John Considine

            On Monday morning I memorized the first verse of "Sorry Angel" by Serge Gainsbourg and made some changes to my translation. 

            I weighed 85.4 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I've been in the morning in a few weeks. 

            I sent the handout for tomorrow's presentation to my professor. 

            I weighed 84.5 kilos before lunch. 

            I took a bike ride to Bloor and Bathurst.

            I weighed 84.3 kilos at 17:00, which is the lightest I've been at that time in about a week. 

            I got an email from my professor telling me that I got the whole concept of our handouts wrong. Parisa and I were required to collaborate but we worked on entirely separate arguments. We were supposed to email the professor one handout. I spent more than an hour editing our two presentations down to a page each and I moved Parisa's point about monsters to the top of hers. I sent the revised handout to her and asked if she could agree that Victor Frankenstein represents society. If she can make changes to her points and just add that this is Victor representing society it may look more like a collaboration. 

            Parisa and I batted our handout back and forth several times and arrived at something we could agree on. This wouldn't have been as frustrating if Parisa hadn't waited until tonight to show me her part. It didn't help that I misunderstood what the professor expected from the start. Based on the other presentations I'd heard in our class, I didn't notice they were really collaborative when two students presented on the same day. Even the example that the professor sent us as a guide wasn't collaborative. It was just two different presentations on the same page. I worked before and after dinner and I sent the finished handout in to the professor at 22:00. Hopefully it's okay. 

            I had the good parts of three potatoes with gravy while watching season 5, episode 20 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            Granny has gotten a phone call from Pearl back home saying the Crowfoot are attacking Jed's property. She's gathered up all the weapons and she wants to go home and fight. Jed doesn't believe it and calls Luke Short at the general store in Bug Tussle. He says he hasn't seen any Indians. 

            Meanwhile at the Commerce Bank Jane tells Drysdale that there is a minor property dispute over Jed's land with the Crowfoot. Their chief is coming to Beverly Hills to discuss it with Jed. Drysdale doesn't want Jed and the chief to meet because knowing Jed he'd just give him all his land.

            Jane goes to pick up Chief Running Wolf and his son Little Fox at the airport. They are both wearing business suits with no Crowfoot cultural apparel and are college graduates with short hair. They are extremely well spoken. The chief is a Rhodes scholar and owns several banks as well as other businesses. She brings them to meet Drysdale and he has gone full cultural appropriation. He is wearing red-face, a feathered headdress and some pretend deerskin First Nations costume and he's banging on a drum. He calls himself Chief Straight Tongue and speaks to the chief and his son in broken English, offering them several cheap gifts instead of dirty white man's oil. 

            The chief and his son go to their hotel and Jed and Jethro meet them there. Running Wolf and Jed work out an amicable agreement although we are not told what it consists of. Meanwhile Drysdale wants to make Granny happy so she arranges for some actors to pretend to be Indians and attack the Clampett mansion. Drysdale puts blanks in Granny's shotgun and has some of the actors fall off their horses. After the battle John Wayne shows up and Granny asks him where he was when she needed him. 

            Little Fox was played by John Considine, who co-wrote the Robert Altman film, "A Wedding". He made guest appearances on a large number of TV series. He starred in the movie "Doctor Death: Seeker of Souls". He co-starred in "Buffalo Bill and the Indians", "Circle of Power", and "Endangered Species". He was a regular on three soap operas, including The Young and the Restless. 

            For the third night in a row I found no bedbugs.

March 7, 1993: My daughter wouldn't kiss me goodbye

Thirty years ago today 

            On Sunday my daughter got me up at 7:30. She didn't like what I heated up for her for breakfast but she enjoyed the toast with peanut butter and the date-nut squares. We painted some more. She wanted to take a bath but I persuaded her to go out first. We went sliding until she was tired and then we came back and played in the tub. She went to sleep at 13:45. While she was down I managed to clean up a bit and got some listing done. She got up after 17:00 and I gradually got her ready to go but we didn't leave until 19:00 or so. She wanted to take the big plastic train engine that I kept her toy soldiers in but I persuaded her to just take her toy shovel. She played with an older girl on the bus and when we crossed the park to her mother's house she pointed at lights. She wouldn't kiss me goodbye when I left.

Bernadette Withers

            On Sunday morning I blog-published "Apocalyptic Seizure of Love", which is my translation of "Love On the Beat" by Serge Gainsbourg. I listened a couple of times to his song "Sorry Angel" and tomorrow I'll start memorizing it. 

            I weighed 85 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I've been in the morning in about two weeks. 

            I read most of the rest of Peter Pan but dozed off with six pages left. 

            I weighed 85.2 kilos before lunch. That's the most I've weighed at that time in two weeks. I had a toasted slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with peanut butter and a glass of soymilk. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Bloor and Bathurst. It was quite warm out and the snowbanks from Friday night's storm are melting. It's as if winter is trying to apologize for it's violent drunkenness on Friday night by applying itself to get ready for spring. 

