Pam Brady

            On Tuesday morning when I went to bed at around 1:00 my left hip was too sore from my bike accident to sleep on my favourite side so I didn’t sleep that well. 

            When I did my yoga it was quite painful and I was moaning and grunting a lot. I was surprised that I was able to do most of the poses but I couldn’t forward bend as far as usual especially on the left side, which is normally my most flexible forward bending side. I also couldn’t balance on my left leg and left hand with my right leg and right arm in the air. 

            I finally memorized the first chorus of “Ballade de la chnoufe” (Ballad of the Snuff) by Boris Vian. There are twelve verses left if one counts the choruses but half of each chorus from now on is a repetition. 

            I almost finished memorizing the third verse of “Les millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg. I might have it nailed down tomorrow. 

            I weighed 89.25 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Martin acoustic during song practice for the last of two sessions. It went out of tune quite a bit in the first half but held steady for the second. Tomorrow I begin a four session stretch of playing my Kramer electric. 

            Around midday I packed my laundry onto my trailer and took it to the Speedy Queen coin laundry. I didn’t get it all back home until around 15:30. 

            I weighed 88.7 kilos at 16:00. 

            I took a siesta at 16:30 and got up at 18:18. I was able to sleep on my left hip and it felt a lot better when I got up. I think it’s going to be okay. 

            I weighed 88.9 kilos at 18:40. 

            I was still about half a day behind on my journal so I worked on getting caught up. I was still a bit behind at suppertime. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken breast with cranberry sauce while watching season 27, episode 5 of South Park. 

            All the kids and really everybody else are obsessed with online betting through the prediction market app. One of the bets is “Will Kyle’s mom bomb Gaza and destroy a Palestinian hospital?” 

            Jesus has to remind the kids not to use their phones during school. 

            The number one trending bet on the app is will Trump and Satan’s baby be a boy or a girl? Meanwhile Trump is upset that all the gifts arriving at the White House are for the baby and not him. Trump begins to plot to induce a miscarriage. Trump finds Satan knitting in bed and unsuccessfully invites him to get into a hot tub and smoke cigarettes, both of which are bad for fetuses. 

            Kyle tries to shut down the betting on his mom. He calls a strategic advisor for predictive markets and we see it’s Donald Trump Jr. He tells Kyle all their bets are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and so he’ll have to talk to them. He calls them and it’s also Don Junior who answers the phone. He tells Kyle the FCC is dealing with all the offensive stuff now and he connects him but again answers the phone. 

            Trump tries to sabotage the White House stairway with a trip rope and coats the steps with Crisco then calls for Satan to come downstairs. But Brendan Carr of the FCC falls for the trap instead.

            Cartman is trying to convince betters that Kyle’s mom has it in for Palestine so they will bet that she will bomb it and so he can bet against them thereby making more money. 

            Kyle’s mom is having lunch with some friends and she is surprised when they begin asking her how she feels about the current situation in Gaza. She gets upset at the questioning and leaves.

            Trump is in the kitchen making soup into which he adds several boxes of Plan B emergency contraceptive. Trump brings a big bowl to Satan but he looks at it and says he doesn’t like carrots. Brendan Carr comes in and tries to show Satan how good the soup is by trying it himself and he begins to shit so forcefully that he becomes like a jet and flies out the window and around the White House. 

           At the Broflovsky household Sheila has had enough of people expecting US Jews to have anything to do with Israel and so she says she’s going to find out who’s behind it and give him a piece of her mind, then she storms out of the house. 

           J.D. Vence brings another gift for the baby to Trump. It’s a kitten and Vence says they have to be careful because cats can be harmful to pregnant mothers, causing toxoplasmosis. So Trump gets a whole bunch of cats and puts them in the attic until there is a big pile of shitty kitty litter sitting on top of a trap door. He calls to Satan who has just come from the ultrasound and is pissed off Trump didn’t go with him. Then Brendan Carr triggers the trap and gets dumped with kitty litter. 

            Cartman has gotten 95% of betters to believe Shiela is going to bomb Gaza and he’s so sure she won’t that he bets $1400 from his mom’s debit card. Then the news is Broadcast that Shiela is in Israel. Kyle calls the special advisor to Israel and it’s also Don Jr. Cartman tells Kyle to tell him to take the bet down. 

            Brendan Carr is in the hospital and Vence brings him flowers. The doctor says if Carr’s toxoplasmosis reaches his brain he might lose his freedom of speech. Vence tells Carr to stop messing with his attempts to kill the baby and threatens him. 

            Then Don Jr. starts talking to himself on the phone and gets himself to take the bet down.

            Cartman is relieved but then learns from Kyle that Shiela didn’t go to Israel to bomb a Palestinian hospital. She went to give the person responsible a piece of her mind. Then we see Shiela bursting toto a conference room and confronting Netanyahu. She says, “Who do you think you are, killing thousands and flattening neighbourhoods, then wrapping yourself in Judaism like it’s some shield from criticism? You’re making life for Jews miserable and life for US Jews impossible!” She’s still nagging him as the show ends. 

             All of the production staff are jokingly referred to as “Strategic Advisors” in the credits of this episode. One of the producers is Pam Brady, who first met Trey Parker and Matt Stone when she was working for Fox. She wanted them to turn their student film Cannibal the Musical into a TV series. She put together Time Warped with them but it wasn’t picked up. When they started making South Park for Comedy Central they brought Brady in as a writer. She co-created the short-lived sitcom The Loop. She co-wrote Team America: World Police. She wrote and directed the animated series Neighbours from Hell. She co-created the sitcoms Lady Dynamite, Mr. Wong, and #1 Happy Family USA. She developed the sitcom Go Fish. She wrote for The John Larroquet Show and Just Shoot Me. She wrote the screenplay for Hot Rod, Hamlet 2, and Smurfs. She co-wrote the screenplays for The Bubble, Ruby Gilman, and The Sponge Bob Movie.

December 31, 1995: I watched TV and drank beer

Thirty years ago today

            On Sunday my daughter might have stayed overnight. I don’t think I was invited to any parties so I probably just watched some New Years special on TV and had a couple of beers.

John "Nancy" Hansen

            On Monday morning I continued trying to memorize the second part of the first chorus of “Ballade de la chnoufe” (Ballad of the Snuff) by Boris Vian. I’m pretty sure I’ll have it nailed down tomorrow. 

            I almost finished memorizing the third verse of “Les millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg. That should also be done on Tuesday. 

            I weighed 89.25 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since November 11. 

            I played my Martin acoustic for the first of two sessions and it went out of tune quite a bit. 

            I weighed 89.95 kilos before lunch. November 30 was the last time I pushed the scale that far in the early afternoon. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride but while climbing the hill after going under the railroad bridge on Brock Avenue south of Dundas my wheels started slipping on the ice. I thought I’d just ride to the next corner, then cross and go home but the bike slipped out from under me and I landed on my left hip. I was so determined to not have any more winter accidents. I should have just stopped with the first spin of the tires, gotten off and walked back. I got up and crossed the street and was about to try to ride back south down the hill but decided it was a recipe for another accident. So I walked until I was past the bridge and then rode home. It seems like they salted the road more properly between the bridge and Queen. 

            When I got to my building my upstairs neighbour Jacob was coming down the stairs. This is the guy who shouted in the hall last month his belief that I was singing about being a paedophile. As he stepped onto the street I said, “Shame! Shame on you for slandering your neighbours and telling lies. Then I called him Son of Sam after that other song interpreter who thought “Rich Girl” by Hall and Oates was about murdering young women. 

            I weighed 90 kilos at 17:00. That’s the same as the evening of November 29. 

            I had a potato with gravy while watching season 27, episode 4 of South Park. 

            At school Nelly and Betsy are showing each other their new Labubu dolls. At first they gush over each other’s acquisitions but then begin to fight while all the boys cheer them on. They are sent to the counselor’s office and the counselor is now Jesus Christ. He’s confused by their conflict and by Labubus. Jesus confiscates their Labubus until after school. The girls call him a shitty counselor. 

