The Witch

            On Wednesday morning I started working out the chords to “Des vents des pets des poums” (Farting Up a Storm) by Serge Gainsbourg. I think I got them all.

            I worked on my journal.

            I took an early siesta from 9:30 to 11:00 so I’d be fresh for class.

            There was still snow on the street but wetter and dirtier than on Tuesday. It was still a bit slippery under the railroad bridge on Brock.

            There were two other students in the classroom when I got there.

I sat and read almost two chapters of The Picture of Dorian Gray under my breath. I find it’s a lot easier to concentrate that way.

Class started with a review of our previous class two weeks before.

The point of reading Walter Pater is not to like him or dislike him. He can be divisive. The point is to see something different so as to scrutinize one’s own position. If you still have your opinion after reading Pater then you have found your own view. She compared it to multiculturalism, the essence of which is to see the positions of others. Pater can be existential.

We took one last look at the poetry of Ernest Dowson with the poem “Nuns of the Perpetual Adoration”. He writes about the inside and the outside of the convent, starting with the inside. It’s calm and sad on the inside. It’s bitter and sweet on the outside. “Sad" signals something we do not want to see in a contrast.

I said the thing that stands out for me is the question that the speaker asks near the end, “Surly their choice of vigil is the best?” The question mark casts doubt on the statement. When you say "surely" do you need a question mark?

I also pointed out that the phrase “impenetrable gate” is ironic because if it were impenetrable it would defeat the purpose of it being a gate. There is also a sexual meaning to the word “impenetrable" when talking about nuns.

We moved on to some female poets. In Victorian poetry there were tentative ideas of the new woman. Female poets had a tough time. They were odd and strange to the reading public and they were not welcomed. They were out of the mainstream. Decadent poets were treated in the same way and called unsophisticated. Today we take women’s issues for granted.

We looked at “The Witch” by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge. The last line of all but the last stanza reads, “Oh, lift me over the threshold, and let me in at the door!"

I pointed out that it’s like a bride being carried over the threshold. The tradition apparently comes from a Roman superstition that there are evil spirits on the thresholds of doors. I think in this context the threshold is that of the world and women are asking to be let in.

The new woman was not universal. The women had no models to follow and so they were testing the waters.

We had a five-minute break followed by the seminar starter.

Ashley wrote on the poem “Love’s Mirror" by Constance Naden. She thought it was about the speaker disguising her identity in order to be loved. I didn’t think anyone else agreed with that interpretation. The speaker is basically saying to her lover, look, you have an ideal woman in your mind while I have an ideal for myself. We are not there right now so let’s love each other for what we are rather than for what we might be.

We looked at “Love Versus Learning” also by Naden and I read it.

It’s also about the problem with romantic ideals but in this case it’s more humorous.

There is a reference to an Oxford M.A. Professor Li pointed out that there are no B.A.s at Oxford and so if one graduates one does so with an M.A.

People kept commenting as if the speaker is married to the person she is referring to. I pointed out that there is nothing to indicate that she's married to him. If he were her husband he wouldn’t be knocking on her door at the end of the poem.

The professor had thought there might be an indication of danger for the speaker by the exclamation point at the end of the poem. Those of us that spoke up agreed that it meant the speaker is excited that this man is knocking.

We started looking at the preface to Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. 

Of the first line, “The artist is the creator of beautiful things” I said that it depends on what is meant by beauty. The professor said that if beauty is contentious then the opening fits.

Of the second line, “To reveal art and conceal the artist is the artist is art's aim” I suggested that for art to be creative it must not be autobiographical.

Professor Li mentioned Henry James's idea of the difference between showing and telling although I don’t think she said what he thinks the difference is. I think it implies that showing is better than telling.

Of the third line, “The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things", I said that it implies that critics are not artists since they do not create the beautiful things that they interpret. The professor seemed to disagree.

I told Professor Li about my essay topic of "artist as outlaw" and she said, “Charming!” We discussed the idea that artists are destroyers and critics. It doesn’t necessarily follow however that critics are artists. I told her that artists must destroy before they can create and I recounted the story of the book burning performance art event I’d attended years ago. She acted interested to a certain degree but was looking at her phone by that time.

It was still daylight for my ride home and so I felt comfortable enough to stop and buy three bags of grapes at Loblaws. Riding was mostly problem free except for riding past the road construction site and its narrow space to get between it and the streetcar tracks.

