Martin Kosleck

            On Thursday morning I worked out the chords for the second line of “Le temps passe” (Time Goes By) by Boris Vian. 

            I worked out the chords for the last verse of “L'homme de l'ombre” (The Man of the Shadows) by Serge Gainsbourg. Tomorrow I’ll run through singing and playing it in French and then I need to find a less obscure translation for the final verse so that it’s more than just a love song to Gainsbourg’s record producer Philippe Lerichomme, who even the French barely remember. Songs and poems should be made timeless and not be weighed down by dates and names. 

            I weighed 85.95 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since January 22. 

            At noon I headed downtown to the Graduate School of Dentistry for my quarterly deep cleaning. Like last time it didn’t hurt enough for me to require freezing. Villi said there has been improvement and that I’ve been doing an excellent job with my cleaning. I asked if my gingivitis would ever be cured but Villi said I am way past gingivitis. I have periodontitis, which can only be controlled at my age and will never go away. I told her about the time one of the brushes came off from an interdental brush and got lodged between two teeth. I had to use another brush to push it out. She said that happened to a patient of hers and he wrote to the company in Switzerland to tell them, hoping they’d send him a free pack. But they only wrote back to say “Thanks for telling us”. My next appointment is for May 14 at which time she’ll book me a follow up with Dr. Xia. I learned that my Federal coverage isn’t renewed at the beginning of the year but a year from the last time I was covered and so I won’t get any free cleanings until next fall. I ran into Dr. Xia on my way out, dressed in civilian clothes with a baseball cap. We chatted for a while in the hallway and I told him about how my book launch was hijacked by anti-vaxxers. 

            I stopped at Freshco on the way home where the cherries were on sale so I got seven bags. I also bought a pack of raspberries, bananas, a pack of five-year-old cheddar, three bags of skim milk, a pack of Full City Dark coffee, a jar of salsa, a pack of toilet paper and a pack of sponge towels. The cashier Jeremy (who really looks like a Jeremy) was wearing a Flash facemask. I asked if he was a fan. He said they are doing Frenzy Days for which the colour is red and that was the only red mask he had. He pointed out that he wasted his time because none of the other cashiers wore red. He said he used to watch the Flash TV show but didn’t see the movie. I told him it was an hour too long with too much time of Batman fighting Zod in his plane and other unnecessary exercises in tedium. 

            I was about to unlock my building when my former yoga student Moses came up with his walking ski poles. We chatted for about fifteen minutes and I showed him my book. 

            I weighed 85 kilos at 15:51. January 8 was the last time it was that low in the early afternoon. 

            I took a siesta and got up at 18:00. 

            I weighed 85.65 kilos at 18:14. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:14. 

            Although I’ve already cleaned my old warm mist humidifier the manual suggests disinfecting it as well and so I followed the instructions and added 1.9 litres of water with half a teaspoon of bleach to the water tank for twenty minutes. I poured the bleach solution into a stainless steel salad bowl and also soaked the heating unit and the other components. Tomorrow I’ll reassemble it and start cleaning the cool mist humidifier, which I suspect hasn’t been working properly for a few months. It seems to be a much simpler procedure for cleaning it but then I haven’t looked inside yet to see what needs to be cleaned. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Seven Shades of Blues” I quickened the pace of my second rainbow wave animation and now I need to make more frames. I’ll try ten more and then look at it again. 

            I grilled three chicken legs in the oven but forgot to start them at 19:00. It didn’t make dinner very late though because I left them in the oven while I ate some grapes, then my potato with gravy and they were done by the time I was finished. I ate while watching season 2, episode 46 of Batman. 

            This was part two of the usual double story with a cliffhanger halfway through. Batman and Robin have been tricked into standing on top of a giant cake that they thought had been baked in their honour but was iced with pink quicksand that was five meters deep. We join them as they are now up to their hips. The obvious escape would have been for Batman to throw his batrope to the roof of the nearby building so they could simply pull themselves up and out of danger. This however does not cross Batman’s mind. When they are chest deep Batman remembers that he read that the specific gravity of quicksand approximates that of water and if they remain calm and motionless they shouldn’t sink further than their lower lips. They stop sinking and then use their experimental heel and toe bat rockets that we’ve never heard of until now. Batman counts down and at zero they press the rocket trigger on each of their utility belts. They blast out of the cake and one can see the cables that are pulling them up. This is actually not how quicksand works. Batman and Robin had plenty of time to lean back with their arms spread, kick up their feet to distribute their weight and float on top of the quicksand as one can do on water. While floating on quicksand on one’s back one can actually gently swim to safety. Meanwhile Riddler and his gang have stolen another million dollars meant for Batman’s charity to help the poor. He leaves behind another riddle: “When is an eagle’s nest blessed best?” Robin answers that Riddler is after a nest egg. Batman says that the only eagle’s nest outside of the zoo is the Aerie Nightclub on top of the Gotham City State Building. Commissioner Gordon says it is frequented by the elite of Gotham who would be ripe for an aquiline attack. Batman zeroes in on the word “aquiline”, meaning “of or like an eagle”. It has its root in the Latin word “aquila”. They realize now that Anthony Aquila the exiled dictator from South America now lives as a multimillionaire in Gotham and is rumoured to keep $1 million in his safe. Batman and Robin head for Aquila’s penthouse where the Riddler and his crew are already opening Aquila’s safe. Batman and Robin arrive before Riddler can leave with the money. He has his two thugs attack while he tries to get away but they make short work of his henchmen and then block his way. Riddler however calmly informs them that they are going to let him leave. He has Aquila inside of a puzzle trap with a time bomb inside a box that is also inside the puzzle. So they let Riddler walk away while they solve the puzzle but why wouldn’t they hold them there since he would help them solve it once he knew he was about to die otherwise. Robin says that some of the Medieval puzzle cages were designed so that all the intersecting rods were dependent on the axis of only one supporting rod. Disengaging that one rod unlocks the cage. Robin finds and pulls the rod and the cage falls apart. Batman opens the box to find there is no bomb. Meanwhile Riddler pays the $3 million to Professor Charm for the demolecularizer which is the size of pencil flashlight. It has the power to make anything simply disappear and it can be recharged in any electrical outlet. Batman and Robin are called to Marshal Coley Park and told to keep an eye on Coley’s statue. The Riddler is disguised as a maintenance worker sweeping the park. He secretly operates the demolecularizer and the statue vanishes. Riddler delivers an ultimatum that unless Gotham is declared an open city with no laws against crime in three hours he will also cause police headquarters to disappear. After that he will keep disintegrating buildings until his demands are met. The message closes with another riddle, which happens to be the riddle of the Sphynx that we’ve all known since grade school. Robin figures it out but there is no mention of its famous history. The Riddler added to the riddle “If you intend to follow me add the answer to the other three”. Batman selects the key words from each of the first three riddles: page, banquet, eagle’s nest and man. He says the letter P is the 16th letter of the alphabet. Using numerical positions in the alphabet as a common denominator they add the number 2 for banquet, 5 for eagles and 13 for man. The total is 36. There are 36 inches in a yard, which is three feet. Who has three feet? No one or no man. Batman remembers the upcoming opening of a puzzle factory called No Man (We know that is Riddler’s hideout). The Bat Computer gives them the address. Batman asks Gordon to deliver four 50 kilo sacks of sodium dichloride to the Bat Copter. Meanwhile Riddler has hidden the demolecularizer in Gordon’s office in an outlet behind Gordon’s couch. If Gordon capitulates Riddler will tell him how to deactivate the trigger by turning off the wall switch. Why would he leave the demolecularizer just to be used for this crime when there is so much power in keeping it. Even if not used for criminal purposes one could make millions from it. Batman and Robin arrive at Riddler’s lair and climb the wall. Riddler is watching on TV just before the police building is to be disintegrated but at that moment lightning strikes the building and it doesn’t disappear. Batman and Robin come in through the window and tell him they caused the lightning with cloud seeding and the bolt knocked out the power so the demolecularizer wouldn’t work. Riddler activates a trap door but they jump and hang on to an overhead bar. The final fight takes place. The Riddler and his men are captured. Anna Gram tries to get away but Chief O’Hara grabs her. She’s a handful and kicks Robin in the shin before she’s arrested. Professor Charm voluntarily returns the $3 million in charity money that he got from Riddler. He says he couldn’t live thinking about the hungry children. Batman tells him that when he gets out of prison he will have a job as a researcher at the Gotham Science Institute. 