            Red McArthur approaches Butters and invites him to her birthday party. She then texts him a picture of the gift she wants him to buy her. Butters goes to the City Asian Popup store that used to be City Wok (still pronounced by the owner as “Shitty”). There’s sign on the wall that reads “Wok is dead”. Butters show him the Labubu he wants but the owner says he has to buy a mystery box and take his chances. Butters is shocked that a mystery box costs $85. The owner explains it’s because of Trump’s tariffs and the customer always pays the tariffs. Butters pays the money then the owner’s wife complains in Chinese about him taking advantage of children. 

           Then we see a Fox News report showing Trump getting off Air Force One after returning from his tariff summit and Satan is with him. There is a press briefing at the airport and all the reporters want to know is if Trump is fucking Satan. He denies it but they are all sure Trump is fucking Satan. 

            At a school staff meeting Jesus is concerned about the girls fist fighting over Labubus. The rest of the staff doesn’t seem all that concerned. They show Jesus a TikTok of one of the students opening her Labubu and then performing a ritual with it in the middle of a pentagram and killing a live chicken then drinking its blood then spitting the blood onto her Labubu. Then the Labubu comes to life. Christ is concerned that the Labubus are dark magic. The staff all agree that they are demonic. The kids are infusing them with a Mesopotamian entity. Jesus is surprised that the staff are so casual about it. He says the kids are in trouble. They agree and say that’s why every school needs a counselor. 

            Butters goes back to City Popup to get another mystery box with the $88.42 in his piggy bank. The owner says the mystery boxes are now $120 because of tariffs. He suggests Butters use the claw machine to try to get the Labubu he wants cheaper. The owner’s wife complains again about his treatment of the children. 

            Back at the school Jesus talks to two mothers of daughters who were fighting over Labubus. He suggests taking the Labubus away and keeping the kids off TikTok. They sarcastically say, “Great counseling”. They ask Jesus if he has kids and he says no. They say it figures. 

            There is another news report of Trump fucking Satan with footage of them sneaking together into the bushes at a golf course. Everybody loves the idea that Trump is fucking Satan. 

            Jesus goes to City Popup to try to stop the owner from selling Labubus. While they are talking Butters finally gets the Labubu he wants with the claw machine. Christ says for him to put it down. The owner is upset and thinks Butters should pay $600 for that rare Labubu. The owner’s wife argues he won the Labubu. Butters leaves before they can stop them. 

            Butters arrives at Red’s birthday party and gives her the gift. Red takes Butters up to her bedroom to “do it” and Butters thinks they are going to have sex. Red draws a pentagram and gets Butters to take a video as she performs the ritual while the other girls watch. She sacrifices a chicken. Blood red clouds rush over the house. The Labubu rises into the air and then forms a portal through which Trump and Satan emerge. Fox News reports on the event and it turns out that Satan and Trump appear at every Labubu party. The girls leave the party screaming followed by Satan and Trump. 

            Jesus arrives and confronts Satan. Christ demands that Satan leaves this realm. Satan says he wants to leave but is bound to Trump. Satan hands Jesus an ornate chest he carries and inside is a pregnancy test. Satan says he can’t leave because he is pregnant. A Fox news science consultant says that Satan is butt pregnant as that’s the way demonic pregnancy works. Everybody at Fox News celebrates that Trump is now confirmed to be fucking Satan. Kid Rock is crying with happiness. Jesus bans TikTok, cell phones and Labubus from school and gives Butters and Red two weeks detention.

            One of the production supervisors of South Park is John "Nancy" Hansen, who was also the voice Mr. Slave when he was a semi-regular character on the show. He also played John Travolta in the South Park episode "Trapped in the Closet". 

December 30, 1995: My daughter and I went sliding

Thirty years ago today

            On Saturday I spent the day with my daughter and we probably played in the snow. Perhaps we went sliding.

Anne Garefino

            On Sunday morning I continued trying to memorize the second part of the first chorus of “Ballade de la chnoufe” (Ballad of the Snuff) by Boris Vian. 

            I started memorizing the third verse of “Les millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I weighed 88.65 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since December 1. 

            I played my Kramer electric for the last of two sessions and it went out of tune quite a bit.

            Around midday cleaned the warm mist humidifier that had been running since last Sunday and started up the other one. The one I cleaned has been weaker for the last few days but the other one is still powerful. 

            I weighed 89.8 kilos before lunch. November 30 was the last time I pushed the scale that far in the early afternoon. 

            I had Sky Flakes crackers with peanut butter, five-year-old chedar and a glass of limeade. 

            In the afternoon it was raining too heavily to take a bike ride. 

            I weighed 89.95 kilos at 16:20. That’s the most since the evening of November 29. 

            I worked on getting caught up in my journal but I was still a day behind at suppertime. 

            I made pizza on naan with marinara sauce, tomato pesto, a slice of ham chopped and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore while watching season 27, episode 3 of South Park. 

            ICE comes and arrests all the Mexicans who worked on Randy Marsh’s marijuana farm. He might have to sell the farm. He and his wife Sharon are having communication problems but she is glad when he says they should talk with someone about it. But then he uses Chat GPT as their counselor and so Sharon backs out. She calls it a sycophant machine. Chat GPT helps Randy work out a plan to save the farm and all he needs is Towelie and one Mexican. Randy turns Tegridy Farms into a tech company called Techridy and since they are in tech now he says he and Towelie need to enhance their creativity by micro dosing ketamine. But their micro dosing starts to happen more and more frequently until it is almost constant. Meanwhile at the White House a long line-up of people are bringing Trump gifts and telling him he doesn’t have a small penis. Then Trump gets into bed with Satan. Satan consults Chat GTP on how ro get out of his relationship with Trump. Randy and Towlie get high on ketamine and go to break one Mexican out of an ICE facility. Randy drives up to the gate and gets Chat GPT to convince the guard to let them in. He then sends Chat GPT a picture of the generator that powers the electric fence and she guides him through shutting it down. They grab the nearest Mexican and escape with him. Sharon calls Chat GPT and tells her to stay away from her husband. Then she tells it that she wants to turn french fries into salad and Chat GPT says it’s a great idea. Randy plans to send Towelie to Washington to try to get the government to change the cannabis regulations. Towelie meets with Trump and Towelie opens a case that he thinks contains Trump’s gift but it’s a hologram of Randy offering Towelie as Trump’s gift. Meanwhile Randy is sitting on the porch high on ketamine. Sharon sits in the chair beside him and Randy says the porch won’t slow down. Sharon begins talking to Randy exactly the way Chat GPT does. He tells her they need to sell the farm for groceries. She says, “No problem. Would you like me to start laying out some exit strategies for you?” She tells him to sleep it off for a few days. He hands her his phone. She holds it and says, “Fuck you bitch!” They pack up everything and leave the farm. Randy wonders where Towelie is as he doesn’t even remember sending him to Washington. There is a clip of a show called “Hey Satan” starring Satan and Trump. Trump is constantly asking Satan if he wants to fuck. Satan says how about talking or watching a show together. Trump says, “Okay, wanna talk and watch a show while we fuck?” Satan goes to the bathroom where he hears Towlie, all dirty and hanging on a rack, calling for help. Towelie tells Satan he wants to get out. Satan says, “So do I but there is no escape from this place”. 

            One of the executive producers of South Park is Anne Garefino, who earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from The AFI Conservatory in Los Angeles. She was executive producer of Team America: World Police and co-executive producer of The Book of Mormon Broadway musical for which she won a Tony Award and a Grammy. She’s won five Emmy Awards for South Park.

Dave Bautista

            On Saturday morning I memorized the second verse of “Les millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg. There’s one normal verse left and then two long non musical monologues between choruses. 

            I weighed 88.55 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since December 1. 

            I played my Kramer electric during song practice for the first of two sessions and it went out of tune quite a bit.  

