Monday, January 7 2019

10:00 I get started with update our address list, an annual task. It's a little sad, but some of the married couples in last January's list are now just a widow/widower - but that sort of thing is a fact of life when you are old and most of your friends are also old - yikes !!!

11:00 Lois and I go for a short walk around the local football field. There are no children around - the local schools' spring terms start today. Four couples are playing doubles on the tennis court. We come home and relax with a cup of coffee on the sofa.

Lois and I go for a short walk on the local football field.

Once again we don’t see any other couples going for a walk on the field - are Lois and I a little strange, we ask ourselves?

The problem with lack of exercise starts in schools and universities, we believe - not enough encouragement is given to mixed-sex couples and groups to go for relaxing walks on campuses. A recent campaign initiated by Onion News has unfortunately been widely judged to have been ineffective, which is a bit of a shame to put it mildly.

12:00 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed to take a gigantic afternoon nap. I get up at 3 pm and jump up on my fitness bike. I cycle my usual 6 miles and afterwards I do a little light weight training.

Meanwhile, Lois sits down with the computer. She is her sect's local secretary and has to write letters or emails to all the visiting preachers who will be giving the sermon one or other Sunday during  the next 3 months. She asks them what their topic is for the sect's "bible hour", whether they are bringing wife and/or family, and whether they have special dietary needs. The hardest thing, she says, is finding out what the preachers’ addresses or email addresses are: the sect’s local leadership is not specially efficient in storing this kind of information, and Lois sometimes has trouble getting hold of them. Good grief, what madness !!!!

16:00 I hurry down the stairs and we relax with a cup of tea in the living room. We listen to the radio for a while, an interesting program revolving around an entertaining and amusing interview with Julie Newmar, who played Catwoman in the Adam West Batman television series in the 1960’s. The program host is the charming Andrew McGibbon.

It would be impossible to guess from Julie's performance in the Batman series how talented she was in many fields - dancer, fashion designer, pianist, linguist. She was trained as a ballet dancer, but was too tall at 6 ft to dance ballet professionally - male dancers do not want their female partners to tower over them, it seems. What madness!

"Seven and a half" of Julie’s ancestors (one of them being pregnant) arrived in America in the year 1620 on the Mayflower, but she also has some Swedish blood. Her grandmother was a Swede, and Julie can speak Swedish.

Because of her Swedish skills  and her tall blonde appearance, she was chosen for a role in the play Marriage-go-Round (1958) with Charles Boyer and Claudette Colbert) and in the later film of the same name (1961).

The story is centred on a college in Florida, where Professor Paul Delville (James Mason) and his wife Content (Susan Hayward), the college dean of female students, are expecting some visitors from Sweden: a former colleague, Professor Sveg (Everett Glass) and his daughter Katrin (Julie Newmar).

In fact, Katrin is alone when she turns up. The Delvilles are amazed that Katrin, whom they remember as a clumsy teenager, has grown into a statuesque, blonde sex bomb. Their astonishment is only the beginning, because Katrin boldly announces that she wants Paul to give her a baby that is bound to have both brains and beauty.

Paul is confused by Katrin's reluctance to take no for an answer. She makes him a present of a nude statuette of herself; she sunbathes on his patio in just a skimpy towel, and then pops up for a training session with the college’s men’s swimming team in a provocative swimsuit.

My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!

Julie Newmar (left) with Susan Hayward, and the naked statuette of herself,

which she insists on giving to Susan's husband (James Mason)

But the idea for the play was actually inspired by a true story, of a proposal the dancer Isadora Duncan apparently made to the playwright George Bernard Shaw that the couple should have a child together because "with your brain and my body, think what such a child could achieve".

The quote turned into a gift for humorists of course, because it was just as likely that the child would have Duncan's brain and Shaw's beauty, but I’m going to let that one slide.

In the 1960’s, with her looks, height, and dance skills, Julie was a natural choice for Catwoman in the Adam West Batman TV series. She modified Catwoman's costume heself to make it more sexy – and also registered the patents for the costumes and for the Catwoman dolls, which today are still giving her a decent income, it seems.