            Professor Charm was played by Martin Kosleck, whose parents were Russian Jews in Germany. His film debut was in Der Fahnenträger von Sedan (The Standard Bearer of Sedan) in 1927. As an actor in German films he often spoke out against Nazism until Josef Goebbels ordered his arrest. He escaped just as the SS was closing in on him and went to Britain. The next year he arrived in New York and made his way to Hollywood. His first US film was Fashions of 1934. He played Goebbels in five movies as well as other Nazi officers in many more films. He co-starred in The Hitler Gang, The Frozen Ghost, The Mummy’s Curse, and House of Horrors. He became a renowned portrait painter when he retired from acting.

January 31, 1995: There was a big fight in the Gladstone Hotel

Thirty years ago today

            On Tuesday I posed from 9:00 to 16:00 at the Ontario College of Art. I went home briefly and then returned to OCA to work from 18:00 to 21:00. When I was finished I headed straight for the Gladstone Hotel to host my Orgasmic Alphabet Orgy writers open stage. Diana and Raven were already in the Art Bar when I arrived. There was a big fight in the main bar and Anna called the cops. Mary Milne didn’t read because she said it was too cold but my reading went well.

Deanna Lund

            On Wednesday I searched for more chords to “Le temps passe” (Time Goes By) by Boris Vian and found a set on Boite de chanson (Song Box) but no one has posted any besides the set I transcribed yesterday. I worked out the chords for the first line. 

            I worked out the chords for the second verse of “L'homme de l'ombre” (The Man of the Shadows) by Serge Gainsbourg.

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice and it sounds worse than ever. Not only is the B string still off but the action is now too low because of my humidifier shutting down on Monday. Playing it makes me feel frustrated and exhausted. I feel compelled to not listen while I’m playing and so I make more mistakes. 

            I weighed 85.75 kilos before breakfast. That’s the heaviest I’ve been in the morning in a week. 

            I got my laundry together but didn’t head out with it until the time when I would normally have lunch. In this case, by the time I got my stuff home and remade my bed it was almost 16:00. 

            I weighed 85.8 kilos at 16:00. 

            I took a siesta at 16:30 and slept for an hour longer than usual, getting up at almost 19:00.

            I weighed 85.7 kilos at 19:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 20:20. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with Italian sausage sauce, sautéed onion, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 2, episode 45 of Batman. 

            In this story Commissioner Gordon calls Batman to an unspecified emergency at the Gotham Plaza Hotel. When Batman and Robin arrive there it turns out to be a surprise party celebrating Batman’s crime fighting anniversary, although there is no specification as to how many years it’s been as one would normally have at an anniversary. But since the mayor says this is the first of many anniversary celebrations the implication is that Batman has been only fighting crime for a year. But it’s been over a year of the series and in the first episode Batman was already well known so that rules that out. 

            The mayor announces that the Gotham City Dairymen’s League has donated $200,000 in a golden calf (Holy Mount Sinai!) to be delivered to Batman’s favourite charity. Miss Anna Gram, Milkmaid of the Month rolls in the calf on a cart. Suddenly green gas bombs go off throughout the room. The fire department comes in through the window spraying fire extinguishers but Batman notes there is no fire. They make off with the golden calf and Miss Anna Gram seems to be an accomplice. One of the firemen reveals himself to be the Riddler, who before leaping from the window to a firemen’s jumping sheet tells Batman to look for an engaging page. They escape in an emergency vehicle and Batman and Robin purse them in the Batmobile until they see too many other identical emergency vehicles and can’t risk interrupting what might be a life saving mission. Batman buys a copy of the Gotham City Herald to look at the puzzle page and find the clue that Riddler suggested. The puzzle is a crossword and the words “Basin”, “Street” and “Banquet” are prominent in the upper left corner. Batman knows that the Sons of Balboa are having a banquet at the Basin Street Hotel. They have filled a chest with $100,000 in gold doubloons for the charity of Batman’s choice. Then Batman learns that the underground vault of the Gotham Bank has been flooded. Batman concludes that the Riddler’s puzzle is a ruse and so they head instead for the bank. Meanwhile Riddler and his men are underwater in scuba gear at the bank, blowing the vault. They put what looks like very dry bundles of bills that are supposed to be under water into a waterproof sack. Batman and Robin walk in and we see a ridiculous fight scene that is supposed to be under water even though the thieves and Batman and Robin all have their feet firmly planted on the floor but are moving in slow motion and bubbles are supposed to indicate they are all underwater. At one point one of the men removes Robin’s respirator and so Batman has to stop fighting to help him, allowing the Riddler and his men to escape. Riddler leaves behind the riddle: “When is a man drowned but still not wet”. The Riddler has acquired half the $3 million he needs to purchase a super weapon known as the demolecularizer from Professor Charm that he will use to hold Gotham for ransom. Riddler and Charm both admit to being high school dropouts. Alfred reminds Batman that the Gotham City Bakers Guild has prepared a cake in Batman and Robin’s honour and wishes them to pose for the marshmallow sculpted figures for the top. They go to meet the bakers and are raised to the top of the giant cake, but when they stand in the middle the strawberry icing turns out to be quicksand, in which they begin to sink. That’s the answer to the riddle but it doesn’t do them much good since they will be dead soon. That’s the cliffhanger. 

