Peggy Pope

            On Wednesday morning I worked out the chords for half of the second verse of “S'il pleauvait des larmes” (If Our Tears Made the Rain Come) by Boris Vian. 

            I finished working out the chords for “L'impression du déjà vu” (A Sense of Déjà Vu) by Serge Gainsbourg. I ran through singing and playing it in French and English. I uploaded it to my Christian’s Translations blog and almost finished preparing it for publication. I should have that done tomorrow and then I’ll start learning the next Gainsbourg song on the 1990 and final list. 

            I started my new schedule of beginning song practice at 9:00 instead of 8:00. So during that extra hour leading up to it I got all the morning blog, Facebook and Twitter postings that I usually finish after rehearsal. I also did my sit-ups, chin-ups, push-ups and skipping. I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the last of four sessions and I sang loud. I guess the damp morning affected the arthritis in my left ankle because it hurt more than usual. 

            I weighed 88.2 kilos before breakfast. 

            At 13:45 I left in the downpour for my appointment at Dentistry on Queen West. It only took five minutes to get there but I’d been asked to come early to fill out some paperwork. The receptionist was confused at first because my file said “paperwork in” but it turned out it said “paper work in office” meaning rather than by email. There was a page that asked “have you experienced any of the following:” and there was a long list of things, including a lot of foods like walnuts. Since I have had experience with all those foods I checked them all off. I knew that they probably meant “have you experienced allergies with any of the following” but I answered the literal question and there were a lot of checkmarks. I pointed out the flawed wording after filling it out. I first saw Laura who was very nice. She told me I've been doing a good job of cleaning my teeth.  She didn’t bother to do extensive x-rays because I’d agreed to have the grad school share the x-rays they’ve already taken. She just x-rayed the front tooth I wanted to have filled. She also did a fairly thorough periodontal exam with an assistant. Then Dr. Singer came in and I was surprised at how young he looked. When he left I asked Laura if he was 18. She said he’s been working there for three years. Maybe he started at fifteen and he’s the Doogie Hauser of dentistry. He looks younger than my dentist at the grad school. Anyway Dr. Singer did my filling today, which wasn’t expected, and so now I no longer look like a zombie. 

            I weighed 87.65 kilos at 16:00. I posted my blog and then posted the link on Facebook. Then I posted the text from the blog on Facebook. Then I got a notice from Facebook that my blog post had gone against community standards and had been removed. But the blog has the exact same text as the Facebook post, which didn’t go against community standards. AI stands for Anal Intelligence. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:35. 

            I weighed 88.05 kilos at 18:41. 

            I uploaded my acoustic performance of “La jambe de bois” to YouTube. Next I’ll work on my acoustic performance of my translation, “The Wooden Leg”. 

            I listened to more of the cassette recording of Tom Smarda and I rehearsing on January 6, 1994. We did all the songs that became Christian and the Lions standards but there are a couple of songs of which this may be the only recording. 

            I made pizza on a roti with Basilica sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 4, episodes 26 and 27 of Bewitched. 

            In the first story Darrin’s mother Phyllis thinks that Samantha’s keeping Tabitha socially isolated to an unhealthy degree. She has arranged a play date between a five year old boy named Michael Millhauser and Tabitha. Michael’s mother Gretchen is the daughter of one of Phyllis’s closest friends. Phyllis takes Samantha and Tabitha to Gretchen’s house, which is cluttered with toys. Gretchen believes in a lived in atmosphere because it gives children a sense of belonging. She’s waiting for Michael to develop his own sense of pride so he will put his toys away. Gretchen is full of a lot of psychobabble. Michael draws on the wall but Gretchen says they’ll just paint over it. She explains he’s releasing the hostility caused by being uprooted to a new environment. They go in the backyard and it is equipped with enough play structures to open a playground. Tabitha goes on one of the three swings and Michael’s tells her to get off. Samantha puts her on another swing. The two kids end up in the same sand box and Gretchen says they should leave them on their own. Michael takes Tabitha’s shovel away from her but she uses magic to get it back. Then when he tries to take a wagon away from her she conjures a cage around him. Samantha tells her to set him free. Michael says he wishes he was a dog to he could bite her. Tabitha turns him into a dog. Gretchen wonders where the dog came from and where Michael is. Gretchen and Phyllis go looking for Michael but the dog follows them. Tabitha can’t change him back until he’s close to her. Samantha catches him and Tabitha reverses the spell. Gretchen wonders if she’s too permissive. Samantha says children want some discipline because being a free spirit all the time is hard work. Gretchen tells Michael to go pick up his toys. He refuses so she spanks him and he does what he’s told. That was the mid-60s for you. 

            Gretchen was played by Peggy Pope, who started a business with actor Reneé Taylor when they were both out of work actors. They would find discarded furniture then refinish and sell it. She won an Off Broadway Theatre Award (Obie) for her performance in Muzeeka. She made guest appearances in several TV series. Her autobiography was called Atta Girl: Tales from a Life in the Trenches of Show Business. 

            In the second story Louise calls to invite Samantha for dinner. Samantha says she can’t get a sitter but Louise says her Aunt Harriet can do it. Larry arrives with Harriet and her crystal ball. Larry says he needs Samantha at the dinner party because a client named Baker will be there with his wife. Larry needs Samantha, Louise and Mrs. Baker to gang up on Mr. Baker and convince him to update his packaging. Harriet wants to use the crystal ball to contact Mr. Henderson with whom she was engaged for twenty years but refused to marry because he drank. Samantha leaves and helps to argue with Baker but he won’t budge. Meanwhile Harriet is calling for Henderson to come forth. Tabitha is awake in her crib upstairs and playing with her powers. She opens the front door and bounces a ball under the crystal ball. Then when Harriet sees a rocking horse fly up the stairs she thinks she’s conjured a ghost. She calls Louise to tell her the news. Samantha wants to go home and Louise wants to check on her aunt. Mrs. Baker wants to see a ghost. Larry and Baker come along. At Samantha’s house Mrs. Baker goes in the kitchen at the same time that Tabitha is opening the fridge with magic and levitating a bottle of milk to pour into a glass. Mrs. Baker asks Harriet if she can conjure Uncle Willie who started Baker’s company. She says she’s sure he would tell Mr. Baker to update his packaging. Suddenly Baker thinks this has all been a trick to convince him and he tells Larry he’s dropping his ad agency, then he drags his wife away. Larry and Louise take Harriet away as well but she forgets her crystal ball. The next day Samantha hatches a plan to convince Baker. She takes the crystal ball to Mrs. Baker and says they can summon Uncle Willie. She gets Mrs. Baker to point out Willie’s portrait and then she tells Mrs. Baker to tell Willie to come while she goes out on the patio to give her room to concentrate. Samantha makes herself look like Willie but then the real ghost of Uncle Willie appears before her. He says he’s been trying to get Baker’s attention for a long time but nobody can see or hear him. So she teams up with Willie and posing as him haunts Baker to demand that he update his packaging. When the apparition has information from Baker’s childhood that no one but Willie would have, Baker gives in.