Mary Sinclair

            On Saturday morning I worked out the chords for the rest of the chorus and the second verse of “À poil ou à plumes” (Naked or in Feathers) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I weighed 87.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Kramer electric during song practice and it went out of tune quite a bit but not as badly as the Gibson did the day before. 

            Around midday I went to Vina Pharmacy to pick up my Betaderm prescription. The pharmacist started giving me instructions on how to use it and I reminded him I’ve been using it for years. He realized his mistake and said it was because it was listed as a new medication for me. The last time they were out of Betaderm and gave me a similar substitute, so this time I guess the computer thought Betaderm was new for me. 

            I went to New Frills where I bought five bags of green grapes, two packs of raspberries, some bananas, a strawberry-rhubarb pie, saltines, a small container of PC skyr (because that was all they had), a large container of Siggis skyr (which I don’t like as much because it’s more sour but there are only two brands) and two bags of Miss Vickie’s chips. 

            I weighed 88.8 kilos at 14:30. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. I was almost home when I reminded myself to buy beer but I forgot until around 18:30. Then I went out and bought a six-pack of Creemore.

            I weighed 87.95 kilos at 18:15, which is the lightest I’ve been in the evening since October 12. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:33. 

            I reviewed the digital copies I made yesterday of the cassette recording of my song “Sugar” from the Howl radio show. There’s a lot of skipping in every copy but maybe not in the same places. Perhaps I could edit one almost clean song from all of the recordings but there’s also the fact that the tape switched sides in mid recording and so something would be missing anyway. 

            In my “2024-10-09 Song Practice” Movie Maker project I think I got the interface audio synchronized with the video. I’ll double check tomorrow and then I’ll copy the project as “Je t’aime. Moi non plus” (electric) and isolate the song.

            I made two ground pork burgers and grilled them. Then I chopped one and had it as part of a pizza on Bavarian sandwich bread with marinara sauce, tomato pesto, mango lime salsa, and five year old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching episode 10 of Cain’s Hundred. 

            Nicholas Cain has gathered evidence against mobster Frank Meehan that District Attorney Manny Rockham is using to prosecute him. The judge is Philip Hallson who presided over Cain’s first case as a mob lawyer and due to a mistake on the judge’s part, Cain won. Accountant Bill Ziegler has uncovered information about a firm called Darmel Enterprises controlled by Meehan. A large amount of stock was bought by a friend of Meehan and over two days the stock went up considerably. His friend sold it before it crashed. Ziegler has a list of other buyers of the manipulated stock and one turns out to have been Philip Hallson. Cain learns Hallson is quite wealthy from having made wise investments but there’s no law against that. Cain finds out that Meehan has signed off on waiving a jury and will now have judge Hallson make the final decision. Cain is thinking that Hallson’s mistake years ago might have been deliberate. Cain checks the records and finds Hallson has profited from similar stocks similar to Darmel more than a dozen times. When Hallson learns about Cain’s snooping he calls Washington and then calls Cain to his chambers. He accuses Cain of trying to manipulate his decision in the Meehan trial. Cain finds out that a former gangster who was up for trial under Hallson gave an expensive car to Hallson’s wife before the trial. Hallson goes to see Meehan’s lawyer Martin Allard and while they are talking Meehan walks in. He tells the judge his orders are to acquit him at the end of the trial. He says when he took the tip those years ago he became part of the organization and he can’t leave now. Hallson acquits Meehan and Cain storms into his chambers. Hallson has the bailiffs remove him. Hallson and his wife Helen talk and he tells her he had always wished she would have asked more questions. Hallson writes a confession and tells Cain he can have it after he commits suicide. He says it’s important that people don’t lose faith in judges. Cain argues that by exposing a corrupt judge the people can gain faith in justice. Hallson tries to throw himself out of the window but is stopped. 

            Helen Hallson was played by Mary Sinclair, who started as a model. She was in 1951 the first actress to sign a seven-year contract with a TV studio. She became a star of the hour-long drama and played in over 120 TV shows but only one feature film. She was offered more movies but preferred doing television out of New York. She retired from the screen in the early 60s and moved to Italy and France to study painting. In the 70s she moved back to LA and directed some local theatre. She retired in Arizona.