1960 1 of 2
FRIDAY, JANUARY 1. Got home from Times Square at 1 am, and settled down with a book until 3, but Laird and Noel failed to return, so I made their bed for them and my own at 3 am. Awake to hear sucking sounds early (10:30) in the morning and awake at 11:30 (officially) and we talk about the lively night, and up at last at 12:30. They wash and I dress and eat toasted waffles and dash off to see "Ben-Hur" but I don't get in, and to take revenge, I end up at the three shows of "Suddenly, Last Summer," "Journey to the Center of the Earth," and "On the Beach," getting out, eye-weary, at 9:45, after being shocked at the gayness and cannibalism of the first, the primeval monsters and good effects of the second, and the finality and possibilities in the third. Home for a chili supper and then out to the 316 until 4, being talked to only by oldest and hideousest. Sneak in to find my light left on and I collapse from two Seven and sevens at 4:45.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 2. Up at 12:30 and don't even eat breakfast, but dress and grab cab to meet Bill at 1 to buy tickets for "Heartbreak House." Breakfast then and to the three-hour play, which was chipper and witty. Think I lose my gloves, and try to get tickets to the Met, both unsuccessful, and I walk to Roxy for "Lil Abner," on spur of moment, and out at 11 to finish off chili and get to bed at 12:30, hoping to catch up on a BIT of sleep.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 3. Laird wakes me at 11 with praises of "Miracle Worker" and I make too-crisp bacon and dappled eggs for the three of us. Settle down to shower and dress and finally take off downtown for "Leave it to Jane," which was quite enjoyable, in an amateur way. Supper at Monte's, and cab to Grand Central to see Noel off on a jammed train. Back here to finish reading "Cleopatra" by Rider Haggard, while Laird phones friends and bounces out. I get insomnia and record a bit of me and finally get to sleep at 1:15.
MONDAY, JANUARY 4. Up quite tired and breakfast out as I say goodbye to Laird. Late for work and polish up remains of Michigan and talk to Barbara. Out quickly and home for toasted bacon sandwiches for supper and then I walk down to see "Ben Hur," buying a book, even, in preparation for enjoying the great movie. Lasts until 12:05, some sort of record and I tear home to watch a TV program that isn't even there. But thanks to that I get to bed at 12:45, "early" for a change.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 5. Feel almost hangover-like in the AM and waste much time so I'm late again. Inquired about 39-year-old Miss Stanley I interviewed yesterday and referred to 705 group, but they didn't know anything. ARMA came in for some new runs, and Irwin shoves Jerry Berg off on me to keep him busy. Al has dozens of questions and Jerry hounds me and then ARMA fails and DMI1 looms as the villain. All ends hectically at 5:15 and I leave relieved. Home to work for two hours on the correspondence courses from the Army, then nibble on cake and celery while I read the Sunday Times and spend a couple hours senselessly looking at the New Yorker cartoon album. Then get to work catching up on this, which had gotten a week and a half behind, and suddenly it was 11 pm. I have sore throat and am coming down with a cold, so I decide to retire early and give my body half a chance.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6. Up fairly refreshed and take shower and dash to work, getting there on time. Mozelle questions, I correct Barbara and vice versa, I have it out with Al about one subroutine, Jerry and I tear apart the Jordan method, I get Don McInnes to say the Datatron program he uses is off, and Cathy calls me a tyrant and the day is over and my throat is sore. Pick up a quart of milk and eat supper and find that TV is completely out. Come and get out at 6:45 for Cinema 16, where I see "The City," "The Rose Window," "The Room," "Have I Told You Lately that I Love You," "Dwightiana," "Dance Chromatic," "Handwritten," "Cuckoo Waltz," and "Bridges-Go-Round" in a jammed auditorium. Out at 9 and back here to munch toast and fruit cocktail, and clean out drawers and write a long detailed letter to Larry and a short one to Mom, and the evening's gone. To bed by 12:30.