Irene Vernon

            On Sunday morning I memorized the second verse of “J'ai pleuré le Yang-Tsé” (My Tears Flood the Yangtze) by Serge Gainsbourg.

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the first of four sessions. 

            I weighed 87.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I swept and mopped my apartment. I dumped two buckets of black water down the toilet. Tomorrow the plan is to clean the bathroom and maybe the area on the kitchen floor that I painted in front of the counter and the stove. 

            I weighed 87.6 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. When I got home I went out to buy a six-pack of Creemore. 

            I weighed 86.7 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:40. 

            I compared the videos of my song practice performances of “Joanna” on August 13 and 19 and found that the later one looks a lot better and sounds just as good such as it is. This song sounds better on the acoustic. I compared August 29 to August 19 and I think the Kramer was more in tune on the later date. I compared September 4 to August 29 and they are about equal except that the August 29 session is already synchronized in Movie Maker. I compared September 14 to August 29 and I think August 29 looks and sounds slightly better so that’s the take I’ll upload to YouTube. Next I need to compare the videos of my electric performances of “Joanna Dancing Lightly” from last year’s sessions. I compared August 14 and August 18. Both have traffic noise but I think August 14 looks and sounds better. The guitar sounds heavier. I have six more to compare. 

            In the Movie Maker project for my song “Angeline” I imported the video of the Christian and the Lions concert at the 360 Club on June 3, 1998. But when I tried to load it into the timeline it would only go into the audio line because it was a VOS file. I thought for sure I must have it in a compatible format since I used clips from it for my "Instructions for Electroshock Therapy" video but for whatever reason I didn’t have it. So I used Total Video Converter to make a copy in WMV, then I imported that. I placed it at the end of the timeline and deleted everything but the beginning of “Angeline”. That was as far as I got this time. The Riot Gallery concert version of the song cuts off at the beginning of the second verse. I don’t think it would look good to just suddenly introduce the other video where the first one left off since they are drastically different videos in lighting and in look. I think I’d better find another Greta Garbo clip as a buffer between them. Then I think I’ll need to alter the appearance of the 360 version at least at the beginning so it’s not too drastic a change. 

           I scanned about ten more slides from the fourth to the last box. These were all shots of my daughter a few days after her birth, sometimes with her mother. I think that there are only five slides left to scan. I’ll have to double check to see of the slides on the other half of the box were done in January but I’m pretty sure they were. 

           I made pizza on naan with Basilica sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 1, episodes 11 and 12 of Bewitched.

            In the first story Endora has been snooping in Darrin’s briefcase and she’s found photos of attractive women. Samantha explains that they are models and looking at those kinds of pictures are part of an advertizing man’s job but Endora doesn’t buy it. Darrin is looking for a special woman to be Miss Jasmine and to represent the Jasmine Perfume account. He hasn’t quite found the right one but then one day he looks up from his desk and sees an absolutely enchanting woman who wants to audition for the job. She says her name is Jeannine Fleur. Darrin knows at first sight that Janine is perfect for the job and Larry agrees. Her measurements are 94-59-94 cm. The shots are taken and Darrin is happy with them. Darrin tells Jeannine it’s time for lunch. She asks, “Where shall we go?” Darrin says, “We? I’m having lunch with my wife.” She says she thinks he’d better get another Miss Jasmine. He says they need to talk about that and so he calls and cancels lunch with Samantha. Endora keeps telling Samantha she can’t trust Darrin but she says they’ll go to lunch where Darrin and Jeannine are to prove she can. When Samantha sees Janine she suddenly stands up and casts a spell to suspend in time all the humans in the room. Then she walks over to Darrin’s table and addresses Janine, who is only pretending to be frozen, as Sarah Baker. Sarah is also a witch and it turns out that it was Endora who put her up to testing Darrin. Samantha says to back off and Endora tells her to do what Samantha says. But Sarah says, “You know how difficult it is for me to leave a job unfinished?” Samantha considers telling Darrin that Janine is a witch but Endora warns him that might make him think that he is susceptible to witches and then suspect that Samantha used enchantment on him when they first met. Janine asks Darrin to her apartment and so Darrin asks Larry to come along. Sarah uses a sleep potion on Larry and a love potion on Darrin. He is about to kiss her when Samantha appears and suspends him in time. She says Darrin can resist her as long as she doesn’t use magic. She breaks the spells and disappears. Sarah puts magic powder on the fire and Darrin wants to kiss her again but Samantha breaks that spell as well. The next time Sarah makes him want to kiss her she ends up kissing a dead fish. Samantha foils Sarah’s plans. 

            In the second story Gladis Kravitz sees her neighbour Samantha diving in her back yard and then hears a splash. It’s a hot day and she is thrilled to see her neighbour has a pool. But when she looks over the fence there is no pool. Then Samantha gets a call from Louise Tate who asks to come over. She says she just found out after 16 years of marriage that she is pregnant and asks Samantha to come to the doctor with her. Meanwhile Larry has a toothache and goes to the dentist at the same medical centre. When he leaves the dentist’s office he sees Louise and Samantha going into the obstetrician’s office. He opens the door long enough to hear Samantha say she can’t wait to tell Darrin. Larry is excited and goes to tell Darrin that Samantha is pregnant. Samantha calls to say she wants Larry and Louise to come to dinner that night. Darrin daydreams that he has a bunch of children but that they are all broomstick flying witches. When Darrin and Larry arrive at Darrin’s house they both have flowers. Darrin gives his to Samantha and Louise holds up her hands to receive Larry’s bouquet but he gives his to Samantha as well. Both men are doting on Samantha and ignoring Louise. At dinner Louise tries to tell Larry the news but he says he already knows but Samantha should tell Darrin. Louise says it’s all right with her and so Samantha tells Darrin that Louise is going to have a baby. At first it doesn’t register with Larry until he realizes that Samantha said “Louise”. When Louise confirms she’s pregnant he is thrilled.

            Louise was played by Irene Vernon, who had small roles in films during the 1940s. In the 1950s she started acting on television. She was cast as Louise Tate on Bewitched because of the influence of writer Danny Arnold who she had known since they studied acting together. Later when Arnold quit after two years, because of her association with him she was fired. There is no explanation anywhere as to why that would be a reason. Another explanation some give is that her husband was ill. She was replaced by Kasey Rogers who had to wear an uncomfortable dark wig to make her look like Vernon.