J. Edward McKinley

            On Wednesday morning I revised my translation of verses five and six of “S'il pleauvait des larmes” (If Our Tears Made Rainfall) by Boris Vian. I should have the revision completed tomorrow.

            I searched for the chords for “Asphalte” by Serge Gainsbourg but no one has posted them so I worked them out for the intro and the first verse. 

            I weighed 87.65 kilos before breakfast. 

            I received an email from George Elliott Clarke with a blurb from which to harvest a quote about my poetry for my upcoming book. Albert Moritz is going to send me something too and I sent a request to Allan Briesmaster. I wrote a short biography to include in my book and sent it to Richard Olafson at Ekstasis Editions.

            Since I started doing song practice at 8:00 and then a few weeks later changed it to 9:00, it has cut into my time to work on projects in the late morning. I’ve decided to change my schedule to allow for that. From now on I’ll start lunch an hour later. I did that today and found it only took me half an hour to enjoy lunch while reading the news. 

            I weighed 88.6 kilos before lunch at 14:00, an hour later than usual. That’s the heaviest I’ve been in the early afternoon since June 27. 

            I only took my siesta half an hour later than usual and then my bike ride downtown and back half an hour later as well. 

            I weighed 87.95 kilos at 17:42. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:41.

            I took my camera and tripod out for a walk around Parkdale to look for people to put on video for my project. I walked along the north side of Queen to Sorauren, then on the south side to Elm Grove, then back to Sorauren and home. I’m still looking for Whispering Ghost with Wings of Silver so I can reshoot the video I’d thought I’d made of him but didn’t. If I can get him and one other person that’ll be seven videos for the project. I think that’ll be enough.

            I opened my August 19, 2023 Movie Maker project and saved it as “La jambe de bois (electric)”. I established the beginning of the video timeline and then started synchronizing the audio. It was about thirty seconds behind when I stopped for the night. 

            I started dinner half an hour later than usual in line with the schedule change I’m trying out. I made pizza on a roti with Basilica sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 5, episodes 7 and 8 of Bewitched. 

            In the first story Samantha is cooking for a dinner party with Larry and Louise. But Uncle Arthur ruins her sponge cake by materializing in the oven. He decides to make up for it by conjuring a Napoleon French pastry but accidentally conjures Napoleon Bonaparte. Arthur has always been a practical joker but never a fumbler. I assume that from now on in the series he will be the character used for the fumbling spells that would have previously been written for Aunt Clara before Marion Lorne the actor who played her died. Darrin wonders how this happened and Samantha explains that “When a witch or a warlock casts a spell involving an object, in this case a French pastry, the name of which may be also used to identify a human being, the kinetic vibrations run the risk of zonking across the atmospheric continuum and the ectoplasmic manifestations which might not ordinarily occur…” but Darrin cuts her off and says he’s sorry he asked. Arthur tries to send Napoleon back but can’t. So Samantha puts a 20th Century suit on him and introduces him as her French cousin Henri. When Samantha asks Napoleon to go along with the ruse he says he will because he finds her attractive. At dinner Larry recognizes the resemblance of Henri to Napoleon. He has an idea to have Henri dress as Napoleon for a TV ad for Zoom Detergent. Napoleon agrees to do the ad because he hopes to become famous in this time so he can take another wack at conquering England. But when Napoleon reads the cue cards on the day of the shoot he is too forceful and they think he stinks. Later Arthur figures out the right incantation to reverse his spell but with a little help from Samantha. 

            Bradley, the owner of Zoom Detergent was played by J. Edward McKinley, who began making guest appearances on television shows in the late 1950s. His first TV appearance was on You Bet Your Life. His first film appearance was an uncredited role in The Big Circus. He tended to be cast as authority figures.

            In the second story Darrin’s mother coaxes Samantha to enter a slogan contest for Tinkerbell Diapers to win a two week trip for two to Tahiti. She comes up with “Switch to Tinkerbell Diapers. It’s time for a change”. Phyllis sends it in and Samantha wins. But it turns out that Tinkerbell is a subsidiary of Barton Industries, which is a client of McMann and Tate. Darrin comes home to announce that he’s been fired. He accuses Samantha once again of using magic to come up with the winning slogan, and again implies she’s lying when she denies it. This of course makes Samantha once again very angry and she locks herself in the bedroom. Then Larry comes and apologizes for firing Darrin. He hires him back and offers Samantha the job of heading up their slogan department. On hearing that, Darrin resigns but Larry doesn’t seem to care. Darrin goes to his favourite bar and gets drunk. Samantha appears and zaps them both home, then Darrin collapses on the couch. The next day Samantha takes Darrin’s layouts for the Barton account and leaves them on Barton’s desk. He likes them.