Ed Weinberger

            On Saturday morning I finished translating “Au risque de te déplaire” (At the Risk You’ll Have the Blues) by Serge Gainsbourg. Tomorrow I’ll run through singing and playing it and then I’ll upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog to prepare it for publication. 

            I played my Gibson les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions. It’s such a sweet sounding guitar. 

            I weighed 86.15 kilos before breakfast.  

            Around midday I went to Vina Pharmacy to buy a fluoride rinse as recommended by my hygienist. Then I went to No Frills where I bought five bags of red grapes, two packs of raspberries, a pack of five-year-old cheddar, a rack of pork ribs, a bag of cinnamon-raisin bagels, mouthwash, lemon detergent, three bags of skim milk (The wire frame on the lower bag of my trailer has the wire sticking out of the fabric and I realized I have to be careful when putting milk in because I punctured a bag, so I exchanged it), a jug of low sugar iced tea, a jug of orange juice, a container of skyr (I absent mindedly took the smaller size when I wanted the bigger one), a bag of regular Miss Vickie’s chips and another of the Applewood smoked barbecue flavour. I did a price match on the grapes but it took a while because my cashier was new. 

            I weighed 86.25 kilos at 14:30. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of low sugar iced tea. 

            I took a siesta and woke up at around 16:15. 

            I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 86.05 kilos at 18:40. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:15. 

            I worked on adding shades of blue to the sepia copy of frame 22 of my rainbow wave animation. There are just three more shades to add and then there’ll be six frames left to do. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain bread with marinara sauce, Genoa salami and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 1, episode 4 of The Bill Cosby Show.

            Chet Kincaid volunteers on Saturdays at a centre for disadvantaged children. There is one kid named Punkin who is totally unresponsive and just stares at him when he tries to interact with her. She has no parents and lives with her aunt right now. Chet drives home in a 1969 Shelby Mustang convertible (on a gym teacher’s salary but that’s TV where everybody has stuff they wouldn’t be able to afford in real life). Later he is preparing for a dinner date with his girlfriend Cathy at her place but when he opens the door to leave, Punkin is standing there. She must have stowed away in his car. He leaves a message for Helen, who runs the centre, to call him. He calls Cathy to tell her he can’t come because a girl came over and she hangs up. He hands Punkin a glass of milk and she drops the glass on the floor. He tries to dance with her but she just stands and stares at him. Helen calls and thinks Punkin might have a breakthrough if she’s with someone she likes, so she asks Chet to keep her overnight. Chet puts Punkin up in his bedroom and before he goes to sleep on the couch tells her a story about an egg that refused to hatch because he didn’t like what he was hearing outside. Finally a little boy comes to the egg and says he wants him to hatch because he loves him and that was all the egg needed to hear. They lived happily ever after. The next morning he hands Punkin a glass of orange juice and she drops that glass too. Chet yells at her and later apologizes. Helen calls to say she is on her way. Chet gets Punkin to take a bath and then the doorbell rings. It’s Cathy who has come to apologize for hanging up on him. She has brought the strawberry shortcake she’d made and gives him a chance to explain. She hears someone in the bathroom and Chet tells her it’s a girl, then Cathy throws the strawberry shortcake in his face. He tells her the girl is 8 years old but she doesn’t believe him until Punkin comes out. Then Cathy apologizes but then starts laughing at how funny Chet looks with whipped cream all over his face. I’d dump her on the spot for that kind of behaviour. Punking takes a towel and starts cleaning Chet’s face. The next Saturday Chet comes by the centre to bring Punkin the doll she left at his place and she thanks him. 

            The Bill Cosby Show was co-created and co-written by Bill Cosby, Ed Weinberger, and Michael Zagor. Ed Weinberger’s first TV job was writing for The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He was one of the founders of MTM Enterprises, which produced the Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-offs. He wrote 20 episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, 114 episodes of Taxi, and 13 episodes of The Associates. He co-created The Cosby Show. He won a Peabody Award, three Golden Globes, and 9 Emmys.