Henry Silva

            On Monday morning it was very hot when the alarm went off but the humidity hadn’t lowered into the danger zone for my guitars before I turned the humidifier on. 

            I memorized the eighth verse of “Au revoir mon enfance” (Goodbye My Childhood) by Boris Vian. There is one verse left to squeeze into my head.

            I finished working out the chords for “À poil ou à plumes” (Naked or in Feathers) by Serge Gainsbourg. Tomorrow I’ll run through singing and playing it in French and English and then I’ll upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog to prepare it for publication. 

            I weighed 88.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            The big bookshelf that I hauled from Brock and Bloor a couple of weeks ago has been sitting in the kitchen for all that time waiting for me to place it to the left of my computer. Today I finally had time to move it. I pulled out the shelf that’s been to the left of my computer for years and cleaned the space it had occupied. I moved the new shelf in and it fits a lot better but it’s almost a full shelf taller and so that will take some getting used to. A lot of the books on the other shelf had to be placed on their horizontal edges but now all the books can stand properly with their spines facing the viewer. Plus now my reading light is clamped at a better height. 

            I put the old shelf on top of the wider bookshelf that sits to the right of the kitchen table. But placing it evenly on top would interfere with me doing my thirty chin-ups in the doorway. I slid it to the left and that moved it out of the way but then it looked awkward. I spent the next few hours thinking about what to do with it. 

            I weighed 89.45 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. When I got home I took the book shelf down from on top of the other shelf. I pulled the four drawer dresser that’s been in front of the mantle in the living room for years and replaced it with the bookshelf. From the bedroom I pulled out the three drawer dresser and the three drawer pedestal from what used to be my daughter’s desk and replaced them with the dresser from the living room. I had to raise two shelf brackets a couple of slots to accommodate the extra height. I moved the three drawer dresser and the pedestal out to the kitchen. From the space to the left of the kitchen table and to the right of the credenza I pulled out my concrete block, my milk crate, and the boxes my humidifiers came in, replaced them with the pedestal and put the milk crate on top. I pulled the little marble topped cabinet and the spider plant out from the wall and replaced the cabinet with the three drawer dresser. Then I put the marble top cabinet on top with the plant back on top of that on top of the cabinet. It didn’t look right because the legs should be on the floor and the spider plant was too high now to receive proper light. I moved the marble topped cabinet into the bedroom to the right of the head of my bed. Then I put my wooden guitar stand and my Martin on top of that. I put the plant on top of the three drawer dresser and I was finally done. There’s more room in the living room now that the four drawer dresser isn’t sticking out from the mantle. 

            I weighed 90.2 kilos at 18:43. 

            I grilled three chicken legs and had one with a potato and gravy while watching episode 12 of Cain’s Hundred. 

            George Dedmon, a location scout for the mob is arrested in a small town because the sheriff’s office got a teletype to pick him up for a sexual assault charge. It is only when Nicholas Cain arrives that Sheriff Sam Cortner learns about Dedmon’s association with the Organization. Dedmon demands to know when he can see a lawyer but Cortner tells Cain that he hasn’t tried to contact an attorney. After Cain leaves, Cortner has Dedmon handcuffed, dismisses his deputies, then hits Dedmon. He then takes the phone and connects with the long distance operator. He leaves it open and tells Dedmon to connect with whoever he needs to if he wants to get out of there alive. The next day a creepy guy named Ray Riley arrives at Cortner’s driveway with two cars, one of them a fancy convertible. He tells Cortner it’s registered in his name but it’s as much as he’ll get, take it or leave it. Cortner says he’ll leave it and wants $10,000 (about $108,000 now). He also wants to help Riley find a location for their illegal casino and he wants a piece of the action because nobody can do business in his county without him. Riley agrees but when saying goodbye to Cortner and his wife Katy he gives Katy a disturbing leer. Later Cortner shows Riley an old mansion that’s perfect for his plans. Cortner says there’s $100,010 in back taxes on it so he can have it for that much and he wants 10% of the gross. He tells Riley to keep his dirty eyes off his wife or he’ll kill him, then Riley smiles creepily. Dedmon is taken into federal custody but his lawyers have also arrived and he’ll probably get bail. Cain wonders how his lawyers found out about his arrest. It’s weird that it’s a surprise since the right to an attorney is fundamental and he should have been offered the opportunity to call one upon arrest. Cain says he’s not leaving town until he finds the room that Dedmon rented and has a look at his luggage. Cortner tells Riley and Riley knows where Dedmon was registered. He sends someone there but one of Cortner’s deputies goes there as well and finds the man searching the room. The man pulls a gun and so the deputy shoots him. The deputy tells Cortner he searched the room and he wants his cut. Dedmon was released on bail and later found dead. Cain tells Cortner that someone in his office must have helped Dedmon contact a lawyer. Katy goes to see Cain and asks if he suspects her husband. He confirms that he does. Later she confronts Cortner and he confesses that he wanted a break from the dead end job of being a sheriff. After he leaves for work Riley comes to her door and she invites him in. Later Cortner goes to check on the mansion and finds Katy partying with Riley and with Cortner’s two deputies. Cortner orders his deputies to arrest Riley but they say they work for Riley now and they throw him out. Cortner goes home and finds Cain there who says Katy called him and said her husband might like to talk with him. Katy’s behaviour was all staged to scare her husband straight, and it worked. 

            Riley was played by Henry Silva, who quit school at 13 to study acting. At the age of 29 he auditioned for the Actors Studio and was one of 5 selected out of 2500. With the help of the Actors Studio he made his Broadway debut in A Hat Full of Rain. His film debut was in Viva Zapata. He starred in Johnny Cool. He was typecast as a heavy villain in Hollywood almost immediately but in Europe he was offered heroic roles. This was helped by the fact that he was fluent in Spanish and Italian. He starred in Il Boss. He co-starred in The Hills Run Red, The Return of Mr. Moto, Manhunt, Almost Human, and Code of Silence. He played Kane in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century the movie and the TV series. He was the voice of Bane in the 90s Batman animated series. He ran 8 kilometers every day.