I had a late lunch of cheese on toast.

I typed my lecture notes and forced myself to stay awake until dinner.

I had melted cheese and salsa on oven fries for dinner with a beer while watching Zorro.

This story is a direct continuation of the events of the previous story. Don Diego’s father Don Alejandro is wounded from a bullet. As Zorro he is trying to get Alejandro to safety before the soldiers close in. He reaches the secret cave that leads underground to the house of his father. He leaves Alejandro resting just inside the cave while he goes through the secret passage to his father’s house. He emerges from the secret passage just as Captain Monastario and his men arrive searching for Alejandro. Don Diego is placed under guard but his guards are Sgt Garcia and a couple of others under his command and Don Diego easily gets them drunk. The sergeant sings a song called, “Here’s to a Soldier of the King” (by Hazel George) and while everyone is drinking and singing Don Diego changes back to Zorro. Back in the cave he finds his father gone. Alejandro has used what little strength he has to stagger out of the cave but then collapses in a field just as the soldiers find him. Captain Monastario decides to spear him like a wild boar but Zorro arrives and challenges the captain. They charge each other on horseback with spears until Monastario is knocked off. Then Zorro takes Alejandro on his horse and they escape. As the soldiers pursue him he suddenly sees more soldiers ahead of him and tries to think how to escape. But the soldiers ahead turn out to be the governor's men escorting Don Nacho back from his meeting with the governor. Zorro asks Don Nacho to care for Don Alejandro. Monastario arrives but the governor’s soldiers won’t arrest Alejandro. Monastario's men pursue Zorro but his horse jumps an impossible chasm and Zorro escapes. Monastario comes back to Don Diego's house to hear the drunken sergeant continuing his song with an added verse that insults his Commander. When caught, the sergeant lies that he was singing about a previous commander that he had back in Spain.

Pokey People

            On Tuesday morning I finished memorizing “Des vents des pets des poums” (Farting Up a Storm) by Serge Gainsbourg.

            I continued to type my lecture notes.

            I took an early siesta at 10:00 because I had to work in the afternoon and I didn’t want to doze off while posing. When I got up I had time to do the dishes and have lunch before leaving.

            A lot of the snow from our little November storm had melted but there was still enough, especially on the side streets to make one have to concentrate. I hit a slippery patch as I dipped under the railroad bridge but I managed to not wipe out.

            I worked for Diane Pugen in the Fine Arts department. When I arrived in the room there were some other students using the studio, each with their own projects. A pretty and very small and skinny young woman in a big wheelchair was working at a table with her mobility assistance golden retriever lying under the table. When Diane arrived I saw that she is walking with a cane now but she kept it against the wall while she walked around teaching, although sometimes she would hold onto things. She had to tell the young woman with the dog that she had to leave. The dog took to Diane right away and came over to lick her hand for quite a while.

I started with two-minute poses and Diane announced while I was working that I'm one of the best models at the college. Then Diane wanted to use me to teach the students some anatomy. I lifted a skeleton onto the stage for her and then helped her up beside me so she could poke my body with her pen while pointing parts out. I like Diane and so I didn’t say anything. She’s infamous for her touching. Maybe she has a depth perception problem.

I did five-minute poses for the rest of the class and during breaks I typed my lecture notes on my laptop.

When I finished my last twenty-minute set it was 18:02 and I started packing up. Diane reminded me that we go until 18:10. I told her that after my five-minute break there would be three minutes left but if she wanted I could do a three-minute pose. She looked disappointed but said, “It’s okay”. She is probably able to get most other models to just skip their break and pose until ten after.

As I started for home I headed south on McCaul, which is the worst street to ride on when it’s snowy. South of Dundas there is parking on both sides and streetcar tracks in the middle with very little space between the cars and the tracks, especially in the snow. I turned right on Renfrew to avoid wiping out but that street had barely been cleared of snow and I had to ride on the wrong side where the smoothest path was. Fortunately there were no cars coming. I turned left on John to get to Queen but John wasn’t much better. The way home along Queen wasn’t too bad except for where construction pushed me very close to the tracks and it was slippery in that area too. I had considered stopping at Loblaws for grapes but decided I’d rather just get home and be warm as soon as possible.

