Lois Nettleton

            On Sunday morning I didn’t consciously hear the alarm at 5:00 but it must have woken me up because I was lying there half awake for a while, thinking I still had lots of time to sleep when I looked at my phone and saw it was 5:36. It was very muggy and I was stuffed up. I rushed through yoga and then shortened my memorization projects.

            I memorized the fourth verse of “L'année à lenvers” (The Year in Reverse) by Boris Vian and didn’t try the fifth. That’s half the song anyway. 

            I memorized the fourth verse of “Notre Derniere Chance” (Our Final Chance) by Serge Gainsbourg and worked on my translation. There are only two verses left. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice and only had to tune it twice. Tomorrow I’ll begin a four session stretch of playing my Martin acoustic guitar. 

            I weighed 87.25 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I finished applying the second and hopefully final coat of drywall compound in the bathroom. Next I need to buy some more sandpaper to smooth everything down, then wash again. I think I’ll be priming the room in August. 

            I weighed 87.4 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. It was hot outside but worse in the apartment. 

            I weighed 86.45 kilos at 17:45.

            I was caught up with my journal at 18:30. 

            I worked on the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Paranoiac Utopia”. The concert video continues to drag behind the studio audio and so every few words I have to delete some of it to bring it forward. After the first chorus I managed to synchronize “I”, “take”, a brief”, “ride”, “on the”, and “bad”. 

            I compared the song practice video of my performance of “Comment te dire adieu” on September 9 with that of September 5. September 5 looks nicer but I think I play the song more solidly on September 9. I compared September 11 to September 9 and I think September 9 looks and feels better. I compared September 15 to September 9 and still think September 9 is on top. I compared September 21 to September 9 and September 9 looks better. I compared September 25 to September 9 and found that September 25 looks and sounds a little better. I compared September 27 to September 25 and found September 27 to look and feel a little better. I compared October 1 to September 27 and still prefer September 27. I compared October 7 to September 27 and still prefer the look and my playing on September 27. I compared October 11 to September 27 and find September 27 is still the one with a better look and better playing. I compared October 13 to September 27 and September 27 is the one I’ll be uploading to YouTube. 

            I compared the song practice video of my performance of “How to Say Goodbye to You” on September 4 with that of September 10. I prefer the look of September 4. I compared September 16 to September 4 and I think September 16 has a slightly better look and better playing. 

            It was too hot to use the stove and so I had a cold New Zealand grass fed beef burger on multigrain bread with five-year-old cheddar. I ate it with a beer while watching episode 7 of The Bold Ones: The New Doctors. 

            Dr. Hunter gives a lecture on amniocentesis: the future of genetic counseling. Some defects can be detected in the foetus cells and there are treatments that can correct or modify the effects of certain abnormal genes. But in most cases amniocentesis can only relieve or confirm prospective parents’ fears. One of the attendees is Laura Michaels, a former lover of Hunter’s who is now married to Charles Michaels. Laura is particularly interested in the subject because she is pregnant with her second child. The first one she had with Charles was born dead. Hunter wants Laura to consider taking the test. She goes home to Charles who seems disturbed. He refers to the baby she’s carrying as a monster. Meanwhile some of the trustees at the hospital find amniocentesis to be controversial and so Hunter needs to try to convince them how important it is. Charles comes with Laura to discuss the procedure with Hunter. Hunter wants some of Charles’s medical history. He says he’s 38 but looks much older. His parents died when he was young and he was brought up by his aunt. He says he had a check-up two months ago but Laura says it was more like two years. Charles gets mad about her correcting him and storms out. Later Laura comes to the hospital to check in for the procedure. There’s a black and blue wound on her cheek that she says came from walking into a door. She goes through the procedure and it’s discovered there are no defects in the foetus. As Charles comes to help Laura pack, Hunter notices a tic in his hand movements and now remembers other tics that he’s seen on Charles’s face. Hunter does some research into Charles’s family background and discovers that there is a history of Huntington’s. Charles’s tics show that he has the disease. This was not something they could have detected in the tests they gave Laura but apparently now, 55 years since that show aired it can be determined in the womb whether a child will grow up to develop the disease. There is still no cure. There is a 50-50 chance that Laura’s child will be normal. She agrees to let Hunter take Charles to be cared for at the Institute. 

            Laura was played by Lois Nettleton, who was Miss Chicago of 1948 and a runner up in the Miss America pageant. She began acting in community theatre at the age of 11 and appeared on local radio and TV. She trained at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and then studied the Method at the Actors Studio in New York. She made her Broadway debut in The Biggest Thief in Town in 1948. She won the Clarence Derwent Award for her performance in “God and Kate Murphy”. Her film debut was in A Face in the Crowd but her first credited role was in Period of Adjustment. She co-starred in The Man in the Glass Booth (her personal favourite role), She was nominated for six Emmy Awards and won two. She played Lou Grant’s boss on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She was a regular guest on the game show Pyramid. She played Joanne St. John on In the Heat of the Night.