Jody Gilbert

            On Tuesday morning I revised my translation of the first verse and part of the second of “Le temps passe” (Time Goes By) by Boris Vian. 

            I finished working out the chords to “Tandem” by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through singing and playing it in French. I started revising my translation and I’ll probably have the song uploaded to my Christian’s Translation blog tomorrow. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice for the last of two sessions. Tomorrow I’ll begin a two session stretch of played my Kramer electric guitar. 

            I weighed 86.2 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since February 2. 

            At around midday I shut down my old warm mist humidifier and set up the new one. Then I cleaned the old one for the first time since the near disaster of two weeks ago when it shut itself down and I had to spend two days cleaning it. This time it was easier to clean since it had only been a week but it wasn’t as easy to clean as the new one. I think that’s because I had to work so hard two weeks before getting the rock hard accumulation off that it probably removed some of the protective surface of the heating unit. 

            I weighed 86.45 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. I didn’t need to use my flashers because I got home before it was dark. 

            I weighed 86.75 kilos at 18:11. That’s the most I’ve tipped the scale in the evening since January 13. 

            Because my haircut, my lunch date with Brian and my long siesta yesterday cut severely into my normal schedule, I was behind on my journal. I worked on getting caught up before dinner.

            I marinated three chicken legs with olive oil, salt, orange juice and cumin. I grilled them in the oven and had one with a potato and gravy while watching season 2, episode 58 of Batman. 

            This story follows the cliffhanger from the previous one. Robin has been tied to a spinning platform above a giant mobile consisting of rotating razor sharp palate knives that are lowering towards him. Bruce Wayne is tied to a chair nearby, with his hands to the back and his feet to the front legs. He flips the chair forward so he is on his knees and then walks on his knees towards the governor of the mobile, which he blocks with his body to stop its motion. Robin works himself loose, disengages one of the sharp palate knives and sets himself and Bruce free. When Joker comes to check if Robin is dead yet he sees that Bruce and Robin are free. He tells his men to attack and runs away. But Bruce and Robin accurately throw palate knives at Joker’s henchmen to pin them to the wall by their clothing. They fight the rest of them and win. Bruce says he let himself be knocked around a bit more than Batman would have but it didn’t look any different to me. Even though Baby Jane Towser has recently been one of Joker’s hostages he charms her into helping him by telling her she is his muse. Robin and Bruce burst in to arrest Joker but Jane reminds them that he hasn’t stolen anything yet. She says that as for the kidnapping she won’t press charges and says that the other hostages won’t either because they are social climbers and with her wealth she can stop them from reaching the top. Mrs. Putney and the others affirm that they won’t press charges either. Bruce surprises Robin by saying he also won’t press charges. Jane says she now has her very own artist to play with and she and Joker leave. Bruce explains that he didn’t press charges because he and Robin have been seen together too much as it is and it might draw associations between him and Batman. Jane takes Joker to her father’s mansion where he is served a royal feast on their priceless antique table. She says she wants to inspire a great work of art. Suddenly the Joker sweeps everything off the table and proceeds to dump whole cans of paint on top of it. Then he has his men come in with axes and break the table into pieces. Jane protests but Joker convinces her that each broken part will be a masterpiece. He says they will go to the museum tonight and replace the old relics that are on the walls now with his true works of art. Joker says he knows that Jane’s father has a founder’s key to the Towser wing of the museum. Meanwhile in the Batcave Alfred has finished a series of paintings. That night in the museum Joker has replaced all the masterpieces with his own art. He says he’s going to take the old paintings to the city dump to be burned but really his intention all along has been to steal those valuable paintings. He moves them to his old studio and once again ties Jane up. He calls Commissioner Gordon to tell him the city needs to pay him $10 million or he'll burn the entire Renaissance collection. But then Joker looks at the paintings he stole and sees they are childlike pieces that are all signed “Alfred”. Batman and Robin arrive and Joker tries to run but he gets knocked around by Batman and Robin until his men arrive. Joker escapes with Jane as a hostage and heads for Wayne Manor. Batman deduces that’s where Joker will go and follows. Joker and Jane arrive at Wayne Manor and Joker demands to have access to Bruce’s wall safe. Alfred says it is behind the painting above the fireplace but it isn’t. Alfred grabs a fireplace poker and disarms Joker. Joker grabs another poker and he and Alfred fence but Alfred is superior in that competition and disarms him again. Joker runs into the den and accidentally opens the secret doorway to the Bat poles. Alfred has removed the signs reading “Batpoles to Batcave” because he has been painting. Joker slides down a pole to escape but Alfred pushes the “up” button and sends Joker up and down the shaft several times without allowing him to make it to the Batcave. He is already willing to surrender but Alfred keeps him going up and down for his and Batman’s amusement. Later, Alfred’s childlike paintings are hanging in the gallery where this story began. 

            Mrs. Putney was played by Jody Gilbert, who had her own musical show on local radio when she was still in high school. In her late teens she toured in musical comedies and performed in summer stock but couldn’t get to Broadway because of her body weight. She gave up on theatre when she discovered that Hollywood would pay for a woman of her size for the sake of comedy. Her film debut was in Confession in 1939. In 1940 she played a waiter in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break and has a short but memorable verbal battle with W.C. Fields. She co-starred in the hit radio program Life With Luigi, which also transitioned to TV. She appeared as Greta Garbo’s roommate in Ninotchka. In 1952 someone informed the House Committee on Un-American Activities that Jody had been a member of the Communist party. When they subpoenaed her she knew her career was over anyway and so she decided to make a mockery of the proceedings. She rambled and spent a long time not answering the first question. When asked what major movies she had been she wanted the interviewer to define what he meant by major. The interviewer was not amused but the audience was laughing. When asked if she had been a member of the communist party instead of pleading the fifth amendment she pleaded the fifth commandment about honouring your mother and father but said that by “father” she meant the founding fathers. She was honouring them by protecting the rights they had given her. She was told to leave and the result was that she was out of work in Hollywood for the next twelve years. She didn’t work on television again until 1965 and her next film role was in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969. She was averaging one TV appearance a year in the 70s when she had a major car accident and eventually died from her injuries.