What a woman!

The Batman show’s writers teased the audience constantly with hints that Batman and Catwoman might get together, but all that came to nothing in the story, which Julie says was the best approach: far better that the audience imagine the couple's potential sexual gymnastics, than to watch them.

But it is not so well known that on paper it was actually Robin, the Boy Wonder who arguably prevented the couple from hooking up.

In one scene in a house late at night, Catwoman slides down the banisters and tries to seduce Batman.

"You find yourself so hard to resist, Catwoman!"

“Batman, let's throw caution to the wind. I mean, after all, we are 2 adult human beings, and we are both interested in the same thing - happiness. I can give you more happiness than anyone in the world. "

"How do you propose to do that?"

“By being your partner in life? I mean, it's you and me against the world, right? "

"But what about Robin?"

"Ooh - we'll have killed him. Painlessly. Oh gosh, he is a bit of a drill - all that holy this and holy that. "

"That does it, Catwoman. Just when you were on the road to righteousness, you took a left fork down Psychopathy Boulevard. I see that I erred in my judgment. ”

Catwoman (Julie Newmar) and Batman (Adam West) share a romantic moment:

but it was not their destiny to hook up.

And it was Robin the Boy Wonder who at the last minute came between them.

What madness !!!!

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching some television, two programmes that are about dieting and fitness. Good greif, it must be New Year - no doubt about that!

The fist one is an entertaining program, but not very informative, with a lot of gimmicks designed to amuse us, rather than inform us. The main goal of the approach seems to be to encourage us at all costs not to change channels.

The programme makers have decided to include as many types of diet as possible without giving us the full details and, for example, without looking at the guinea-pigs’ long-term results - everyone knows that diets based on a single food, for example, such as the so-called cabbage diet and potato diet cannot be sustained over the longer term.

The second program is much more informative - its purpose is simple to prove or disprove all the most common concepts and ideas people have about dieting and exercise.

The program does not hesitate to show us some unpleasant sights: closeups of mouths devouring some titbit, athlete Paula Radcliffe crapping in her pants beside the road during a long distance race and the bleeding nipples on men in running  marathons - yuk, thos are sights we could have done without, to put it mildly. But hats off to the program for its honesty, we have to say.

The programmers don't hesitate

to show us some unpleasant sights

Lois and I learn a lot from the program. It turns out that gyms are massively unhealthy places - warm and sweaty people using warm and sweaty machines and equipment, and hobnobbing in hot and sweaty bathrooms - the perfect environment for bacteria to multiply, and all the customers immediately start infecting each other with a lot of unpleasant diseases.

hot sweaty machines and equipment in gyms - yuk!

Also, gyms are a hotbed of accidents - people straining themselves and developing back problems. Also, accidents that occur, for instance when people try to take selfies to upload to Instagram etc. while they are training on machines. Hundreds of accidents happen, it seems, when they fall off the machine while trying to get a good photo.

My goodness, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

a typical gym accident: gyms are dangerous places,

no doubt about that

22:00 We go to bed. I read about 10 pages of my current bedtime book before I fall asleep - zzzzzzzzz !!!!!

Danish translation

10:00 Jeg går i gang med at opdatere vores adresseliste, en årlig opgave. Det er lidt trist, men nogle af de ægtepar i sidste januars liste er nu enke – men det slags er en kendgserning i livet, når man er gammel og de fleste af ens venner også er gamle – yikes!!!

11:00 Lois og jeg går en kort tur rundt omkring på den lokale fodboldbane. Der er ingen børn i området–  de lokale skolers forårssemestre starter i dag. Fire par er i gang med at spille doubles på tennisbanen. Vi kommer hjem og slapper af med en kop kaffe i sofaen.

Lois og jeg går en kort tur på den lokale fodboldbane.

Endnu engang ser vi ingen andre par i gang med at gå en tur på fodboldbanen – er Lois og jeg lidt mærkelige, spørger vi os?