I finished typing my lecture notes.

I had my last steak, with a potato and gravy for dinner while watching Zorro.

In this story Elena and Dona Luisa are still in jail. Don Diego’s father organizes a meeting of the other dons to rise up against Captain Monastario and his soldiers so as to rescue the Torres women. But Don Diego warns them that they would be slaughtered. They will not listen and so Don Diego plans to go to the fort as Zorro and to taunt Monastario's men into chasing him so they will not be there when the dons try to rescue the ladies. Meanwhile on of Monastario’s men has been listening in on the meeting of the dons and warns the captain of the plan. Monastario plans an ambush of the dons and so when Zorro comes he is wise to the ruse and tells half the men to follow a certain distance but then to double back. When Zorro sees this he realizes that his plan did not work and figures that an ambush is planned. He arrives back at the fort to warn the dons before they rush in but his father hears the warning too late as he is already inside. While trying to escape over the wall he is shot. Zorro once again defeats Monastario in a sword fight and escapes over the wall to save his father.

Trick or Treaty

            On Monday morning I memorized half of “Des vents des pets des poums” (Farting Up a Storm) by Serge Gainsbourg. I think he’s playing with an expression in French similar to the English “farting around” as in "doing nothing”. So it would be like talking about someone that is farting around but having them really farting.

            I re-read another chapter or so of the Picture of Dorian Gray. I have another seventy pages to go.

            I took an early siesta before leaving for school. I rode through the first major snowfall of the season and the earliest major November snowfall that I could remember. It wasn’t every slippery on the way downtown. There was another class ahead of ours. Sometimes there’s a class and sometimes there isn’t. When there is a class it's the same one with the professor that looks about ninety. I think it might be a criminology class.

            I sat in the hall and read some more of The Picture of Dorian Gray.  Oscar Wilde speaks of Théophile Gautier a lot and in this chapter quotes two poems from a book by him called Emaux et Camées. One quote is a line from a poem about the severed hand of the famous poet-murderer Lacenaire. Lacenaire is one of the four main characters in my favourite movie, Les Enfants du Paradis”. The other poem quotes three verses about Venice. I translated one verse:

“Balanced on a scale chromatic

Her breasts dripping pearl beads

Venus of the Adriatic

Rises, a pale pink, from the sea”

            I told Professor White that Yale Belanger, the author of our textbook, uses the French pronunciation of his name as in “Belanzyay”. It’s been starting to annoy me the way he and Safia have been sounding the “R” at the end.

            He said he was happy to learn that his hometown in upstate New York would be getting a lot more snow than Toronto. He told us that he was surprised that he wasn’t wearing Birkenstocks today because this was just a light peppering as far as he was concerned.

            In addition to the essay we have to hand in next week we have a reflection paper to hand in on December 2. We have to compare two different documents that he will present to us next week so we have two weeks to write the essay.

            Our lecture was about treaties but he focused on treaties in the United States while this course is supposed to be about Canadian Indigenous studies.

            Wampum belts marked the beginnings of agreements. The language of a wampum treaty is composed of symbols. They hold words and are a type of writing. They are powerful metaphors.

            He showed us the same slide with the images of various wampum belts that he’s shown us two weeks before.

            In the top left was the Dish With One Spoon treaty wampum belt, the first of which was made in the 12^th Century, before European contact. The most well known of Dish With One Spoon Treaties is the one between the Anishinaabe and the Haudenosaunee in 1701 to share the territory between the mouth of the St Lawrence and the Great Lakes. I wonder if the sale of Toronto by the Mississauga is a breach of that treaty or if the deal somehow included that treaty in its wording.

            The top middle belt in the slide is the Hiawatha treaty that marks the formation of the Haudenosaunee confederation. In the middle, represented by a pine tree are the Onondaga. White pine needles grow in clusters of five. On the far right are the Mohawk and on the far left are the Seneca. On the inside right are the Oneida and on the inside left are the Cayuga. The stories say the belt was made in 900 AD.

            The Two-Row belt was at first between the Mohawk and the Dutch. The “V”s in the middle stand for peace forever.

            The Canandaigua Treaty of 1794 shows the thirteen colonies plus the guardians of the eastern and western gate, that is the Mohawk and the Seneca. George Washington commissioned it.