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 7. Up groggy and dress and have eggless cereal and get to work just a bit late. Tackle letter to Schwartz, phone call from Don, cards from the keypunchers, and coding from everyone. Answer Mozelle's quandary and come up with some brilliant thoughts for Jerry Berg about matrix inversion. Out at 5:15 and straight home to read TV Guide and New Yorker cartoons; put stamps in to soak and chicken pot pie in to bake at 7:30. Eat and start on stamps and Bill calls and we roar about his five-limbed stick figures. Finish off stamps and count dozens of items (I have 140 countries and 53 of tradeables), and feel very hungry and look up data on presidents and listen to tapes and suddenly it's 11:30 and I haven't done anything. Kind of a lost evening, though it's the relaxed kind I'd always wanted. To bed at just about 12.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 8. Take junk out to laundry and eat breakfast out (because I have no eggs OR clean pots) and consequently get to work late. Almost entire day taken up with the trouble I have with DMI1, and end up by saying I'll barge in on Dick Goppelt, which Lucy Lee talks me out of. Home to mope around a bit, after getting groceries and finding out supermarket is open till 9 on Thursday and Friday, and getting laundry. Read bit of New Yorker and take off for Thalia on bus at 7:30 to see "Devil Strikes at Night" and "Pather Panchali" and see Joe Schpiz, who says he'll be at Columbia forever. Get back at 12:30 and eat a bit of supper and get to bed at 12:40. Set alarm for 9, so I can get out and stand in line for standing room at the Met for "Tristan and Isolde."
SATURDAY, JANUARY 9. Alarm rings, but I lay there till 10:30, feeling ill, all in all. Up for breakfast of waffles and Bill calls to say he's coming over later. Call TV man at 12 and do dishes and fix place up and he comes at 1:30, charges $14 for fixing 3 tubes in TV and takes off with my record player. Write letters and sweep floor and Bill gets in to pay back loan of $100. He leaves at 5, and I eat lunch and write letters to Helen and Larry, and then from 7 to 10 I just lie on sofa, feeling awful. At 10:30 I watch "Closing Door" on Play of the Week, which is over at 12:30. Write two days of this, then pile blankets on bed and prepare to sweat the night out at 1 am.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 10. Toss and turn quite a bit, but no odd dreams, and I'm up at 1 to dash out for Sunday Times and read it all before eating breakfast at 2:30. Tackle Dick Sand and a bit of typing, and break it up with watching Hedda Hopper and Ed Sullivan and Alfred Hitchcock on TV. Have a late supper and mope into bed about 11:30. Weird dream about little boy robbing house, and I'm up to shower and get to work.
MONDAY, JANUARY 11. Long talk with Lucy about DMI, and fiddle some with University of Michigan, have scary lunch talking about "Suddenly, Last Summer," and back to find at 3 that I have 1½ hours of time in Poughkeepsie on the 709 this week. Send Al for cards and tell Cathy to tell me what to do. Last bit spent talking to Gus and Tom Mandey trying to find out how to use the 709. Call Barbara and she says I should go myself, and getting me ready lasts till 6, when I'm home to watch last bit of Greta Garbo in "Camille" and eat supper and study the 709 a bit, finding the lovely, useful pseudo-op SQZ. Now if they only have it included in the system in Pough and in the Time Life Building. Listen to records and record some, and at 11:15 I wash dishes and fill this out and get to bed early, preparing to get up VERY early for the trip and job at Poughkeepsie, but get to bed and toss and turn waiting for sleep to come.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 12. Alarm rings at 6 and I get up and pack and clean place up, then got a cab at 7:15, and get down to the office to rummage into the ARMA job and grab everything from U of Mich and stuff it into suitcase and briefcase and get out at 8:30 to Grand Central Station to buy ticket to Poughkeepsie, grab a roll and a cup of hot chocolate and board train at 9. Roll through Hudson Valley, ice-clogged and cold, and get to Poughkeepsie at 11:30. Grab a cab to the IBM Education Building on South Road, and stand around trying to ask Bob Bahret questions till I go to lunch at 1. Talk with Frank Gagliano and Tom Mandey at lunch, and then up to copy notes down and postpone times time after time. Call Barbara and get told that I do NO research on 709, and just get it done by Feb. 1. Back up to talk with Tom till 6, and then ride with him to Pokeepsie Motor Hotel, where I sign into room 71, and go to Howard Johnson's for supper and heavy dessert. Back at 9 and very tired, after coming, to bed. Have odd dream about a huge church that presents the crucifixion on a huge rock on its stage, and a monstrous flight of stairs up which boys crawl, ala Music Hall, and sex, too.