             John Astin played the Riddler temporarily for this two part story. I love John Astin but there is no way he could have jumped in to replace Frank Gorshin's manic intensity in portraying a character that has already been made iconic. They should have given him an entirely new character to create from scratch. 

            Anna Gram was played by Deanna Lund, who first worked as a weather girl in a Miami TV station. Her film debut was in Once Upon a Coffee House. She co-starred in Sting of Death, Elves, and Out of Sight. She played the rebellious Valerie Scott on Land of the Giants. She played Peggy Lowell on General Hospital. In 1992 she wrote a novella based on Land of the Giants called “Valerie in Giantland” set a decade after the series left off.

January 30, 1995: My band rehearsed with Jim Bravo on drums and he was really good

January 30, 1995 

            On Monday evening my band did a rehearsal at Damaged Studios. We worked with Jim Bravo as a drummer for the first time and he was really good. There were no arguments about my back beat preferences like I always had with Mike Martin. There was however a guitar volume duel between Tom Smarda and Steve Lowe. Tom and I went to the donut shop afterwards.

William Dozier

            On Tuesday morning with the humidifier still being cleaned it was very dry in my place. Even though I have a home made humidifier inside my Martin acoustic guitar it sounds like the action has already dropped. 

            I might be able to finish cleaning the heating element today but meanwhile I think I need to buy another humidifier, not only for now but as a backup for any time I clean the other one. I think I also have to clean my cool mist humidifier too because I don’t think it humidifies very much. 

            I searched for the chords to “Le temps passe” (Time Goes By) by Boris Vian and found a set on Boite de chanson (Song Box). I transcribed them and tomorrow I’ll look for more. 

            I worked out the chords for the first verse and the instrumental of “L'homme de l'ombre” (The Man of the Shadows) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice for the last of two sessions. Despite the drop of humidity it stayed relatively in tune. 

            After song practice, since my humidifier’s heating unit was still only half clean, I headed out to go buy a new one but on the way I stopped at Freshco to buy five bags of grapes and a big jug of high acid vinegar. As I was standing in line for the cashier the shift changed and a cashier who I don’t like and normally avoid took over. I told her I was doing a price match on the groups and she held out her hand impatiently and said “Let’s see”. Just then the flyer disappeared from my phone and I had to call it up again while she said, “Well, I have to see it!” 

            I rode down Sudbury Street to King. Sudbury is an ugly winding cemetery of lifeless new condos, although it does follow the tracks for a while and there’s some nice graffiti on the wall at the other side. When I got to King I headed west to Canadian Tire. That is the friendliest Canadian Tire I’ve ever seen, meaning it’s the only friendly Canadian Tire I’ve ever seen. I got a new Honeywell warm mist humidifier of the same kind as the dirty one, plus a filter for my Honeywell Cool Mist humidifier.

            As soon as I got home I set up the new humidifier and got it going. Gradually over the day the humidity rose in the bedroom and living room. 

            I weighed 85.55 kilos at 12:46. 

            The heating unit for my old humidifier was about 4/5 clean before lunch. I weighed 85.8 kilos at 15:24. 

            I took a siesta at 16:00 and got up at 17:30, too late for a bike ride, but it was snowing anyway. 

            I weighed 86.45 kilos at 17:49, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the evening since January 19.

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:49. 

            I spent an hour continuing to clean the heating unit of my humidifier and by the time I started making dinner I had it down to an area one could cover with a quarter. When supper was cooked all that was left was a tough little area of brown crust that would fit under a dime. I left it soaking in the vinegar. I’ve spent two days cleaning the humidifier so I’ve learned my lesson. From now on I’ll try to clean it once a week, alternating between the two warm mist humidifiers that I have now. 

            I had a potato with gravy and my last slice of roast beef while watching season 2, episode 44 of Batman. 

            This was part 3 of a trilogy. At the end of the previous chapter Batman and Robin had been knocked unconscious on the street while wearing suits of armour. Penguin told a scrap collector they were empty suits of armour and sold them to him for $10 to be crushed in his compactor. We saw Batman and Robin dumped with the other scrap metal into the compressor. The metal is compressed into a block but as this story begins we see Batman and Robin emerge unscathed. In their utility belts they had emergency Bat Air pumps to pump up the Batmobile tires. They used the pumps to create air pressure inside of their armour to counter the crusher’s 50,000 kilos of pressure. I doubt if a tire pump would create that much pressure. Meanwhile in the cave of Marsha Queen of Diamonds’ Aunt Hilda, Penguin is putting the Medieval armour in Hilda’s safe. Hilda has found an old toad that is essential for her love potion. But Hilda’s lizards have escaped and so without lizards the potion won’t be as strong. Marsha says she will give the potion some help with her dance of the seven veils. The lizards are reported running around Murray Park. Batman and Robin associate lizards with Marsha’s Aunt Hilda and so they head over there. Meanwhile in the basement of the Sub-Treasury Building $10 million in gold bullion is being heavily guarded. Suddenly the guards hear snake charmer’s music and see Hilda sitting on two cushions while playing a flute. There is a large basket nearby out of which emerges the sultry dancing form of Marsha Queen of Diamonds wearing seven veils. Meanwhile Batman and Robin go down the manhole from which emerged Hilda’s lizards and find her cave. There they find one of Penguin’s henchmen who has been left to guard the safe, trying unsuccessfully to crack it. Robin handcuffs the henchman while Batman easily cracks the safe. He says the tenor of criminal life destroys the steady nerves and good ear required to crack safes. If that was true then most safe crackers wouldn’t be criminals. The henchman says, “After this caper the Penguin says Gotham will be in the soup”. Batman concludes from the soup reference that Penguin is after bullion at the sub-treasury. Meanwhile Marsha has captivated the guards with her dance and from having blown a little love powder in each of the guards’ faces. While they are distracted, Penguin’s men roll cartloads of equipment into the safe where the gold is being kept. Marsha is down to one modest but attractive veil when Penguin signals that he’s ready. Marsha and Hilda try to join Penguin but the guards are so enamoured that they say they won’t let Marsha out of their sight. She blows another potion on them that puts them in suspension and then goes into the safe. Batman and Robin arrive but Marsha, Hilda, Penguin and his gang seal themselves into the safe before they can catch them. Batman thinks the crooks are trapped in the safe and that they will run out of air soon. Hours pass but Penguin brought fresh air tanks inside. Penguin’s men are building something but we don’t see what. Batman begins to doubt that Penguin is as trapped as he’d originally believed. Three days go by. There is also a stove in the safe and Hilda is doing the cooking but nobody seems to like her toad stew even though it has twice the daily minimum vitamin B requirement. Batman, Robin and the police are waiting outside the treasury building in case Penguin blows the wall. Suddenly a golden tank breaks through the wall and rolls down the street. Penguin has used all the bullion in the sub-treasury vault to build a tank based on the plans he stole from the Hexagon. Chief O’Hara tries to stop the tank by blogging its way with his police car but the tank flattens it. Batman thinks O’Hara is a goner but after lifting the flattened car they find O’Hara was squeezed down a manhole. As the tank keeps rolling Hilda is firing the cannon with the solid gold rockets. Penguin protests because each rocket is worth $50,000. Marsha tells him to let her have some fun. Batman and Robin pursue the tank in the Batmobile. Robin fires the Batzooka and it stops the tank. Penguin emerges with a white flag. Marsha tells Batman they could have had a marvelous movie career together but Batman says she’s going to prison. Hilda gets off with teaching a cooking class at the Bruce Wayne School of Home Economics. In the end Bruce, Dick, Harriet and Alfred are watching the love scene between Marsha and Batman while Bruce touches his lips. 