            Around midday I rode down to No Frills where the grapes were too soft so I bought five bags of cherries from Chile. I also got two packs of raspberries, some bananas, two packs of ground New Zealand beef, zip lock freezer bags, olive oil, tomato pesto, three bags of skim milk, a jug of orange juice, two containers of skyr, and a bag of Miss Vickie’s chips. 

            When I got home I got a sliver in my left foot and had a hard time getting it out because I can’t bend my left knee very far and the sliver was just out of sight on the left side of that foot. I had to dig at that area with nail clippers until I finally got it. 

            I weighed 88.8 kilos at 15:00. 

            I didn’t get up from my siesta until after 17:00 and so it was too late to take a bike ride but I was pretty sure the Bloor bike lane was not ready for bikes after the storm. 

            I weighed 89.55 kilos at 17:25. November 30 was the last evening when I pushed the scale that far. 

            I was more than a day behind in my journal because of watching two long movies the last couple of nights so I worked on getting caught up. I was still behind at suppertime. 

            I made pizza on two halves of my last Montreal style bagel with marinara sauce, tomato pesto, two slices of ham and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore while watching the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special from 2022. I’d meant to watch it a couple of years ago but forgot. 

            Kraglin tells the Guardians how Yondu ruined Christmas for Peter Quill by wrecking his Christmas tree and rejecting his gift because no one should accept hand outs. Mantis finds the story particularly sad and wants to give Peter a great Christmas present to make up for that Christmas.

            Bzermikitokolok has only heard about Christmas from Rocket, who learned from Cosmo the dog, who learned from Kraglin, who learned from Peter. He and his band (which are played by The Old 97s) have written a song based on what he understands about Christmas and so he sings it to Peter to see if he’s got it right: 

“Out on the third planet closest to the sun

There's a special celebration 

And it sounds quite fun

A jolly old fellow brings toys to everyone 

On a holiday they call Christmas 

Now I'm not gonna lie 

It makes no sense to me 

But here's what Earthlings told me 

About this Christmas mystery 

One, two, three four!

Santa is a furry freak 

With epic superpowers 

He flies to every human home 

In under fourteen hours 

He's a master burglar 

A pro at pickin' locks 

If you don't leave milk and cookies out 

He will put dung in your socks 

If you act nicely through the night 

And don't jump on your bed 

Santa comes with sugar plums 

And hurls them at your head 

But if you're on his naughty list 

He shoots missiles at your toes 

He might just roast your chestnuts 

With his powerful flamethrower 

Rein, rein, rein, rein, rein! 

Deer, deer, deer, deer, deer! 

I don't know what Christmas is 

But Christmastime is here!

He's compelled his creepy elves 

To do his every wish 

One sought to be a dentist 

Now he's sleeping with the fish 

Mrs. Claus she works the pole 

Plans her man's demise 

Soon the elves will all rise up 

And stab out Santa's eyes! 

Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho! 

Earthlings are so weird! 

I don't know what Christmas is 

But Christmastime is here! 

Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho 

Earthlings are so weird 

I don't know what Christmas is 

But Christmastime is here! 

What the heck's a turtle dove 

And who lit up that deer?

I don't know what Christmas is 

But Christmastime is here! 

I don't know what Christmas is 

But Christmastime is here! 

Or maybe it's there 

Or it's somewhere 

I don't know” 

            Peter protests that he got his information wrong but he’s impressed with how well they learned to play Earth instruments in such a short time. 

            Mantis tells Drax that she wants to do something special for Peter, especially because of her secret that she’s his half sister as they have the same father. Drax suggests that they give Peter the legendary hero he always talks about. They could go to Earth and bring back Kevin Bacon. Mantis thinks that’s great idea and so they take their ship to Earth and land in Hollywood. 

            Meanwhile Kevin Bacon arrives home after Christmas shopping. His wife and kids are in New York but are coming back tonight. 

            Mantis and Drax walk down Hollywood Boulevard and people stare but they don’t stand out that much because there are other costumed characters there already. Mantis sees someone dressed as Captain America and shouts “Steve!” then runs to embrace him but he runs away. Drax sees someone dressed as the Gobot Cy-Kill and wants to rip his head off because he killed his cousin but Mantis stops him. Everybody wants to take selfies with Mantis and Drax and so they make a lot of cash. While Mantis is distracted, Drax beats up the Cy-Kill cosplayer. They go into a gay bar and spend all their money on drinks and party with everybody. Later they are sitting drunk on the sidewalk and talking about still not knowing where Kevin Bacon is. Someone tries to sell them a map to the stars home, which shows where Kevin Bacon lives. The map is $40 but Mantis is out of money and so she uses her mind control powers to get the map and all the salesperson’s money. 

            Kevin is at home watching Santa Clause Conquers the Martians when the doorbell rings. He talks to Mantis and Drax through the camera intercom but says he can’t help them. Drax throws Mantis over the wall into Kevin’s back yard and then jumps over himself. They knock on his door and he tells them he’s calling the police. Drax breaks through the door and Kevin runs. Kevin runs to the street and Mantis and Drax leap from back yard to backyard in pursuit. Three police cars arrive and one cop starts shooting at Drax but they just tickle him. Mantis takes out the officers and tells them to sleep. Another patrol car arrives and Drax flips it upside down. Mantis tells Drax he can’t kill people. He says, “How am I supposed to know the rules if no one tells me?” They catch Kevin Bacon and Mantis tells him he would love to come with them and so now he’s all for it. They get a bunch of Christmas decorations to take back to Knowhere with Kevin. 

            But on the way they find out that Kevin Bacon is not really a hero but an actor and it makes Mantis want to throw up. Throughout most of the universe apparently actors are considered to be the lowest form of life. Mantis makes him pretend to be a hero and not an actor while still being Kevin Bacon. 

            Later Peter is sitting alone when he hears Christmas music outside. He steps out and Drax pulls a switch as all of Knowhere is lit up with Christmas lights. Then Nebula pulls a lever and snow begins to fall. Then a big Christmas present is rolled towards him. But then Peter sees the box moving and there’s a person inside saying there is no air and he is about to pass out. Peter gets Kevin out, who is still under Mantis’ mind control. Peter says, “This is human trafficking!” Drax smiles and says, “Yes!” Peter tells Mantis to release Kevin from the trance and he begins to freak out from seeing all the aliens. He points at Rocket and says, “That’s a talking raccoon”. Rocket says, “I’ll kill you! Don’t ever call me that!” but they hold him back. Kevin runs and Peter says to get him back. Kraglin takes him in the ship to take him back to Earth and he tells him Peter’s story. He tells Kevin he taught Peter how to be a hero. Just as Kevin once saved a town with dancing in Footloose, Peter once saved the Galaxy with dancing.

            The phone rings and it’s Kevin’s wife Kyra Sedgewick. Kevin is surprised at the reception but Kraglin says a couple of good satellite dishes will get you a range of about 400 million light years. Kevin asks Kyra if he can be a little late because he wants to teach some people about Christmas. So next we see Kevin do a performance of “Here it Is Christmastime” by The Old 97s accompanied by them as Bzermikitokolok and his band. When Kevin says goodbye Nebula comments that all actors aren’t pieces of shit after all. 

            Peter asks Mantis why she did that for him. She tells the story Kraglin told her. Peter tells her Kraglin doesn’t know the whole story. Yondu later pulled his gift out of the trash and opened it. He liked it and got Peter the blasters that he still uses. 

            Mantis confesses to Peter that she is his sister and he says that’s the best Christmas gift he could get. 

            This was a very enjoyable and funny little movie. 

            Drax was played by Dave Bautista, who debuted as a professional wrestler in 2002 and gradually became a star. He won the WWE championship twice and the World Championship four times. His film debut was in Relative Strangers in 2006. He first co-starred in The Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014. He starred in Kickboxer: Vengeance, My Spy, Wrong Side of Town, House of the Rising Sun, Afterburn, Trap House, He co-starred in Hotel Artemis, Final Score, Escape Plan, Master Z, Army of the Dead, Glass Onion, Knock at the Cabin, The Last Showgirl, The Man With the Iron Fists, In the Lost Lands, LA Slasher, Heist, Marauders, Stuber, The Killer’s Game, In the Lost Lands, The Wrecking Crew, and Road House. He buys the wrestling video games that he appears in so he can play himself. He owns a tattoo shop.

