I uploaded “Elle voulait toucher du pognon” (She Wanted a Little Money) by Boris Vian in French and my translation “She Sold Her Man Out to the Undercover Cops” to my Christian’s Translations blog and started to prepare them for publication.
I finished revising my translation of “L’île enchanteresses” (The Enchanted Isle) by Serge Gainsbourg. I searched for the chords but no one has posted them so I worked them out for the intro and some of the first line.
I weighed 90.95 kilos before breakfast.
I played my Kramer during song practice and it stayed in tune almost the whole time.
I steamed my mattress and the bedroom floor where my bed goes. I also steamed the curtains between the bedroom and the living room and the left curtain rod bracket where I’m pretty sure there’s a bedbug nest underneath. I had to remove all the carpet tape from my fitted sheet again because I couldn’t get it back onto the mattress otherwise. That’s $10 worth of tape.
I weighed 91.85 kilos before lunch.
My upstairs neighbour David called to ask me to turn the heat on so I did.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back.
I weighed 91.7 kilos at 18:10.
I was caught up in my journal for the first time in a month just before supper.
I had chicken nuggets and potato wedges with barbecue sauce and a glass of Creemore lager while watching the antepenultimate episode of the TV series Custer.
A British army officer named Colonel Sean Redmond arrives at Fort Hays and seeks out Custer. He says he must select six reliable men out of his regiment and have them ready for action with light combat equipment at 6:00.
Later Custer learns more about the mission from General Terry who tells him Redmond will be in complete command of the mission. Custer asks Captain Keogh to be his second in command but Redmond prefers that Keogh not come along. Custer says Keogh was knighted by the pope and is entitled to an explanation but Redmond won’t give one. Terry reminds Redmond that his orders don’t include picking the men for the mission and so Keogh gets to come along after all.
They ride out at dawn and when they make camp Redmond shows Custer a map that indicates their destination. A vast complex of caves just south of the Canadian border are being used to store a very large supply of arms and ammunition dedicated to the invasion of Canada with the avowed intention of setting up an Irish government in exile and blackmailing her majesty’s government into granting Irish independence. Keogh asks, “What’s wrong with Irish independence?” to which Redmond responds, “So you’re one of them?” Custer asks if that’s why he didn’t want Keogh to come along. Redmond says, “Precisely! At best he’s sympathetic to the Irish cause." Custer asks who would be using these arms against Canada? Redmond answers, “Irish nationalists in your country. An offshoot of the Fenian Brotherhood.” Custer asks how many there are and Redmond says, “Not many, but they have enough guns to supply two-thirds of the Sioux nation.”
As the company continues they are observed by Finn MacDiarmuid the leader of the Irish force and his man Deasy.
That night Joe wakes Custer to take him nearby to a sleeping Cheyenne camp where a red headed woman is tied to a tree. Custer, Sergeant Bustard, and Joe try to rescue her but she is awakened and in surprise she cries out, waking the Cheyenne warriors. They fight them off and take the woman back to their camp. She says her name is Brigid O’Rourke and she was on her way home from a trading post when she was attacked and captured. Custer asks why they had her strung up and she says it’s because she killed one of them. Custer says the Cheyenne would have killed her for killing one of them and wouldn’t have strung her up for torture unless they were trying to get information.
Brigid asks if she can come along with them since her home is north as well. Custer asks Redmond if he objects, but when he turns around and Brigid sees him she recognizes him, tries to grab a rifle to shoot him but is restrained. Redmond says that Brigid and her man Finn MacDiarmuid are the leaders of the Fenians. He adds that the inspector general of the Fenians was actually an officer of the British Secret Service. A man named Sean Redmond. He says MacDiarmuid with his terrorist murder and destruction has done more harm to the Irish than the British army.
The next day they travel with Brigid’s hands tied. They stop to rest with Brigid given one trooper as a guard, but Finn knocks him out from behind and frees her. They escape and down the road when they rest Finn shows that he has dynamite to use against their pursuers. Brigid begs him to only kill Redmond and not Custer and his men who are innocent in their fight. She tells him freedom can’t have meaning if it’s bought with the lives of innocent men. He is not moved and goes to plant the dynamite in the rocks above the pass but he is ambushed by Custer and Joe. They capture him but suddenly some Cheyenne charge as they want the stored arms. Custer, his men, Redmond, and Brigid take shelter behind some rocks but Finn gets away in the confusion.
They let their horses go and Brigid leads them to a cave but one of the Cheyenne tosses dynamite in and the explosion traps them inside. Joe finds a torch, lights it, and the flame is pointing in a certain direction indicating an opening somewhere down the tunnel, so they go that way. They find the entrance to another tunnel and crawl through.
Finn goes to the mine where the Fenians have their hideout.
Custer, his men, and Redmond are lost in endless caves. It’s fairly certain that Brigid knows a way out. Redmond wants to torture her but Custer won’t let him and so they finally have the fight that’s been building up since the beginning. Redmond knows Siamese boxing (which is now called “muay Thai”) Custer wins the battle with Apache style fighting. He says the Apache fought with their feet when the Siamese painted themselves blue and lived in trees (This is way off. Thai civilization predates the Apache by thousands of years and they never painted themselves blue. There is also no evidence that the Apache had any tradition of foot fighting).
They hear noises coming from one of the tunnels and Brigid tries to warn Finn. They tie her hands and Joe covers her mouth with his hand but they don’t gag her for some stupid reason. They find the Fenians trying to move their arms out of the mine. Brigid shouts a warning and there is a gunfight. Finn is fatally shot but makes one last grand gesture and throws a torch on all the gunpowder. In the explosion Redmond is also mortally wounded. He refuses to take a drink of water because water should be used to keep the living alive and should not be wasted on the dying.
Custer lets Brigid go.
Redmond was played by Irish actor Edward Mulhare, who made his theatrical debut in The First of Mrs. Fraser at the Cork Opera House in 1942. He made his film debut in Captain Boycott in 1947. Nine years later he was in the Laurence Olivier produced and Orson Welles directed London production of Othello when he was spotted by Alan Jay Lerner and signed as an understudy to Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady on Broadway. Harrison dropped out in 1957 and Mulhare took over for over 1000 performances until 1960. He made his TV debut in The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1956. He co-starred in Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer (the first feature film produced in Israel), Signpost to Murder, Von Ryan’s Express, Our Man Flint, Megaforce, and Out to Sea, He co-starred in the TV series The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award) and Knight Rider. He starred in the series Secrets and Mysteries.
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