            The Batman TV series was created, co-written, and narrated by William Dozier. He was married to Joan Fontaine from 1946 to 1951. Together they started Rampart Productions. They produced Letter from an Unknown Woman, Harriet Craig, and You Gotta Stay Happy. Starting in the 50s Dozier became a TV producer. He was behind the series Danger, which ran from 1950 to 1955, You Are There, and Suspense. Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers and The Loner were not as successful. His greatest achievement was Batman. It was his idea to have the written sound effects appear on screen during fight scenes. It was his voice we heard at the beginning of every episode and at the end of cliffhangers when he would often say to tune in tomorrow, “Same Bat time, same Bat channel”. He co-created the character of Barbara Gordon who went on to appear in the comic books as well, replacing the original Robinesque Bette Kane Batgirl who had been Batwoman’s sidekick but disappeared from the comics three years before. On the soundtrack album Dozier is credited as Desmond Doomsday. His show The Green Hornet was also a hit for a while and launched the acting career of Bruce Lee. After retiring from producing, Dozier did some acting in the 70s and 80s. He was married to Ann Rutherford from 1953 until he died in 1991. 

            I finished cleaning the humidifier at around midnight. The protective surface of the heating element might have been damaged by all the acid from the vinegar. If it doesn’t work I’ll just buy another second humidifier so I have two to alternate while cleaning. They’re not that expensive at under $100.

January 29, 1995: I got a tip for doing a standing pose all day

Thirty years ago today 

            On Sunday I posed at the Toronto School of Art until 15:30. I got $60 plus a tip for doing a standing pose for the whole session. I didn’t go to see my daughter after work.

Steve Conte

            On Monday morning I finished memorizing “Le temps passe” (Time Goes By) by Boris Vian, although it took me several more minutes than I usually allot for it. 

            I worked out the chords for the intro and the first couple of lines of “L'homme de l'ombre” (The Man of the Shadows) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            My warm mist humidifier shut down by itself this morning and later displayed a red error light. I shut it down and restarted a few times and each time it ran for a few seconds before the light came back on. Hopefully it just needs to be cleaned. It’s supposed to be cleaned once a week but I’ve never cleaned it. I’ll try to do that today. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions. It stayed pretty much in tune but I was very distracted by all the stuff I have to do today. I have to wait for the Bell technician to bring the modem and now I have to clean my humidifier. So I probably won’t have time to shave and shower. Since I no longer work or go to university one would think I would have more free time but there seem to be a lot of interruptions lately. Bell alone has taken up about four days so far, from calling them and hanging on the line; waiting for the technician to find out he couldn’t install the modem until the cable was run into my place; dealing with the two technicians the next day who were installing the cable, and then the tech coming today. I’ve got to do laundry this week and on Thursday I’m getting my teeth cleaned.

            I weighed 85.5 kilos before breakfast. 

            I had planned on shaving and showering today but after my humidifier broke down I had to change my plans. I returned to my home made humidifier of a wet sponge in a perforated baggie and slipped that in my Martin guitar. I followed the instructions for cleaning the humidifier. I put 3 cups of vinegar in the water tank and let it soak. The heating element was crusted with rock hard brown sludge as thick as my hand all around. The instructions said to only dip a soft brush in vinegar to clean the heating element but that would have been impossible. I had to risk damaging the protective coating by soaking the whole thing in vinegar. 

            I was still working on it at around 13:30 when the technician arrived to install my modem. He asked if I’d just moved there and I told him that I’d been there since probably before he was born and I was right. I’ve been here since 1997 and he was born in 1998. He was there for quite a while and left at around 15:00. I put the modem on the shelf at the northeast corner of my kitchen. The jack is to the right of the east window and so I ran the cord under the radiator and then up to the shelf. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos at 15:24. 

            I had a late lunch. 

            I took a siesta from 16:00 to 17:30 and so it was too late to take a bike ride. 

            I continued to clean the heating element. I got the heaviest parts of the rocky sludge off but there was still quite a lot. I left it to soak some more in the vinegar. 

            I weighed 86.2 kilos at 18:37. 

            I spent about an hour registering with My Bell and had to call for help because I didn’t know my account number. I also set up payment through my bank since they don’t seem to accept debit like most companies do. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 20:15. 

            I spent about half an hour continuing to try to brush away the crust from inside my humidifier’s heating element. I made slight progress but it’s going to take hours to get it clean. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast beef while watching season 2, episode 43 of Batman. 

            This chapter is part two of a three part story. Batman and Robin are tied to a catapult and about to be launched over Gotham. Batman calculates what their trajectory will be and manages to reach the Batmobile remote control on his wrist to send it to the precise spot where they will be landing. The Batmobile even stops so it doesn’t hit some kids. It gets to the landing spot and shoots out a net to catch the heroes as they land. They then drive back to Penguin studios where Batman begs to be back in the picture because he’s caught the acting bug. Finally Penguin gives in. Penguin has switched the era of the movie in the middle from the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages. He has Batman and Robin dress in armour but it’s really a trap as he attaches them to a giant magnet while he heads for the Hexagon. He flatters a general into letting him film in room X, but Penguin has his armoured thugs come to break through to room zed. There Penguin steals some secret specifications and then escapes from the incompetent US army. Meanwhile Batman tosses a piece of metal across the room into the open socket of a turned on lamp, which blows a fuse, turning off the electro magnet. They have no time to change and so they drive to the Hexagon in armour. They pursue Penguin who rolls barrels that knock them over and out in their cumbersome metal suits. A scrap collecting truck comes along and Penguin tells the driver that they are just old suits of armour he is throwing out. He gives the driver $10 to take them away and flatten them. Batman and Robin are dumped into the compressor and that’s the cliffhanger. 

