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.