Christine Williams

            On Saturday morning I finished posting "I've No Regrets", my translation of "J'ai pas d'regret" by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I'll download the lyrics to his song "Fugue" and start translating them. 

            I memorized the first three verses of "Beau oui comme Bowie" (Fine Yes Like Bowie) by Serge Gainsbourg. There is only one verse to learn and I should have that done tomorrow. 

            I weighed 84.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I went over to Vina Pharmacy but my prescription still hadn't gone through. It's not the end of the world at this time of year since no one is seeing my knees and elbows get white and dry. 

            I went to No Frills where I bought five bags of grapes, and two containers of skyr. I forgot to buy white kitchen garbage bags. 

            I went out to the liquor store and bought a six-pack of Creemore. 

            I went up to David's place and his fridge is running after all but not really generating cold. 

            I weighed 84.3 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of limeade. 

            I took a bike ride in the afternoon and since my knee didn't feel too bad I rode as far as Bloor and Ossington and back. 

            I weighed 84.4 kilos at 16:45. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 17:22. 

            I spent a couple of hours on my essay on the mirror moments in Jane Eyre. Here's what I have so far: 

                                        Mirror Moments for Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre 

                 My mirrored twin, my next of kin, I'd know you in my sleep - Leonard Cohen 

            In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre there are three crucial experiences of Jane seeing her reflection. Each of these moments have a connection with reading. In the first the connection is indirect but pointed. She had been reading a book with vignette pictures that reminded her of fantastic stories told by Bessie the maid (Brontë 11). The book was thrown at her by a young bully as punishment for reading and she is wounded to the point of bleeding. When she is further attacked she violently defends herself resulting in confinement in the room where her former benefactor had died and whom she fears may still haunt the chamber (Brontë 13-14). In the room she looks into the mirror and sees herself as a supernatural figure similar to those from the book that reminded her of Bessie's stories (Brontë 17-18). Jane's subsequent self-defining mirror moments occur outside of the literal looking glass at times when other people mirror Jane's image of herself (Johnston 2.2). 

            The first of these other mirrors manifests itself when she sees Helen Burns, a lone girl "bent over a book", reflecting Jane as the reader sees her at the beginning of the novel (Brontë 11-12, 59). In Helen, Jane sees a more mature and ideal version of herself. Jane further identifies with Helen when she sees her being punished as Jane was in her first mirror scene. The manner of Helen's discipline is humiliating and Jane projects herself into her experience and declares that she would defy such an infliction (Brontë 61-62). But Helen predicts that she would not be defiant because she is her future reflection. The prediction comes true and Jane is punished in the same way as Helen and bears it in the same manner as Helen. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with Basilica sauce and hot Italian sausage. I had it with a beer while watching season 4, episode 22 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            Granny is going back to the Tennessee hills to serve as midwife for Luke Short's daughter. She's taking Elly May with her and travelling by train. Jed and Jethro are looking forward to bonding as bachelors while the women are gone but they have two different visions as to how to go about it. Jed thinks they are going to hunt, fish, and talk but Jethro has gotten the keys to several gentlemen's clubs from Mr. Drysdale and he brings home three Kitty Kats from the Kitty Kat Club. The consequence is that Jed decides that it would be best if he and Jethro also go back to Tennessee. 

            But Drysdale panics when he thinks of Jed leaving Beverly Hills because he is afraid that he'll remove the $50 million from his bank. He has Jane lie down in front of the train and tells Granny that John and Edyth Brewster need her as a midwife for their soon to arrive baby. What he doesn't tell Granny is that the Brewsters are adopting. When Edyth tells Granny they are picking up a baby that afternoon from the baby service Granny thinks Edyth doesn't understand where babies come from. When the Brewsters walk in with their new baby it makes Granny think her many years of experience need to be updated. 

            One of the Kitty Kats scared Granny and Mr. Drysdale with her height in a couple of scenes. She was played by British actor Christine Williams, who at 183 cm was the tallest Playboy Playmate of all time. She was Playmate of the month for October, 1963. She had small parts in a few TV series such as The Monkees and played a showgirl in Funny Girl. 

            This marked the eleventh night of not seeing a bedbug, but that's no guarantee that the infestation is over. I didn't make it past twelve days last June.