Pat Woodell

            On Sunday morning I dreamed I was in someone's place and had the idea to put a geometry compass on their wall as a work of art. But I decided against it because it might clash with their own aesthetic. 

            I finished searching for the chords for "Vieille Canaille" (Old Rascal) by Serge Gainsbourg and didn't find any more than the three sets I'd found on Saturday. Tomorrow I'll try them out and see if either of the sets works for me. Usually I use part of a set and work out the rest on my own. 

            I video and audio recorded my song practice. The only technical glitch was that a few times the guitar jack loses its connection to the pickup in the Martin. I have to make sure it's secure before I begin a song. Most of the time it stayed connected but I had to re-plug it three times. I spent a lot of time on redoing Megaphor and Sixteen Tons of Dogma, just like last year. I guess the new guitar is one of the reasons I don't seem to be playing the songs any better than last year. There's also the fact that it takes a few days of these video sessions for me to relax into them. 

            I weighed 86.2 kilos before breakfast. 

            I finished cleaning the bathroom, then I vacuumed the area of the kitchen floor where the depression is. I measured the depth, length and width of the depression because on Monday I want to buy perhaps a thin sheet of plywood to finally fill it in. Then the plan is to find and glue some tiles down over the area. 

            For the last five years I've had a large amethyst rock about the size of a volleyball soaking in vinegar to try to dissolve the rock surrounding the crystals. I'd set five years as the limit and so two days ago I took it out of the vinegar and then soaked it in baking soda and water to neutralize the acid. Today I removed it from the water and washed it with detergent, scrubbing it with a wire brush. It didn't really look much different than five years ago so I still have the problem of freeing the crystals from the iron rich rock. 

            I weighed 86 kilos before lunch. I had a toasted Montreal style bagel with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of limeade. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. I was surprised there were so many people on the streets until I remembered it was Sunday. I was waiting for the light at Queen and Bathurst when a guy to my right who was waiting for the streetcar mumbled, I assume jokingly, "Give me your bike. I wanna sell it to buy some crack. C'mon, help a guy out!" 

            I weighed 85.6 kilos at 17:15. 

            I took a chisel to my amethyst rock. Maybe the vinegar did have an affect because the rock seems softer. I knocked off a chunk about the size of a tennis ball. 

            I reviewed the video from this morning. The guitar was out of tune during my last take of "Megaphor". "Sixteen Tons of Dogma" and "L'accordion" had their moments but there were mistakes. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:56. 

            In Movie Maker I edited my June 11, 2022 performance of "Dancing to Baby Pop", published it as a movie and uploaded it to YouTube. 

            I continued searching for video clips that might fit my line, "refer to current literature". I'm done looking at movie clips of books of magic. I'll try three more searches, "book in a storm", "book in a thunder storm", and "book in a lightning storm". If nothing turns up from them I'll settle for harvesting clips from the German silent films, "Faust", "The Golem" and a short video on evil books in movies. 

            I made pizza on Greek flatbread with Basilica sauce, a cut up beef burger and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching the series finale of The Beverly Hillbillies and the series premier of Petticoat Junction. 

            The Beverly Hillbillies finale is not much of an ending. I don't think the writers knew it was going to be canceled in the infamous rural purge that wiped out several other country themed shows like "The Andy Griffith Show". The story continues from the previous one. Dick Bremerkamp, an out of work actor, has led Jane to believe he's a descendant of Robert Audubon so he can get close to Elly May through her. He's deceived Drysdale into believing he's a descendant of J. Paul Getty and he's made Jed and Granny believe he's the great great grandson of Davy Crockett. Granny and Drysdale both want Robert to marry Elly, one because she thinks he's Tennessee royalty and the other because he thinks he'll land the Getty account for his bank. 

            Meanwhile Jethro is still in hiding because he thinks Louellen Aden wants to marry him, but Granny has been leaving a pot of food on the curb for him which he sneaks by to grab every day. However, today she doesn't leave a pot for him because she wants him to come home. But Jed mixes up a bucket of mortar to do some repairs and then goes in for breakfast. Jethro grabs the mortar thinking it's grits and eats it. A policeman finds Jethro doubled up in pain and brings him home. Granny reaches down his throat, pulls out the mortar and Jethro is fine. 

