Curt Conway

            On Saturday morning I continued gathering images for my photo-video of “Les Millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg.

            I weighed 91.05 kilos before breakfast.

            I played my Martin acoustic during song practice for the first of two sessions and it went out of tune during almost every song. The new tuner is more accurate but has no magical effect on the guitar.

            Around midday I went to No Frills where I got a refund for the zero alcohol mouthwash that I accidentally bought last week. The grapes were very cheap at $4.14 a kilo but I could only find five bags that were relatively firm. I also bought a pack of raspberries, some bananas, mouthwash, a carton of coconut milk, a jug of iced tea, a jug of orange juice, and a container of what I thought was non-dairy coconut ice cream but it was dairy coconut ice cream. I’m pretty sure I’ve bought non-dairy ice cream at No Frills but there’s none there now. They have it at Freshco so maybe I’ll pop by there tomorrow. 

            My upstairs neighbour David called and said he forgot to buy bread so I gave him three slices of Bavarian sandwich bread. 

            I weighed 90.95 kilos at 14:35, which is the lightest I’ve been in the early afternoon since last Saturday. 

            I took a siesta from 15:30 to 17:00. It was too late for a bike ride. 

            I weighed 91.25 kilos at 17:20. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 18:38. 

            I recorded from cassette tape through audio interface to Audacity, then extracted to my hard drive a recording of my daughter Astrid making pre-verbal sounds. It’s only on the beginning of side A. I have another tape that has more of her on it that I’ll digitize tomorrow. 

            I created more sub-folders in my SSD for photos including one for Kitten Natividad. I deleted several images from my hard drive. 

            I used the remainder of some tofu I cooked a few days ago, added water, some broccoli, and two Szechuan flavour packets. I cooked them for a while, then added two servings of ramen noodles. I had two bowls of the soup with a glass of Creemore while watching season 1, episode 27 of Combat. 

            Kirby is on trial for desertion and if found guilty the punishment could be the firing squad. Saunders and Caje attend his trial.

            He had been separated from K Company when they were under heavy mortar fire. He was found by Sgt. Metcalf of F Company and ordered to help take Hill 256. But on the way up Kirby saw that they were under machine gun fire and ran. Metcalf saw no machine gun and his word has more weight because he’s a decorated soldier while Kirby has a reputation for being a troublemaker. 

            Saunders points out that he’s fought beside Kirby many times and he’s never run but he’s told that one only needs to run once to be a coward. 

            There is one German prisoner from that battle and Saunders tries to get him to confirm that there was a machine gun but he refuses to give anything but his name, rank, and serial number. 

            Saunders and Kirby’s lawyer Captain Dugan check the records and find there has only been that one battle on Hill 256 so if machine gun shells can be found there it could save Kirby. Saunders and Caje decide to go on a private mission to Hill 256 but they only have one night because Kirby will be on the witness stand in the morning. They enter British lines and are captured but after a few hours their identities are confirmed and they are allowed to continue because the Brits sympathize with their situation. 

            They see German soldiers as they make their way to the hill and strangle two of them. At the top of the hill Caje falls into a deep man-made hole and inside finds a spent machine gun belt. But a truckload of Germans arrive to start cutting down trees in the area. They kill one of them who gets too close to the hole and then sneak away. 

           They give the shells to Dugan who brings an ordinance expert into court to identify the shells as German. The prosecution drops the charges and Kirby is free to go. Metcalf still insists he saw no machine gun.

            Saunders concludes that Metcalfe is so conditioned to be brave that he can’t even see danger when it’s staring down his throat. 

            Captain Dugan was played by Curt Conway, who was a member of the Actors Studio. His film debut was in Singapore in 1947. He played Hitler in an episode of the Twilight Zone. He appeared on four episodes of The Odd Couple. He founded the Conway Theatre Studio in Hollywood in 1962. He was on the faculty of the California Institute of the Arts and taught at the Civic Light Opera Musical Theatre Workshop in LA. He taught acting at the University of California from 1970 to 1972.