Victor Lundin

            On Monday morning I memorized the first verse of “Rue Traversière” (Traversière Street) by Boris Vian. 

            I memorized the fourth verse of “Ardoise” (Shingles) by Serge Gainsbourg. That’s over half the song. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice and it sounded good after I switched to the neck pickup. For a while I was using the middle pickup because I thought it sounded better and it does on some songs but the neck pickup is more consistent. 

            I weighed 86.8 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since December 9. 

            I was still two days behind on my journal and worked between breakfast and lunch on trying to catch up. 

            I weighed 86.9 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back.

            I weighed 86.15 kilos at 18:26. 

            I continued to work on my journal. 

            I grilled eight chicken drumsticks and had two with a potato and gravy while watching the last two episodes of the first season of Batman. 

            In episode 33, Alfred goes to a fish store to shop for caviar for a special charity dinner where the guests are all millionaires. But while tasting the caviar an umbrella comes down over his head, then he is gassed and knocked out. Witnesses saw men with umbrellas carry Alfred to a car and reported it to the police. Commissioner Gordon concludes this is the work of the Penguin and calls Batman. Batman concludes that this has to do with the Multi-Millionaire’s Annual Award Dinner. Alfred is the major domo at that affair. Penguin kidnapped Alfred to force him to divulge the secret location of the dinner. Batman and Robin go to the fish store to see if there are any clues left over from the kidnapping. In Penguin’s hideout at the Gotham waterfront Afred is placed in the Penguin box to be brainwashed. The box seems like an ordinary steam cabinet for reducing but it looks like there are also electrical charges. In the end Penguin tells him to forget everything but when he learns the location of the millionaire’s dinner he will communicate it to Penguin when asked. Alfred is taken back to Wayne Manor. When Batman and Robin talk with Alfred he remembers nothing about any fish store and says he purchased the caviar as usual through the Iranian embassy. Alfred seems normal except that now he has a twitch on the right side of his mouth. Batman tries the memory Batbank on Alfred to see if everything is really normal. He is shown pictures of Penguin’s men Shark and Octopus but does not recognize them, even though they were the ones who abducted him. Finally he is shown a mug shot of the Penguin but Alfred neither recognizes him or even remembers the name. A rehearsal dinner is held at Wayne manor in preparation for the Millionaires’ dinner. Batman and Robin discover that the proprietor of the south pier of Gotham Harbour is named Knott A. Fish and they conclude that is Penguin’s hideout. They head there and enter a lobster shack where several umbrellas open around them and they are attacked by Penguin and his men. After a valiant fight however Batman and Robin and pinned to the wall with giant fish hooks and then knocked out with sleeping gas. They are locked in the Penguin’s vacuum tank. They are tied to stakes inside the chamber while Penguin’s men work a bellows that slowly pumps the air out of the tank. That’s the cliffhanger. 

            In the season’s final episode, the air continues to be pumped from the chamber where Batman and Robin are tied. Currently it registers as not enough for a mouse to breathe. Then it moves down to butterfly. When the meter says “No air at all” Penguin concludes that Batman and Robin are finished. Then he and his men and his girl Finella leave to establish an alibi. After Penguin goes, Batman utilizes the emergency tank of Bat Oxygen in his utility belt and then frees himself and Robin with the Bat Knife. Penguin still does not know where the Millionaires’ Dinner will be held and the only person who does know is Bruce Wayne. Gordon contacts Bruce Wayne who tells him that the dinner will be held in the captain’s dining salon aboard the flagship of the Wayne Steamship Company, the SS Gotham Neptune. Later while Alfred is cleaning and singing, “Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves”, which first appeared in a poem by James Thomson in 1740 and was set to music by Thomas Arne. It’s the unofficial theme song of the Royal Navy. It comes from Arne and Thomson’s opera “Alfred”. Alfred answers the phone and the Penguin’s voice triggers his previous brainwashing. He is compelled to reveal the location of the millionaires’ dinner. Then Penguin tells him to forget this call and Alfred simply thinks it was a wrong number. Miss Natural Resources is scheduled to jump out of the cake at the dinner but Penguin and his men arrive at her apartment to replace her with Finella. They are gassed and locked in a room. Then Batman arrives to escort Miss Natural resources to the dinner and Finella goes with him. Later, after the dinner the giant cake is rolled in. Finella pops out of the cake and the millionaires begin throwing their money at her. Then she pulls an umbrella out of the cake and gasses everyone to sleep. Back at the hideout everyone is celebrating their multimillion dollar hall but Finella is upset because she didn’t earn it. Suddenly Batman and Robin pop out of the Penguin’s safe and acknowledge Finella’s change of heart. Batman explains that they took anti Penguin gas pills before the party. The final sound effect fight occurs. Penguin is caught in a net. Another award party is thrown to replace the one that was interrupted and Finella is escorted for one night from prison by Commissioner Gordon so she can attend.

            Penguin’s thug Octopus was played by Victor Lundin, who was trained as an opera singer and also played semi-pro baseball. He appeared on Hootenanny as a folk singer. His film debut was an uncredited role in The Miracle in 1959. His TV debut was on Gunsmoke the same year. He co-starred in Robinson Crusoe on Mars, He was the very first credited Klingon to ever be seen on screen on Star Trek, in the episode Errand of Mercy. He played Machine Gun Kelly in the movie Ma Barker’s Killer brood. He was also a singer and songwriter who released two albums: “Little Owl” and “Storyteller”.

