Moms Mabley

            On Saturday morning I memorized the chorus of “Johnsyne et Kossigone” by Serge Gainsbourg and started revising my translation. 

            I played my Epi acoustic guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions. The work that Gian at Li’l Demon did on it didn’t do much good to keep it in tune. I’ll bet Alex Wood could fix it up. 

            I weighed 86.1 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since May 11. 

            Around midday I went to Freedom Mobile and paid for my June phone plan. Then I went to No Frills where I was enthusiastically greeted by a cashier who was stacking the shopping baskets. When she was new there she’d been very cold towards me. All of the grapes were too soft but I didn’t even get watermelon as an alternative. I bought a pack of raspberries, some bananas, a pack of five-year-old cheddar, a pack of three chicken legs, a jar of Dijon, a jug of orange juice, and a container of skyr. Lately I always have to use the washroom when I’m at No Frills but unlike Freshco where the washroom door is unlocked unless occupied, at that No Frills one has to contact a staff member to get it opened because they won’t give customers the code. 

            I weighed 87 kilos at 14:00. I had a toasted Montreal style bagel with salami, Dijon and five-year-old cheddar with a glass of iced tea. 

            I weighed 87.1 kilos at 17:08. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:08. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Seven Shades of Blues” I shortened the duration of the frames for the final animation. I also added a warping effect to each frame of my second rainbow wave animation. I published the movie and then uploaded it to YouTube. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with marinara sauce, pesto, Genoa salami and five-year old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 1, episode 17 of The Bill Cosby Show. 

            Chet is having a romantic date with Julie when the doorbell rings and his Aunt Edna and Uncle Dewey come by for a visit. Almost as soon as they arrive they begin insulting each other and arguing. It starts when Dewey senses they are intruding and tries to get Edna to leave. She complains that he’s old but he says the only thing wrong with old men is old women. She says he’s the only one who takes naps to feel rested when he goes to sleep. He says she puts on so much cream at night she has to hold onto the mattress to keep from sliding out of bed. She says his shadow’s better looking than he is. He says he stayed home from work just to keep from kissing her goodbye. They invite Chet and Julie over for dinner on Thursday. They leave and Julie asks if they are always like that. Chet says Thursday will be worse because they are nicer in public and that they’ve been like that for thirty years. Meanwhile at school there is a kid named Roy in Chet’s gym class who keeps ducking out of gym when the rope climbing tests are happening and Chet warns him he’s going to fail if he doesn’t take the test. Then he gets a message from Edna to come over and it’s an emergency. When he gets there the landlord tells Chet he’s going to evict them if they don’t stop fighting. Chet finds the place full of smashed things and Edna and Dewey are still arguing. He finally shouts for them to shut up and makes them sit down. He gives them an ultimatum that he won’t come over on Thursday or ever again if they don’t learn to be nice to each other. He tells them to call each other endearing things and to compliment each other and to touch and kiss. When Chet and Julie come over on Thursday Edna and Dewey are like actors in a play and they are nice and outwardly affectionate but it seems forced and unnatural. It’s almost as disturbing as their arguing. The next day at school is the final gym test and Roy tries to back out again. Chet stops being polite and tells him he’s afraid. Roy proves him wrong by climbing the rope and getting an A. Chet realizes confrontation is sometimes the natural approach and he immediately goes over to encourage Dewey and Edna to return to arguing, which they easily do. As he leaves he has to convince the landlord why it’s okay but we don’t really hear his argument. 

            Edna was played by the great Moms Mabley. She was raped at 11 by an old man, then at 13 she was raped by a white sheriff. Both times she had babies that she gave up for adoption. She ran away from home at 14 and joined the troupe of Henry Bowman and Tim Moore on black vaudeville that was known as the “Chitlin Circuit”. Long before she was old she developed a sassy talking grandma act in old print dresses and floppy hats. Her jokes were mostly at the expense of men and she became very popular with black female audiences. She came out as lesbian in 1921 and was one of the first openly gay performers. She had an alternative lesbian act in which she cross-dressed. Her film debut was in Emperor Jones in 1933. In 1939 she became the first female comic to headline at the Apollo Theatre. In the 1950s she started performing without her false teeth to enhance the humour of her character. At the height of her career she was earning $10,000 a night at the Apollo. In the early 60s she started appearing on television and became known to white audiences. Her only starring film role was Amazing Grace. She had a heart attack during production and finished the movie with a pacemaker. Her cover of “Abraham Martin and John” made it to #35 on the charts in 1969. The character of Grandma Klump in The Nutty Professor was inspired by her. Wanda Sykes portrayed her in the third season finale of The Marvellous Mrs. Mazel.