Robert Loggia

            On Tuesday after midnight I added fresh carpet tape to the areas around my mattress where it had become less sticky. I lint rolled the curtains between the bedroom and the living room, the top of my bed, and the pillow. There were quite a few on the curtains as they love the top. There were a couple on the bed. I shook out my sheet and my comforter on the deck and went to bed around 1:38 with the temperature outside at 7 degrees and still no heat. I was okay under my comforter. I got up to pee around 3:00 and again at around 4:00. 

            When I got up it was 4 degrees outside and it went down to 3 degrees. It might be just a matter of switching the breaker on the furnace but I don’t have access to the basement. Years ago when Coffeetime was downstairs one could go behind the counter and enter the basement but now there’s a separate locked small commercial space that’s been waiting to be rented for the last few years with no takers. I’m getting the sniffles from the cold. 

            After yoga there were quite a few bedbugs caught on the carpet tape and a couple crawling free on the walls. 

            I searched again for the missing first page of a piece I wrote 25 years ago and I think I found the handwritten first page but there’s still text missing between that and the typewritten second page of the document. I’ll keep looking on Wednesday. 

            I found two very slightly different sets of chords for “Elle voulait toucher du pognon” (She Wanted a Little Money) by Boris Vian. I transcribed those and tomorrow I’ll keep looking. 

            I weighed 91.65 kilos before breakfast. 

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

            I scrubbed some disassembled parts of the drawer of my daughter’s old desk in the grooves where the bottom slips in. It’s clear that there have been bedbug nests there but I think the black spots are from the first infestation 25 years ago. I scrubbed them with hot water just in case. 

            I weighed 92 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 91.4 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was still two days behind in my journal and worked on catching up. 

            I grilled three chicken legs and had one with a potato and gravy while watching episode 7 of the TV series Custer. 

            Custer and the 7th Cavalry are on their way to meet with the Arapaho to possibly make peace when they are ambushed by Sioux who don’t want that to happen. The Sioux would lose an important ally if the Arapaho withdraw from the plains war. They fight them off but the question is how did the Sioux know he was heading for Arapaho country unless someone betrayed that information to them? Their scout California Joe has enlisted the help of another scout named Auguste Grulé who knows this area better than him. Grulé says he rides with the cavalry because the Sioux murdered his family.

            A young Lieutenant Cox confesses to Custer that he finds it difficult to be commanded by Lieutenant Moreno because he’s unfriendly, solitary, and foreign. Custer reminds him that he’s a junior officer and shouldn’t be questioning the orders of a superior. 

           When they make camp, a lone arrow is shot at Custer but misses. How the archer got past the sentry raises suspicions of there being a spy among them. Cox starts to raise Moreno’s name as a possibility amongst the men. He says Moreno wasn’t there when the Sioux attacked earlier and said he was out looking for signs. Cox goes through Moreno’s saddle bag and discovers that he’s Kiowa.

            Suddenly there is an attack by a small pack of Sioux warriors who penetrated their position. Cox says they got through while Moreno was checking the guard. Cox tells Custer that Moreno is Kiowa, who are allied with the Sioux. Custer tells Cox, “Now you’ve just accused me of incompetence!” He says it’s his business to know the background and record of every officer in his command. He tells Cox that he knows he was 38th in his class at West Point while Moreno was 4th in his. Cox has served less than six months while Moreno has served ten years with high competence. Cox has seen no action while Moreno has been twice decorated for bravery beyond the call of duty. The fact that Moreno is Kiowa and the skills he has brought from that background have been an asset to the cavalry. Custer tells Cox that unless he has evidence to present against Moreno he should refrain from making insinuations. 

            The next day Grulé tells Custer that someone is dropping things as they travel to make a trail for the Sioux to follow. One of those items was Moreno’s canteen. Later when they stop for a rest Cox approaches Moreno and asks if he’s looking for signs or making them. Moreno has had enough and throws the first punch. Custer breaks it up and Moreno admits to striking the first blow then apologizes.

            A large war party of Sioux appears and Crazy Horse rides forward to talk with Custer. He warns Custer to turn back or die but Custer says he’s going through to make peace with the Arapaho. 

            Cox sees Moreno go out into the trees and follows him. A knife is thrown and Cox is killed. Sergeant Bustard tells Custer that Cox followed Moreno when he saw him sneak out in the dark. Custer reminds Bustard that he’s guilty of mutiny if he accuses an officer of a crime without cause. He says Moreno was scouting on his orders. 

            Joe tells Custer he thinks he’s making a mistake to trust Moreno. He thinks as a Kiowa he was born with a reason to betray them. Custer argues that the uniform means something to both him and Moreno that is thicker than blood. Moreno says when he first put the uniform on he thought it would bring him justice, equality, and honour. “But I’m still an Indian and not quite human. Maybe I should go out and join them. Perhaps theirs is the just cause after all.” 

            There is a buzzing sound coming from Moreno’s saddlebag and in it they find Lieutenant Cox’s watch. Bustard punches Moreno. 

            Custer takes from his dispatch case the Arapaho treaty. He shows it to the men and says he’s placing it in plain sight. 

            They are surrounded by Sioux. After exchanging fire for a while Custer sees that the dispatch case is gone. Grulé is seen walking away. Custer calls to him, Grulé spins and draws his gun but Custer shoots him. Before he dies he tells Custer that it wasn’t the Sioux that killed his wife and children, but white men. 

            Moreno says the best way to escape is to fight like Kiowa. He tells Custer that a Kiowa usually steals his first horse from the Sioux. He suggests that Bustard takes seven men to slowly make their way through the pass while he and Custer play a Kiowa game. The seven soldiers form a skirmish line and charge forward as Crazy Horse calls to attack. As the two sides charge towards each other, suddenly Custer and Moreno pop up beside the Sioux and begin firing. Custer is wounded and Moreno is out of ammunition. Crazy Horse charges and Moreno stands to protect Custer but is fatally wounded by Crazy Horse’s lance. Custer wounds Crazy Horse but his men carry him safely away. 

            They bury Moreno. Bustard wishes he’d had a chance to apologize. Custer tells him to just make things right with the other Morenos he encounters. 

            Moreno was played by Robert Loggia, who earned a Bachelors degree in Journalism before turning to acting. He trained under Stella Adler at the Actors Studio while doing stage work. He made his Broadway debut in The Man with the Golden Arm in 1955. He made his film debut in Somebody Up There Likes Me in 1956. He made his TV debut on Studio One in 1956. He co-starred in Cattle King, Che, Trail of the Pink Panther, Psycho II, Curse of the Pink Panther, Armed and Dangerous, Hot Pursuit, The Believers, Gaby, Relentless, Gladiator, Lifepod, The Last Tattoo, The Proposition, Holy Man, Flypaper, American Virgin, The Shipment, The Deal, Rain, Forget About It, The Diary of Preston Plummer, An Evergreen Christmas, No Deposit, Sicilian Vampire, The Red Maple Leaf, Jagged Edge (for which he was Oscar nominated), Big, Prizzi’s Honour, Over the Top, Necessary Roughness, Oliver and Company, Innocent Blood, Independence Day, The Don’s Analyst, He starred in Cop Hater, The Lost Missile, The Apostle Peter, He starred in the series T.H.E. Cat, Mancuso F.B.I. (for which he was Emmy nominated), He co-starred in the mini-series Wild Palms, He directed episodes of Quincy, Magnum, and Hart to Hart.