Stafford Repp

            On Sunday morning I posted on Facebook the lyrics for “Come to Cannes if You Can”, my translation of “A Cannes cet été” by Boris Vian. I searched for recordings of his songs “Je vous ai vue un jour d'avril”, “Julia”, and “Martine” but no recordings seem to have been made of them. But I found a recording of his song “Rue Traversièr” and listened to it once. Tomorrow I’ll start memorizing it.

            I memorized the third verse of “Ardoise” (Shingles) by Serge Gainsbourg. I think I’ll call my translation “Adonis on the Roof”.

            I weighed 86.3 kilos before breakfast. I was still three days behind on my journal and so before lunch I worked on my review of the latest Doctor Who Special: "Joy to the World". 

            I weighed 86.8 kilos before lunch. I had rice crackers with five-year old cheddar and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

            When I got up from my siesta it was raining but I brushed my teeth and got ready for a bike ride anyway just in case it stopped. But it didn’t stop and when I started riding I only got one block before I decided to turn around and go home. 

            I weighed 86.6 kilos at 16:40, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the evening since December 4.

            Being back from my bike ride early gave me a chance to work on my journal. I finished my review of Doctor Who before dinner. I had another quarter of the reheated lasagna and it was even better on the third re-heating. I added a bit of five-year-old cheddar to the mozzarella. I had it with a beer while watching season 1, episodes 31 and 32 of Batman. 

            In episode 31, an old silent film is being played for an audience during the opening of Gotham’s new art palace. The old movies were donated by the collector Van Jones, who is in attendance. After the ending the audience is gathered in the lobby when the Riddler comes in dressed as and imitating Charlie Chaplin. A woman in roaring 20s attire comes down the stairs and he flirts with her silently. Then three old style cops come after him and he evades them. While the audience is laughing he ducks into the box office. He gasses the clerk and knocks her out then steals the money. As the fake police are arresting the woman the fake little tramp gives himself up and they all leave, having successfully robbed the art palace, while the audience applauds. Later Commissioner Gordon realizes the Riddler was behind this and so Batman is called. When Batman arrives at police headquarters he is informed of a riddle that has been sent. “Why is a musician’s bandstand like an oven?” Robin says, “Because that’s where he makes his bread”. Batman concludes the Riddler intends to rob Mother Gotham’s Bakery, the biggest in town. At the bakery an old style movie camera is set up by Riddler’s crew before the robbery. he says he’s been commissioned by Van Jones to make a modern silent film featuring Batman. Riddler’s girl Pauline is wearing a short but patched dress. She pretends to be crying and knocks on the bakery door to beg. The baker is sympathetic and is about to give in when she says for him to take her shawl in exchange. Then she puts it over his head, then the Riddler and his men move in. The Riddler heads for the payroll office with a cart full of whipped sleeping cream pies. The guard gets one in the face and falls asleep. Inside the two accountants also are filmed having sleeping pies thrown in their faces. Riddler opens the safe with an explosive eclair. The place is robbed, then Riddler leaves a riddle on the wall in icing. Batman and Robin arrive and are filmed as they investigate the bakery. The riddle is “How do you make a dishonest shortcake?” The answer is out of lie-berry. They head for the branch library on Baker Street. The Riddler’s film crew are already waiting there. The door is locked but Batman gets in with the Bat key. When they enter, a giant book falls on their heads with the title A Pictorial History of Silent Films. Inside are two more riddles: “What do you find in a kitchen cabinet that is not alive?” and “When is a new car considered to be seedy?” They take the book back to the Batcave for analysis. The answer to the first riddle, fitting with the movie theme is “deadpans”. Meanwhile the Riddler’s new hideout is the abandoned cutting room of a bankrupt movie studio. The second riddle’s solution is a new car is seedy when it’s a lemon. Batman says Van Jones is throwing a party today and he is famous for being against the use of alcohol so he will be serving lemonade. Batman and Robin head for the party. Meanwhile Riddler plans to spike the lemonade with his special anger potion with his men posing as waiters. At the party the guests begin arguing, including Gordon and Chief O’Hara. Then the whole party breaks into a fist fight with the women throwing punches too. While Batman urges everyone to be calm, Robin is waiting in the Batmobile. Pauline approaches him dressed as Little Boe Peep and asks for his help. She says a man in green kidnapped her little brother and then asked a riddle: “When is a bonnet not a bonnet?” Robin answers it: “When it becomes a woman.” Then she gasses Robin and knocks him out. Batman sees the film crew filming the fight and chases them. Robin is abducted and tied to a log conveyor in an old lumber mill leading to a buzz saw which would cut him in two. That’s the cliffhanger. 

