I ran through singing and playing “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”. On Friday I’ll upload them to my Christian’s Translations blog to prepare them for publication.
I revised my translation of half of the fourth verse of “L’île enchanteresses” (The Enchanted Isle) by Serge Gainsbourg.
I weighed 91.05 kilos before breakfast.
I played my Gibson during song practice and it stayed in tune most of the time.
I weighed 91.7 kilos before lunch.
Again I took a longer siesta than planned. I slept an extra 48 minutes so it was too late to take even a bike ride to Ossington and Bloor. But I still needed to go to the supermarket. My upstairs neighbour David just came back from a two week stay at Toronto General on Tuesday and he was walking with a cane. So I asked him if he wanted anything from the Freshco. He asked for some mortadella, salami, Swiss cheese, and French stick, so I got that. The grapes were still too soft and so I bought three bags of oranges instead. I also picked up a pack of raspberries, some bananas, some lamb shanks from Australia, and a lint roller. David’s items cost $14. he tried to give me $40 but I only took $20.
I weighed 91.25 kilos at 18:10.
I was still one blog post behind and worked on catching up.
I heated chicken nuggets and potato wedges and had them with barbecue sauce while watching episode 14 of the TV series Custer.
An old Sioux spirit woman named Watoma is running from Sioux men who want to kill her. She’s wearing a polka dot top of all things. One warrior jumps in front of her with a spear. She grabs the head of the spear and pulls the point against her chest, challenging him to kill her. He falls to his knees and can’t do it. She runs on as the Sioux chief confronts the kneeling brave, then kills him for not killing Watoma. She arrives at Fort Hays but collapses outside the gate. Custer and California Joe recognize her. They bring her inside and she insists on only talking to General Terry. Custer tells him Watoma is more than a person to the Sioux but a symbol of their spirit and more important than Crazy Horse.
An old trapper named Eldo who lives at Fort Hays is drunk and Custer helps him to his tent. As usual he starts talking about his wife and son who were taken by the Sioux 2 years ago. He insists they are still alive but Custer tells him he should accept that they are dead.
Watoma tells Terry she is there against the will of the Sioux because she wants to end the fighting. She says Custer killed her child and her man Black Beaver, second only to Crazy Horse, at White River (There’s no record of a battle at a place called White River involving Custer). She says she wants the white leaders to make up a final fair treaty so she can bring it to her people and there can be peace. She comes now because she had a vision in the sacred smoke of her people gone from their lands, driven away by the white soldiers. She saw many frozen to death in the snow.
Terry wires General Sheridan to ask what he recommends. General Sheridan wires back that he wants to see Watoma at Fort Dodge in three days, so Terry puts Custer in charge of getting her there.
That night a Sioux warrior climbs over the wall of the fort, kills a soldier and puts on his uniform to sneak into where Watoma is staying and kill her. Custer happens to be there and they fight until Custer kills him. Watoma sings a death chant for him and Eldo hears it, thinking it’s his lost wife.
They are ready to take Watoma to Fort Dodge and Custer finds her in the tack room reading the future in sand. He asks if she sees his future but she says it’s not always wise to know. She sees him and his men dead not soon but not long from now.
They make camp and Eldo shows up, claiming he’s there to check his traps. He says he has to buy some traps at Fort Dodge and asks if he can come along with them. Watoma comes out of her wagon sensing someone is in trouble. Then they hear a Sioux calling for help. They find him trapped in a cave after a rock slide. Custer rescues him but when he sees Watoma he runs away to tell the Sioux where she is.
Later Eldo goes to Watoma’s wagon and takes her captive. He threatens to shoot her and makes Custer and his men disarm. He says he’s going to sell her back to the Sioux in exchange for his lost wife and child and leaves with her. Custer and his men follow his trail. Eldo takes Watoma into Sioux country and is killed by the first Sioux he finds. Watoma tries to get away but his captured. Custer finds Eldo’s body.
Watoma is tied to a tree in a circle of Sioux warriors with oner of them drumming and the leader walking around in the middle waving a knife in a ritualistic manner and taking closer and closer swipes at Watoma. Custer and California Joe see them from the rocks. Custer tells Joe to start shooting when he hears the charge. Custer goes to get his men and they ride towards the circle. The bugler calls the charge and Joe starts shooting. There’s a battle and Watoma is rescued. Custer fights with the chief who falls on his knife. Watoma sings a death chant and performs a ritual for all the dead.
Watoma was played by Agnes Moorhead.
General Terry is played by Robert F. Simon. He and Moorehead could be seen together sometimes on Bewitched as he played Darren's father and she played Samantha's mother. Even though he was married there was some flirtation.
Simon who took up acting to overcome his shyness. He trained at The Actors Studio and made his Broadway debut in Clash by Night in 1942 both as an actor and stage manager, working steadily there for ten years. He moved to LA in 1954 to work in film and on television. He made his film debut in Where the Sidewalk Ends in 1950. He co-starred in Roogie’s Bump, Spring Reunion, Face of Fire, Pay or Die, Private Duty Nurses, and Spiderman Strikes Back (as Jonah Jameson). He co-starred in the Twilight Zone episode No Time Like the Past.
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