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.