            The Haudenosaunee like to have Quakers at treaty negotiations with colonists because they are neutral.

            He said again that it blows him away that Canada continues to negotiate treaties.

            There was a complaint that Indigenous warriors were rendered useless by European style education.

            He asked us how many of us thought we could survive if we were suddenly alone in the woods for three days. I don’t think anyone raised their hands. He referenced the show Survivor and asked what the players try to secure first. Someone said water. He said he hadn't thought of that but he was thinking of shelter and fire. He told us that leaves are good insulation.

            He talked of right of title for land. Sometimes when one buys land they are only buying a limited depth of the area below the surface. I looked into this later and apparently the owner retains mineral and mining rights beneath their property but certain resources like gold and silver belong to the crown.

            The government can take your land if they need it through eminent domain but the owner would be compensated according to the market value of the property.

            Right of occupancy is different from ownership. Professor White owns his house in upstate New York. Owners can do what they want, he said, but that’s not entirely true.

            Treaties are examples of sovereignty. Citizens cannot negotiate treaties. Canada and the United States have treaties.

            Natives saw treaties as being between two nations that secured goods and guarantees in exchange for land. The Canandaigua treaty dictates that every year the United States government must provide $4500 worth of muslin cloth to the Six Nations. Treaty making ended in the United States.

            Treaties were broken by the building of dams.

            The keystone pipeline leaked 1.7 million litres in North Dakota a few days ago.

            He asked if any of us read the contracts online before clicking “I agree”. No one does.

            He brought up “OK Boomer” and said he was safe because he’s a Gen Xer. I thought he fought in the Korean War. How could he be of Generation X? Maybe he just meant that he’d been stationed in Korea when he was in the marines.

            If everyone is a little unhappy after a treaty negotiation it’s been successful.

            He said that people on social media were referring to the Native people that recently participated in a Niagara Peninsula annual deer cull as “barbarians”. They also called them sub-humans and drunks and called for their extermination.

            In Canasatego’s speech at the 1744 Treaty of Lancaster he suggested that Indigenous people are the older brothers of the colonists. The colonists considered themselves the parents. Over a hundred years before the Dutch had come in a ship with gifts. He said his people were so pleased with them that they tied their ship to the bushes. Liking them better later thy tied their ship to the trees. Liked them even better after a little longer they tied their ship to a rock. Finally they liked them so much they tied their ship to a mountain.

            The covenant chain: Dutch to English to US to Canada.

            He mentions a silver chain for its symbolism as when the treaty members come back together they polish it.

            Words have consequences. Look at Don Cherry.

            Difference between written and spoken word. While someone is speaking one can also read their tone. Speakers can also correct themselves.

            It is a myth that indigenous people did not own land. They had territories.

            With wampum treaties each person would remember a segment and get the wampum that represented that part.

            Wampum was never money although it was traded for.

            If one was unhappy with how the treaty had been handled one might paint it red or black and throw it at the other side's feet. Or one might break an arrow.

            If you bind five arrows together they can't be broken. The US dollar shows an eagle holding thirteen bound arrows.

            In the 1820s the Cherokee were forcibly removed from their native territory. President Jackson fought for this move. He should have been impeached.

            The Royal Proclamation 1760 moved all Indians west of the Appellations.

            In 1830 the line became the Mississippi.

            The final stage was Oklahoma, which became known as Indian Territory. But in 1907 Oklahoma was opened up for Irish immigrants to settle.

            Marshall trilogy is set of United States Supreme Court decisions affirming the legal and political standing of Indian nations.

            Johnson versus M’intosh in 1823 held that private citizens could not purchase land from Native Americans.

            The Cherokee Nation versus Georgia held that the Cherokee was the ward and the United States the guardian. The Cherokee won in court. They had their own written word. They were Christian, educated, with some doctors and lawyers and yet they were still considered uncivilized.

            Worcester versus Georgia held that the federal government was the sole authority to deal with Indian nations.

            The big plant based economy at the time was tobacco.

            In constitutional law, congress makes laws, the judicial branch interprets them and the executive branch enforces them.

            He said he didn't know whether Trump sees himself as a king or a dictator.

            Bush was the first president to use executive power to overrule congress. 

            The Northwest Ordinance in 1787 created the next set of states. Britain ceded the area south of the Great Lakes.

            The founding of the US army.

