George Stroumboulopoulos

            On Friday morning there were more bedbugs caught on the carpet tape around my mattress than there were on the walls. 

            I translated the fifth verse of “L’epoque légendaire” (The Legendary Era) by Boris Vian. 

            I ran through singing and playing “Pirate”, my translation of “Shylock” by Serge Gainsbourg. I uploaded it to my Christian’s Translations blog and started preparing it for publication. I’ll probably have it posted tomorrow. 

            I weighed 91.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Martin during song practice for the second of four sessions and it went out of tune on every song. 

            I put some more two sided carpet tape in certain places around the edge of my futon. I sprayed some more diatomaceous earth on the bottom of my baseboards near the bed. I vacuumed one side of my couch futon and flipped it. 

            I weighed 92.5 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and on the way back stopped at Freshco to buy Sponge Towels because I forgot to buy them yesterday. 

            I weighed 91.75 kilos at 18:05. 

            I was still four days behind in my journal and worked on getting caught up. 

            I had oven potato wedges with a piece of roast pork while watching a 2013 George Stroumboulopoulos interview with Carol Burnett. 

            Carol has won more People’s Choice Awards than any woman in history. George says without Carol there would probably have never been a Saturday Night Live, Kids in the Hall, or In Living Colour. Carol is touring Canada with her Q and A show. Each show is just 90 minutes of audience questions and her responses. 

            George asks her what was the weirdest question she ever got. He says she can say whatever she wants because this is Canada. A woman from Texas asked, “If you could be a member of the opposite sex for 24 hours who would you be and what would you do?” Carol said, “I’d be Osama Bin Laden and I’d kill myself”.

            Carol and her grandmother used to go to Thrifty’s Drug Store in LA and when no one was looking Nana would slip spoons, forks, knives, salt and pepper shakers, and ketchup into her big bag.” Carol says, “We didn’t have any money and so that was the way to do it.” She says she doesn’t mean it was right to steal but it wasn’t a big deal. They didn’t rob any banks. 

            Her grandmother was a hypochondriacal Christian Scientist and when she thought she was going to die she would tell Carol to “know the truth” for her, which in Christian Science involved reminding her that sickness and death are an illusion. Then Nana would tell her to get her an Aspirin, which is against Christian Science. So Carol got mixed messages. 

            Her grandmother was married six times and was quite a coquette when she was younger. She seduced her much younger piano student in Arkansas and they eloped to Texas where he became her second husband. But his mother came and got him. When she died at 81 she had a 41 year old boyfriend who was a jazz musician from Redondo Beach. Carol’s grandmother warned her not to go to New York because it was cold, her blood was too thin and she’d be dead in a week. But once Carol was on the Garry Moore Show she’d call up the trade papers and complain that they hadn’t put Carol in the paper that day. The papers knew her by name and would assure her they would cover Carol. 

            After Nana had a mind heart attack she was in the hospital for a few days and she had people lined up to her room auditioning for her to see if she could get her granddaughter to put them on The Garry Moore Show. 

            Carol says she’d always had a weak chin and she felt funny in profiles. A surgeon in Honolulu said he could bring her chin up two or three millimeters so she could feel it when it rained. After she finished shooting Annie she had it done. Then she got a call that they were going to reshoot the “Easy Street” number. She had gone into a closet and they were reshooting her coming out but she reminded John Houston that she had a chin now. He just told her to come out looking determined. 

            Harvey Korman had just died before this interview. Carol says he was like a brother. She says he was a consummate actor with comedy chops. She says maybe there was someone as good but there was no one better. She says he was better than her and made her game better. 

            Carol says at one point while her show was on the air there were nine variety shows. 

            Harvey left after the tenth season to do his own show and Carol missed Harvey during her eleventh season. 

            George asks what accent was Tim Conway doing when he did Mr. Tudball. Carol doesn’t know but I always thought it was supposed to be Swedish. Apparently Tim modeled it after his mother’s Romanian accent. 

            George Stroumboulopoulos graduated from the Radio Broadcasting program at Humber College in 1993. He started at a radio station in Kelowna, British Columbia. he moved back to Toronto where he worked for the radio stations CJCL, CFNY, Fan 590 and 102.1 The Edge for four years. he started his television career in 2000 as the host and producer of The Punk Show and then The New Music for MuchMusic. He made his film debut in Going the Distance in 2004. In 2005 he moved to The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation where he hosted and co-executive produced The Hour, which became George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight from 2005 to 2014. It won eight Gemini Awards. In 2007 he started hosting The Strombo Show on CBC radio. He hosted the documentary series Love Hate and Propaganda. From 2014 to 2016 he anchored Hockey Night In Canada. In 2020 he joined Apple Music Radio as a host of a Monday to Thursday show. he also launched the book club Strombo Lit. He co-starred in The Communist’s Daughter web series for which he won a Canadian Screen Award. He was the first Canadian National Ambassador Against Hunger for the United nations World Food Program. he was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2023. He says hosting is his life. He doesn’t even own a plant.