Paul O'Keefe

            On Saturday morning after midnight I struggled to find a cable to connect my new computer to the monitor. I went through everything but nothing fit. Finally one that didn’t seem to fit before fit the second time I tried and I got to see the screen only to find that I couldn’t even begin to set up my desk top without the internet and I couldn’t get the internet without network drivers, which it seems I don’t have. You would think that for almost $3000 they could throw in some drivers out of the box. I guess I have to get the drivers with my old computer, put them on a usb drive and then install them in the new computer as if I know how to do that. 

            I didn’t get to bed until 3:00 and of course didn’t sleep right away and so I got less than two hours of sleep. 

            I ran through singing and playing “Everyone’s a Musician”, my translation of “Tout l’monde est musician” by Serge Gainsbourg. Tomorrow I’ll upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog and begin to prepare it for publication. 

            I weighed 87.65 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since December 5. 

            I played my Martin acoustic during song practice for the first of two sessions. 

            Around midday I rode down to No Frills where only two bags of grapes were firm enough but they also had cherries from Chile so I got three bags. I bought a double pack of raspberries, some bananas, a pack of five-year-old cheddar, mouth wash, dental floss, lemon Dawn detergent, peach chutney, a big tub of I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter, chicken bouillon cubes, lime aid, two jugs of iced tea, two jugs of orange juice, two small containers of 4% skyr, and a bag of Miss Vickie’s chips. My purchases cost me almost $140. 

            I weighed 88.55 kilos at 15:00. I had Sky Flakes crackers with peanut butter and five-year-old cheddar plus a glass of iced tea. 

            I remembered that I have a wifi adaptor that I used for years to pick up the signal from the Capital Espresso across the street. So that might solve my problem setting up my new computer. We’ll see. 

            I took a siesta at 15:30 and woke up at 17:09, too late to take a bike ride. 

            I weighed 88.3 kilos at 17:30. December 4 was the last time I was so easy on the scale. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:11. 

            I spent half an hour with Q-tips and alcohol cleaning the parts of my Sony Dolby stereo double cassette player that would be touching the cassettes. I got the right player as clean as I could and made progress with the left player. I used 17 Q-tips. Tomorrow I might have it finished and then I’ll need to connect the cables to my amp to see if it still works. 

            I reviewed the videos of my song practice performances of “Ne me quitte pas” and “Please Don’t Quit Me Now” from September 1 to 9. I played “Ne me quitte pas” on my Gibson Les Paul Studio on September 1 and 7. Both had mistakes but I played through them and didn’t retake. I played it on my Martin Road Series on September 3, 5, and 9. On September 3 I made mistakes but I just played through them. On September 5 the take at 00:15 in part C wasn’t bad but I fumbled some chords. On September 9 the take at 1:08:30 was okay. I played “Please Don’t Quit Me Now” on my Gibson on September 2 and 8. On September 2 the battery charge ran out during the first verse and on September 8 the camera shut off before this song. I played it on my Martin on September 4 and 6 and on both days the final takes weren’t bad although I did hit some wrong chords. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with Marinara sauce, tomato pesto, oven fries and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 1, episode 29 of Car 54 Where Are You? 

            The percentage of police officers at the 53rd Precinct who rise to detective is the lowest in the NYPD. Captain Block has a plan to motivate officers towards deductive reasoning by having them study the details of unsolved crimes at home to try to come up with solutions. Lieutenant Kogan presents some men with the details of a series of department store burglaries. Toody overhears this an asks if he and Muldoon can help. Block is reluctant but Kogan says that it makes sense for them to look into the case since the robberies are in their sector. Toody and Muldoon go to Toody’s place and are determined to focus their minds on solving the crime but it just happens that Lucille’s nephew Marvin is staying there for a few days because he’s in town for the Boy Scout Jamboree. Toody lets Marvin watch them work as long as he is quiet. As they are trying to figure out how the burglar got into the store Marvin suggests the skylight. Toody reminds him that he promised to be quiet then returns to the problem with the idea of the skylight, forgetting that he didn’t think of it. Then they try to figure how the thief got down from the skylight and Marvin suggests a rope with a cinch knot. Toody gives Marvin one more warning then they return to the mystery with the idea of a rope. Now they have to figure out how the robber got the items out of the store. Marvin suggests he put the items in boxes, labeled them and had them shipped to himself. Toody tells Lucille to take Marvin into the kitchen and then he and Muldoon think they’ve found the solution, again forgetting it was Marvin’s idea. The next day Block reads their report and cracks up because it’s so ridiculous. But then he learns from Kogan they’ve discovered that is exactly how the crime was committed. Toody and Muldoon are praised for their work and given another case. The Fenster Pawn Shop case in which Fenster is short $200 every week yet his books balance and nothing is missing from the store. That night Toody and Muldoon are stumped until Marvin suggests that the clerk took a fur coat and threw it out the window, then an accomplice picked it up and resold it to Fenster. Toody gets Lucille to take Marvin out of the room then when Toody and Muldoon regather their thoughts they remember Marvin’s idea as their own. It also turns out to be correct and the clerk is arrested. Now Toody and Muldoon are presented with problem of the Midtown Loft Robberies. Toody wants to make sure that there are no interruptions this time and so he arranges for Marvin to stay at Lucille’s sister’s and her brother-in-law’s home. Toody and Muldoon settle down to think on this crime but after a while realize something is missing. Meanwhile at Rose and Al’s place Al is having a business meeting with his partner to talk about expanding. They’ll need a loan and Al wonders where they’ll get the collateral. Marvin suggests a stock issue. Al reminds him he has to be quiet and then just as with Toody and Muldoon they think Marvin’s idea was their own. They wonder who would buy it and Marvin says “convertible debentures”. Al calls for Rose to take Marvin but suddenly Toody and Muldoon burst in and take him. Marvin works out equations for solving the loft robberies but then Al bursts in and wants Marvin back. There is a tug of war with the kid in the middle. Toody and Muldoon present their equations to the chief and he says he will leave it to them to use their equations to zero in on the thieves. But Toody and Muldoon don’t understand the equations and so they have to seek out Marvin at the scout jamboree. Marvin is already a leader of a troop that would die for him and he says they have their own tasks to perform and can’t help Toody and Muldoon. But after they leave Marvin leads his troop to the location where the gang is hiding as he deduced and when the boys march in front of the crooks it causes chaos. The leader thinks another one of them is using the boys for smuggling and is mad about him for trying to take control. All the gangsters fight among themselves until they are all knocked out. Then Marvin has his troop tie the men up while he calls the police. Toody, Muldoon and Block rush over then Marvin asks them to take over because they have to get back to the jamboree. 

            Marvin was played by Paul O’Keefe who the next year would co-star in The Patty Duke Show as Patty’s brother. He studied at the New England Conservatory of Music. He played Dr. Danny Stewart and Tom Hughes on As the World Turns.