Problemet med manglen på motion starter i skoler og universiteter, tror vi – ikke nok opmuntringer bliver givet til blandet-køn par og grupper til at gå nogle afslappende ture på campusser. En nylig kampagne indledt af Onion News er desværre vidt bedømt som at have været ineffektiv, hvilket er lidt af en skam, for at sige mildt.

12:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg står op kl 15 og hopper op på min kondicykel. Jeg cykler mine sædvanlige 6 miles og bagefter gør jeg lidt let vægttræning.

I mellemtiden sætter Lois sig med computeren. Hun er sin sekts sektretær og skal skrive breve eller emails til alle de besøgende prædikere, der skal give prædikenen i de næste 3 måneder. Hun spørge dem hvad deres emne er for sektens ”bibeltime”, om de medbringer kone og/eller familie, og om de har specielle kostbehov. Det sværeste, siger hun, er at finde ud af hvad prædikernes adresser eller emailadresser er: sektens lokale ledelse er ikke ret effektive i at lagre disse slags oplysninger, og Lois har nogle gange svært ved at få fat på dem. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

16:00 Jeg skynder mig ned ad trappen og vi slapper af med en kop te i stuen. Vi lytter lidt til radio, et interessant program, der kredser om et interessant interview med Julie Newmar, der spillede Catwoman i Adam Wests Batman tv-serie i 1960’erne. Programmets vært er den charmerende Andrew McGibbon.

Det ville være umuligt at gætte fra Julies præstationer i Batman-serien hvor dygtig hun var i mange felter – danser, modedesigner, pianist, lingvist. Hun blev uddannet som balletdanser, men var for høj på 6 fods til at danse ballet professionelt – mandlige dansere vil ikke have at deres kvindelige partnere ser ned på dem, lader det til. Sikke et vanvid!

”Syv og en halv” af hendes forfædre (en af dem var gravid) ankom til Amerika i 1620 på Mayflower, men hun har også lidt svensk blod. Hendes mormor var svensker, og Julie kan tale svensk.

På grund af sit svensk og sit udseende som en høj blondine, blev hun valgt til en rolle i teaterstykket Marriage-go-Round (1958) med Charles Boyer og Claudette Colbert) og i den senere film med samme navn (1961).

På et college i Florida er professor Paul Delville (James Mason) og hans kone Content (Susan Hayward), som er collegets dekan til kvindelige studerende, forventede nogle besøgende fra Sverige. De folk, de forventer, er en tidligere kollega, professor Sveg (Everett Glass) og hans datter Katrin (Julie Newmar).

Faktisk dukker Katrin op alene. Delvilles er forbløffet over, at Katrin, som de husker som en klodset teenager, er vokset til en statuesk, blond sexbombe. Deres forbløffelse er kun begyndelsen, fordi Katrin meddeler dristigt, at hun vil have Paul til at give hende en baby, der helt sikkert kommer til at have både hjerne og skønhed.

Paul er forvirret af Katrins uvillighed til at tage nej for et svar. Hun giver ham en nøgen statuette af sig selv, tager solbad i sit hus i bare et lille håndklæde, og dukker så op til en træningsession af kollegets mandlige svømmehold i en provokerende badedragt.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!

Julie Newmar (til venstre) sammen med Susan Hayward,

og den nøgne statuette af sig selv, som hun vil forære til Susans mand (James Mason)

Men idéen for teaterstykket blev faktisk inspireret af en historie om et forslag, som danseren Isadora Duncan tilsyneladende lavede til dramatikeren George Bernard Shaw, at parret skulle have et barn, fordi "med din hjerne og min krop, tænk på, hvad sådan et barn kunne opnå”.

Citationen blev til en gave til humorister selvfølgelig, fordi det var lige så sandsynligt, at barnet vill have Duncans hjerne og Shaws skønhed, men det springer jeg over.

I 1960’erne, med sit udseeende, højde, og dansefærdigheder, var Julie et naturligt valg for Catwoman i Adam Wests Batman-tvserie. Hun modificerede Catwomans kostume for at gøre den mere sexet – også registrerede patenterne til kostumen og til Catwoman-dukker, hvilket den dag i dag giver hende en hæderlig indkomst, lader det til.