            One of Penguin’s henchmen was played by Steve Conte, who came to the US from Italy when he was 6. His TV debut was in an episode of The Marshal of Gunsight Pass. His film debut was in Gunfire. He co-starred in Terror of the Bloodhunters.

January 28, 1995: After our McDonald's meal my daughter and I made things out of the straws, utensils and containers

Thirty years ago today

             On Saturday I posed from 13:00 to 16:00 and then I went up to Scarborough to spend time with my daughter. I probably took her to McDonald’s where after our meal we constructed things from the utensils, straws and containers.

Albert Cavens

            On Sunday morning I finished memorizing “L'homme de l'ombre” (The Man of the Shadows) by Serge Gainsbourg. I searched for the chords but no one has posted them, so tomorrow I’ll start figuring them out. I’ve also got to figure out a translation for the final verse that will make it mean something more than just referencing Gainsbourg’s producer Philippe Lerichomme as it does in French.

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice for the second session of two. Tomorrow I begin two sessions with the Kramer electric guitar. 

            I saw a cockroach for the first time in quite a while and on my living room floor. It might have come up from the restaurant downstairs attracted to the humidifier. I know they lay eggs but tiny white nymphs seemed to be coming out of its body. Hopefully I killed them all. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            I was filling up my kitchen sinks with hot water to flush the pipes when I was distracted by a text from Bell Canada asking me to confirm an appointment for tomorrow that I already confirmed yesterday. I caught the water just as it started to overflow and so probably a couple of liters fell on the floor, which I wiped up as quickly as I could and so hopefully nothing leaked downstairs at Popeyes to make them call the landlord and make him call me and threaten me with damage costs. 

            I washed the last of the bathroom wall tiles. 

            The next free midday I have I’ll clean the tub. 

            I weighed 86.1 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

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

            I weighed 85.55 kilos at 18:17. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:15. 

            I completed the tenth frame of the newest ten frames for my second rainbow wave animation. I uploaded the ten to Movie Maker and loaded them in sequence onto the video timeline of my Seven Shades of Blues Movie Maker project. At the current pace of flow of the animation there are now too many frames, but I think I need to shorten some or most of the frames to speed up the pace and make it look less choppy. So I’ll probably be making more frames. 

            I reviewed the song practice videos of my performances of “Annie C’s Aniseed Suckers” and “Les Sucettes” on October 6 and 7. On October 6 I played “Annie C’s Aniseed Suckers” on my Kramer electric guitar and the take at 16:15 was okay. On October 7 I played “Les Sucettes” on my Martin acoustic guitar and the take at 26:30 wasn’t bad.

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with Italian sausage sauce, sautéed onion, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 2, episode 42 of Batman. 

            The story begins with Batman and Robin riding through downtown Gotham in the Batmobile when they see an armoured car robbery taking place while the Penguin is standing nearby with a megaphone and directing the action. They jump in to beat up the thieves only to learn from Chief O’Hara that they have just crashed the set of a movie that Penguin is making. Penguin threatens to sue but then offers a compromise that they will be free from a lawsuit of they agree to star in his movie. Batman agrees but later reveals to Robin that he knew all along that it was a movie and pretended to blunder into it so Penguin would think that he had the upper hand. Batman wanted to be involved with the picture in order to keep an eye on the Penguin and find out what crime he is really planning. Meanwhile Penguin has a meeting with Marsha Queen of Diamonds to ask her to be his partner in his film company. She’s not interested until he tells her that it’s all a front for a big caper. He says he needs her to invest about a dozen of her diamonds. She tells him she would need to be the leading lady, especially with Batman as the star. Meanwhile Batman and Robin are reading the script and find the film is a Roman period piece in which they are gladiators. Batman discovers that scene 12 is R rated by mid 60s Middle North American standards and calls in the Gotham City Film Decency League. The next day they are going to shoot scene 12 which Batprude protests is in very poor taste. Marsha arrives with two assistants holding a towel in front of her above which are her naked shoulders and below which are her bare legs, with the implication that behind the towel she is nude. This seems to be the indecent aspect of the script that Batvirgin is protesting. Then Harriet Cooper arrives representing the Gotham City League of Film Decency. Penguin tells her to remove her Victorian mind from his set. Finally Penguin gives in and they do the love scene between Batman and Marsha instead. They are on a chaise lounge but Batman is hesitant and so Marsha grabs and pulls him in for the kiss. She is wearing a love potion prepared by her Aunt Hilda. During the many retakes Batman is less shy. The next day they are shooting at the Gotham Museum of Antiquities and Batman has planted homing devices on all the objets d’art. Marsha goes to see Aunt Hilda who now has a sea monster named Mortimer in her cauldron. She says he came from a potion that she left overnight. The next day at the museum Batman learns that the museum’s collection of 15th century chain mail armour is gone. Batman thinks the metal alloy in the armour could have set up a magnetic field that blocked the homing transmission. When Penguin realizes Batman has discovered the theft he makes the battle scene real as his men in armour attack. Just as Batman and Robin gain the upper hand Penguin shines a spot light in their eyes and a net is thrown over them. Next we see them tied to a catapult and about to be flung across Gotham. That’s the cliffhanger. 

            One of Penguin's henchmen was played by Albert Cavens, whose father was the renowned fencing master Fred Cavens. Albert’s film debut was at the age of 8 in The Town of Nazareth. He played Valvert in Cyrano de Bergerac in which he fights a duel with Cyrano. His TV debut was in My Little Margie.

January 27, 1995: I got my first full paycheque of the year

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday I posed from 9:00 to 16:00 at the Ontario College of Art and finally got my first full paycheque of the year.

Jock Gaynor

            On Saturday morning I memorized the third verse of “Le temps passe” (Time Goes By) by Boris Vian. There is one verse left to learn. 

            I memorized the second verse of “L'homme de l'ombre” (The Man of the Shadows) by Serge Gainsbourg. There is only one verse remaining to nail down. 

            I weighed 85.05 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since December 23. 

            Around midday I rode down to No Frills where I bought six bags of cherries, three bags of red grapes, a pack of raspberries, some bananas, a sack of potatoes, a pack of three rib steaks, dental floss, spoon size shredded wheat, low sugar iced tea, two containers of skyr and a bag of Miss Vickie’s chips.

            I weighed 85.4 kilos at 14:24. January 8 was the last time it was that low. For lunch I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

            I took a siesta and got up too late to take a bike ride. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos at 16:51. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:21. 

