I memorized the second verse of “White and Black Blues” by Serge Gainsbourg. There are three choruses left with some lines that are different from the first chorus but I should have the whole song nailed down tomorrow.
I had a telephone appointment with Parkdale Community Legal for 11:00 but Cecilia didn’t call until 11:15. She told me she didn’t have a copy of my notice of rent increase. I said the receptionist copied it on Thursday morning. She said she’d call me back. She called at 11:30 and said the only copy she had was from 2023. I assured her I dropped off the 2024 notice for an increase on February 1, 2025. She said the receptionist wasn’t there. I said this wouldn’t have been a problem if they’d given me an in-person appointment in the first place as they have for years. She asked if I could come in tomorrow at 11:00 and I said yes.
I weighed 86.6 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since January 5.
I took a shower and for the first time in memory I slipped and fell. I landed on my left hand on the bathroom floor with my feet still in the bathtub. I’m guessing that maybe the edge of the tub also broke my fall when my butt hit it. I didn’t feel injured and finished my shower but afterward my good right knee was sore when bending. I know I didn’t hit my knee on anything and so I must have wrenched it while trying to catch my balance or when I fell. The corner of the nail on my left thumb was also sore.
I weighed 86.85 kilos before lunch. That’s the most I’ve tipped the scales in the early afternoon since last Monday.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride but my knee was sore while pedaling. It was also snowing and so I only went to Dundas and Gladstone and then south to Freshco where I bought four bags of grapes. Most of the grapes were soft and so I picked through several bags and took only the firm ones. I did a price match with the Metro price of $5.38 a kilo.
I weighed 86.8 kilos at 17:30.
I was caught up on my journal at 19:43.
In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Seven Shades of Blues” I started editing the frames for my second rainbow wave animation to make them fit the rhythm of part two of the instrumental. Following the main beats may be too slow because I’m not getting the flow of motion I wanted but I’ll finish at this pace and then see whether I want to make the changes quicker.
I roasted a whole eye of round and had an end with a potato and the rest of my gravy while watching season 2, episodes 27 and 28 of Batman.
In episode 27, Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Aunt Harriet, Commissioner Gordon, and Chief O’Hara are guests at the gala opening of the exclusive Penguin’s Nest restaurant. The food is excellent and everyone is having a great time despite knowing that the restaurant owner is The Penguin. He has apparently served his time and learned the restaurant trade in prison. Parole must work very differently in the Batman TV universe because in our world someone with multiple charges of attempted murder, prison breaks, assaults, armed robberies, and kidnappings would not come up for parole again only a few weeks after being placed in prison no matter how good their behaviour, if ever. Penguin’s establishment has a unique way for guests to place their orders. They are required to handwrite and sign them. Penguin comes to Bruce’s table and kisses Harriet’s hand only to lift her diamond bracelet. O’Hara nabs him and is about to arrest him when Bruce suggests there is something strange and perhaps Batman should be consulted. Penguin says to forget about Batman and just take him to prison. But now Gordon is suspicious as well and agrees to call Batman. Bruce calls Alfred from another phone booth and has Alfred patch the Batphone through to his booth number, then he answers Gordon’s call. Batman says he’ll be right there and then Bruce takes Harriet home only to return as Batman. He learns that Penguin’s restaurant has been doing grand business, worth far more than Harriet’s bracelet and so it is curious why he would be so willing to throw it all away. Penguin introduces his staff: Cordy Blue, his chef; Matey Dee the head water; and Chickadee, his hatcheck and cigarette girl. Batman tells Gordon that it’s obvious Penguin wants to be arrested. They decide not to arrest him and it makes him angry. Penguin assaults Gordon with a cream pie in the face. O’Hara definitely wants to arrest him now but Batman stops him. Penguin needs to stay free so they can find out what he is planning. They leave Penguin disappointed and then Batman and Robin climb the side of the building to access his secret headquarters. On the way up there is a cameo from Lurch of the Addams Family. When Batman and Robin get to Penguin’s window they witness him assassinating Cordy. They crash through the window but Batman discovers Cordy is alive because Penguin was shooting blanks. Penguin knew Batman was climbing the wall. Batman does arrest Penguin but takes him to jail for the night instead of prison because the charge is merely discharging a firearm in the kitchen of a licensed restaurant. Batman and Robin return to the Batcave to look at the layout of the Gotham State penitentiary. There is a special cell reserved for Penguin that has an adjoining door to that of Ballpoint Baxter. That explains why Penguin wants to go to prison. He is in possession of hundreds of hand written orders and so he will get Baxter to forge cheques with the signatures of the richest people in Gotham. Penguin’s gang arrives at the jail with a meal for him but the guard uses a metal detector on it only to be shocked into unconsciousness because the meal is a high voltage battery pie. They get the keys and unlock Penguin’s cell. Batman and Robin arrive and the first big fight occurs. Then O’Hara arrives but Chickadee trips him and holds a gun on him, causing Batman and Robin to stop fighting. They leave with O’Hara as a hostage. Later Penguin calls Batman through Gordon and tells him they will be at the old abandoned Navy recreation centre and so the heroes head there. Meanwhile Penguin is ready to electrify the pool, Chickadee is ready to push a metal box containing Chief O’Hara down a slide into the pool; and Cordy and Matey are ready to open fire on Batman and Robin. That’s the cliffhanger.