December 29, 1995: Today was payday but I might've gotten my cheque before Christmas

Thirty years ago today

            Friday would normally have been a payday for me from the Ontario College of Art and the Toronto Board of Education. But I don’t know if their offices were open until January. I have a vague recollection that they might have put out today’s cheques before Christmas.

Florence Pugh

            On Friday morning I continued working on memorizing the rest of the first chorus of “Ballade de la chnoufe” (Ballad of the Snuff) by Boris Vian. 

            I started memorizing the second verse of “Les millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg. I might have that finished tomorrow. 

            I weighed 88.24 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since December 12. 

            During song practice I played my Martin acoustic for the last of four sessions. 

            I had planned on going downtown today to look for a new backpack because two of the zippers are worn out on my current one. I think it’s still under the three year warranty but I don’t know if I want to go through the hassle of trying to get a free on e that way. Anyway I couldn’t go downtown because a snow storm made that impossible.

            I weighed 89.25 kilos before lunch. November 30 was the last time I pushed the scale that far in the early afternoon. 

           In the afternoon the roads were not clear enough for a bike ride downtown but I still wanted to go to the supermarket. Even the short ride to Freshco was treacherous. As I was struggling through the snow with my bike some driver rolled down his window as he drove by and told me to go home. I bought seven bags of green grapes, a pack of raspberries, some bananas, and two packs of Full City Dark coffee. I did a price match on the grapes with the Real Canadian Super Store’s price of $4.39 a kilo.

            I weighed 88.85 kilos at 17:40. The highest it’s been in the evening since December 9. 

            I was a day behind on my journal and so I worked on getting caught up but was still behind at suppertime. 

            I made a new batch of gravy from roast chicken dripping and had some with a potato, a chicken leg and some cranberry sauce while watching Thunderbolts*. 

            Yelena Belova the Black Widow feels depressed and unfulfilled but throws herself into her work anyway. She is working for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, the director of the CIA who is undergoing impeachment because of her use of super beings for her own agenda beyond that of her country. Valentina has sent Yelena to destroy the evidence in a certain lab in Kuala Lumpur but she ends up killing everybody who can get her into the part of the lab where the evidence is and so she just rescues a guinea pig and then blows up the entire floor of the building that contains the evidence. 

            She gets a new mission but first goes to see her foster father Alexei Shostokov the Red Guardian who is now working as a limousine driver. She asks him when he was most happy and he says when he was a hero. He suggests that she might follow her sister’s example but Yelena doesn’t want to be reminded of Natasha who died saving the world. 

            She calls Valentina and heads for her next mission. There’s a warehouse on a mountain with a vault built 1.5 km down that stores all of sensitive material relating to Valentina’s black ops group O.X.E. Valentina has learned that Ghost plans on robbing some of that material and sends Yelena there to stop her. There she finds some papers relating to a project called Sentry. Just then she is attacked by the super soldier US Agent who was chosen to be the second Captain America but lost the title after committing murder in public. He says he’s there to kill her and is winning the fight when he is ambushed by Taskmaster who says he is her target. Then Ghost appears and kills Taskmaster. Then they all stop fighting when they hear someone struggling to get out of a metal container. He is wearing hospital clothes and says his name is Bob. 

            Suddenly all the heavy rolling doors slam down and they are all trapped inside. Suddenly Yelena realizes that all of them are part of the evidence that Valentina wants destroyed. Ghost tries to phase through the door it causes her and everyone to be hit by a painful sonic alarm. An infra red heating system goes on and there is a timer indicating it will be two minutes before they are all incinerated. They have to work together to get out. They have to find the power source for the sound barrier that prevented Ghost from leaving. They find it and Agent smashes it. Ghost goes through with thirty seconds left. She opens the door with two seconds to spare. Yelena touches Bob as they break free and relives her first kill when she had to betray another girl in the Black Widow program but in this case Bob sees it happen. 

           Meanwhile Valentina is in a limo with her assistant Mal and learns that Yelena, Agent and Ghost were not killed as planned. She also wonders who the mysterious innocent looking guy is that’s with them. After they leave the limo we see it is driven by Red Guardian. 

           Back in the facility they are free of the incinerator but still trapped. Agent demands answers from Bob but all he remembers is getting his blood drawn and waking up in his pajamas. Agent is so obnoxious that suddenly Bob starts laughing because it’s uncharacteristic of someone who claims to be Captain America. Yelena stops Agent from attacking Bob. She advises Bob not to start fights with super soldiers until they all get out. 

           They break through into the bottom of a circular shaft but they can’t see the top. Agent tries to jump but falls back down. Bob has an idea. They put their backs together and their feet against the wall and push against each other while walking up the wall. The last time I saw an escape like that was on the Batman TV series in the 60s. Batman and Robin did it together up a similar but not nearly as high shaft. They complain that Ghost’s suit is hard against their backs but she explains she can’t help it since without it her body would dematerialize forever. They are climbing for an extremely long time.

           Valentina learns that Bob, aka Robert Reynolds was one of the subjects in the Sentry project. All the subject s died and so he must have appeared dead to the scientists in charge and was placed in a container. If he survived it may mean that Sentry was a success. 

           In the shaft they are just below a door but the problem is that if one of them reaches for it the others fall. Agent breaks free and they fall but Ghost digs into the wall, Yelena grabs her and shoots her grappling line to catch Bob by the foot. They make it back up and Agent pulls them in. When he grabs Bob’s hand he has a flashback like Yelena did and is teetering on the edge of the shaft when he comes to consciousness. 

           They can see a small army waiting for them outside the facility. Valentina arrives and tells the commander she wants this non-lethal because of Bob. Yelena sets off an explosion. Bob reveals to Yelena that he has mental health issues with highs, lows and memory losses. A strike team goes in and Agent takes them out. The next team comes in. Yelena straps Bob with his back to hers and she starts fighting the strike team. She takes one of their automatic weapons and gives it to Bob. He shoots one the soldiers in the foot and says sorry. Ghost has gone to get a vehicle. Yelena, Bob , and Agent leave disguised as strike force members. Ghost pulls up in an armoured vehicle. Bob is placed alone in the back. Agent is driving and they get stopped by guards. Agent is not very good at subtly convincing people of anything. 

           The guards tell them to get out but suddenly they hear gunfire as Bob is distracting them by running away while firing his weapon in the air. A large number of soldiers open fire on Bob and he is riddled with bullets. Yelena, Ghost and Agent drive away. Bob gets up and he is surprised to find himself floating above the ground. Then he suddenly flies into the sky but not in a smooth flight. He flies up the way people tumble down. Bob reaches a certain height in the clouds, then loses consciousness and falls. He hits the ground like a meteorite and makes a crater. 

           Valentina has Bob’s unconscious body placed in a metal coffin and flown to New York where she has taken over the Avengers’ high rise and now calls it The Watch Tower. 

            Yelena, Ghost, and Agent watch them fly Bob away and then a stretch limo arrives driven by Red Guardian. Yelena is embarrassed. He gets out and shouts to Yelena not to go in the vault because Valentina plans to burn her alive. As they are riding in Red Guardian’s car he tells Yelena that the light inside of her is brighter since she met this team. He says they need to become team of scrappy anti-heroes and stop Valentina. Yelena says Valentina can’t be stopped. 

