I went to sleep but woke up at 2:30 when my upstairs neighbour Jacob started stomping on his floor and then shouted, “CHRISTIAN IS A PAEDOPHILE!” Then he was shouting something about cupboards with the doors off and some other stuff I couldn’t make out. Later I heard him go downstairs with his dog and after a while he was screaming, “I’m not sorry!” over and over again. When he came home I think the cops were in the building and I heard Jacob laughing hysterically. I was disturbed by his disturbed ranting and didn’t sleep much. But I did dream that Jacob was talking to Tony Soprano who was sitting at a sidewalk café outside our building and agreed to harass me for Jacob. Then I dreamed that I went to pee and the side of my apartment where the bathroom would be was a big open area. There was a full garbage bag in the shape of a ball rolling towards me and there was someone inside. I tore it open and there were two aliens who looked like fully grown human men but with saucers in their heads like the brims of hats but part of their heads. They also were there to harass me for Jacob.
I got up at 5:00 as usual and after yoga checked the carpet tape. Quite a few bedbugs had been caught but there were also some on the old exit door at the head of my bed.
I finished memorizing “Jules Bonnot c'était pas n'importe qui” (Jules Bonnot Was Not Just Anybody) by Boris Vian and searched for the chords. I noticed there was at least one set so I’ll transcribe them tomorrow.
I searched for the chords for “Docteur Faust” by Serge Gainsbourg and wasn’t surprised that no one had posted them. I worked them out for the intro and most of the first line. I might have the first verse done tomorrow.
I weighed 91.45 kilos before breakfast.
I played my Martin during song practice for the first of four sessions and it went out of tune all the time as usual.
Around midday I rode to No Frills where I bought five bags of Canadian cherries, a basket of Canadian peaches, a basket of Canadian nectarines, two pints of Canadian blueberries, a pack of five-year-old Canadian cheddar, some bananas, a strawberry-rhubarb pie, lemon detergent, spoon sized shredded wheat, olive oil with the spout, a jug of lemonade, a jug of orange juice, and two containers of skyr.
I weighed 91.5 kilos at 14:40, which is the lightest I’ve been in the early afternoon since August 1.
I woke up from my siesta too late for a bike ride.
I weighed 91.65 kilos at 17:40.
I was still two days behind in my journal and worked on getting caught up.
I made pizza on multigrain sandwich bread with marinara, tomato pesto, my last hot Italian sausage sliced, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore lager while watching an interview with Pat Boone and another with Queen Latifah about Carol Burnett.
When Pat guest starred on The Carol Burnett Show he found it to be a real treat that she put him in sketches and let him do comedy in addition to his musical numbers.
Pat thinks there’s a difference between a female comedian and a male one. He says a comedienne has to be mentally brilliant. She has to maintain her femininity or lose universal appeal but also be non-threatening. He thinks Lucille Ball had that and Tina Fey and Amy Pohler have it now. They have to be likeable. (I think Pat’s gender specific criteria are silly).
The differences between being a guest on The Dean Martin Show and The Carol Burnett Show, first of all is that Carol was at her rehearsals. He would have someone stand in for him while he played golf. He was mostly familiar with the songs he had to do but not the skits. he would use cue cards for the songs and thought it was funny if he made a mistake. Dean would watch the dress rehearsal while Greg Garrison filled in for him. Carol was always on the ball and if you didn’t do your part she’d do it for you.
Pat didn’t feel he was on the A list with the liberal establishment of Hollywood. He was conservative, straight, religious, and square. Pat was already married with four kids when he did Carol’s show. But Carol and her crew let him play with them as an equal.
Carol’s show is timeless because it wasn’t topical.
As a singer Carol could match Julie Andrews note for note. I don’t think that’s entirely
true. There’s a quality to Julie’s voice that Carol can’t match.
Pat turned down a movie with Marilyn Monroe because he thought the story was immoral. The studio was pissed off at him. They later did the movie with Joanne Woodward and Richard Beymer and it bombed. He’s talking about The Stripper and it didn’t bomb. Marilyn was cast in the film but then she died before it went into production. That would have been interesting. The playwright William Inge wrote A Loss of Roses on which The Stripper was based with Marilyn in mind.
Pat says when he used to milk the family cow he envied Julius LaRosa who was on Arthur Godfrey. Then a year and a half later he’d replaced La Rosa on that show.
Pat says he always had a B plan if his entertainment career didn’t take off. He was going to be a school teacher and probably a preacher. He was still attending Columbia University while he was making records. In 1953 he was on the cover of TV guide in his cap and gown and inside the issue was a picture of his wife and four daughters.
He didn’t encourage his daughters to pursue show business but for about seven years he and his wife and daughters had a family act. They toured Japan with The Osmonds and his daughters paired off with those boys who were about the same age. He didn’t push any of his girls but they all loved it. The only thing that broke up the group was when they got married. All the girls lived at home until they got married. Debbie continued in entertainment and had her big hit record in “You Light Up My Life”. Two of his granddaughters want to make it in show business but they’re working as waitresses. He says he used to sing “The Father of Girls” by Ervin Drake and Anthony Newley.
He was married to Shirley for 66 years until she died.
Pat played Will Rogers in The Will Rogers Follies in 1994. He thinks Will and Carol have a lot in common.
Pat likes all kinds of music and so he had no problem doing a heavy metal album.
He’s had 63 chart records and one more in the 50s than Elvis.
Latifah says Carol is iconic and capable of anything. She used to watch and be inspired by her show when she was Dana Owens.
Queen Latifah first worked as a human beatbox for Ladies Fresh in 1988. When she was 18 she started rapping with beats from DJ Mark the 45 King, in a style derived from jazz, reggae, and soul. She was an original member of Flavour Unit. She first opened for Public Enemy. Her first single was “Wrath of My Madness” in 1988. In 1989 she released her debut album All Hail the Queen which had a hit single in “Ladies First”. Her third album Black Reign in 1993 was the first album by a female rapper to go gold and it spawned her song “U.N.I.T.Y” which won a Grammy Award. She was a member of the hip hop collective Native Tongues. She sang with Tony Bennet on his Duets album. She made her TV debut in House of Style in 1989. She made her film debut in Jungle Fever in 1993. She co-starred in House Party II, Bringing Down the House, Set It Off, Living Out Loud, The Secret Life of Bees, The Bone Collector, Chicago (for which she was nominated for an Academy Award), Ice Age: The Meltdown, Stranger Than Fiction, Hairspray, Girls Trip, Mad Money, and The Tiger Rising. She starred in Taxi, Beauty Shop, Last Holiday, Joyful Noise, and End of the Road. She is the first female rapper to be nominated for an Oscar. She’s the first rapper to perform for the Super Bowl halftime show. She starred in the sitcom Living Single from 1993 to 1998 (for which she wrote and performed the theme song). She hosted The Queen Latifah Show from 1999 to 2001 and from 2013 to 2015. She starred in The Equalizer from 2021 to 2025. She produced and co-starred in the film The Perfect Holiday. She was a co-executive producer of the series Scream. She wrote a book called Ladies First. She was arrested for carrying a loaded handgun in 1996. She was arrested for assaulting a photographer the same year. In 2002 she was arrested for driving under the influence. She became a spokesperson for Jenny Craig, Cover Girl, and Pizza Hut. She was the first hip hop artist to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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