            I made about four more frames for my second rainbow wave animation. A couple more and I’ll upload the recent ones to my “Seven Shades of Blues” Movie Maker project to see if I’ve made enough.

            I reviewed the song practice videos of my performances of “Annie C’s Aniseed Suckers” and “Les Sucettes” from September 28 to October 5. I played “Annie C’s Aniseed Suckers” on my Martin Road Series acoustic guitar on September 28 and October 2. Both times the final takes weren’t bad. I played it with my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar on September 30 and October 4. On September 30 the take at 36:00 had some errors. On October 4 the take at 17:30 didn’t sound bad. I played “Les Sucettes” with the Gibson on September 29 and October 3. On September 20 the take at 33:30 sounded okay but there were some wrong chords. On October 3 the take at 17:45 wasn’t wonderful. On October 5 I played it on my Kramer electric guitar and the take at 33:00 didn’t sound horrible. On October 1 I played it on the Martin and the take at 30:30 was okay. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with Italian sausage sauce, sautéed onions, my last burger sliced and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 2, episode 41 of Batman. 

            This is continued from episode 40. Robin has been given Cataphrenic, a drug that reverses one’s personality so that now he is a criminal in the service of Catwoman. He has helped in the capture of Batman who is now tied to the floor with a large blade suspended above him by a rope that Robin is slowly cutting. Catwoman offers Batman the option of also taking Cataphrenic and joining her. He only agrees in order to prevent Robin from having a murder charge on his head. He asks if he can take a headache pill before she administers the drug. She says okay because she thinks all men are hypochondriacs but it’s fairly obvious he is taking an antidote. He pretends to be affected and behaves the opposite of his personality. He calls her Catbaby. They drive in the Batmobile across the bridge to Short Island Sound to the Old Criminals Home. In this universe, with Gotham as a parallel New York, New Guernsey is the parallel of New Jersey and Short Island is the parallel of Long Island. Commissioner Gordon has just heard that Batman has turned criminal and sends out an all points bulletin that he is wanted dead or alive. That seems harsh since all they’ve seen is Catwoman riding in the Batmobile with Batman, which in itself wouldn’t even prove that Batman has gone bad and he certainly has yet to commit any crime, let alone endangered the public. At the Old Criminals Home Catwoman and Batman go to see Little Al. They give him the $1 million and he gives her the map of the Gotham Mint. An anonymous tip gives Gordon the address of the Catlair. Meanwhile at the Catlair Pussycat is alone, holding a picture of Robin and singing “Maybe Now” by Lesley and Michael Gore. Then Robin emerges from his bedroom and asks for a smooch. She says, “I don’t even know you”. He tells her that kissing is great way to get acquainted. She says she’s not the type of girl to kiss on the first crime. They are about to kiss when Gordon arrives to arrest them. Catwoman and Batman watch the arrest from the bushes outside. They need a place to lie low until morning when they rob the mint so Catwoman gets Batman to concentrate to try to remember where the Bat Cave is and he does. When she’s not looking he sprays her with Bat Gas and then with waking gas when they get to the Bat Cave. Commissioner Gordon does something he’s never tried before and puts a trace on the Bat Phone. An alarm goes off in the Batcave and Batman reroutes the signal so that Gordon traces it to the address of Pat Pending the inventor. In a ridiculous scene Gordon and O’Hara burst in to arrest Pat as Batman even though he is a pudgy old man. They also think his 35 year old assistant Rudy is Robin. Before Batman and Catwoman leave the Batcave, Batman leaves a note under a vial for Alfred. The message is to take the antidote to Robin at police headquarters. The next morning Catwoman, Batman and the tabbies are gathered outside the mint. The map shows a secret entrance that looks like part of the wall. Catwoman hits it with a hammer and it falls open. Inside, Catwoman blows the safe with a noiseless explosive called Silentmite. From inside the safe emerges Robin, no longer under the influence of Cataphrenic. Batman reveals that he was never under its influence because of the pill he took beforehand. Catwoman has her men attack while she escapes in the Batmobile. Batman and Robin pursue her in a police car and Batman gives Robin a remote control device to manipulate the Batmobile and make it slow down. She pulls into a warehouse on the waterfront and climbs the stairs to the roof. Batman follows on foot. She calls from the roof that he’ll have to come and get her. She says he’ll never catch her alive. She runs across the roof to a ladder leading to a higher roof and then to another that looks down onto the West River (parallel of New York’s East River). She says she could swim for it but he says she’d never survive the fall. She says anything’s better than another stint in prison. He says he’ll do everything he can to rehabilitate her. She says “Marry me”. He says “Everything except that”. He says a wife would impair his crime fighting. She says she could help him and be invaluable as a former criminal. He asks “What about Robin?” She looks disgusted and says, “Robin? Oh, I’ve got it. We’ll kill him”. Batman says “I see you’re not ready for life in society”. She says “I guess you’re right”, then falls backward into the river. Batman takes out his Batkerchief to dry his tears. 

            Catwoman’s tabby henchman Spade was played by Jock Gaynor, who began as a pitcher in minor league baseball. He started in show business as a set designer. In his TV debut he played Deputy Heck Martin in the first season of Outlaws. He played Dr. William Scott on the soap opera The Doctors. His only starring role was in the 1974 horror film The Deathhead Virgin.

January 26, 1995: I was late for work

Thirty years ago today

            On Thursday morning I was late for work. I posed from 9:00 to 16:00 at the Ontario College of Art.

Lesley Gore

            On Friday morning I memorized the second verse of “Le temps passe” (Time Goes By) by Boris Vian and that’s half the song. 

            I posted the lyrics to “Dance and Swing to the White and Black Blues”, my translation of “White and Black Blues” by Serge Gainsbourg on Facebook. There are three songs left in my Serge Gainsbourg project to translate all of his songs from 1958 until his death in 1991. I memorized the first verse of his song “Unknown Producer”, which is also called “L'homme de l'ombre” (The Man of the Shadows). I don’t seem to have done a translation of that song but merely wrote down someone else’s translation as a guide. I translated the first verse and there are only two left. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the second of two sessions and the B string continued the pattern of going out of tune while showing itself to be in tune on the tuner followed by me taking it out of tune to put it back in tune properly. It just takes a few seconds of strumming to knock it of tune. I’m taking it to Li’l Demon today to hopefully get the problem fixed even if I have to leave it there for a while. Hopefully he won’t tell me it’s my imagination like the luthier at the 12th Fret. 