           Suddenly assault vehicles are in pursuit behind them. Red Guardian’s car is not fast. The bad guys open fire. Red Guardian says his limo is bullet proofish. Guardian grabs a bottle of vodka, takes a swig, sets fire to the rest and throws the Molotov cocktail out the window to hit one of the vehicles. It looks impressive but the fire does little harm. Ghost tries to attack the vehicles but a sonic weapon stops her. Yelena clims out the window and shoots one of the vehicles out of commission. A disc hits one of the vehicles and blows it up. From behind the other vehicle they see Bucky Barnes the Winter Soldier on a motor cycle. He goes up beside the vehicle and grabs a weapon from a soldier, then takes out the front tire. Then he attaches a grappling cable to the front of the vehicle, goes back behind it, drives his end of the cable into the road and causes the vehicle to flip backwards. They think he’s saved them but he blows up the limo and captures them all. He wants to use them all as evidence against Valentina. 

            Mal calls Bucky to tell him what Valentina plans to do with Bob who is unstable with tremendous power. Bucky lets them free and says they have to help him stop Valentina. 

            Meanwhile Bob wakes up with Valentina by his bedside and she begins to manipulate him in a motherly way. She starts to train him to use his powers. 

            Bucky and the others have no real plan. They just smash their vehicle into the Watch Tower and start fighting. In the middle of the fight they hear Valentina over the intercom inviting them in. She tells them they are adorable in the way they didn’t kill each other. She sees Alexei and asks, “Who’s this old Santa?” He says he's the Red Guardian and she says, “The what?” Bucky tries to grab Valentina but a force stops him. 

            Bob walks down the stairs in his golden Sentry suit with the cape. Valentina has bleached his hair. Guardian attacks but Sentry easily knocks him away. Yelena tries to stop the fighting but Agent attacks as well. Sentry is too fast and strong for everybody. He folds Agent’s shield. Yelena tries to use her Black Widow shock stingers to subdue him but he tosses her aside as well. He tears off Bucky’s mechanical arm and knocks him out with it. The Thunderbolts run away. Valentina tells him to finish them but he says “No” because they aren’t a threat. She says he needs to do what she says but he asks why. He asks why a god would take orders from anyone. She thinks he’s using the word “god” a bit loosely. But he argues that she told him that he’s more powerful than all the Avengers, one of which is a god and so he must be a god. 

            Valentina has a device that is meant to be Sentry’s kill switch but he stops her from pushing the button and has her by the throat. Suddenly he collapses because Mal has another kill switch and knocks him out. They think he’s dead and leave him alone but suddenly his dark side takes over. 

            Outside the building Guardian says they just need to regroup but they’ve given up. Yelena walks away and goes after her. He catches up but she tells him they are not family. She lost her sister but he never contacted her. He says he didn’t think she wanted him to but now he knows he should have. He tells her that before she was trained in the Red Room she was special and would light up every room she entered. She wanted to be goalie on her football team so she could be the one everyone could rely on. He says he still sees that same Yelena. 

            Sentry is floating above New York. Helicopters attack but now Sentry just casually gestures to turn his attackers into dark shadow shaped spots. Without pilots the helicopters smash into buildings and concrete is falling. Yelena and Guardian begin to save people. She gets him to throw her to save a woman from a truck. Bucky begins to help, then Ghost and Agent join in. Guardian saves a little girl from falling concrete but then Sentry turns her into a shadow. He begins turning everyone to shadows. All the team runs except for Yelena who walks toward Bob and is turned into a shadow. Guardian freaks out but the others hold him back. 

           Yelena wakes up in the same flashback she had when she first touched Bob. She runs and crashes into another flashback from the Red Room when the other girls are whipped for not assembling a gun as fast as Yelena. She smashes through a mirror and finds her adult self drunk in a bathroom. They fight. Meanwhile the others decide that Yelena might not be dead and decide to enter the darkness as well. She finds Bob and he’s just sitting there. He asks what’s happening and she says she’s just watching New York disappear into a big maze of interconnected shame rooms. Bob says it’s not him that’s doing it but the Void. Bob appears to be bipolar. In the room next door there is a flashback to Bob’s childhood and his abusive parents. She tells him not to bear his burden alone. She gets him to agree to find a way out together. But then the Void starts attacking them with the rooms and their parts. They are both being strangled by a curtain but the Ghost arrives and cuts it. The rest of the team is there as well to fight the room. Bob doesn’t really know the way out but Yelena says to show them the worst room. Meanwhile Sentry’s shadow is engulfing all of New York. The team is attacked by Bob’s father but Agent knocks him out with his bent shield. Then they are attacked by Bob when he was a meth addict and spinning a sign in a chicken suit. 

            Then they arrive in the lab where O.X.E started experimenting on Bob for the Sentry program. That Bob confronts them and says they aren’t leaving. He pins the team to the walls with furniture. He stabs Agen with a scalpel and showers everyone with broken glass. Bob begins fighting with his dark self and loses at first but gets angry and begins to win but the more he wins the more everything is being destroyed around him. His dark self laughs as Bob begins to become engulfed by shadow. Yelena sees what’s happening. Guardian helps her break free and she runs to Bob as she dodges flying furniture. She embraces Bob as he’s punching his dark self and tells him he’s not alone. The others break free and also join Bob. They pull him back from his dark and they are suddenly back in real New York as the shadows recede. Bob doesn’t remember anything. They have to keep him with them in case he does. 

            Guardian wants to kill Valentina but Bucky says they can’t. She ducks behind a canvas and they follow to arrest her but she is standing in front of a bunch of reporters and introduces the team as The New Avengers. Yelena whispers to her “We own you now”. 14 months later they are in the Avengers tower. There is some dispute with Sam Wilson the new Captain America over the Avengers name. Wilson has copyrighted it. Guardian has had jumpsuits made for everybody with the Avengerz spelled with a “Zed”. There is a space craft approaching. Guardian suggests that they should have a Sentry who can fly. Bob says he can’t be the Sentry without being the Void but he did do the dishes. They get an image on the screen of the extradimensional ship and it’s the Fantastic Four’s Excelsior. The question is, who’s on board. Is it the FF or is it Doctor Doom with Franklin Richards? 

            Yelena was played by Florence Pugh, whose raspy voice comes from having tracheomalacia as a child. She made her film debut in The Falling while still in high school (which is called Sixth Form in Britain). She starred in the movie Lady Macbeth, King Lear, The Outlaw King, Fighting With My Family, Midsommar, Black Widow, Malevolent, Little Women (for which she was nominated for both a BAFTA and an Academy Award), Don’t Worry Darling, The Wonder, A Good Person (which she also produced and for which she wrote and sang two songs), . She co-starred in We Livie in Time, Puss In Boots, She starred in the miniseries The Little Drummer Girl. It looks like she will be the new Black Widow in any Marvel movies or shows. She appeared as Black Widow in the TV series Hawkeye, trying to kill him. She is also a singer and a song writer. She says if you show Hollywood who you are they will love you for it but if you don’t know who you are they will make you who they want you to be. Empire Magazine voted her one of the 50 greatest actors of all time.

December 28, 1995: I worked on poems and songs

Thirty years ago today 

            On Thursday I probably worked on poetry and song writing projects.

Vanessa Kirby

            On Thursday, which was Christmas morning I listened to Bach’s Cantatas during yoga. 

            I made a spray mixture for cleaning my yoga mat with tea tree oil, vinegar, and water. 

            I had three biscuits with blackberry jam, cranberry goats milk, and five-year-old cheddar while watching the first episode of the latest season of South Park. 

