Pamela Franklin

            On Wednesday morning I dreamed I was about to go on a movie date and opted to wear a pair of denim overalls, which my date thought looked great. But I needed my guitar and Tom Smarda had it. I went outside to look for him. There was a train there ready to roll and I walked down a few cars to see Tom sitting on top with my guitar. My guitar was in very bad shape and apparently that was my fault. Tom was upset about it as he handed it back to me and promised that next time he’d take matters into his own hands. 

            I posted on Facebook “The Grey Life”, my translation of “La vie grise” by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll start learning his song “C’est le Bebop”. 

            I finished memorizing “Shotgun” by Serge Gainsbourg and searched for the chords, but no one had posted them. I worked out the first three chords for the instrumental intro. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice for the third session of four. 

            I weighed 86.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I swept my kitchen floor and then washed and scrubbed the checkerboard section that I painted in front of the counter. I should probably avoid scrubbing it because it just takes the paint off but there was dirt that wouldn’t come off otherwise. I touched up one of the black squares, especially where it meets the base of the counter because when I removed the painters tape there was a white crack. Maybe I’ll have time to do another couple black squares tomorrow. There’s probably just enough black paint left to touch up all the squares and then when it runs out I’ll put my painting projects on hold until April because I’m starting my last undergraduate course on Friday. 

            I weighed 86.8 kilos before lunch. I had Triscuits with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of ¾ orange juice and ¼ pure cranberry juice. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and stopped to buy grapes at Freshco on the way back. They only had a few firm ones of the nice tart red grapes they’ve had for the last couple of weeks. I picked through them and got one bag of good ones. 

            I weighed 85.7 kilos at 17:45. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:45.

            I went onto Acorn and took myself off the waiting list for the Creative Writing course that started today. I downloaded the syllabus and all the secondary reading material for the Modern Literary Medievalism course that’s starting on Friday. I put my name down for next week on the presentation list because we’ll be starting Beowulf right away and that’s the only text I know a lot about. I also put my name down for two opening dialogues but we are each supposed to do four. Every day has two names already and since I didn’t see any with three I didn’t add my name to any that already have two. I assume that will be cleared up on Friday. We have four novels to read: The Mere Wife, by Maria Dahvana Headley; The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro; Pearl by Siân Hughes; and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. We also have to read Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, “On Fairy Stories” by Tolkien, Anglo Saxon Riddles, and Sir Orfeo. I’ll have to go to get the novels at the U of T Bookstore tomorrow. I found The Mere Wife and The Hobbit on Pirate Bay but The Mere Wife hasn’t downloaded yet. I found The Buried Giant on Library Genesis. I couldn’t find the Pearl novel and the professor said that it might not be at the book store either and suggested ordering it from Amazon. We’re supposed to read the first 124 pages of The Mere Wife by Friday’s class, so I’ll have a lot of work to do tomorrow. 

            I made pizza on two halves of a loaf of flatbread with Basilica sauce, a chopped beef burger, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 6, episodes 24 and 25 of Green Acres.

            In the first story Oliver has become interested in Organic Farming and decides to take a course on it at the state college. Lisa wonders what she is going to do while he’s away at night and Oliver suggests she take a course as well. At first Lisa signs up for pottery but the classes are not on the same nights as Oliver’s and so he tells her to take a different course. She chooses Psychology. After her first class she brings home a large number of Psychology texts and reads the first one in a matter of minutes. She explains that she can do that because she has a “retarded mind” but she means “retentive”. After three classes she starts giving psychological consultations. She helps Eb with his relationship. Hank comes to her for analysis and thinks she cured him because he forgets what his problem is but he forgets everything. Arnold the pig comes to her for his depression, she cures Sam of hating his mother, and she helps a goat that thinks it’s a duck. Oliver says she’s going to get in trouble for practicing psychiatry without a license and makes her drop the course and take another one. She decides on nuclear physics.

            The second story is the penultimate episode of the series and it has the feel of being the setup for a spinoff. Lisa wants to take a fifth honeymoon with Oliver and so they decide on Hawaii. A lot of time is spent on setting up the characters on the Hawaiian end of the story long before Oliver and Lisa arrive. Bob Carter is the widowed and conservative owner of the Moana Rexford Hotel and his young and hip daughter Pamela has a lot of wild ideas on how to improve the hotel. Pamela has been raised and educated in England while living with her aunt but she’s in university in Hawaii now. Two of her student friends are getting married but have no place for a honeymoon and so Pamela sneaks them into the honeymoon suite at the hotel. When Oliver and Lisa arrive they also ask for the honeymoon suite and since Molly and Richard are in one of the bedrooms, Pamela puts Lisa and Oliver in the other. Pamela tries to warn Molly and Richard but they are busy with their honeymoon. When Oliver and Lisa finally see Molly and Richard, Pamela explains the situation. Even Oliver is okay with them continuing to stay in the other room and the two couples even make a breakfast date. Pamela Carter was played by Pamela Franklin and it turns out I was right and this was a planned spinoff that never got off the ground. The proposed sitcom would have starred Pamela Franklin and the title would have been “Pam”. 

            Pamela Franklin began studying ballet in England. He first film appearance was in The Innocents when she was 11 years old. Her first television appearance was in the made for TV Disney movie The Horse Without a Head. She co-starred in Flipper’s New Adventure, Our Mother’s House, And Soon the Darkness, and The Third Secret. She is best known for co-starring in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. She was nominated for an Emmy for the TV movie Eagle in a Cage. She co-starred in the BBC series Quick Before They Catch Us. Her first adult role was with Marlon Brando in The Night of the Following Day in which she appeared topless. In the 70s she became a scream queen when she co-starred in movies like The Legend of Hell House, Satan’s School for Girls, and Necromancy. Her last movie was The Food of the Gods when she was 26. She says that working on television killed her film career.