            In episode 32, while Robin comes closer and closer to the spinning buzzsaw blade, Batman leaves the violent party after giving everyone the antidote to the Riddler’s temper tonic. Batman sees that Robin is gone and has left his transmitter behind. When Batman starts the Batmobile the exhaust shoots a riddle in the air that comes down on a parachute: “Why is a bear like a fallen tree?” Batman says, “A bear lumbers and a fallen tree becomes lumber”. Then another one shoots and comes down: “Why is silk like grass?” Batman says you measure both by the yard. Batman concludes Robin is being held at the Gotham Lumberyard. When Batman arrives he is being filmed with an old style crank driven movie camera. Riddler, dressed as a villain in a silent film with a black top hat, a black cape, a black handlebar moustache and a whip, asks Batman “When is a man a stupid relative?” Then he points to Robin and Batman rushes to rescue him but the blade has already cut into his head. Batman sees however that Robin is really a mannequin because a man is a stupid relative when he’s a dummy. The Riddler is gone but Batman catches Pauline and takes her to police headquarters. She is uncooperative and so Batman drugs her to take her to the Batcave for his truth treatment and asks Commissioner Gordon to come along as a witness to keep his anger over Robin’s abduction in check. Pretty sure it’s illegal with or without a police escort. Gordon willingly submits to the Batgas as well. Once they are in the Batcave Batman wakes Gordon and then Pauline. Batman puts a Batmask on Pauline that basically looks like a plastic bag that she breathes into. He tells her there are those who came to the Batcave and never left. I guess that’s true since in the very first episode the Riddler’s moll Molly fell into the Batcave’s nuclear reactor and was apparently disintegrated. Pauline says she doesn’t know where Robin is but knows two more riddles: “Why was Flo Zigfield like a nearsighted man?” Batman answers, “Because they both put on spectacles”. The second is: “What kind of men are always above board?” Batman says, “Chessmen”. Batman removes Pauline’s mask and analyzes the oxygen she breathed into it during her answers. He mixes it with a clear liquid in a beaker, which turns red, to indicate she was telling the truth. Batman puts her back to sleep. Of the clues, since they are following a silent film theme during this caper, the spectacles represent the ones that Harold Lloyd always wore and he was often found precariously dangling from the ledge of a high building and so in this case Chessmen represents the Chessmen building. He puts Gordon to sleep again. Meanwhile the Riddler has Robin on the ledge at the top of the Chessmen Building. Riddler is about to push Robin when Batman appears at the top of the building. Robin is pushed and falls but Batman throws his Batarang with the Batrope attached and Robin catches it in his teeth. Robin is pulled up by his bite and is glad he takes care of his teeth. Batman says, “You owe your life to dental hygiene”. Riddler escapes in a helicopter and writes a riddle in the sky: “What kind of machine has ears?” Robin says a train has engineers. Another riddle asks, “Why does a cowboy wear a tight belt?” Robin says, “To hold up his pants”. Robin puts the two clues together and concludes that the Riddler plans to hold up the famous El Chief train that appeared in so many silent films. But as Batman and the police converge on Gotham Central Station, on the other side of town at the mansion of Van Jones, the film collector welcomes the Riddler. The Riddler has brought Van Jones what he commissioned, the only silent film ever made of Batman and Robin in action. They watch the film together and all the events of the last two episodes are shown in a silent epic. Van Jones prepares to pay the $100,000 he promised the Riddler. Van Jones opens his safe but Riddler pulls a gun and tells him he’s going to take all his precious films and then ransom them back to him. But Batman arrives because he knows the clues pointed to “The Great Train Holdup”, the only copy of which is in the Van Jones safe. The Riddler’s men attack and the final sound effects battle takes place. The Riddler and his gang are of course defeated again. 

            Chief O’Hara was played by Stafford Repp, who was already middle aged when he started acting on screen after leaving the US Army Air Corps following WWII. His Irish accent as Chief O’Hara was only acting. He acted in stage productions on the west coast before the war. His film debut was in Fireman Save My Child in 1954. His first credited role was in The Steel Jungle in 1956. His television debut was on Gunsmoke in 1957.

December 31, 1994: I read my old newspapers until after midnight but still didn't get through them all

Thirty years ago today

             On Saturday I worked until after midnight on reading and then throwing away the rest of my old newspapers but I wasn’t able to finish.

Roddy McDowall

            On Saturday morning I published on my Christian’s Translations blog “Come to Cannes if You Can”, my translation of “A Cannes cet été” by Boris Vian. I posted the lyrics on my Boris Vian Facebook page. Tomorrow I’ll post them on my personal Facebook page before moving on to learn the next Vian song on my list. 

            I memorized the second verse of “Ardoise” (Shingles) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions and it still sounds horrible, going out of tune after a few strums. 

            I weighed 85.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I went to Freedom Mobile to pay for my January phone plan but there was a “Back in ten minutes” sign. Those signs always lie, even if the person who put it up will be back in ten minutes from when they put it up since by the time someone reads it won’t be ten minutes. While I was waiting, a woman stopped to take a couple of pictures of the sign for some reason. When the guys finally finished what I assume was their lunch break in the back they opened up. After paying for my plan I asked if they had home internet yet since a year or so ago they didn’t but I heard that they did now. They said they do. I asked if it was a pre-paid plan and they said no but then said that since I already have a pre-paid phone plan I could get home internet as a pre-paid plan. It would cost a $100 deposit though for the router and the modem which would be returned if I ever canceled the plan. I don’t really need it right now but if the restaurant downstairs ever closes I might. 