In episode 28, Batman and Robin arrive. The metal box is pushed into the pool, the guns open fire and Penguin moves to electrify the pool. Batman and Robin are behind the bulletproof Batshield. Batman throws a Bat Pellet at Penguin and the explosion knocks him away from the switch. Batman and Robin advance towards the electrical cables and uses his Bat Inverter to reverse the polarity so when Penguin flicks the switch the whole pool turns into a gigantic anti-magnet. Sure it would! This causes the metal box to levitate out of the pool and land on the ground. Penguin and his gang are arrested and O’Hara is freed. Next we see Penguin’s criminal trial. Penguin accuses Batman and Robin and the Gotham police with conspiracy to deprive him of his lawful right to go to prison. He cites his theft of Harriet’s bracelet and how Batman let him go. Batman tries to explain why and says “I felt…” but Penguin asks, “”Do we live under a code of law or a costumed madman’s feelings?” The judge thinks Penguin has a good point. He says the acts of which Penguin is accused were merely a reaction to an illegal police conspiracy. Batman withdraws his case. The judge tells Penguin that his eloquence has gained his freedom and so Penguin is once again disappointed. Later Batman gives Alfred fake fingerprints so he can impersonate the infamous forger Quill Pen. Alfred says it’s fortunate that the criminal classes don’t realize the possibilities. Batman says they are too addicted to tobacco and alcohol to have the nerve control for this sort of work. Batman sends Alfred to the Penguin’s Nest. In the restaurant O’Hara draws attention to Alfred by hassling him and calling him by the name of Quill-Pen. O’Hara leaves and Chickadee gets Quill’s fingerprints. They check out. Penguin goes to sit with Quill-Pen. But then when he puts on his glasses Penguin recognizes him as Alfred. He knocks him out with gas from his umbrella and then tells all of the dinner guests to leave because the place has been infected with food poisoning. Back at the Batcave Alfred is late reporting in and so Batman and Robin head for the Penguin’s Nest. Meanwhile Penguin decides to put Alfred in a giant pie. Batman and Robin search the abandoned kitchen but only find Alfred’s bowler hat dusted with pastry flour. Penguin and his gang deliver the giant pie to Wayne manor. Dick calls Harriet and Penguin grabs the phone to tell him Bruce Wayne had better hurry home to see Alfred alive. Bruce and Dick arrive and Penguin has Cordy light the burner under the pie. He tells Bruce that inside the pie is Quill-Pen the forger and he will be cooked unless he pays $1 million cash. Bruce says he has that amount in the small wall safe in his study, so he and Dick leave, then head down the Batpoles to the Batcave to change into Batman and Robin, then switch off the costume change mechanism when they go back up. They run back into the living room and the final fight takes place. Chickadee threatens to shoot Harriet but Alfred pops out of the pie and distracts her enough for Harriet to knock her over the head with a vase before fainting. Penguin and his gang are defeated. Later in Gordon’s office Penguin and his gang are happy they are about to finally be sent to prison. But then Ballpoint Baxter is brought into the room. Bruce has just secured Baxter a parole to teach penmanship to underprivileged children in a Wayne Foundation camp. So Penguin will no longer have Baxter to forge the cheques and his efforts to return to prison were for nothing.
Chickadee was played by Grace Gaynor who played Joey’s friend Judith in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. She played Mrs. Underhill in Fletch and Fletch Lives. She played a lot of gun molls on TV series. On Batman she plays a female criminal accomplice who has no problem with killing, unlike a lot of the villain molls in that series who tend to become repentant later on or love Batman more than the bad guy. What’s great about Gaynor as a bad girl is that she doesn’t look fierce even while being threatening and actually seems somewhat childlike and happy in her role.
I went to bed half a day behind on my journal again because I still keep falling asleep.
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