            Now that I'm almost finished with Peter Pan it occurred to me that I didn't see the N-word in the text this time when I was sure that it had been there when I read it seven years ago. When I looked it up though there is no reference to the N-word ever having been in the book. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos at 18:00.

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:52. 

            I finished reading "Peter Pan" and started reading "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens". This story seems to have been written before the more famous one and Peter is very different. He is part bird because all children start out as birds. Neverland is in Kensington gardens and all the fairies live there but only come out after closing time.

            I made a chili from chick peas, salsa and marinara sauce. I had it with toasted Bavarian sandwich bread and a glass of soymilk while watching season 5, episode 19 of The Beverly Hillbillies.

            Granny is lamenting the fact that one can't buy possum in any market in Beverly Hills. They are always eating possum and so one wonders where they get it. Both Jed and Granny agree that having $68 million is a curse. Just then the college student Ginny Jennings shows up again at their door. I think that previously she'd been a Sociology major but now she's in Philosophy. She and her roommates Lucy and Fran have formed a charity called N.E.E.D.Y the National Establishment for Educating Deserving Youth to keep the three of them from starving. When she asks for a donation Jed writes her a cheque for $68 million. She doesn't realize that is all of his money. When Jed tells Drysdale he starts feeling suicidal but eventually adjusts and decides to start treating Ginny and her friends like he treated the Clampetts by giving them their mansion and several expensive gifts like fur coats, gowns and a new convertible. The Clampetts head for back home but run out of gas before they are out of LA and just have enough to pull into a park. Jed is about to start clearing trees to start sharecropping when he is stopped by park Ranger Warkle and they are kicked out. Jethro walks back to the mansion to ask Ginny if he can join NEEDY. She's surprised to learn Jed gave her all of his money and when she sees Jed she gives the cheque back. The Clampetts decide the money is a curse they have to live with. 

            Lucy was played by Bernadette Withers, who started acting in films at the age of nine. She played Ginger Farrell on the TV series "Bachelor Father", Janis on "Karen", and Valerie in the movie The Trouble With Angels. She became a partner in a software company. 

            For the second night in a row I found no bedbugs.

March 6, 1993: My daughter carried several of her grandfather's garden tools out of the garage and tried to shovel snow with them

Thirty years ago today 

            On Saturday I got to Nancy's place at around 11:00 but she was still in bed. While I was waiting I finished making notes on Jack Kerouac's On the Road, and then gradually got my daughter ready. We left the house but when we went into the garage to get her toy shovel she wanted to play with all of her grandfather's long-handled tools. She started taking them out and dropping them, then kept going back for more until there was a pile of six or seven of them in the driveway. Then she tried using each one of them to shovel. After a while she got hungry and so I took her back in the house for her mother to feed her. Then I gave her a sandwich and while she was eating she let me take her away. We went to Miracle Mart where I bought some date-nut squares she liked. When we got home she ran straight to the paints. I danced with her in my arms and she went to sleep at around 19:30. I stayed up until midnight.

Henry Freulich

            On Saturday morning I worked out the chords to the second verse of "Fugue" by Boris Vian. 

            I ran through playing and singing "Apocalyptic Seizure of Love", which is my translation of "Love On the Beat" by Serge Gainsbourg. I uploaded it to Christian's Translations to prepare it for publication on the blog and should have it posted tomorrow. 

            There was a big snowstorm overnight with thunder. It's very wet snow and it's stuck to the east side of all of the vertical structures like buildings and poles. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I went to No Frills. There was lots of snow on the street but it was only about zero and the snow that had clung to the wires and trees was dropping like little bombs. I didn't wear any extra layers other than three pairs of socks because I needed to have my Kodiaks on to traverse the snowbanks. I bought five bags of red grapes, some bananas, strawberries, a pint of blueberries, deodorant, and Sunlight dish detergent. 

            I weighed 84.5 kilos before lunch. I had a slice of toasted Bavarian sandwich bread with peanut butter and almond milk. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride. I wasn't sure how far I would go, but there had been a lot of melting the day after the big storm. I saw a guy shoveling his driveway in a t-shirt. The way was mostly clear all the way to Bloor and Bathurst. I only had to leave the Bloor bike lane for half a block just before Ossington because a plough had stuffed the entrance to the bike lane with a high pile of snow. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos at 17:15, which is the heaviest I've been at that time in three weeks. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:00. 

            I read through my Frankenstein presentation a couple of times. 

            I read more of Peter Pan and there are only twenty pages left in the main story. But after that there are some other Peter Pan stories that take up about seventy pages.

