Michael Dante

            On Thursday after midnight I lint rolled the curtains between the bedroom and the living room and only one bedbug turned up. I also lint rolled the top of my bed and my pillow but there were no bedbugs. I couldn’t shake out the sheet and the comforter on the deck because it was raining. I went to bed a little after 1:30 and slept until 5:00. After yoga I found a couple of bedbugs trapped by the carpet tape on the floor. 

            I memorized the sixth verse of “Elle voulait toucher du pognon” (She Wanted A Little Money) by Boris Vian. There are two verses left to learn and the final verse is just two lines repeated. 

            I uploaded “La fille aux claquettes” by Serge Gainsbourg and my translation “The Lucky Tap Dance” to my Christian’s Translations blog and started to prepare them for publication. I should have it posted tomorrow. 

            I played my Martin during song practice for the last of two sessions and it went out of tune all the time. 

            I weighed 92.55 kilos before lunch. In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and stopped at Freshco on the way back. I bought red grapes, two packs of raspberries, bananas, a container of Yoplait skyr (I’d never seen Yoplait skyr before so I thought I’d check it out, but it was as thin as regular yogourt), two packs of Full City Dark coffee, a jar of marinara, a jar of mild salsa, a lint roller, and two packs of Irish Spring soap (They had a “deal” of one pack of six for $11 but two packs of 3 were $10).

            I weighed 91.6 kilos at 18:40. 

            I was now three days behind in my journal and worked on catching up. 

            I had wedge fries with gravy and the rest of the whole chicken, mostly the wings and spine, while watching episode 2 of the TV series Custer. 

            Custer orders Lieutenant Rudford on a scouting mission with a few men and specifically tells him not to take offensive action if he encounters hostile Sioux. But he does take offensive action, killing several warriors who were just trying to get away. One gets away though and rides back to report to Crazy Horse. Custer tells Rudford he slaughtered a Sioux hunting party but he doesn’t see the problem since it’s a war. Custer says it is not an official war and their orders are only to control and contain the Sioux with less than 1000 troops to cover 800,000 square kilometers of territory. They can’t afford to provoke more trouble than they already have. Rudford reminds Custer that four dead miners were found but Custer says those miners were killed by Cheyenne and no Sioux. Rudford thinks they are all the same and they should all be wiped out. Custer says this is not a mission of extermination. 

            They are attacked by Sioux warriors and take shelter. Custer tells Rudford to take Sergeant Mason and his detachment south by Thunder Ridge. Custer says he’s going to draw their fire by heading north through the canyon. He orders Rudford to rendezvous with him at Broken Pine Summit in three hours. He warns him to not attempt to fight under any circumstances. Custer and his men get to the Summit but Rudford has not arrived. Custer sees through his binoculars Rudford’s men dead off route from the way he ordered him to go. Custer’s patrol is attacked again and they head back to the fort. General Terry says on hearing there were casualties that any expedition into the Black Hills is a slap in the face to the Sioux. Custer says he only counted four bodies from Rudford’s unit and requests to take a patrol to look for possibly two survivors. Terry says no. He tells Custer that Rudford’s father the powerful newspaperman has been condemning him in print. Now Rudford senior is there at the fort. He came with orders from Washington releasing his son from military service. Custer tells Rudford his son is presumed dead and he immediately accuses Custer of killing him with his inept command. Rudford says Custer murdered his brother during the Civil War. Custer says his brother died in the same battle he was in the thick of. 

            Meanwhile Crazy Horse says two of the soldiers got away and one is an officer, so they will hunt them. Custer disobeys orders and takes a patrol to search for the missing men. Rudford hears of this and insists on coming along. 

            Then we see that Lieutenant Rudford and Sergeant Mason are the two survivors and they are in the middle of Sioux territory. Rudford plans to sneak up on a Sioux camp, steal some horses and get away. Mason has more experience and tells him it won’t work but Rudford insists. They attack two Sioux and kill them but the horses run away and Rudford is wounded. 

            Mason helps Rudford to a cave on the hillside. Rudford has a fever and Mason cares for him. He also reminds him that he disobeyed Custer’s orders and attacked what he thought were only three Sioux but turned out to be a 50 strong war party of Crazy Horse’s men. Mason tells Rudford he hates his guts but he’s there because his uniform is bigger than he is. 

            Custer makes camp at the foot of the hills. Rudford senior tries to bribe some of the men with $1000 each if they’ll go with him into the hills that night but there are no takers. 

            Mason tries to get Rudford out of there under the cover of night. They stop at a watering hole where Mason is killed by two Sioux. 

            The next day Custer plants dynamite on top of a hill. 

            They find Lieutenant Rudford tied up in the middle of a clearing. It’s a trap and they lose some men but manage to rescue Rudford. They ride away with the Sioux in pursuit and Custer sets off the dynamite fuse so that when it explodes an avalanche comes down between Custer and the Sioux. They make it back to the fort and father and son Rudford are reunited. 

            Rudford senior expects Lieutenant Rudford to blame Custer but he says it was his own fault. His father wants him to quit the army but he says he’s going to stay and try to live an honourable life. 

            Crazy Horse was played by Michael Dante, who out of high school began as a professional baseball player when he signed a $6000 bonus contract with the Boston Braves. During spring training he took drama classes at The University of Miami. He made his film debut in Somebody Up There Likes Me in 1956. He starred in Westbound and Winterhawk. He co-starred in The Naked Kiss, Apache Rifles, Missile X, Beyond Evil, Return From the River Kwai, Seven Thieves, Cage, The Big Score, and Arizona Raiders. He played Maab in the original Star Trek episode Friday’s Child. He hosted the Michael Dante Classic Celebrity Radio Talk Show for 12 years (later called On Deck). He wrote From Hollywood to Michael Dante Way, Winterhawk’s Land, Six Rode Home, and My Classic Radio Interviews with the Stars.