today and to get caught up on my journal. 

            I went online and wrote the Exit Slip survey for today's class. When I was finished I noticed there was another assignment that was due today. I had been so caught up in writing my presentation that this assignment slipped my attention. I attempted to do it in the 77 minutes before the deadline but it was very time consuming and involved following various library links to find authors and their work. In the last few minutes I just guessed the answers and obviously often got them wrong because I only scored 75%. That's my first B in this course but I think that 75% is of 1% of my overall mark, so the damage is miniscule. 

            I searched for bedbugs and found one in that crack where I've found a few before in the upper right corner of the old exit door at the head of my bed.