            I had the rest of the lima beans with Basilica sauce and salsa that I'd made on Wednesday and had it with a slice of toasted Bavarian sandwich bread and a glass of almond milk while watching season 5, episode 18 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            Granny has decided to retire from practicing medicine because she's come down with what she says is a new illness that she has named "Granny's Complex". But the symptoms are the same as those for old age. She wants to dedicate the rest of her life to finding a cure and so she plans to take her $15 million share of Jed's money and go back to the Tennessee hills to do research. But she has decided that she can't leave until she's trained someone to take her place and so she is trying to teach medicine to Jethro and Elly May. Mr. Drysdale does not want to lose all that money from his bank. He tries to make Jane sick so Granny will have someone to treat in Beverly Hills. Drysdale asks his Doctor, Roy Clyburn to make Granny feel important and ask her for advice. Clyburn refuses because he's had too many run-ins with Granny and even witch doctors think she's a quack. But Drysdale promises Clyburn he'll get Jed to donate $8 million to the charity clinic he plans to start and so he agrees. When Clyburn goes to see Granny she makes him one of her students. But when he tells her about penicillin and that it is made from bread mold, she thinks he's practicing dark ages medicine. She decides to focus on her cure for Granny's Complex. What she concocts is a very powerful batch of her moonshine and when she drinks it she says her symptoms have disappeared. She can no longer feel her rheumatism and she's seeing twice as good as before because she is seeing double. 

            The cinematographer for this episode was Henry Freulich, who started out as a cameraman for the movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1922. He shot the films It Happened One Night, Air Hawks, Unknown Woman, Inside Detroit, and over 100 Three Stooges films. He was a combat cameraman during WWII.

            I searched for bedbugs and found none.

March 5, 1993: I bought a bottle of Ernest and Julio Gallo red wine

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday I worked for the second session of the sitting pose in room 352 at the Ontario Collage of Art. I didn't talk to the other model, Wanda. I did quite a lot of writing. I bought a bottle of Ernest and Julio Gallo red wine as well as some pizza, pasta, spring water, fruit and veggies. At home I vegged out, watched TV and did some writing. I got a lot of clutter cleaned up but the floor was still dirty from the previous weekend with my daughter.

Neko Case

            On Friday morning I worked out the chords to the first verse of "Fugue" by Boris Vian. I said that yesterday too but it depends on where one thinks the verse ends. Maybe the repetitions of "Fer fer fer ..." are like a bridge to the second verse. 

            I finished working out the chords for "Love On the Beat" by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through singing and playing it in French. Tomorrow I'll run through singing and playing my translation and if everything is fine I'll upload it to my Christian's Translations blog. 

            I weighed 84.2 kilos before breakfast. 

            I've been listening lately to Mary Chapin Carpenter's discography and it's okay but not particularly interesting from a lyrical standpoint. I felt the same way about Brandi Carlisle's discography. Carpenter has more lyrical range than Carlisle and she's more gender specific about relationships. But still there's mostly a belief in love and songs that either say, don't leave me, I'm leaving, or lets stay together, with little simple country and western style insights thrown in. The only female singer songwriter who has stood out for me over the last few discographies I've listened to is Neko Case. She's got some attitude and she's not tied down to certain tired sentiments. She uses more symbolic language and she's more skeptical about love. It's kind of country punk music and she's lived in Canada and collaborated with a lot of Canadians even though she's from the States. I also like the fact that she's been banned from the Grand Old Opry. 

            I worked on polishing my Frankenstein presentation. I made some adjustments but mostly read through it a couple of times. 

            I read some more of Peter Pan. I'm about a fifth of the way through the book. 

            I weighed 84.3 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Bloor and Bathurst. The way was a lot dryer than yesterday. There's supposed to be another storm tonight and then warm weather tomorrow and so if that occurs it will be slushy all over again. 

            I weighed 84.4 kilos at 17:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:00. 

            I read another chapter of Peter Pan. I read through my presentation again twice. Lately I've been reading it twice for every chapter of Peter Pan, but I'm making so few changes now that I decided I'd just read Peter Pan for the rest of the evening. I'll go through the presentation again a couple of times tomorrow. 

            I had a potato with lima beans and gravy while watching season 5, episode 17 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            The mayor of Bug Tussle, Amos Hogg comes to visit and the Clampetts are deeply honoured because he's the most important person they've ever entertained. He spouts a lot of sayings from famous speeches by other people, like "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself". These are things that the Clampetts have never heard and so they think he's a genius and a silver tongued speech maker. 

            Hogg is scheduled to leave on a certain day and to impress the Clampetts Mr. Drysdale says it's too bad because he would have arranged a get together between the mayor, the governor, and a few movie stars. But Hogg has decided to stay on and so Drysdale's foot is in his mouth. He confesses to Hogg in private that he can't keep that promise. Hogg confesses that Bug Tussle is broke and he needs $100,000, which would be at least a million today. Drysdale refuses to give him the money and instead tries to arrange for the party he'd promised. 

            Meanwhile Hogg is trying to ask Jed for the money but is interrupted by Jethro. Jed thinks that Hogg was going to ask to marry Granny. Then Hogg finds out that Granny has $15 million and he decides he will ask her to marry him. Drysdale is afraid of that because then the Clampetts would move to Bug Tussle and take their money from his bank. He rushes into the parlour with a cheque for $100,000 and Hogg almost immediately rushes out with it and heads home. 

            I searched for bedbugs and found another one perhaps in exactly the same place as last night, the same size and in the same bloodless condition.