            In 1887 Dawes decided Indians have too much land.

            In the 60s someone asked how many treaties with white people have the Indians broken. The answer was none. How many treaties have white people kept? The answer is none.

            In Canada the Indian Act is supposed to give you a headache. Protection towards assimilation.

            He said the difference between Canada and the United States in regard to treaties is that Canada says we’re going to do this anyway so you might as well sign while the United States puts a gun to your head and tells you to sign.

            Near the end the treaties in the United States became more declarative. Leaving the reservation could be seen as an act of war.

            Professor White mentioned the TV series Hell on Wheels.

            The Black Hills land grant has accumulated to $1.6 billion. The Lakota are the poorest nation in the United States but they refuse to touch the money because what they want are the Black Hills.

            Eight women and two men came to our tutorial. Safia was late.

            Safia said that our assignment is too complex.

            Safia asked Nicole how the Caribbean had been. Nicole said that it was great for her heart condition because there is no air conditioning outside of the resorts.

            Safia agreed that we should be learning about treaties in Canada more so than in the United States.

            In the Nanfan Treaty of 1701 the Haudnosaunee granted the King of England a large portion of land that is now the Midwest and southern Ontario.

            In 1760 the treaty of Oswegwatchie the seven nations of Canada that had allied themselves with the French were assured they could keep their land and remain Catholic in exchange for remaining neutral for the rest of the war.

            The Murray Treaty of 1760 brought the Huron under British protection. They were granted freedom of custom and religion and exempted from taxation and military service. They were essentially given everything that the French had given them.

            The Royal Proclamation of 1763 established the western boundary

The Robinson Superior and Robinson Huron Treaties of 1850 gave money and fishing and hunting rights in exchange for land in Northern Ontario.

In 1869 the Hudson’s Bay Company sold Rupert’s Land to Canada at the request of the British even though the US was offering more. This led to the Metis Rebellion and the formation of Manitoba.

Starting in 1871 were the numbered treaties.

The Indian Act was passed in 1876 controlling every aspect of the lives of Indigenous Canadians. Chretien presented a white paper about trashing the Indian Act but Native people submitted a red paper to counter it. The Indian Act was the only way to hold the government accountable. Wearing Indigenaity is part of the Indian Act.

Residential schools were designed to train working class servants.

Bill C-31 to amend the Indian Act passed into law in 1985. It addressed the gender discrimination of the Indian Act and to restore status to those that had been enfranchised because of that discrimination. The purpose is to conform the Indian Act to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

6(1) status people are those that can pass their status to their children.

6(2) have status but cannot pass status to children unless their partner also has status.

Indian men marry white women and the white women get full status and their children are born with full status.

While C-31 protects people from losing status by gender discrimination, there is an excruciating amount of red tape and travel expenses for those that have lost their status to gain it back. There is a rift between members of communities.

Nicole is Wendat. She says they are matriarchal. The Ojibwa are not matriarchal and so I guess the Wendat share more with the Haudenosaunee than their language base.

            Nicole says people in the Caribbean are bleaching their skin.

            A student announced that Don Cherry had been fired and that “Good riddance” was trending. She said she was at work at a store when someone asked a minority colleague where their poppy was. She wasn’t wearing a poppy either and yet the person zeros in on the minority.

            It was treacherous and slippery riding my bike home through the snow. I would have stopped to buy some grapes at Loblaws but I just wanted to get home from the wet and cold.

            I had my last drumstick for lunch.

            I worked on typing my lecture notes.

            I mopped up the melted snow from my bike and my neighbour Benji told me that the donut shop downstairs doesn’t have heat right now because they were unprepared for an early winter.

            I grilled three striploin steaks and had one for dinner with a potato and gravy while watching Zorro. In this story Dona Luisa and Elena Torres are arrested by Captain Monastario as a way to try to force them to sign a letter saying Don Nacho is a traitor. They refuse and so they remain in jail. Zorro arrives to rescue them but he is overpowered way too easily by the soldiers and when Monastario unmasks him it is Elena’s boyfriend Benito. Monastario is about to hang him when the real Zorro arrives to rescue Benito. The Torres women remain in jail though.

           

Against the Grain

            On Sunday morning I started memorizing “Des vents des pets des poums” (Farting Up a Storm) by Serge Gainsbourg. I had to make some adjustments in the translation because the final syllable of every line has to rhyme with “boom”.

