Wilf Carter

            On Saturday morning I sang and played my translation of "Rupture au miroir" (Crack in the Mirror) by Serge Gainsbourg. I made some adjustments in my translation and then uploaded it to my blog to prepare it for publication. I should have it posted tomorrow. 

            I've been listening to the Wilf Carter discography. He was born in Port Hilford, Nova Scotia and he was inspired to start singing after hearing a Swiss singer known as The Yodeling Fool. Wilf ran away from his Baptist preacher father at the age of fifteen. He spent the rest of his teens as a lumberjack and a hobo. 

            After moving to Calgary he became friends with rodeo rider Pete Knight and joined him as a cowboy. It was around this time that Wilf became a professional singer and developed his own yodeling style known as "the echo" and the "three in one". In 1930 he started performing on local Calgary radio stations and then on the national CRBC which was the precursor to the CBC. In 1933 he recorded "My Swiss Moonlight Lullaby" and it became the first hit for a Canadian country singer. The same year he recorded "Pete Knight the King of the Cowboys" and that was also a hit. Around this time he became known internationally as "the yodelling cowboy". 

            From 1934 to 1940 he hosted a country music show on CBS and changed his name for his US fans to Montana Slim. In 1950, 50,000 people came to see him perform at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. He was a frequent guest on the CBC's Tommy Hunter Show and he toured with Canadian singer Hank Snow. He wrote over 500 songs. I like his yodeling more than most of his songs.

            In the late morning I went to No Frills where most of the grapes were too soft so I only got one bag. I bought two bags of oranges, two packs of blueberries, two packs of raspberries, a bag of red potatoes, a pack of ground beef, a small pack of steaks, Sunlight dish detergent, Basilica sauce, rice crackers, a small container of skyr, and a pack of toilet paper. 

            I spent a little over half an hour re-reading A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman by Julian of Norwich. There's a bit more of that to read, plus her A Revelation of Love, as well as Margery Kempe's The Book of Margery Kemp. This reading is towards my Medieval Literature essay in which I want to talk about the magic of mystery brought by outsiders. I want to compare these women's visions of Jesus with the image of the Green Knight in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. 

            I weighed 84.4 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of limeade. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 83.9 kilos at 17:00, which is the lightest I've been at that time in a week. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:16. I finished reading the excerpts from A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman and A Revelation of Love by Julian of Norwich, and about half of The Book of Margery Kempe. The first book mentions a couple of visions that fit with the scope of my essay. When Julian had the desire to suffer the pains of Jesus she had a vision of Jesus suffering. When she felt the desire for the bliss of heaven she had a vision of a blissful Jesus. Margery confesses to having been lustful and obsessed with fashion and her first vision of Jesus has him as the most beautiful and well-dressed young man sitting on the edge of her bed. When she fears the fires of hell she has the vision of demons with open mouths waiting to consume her. 

            These visions are all wish fulfillments and a parallel with them can be found in the beginning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. King Arthur will not partake of the New Years feast until he hears an amazing tale and what suddenly transpires is a fantastic story come to life as the Green Knight arrives. As Arthur's subjects all desire their king's wishes to be granted The Green Knight can be seen as a collective vision. As the religious women have visions of Jesus, warrior knights logically have a vision of the most awesome knight of all. 

            I made four ground beef patties and grilled them in the oven. I had one between two halves of a toasted slice of Bavarian sandwich bread, topped by ketchup, chili sauce, barbecue sauce, mustard, and two slices of pickle. I had my burger with a beer while watching the penultimate episode of the second season of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            In this story Mrs. Drysdale has gotten tired of seeing the Clampetts' old shack from her house and so she has arranged to have it torn down by hiring a wrecking company. I doubt very much if even in 1964 it would be legal to privately arrange for the destruction of someone else's property. She would have to go through the city to bring about such a thing. Anyway, to prevent the demolition, Mr. Drysdale has decided that he will occupy the cabin because they cannot legally wreck it if there is someone inside. 

            Most of the comedy on this show is fuelled by ridiculous misunderstandings. So when the Clampetts learn from Jane that Drysdale has occupied the cabin because of his wife's interactions with a home wrecker they take "home wrecker" in the figurative sense and think that Mrs. Drysdale has run off with another man. 

            Drysdale gets Jane to chop some wood for him but fortunately Jethro comes and does the work. She offers him a kiss but he doesn't want to do that in the open. She holds up the keys to Drysdale's limo with the intention that they could kiss in private there, but he thinks it's an invitation to take a joy ride and so he grabs the keys and leaves. 

             Meanwhile sociology student Ginny Jennings returns with her professor to check on the situation with the Clampetts. In the previous episode she thought that the Clampett mansion was the Drysdale mansion and that the Clampetts were unpaid slaves living in the cabin. When last she was there she thought she had persuaded the Clampetts to take over the mansion in a type of private revolution. But now she learns that their lives have not changed and thinks that means they are still living in the cabin. 

            Drysdale comes and chases Ginny and the professor away from the back yard. At the front of the mansion they meet Jethro, and Ginny encourages him to drive Drysdale's car some more and to take Granny and Elly May with him "to liberté, égalité and fraternité". He says, "I'll do my best but I have enough trouble finding Anaheim, Azuza, and Cucamonga." 

            The next morning Al Ledbetter of A-1 Wreckers arrives to destroy the cabin. He tries to carry Drysdale out but Jed confronts him, thinking that Al is Mrs. Drysdale's boyfriend. He chases Al away.

            Ginny and the professor return to see Jethro wearing Drysdale's suit and he says Drysdale is living in the cabin. They find Drysdale chained to the cabin and think that it's against his will, especially since Granny is in her rocker nearby with a shotgun on her lap. Al comes back with his partner. He tells Granny to turn Drysdale loose but Granny says all she's going to turn loose is a pound of buckshot. She fires in the air and says, "That's half a pound, where would you like the other half?" The wreckers leave and then Granny tells Drysdale that the key to the padlock on his chain was lost forty years ago. 

            Al was played by Michael Ross. When he retired from acting he became a Pontiac salesman in North Hollywood. 

            I searched for bedbugs and dug a small black one out of a crack in the wall at the head of my bed.