            I went to No Frills where the grapes were all too soft but they had cherries again and so I got five bags. I also bought 3 packs of raspberries, bananas, a pack of five-year-old cheddar, Arm and Hammer toothpaste, a jug of orange juice, two containers of skyr, and a bag of Miss Vickie’s sweet chili chips. 

            I weighed 85.85 kilos before lunch at 14:30. I had rice crackers with five-year-old cheddar, two samosas, and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

            I took a siesta and when I woke up it was too late to take a bike ride. 

            I weighed 85.35 kilos at 17:30. 

            I finally finished my review of Deadpool and Wolverine but for some dumb reason Blogger put it under a sensitive content warning. AI is weird. I’ve posted personal stuff that was a lot more explicit.

            I heated another quarter of the lasagna I had made from frozen on Christmas day and it was better reheated. I had it with a beer while watching season 1, episodes 29 and 30 of Batman. 

            In episode 29, at the opening ceremony of a new Bridge in Gotham City we see Commissioner Gordon. Dick Grayson is watching the dedication on TV when he sees The Bookworm. When Bookworm notices he is on camera he moves away. Bookworm radios his man Printer’s Devil who is in position with a sniper rifle. Bookworm says to start chapter 1. He fires and Commissioner Gordon is shot, falling from the bridge. Batman and Robin head for police headquarters. When they go inside, the Bookworm’s girl Lydia drops a copy of For Whom the Bell Tolls into the Batmobile. Batman and Robin find Chief O’Hara extremely distraught over the loss of his boss. But then suddenly an angry Commissioner Gordon storms into his office. He says he didn’t make it to the ceremony because he was arrested for overtime parking. Batman looks at Gordon’s parking ticket and the issuer was badge number 18-8-7. O’Hara says there is no badge by that number. The ticket is signed A. S. Scarlet. Batman says that stands for the Arthur Conan Doyle novel A Study in Scarlet. Suddenly the bomb detector in the Batmobile sends a signal to Batman and he hits the ejector button. The Hemingway novel explodes harmlessly in the air. Batman finds the asbestos cover and reminds us that the title comes from a poem by John Dionne: “Do not ask for whom the bell tolls / It tolls for thee”. Batman says Bookworm is a frustrated novelist who plots his crimes based on ideas he’s stolen from books. In For Whom the Bell Tolls the hero’s mission is to blow up a bridge. In Bookworm’s hideout we see him read an enormous volume called The Secret of Success in a matter of seconds. Gordon calls Batman to tell him to go to the old warehouse on Harbour Avenue. The Batmobile does an emergency turn, which always involves two parachutes. They usually seem to just leave the parachutes in the street but this time we see what happens to them. Batman calls the Batmobile Parachute Pickup Service, which is a van with those markings. For the first time we see that Batman actually employs people. At the back of the warehouse Batman finds a blown up image of the bridge and so Bookworm has in a sense blown up the bridge. Batman and Robin climb the opposite building to get a look at where the projector of the image is located. As they are climbing the wall a window opens and Jerry Lewis looks out, chats briefly and then closes the window again for no particular reason. halfway up they see it’s coming from a bookmobile in an alley. They use a high pitched signal to flush Bookworm’s gang out of the van and there is the first big fight of the story in the alley. The gang escapes into the sewer. Inside the bookmobile they find a bound and ganged Lydia who they don’t know is part of Bookworm’s gang. But they do suspect she might be and so Batman puts her to sleep and takes her to the Batcave to test her. Pretty sure that’s illegal. They hook her up to a lie detector and ask her questions while she is either still under the effects of the sleep drug or something else. She doesn’t know Bookworm’s plot but she knows that Batman and Robin must die for the plot to succeed. The take her back to the bookmobile before she wakes up. When she’s awake she says she knows Bookworm’s plot. In the perfect replica of Independence Hall he plans to steal the original Declaration of Independence. Batman knows it’s a trap but plans to go anyway. he tells Robin to stay with Lydia until the police arrive. She asks Robin to read her a book while they wait and she wants The Complete English History. He says that kind of book always puts him to sleep and when he opens it the gas from inside really does knock him out. Later in the Wayne Memorial clock tower, Robin is tied upside down to the clapper of the giant bell. In one minute the bell will toll midnight and Robin will die. That’s the cliffhanger. 