            Back at the bank Jane reads Elly a poem she wrote to Robert. Elly copies it to practice her typing but Drysdale sees it and thinks she wrote it for Robert. Drysdale reads it to Robert and tells him Elly wrote it. Robert thinks Elly wants to marry him and so when he picks her up for her driving lesson he heads for Las Vegas. But Elly tells him she didn't write it. He lets Elly drive and she has an accident when someone going through a green light hits Jane's car. Dick returns to the bank and confesses his real identity. Drysdale puts him to work washing windows. 

            In the first episode of Petticoat Junction we are introduced to Kate Bradley, her three daughters Bettie Jo, Bobbie Jo, and Billie Jo, and their Uncle Jo. Kate and Jo are co-owners of The Shady Rest Hotel, which is the only stop between Hooterville and Pixley. The only transportation is a train called the Cannonball. The Cannonball is part of the C & FW line but the trestle has been down for twenty years and so the Cannonball has been cut off from the main line for that long and Floyd the conductor and Charlie the engineer have had no communication with the company so they've run the train on their own for twenty years. 

            Earlier at the C & FW office the heads are announcing the super modern trains that run on the line, but while looking at the map the president sees the little Hooterville-Pixley branch line sitting off at the side. He sends Bedloe the vice president to find out what is going on. 

            Bedloe is now waiting for the Cannonball in Hooterville. Meanwhile the Cannonball stops at the Shady rest to pick up Kate and her daughters to go shopping at Sam Drucker's store in Hooterville. The train bypasses the station and Bedloe to stop at the store. Bedloe has already decided to shut down the train but he's making note of all the reasons why. Sam Drucker is sitting at the station because Kate has no money to pay for her supplies and it's less embarrassing for her if he isn't there when she shops. The train leaves without Bedloe and he has to chase it. 

            The girls have distinct personalities. Billie Jo is very flirtatious, loves the attention of men and wishes she lived in the city. In turn, men love paying attention to Billie. There are several young travelling salesmen on the train that follow her back to the Shady Rest. Bettie Jo always drives the Cannonball back to the Shady Rest because that train is her true love. Bobbie Jo is a reader of literature and always has her nose in a book. Kate asks Floyd the conductor how much for her and her daughters and he says two apple pies. She says they'll have to stop the train at Ben Miller's orchard if they want pies. They are going to stop at the Shady Rest for two and a half hours fo dinner but Bedloe says the schedule says they go straight to Pixley. Charlie the engineer puts it to a vote and everyone but Bedloe wants to stop. At the hotel Bedloe asks Joe if they have a phone. He says they have the only phone between Hooterville and Pixley, but it's not connected. They also have an elevator but it also doesn't work. Both features are there only to add class to the hotel. At dinner Kate tells the origin of the Shady Rest being at Petticoat Junction. Her grandfather was planning to build it in Pixley but the flatcars carrying the lumber went off the tracks at Dead Man's Curve and so he just decided to build the hotel near there. Bedloe announces he's shutting down the Cannonball but that would ruin the hotel. Everyone but Bedloe votes to spend the night at the Shady Rest. Bedloe decides to drive the train to Pixley himself but he can't make it start. He decides to spend the night at the hotel. 

            Bobbie Jo was played by Pat Woodell from 1963 until she left in 1965 to be replaced in the role by Lori Saunders. She started as a singer in Catskill resort hotels and on Petticoat Junction she and her TV sisters formed a group called The Ladybugs that sang on the show and on Ed Sullivan. She also put out her own single in 1965 and sang on tour with Jack Benny. Her first screen appearance was on an episode of Cheyenne. Her first movie was the anti-communist propaganda film The Red Nightmare. She played Bodine in The Big Doll House and co-starred in The Roommates, The Woman Hunt, and The Twilight People. She retired from acting at the age of 29 and ran a business consulting firm.