            I weighed 85.65 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I packed up my Martin and took it to Li’l Demon but Gian, like the luthier at The 12th Fret couldn’t hear anything wrong with my guitar. Even when I tried to demonstrate when it was in and out of tune he couldn’t hear the difference. It’s very frustrating to have people who seem to have a better ear than me telling me that my guitar is in tune when I know it isn’t. He even suggested I just buy another guitar if I don’t like the way the Martin sounds. Maybe Gian just isn’t very good with acoustic guitars. He seems to be good at fixing electrics. Eventually he got frustrated with me and pretty much asked me to leave. I’m determined to find a solution to this problem but I don’t think I can do it in the winter. I can’t cart my guitar around in the freezing cold to other shops on the chance that I’m going to be told the same thing. I’ll have to wait until the weather warms up and just play it as it is until then. I suspect the problem is that the intonation is off and the saddle needs to be moved closer to the fretboard. 

            I weighed 85.65 kilos before lunch, which is the lightest I’ve been in the early afternoon since January 9. 

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

            I weighed 85.15 kilos at 18:26. That’s the least it’s been since January 8. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:28. 

            I made four more frames for my second rainbow wave animation and started working on a fifth.

            I reviewed the song practice videos of my performances of “Les Sucettes” and “Annie C’s Aniseed Suckers” from September 25 to 27. On September 25 and 27 I played “Les Sucettes” on my Martin acoustic guitar. On September 25 the take at 20:15 wasn’t bad. On September 27 the take at 31:15 was okay but there might have been a couple of wrong chords. On September 26 I played “Annie C’s Aniseed Suckers” with my Martin and the take at 22:15 was okay. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast beef while watching season 1, episode 40 of Batman. 

            This story begins with Robin giving a speech at a high school graduation that concludes by telling the class that the most important part of higher education is to obey the law and support the police. Yuck! But as he leaves the stage we see that Catwoman is there with her gang, as well as her new protegee Pussycat. But Pussycat wonders why she’s there since she’s just a rock and roll singer. Catwoman reminds her that she’s 20 years old and over the hill as a rock singer. She sends her after Robin, and so Pussycat blocks his way. She tells him she wants to be alone with him. His voice goes up an octave when he responds, “Alone with me?” She says she can see an important part of his education has been neglected. He asks what she wants and she answers, “Only you” then scratches him with a cat claw. He is drugged with cataphrenic and suddenly his personality transforms into its opposite. Chief O’Hara comes up to say hello and Robin pushes him into a wall. Commissioner Gordon calls Batman and so far no one knows that Catwoman is behind this. But while Batman is at police headquarters Catwoman invades Wayne Manor with the help of Robin. One side effect of the drug is that Robin doesn’t remember that he is Dick Grayson and doesn’t recognize his Aunt Harriet or Alfred the butler. Robin ties up Alfred while Pussycat binds Harriet. Catwoman’s men blow the safe and take the $200,000 that’s inside. Robin feels dizzy and faints. They take him and escape with the money. What an ass Julie Newmar has! Back at the Cat Lair Pussycat is cleaning a background music record because she wants to try singing to it. Catwoman tells her she’s too short to be a singer. She tells her to go ahead and sing to the record but she won’t listen. She sings “California Nights” by Marvin Hamlisch and Howard Liebling. Catwoman returns and tells Pussycat it was very nice, then asks if she’s gotten it out of her system. She answers, “For the time being”. Catwoman says they need another $800,000 and Batman, in that order. Catwoman calls Gordon and tells him to plug her into the Bat Phone. She warns Batman that if he tries to stop her next series of robberies she will kill Robin. He tells her she is odious, abhorrent, and insegrevious. She tells him that dealing with him has increased her word power and expanded her vocabulary. Batman refuses to cooperate so Catwoman tells him it’s curtains for Robin and hangs up. Her men are counting the money they have stolen so far and Catwoman says they need $1 million in small bills to purchase the plans for the Gotham mint and they are $700,000 short. Later in the decrepit apartment of Pat Pending the world’s richest and cheapest inventor he tells his assistant Rudy that he’s just completed the formula for a universal solvent. But Rudy asks what he could keep it in and Pat realizes he can’t develop the chemical. Rudy speaks in a voice that is clearly an imitation of that of Stan Laurel. He tells Pat he also can’t build his perpetual motion machine because it would put millions of people out of work. Pat keeps all his money in his mattress. Catwoman and her tabbies arrive to knock the two out and take Pat’s money. Gordon goes to see Pat in the hospital and learns that Catwoman mentioned something about a prince getting weighed. Gordon remembers that tomorrow morning Prince Ibn Kereb of Gedallia has his annual weighing in ceremony at his embassy ballroom. The prince will be on one side while paper money will be placed on the other until it is the prince’s weight, and that amount will be given to orphan charities. The next morning the weighing in is underway. Catwoman and her gang enter to begin robbing the place but Batman emerges from behind a curtain and urges Robin not to steal the money. Robin doesn’t recognize Batman. Batman fights and defeats Catwoman’s tabbies and then confronts Robin. Robin attacks Batman and since Batman refuses to fight him, Batman ends up on the floor. Catwoman and her gang escape in her Catillac while Batman follows in the Batmobile across the bridge to New Guernsey where Catwoman has her Catlair West. Batman pulls up outside and calls Gordon to say, “I seem to have found a second Catlair”. Outside there is a big sign that reads “Secret Entrance to the Catlair West” and another with an arrow that says, “Catwoman’s in here”. Batman enters to find Robin tied to a chair. Robin says, “Holy nick of time Batman! I’m glad you’re here!” Batman is happy to see that Robin has been playing possum. But after he frees Robin two of Catwoman’s thugs come up behind to knock Batman out with cattle prods and Robin laughs. Batman wakes up tied to the floor with a blade suspended above him that is held back by a rope that Robin is prepared to cut. Catwoman tells Batman that if he helps her she’ll let him up but if not he’ll be beside himself. He refuses to be her partner and so she tells Robin to start cutting, which he does. That’s the cliffhanger. 

            Pussycat was played by Lesley Gore, who was discovered at a party by Quincy Jones, who signed her to Mercury Records and produced “It’s My Party”, which became a big hit when she was seventeen. This was followed by a string of other smash records such as “Judy’s Turn to Cry”, “Sunshine Lollypops and Rainbows”, and the proto-feminist anthem “You Don’t Own Me”. She was the only female solo act to perform in The T.A.M.I. Show concert film. She performed in the movies Ski Party and The Girls on the Beach. The producer of the Bat man TV series was her Uncle Howie Horwitz. She co-wrote with her brother “Out Here On My Own” for the movie Fame, which was nominated for the Best Song Academy Award but was beaten by “Fame”, which her brother also co-wrote with Dean Pritchford. She hosted several editions of the TV newsmagazine In The Life. She was the inspiration for the movie Grace of My Heart about a closeted lesbian pop singer. She was partnered with Lois Sasson for 33 years until she died.