            In episode 30, Batman is racing across town in the opposite direction of Robin’s impending death. At Independence Hall Chief O’Hara tells him there is no trace of the Bookworm. On top of that, when the police got to the bookmobile, both Robin and Lydia were gone. Batman remembers that Lydia said “He strikes at midnight”. He concludes it’s a clock and there is only one clock in Gotham that bis called “He” and that is Big Benjamin in the Wayne Memorial Clock tower. Batman races to the clock tower. Batman uses the Batzooka to hook a Batrope onto the lightning rod of the tower. Then he hooks another Batrope onto the pivot point of the clock hands. He sends an electrical charge through the Batropes and the clock is stopped. Seeing that he has been foiled the Bookworm tries something new. He goes to Wayne Manor to see Dick’s (Robin’s) Aunt Harriet and says he’s from the bookmobile service. He gives her the Congressional Record from March 1919. She opens it and both she and Alfred are knocked out by gas. Then he steals a priceless cookbook and leaves. Gordon calls the Batcave to tell Batman about the theft and also that at Cedar and Fifth a giant cookbook has appeared. Batman and Robin go to the giant book and probe it with radar. They see it’s hollow and then open it with the Bat Magnet. The first page is paper, which Batman cuts through and they step inside to find a kitchen with pots boiling on a stove. The pot contains soup and Robin tries it to conclude it’s darn good. The book closes on them. Bookworm tells them he found an old recipe for steamed bat from 1534. Bookworm takes the Batmobile and leaves Batman and Robin to steam to death. Batman radios Alfred in the Batcave and tells him to plug him into the voice actuated circuit of the anti crime computer. Through it he learns which city pipes the steam is being drawn from. The police dynamite open the book but inside Batman and Robin are gone, apparently dissolved by the steam. later in the alley behind the Morgan Bilt Library the Bookworm and his gang are gathered because behind the wall that faces the alley is the impenetrable vault of priceless books. The Bookworm activates the Batbeam on the Batmobile and melts through the wall. But out from the hole in the wall jumps Batman and Robin. They explain they escaped through the manhole under the stove. Bookworm’s plan was secretly recorded by the Batmobile. The big sound effect fight now takes place while Bookworm and Lydia hide in trashcans. The heroes beat the gang and then somehow knock Bookworm out simply by banging on his trashcan shelter. 

            The Bookworm was played by Roddy McDowall, who made his film debut at the age of 10 in Murder in the Family. At the age of 11 his mother brought him to the US. His Hollywood film debut was in How Green Was My Valley at the age of 13. He starred in My Friend Flicka, Lassie Come Home, On the Sunny Side, Kidnapped, Rocky, Tuna Clipper, Black Midnight, Killer Shark, Big Timber, Steel Fist, Lord Love a Duck, The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffen, The Cool Ones, It, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, The Alien Within, and . He co-starred in The White Cliffs of Dover, The Keys of the Kingdom, Molly and Me, Camelot, The Subterraneans, Midnight Lace, The Defector, Planet of the Apes, The Pied Piper, Terror in the Sky, The Legend of Hell House, Mean Johnny Barrows, Laserblast, The Cat from Outer Space, Scavenger Hunt, Class of 1984, Going Under, Double Trouble, Funny Lady, Shakma, Heads, and Confirm or Deny. At the age of 18 he moved to New York to hone his theatrical skills. He won a Tony Award for his performance in The Fighting Cock. He was the voice of The Mad Hatter on several Batman related animated series. He directed The Ballad of Tam Lin. He appeared in over 150 films. He danced on the Arthur Murray Party TV series and won the Cha Cha and Charleston competitions. He published five books of his own photography. He met his best friend Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Lassie Come Home and they remained close until he died. He was in a relationship with Montgomery Clift for several years.

December 30, 1994: I tried to finish reading my old newspapers before New Years

Thirty years ago today 

            On Friday I continued my push to finish reading all my old newspapers before New Years.

Victor Buono

            On Friday morning in my Christian’s Translations blog I finished editing “Come to Cannes if You Can”, my translation of “A Cannes cet été” by Boris Vian. I just need to add a video or audio file from YouTube before publication and I’ll do that tomorrow. 

            I published “No More Romance”, my translation of “Amour jamais”) by Serge Gainsbourg on my Christian’s Translations blog and posted the lyrics on Facebook. There are five more Gainsbourg songs left in my project to translate his oeuvre from 1958 to when he died in 1991. I memorized the first verse of his song “Ardoise” (Shingles), which seems to be about being in love with a cosmic being who works on the roof of the world. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice for the second of two sessions. 

            I weighed 86.55 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since December 9. 

            I weighed 86.85 kilos before lunch. That’s the most I’ve tipped the scales in the early afternoon since December 9. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back and broke in my new Pajar boots. They do fit and they are quite comfortable. 

            I weighed 86 kilos at 18:00. That’s the highest it’s been in the evening since December 13. 

            I continued to work on my review of Deadpool and Wolverine and now I was two days behind on my journal. 

            I had a potato with gravy and my last piece of pork tenderloin while watching season 1, episodes 27 and 28 of Batman. 