            I read a chapter of The Picture of Dorian Gray. I have a week and a half before I have to hand in my Aesthetic and Decadent Movements essay and I’ve barely started it. There's not getting around re-reading the book though since it’s one of the subjects of my paper, along with Baudelaire.

            I tried to read more of the book but dozed off on the couch.

            I had cheese on toast for lunch.

            I tried to take a siesta and couldn’t sleep but it seemed to refresh me nonetheless.

            I was able to read some more after getting up.

            I did my exercises in the afternoon while watching a few more minutes of the Naked City episode “The Sandman”, which was an incomplete download without the audio. The dockworker that killed the cop finds out his brother ratted on him and he is attacking him when the undercover cop intervenes and they start to fight.

            I made it past the halfway point in re-reading The Picture of Dorian Gray. There’s a reference to an unnamed book that becomes Dorian’s Bible of decadence. I did some research and found out that it’s À rebours (Against the Grain) by Karl-Jolis Huysmans. I downloaded the original French novel and an English translation.

            I melted a tablespoon of garlic butter in a casserole dish and added the rest of the spiral pasta and sauce I’d made the night before. I put cheese on top and baked it in the over. I had it for dinner with a beer while watching Zorro.

            In this story Don Nacho Torres has left the mission and is on his way to tell the governor about the tyrannical rule of Captain Monastario over Los Angeles, but before leaving he stops at his home to see his wife and daughter. Monastario anticipates this and goes to surround the hacienda. But Don Diego and Bernardo get there first and warn Torres. When Monastario arrives he searches the house but also tries to court Torres’s daughter Elena. Diego and Bernardo help Torres avoid capture by distracting the soldiers. He also distracts Monastario by pretending to court Elena as he sings a song called “Elena”. He gets the comical Sergeant Garcia drunk in the wine cellar. He arranges for Monastario to “accidentally” get knocked out by a falling flowerpot. Then Torres puts on Monastario’s uniform and leaves in the captain’s carriage with Dona Luisa and Elena. Just as the soldiers discover the ruse Don Diego changes to Zorro and arrives in time to help Torres escape. When Monastario gains consciousness he finds Don Diego and Bernardo bound and gagged in the wine cellar, pretending that Zorro tied them up. 

           

Unpacking Oscar

            On Saturday morning I posted "Par hazard et pas rasé" (Unshaven and by Chance) by Serge Gainsbourg on my Christian’s Translations blog and on Facebook. The next song by Gainsbourg I’m going to learn is “Des vents des pets des poums” (Farts Blowing a Typhoon) about a guy standing around farting while he’s being stood up by a date.

            I worked on my Aesthetic and Decadent Movements essay.

            I went to No Frills where I bought four bags of grapes, a half pint of raspberries. A pack of three striploin steaks, mouthwash, a box miniwheats, and four containers of Greek yogourt. The cashier told the customer before me to “Have a good one” but she didn’t say it to me.

            I’ve noticed that in front of the apartment building at the southwest corner of King and Jameson there are signs on ach side of the building that read: “Private Property. Do Not Feed the Pigeons. You Will Be Prosecuted!” I wonder what the actual charge would be. Would it really mention pigeons or would it be a kind of “dumping on private property” charge?

            I tried to work on my essay before but as with the day before I felt too sleepy to generate ideas. I was able to stay awake however while reading chapter six of The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King. He wrote about living in New Zealand for a year when he was only legally allowed to b there for two months. When an official called him he said he would try to help him stay but when he asked questions and heard he was Indian he was told they don’t grant visas to Indians. He’d thought that he’d meant he was from India. When he found out King was an American Indian he asked, “You mean like cowboys and Indians?” He didn’t get to stay but went to Australia for two years. When he returned to the States in the late 60s he started going to college in California. He was part of his first demonstration when he helped occupy Alcatraz Island.

            I had cheese on toast for lunch and then took a siesta.

            When I got up I had the energy to work on my essay.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while watching another seven minutes of the unintentionally silent Naked City episode called “The Sandman”. Even though I exercise for twenty minutes I couldn’t watch more because some of my exercises have me faced away from the screen. As far as I could tell, one of the detectives was posing as a worker on the docks to get information about the murder of the cop. The worker that actually killed the cop gets mad and punches him.