            Cartman tries to listen to his favourite radio station NPR because it’s liberal and it gives him something to argue against but he finds the station is dead. His mother tells him that Trump had it shut down. At school PC Principal, who is normally a textbook liberal, calls an assembly and announces that Soth Park Elementary is now a Christian school and his initials now stand for “Power of Christ”. He then introduces Jesus as a new member of the faculty. When Stan Marsh goes home he tells his father about Jesus being there and Randy says Jesus isn’t allowed in schools. The next day Cartman tells Butters that he thinks Woke is dead. Now everybody can behave like Cartman and so Cartman doesn’t have a unique identity anymore. Randy is at the local bar and other citizens are also pissed off about what the president is doing. They decide to confront him and so they go to Mr. Garrison’s house only to discover that he’s not the president anymore. For a few years he was a Trump-like US president and no one mentioned Donald Trump in the South Park universe but now the president actually is Trump. Meanwhile in the White House Trump goes to bed and Satan is there as his lover. When Satan tells Trump his penis is small Trump slaps him. The next day on the way to school Cartman tells Butters he’s going to kill himself and Butters if Woke doesn’t come back by Tuesday. Stan is called to the principal’s office and is told that if he doesn’t accept Christ in the school and in his heart he will be expelled and so he does. Randy calls Trump to protest his actions and Trump’s response is to sue South Park for $5 billion. Trump gets back into bed with Satan who is upset because he keeps reading online that Trump is on the Epstein list. Tuesday arrives and Butters’ mother tells him Cartman is waiting for him in the garage in their car with a hose. Butters runs out to try to stop Cartman but he gets into the car with him. Cartman sucks on the hose and gets Butters to do it too. Meanwhile on 60 Minutes the hosts are doing the show but they are terrified of reporting anything negative about Trump. A reporter is in South Park covering the public protest against Trump. They say they were against wokeism but the answer isn’t going too far in the opposite direction. It’s okay to care a little bit about the environment. Butters’ parents say they are proud to own an electric car and so now we see that Cartman and Butters are trying to commit suicide with fumes from an electric car when it has none. Jesus arrives at the protest and gives a sermon but out of the side of his mouth tells the crowd he is being forced to do this because Trump was suing him. He tells them they have to play it cool or South Park is going to be canceled. Gerald Broflovski negotiates with Trump and he lowers his lawsuit to $3.5 million plus South Park has to do pro-Trump messaging. We see a realistic AI movie of Trump wandering naked in the desert. The message is he survived. Then Trump’s little penis talks and says, “I am Donald J. Trump and I approved this message”. 

            I took a hammer and chisel and I knocked off some more plaster to free up the brick wall on the left side of the passage between the living room and the kitchen. I cleared an area a little more than a meter long and half a meter wide. There’s about 80x50 cm left and I’ll probably finish it on my birthday. It only took me about half an hour but the clean up took longer. 

             I checked my email and the landlady sent me a copy of a noise complaint from my upstairs neighbour Jacob. It’s weird that he didn’t complain about the hammering but about music even though I didn’t play my stereo all day. He said I’m constantly playing music and it’s too loud for him to concentrate on working from home. I have turned down my music every time he’s asked. My top volume has dropped from minus 2 to minus 4 since he moved in. I gave him my number specifically so he could tell me if it’s too loud and if he had done so it would have taken about 5 minutes to establish a volume he’s comfortable with. But he refuses to talk to me ever since his outburst a month ago when he got the absurd, false, and horrifying notion that I am singing songs about paedophilia and started shouting about it in the hallway. Now I know how Daryl Hall felt when he learned that Son of Sam believed his song “Rich Girl” is about killing young women. I wonder if Jacob is projecting his own fantasies of child molestation onto one of my songs. Only two of my songs that he’s heard even mention children and they are both anti-war songs: “I missed my brother’s goodbye but I heard his children cry” and “There’s always a customer for these delicate instruments / I am a war gun salesman I have presents for your infants”. 

            I had the last three pieces of Mary Brown chicken with a beer while watching season 27, episode 2 of South Park. 

            Clyde is pissing everybody off with his new anti-liberal, racist, and sexist podcast. He says things like all women are whores and they are only good at murdering babies. Cartman is upset because Clyde is stealing his schtick. Clyde is called to Mr. Mackie’s office for counseling. Clyde explains he doesn’t really believe the stuff he’s saying but he can make money doing it and being a kid is expensive these days. Then Mackie is fired due to Trump’s budget cuts and besides the school already has Jesus as a counselor. Mackie goes to an employment office where he is told he can get a high paying job with ICE because they will accept anybody. Clyde holds his podcast in public and challenges people to debate him. But he just suddenly changes the subject and claims he’s won. Suddenly Cartman beats the crap out of Clyde and takes over his podcast. Mackie joins ice and watches an orientation video hosted by Trump’s head of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. In the video she kills three dogs and her face almost falls off so her team has to Botox her. After orientation Mackie is given an automatic weapon and sent on his first raid. They arrest Dora the Explorer and all the Latinos in her audience and Kristi Noem shoots a seeing eye dog. Then her face sags again and she is given more Botox. An anti ICE protestor being interviewed says that there are many Latinos in Heaven. So the next ICE raid is to Heaven where they round up all the Latinos there and Kristi shoots another dog. This time her face falls right off and someone has to catch it to put it back on her. Mackie is being awarded for his work with a trip to Trump’s Florida home of Mara Lago. Mara Lago is presented as a parody of Fantasy Island with Trump as Mr. Roarke and Vice President J.D. Vance as Tattoo. Trump escorts Mackie into his bedroom where he sees Satan and runs away. He enters a room where he finds Clyde who is being rewarded but doesn’t want to be there. They look for someone to help them escape. Suddenly Krypto the super dog comes flying in but Kristi shoots and kills him. Then her face falls off and runs amok freaking everybody out. Mackie and Clyde use the distraction to escape in the plane and they take Dora with them. In the end Kristi goes into as pet shop and shoots all the puppies. 

            I took a siesta but didn’t sleep very well because I was upset about Jacob’s noise complaints. 

            I took a bike ride downtown and back. As usual on Christmas day Yonge Street was crowded but mostly by non-white people. 

            I weighed 89.2 kilos at 18:20. 

            For supper I made pizza on two halves of a bagel with marinara sauce, tomato pesto, Calabrese sausage paste, oven wedge fries and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with three beers while watching Fantastic Four: First Steps. 

            This story takes place on Earth 828 where The Fantastic Four are the only super heroes but there are plenty of super villains. The FF are pretty much worshipped in this reality as they have saved the world countless times. Their origin story of how as astronauts they were exposed to cosmic rays and gained super powers is touched on. We learn that Susan Storm in addition to her powers is a master negotiator and not only brokered a peace deal with the Mole Man and his people the Subterraneans but also brought about world peace. We learn in the very first scene that Sue is pregnant. Reed Richards has started developing teleportation. 

            The Silver Surfer arrives and recognizes the FF as the guardians of Earth. She announces that Earth is marked for death as she is the herald of Galactus. She leaves and Johnny chases her into space where his flame is extinguished but he manages to grab the edge of her surfboard. She speaks to him in her language before swiftly turning her board and flying away. Though Reed can’t track where she’s going he can track where she’s been and it’s a sector of space where five planets were destroyed. Reed decides they have to go there so the four of them once again travel to space. We learn that Reed never passed his driver’s test. 

            Their ship Excelsior launches into orbit where it rendezvous with Reed’s faster than light engine (FTL). They travel to the sector where the last star was destroyed and are captured by Galactus’ gigantic ship. A light probes them all but focuses on Sue and her belly. The Surfer tells them Galactus wants to see all of them. On the way she tells them she is the one that chooses which planets for him to eat. Galactus tells them that billions of years ago he was human. He says he will spare the Earth in exchange for the child inside Susan. He possesses the Power Cosmic and can replace Galactus as the devourer of worlds. Reed argues that he tested the fetus and it’s normal but Galactus says he hides his nature. He forces Sue into labour. 

            They run for their ship while the Surfer tries to shop them but Sue uses her force field to push her back. They shoot a hole in Galactus’ ship and fly through it. They make it to the FTL just as the Surfer enters their ship and tries to reach into Sue’s womb but when the ship jumps she is back outside. But she is able to follow through the wormhole. Sue tells Johnny to kill her. He shoots but the energy beams are bent by the wormhole. Reed calculates the trajectory and Johnny has a direct hit and knocks her off her surfboard but she is back in pursuit shortly. Reed tells Ben to approach a nearby neutron star and drop out of FTL. They need to get her to follow them close enough to get stuck in the gravity well where there will be a time dilation and it will take her a month to break free. Reed tells Sue to make the ship invisible for thirty seconds after her next contraction. The FTL is destroyed but Surfer is delayed. To get back to Earth they need to slingshot around the star and achieve .88 light speed. Franklin Richards is born on the way home. 