            In episode 27, a golden idol appears in the park. From inside, a woman’s voice announces that the king of the Nile will rise from the tomb today to claim his kingdom of Gotham City. All who oppose him will be killed. Commissioner Gordon and Chief O’Hara are discussing it and O’Hara suggests it might be a publicity stunt by the Gotham Museum. Since Bruce Wayne is one of the directors of the museum, Gordon calls him. Bruce says the museum has no part in it. Gordon then concludes there is something criminal behind the idol and he calls Batman. When the dynamic dup get to police headquarters batman tells Gordon that only King Tut could be behind this. Batman reminds everyone that Tut was once a professor at Yale who after a head injury came to believe he was King Tut and that Gotham City is the reincarnation of ancient Thebes. Batman and Robin go to investigate the idol. Tut’s headquarters is the abandoned Egyptian pavilion of the Gotham Expo. In the park Batman says the idol is a good imitation of the Sphinx of Giza but it looks nothing like it. It has nothing a lion in it. It has goat horns and antelope horns and basically looks half human and half antelope. The “sphinx” has a handle that Batman suspects is a booby trap and so he pulls it with the Bat Rope and it projects a knife. They see a woman dressed in 14th Century Egyptian costume and they confront her. She throws down a fake asp and it’s a smoke bomb that allows her to get away. Then a bunch of Tut’s men attack and the first big group fight with the written sound effects occurs. After a while Tut’s men run away. Batman thinks that Tut’s target is the museum. Later Bruce is giving the press a guided tour of the Egyptian exhibit and he shows then the sarcophagus of the mummy of an Egyptian king. he opens it and the bandaged figure’s eyes can be seen to open. It then falls forward and they see the mummy is alive. A doctor is called, then an ambulance comes to take the resurrected king to the hospital. Bruce accompanies it. When Bruce is alone with Tut and the ambulance drivers one of the ambulance drivers uses a chemical to knock Bruce out. Tut is freed from his mummy costume than then Bruce is strapped to the gurney and taken in the ambulance. Tut takes over the voice of the “sphinx” in the park and announces that he has abducted Bruce Wayne and he will be held until his demands are met. Bruce is awake in the back of the ambulance and the gurney is rolling around as the vehicle twists and turns at high speed up a mountain road. Bruce shifts his body weight to push the gurney towards the back doors. They fly open and the gurney falls out the back to begin rolling down the mountain road with Bruce strapped to it. Ahead is a sign that the road is under construction and that there is a 100 meter drop. He crashes through sign and is headed for the cliff. And that’s literally the cliffhanger.

            In episode 28, Bruce is still strapped to the gurney after it crashes through the caution sign and rolls toward the cliff. He goes over but frees his arms just in time to catch hold of a bar. Tut is watching the news when batman announces that he is flying to Alexandria, Egypt the antiquarian library there to learn the nature of Tut’s cult so he can more effectively combat it and Tut’s madness. Tut is angry that Batman called him a madman but Nefertiti says it’s kind of true so Tut has her thrown in the dungeon. Batman has no intention of going to Egypt but he knows that while Tut thinks Batman is gone he will try again to kidnap Bruce Wayne. Batman has a lifelike dummy of Bruce Wayne built and lays it out on the couch as if asleep. One of Tut’s men arrives disguised as a cop saying he was sent to guard Wayne. The cop uses knockout gas on Alfred and then on what he thinks is the sleeping Bruce Wayne. The fake cop leaves and then Batman replaces the Bruce Wayne dummy on the couch, fully covered by a blanket. Then two of Tut’s men enter the house to carry what they think is Bruce Wayne away. But en route Tut’s men uncover their captive to discover he is really Batman. They knock him out and get rid of the transmitter do now Robin can’t track Batman. Batman and Nefertiti are trapped in giant vases while one by one little pebbles are continuously dropped on their heads with the intention of driving them mad. It has already worked for Nefertiti who now says nothing but “Tick tock” over and over. Supposedly 1000 pebbles will do the trick. Meanwhile, without a transmitter to track Batman, Robin and Alfred have had to use extrapolation of Batman’s coordinates from before they lost his signal. They figure out that Tut’s hideout is in the Egyptian pavilion. Tut has Batman and Nefertiti brought to his throne room and now believing they are his mindless slaves commands them to dance to Batman theme music. Batman does his Batusi until he starts beating up Tut’s men. Then Robin arrives to help out. Batman says he kept his reason by reciting the multiplication tables backwards. Tut escapes and steals the Batmobile and so Batman, Robin and Alfred follow in the Tut Truck. Tut uses the Batmobile smoke screen to curb their pursuit. Batman uses the utility belt transmitter to access the Batmobile remote control circuit via the Batcave relay leak. Batman makes voice contact with the Bat Computer. He tells it to fire the ejection seat but it doesn’t work. But then Tut comes back and raises the Bat Ray to use against them. However when he presses the Bat Ray button the ejector seat activates and Tut is shot high in the air and then crashes to the ground. Tut is taken to Gordon’s office and laid out on the couch. He wakes up and has reverted back to his original personality from just before the head injury that made him believe he was king Tut. 

            King Tut was played by Victor Buono, who in his teens began performing on local radio and TV stations in San Diego. At 18 he joined the Globe Theatre Players and honed his craft in many Shakespearean works. His TV debut was on Sea Hunt. His film debut was in The Story of Ruth. He co-starred in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance. He starred in The Strangler, The Mad Butcher, He co-starred in The Evil, in which he played the Devil. He played Count Carlos Manzeppi on The Wild Wild West. He played Jim’s father on Taxi. He played Mr. Schubert on Man from Atlantis. His comedy album Heavy included Fat Man’s Prayer, which he performed on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He played much older characters than himself and died at 43.

Nicola Coughlin

            On Thursday morning in my Christian’s Translations blog I started editing “A Cannes cet été” (Come to Cannes if You Can) by Boris Vian to prepare it for publication. Also in Christian’s Translations I finished editing “Amour jamais” (“No More Romance”) by Serge Gainsbourg. I just need to add a video tomorrow before publication. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice. It rarely goes out of tune but today it went off a few times. 