            I worked on my essay but I needed to do research. I had made a claim that Oscar Wilde looks for ugliness in accepted beauty and so I looked in The Picture of Dorian Gray for an example. I read the first two chapters out loud but couldn’t find proof of my statement.

            I made pasta sauce from a bag of frozen chopped tomatoes, another of frozen chopped green peppers, some tomato paste and garlic powder. I boiled the last of my spiral pasta and had half the pasta and sauce with a beer for dinner while watching the fourth episode of Zorro.

            In this story Monastario’s new plan to capture Torres is to create a false threat of an Indian attack and to put the mission under military rule. He has his men surround and occupy the mission and prevent any food or water to be brought to Torres. Zorro tries to bring him food bought he is discovered and almost captured. Plan B is that as Don Diego he plants the rumour of a ghost story of a mad monk that haunts the mission. The story spreads amongst the soldiers. That night his servant Bernardo poses as the ghost. H uses a sling to throw rocks at the mission bell to cause it to ring with no one pulling the rope. He howls, laughs and rattles chains. Bernardo is supposed to be mute. How much noise can he actually make with his voice? Then from the trees Bernardo and Zorro begin shooting arrows at the soldiers. They think it’s an Indian attack and they run away. Torres can finally eat and drink again.

            I re-read another chapter of The Picture of Dorian Gray before bed.

Bullwhip

On Friday morning I worked out the chords to "Par hazard et pas rasé" (By Hazard and Unrazored) by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through it in French. But when I tried singing it in English a lot of my translation didn’t fit the music and so I had to rework my adaptation. I changed the title to “Unshaven and by Chance”.

That morning I tried to work on my Indigenous Studies essay but I was sleepy and kept nodding. I forced myself to not go to bed until after lunch because I didn't want to throw my cycle off but I didn’t get much work done. I had a chicken drumstick and some yogourt with honey for lunch.

After a siesta I was able to tackle my essay. I just gathered some ideas about how people are named after the places with which they interact.

I did some exercises in the afternoon and watched the first nine minutes of a Naked City episode entitled “The Sandman”. The download was incomplete and so there was no audio. The video was less choppy this time and so I could somewhat follow the story. What seems to have happened is that a guy on the waterfront is carrying a barrel. A cop stops to question him. He seems to be telling the cop about how he used to be a boxer. I’m guessing that his fighting nickname might have been “The Sandman” because of his ability to knock his opponents out. When the cop’s guard is down the guy slugs him, knocks him into the water and he drowns. The guy goes home to a room where he lives with someone that seems to be his older brother. His brother is in bed and apparently sleeping. The guy takes a wad of money and hides it in a suitcase and then he goes to the bathroom. His brother gets up and gets the money out of the suitcase. The guy comes out of the bathroom and they have a long serious talk. In the next scene the cop’s body is fished out of the river and detectives are investigating.

I continued to work on my Indigenous Studies essay.

I made beef gravy from some drippings I had in the fridge. I had a potato, two drumsticks and gravy for dinner while watching episode three of Zorro.

In this story Torres continues to avoid capture by taking refuge in the cathedral at the mission. The mission has an orange grove and uses indigenous people to do the farming. One of these is half Spanish and he goes to Captain Monastario to sell him the information about Torres’s whereabouts. The captain goes with his men to the mission at the same time as Don Diego arrives. By the rules of sanctuary the church can shelter someone for 40 days. Since Monastario is afraid of the consequences from the king of Spain and the pope of breaking the laws of sanctuary he devises a plant to torture the mission Natives until Torres gives himself up. They are being whipped and forced to perform the useless heavy labour of moving large rocks from place to place when Torres gives himself up. Don Diego finally has a chance to change to Zorro and he attacks the soldiers with his own whip. The Natives escape and then Zorro and Monastario have a prolonged and very unlikely bullwhip battle on horseback until of course Zorro wins and sends Monastario packing.

Eugenia Paul

            On Thursday morning shortly after I started my yoga at 5:05 it started to snow for the first time since the spring. It was really coming down for a while but it was heavy and wet and so it didn’t stay on the ground. The trees and the tops of the cars and other metal surfaces were still snowy for a couple of hours after it stopped.

