Ruth White

            On Monday morning I finished translating the twelfth verse and half the final verse of “Ballade de la chnoufe” (Ballad of the Snuff) by Boris Vian. There are only three lines left and so I should have it done tomorrow. 

            I worked out the chords for half of the chorus of “Tout l’monde est musician” (Everyone’s a Musician) by Serge Gainsbourg. I think the first two lines of the second half mirror the tune of the first and then it changes slightly but I’ll find out for sure on Tuesday. 

            I weighed 88.5 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since last Monday. 

            I played my Epi acoustic for the second of three sessions and it stayed in tune most of the time. Tomorrow I’ll be hopefully picking up my Martin from Alex Wood. 

            Around midday I shaved and showered and then went over to the hardware store to buy some small brushes so I can start doing touch-ups of the bathroom ceiling edges and tops of the walls on Wednesday. I got a pack of three with pony hair bristles. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and stopped at Freshco on my way back where I bought five bags of grapes, a jug of orange juice, and a jug of iced tea. I price matched the grapes to the Real Canadian Superstore's $6.59 a kilo.

            I weighed 88.95 kilos at 18:45. That’s the furthest I’ve pushed the scale in the evening since November 30. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:51. 

            I reviewed the last of my self recorded cassette tapes. It was recorded over something official sounding in French and is still mostly that. On one side there is a Leonard Cohen interview called “Poetry is a Verdict” with Laurie Brown on CBC. Along with that there are snippets of attempts to record my pre-verbal daughter. I digitized it. All that’s left is the studio recorded tape On a Sour Note by Jim Bravo, who played drums with my band a few times; and another by the band Bomb Shelter Light that played at my open stage. 

            I grilled 8 chicken drumsticks and had two with a potato and gravy while watching season 1, episode 24 of Car 54 Where Are You? 

            Muldoon has a reputation for being shy around attractive women and so he is always chosen as a trusted escort when a friend needs him to look after his girlfriend while he’s away, when the captain needs him to guide some Vassar College girls on a tour of the precinct, and when wives need reassurance that there will be no fooling around on a night out with the boys. All the guys want Muldoon to do things for them on Saturday night because they know he won’t have a date but now he’s fed up and tells them all he has a date even though he doesn’t. But they don’t believe him so he decides to pretend he has a date. In front of the boys he calls up the phone service one calls to hear the exact time and pretends he’s flirting with his date. He says he’s taking her to the Club Chi Chi and doesn’t expect to actually go there but then Toody is borrowing his car that night and insists on dropping him off. Muldoon goes in the club abd leaves after Toody drives away but then officers O’Hara and Sanders drive up and he ducks back in. They want to check on Muldoon’s girl and so desperately he sits down with the extremely conservative Mr. and Mrs. Parker who are observing rather than celebrating their daughter Priscilla’s 21st birthday because she wanted to see a night club as a present. Muldoon puts his arm around Priscilla and asks them all to play along. Priscilla just looks stunned while her parents catch a glimpse of Muldoon’s gun under his jacket. They comply obediently because they think he‘s a gangster and fear for their lives. When O’Hara and Sanders leave, Muldoon thinks he’s in the clear and leaves the Parkers. But when he leaves the club, Officers Schnauzer and Henderson roll up. Just then the Parkers are leaving and so Muldoon grabs Priscilla again and says they all have to walk together. His colleagues follow in the squad car and the Parkers don’t live far away and so Muldoon insists on coming in. Schnauzer is too nosy to drive away and watches through the window as Muldoon sits on the couch with Priscilla, who has not reacted or spoken this whole time. Muldoon says he has to call mother but Mr. Parker thinks “Mother” is a code name for the head gangster. Muldoon decides to just leave even though his friends are still outside but Priscilla in thinking he is about to be arrested suddenly comes to life and begs him to take her with him and they can escape through the back. She says he’s the first man who ever noticed her and now she belongs to him. Schnauzer and Henderson come in and help Muldoon get away but Priscilla thinks he’s under arrest and shouts that she’ll wait for him. The next week Muldoon calls Priscilla and now she’s all dolled up and transformed into a confident woman. She tells her parents she’ll be out until 2:00. 

            Priscilla was played by Sybil Lamb but other than a few Broadway appearances there’s very little information about her career. 

            Mrs. Parker was played by Ruth White, who studied acting with Maria Ouspenskaya. She was the lead resident actress for five years at the Bucks County Playhouse. She made her Broadway debut in 1949 in Ivy Green. She became a critically acclaimed actor in New York theatre. She was nominated for a Tony for her performance in The Birthday Party. In 1962 she won an Obie award for her work in the off Broadway play Happy Days. She was nominated for an Emmy for her role in the TV play Little Moon of Alban. She taught acting and drama at Seton Hall University in New Jersey.