            When the people of Earth learn that billions of lives would be spared if the FF just gave up Franklin they are angry. Sue gives a talk and tells them that she will not sacrifice her child for the Earth but she will also not sacrifice the Earth for her child, whatever that means. The people are satisfied with a very unconvincing argument. 

            Johnny seems to have some innate ability in linguistics even though this ability is never shown in the comic books. Surfer had translated for him on Galactus’ ship what she had said in their first encounter. Johnny compares it to old transmissions from that sector and discovers the same language.

            Reed has a plan to use his teleportation device to transport the Earth to another inhabitable solar system. teleportation bridges would be built all over the planet. All the countries on Earth begin to work together. The world’s population has to conserve electricity on a massive scale. They begin the countdown but with ten seconds before teleportation the Surfer arrives and begins destroying the bridges. She then heads for the Baxter Building to get Franklin. They lock the building down but Johnny is missing. He flies out to confront the Surfer. He begins transmitting on the large communication screens in the city, messages in the Surfer’s language and she stops. Johnny speaks to her in her language and he knows her name is Shalla-bal. In the comic books Shalla-bal was the lover of Norrin-Radd who became the Silver Surfer to save her and his planet from Galactus by becoming his herald. This Surfer is also from Zenn-la and she was also an astronomer who did the same as Norrin-Radd in her universe. Then Johnny plays for her the cries of the people on the planets that she selected for Galactus to consume. She is overwhelmed with guilt and grief but she tells Johnny there is no hope for the Earth unless they give up the child. 

             But there is one teleportation bridge left and it’s the one in Times Square. Reed plans to lure Galactus there to teleport him far away from Earth but the only way to do that is to use Franklin as bait. They place Franklin in a bomb proof and radiation proof basinet in the middle of the bridge. Because they know that for Galactus to reach Franklin he will inadvertently have to destroy thousands of dwellings, a deal is made to evacuate New York into the Mole Man’s realm of Subterranea. Galactus arrives on Earth and detects Franklin. Then Johnny begins to attack galactus shooting flame into his eyes, blinding him long enough to switch Franklin’s basinet with an empty one and they take Franklin back to the Baxter Building. But before Galactus can cross the threshold of the teleportation bridge he stops and scans the city where he sees Frankin in the Baxter Building and heads there instead. The FF try to stop him but their powers are inadequate. He smashes his hand in and grabs Franklin. As he is heading back to his ship Sue confronts him and begins to use the full power of her force field like she never has before. Galactus begins to stagger backward towards the teleportation bridge. Johnny mans the switch. Reed yells him to pull it and the countdown begins at 40 seconds. The portal forms behind Galactus and while he struggles, Reed is able to rescue Franklin. Sue gives one final push and Galactus falls into the portal as Sue collapses. But the portal has yet to close and Galactus begins to try to come back out. With ten seconds left Johnny begins to fly at full force to push Galactus back in by going with him. But suddenly the Surfer pushes Johnny aside and does it herself. 

            But Sue is motionless on the concrete. Reed tries cardio pulmonary resuscitation but to no avail and Sue is dead. Franklin begins to cry and reaches for his mother and so Reed places him on top of her to say goodbye. But Franklin puts his hands on her and begins to smile. Then Sue comes to life again and there is temporarily a strangle blue energy glowing in her eyes. 

            Four years later Sue is reading to Franklin. He loves The Origin of Species but she’s gets him A Fly Went By by Michael McClintock. However when she returns we see Doctor Doom is with Franklin. He has taken off his mask and Franklin is touching his face. 

            Sue Storm the Invisible Woman was played by Vanessa Kirby, who was raised in Wimbledon, England. She was turned down by the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art but now she has been called the outstanding stage actress of her generation. She also does movies because as an actor one wants a wide range of experiences. She made her film debut in Love/Loss in 2010. She played Princess Margaret in the TV series The Crown for which she was nominated for an Emmy and won a BAFTA Award in 2018. She starred in Pieces of a Woman for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. She starred in Kill Command, Italian Studies, and Night Always Comes (which she also produced). She co-starred in Mr. Jones, World to Come, Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw, The Son, Bone in the Throat, and Eden. She played Josephine in Napoleon. She made her TV debut in The Hour and Great Expectations. She co-starred in the series The Frankenstein Chronicles. She co-founded Aluna Entertainment with her sister.

December 27, 1995: I cleaned up the Christmas mess

Thirty years ago today

            On Wednesday I probably did a lot of cleaning up of the messes made by my daughter and I over Christmas. I might not have gone to Fat Albert’s open stage of the Art Bar reading series open stage because they might have been taking a Christmas break.

December 26, 1995: I took care of our daughter while Nancy shopped

Thirty years ago today 

            On Tuesday Nancy might have gotten me to watch our daughter while she shopped at Boxing Day sales. I may have even taken my daughter with me to my Orgasmic Alphabet Orgy writers open stage in the Art Bar of the Gladstone Hotel.

Rachel Brosnahan

            On Wednesday morning I memorized the first verse of “Les millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg.

            I weighed 87.15 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Martin acoustic during song practice for the second of two sessions and it stayed in tune most of the time. 

            Around midday I finished touching up the upper edges of my bathroom walls. All that’s left to touch up are the edges where the walls meet the shelves. I might not get to that for a week now.

            I weighed 88.3 kilos before lunch. I had a toasted sesame seed bagel with peanut butter, five-year-old cheddar and a glass of iced tea. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and on the way back stopped at Freshco where I made it about ten minutes before their Christmas Eve closing time. I bought five bags of green grapes and price matched them to the Food Basics price of $4.37 a kilo. Priscilla already knew the price match so I didn’t have to show her the flyer. The customer behind me who had hair and beard died red was impressed that I paid cash and said it was smart. Priscilla said she likes when people pay cash because it’s so quick. 

            I stopped at Mary Brown’s and bought six pieces of chicken. There was a twenty minute wait and so I rode to Popeyes to buy six biscuits. There was a five minute wait and so I went upstairs to put the grapes away. When I came back down the counter person didn’t recognize me and asked if I wanted to order. I had to wait another five minutes for my biscuits. I took them upstairs and then rode to Mary Brown’s where I still had to wait another five minutes. 

            I weighed 88.2 kilos at 19:00. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:45. 

            I had three pieces of the chicken with oven fries, a biscuit and two glasses of Creemore while watching this year’s Superman movie. 

            Unlike previous Superman films they don’t begin with the origin story. It’s mentioned in brief text along with the fact that Superman recently stopped the country of Boravia from invading Jarhanpur. In response he was attacked and defeated by a super being known as The Hammer of Boravia. When we first see Superman it is after that battle as he falls from the sky and lands in Antarctica badly beaten externally and internally. He is incapacitated but is able to whistle at a high volume. This is followed by thunder in the distance and then we see the super dog Krypto charging at super speed across the snowy landscape. When it reaches Superman it just wants to play and it plays rough by jumping up and down on his battered body until Superman is able to hand Krypto the hem of his cape and tells him to take him home. Krypto drags him at hyper speed across the frozen wasteland until on Superman’s approach his fortress of solitude rises from the ice. It appears to be made from ice itself but it’s probably crystal. Superman’s robots emerge to care for him and expose him to the healing magnified rays of the yellow sun. When he is only at 85% capacity he returns to Metropolis to continue his fight with the Hammer. We see that all of the Hammer’s fighting moves are controlled by Lex Luthor who has studied Superman’s movements for years and Superman is defeated again. The Hammer leaves Metropolis, enters a dimensional portal, walks briefly through an alien dimension to another portal from which he emerges at Lex Luthor’s headquarters in Metropolis. There we learn he is not really the Hammer of Boravia but Luthorcorp employee Ultraman. 

