Joyce Bulifant

            On Friday my left arm was a little sore from the shingles shot I got on Thursday. 

            I finished working out the chords for “Au risque de te déplaire” (At the Risk You’ll Have the Blues) by Serge Gainsbourg. I ran through singing it in French and started translating the second verse.

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the last of two sessions. Tomorrow I begin a four session stretch of playing my electric guitars. 

            I weighed 86.5 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I brought in the stepladder and sanded the rest of the upper northern wall of my bathroom. On Sunday I’ll probably have time to sand the western wall above the shower tiles. 

            I weighed 86.45 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. On the Bloor bike lane a guy behind be called out “Nice bike!” and then pointed out that he was also riding a baby blue Surly. I told him I prefer my vintage Raleigh. 

            I weighed 86.2 kilos at 17:50. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:45. 

            I started and finished adding shades of blue to the sepia copy of frame 21 of my rainbow wave animation. I began frame 22 and when that’s done there’ll be six frames left to do. 

            I had two small potatoes with gravy and three chicken drumsticks while watching season 1, episode 3 of The Bill Cosby Show. 

            Chet Kincaid is a gym teacher at Holmes High School and he’s also the coach of the Junior Varsity Basketball team. It’s the beginning of the season and tryouts for the team are being held. Joey Howe is a lot shorter than the other kids and while the other boys are given much longer to show what they can do, Chet only lets Joey try last and ends it as soon as his first shot is blocked. Chet’s friend Marsha is also the school counselor and she comes to Chet accusing him of being prejudiced against short people and asks him to give Joey a fair chance. Chet meets Joey for a few one on one games and Joey beats him in every one. He also demonstrates an amazing hook shot. In the first game of the season the Holmes team is behind with just seconds left in the game. He puts Joey out and he almost evens the score. In the last seconds Joey tries his hook shot and misses. Joey is disappointed but Chet tells him he’s going to be great. 

            Marsha was played by Joyce Bulifant, who started in summer stock theatre at the age of 14. She graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1958. Her TV debut was in The Play of the Week. Her film debut was in The Happiest Millionaire. She co-starred in the sitcoms Tom Dick and Mary; and Big John Little John. She was cast as Carol Brady on The Brady Bunch, signed a seven year contract and was wardrobed when the producer’s original choice Florence Henderson made herself available. She played Murray’s wife Marie Slaughter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She was a frequent guest on Match Game. She was married five times, the first to James MacArthur of Hawaii 50. She wrote My Four Hollywood Husbands. She wrote and performed in two autobiographical shows: Life Upon the Wicked Stage and Remembering Helen Hayes. She wrote two musicals about dyslexia.