After yoga I memorized the first verse of “A Cannes cet été” (To Cannes This Summer) by Boris Vian.
I published on my Christian’s Translations blog “The Charm Is Gone”, my translation of “Au charme non plus” by Serge Gainsbourg and also posted the lyrics on Facebook. There are seven Gainsbourg songs left in my project to translate all of his songs from 1958 until he died in 1991.
I played my Martin acoustic guitar for the last of four sessions. I played Paranoiac Utopia and still made mistakes but it doesn’t matter and much now. I can relax and gradually improve how I play it for a few months.
I weighed 85.75 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since October 29.
I washed my bathroom ceiling and the upper parts of the east and north walls. I didn’t use soap because it’s just to get the dust off after my sanding. Tomorrow I’ll at least finish the eastern wall.
I took a siesta and slept almost half an hour longer than usual. I didn’t leave for my bike ride until almost 17:00 but I went downtown anyway. On the way back I stopped at Freshco to price match their grapes with Food Basics. There were only two bags that weren’t too soft.
I weighed 86 kilos at 18:51. I haven’t been that light in the evening since October 28.
I spent all my time before dinner getting caught up on my journal.
I had a potato with gravy while watching episodes 46 to 50 of Batfink.
In episode 46, Cleopatra’s love letters are on display in a special room at the public library. The villain Party Marty appears and disorients the guard with his party noise makers. Then he blows on a party blower that extends to wrap itself around Cleopatra’s letters, then when it retracts it carries the letters into his hands and he runs. Batfink locates him with his super sonar but when he enters his home Marty shoots a chandelier down onto Batfink and Karate’s heads. They recover and Marty says he’s entitled to one more party cake and invites Karate to cut it. Marty talks like Phil Silvers. It turns out to be a bomb that explodes and knocks the heroes out. Batfink is tied to a bunch of party balloons that Marty releases so they float up to space. But the pressure of outer space breaks the balloons and the heat of re-entry burns the ropes that bind Batfink. Batfink flies down to rescue Karate from being tortured by pin the tail on the donkey.
In episode 47, Hugo Agogo robs a bank that has hidden cameras and poses for every picture it takes. The police chief tells Batfink that besides the money he stole Hugo owes the bank $1.75 for developing the pictures. Batfink sends out his super sonar but Hugo knocks it out and reprograms it to send Batfink into quicksand. But the Battilac is equipped with a thermonuclear plutonium insulated quicksand shield and they escape. Karate is now doubtful of Batfink’s radar but Batfink still has confidence in it. Then the beep leads them over a cliff so Batfink admits it’s behaving strangely. But the Battilac lands on a power line that softens their fall and one of the wires breaks to electrocute Batfink’s beep and return it to normal. The beep returns to Hugo and leads him to be handcuffed by Batfink and Karate.
In episode 48, Batfink gets a message from the chief that every piece of electronic equipment in the city is being jammed. He’s about to tell them who is behind it when Batfink’s video phone is jammed. Then there is a knock on the door of Batfink’s cave. It’s Hugo who tells them he can unjam Batfink’s equipment for $47.50. Batfink pushes a button to open a trap door that will put Hugo in Batfink’s sub-basement jail, but Hugo uses his jammer to cause Batfink’s own cage trap to fall around Batfink. Batfink breaks free and then presses the button to release his super trap. But Hugo’s jammer causes the super trap to entwine around the heroes. Then Hugo plants dynamite next to the one trap that Batfink cannot break and then he heads for the door but it won’t open because of his jammer. He stops the dynamite then unjams the door. Then he goes back to relight the dynamite but finds Batfink and Karate free because in reversing the jamming of the door he also unjammed the super trap.
In episode 49, Hugo has a mechanical bride and he has her extend her arm into a jewellery store to put an enormous diamond ring on her finger. When Batfink and Karate arrive at Hugo’s lair his bride is on his lap and playing with what little hair he has. Her mouth opens and a gun comes out to shoot at them. She then throws a bridal bouquet that Karate is eager to catch, but it’s a bomb and they are knocked unconscious. They wake up held tightly by Hugo’s mechanical mother in law on a raft suspended from a helicopter over Niagara Falls. Hugo cuts the chord and the heroes fall over the falls. But the water short circuits the mechanical mother’s electrical system and she loses her grip on them. Batfink captures Hugo and his bride speaks in a sped up voice to Karate, who tells Hugo she says she’ll wait for him.
But according to Dave Mackey’s Batfink site what she really says if it is slowed down is the continuation of a hidden political message, the first part of which was in the sped up voice of a woman talking over the phone in a previous episode. The complete message is apparently: "The most dangerous force in America today is Walter Reuther and his political machine. It's time we realized that they intend to run this country. When the smut publishers put a dirty cover on a clean book, let's take it at face value and call it trash and dump it in the river". Reuther was the leader of the United Automobile Workers. He deliberately kept his own salary at a quarter of that of the other union leaders so he could stay in touch with the workers. He advocated for civil rights, workers’ rights, women’s rights, universal health care, public education, affordable housing, environmental stewardship, and nuclear non-proliferation. He turned the automobile industry into a plane manufacturer during the war. He wanted the US to become a Swedish style social democracy. In 1948 he was almost assassinated after being shot in the back. He lost the use of his right arm and had to train himself to be left handed. One other assassination attempt occurred and then he was in two plane crashes. He helped Kennedy create the Peace Corps. He was a friend and ally of Martin Luther King and bailed him out of Birmingham Jail. He made the first donation towards the first Earth Day in 1970. The plane crash that ended his life may have been the result of sabotage.
In episode 50, at the government’s top secret Top Secret building Professor Flippo, disguised as a janitor steals his own topsy turvy box. He sold his plans to the government, they spent a $ million to build it, then he takes it back. The guard tries to stop him but Flippo flips him upside down. The general calls Batfink who stands on his head to interview the guard so he won’t feel self conscious. Batfink goes looking for Flippo, who turns the Batillac upside down. Batfink enters Flippo’s home where he flips a safe onto Batfink’s head. Flippo straps Batfink to the floor and suspends a cauldron of boiling lead above him. He aims the topsy turvy box at the cauldron with the timer set for 15 seconds. The cauldron turns and the hot lead is falling. Meanwhile Karate has been unconscious outside but now breaks down the door. The door hits the topsy turvy box causing it to turn the whole room upside down, so that now Batfink is pinned above the hot lead. Batfink turns Flippo upside down and Karate puts cuffs on his ankles.
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