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13. Wake up at 6 and lie in a coma until 9, then snooze till 10, when I'm up to shower and dress and get over to Education Building through glorious snow by cab. Get down to cafeteria and talk with Carol Garrity (nee Halek) and Harry Methven. Then at 1:30 up to work and get some decks ready and finally get on for what I thought would be 15 minutes and it turns out to be 5. Learn such things as the high speed printer, and get some fancy results on the test of ZINP and ZOUT. Call Cathy and get lots of results on that at 5 and get card decks fixed up and finally at 6:30 run a test on ZOUT and get a grinding halt in the wrong place. Set up ZINP and fiddle with decks until 8, then grab cab into town and walk 3 or 4 blocks and see nothing, grab another cab back to HJ's and eat supper and then back to room, determined to read, but end up watching all of Jack Paar, to my disgust and complete non-edification. At 1 I finally fall asleep.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 14. Up early (at 8:30) and quick shower and pack and out at 10 to HJ's for breakfast and check out at 11. Cab to Education Building for last time and get call from Lou DeFonzo and for next two hours there're calls back and forth trying to get people and time to Time-Life 709, but finally at 1 the whole thing falls through. Get on machine, through finagling, at 2, run for ten minutes and race for high-speed printer, get things finished, and packed, and call a cab and fly to station, too early. Grab a hamburg and then the train and through snow-filled, ice-packed valley. Fight for good seats near window, and enjoy winter sunset and get in Grand Central at 5 and have no luck at all getting a cab, and when I do, it takes about half an hour to go 20 blocks up Madison. Out and dump stuff in drawers and get back to apartment to unpack and look at all the mail which has gathered for me, and get engrossed in the article about "Alcohol" in the New Yorker, and get to bed fairly early, at 11:30.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 15. To work to a fun-filled two hours explaining to Al and Cathy exactly what I did and what they can do on the 709. Just get out of that and Barbara requests an hour lecture on the same subject---I hope I didn't hurt her feelings when I didn't include her in the general discussion. Then, out to lunch and then Don MacInnes and Jack O'Connell come in and Irwin and I and the two of them have a lengthy talk about DMI1, matrices, and their wish to have the problem finished, no matter how it's done, and I (stupidly?) insist that it be continued using DMI1. Out of meeting to answer various questions of Cathy and Al, fill out job cards for my days, talk to Barbara, and mystically, my work day's over. Home to read all about ancient civilization in the EB and have some corn on the cob for supper. Don't really know what occupies my attention, but suddenly it's late, and I get to bed. Must try to find out where my time goes so mysteriously, and how I may spend it better.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 16. Whole day spent going through EB. Up at 10 and eat breakfast at 11:30 and read EB and listen to recordings. OH, YES, most of last night was spent looking through the binary deck Don gave me and checking it against his WRITTEN matrix. That took about FOUR hours, so THAT'S where my time goes. I look into DMI, fruitlessly, too. Today, I read EB, and eat lunch at 5 and keep reading in Nineveh and all in Macabre Reader, including Semantics and Shorthand. That's up to 10:30, and I take shower to get rid of junk in hair after haircut. Dress and fix place up fairly decently, and dress to go to Outside Inn. Stop at House of Hamburg for supper and get down to pay my $1.50 minimum. Julian's there and we talk and I eye cuties in crowd and Julian talks more and it's 3 and he invites me to his place. We talk about me and IBM and his $30 million trust fund in stocks and my play and he'll produce it and he insists I stay and I want to go, but stay and keep on drinking whiskey and finally I lay back and feel ill and run to bathroom and debate about vomiting, I do, bitterly, finally, and stagger in to lie down, only to be chased home: it's 8:30 am!!
