Norma Crane

            On Saturday morning I memorized the third verse of “Notre Derniere Chance” (Our Final Chance) by Serge Gainsbourg and worked on a bit of my translation. The concept is the speaker is saying that the daily, weekly and monthly periodicals are too much of a distraction for their relationship and so the speaker and their lover need to burn up all the newspapers in order to save their romance. A lot of the song consists of lists of newspapers and magazines they need to set on fire, some of which still exist and some of which were no longer being published even when the song was written in 1969, such as “Combat”, which was a WWII French newspaper. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio guitar during song practice and it went out of tune quite a bit during the first half but settled down more in the second. 

            I weighed 86.9 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I rode down to No Frills where I went through every bag of the on sale red grapes but only found four bags of relatively firm ones. I bought a bag of green grapes, three packs of Ontario raspberries, a pack of Ontario peaches, a pack of Ontario nectarines, some bananas, two pack of five-year-old cheddar, mouthwash, dental floss, Irish Spring soap, lemon dish detergent, Mini Wheats (because they were out of spoon sized shredded wheat), ketchup (I’ve been buying chili sauce for a long time but I’m easing back on the hot stuff), dill, a jug of iced tea, a jug of orange juice, a container of skyr, two bags of Miss Vickie’s chips, and a pack of toilet paper. They had sirloin tips on sale but they were from the US do I didn’t get one. My groceries cost me over $175. When I was raising my daughter that would have paid for two weeks of supplies. 

            In the supermarket a woman approached me and asked how I was, telling me it was nice to see me, although I don’t think we’ve met. At the checkout she approached to tell me she was going to go do her laundry at the laundromat next door because she couldn’t do it at home. She informed me that when she was done washing and drying her clothing she would fold them. I told her that was a good idea although I’ve never really understood the reason for folding laundry. 

            I weighed 87.2 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 86.7 kilos at 17:50. 

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

            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. In the first chorus I managed to synchronize “is”, “slippery with”, “ice in summer weather and amidst”, “all”, “this blindness”, and “I feel I can see forever midst this blindness I feel I can see forever”. That completes lining up the studio audio with the concert video for the first two verses and the first chorus. 

            I reviewed the song practice videos of my acoustic performance of “How to Say Goodbye to You” on October 14 and the take at 9:30 in part B wasn’t bad. I also reviewed my electric performance of “Comment te dire adieu” on October 15 and the take at the end of part D wasn’t bad until the last note. This was the last video for that day as the battery needed a recharge. 

            I compared the song practice videos of my acoustic performance of “Comment te dire adieu” on September 3 and 5. The camera is in a better position on September 5 and I think I played it a bit better as well. There are ten more to compare. 

            I made four burgers from the ground New Zealand grass fed beef and grilled them in the oven. I had one on a slice of toasted multigrain sandwich bread with ketchup, Dijon, horseradish, a gherkin pickle and a beer while watching episode 6 of The Bold Ones: The Doctors. 

            Dr. Herb Lanier is performing a heart surgery that is being televised live. While inside he decides to use an experimental vein transplant procedure that Dr. Stuart has been working on. The operation seems to be a success but Stuart doesn’t think it should have been done because the procedure is not yet ready for humans. The next day Lanier, Stuart and Dr. Hunter visit the patient and he goes into fibrillation. Within minutes he is dead. There is no way of knowing for sure if the procedure caused problem but Stuart thinks it did. Their disagreement causes Lanier to submit his resignation and he moves on to become head of surgery at a nearby hospital. Stuart is approached by the Lewellyn Foundation, which is impressed with his research into vein transplants, especially since the success of Lanier’s operation, and is considering granting $1 million to the hospital. Stuart disagrees that the surgery was successful and only thinks it was lucky. Lanier tells the newspapers that Stuart is too cautious and that history doesn’t reward the timid. Later Alice Cleary goes to see Hunter about her husband who is a heart patient at the hospital. Stuart says her husband is not ready for surgery and drugs will sustain him for a couple more years until the research is solid. She doesn’t understand why they can’t do the surgery since she read all about it in the news that it was done successfully before. Stuart tells her where she can find Lanier. After she consults him he approaches Stuart to ask if he can examine her husband without moving him to the other hospital and Stuart agrees. Then Lanier asks if he can do the surgery there and Stuart says okay. When Lanier asks Stuart to assist him he at first refuses. Hunter reminds him that if the surgery is successful Stuart will get all the credit but if it’s a failure Stuart will get all the blame. He decides to help for Cleary’s sake. Cleary’s heart fails and Lanier has to defibrillate. Stuart puts in a pacemaker. Lanier says the transplant isn’t working. Stuart suggests a minimal palliative operation to increase the blood supply to the heart muscle. If it succeeds they can try a vein transplant when the procedure is ready. Lanier assists Stuart to finish and it saves Cleary’s life. Stuart gives the credit to Lanier even though it was him that saved the patient. He explains he did it because then Lanier will be the one to have to deal with Mrs. Cleary. 

            Ann Cleary was played by Norma Crane, who was a member of the Actors Studio. She made her Broadway debut in The Crucible. She co-starred in a 1953 television adaptation of 1984. She co-starred as Golde, Tevye’s wife and the mother of their three daughters in the film adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof.