Paul Picerni

            On Monday morning I worked out the chords for the second verse of “Le temps passe” (Time Goes By) by Boris Vian. I think the fourth verse has the same chords but the third is different.

            I memorized the second verse of “Tandem” by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the second of two sessions and there were actually a couple of times when it was still in tune when I started the next song. That’s not good enough though. The action also feels like it has gone back up a bit. 

            I weighed 86.15 kilos before breakfast. 

            I swept the bedroom floor. 

            I weighed 86.45 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and stopped at Freshco to buy seven bags of cherries on my way back. 

            I weighed 85.55 kilos at 18:45. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:33. 

            I completed another ten frames for my second rainbow wave animation. I uploaded them to my Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Seven Shades of Blues”. I loaded them onto the video timeline. Tomorrow I’ll edit them and fit them to the audio waveform, then I’ll see if I need to make any more frames. 

            I compared the song practice video of my acoustic performance of “Les Sucettes” on September 11 with that of September 21 and found that September 21 looks a little better and has slightly fewer mistakes. 

            I had a potato with gravy and my last chicken leg while watching season 2 episode 50 of Batman. 

            This is the conclusion of a two part story. It starts with Batman and Robin trapped in the giant coffee cup of a mechanical billboard in which the giant percolator continuously tips and then pours liquid into the cup. Catwoman has put sulphuric acid into the percolator and it is about to pour. But Batman holds up his bonds to be eaten away by the first drips of the acid and then quickly throws a batarang to shut off the switch. Meanwhile at the Forever Jewellery Company the annual sale of Batagonian cat’s eye opals is about to take place. Each pouch contains $650,000 worth of opals but Miss Forever says the bidding will start at $750,000. Catwoman arrives and tells her she’ll give her absolutely nothing for all of them. The haul was worth $12 million. When Batman hears about it the next day he says he planned it that way. Meanwhile Catwoman takes the opals to French Freddy the fence who is also a fencing master. But he tells Catwoman the opals are too hot and so he can’t take them. There is a $3 million reward for them. Batman is at Commissioner Gordon’s office while he calls Bruce Wayne who is Catwoman’s parole officer to let him know of the bad news about Catwoman returning to crime. Alfred uses a typewriter that speaks in Bruce’s voice whatever he types. Gordon says he had suspected in the past that Batman was Bruce Wayne but this proves otherwise. Batman and Robin go to see Freddy the Fence and accuse him of still dealing in stolen goods. Freddy is insulted and says “en garde!” But Batman easily disarms him on the first stroke because Batman is the greatest fencer in the country according to Robin. Meanwhile Catwoman has tried several other fences with still the same result. Freddy comes to tell her that Batman (who she thought she’d killed) came to see him. He tells Catwoman that since the opals are too hot to sell he could help her turn them in for the $3 million reward for a third of the take. But when Freddy examines an opal he tells her they are fakes. Batman anticipated her stealing the gems and switched them with fakes. She says she’s going to get Batman for this. She sends a message to Batman that she is willing to give herself up but only to him. She says for him to meet her at midnight in the model house of the Sherlock Homes Real Estate development. She promises to come alone if he does the same. Later in the model home she slinks down the stairs to greet Batman seductively. He wants to arrest her right away but she comes onto him and suggests they get to know each other better. He backs away nervously, telling her she’s very beautiful. She admits, “Yes, you’re quite right. I am.” He tells her that her propinquity could make a man forget himself. She says she could give him more happiness than anyone in the world by being his partner in life. He asks, “What about Robin?” She answers, “Well, I’ll have him killed, painlessly”. She says he is a bit of a bore with his holy this and holy that. He says, “That does it! I thought you had a modicum of decency”. She wonders why Batman isn’t writhing in pain by now since she wore a double dose of poison perfume. He says it’s because he anticipated a trick and wore Bat plugs up his nose. She challenges him to a fight with her catrate but he says karate is a defensive form and so she can’t fight him if he doesn’t attack. Maybe he’s thinking of judo, which is defensive but karate can also be offensive. She calls her men from hiding and so Robin jumps in to even the odds. The final fight takes place. Batman and Robin take out Catwoman’s henchmen and catch her before she can escape in her Catillac. Later back at prison Warden Crichton is disappointed in his rehabilitation techniques. Catwoman tells him that she’s not the average criminal and that his methods have worked for most. Bruce tells her he’d like to be her friend. This is Julie Newmar’s final appearance as Catwoman and her final words are, “My heart belongs to Batman”. 

            Catwoman’s henchman Brown was played by Paul Picerni, who first got the acting bug when he performed in an 8th grade play and the principal called him a born actor. He studied drama at Loyola University. His film debut was in Breakthrough in 1950. He co-starred in House of Wax. On television he co-starred as Lee Hobson on 91 episodes of The Untouchables. He was the half-time master of ceremonies for the Los Angeles Rams for 30 years. He was mayor of Tarzana, California from 1965 to 1968. He had eight children.