            I weighed 85.35 kilos before breakfast, which surprised me because I’d expected it to be a lot higher, given the eating I did on Christmas day and the extra beers I drank. 

            Around midday I took an early bike ride because I wanted to take advantage of Boxing Day and shop for a new pair of boots to replace the Blondos that recently fell apart. As usual when I take a bike ride that early I had to pee along the way. I stopped at Long and McQuade and then continued. My destination was The Hudson Bay Company because it’s listed as a Blondo dealer but first I had to pee again. I went to the washroom at Eaton Centre and for the first time in memory I had to stand in a long line for a Men’s washroom. At the Bay the footwear was on the fifth floor. They didn’t have Blondo but they had something better. The first brand I saw was the one I liked best. It was Pajar, which I’ve never heard of but it’s a Canadian company founded in Montreal in 1963. For the first ten years they were importers but in 1973 they opened their own factory. They were the official footwear provider for the Canadian Alpine Ski team in 1989. I looked at all the other boots and then came back to the Pajar, which were $350 but 20% off. Size 10 was on display but it looked too small even though I didn’t try them on. I asked for size 11. They felt a little roomy but I couldn’t imagine size 10 fitting so I bought size 11, which after tax were $316. The salesperson pointed out to me that they have a neat feature on the bottom. They have flippable spikes for walking on ice that when not in use can be flipped harmlessly inside the tread. 

            On the way home I stopped at Freshco where I used the washroom again before shopping. I bought four bags of red grapes, bananas, a pack of raspberries, a pack of frozen pub style chicken wings, a pack of Full City dark coffee, and a pack of toilet paper. I did a price match on the grapes with Metro’s price because they were selling them at about half the Freshco price. 

            I weighed 85.05 kilos at 16:41, which is the lightest I’ve been in the afternoon since December 6. I had a late lunch and a late siesta. I got up at 19:00. I weighed 85.95 kilos at 19:14. That’s the highest it’s been in the evening since December 13. 

            I was still working on my review of Deadpool and Wolverine and so I was a day behind on my journal and it looked like it was going to be longer than that. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of pork tenderloin while watching this year’s Doctor Who Christmas special. 

            The story begins in Manchester in 1940 during the Blitz. In the Queens Hotel an upper class couple Basil and Hilda discuss the end of all they hold dear when suddenly a door opens and in walks the Doctor with a tray and offers them a ham and cheese toasty and a pumpkin spice latte. They are shocked and the Doctor sees the order isn’t theirs and so he leaves through the same door. Basil tries the door and it’s locked. Hilda reminds him it has always been locked. 

            The next scene is a room on the Orient Express as it rolls through the Italian Alps in 1962. The occupant is Sylvia Trench, the very first Bond girl from Doctor No. This suggests that the James Bond universe is linked to that of Doctor Who. She is reading a love letter when the Doctor enters with the same tray. He sees it’s not her order and says “Wrong room”. Then at a base camp of Mount Everest in 1953 the Doctor pokes his head into Edmund Hillary’s tent with the same order, sees he’s in the wrong place and says “Never mind”. 

            The next scene is the Sandringham Hotel in present day London. Joy Almondo rents a room and notices that one of the doors is locked but comments that there is always one locked door in every hotel room. She is just putting her hair dryer into a drawer when the locked door opens and in walks a humanoid lizard with a briefcase cuffed to his wrist. She points the hair dryer at him and he thinks it’s a weapon. He says “The star seed will bloom and the flesh will rise”. Suddenly the Doctor steps in with the same order and this time he knows he’s in the right place. 