January 25, 1995: I worked a nine hour day and then went to an open stage

Thirty years ago today

            On Wednesday I posed from 9:00 to 16:00 in the Stewart Building for the Ontario College of Art. I don’t remember if I went home for a while before coming back downtown to pose from 18:30 to 21:30 at Central Technical School. After that I went to the Fat Albert’s open stage where someone might have signed me in.

Dick Crockett

            On Thursday morning I went to bed with my undershirt, sweatpants and socks on under the comforter because it was so cold. 

            I edited and published on my Christian’s Translations blog “Dance and Swing to the White and Black Blues”. Tomorrow I’ll post the lyrics on Facebook and then move on to learning the antepenultimate Gainsbourg song in my project. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions. The B string continues to go out of tune. 

            During song practice I saw the phone ringing and noticed it was Bell’s number so I answered it. It was a technician here to install the cable for my modem. There were two techs: a guy named Robert with a slight Jamaican accent and a guy named Igor with a strong Slavic accent. They made an interesting team. At first they said they’d have to run the cable from the back door of the building and down the hallway to drill a hole from the hallway to my bedroom. I had thought they could run a cable along the side of the building to the east side of my kitchen but Robbie said they couldn’t do it because the building is covered with stucco and they didn’t have attachments that would hold a cable to stucco. After a while they realized there were attachments already there and they just drilled a hole in the east wall and ran the cable through. Someone else is going to come soon I guess with the modem. 

            I weighed 85.6 kilos before breakfast at 11:00, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since January 9. 

            I weighed 86.35 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and stopped at Freshco on the way back. I knew that No Frills had a better deal on grapes but when I tried to access the flyer for the price match my phone shut down. It was almost at 70% when I left but this has happened a few times recently. My old phone battery is reacting to the extreme cold and can’t handle being asked to do anything when I’ve been out riding. Later I checked my records and saw that I bought the phone seven years and two months ago. Nobody keeps their phones as long as I keep mine but I see no reason to change until a phone stops functioning properly and it looks like that time is now. I’ll look into getting a new one at Freedom Mobile when I pay for my February phone service next week. 

            I picked through their grapes, putting the soft ones into bags of other soft ones and ended up with five small bags of relatively firm grapes. I also got a pack of raspberries, a pack of five-year-old cheddar, a pack of Full City Dark coffee, a jar of Bolognese pasta sauce (because it looks like Classico has discontinued the Basilica sauce and their Italian sausage sauce isn’t as good), and some two-in-one dandruff shampoo. Priscilla was kind enough to find the price match for me because I always buy so many grapes. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos at 19:18. That’s the least I’ve tipped the scales in the evening since January 8. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 20:31. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast beef while watching season 2, episode 39 of Batman. 

            This story was part 3 of a three parter. At the end of the last episode the Joker has captured Batman, Robin and his former moll Venus. They are chained in the artificial lagoon where Joker keeps his giant clam. The clam has just swallowed Robin. At the beginning of this story Batman makes one of his weakest escapes. He does nothing clever to get free of his chains. He simply finds the strength to break them and then pries open the clam to save Robin before he is digested. Batman puts Venus up in the midtown apartment of Bruce Wayne that he hardly ever uses. Meanwhile Joker’s men Uranus and Mars break Penguin out of prison in a laundry bag. Back at the Batcave, Batman and Robin try to figure out Joker’s next crime. All of his capers have been zodiac themed throughout this storyline and he has been moving in sequence around the astrological wheel. The next on his list is Aquarius the water bearer and Batman thinks he plans to sabotage the city’s reservoir. Batman’s suspicion is correct as we see that the Joker has developed a concentrated gelatin that can turn the entire water system into strawberry jelly. Joker tells Penguin he needs him for the Capricorn phase of his plan to make Batman the goat by seducing Venus, who he knows is staying in Bruce Wayne’s apartment because he placed a homing device in her shoe. The Joker is successful in jellifying the water system. Batman and Robin head for the reservoir in the Bat Copter. With a portable Bat Lab contained in a briefcase Batman begins analyzing the jelly to find the antidote. Meanwhile several boxes of roses are delivered (by Rob Reiner in his screen debut) to Venus. She thinks they are from Batman but then the Penguin arrives to tell her they are from him. Then he has Rob give her a large bottle of Surplus 6, the most expensive perfume in the world. She thinks the strawberry jelly coming from the faucets is just how rich millionaires like Bruce Wayne live. Penguin then has rob serve them champagne and Penguin gets Venus to drink glass after glass by warning her that otherwise she could die of dehydrophalia. Meanwhile Batman has developed the counter chemical to Joker Jelly and attaches it to an explosive batarang which he throws out into the middle of the reservoir. After the explosion the water is instantaneously returned to normal. Back in Wayne’s apartment Penguin tells Venus that she has inspired him to reform but one stumbling block to that is that Batman has his criminal record locked in the Batcave. He requests that she ask Batman to take her to the Batcave so she can slip his card from the Bat Computer and Penguin will be able to start with a clean slate. Later Venus asks Batman and he seems quite taken with Venus because he says he trusts her and will let her see the Batcave. However he can’t let her know its location and so she must be given Batgas first so she will be asleep on the way there. Once they arrive, Batman sprays her with a waking gas. But then out of the trunk of the Batmobile emerges The Joker, the Penguin, plus Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. That’s one big Bat Trunk! But suddenly Batman pulls a switch and Joker and Penguin are caught in a flash that makes them look for a moment like photo negatives. Batman says it’s his Bat Spectrograph criminal analyzer, which he’s just recently developed. It has recorded Joker and Penguin’s bone structure, metabolism rate, molecular blood structure, and retina patterns. That sounds like a major invasion of privacy. He says it only works at close range and so he needed them both in the Batcave so he could do a successful scan and that’s why he lured them both there. Penguin tries to incinerate Batman and Robin with his umbrella but it doesn’t work because the negative ion attractor that Batman placed in the trunk depleted its power source. Now the big sound effects battle takes place until Joker, Penguin, and Joker’s gang are subdued. Batman gasses them for transport back to prison. 

            One of Joker’s henchmen was played by Dick Crockett, whose film debut was in the 1938 Marx Brothers movie Room Service. In 1939 he began working as both an actor and a stuntman in films such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He was associate producer of The Pink Panther, The Great Race, What Did You Do During the War Daddy?, and Gunn. He was second unit director of Darling Lili, and Wild Rovers. He played President Gerald Ford in The Pink Panther Strikes Again. The film “10” was dedicated to Dick Crockett. Julie Andrews claimed in her autobiography that Crockett committed suicide.