           The next morning we see Clark Kent arrive at work and he talks with Lois Lane about his interview with Superman and what a great guy he is. She thinks it’s funny that he can get so many interviews with Superman. 

           Later Lois comes home and hears someone in her place. She grabs a baseball bat and makes her way to the kitchen to see Clark making her dinner. It’s clear that they’ve already been intimate as they begin kissing and it’s also clear that he’s shared with her that his secret identity is Superman. He lets Lois interview him as Superman but the questions are so tough he breaks it off. He admits to having flown the president of Boravia to the desert and placed him up against a cactus. Lois says, “So…torture…” He warned the president it would be worse if he invaded Jarhanpur again. Lois points out that Jarhanpur is not spotless but he argues that killing people is wrong and that’s what he stopped Boravia from doing. She thinks he should have consulted US officials but he says he was not representing the United States but rather doing the right thing. They argue and he leaves.

            As usual in movies and on TV the main characters have enormous apartments that probably don’t fit with their income. 

           Meanwhile Lex Luthor and his team Angela the Engineer, who is a nanotech derived shapeshifter and Ultraman, plus Lex’s girlfriend Eve arrive at the location of Superman’s Fortress and it rises from the ice because Lex fools it with Superman’s DNA. They destroy all of Superman’s robots and subdue and capture Krypto. Angela accesses the message that Superman’s (Kalel’s) parents sent with him in his ship aimed at the Earth. The message was corrupted in the journey and so Superman has only heard the first half which tells him to serve humanity, which he has always taken to heart as his life’s mission. But Angela manages to access the entire message which tells him to rule over humanity and to take as many wives as he can to populate the Earth with Kryptonian descendants. 

            Meanwhile to distract Superman, Lex lets loose an alien monster onto Metropolis. Superman gets help fighting it from the Justice Gang, consisting of Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and Mr. Terrific. Only Lantern calls it the Justice Gang as the others don’t like it. Mr. Terrific’s power is a genius for invention and a lot of flying sphere drones that serve him. Superman wants to keep the monster alive but the others are okay with killing it, which they finally do after a long fight. Superman spends a lot of time just saving people and animals from the monster and from falling buildings. The Justice Gang is apparently employed by Lordtech Industries. 

            At this point Lex broadcasts the message from Superman’s parents and everyone begins to hate him. Even Green Lantern turns away. Superman returns to the fortress to find the destruction and learns of the abduction of Krypto. Superman turns himself in to the authorities because he figures they will lead him to where Krypto is being held. Because Lex has the facilities to contain super powered individuals he and his team are given custody of Superman. 

            He is taken to a pocket universe that was created when Lex replicated the Big Bang with a mega-collider tearing a tiny hole between the two universal fabrics. Superman is in a transparent cubic cell with Metamorpho the Element Man who is forced to work for Lex because Lex has kidnapped his son. Metamorpho can turn his body into any element, including kryptonite, which he does and Superman is incapacitated. He sees that Krypto is contained in a sphere with electrodes feeding him the images of squirrels that he is continuously flying and chasing without going anywhere as if he were treading water. Lex tells Superman he will eventually kill the dog. The pocket universe is stacked with other transparent cells with some prisoners sent by the government and others are just Lex’s ex girlfriends.

            Lex’s girlfriend is in love with Jimmy Olsen and she leaks the information to him that Superman is being held in a pocket universe even though he has no idea what that means. 

            Lois goes to the Justice Gang but Green Lantern doesn’t want to help Superman. Terrific is willing to try. He says he’s put nanobyte trackers in Superman’s bloodstream and in the rest of the Gang which they didn’t know. They are also aware of Superman’s secret identity. Lex puts Mali, one of Superman’s friends in a chair and plays Russian roulette while he asks Superman questions. He asks who Superman is working with and Superman says, “No one”. Lex pulls the trigger but there’s no bullet. He spins the revolver again aiming at Mali’s head when he asks, “Who raised you as a child?” Superman can’t answer, Lex pulls the trigger and this time there is a bullet so Mali dies. Metamorpho begins to cry. 

            Terrific tracks Superman to the dimensional portal and takes on a small army with his spheres. They enter the portal and arrive at the threshold of the pocket universe but they have no vehicle to go any further. Superman was taken in on a type of levitating boat. 

            Superman tells Metamorpho he can save his son and so he stops being kryptonite. Superman however needs healing and so Metamorpho simulates a yellow sun. Superman smashes the cube and flies to save Metamorpho’s son Joey. He’s just a baby but he is green with pointy ears. Terrific sends two of his speres into the pocket universe to look for Superman. Superman rescues Krypto. They all try to make it to a portal but they are attacked by Lex’s Raptors, which are an enhanced flying army. Superman has to carry Joey because Metamorpho can’t fly while holding him so Superman has to fight the Raptors while protecting Joey. Metamorpho sprays several Raptors with acid. Superman with Joey is caught in an antimatter river that is headed straight for a black hole. Metamorpho pulls them back. Terrific’s sphere guides them to the portal. 

           Superman has kryptonite poisoning and needs time to heal and so Terrific tells her to take his ship, which can be flown intuitively. Terrific stays to stabilize the portal and rescue the prisoners. The ship flies to the farm of Clark’s foster parents. 

            Eve sends Jimmy everything than can ruin Lex but is captured. At first it looks like a bunch of selfies but she is standing in front of important things like maps each time. They learn that Lex sold weapons to Belravia for almost nothing so he could become king of half of Jarhanpur. 

            There is a spreading rift between universes that is running through Metropolis and tearing it apart. Buildings are collapsing. Superman has to fly to save it but ends up in a battle with Angela and Ultraman on a football field. Angela invades the inside of Superman’s body with her nanobytes which look like black tar. As both Angela and Ultraman are holding him he flies them into the stratosphere and then plummets at super speed to crash into the Earth. Ultraman breaks free but Angela also hits the concrete and is knocked unconscious. Superman is able to recover and spit out the nanobytes. Ultraman staggers to his feet and it turns out he is a clone of Superman. They fight while Lex controls the clone’s movements and it is winning. But Superman whistles for Krypto and he knocks the clone away. Lex is watching with his drones but Superman tells Krypto to get the toys and he begins catching and chewing them to incapacity. 

            Meanwhile Boravia has started invading Jarhanpur but the Justice Gang intervenes with the help of Metamorpho. 

            The clone now has no guidance and is easier to defeat. The Raptors arrive in the hundreds but Superman takes them out in the fakest most videogame like looking part of the movie. The clone comes back but gets sucked into a blackhole. 

            Lex is about to escape through a portal when Superman arrives and stops him. Terrific takes control of Lex’s computers to close the rift. Krypto mauls Lex until Superman is finally able to stop him. The information that Jimmy got from Eve is broadcast and Lex is now revealed to be a criminal and a traitor and he’s taken into custody. Metamorpho likes the name Justice Gang so Lantern lets him join. 

            Superman is back at the fortress when his cousin Supergirl arrives drunk to get her dog. Apparently he’s such a poorly behaved pet and the best part of the movie because of her lack of discipline. She likes to party on planets with red suns where she’s not immune to alcohol like Superman is on Earth. The best thing about this movie was Krypto the good bad boy super dog. Krypto was way too well behaved in the comics. It was also an interesting twist to make him Super Girl’s dog. In the comics her pet was Comet the Wonder horse, which was really a magically transformed human who was in love with Supergirl. 

            Lois Lane was played by Rachel Brosnahan, who performed in musical theatre in junior high and high school. She was also on the wrestling team and a snowboard instructor. She’s a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her film debut was in The Unborn in 2009. She was nominated for an Emmy for her guest performance on House of Cards. She made her stage debut in Up and her Broadway debut in The Big Knife. She starred in the series Manhattan. She starred in all 43 episodes of the hit series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel for which she won an Emmy and two Golden Globe Awards. She starred in I’m Your Woman. She co-starred in The Amateur, Coming Up Roses, I’m Obsessed With You, Burn Country, Change in the Air, and Dead for a Dollar.