            There is a flashback to previous events that occurred in the future, specifically in London at Christmastime in 4202. The Tardis appears in the lobby of the Time Hotel and the Doctor exits in his bathrobe, carrying a mug to get coffee and a biscuit. He notices a man approach the desk while carrying a briefcase that is cuffed to his wrist. A hotel worker named Trev confronts the Doctor about taking hotel refreshments and asks if he’s a guest. The Doctor says he brought his own room. Trev looks at the Tardis and asks if it’s a toilet. The Doctor asks who takes a coffee to the toilet. The Doctor goes back into the Tardis but then puts his coat on and grabs his sonic screwdriver and exits again to have another look at the man with the briefcase. Trev confronts him again and this time the Doctor flashes his identification with the psychic paper and says he’s Special Agent Clint Rock from the head office. The Doctor learns that instead of rooms the hotel has time portals that access history’s most popular occurrences. He comments “No wonder there was no room at the inn. The Doctor looks at the menu and is about to order a ham and cheese toasty and a pumpkin spice latte when it is immediately served. Trev explains that the kitchen is thirty minutes in the future and so they always have your order ready before you make it. Trev has a radio implanted in his head and so the Doctor has him watch the briefcase guy and let him know when he makes a move. The Doctor goes looking for someone who wants a ham and cheese toasty and a pumpkin spice latte. The briefcase guy goes into the bar and hands the case to the bartender. The cuffs unlock from him and attach to the bartender. Everyone with the case says “The star seed will bloom and the flesh shall rise”. The previous carrier is no longer in a trance and asks what happens next. The bartender tells him he will be dead soon. The bartender then gets Trev to take the briefcase. Then Trev gives the briefcase to the clerk who is the humanoid lizard. Trev disintegrates just as all do who have held the briefcase. Now we are where we left off before the flashback as the Doctor walks into Joy’s room. The clerk wants the Doctor to take the briefcase but he refuses. Joy naively says she’ll take it and then she is taken over as well. After the clerk disintegrates the Doctor opens the briefcase while it is still attached to Joy. Inside is the star seed and a message that if the case is not closed in 20 seconds the current case holder will be disintegrated. The case is closed at the last second but they are asked for a four digit security code or the case holder will be disintegrated in 15 seconds. Neither of them has the code. In the last second the Doctor from the Doctor’s future bursts in with the code and Joy is saved. The Future Doctor grabs Joy and says she’s going with him. He tells present Doctor he has to stay there to complete the loop. Present Doctor angrily tells his future self, “This is why nobody likes you and why everybody leaves you!” He opens the locked door with his sonic screwdriver but behind it is a brick wall. The Doctor can’t get back to the Time Hotel until Christmas 2015. He talks with Anita the Sandringham Hotel manager and asks her for a job. He works at the hotel for a year as a waiter, janitor, and maintenance person. He serves guests’ meals before they order based on his psychic paper. So one woman who’s on a diet gets jelly and biscuits because that’s what she’s thinking of. He fixes the microwave and now it’s bigger on the inside. He and Anita become close friends. Christmas arrives and she catches him trying to leave a gift and sneak away. He tells her how amazing she is and they have a tearful goodbye. He’s now able to go back through the locked door into the Time Hotel. He enters Joy’s room and gives his past self the code, then he takes Joy with him. She is still attached to the case and it is reasserting control. He tells her that he learned everything about her from living in her room for a year. It was the worst, loneliest, saddest hotel room in the world. He asks what kind of trainwreck puts herself in a room like that at Christmas? He wonders if people laugh when she tells them her name? Was her mother having a laugh when she named her? She says her mother died in hospital and she had to visit her via an iPad because of the pandemic. Now she can never be with anyone on Christmas day because she let her down. She begins crying and the Doctor holds her. He then points out to her that her mother just saved her life and shows her that the briefcase is lying on the floor at the other side of the room with the cuffs snapping in the air as it tries to connect with a host. He tells her he had to make her angry to break the spell. She thanks him. The Doctor analyzes the briefcase and finds that it is another Villengard weapon. Villengard is the biggest arms manufacturer in recorded history and it has popped up many times in the last couple of years. The Doctor says for Villengard to grow a star from the star seed they would have to go back 65 million years. Suddenly a T-Rex arrives and swallows the briefcase. They escape back into the Time Hotel but realize that the present is when the star seed will bloom because it has had enough time. The Doctor’s screwdriver is buzzing and Trev appears from it as a holographic projection. He says he is now part of the star. He connected his implant to the briefcase’s communication system over the last several million years. He says the star seed is in room 48 and they have 4.5 minutes before detonation. The case is inside a locked shrine and so the Doctor needs rope. He goes back to Edmund Hillary’s base camp and steals the team’s rope. He runs the rope through Sylvia Trench’s train room and throws it off the back of the Orient Express so the hook catches on the track. The train yanks the door off the shrine in room 48 of the Time Hotel. The case opens and Joy talks with the Star Seed, telling it she wants it to live. The Doctor returns and finds Joy gone and the case empty. He enters the shrine and climbs a stairway to the top of a mountain where Joy stands under the night sky merging with the Star Seed. She says the star is in her and in Trev and all the others that carried it. She assures him that no one will be hurt when the Star Seed blooms. She says they are beyond Villengard and they are not dying but changing. She tells the Doctor that he needs to find a friend and she’ll be watching. Joy begins to ascend, then transforms into a star that flies up and takes its place in the sky. The Doctor looks around and realizes that he is overlooking Bethlehem in the year zero and that Joy is the star of Bethlehem. Anita is looking at the star when someone comes through the locked door to offer her a job at the Time Hotel on the Doctor’s recommendation. In 2020 Joy’s mother sees the star and she knows it’s Joy as she dies and becomes part of the star as well. 

            Joy was played by Nicola Coughlin, whose film debut was an uncredited role at the age of nine in My Brother’s War. Her first credited film part was in the short film The Phantom Cnut. She studied at the Oxford School of Drama and the Birmingham School of Acting. Her voice television debut was in The Fairytaler. Her live television debut was on an episode of the soap opera The Doctors. Her breakthrough came in 2018 when she starred in the sitcom Derry Girls. In 2020 she became known to the world when she began playing the role of Penelope Featherington on Bridgerton. She starred in Seize Them. She played Diplomat Barbie in the Barbie movie. She co-starred in the sitcom Big Mood.

December 29, 1994: I was trying to complete my resolution by year's end

Thirty years ago today

            On Thursday I worked on completing my 1994 New Years resolution. It was to finally get through all of the newspapers I’d saved and that had been piled up in my apartment for years. I had relatively few left but wasn’t sure if I’d be rid of them by the end of the year.

Jane Adams

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