I worked out most of the chords for "Par hazard et pas rasé" (By Hazard and Unrazored) by Serge Gainsbourg.

I finished all my reading for my Aesthetic and Decadent Movements course.

I’ve decided not to work on my bedroom and kitchen floor cleaning projects until after I've turned my last essay in on November 20 because I can’t spare the hour.

I rode down to Freshco. They had several bins of different kinds of Ontario apples in the entryway but no bags. I went inside and told the manager. I got a bag from the produce section, went past the checkout and back outside where I picked some Courtland apples. Later the manager thanked me for letting him know about the absence of bags. I bought three bags of red grapes, two half pints of blueberries, two packs of extra old white cheddar that were on sale, a container of yogourt, a jar of honey and a pack of toilet paper. They were selling two differently sized packs of the same toilet paper for $8. At first I almost took the smaller one until I saw the bigger.

On my way home I realized that I’d forgotten once again to buy shaving gel. It would be embarrassing to go back to Freshco so I headed down to No Frills. While I was there I also bought a bag of black grapes. The cashier saw my bag with the toilet paper in it and asked if I’d paid for it. The price for the grapes and the shaving gel was $8.27. At first I gave the cashier a $20 but then I realized that I had a $5 and two Toonies, so I took the $20 back and gave her $9. She looked at it and said the price was $11.75. I looked at the screen and it clearly showed that it was $8.25. She had rung up the $20 and then got confused, thinking that the change that I would have gotten from $20 was what I owed.

I had a chicken drumstick and some yogourt for lunch.

I read chapter five of Thomas King’s The Inconvenient Indian. This is mostly about the residential schools in both the United States and Canada. He reveals that he was also put into a residential school in the States for a couple of years as a young teen because he was disobedient at public school. The mortality rate at some residential schools was 50%. Imagine how long a public school would last if half the students had a tendency to die.

I read chapter five of Yale Belanger’s Ways of Knowing. It seems to be a coincidence but the numbered chapters of both books have been on the same issues lately. Belanger talks more about the Indian Act and Indian Affairs and the book is specifically about Canadian indigenous people. King’s book deals with both the United States and Canada.

I did my exercises in the afternoon while listening to a Naked City episode called “The Rebirth”. Only the audio had downloaded and it was choppy so I couldn’t make out most of it. An old cleaning woman has robbed a bank and improved the life of her and her cats but she gets caught in the end.

I wrote some stream of consciousness notes for my Indigenous Studies essay.

I had a potato, two drumsticks and the last of my gravy while watching episode two of Zorro. This show has one of the worst theme songs I’ve ever heard.

            In this story Don Diego reveals to his servant Bernardo the secret passage that leads from his bedroom in his father’s house to a cavern leading to a box canyon where he keeps his black stallion Tornado. He says his grandfather used it but his father does not know about it. If his father grew up in that house it is unlikely that he wouldn’t have found a secret passage. No kid leaves a centimetre unexplored of any house where they were raised. There is a reward posted for Zorro, dead or alive. Captain Monastario tests men for their swordsmanship to find out if they are Zorro. It’s sort of a violent reversal of the trying on of the glass slipper in Cinderella. A man named Benito is captured who cannot account for his whereabouts on the night that Zorro rescued Torres. Trying to save Benito a boy says that he saw him with Elena Torres. This would be a scandal for Elena because she is of a noble class and Benito is not and so Benito denies it, thus incriminating himself. Monastario takes him to Elena and she says that Benito was with her but Monastario does not believe it and decides to test Benito’s swordsmanship. Benito can barely defend himself and is being lightly wounded by the time Zorro arrives. He and Monastario have their second duel and eventually Zorro breaks Monastario’s sword with his own and escapes again. Monastario and his men ride after him but Zorro’s horse jumps a chasm that theirs can’t.

            Elena was played by Eugenia Paul, which became a regular role for her. She started out as a ballet dancer but in films she go mostly B movies. She married rich and retired from acting in 1960. She was married to Bob Strauss for 52 years until she died. The legend was that she descends from Genghis Khan on her father’s side the Romany people on her mother’s side. 

            I quickly threw down some notes for my Aesthetic and Decadence Movements essay. I thought I’d show how the breaking of rules are the foundation of creativity and that all artists must be outlaws, using Charles Baudelaire and Oscar Wilde as examples.