Barbara Baxley

            On Tuesday morning I memorized the fourth verse of “À poil ou à plumes” (Naked or in Feathers) by Serge Gainsbourg. There is one verse left to nail down and I’m sure I’ll have the song done tomorrow. I finished revising my translation. 

            I weighed 88.85 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since last Tuesday. 

            I played my Martin acoustic during song practice and it didn’t go out of tune as much as it has been lately. 

            At 13:15 I left for my 14:15 appointment with my doctor at the Forest Hill Family Health Centre. I always overestimate the time it will take me to ride my bike up to Avenue Road and Eglinton and was worried during the ride of being late. But it only took me 40 minutes to get there. Dr. Shechtman was late seeing me. I told him that I wanted a referral for a colonoscopy and he said I could have done that over the phone. The receptionist didn’t tell me that but I also wanted to show him my left big toenail, which has curved and is digging into my toe. He said it’s probably a fungus and took some samples. He said there is surgery that could be done but if it’s a fungus the curvature might occur again. The surgery would be by a chiropodist but it’s not covered so I wouldn’t need a referral from him. I also got him to renew my Betaderm prescription. 

            The ride back was pleasant because I wasn’t in a rush. There’s some nice art deco architecture on some of the old apartment buildings and going over the Cedarvale Ravine the colourful fall foliage was beautiful. 

            I was going to stop at Metro near me to get some grapes but I had to pee first and I know where the washroom is at Freshco so I went there. Their grapes were firm and so I got seven bags and price matched them with Metro’s price of $4.39 a kilo. The last time the cashier said I could only price match four items but Catarina gave me the deal on all seven. 

            I weighed 87.7 kilos at 16:24. The lowest its been in the early afternoon since October 9. 

            I took a siesta at 17:00 and planned to sleep until 18:30 but I woke up at 19:30. Napping longer tends to happen after a longer bike ride. 

            I weighed 89 kilos at 20:00. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 22:30. Earlier I had a potato with gravy and two slices of roast beef while watching episode 6 of Cain’s Hundred. If I didn’t know better I’d say that the writers of this 1961 show were AI. The stories are so implausible and clichéd. 

            Nicholas Cain comes to Mountain County in an unnamed state. The county is controlled by Herman Combes with unchecked gambling and sex trafficking. Cain is rushing to a hospital to talk with a witness who could expose Combes but he is pulled over for speeding by highway patrolmen who ignore his federal identification. They take him in and while verifying Cain’s I.D. the witness dies. Cain stays at the hotel where downstairs there’s a casino and bar girls. There have been federal men that have come and gone before and Combs is confident that Cain will be the same. Combs’s has been married to Clara for fifteen years but she is unhappy. He took her out of poverty and likes her as a home maker but has other women for sex. A bar girl named Karen comes to Cain’s hotel room and tries to seduce him. He doesn’t fall for the bait and she confesses that her job was to lure him to the window where a photographer across the street was to take pictures of him with his arms around her. Police officer Tom Nugent is related to Clara and was also raised from poverty by Combs. He’s grooming him to be the next sheriff of Mountain County. Combs tries to buy Cain off but of course Cain is obsessed with his mission and unmoveable. Combs goes out with his girlfriend. Tom comes by and Clara tells him she’s leaving and going to the old hotel across the state line. She urges Tom to quit too. Larry Derby the horrible comedian in Combs’s casino is drunk and makes insulting jokes about Combs. He’s later surrounded and about to get beaten up but Tom stops the attack. Combs comes home and finds Clara gone. He calls the sheriff and he sends his men to pick her up. Tom hears this and heads for the hotel Clara spoke of. He reaches her before the other cops and Combs arrive. Combs forces them both to come back but Cain is there. Clara and Tom admit to him and will testify that Combs forced them across the state line, which is kidnapping. Now Cain can arrest Combs but Combs thinks his sheriff and deputies won’t allow it. Cain warns them that federal marshals will sweep the county if they don’t let him arrest Combs. Combs suddenly and implausibly becomes submissive and goes along with Cain. Up until this episode Cain took on mobsters that he formerly defended. There are a hundred crime bosses in his files but Combs is obviously not one of Cain’s hundred. 

            Clara was played by Barbara Baxley, who won a scholarship to the Neighbourhood Playhouse in New York. She studied with Elia Kazan at the Actors Studio. She made her Broadway debut in Private Lives in 1948. Her film debut was in East of Eden in 1955. She starred in the movie The Savage Eye. She was nominated for a 1961 Tony Award for her performance in Period of Adjustment. She played Lady Pearl in Nashville and the lead character’s mother in Norma Rae. Marlon Brando said she was a jewel encrusted grudge collector. She was Tallulah Bankhead’s roommate for many years. From the late 70s to the early 80s she was on the board of directors for Nordstrom and served as the company’s fashion consultant and spokesperson. She was such close friends with Dave Brubeck and his wife that Brubeck arranged for them all to be buried next to one another.