Elisabeth Fraser

            On Wednesday morning I translated the ninth verse and part of the second refrain of “Ballade de la chnoufe” (Ballad of the Snuff) by Boris Vian. 

            I fell just short of finishing memorizing “Tout l’monde est musician” (Everyone’s a Musician) by Serge Gainsbourg. I should have it done tomorrow. 

            I weighed 87.85 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since November 22. 

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

            I mopped my living room and kitchen floors and cleaned up the couch and the kitchen table. Nick Cushing arrived at around 13:30 and we set up his green screen. I just took down the rod that holds my bedroom curtains and replaced them with the green screen. He was having trouble with his tripod and so I let him use mine. His friend Nick arrived to play an extra-dimensional cop or something like that. They met when they were kids at a Sea Cadets summer camp and were pen pals after that. Years later they reconnected in Toronto. Nick Cushing gave Nick a shitload of Native cigarettes. The smell of unsmoked tobacco permeated my place for hours. Nick Cushing brought a cape and hood for me and I wore it with my skull mask while pretending to play Death Metal on my Kramer electric in front of the green screen. 

            I weighed 87.75 kilos at 15:35. October 21 was the last time I was that stingy with the scale in the early afternoon. 

            I took a siesta at 16:00 and slept for two hours. 

            I weighed 88.2 kilos at 18:30. That's the same as the evening of October 26. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:10. 

            I reviewed the next cassette on the pile and it was a recording of my daughter Astrid before she could talk. She said “Dada” a lot and made a few other sounds. It’s just on a little bit of side A. I digitized it. 

            In my “2024-09-23 Song Practice” Movie Maker project I deleted everything before the final take of “Laisses-en un peu pour les autres” and saved a copy as the project “Laisses-en un peu pour les autres (electric)”. Then I isolated the song, added a fade to black effect and published it. I took six screen shots and tomorrow I’ll upload it to YouTube. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with marinara sauce, tomato pesto, Genoa salami and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore while watching season 1, episode 19 of Car 54 Where Are You? 

            This show tends to push the main gag to the limit but it was still funny. 

            Lucille Tudy longs for the days when her husband Gunther was a hero on the football team in high school. But as a police officer he is not sought after for important missions because he is considered to be incompetent. When a crime wave hits downtown Manhattan and all available officers are needed, Toody is still left out. He begs Captain Block for a chance and so he gives in but makes sure Toody is given the least important job. He is partnered with a female officer named Obrien pretending to be his wife and a ten year old boy posing as their son. They are to sit on a bench in Prospect Park to try to catch a purse snatcher. Two women recognize Toody from high school and call Lucille but she thinks it’s hilarious that Gunther would be with a blonde and is sure it’s a mistake. Lucille meets with her sister Rose to go to a movie but Rose says they have to go visit their Aunt Neddie in Brooklyn and they decide to take her for a walk in Prospect Park. When Lucille sees Gunther with a wife and child she faints. Then she goes home to pack her bags, writes a note to Toody and leaves him. When he reads it he faints. Lucille goes to see Captain Block to tell him she wants Toody’s benefits transferred to his Brooklyn family. Block doesn’t know about the Prospect Park stake out because that was assigned downtown. He decides to take Lucille to his wife Elsie because she’ll know what to do. But meanwhile Toody and Muldoon have gone to see Block for advice on this matter. However when they see Block leave the station with Lucille they think Lucille has left Toody for Block. They go to tell Elsie and she faints. When she recovers she writes Block a note and then leaves her husband. She asks Muldoon to take her to his mother who is the only friend she has. Toody has to find Officer Obrien to help clear up this mess. Meanwhile Block brings Lucille home, reads Elsie’s note and faints. When he recovers he knows she would go to Muldoon’s mother because she’s Elsie’s best friend. Muldoon is holding Elsie to comfort her when Block walks in and sees them. When Block tells Muldoon’s mother that her son stole his wife she faints. Then Toody arrives with Obrien and explains everything. Everyone is embracing their proper loved ones when Obrien’s husband storms in and punches Toody because he thinks he’s running around with his wife. 

            Obrien was played by Elisabeth Fraser, who made her Broadway debut in There Shall Be No Night in 1940. This led to a movie contract with Warner Brothers. Her film debut was a co-starring role in One Foot in Heaven in 1941. She co-starred in The Hidden Hand and Hills of Oklahoma. She played Sergeant Bilko’s girlfriend on The Phil Silvers Show. She co-starred in the short-lived sitcoms McKeever and the Colonel and One Happy Family. She wrote a book about a single mother who arrives in Hollywood with three children called Once Upon a Dime.