Sikke en kvinde!

Batman-showets forfattere drillede publikummet konstant med antydninger at Batman og Catwoman skulle komme sammen, men alt det der blev ikke til noget i historien, hvilket Julie siger var den bedste tilgang:  langt bedre, at publikummet forestiller sig parrets lagengymnastik, en at se på den.

Men det er ikke så vidt kendt, at det var faktisk Robin, the Boy Wonder, der til sidst forhindrede parret i at komme sammen.

I den ene scene i et hus sent på aftenen glider Catwoman ned ad trappegelænerne og prøver at forføre Batman.

”I find you so hard to resist, Catwoman!”

“Batman, let’s throw caution to the wind. I mean, after all, we are 2 adult human beings, and we’re both interested in the same thing – happiness. I can give you more happiness than anyone in the world.”

“How do you propose to do that?”

“By being your partner in life? I mean, it’s you and me against the world, right?”

“But what about Robin?”

“Ooh – we’ll have him killed. Painlessly. Oh gosh, he is a bit of a bore – all that holy this and holy that.”

“That does it, Catwoman. Just when I thought you were on the road to righteousness, you take a left  fork down Psychopathy Boulevard. I see that I erred in my judgment.”

Catwoman (Julie Newmar) og Batman(Adam West) deler et romantisk øjeblik:

men det var ikke deres væbne at komme sammen.

Og det var Robin the Boy Wonder, der i sidst øjeblik kom mellem dem.

Sikke et vanvid!!!!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn, to programmer der handler om slankekur og fitness. Du godeste, det må være nytår – ingen tvivl om det!

Et underholdende program, med ikke ret meget informativt, med en masse gimmicks designede til at underholde os, snarere, end at informere os. Tilgangens hovedsagelige mål er at opfordre os ikke for enhver pris til at skifte kanaler.

Programmagerne har besluttet at inkludere så mange slankekure som muligt uden at give os de fulde detaljer og for eksempel uden at se på forsøgspersoners resultater i det lange løb – alle ved, at slankekure der kredser om  en enkelt fødevare for eksempel, såsom de såkaldte kåldiæt og kartoffeldiæt, ikke kan blive fulgt i længden.

Det 2. program er meget mere informativt – dets formål er simpeltehan at bevise eller modbevise alle de mest almindelige koncepter og idéer, som folk har om slankekure og motion.

Programmet kvier sig ikke ved at vise os nogle ubehagelige syn: closeups af munde i færd med at fortære et eller andet godbid, atleten Paula Radcliffe i færd med at skide i bukserne ved siden af vejen under et langedistanceløb, og de blødende brystvorter på mænd i gang med at løbe en maraton – yuk, dem kunne vi have klare os uden, for at sige mildt. Men ros til programmet for dets ærlighed, det må vi nok sige.

programmagerne kvier sig ikke ved

at vise os nogle ubehagelige syn

Lois og jeg lærer en masse fra programmet. Det viser sig at motionscentrer er massivt usundt – varme og svedig folk, der bruger varme og svedige maskiner og udstyr, og pusler rundt i varme og svedige badeværeser – det perfekte miljø til, at bakterier former sig, og at alle kunder går med det samme i gang med at smitte hinanden med en masse ubehagelige sygdomme.

varme svedige maskiner og udstyr i motionscentrer – yuk !

Også er motionscentrer et arnested for ulykker – mennesker der anstrænger sig for meget og udvikler rygproblemer. Også ulykker der opstår, når folk prøver at tage selfies af sig selv til at lægge op på Instagram osv, mens de er i gang ved at træne. Hundredvis af uykker foregår, lader det til, når de falder ned fra maskinen.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

en typisk motionscenterulykke: centrerner er farlige steder,

ingen tvivl om det

22:00 Vi går i seng. Jeg læser ca 10 sider ad min nuværende sengetidbog, før jeg glider over i søvnene – zzzzzzzzz!!!!!