Madlyn Rhue

           On Saturday morning my left arm was feeling a lot better again. It’s weird how it seems to bounce back and forth from day to day. 

            I memorized the second verse of “Paris d’papa” (Papa’s Paris) by Serge Gainsbourg and translated lines one to four of the first verse. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice for the first of two sessions and it went out of tune a lot. 

            I weighed 86.05 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since August 27. 

            Around midday I went to No Frills where they still had Canadian cherries but I had to find five bags with the fewest soft ones. While I was doing that the cashier Winta was returning some shopping baskets to the entrance. She gave me a big smile and asked if I was going to get some grapes. I told her that I wouldn’t because I try to avoid products from the United States and she was surprised. I tested the Canadian watermelons but they didn’t sound good. I bought two packs of raspberries, a basket of nectarines, a pack of Canadian cheddar, mouthwash, some kitchen bags, a container of sea salt, three bags of 1% milk (because they had a later expiry date than the 0%), two containers of plain skyr, one container of berry skyr, and a bag of Miss Vickie’s chips. I did a price match on the raspberries because they are a dollar cheaper at Freshco. My groceries cost $123.35. 

            I weighed 87.05 kilos at 14:19. I had whole wheat saltines with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. Traffic was crazy with cars suddenly turning every which way. On Richmond I was trying to pass a guy on a rental bike. I was right up beside him but he wasn’t giving me enough room to get by although I called out “Passing!” several times. Finally he moved over. 

            I weighed 86.5 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:13. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Paranoiac Utopia” I edited a little more of the video I shot on August 22. Now it’s down to 7 minutes from 63. I then went to the concert video and partitioned all of the parts that have other people in them. Tomorrow I’ll start cutting the August 22 video into segments that match the length of the partitioned parts and I’ll paste them into the concert video to replace those I marked off. 

            I grilled five cheddar sausages, then I made pizza on multigrain sandwich bread with marinara sauce, tomato pesto, two sliced sausages, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching episode 7 of Checkmate. 

            An oil tycoon named Whitney Thorne is about to make an expansion that will ruin the business of smaller oilman and former partner, Edward Scott, by cutting off his supply of crude. Shortly after that a station wagon almost runs Thorne over. Thorne’s daughter Irene hires Checkmate to prevent her father from being murdered. Thorne is certain that Scott is behind the attempted murder. The Checkmate team learn that Thorne also owns a station wagon. Thorne’s alcoholic son David says there can’t be more than 5,000 people that would want to kill his father. He adds, “Too bad he wasn’t a better driver”. Within minutes someone starts shooting at Thorne from outside his office. A car is heard speeding away and Jed finds a high powered rifle that was tossed away (Why would a failed assassin just throw evidence like that for people to find?). Hyatt finds paint on the Thorne station wagon matches scrapings from the bridge where the attempted hit took place. Don learns that Scott was on a plane when the attempt happened. Don goes to see Scott who is glad to hear of the murder attempt. He says if an attack is successful and the killer is caught, he’ll get them the best lawyer he can find. After Don leaves we see that Thorne’s chauffeur Perkins is in Scott’s office and that they are both involved in the plot to kill Thorne. Scott says Thorne has to die before the market opens on Monday or he’s through. Irene tells Jed she couldn’t kill her father because she doesn’t hate him and one can’t hate someone one feels sorry for. Jed finds someone just planted a bomb in Thorne’s office that is set to go off at 9:30 the next day. Hyatt analyzes it and discovers it’s fake. Thorne decides to challenge Scott to a one on one fight to the finish. He decides to do it in the boardroom at Thorne Tower and asks Perkins to get the word out. Before they leave, Perkins knocks out Jed and ties him up in a closet. Don later hears him banging and frees him. Jed remembers hearing about a planned showdown with Scott at the tower. Don figures that both Scott and Perkins are working together to kill Thorne. Perkins worked for both Thorne and Scott in the old days. Scott may have been on a plane during the car attack but drove back to fire the rifle. Thorne is at the tower but Scott is with a rifle on a nearby roof. He fires and misses. Don gets there and struggles with him but Scott falls to his death. Perkins pulls a gun on Thorne. He says he’s been investing in Scott Oil all these years and he’s not going to lose everything. Perkins is about to fire when Jed arrives. He is startled and only hits Thorne’s arm. Jed takes him out. Shortly and unrealistically after that David gives up drinking and Thorne is taking over Scott Oil to give to David. 

            Irene was played by Madlyn Rhue, who at 17 was a dancer at the Copacabana in New York. She studied drama at Los Angeles City College. Her film debut was in The Kiss in 1958. Her TV debut was on Cheyenne. She played Marjorie Grant on Bracken’s World. She co-starred in Kenner. She played Marla, the love interest of Khan in the Star Trek episode Space Seed. In 1977 she was diagnosed with MS but continued to work. She had regular roles on Days of Our Lives, Houston Knights, Trial by Jury, and Murder She Wrote.