SUNDAY, JANUARY 17. I stagger to elevator to grab cab and buy cabby matches and myself a paper on 72nd St., and give $1 for a 60¢ fare and I clump up the stairs to bed. Up feeling awful at 3 pm and fix decent breakfast of toast and cheese omelet and waffles. Don't feel like doing anything, so I don't even dress but catch movie of "Heidi" and look at "Dirigible" and lay down for an hour while room moves about and up at 8 for Ed Sullivan (who looked JUST like Jackie Gleason) and continue through "Arrowsmith" fairly good, until 11, and I get to bed at 11:30.
MONDAY, JANUARY 18. Up at 7:30 to shower and feeling fairly good, drop suit off and eat breakfast in Shadow Box. In at 9:15 and talk to Cathy and then get small corrections from Barbara and Jack, and talk to Irvin about DMI1 and GEL1 and out to lunch. Mozelle feels talky in afternoon, so we talk about her going to Poughkeepsie for a year, and that keeps us till 5:30, when I dash out for groceries. Back at 6:15 and put things away and listen to music and cook scrumptious lamb chops and beans and radishes and delicious bread until 9. Wash socks and wash dishes and read Diamonds and such in EB, and write this, and "Presto" it's 11 and I haven't really done anything tonight, either. Put TV on at 11:15 and see movie of "Captain's Paradise," quite funny. To bed at 1:15.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 19. Try to get Univ of Mich straightened out at work, which I do, to an extent. Start talking to Anita and Jerry about everything at work, and they shock me by saying Irwin's leaving and Lucille's leaving, both for good, and three Senior programmers are going for 6 months. That leaves Anita and me limp. Out at 6 and home at 6:30. Write letters to the Army, the Telephone Company, Jack Viet and Laird, and watch incredibly sexy "Dobie Gillis" cast and March of Dimes non-spectacular and the Alcoa presents "The Leopard Magic Box" and "Keep Talking" for lack of anything else to do---which is awful to say. To bed fairly early, at 11:30.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20. At work we decide to go up to Poughkeepsie for two days and I have a large argument with Al about debugging procedures. Home to catch the end of "Camille" and then eat supper and bus down to the Phoenix to poke fun at Bill and see "Peer Gynt." It lasts till 11:30 and I bus home at 12:15.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 21. Up at 6:30 and pack and shower and eat breakfast out and pick up two shirts and grab cab to office, where cockroach drops off me or suitcase and I toss things together and everyone jokes about Cathy and me leaving together and we grab cab for Grand Central. Ticket seller asks if we want married rates (no) and we sit on train, while I talk a blue streak and there's not a single lapse of conversation all the way up from 9:30 to 11:45. Grab cab to Poughkeepsie Inn and get rooms and luggage settled and out for the labor of getting her a handbag for one that she broke in the cab. Get another cab to work, sign up for time with Bob, get a cubicle to work in, and get down to eat at 1. Back to get on machine at 2:30 for 15 minutes and work to get things ready. We punch cards and run tests and fool with card-to-tape and printer and work till 6:30, when we catch cab to the Inn for supper and back for an 8 pm run. We work and work and get things set and finally it's 12:10 and we call cab back and fall asleep next to each other (room-wise) at 12:50.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 22. Up at 10 and I shower and we pack and are down to breakfast at 10:45. Cathy has sausages, which I tell her about later, and we catch cab to work at 11:30. Set up many runs and we get on for a half hour at 2:30, after grabbing snack at 1. Work till 4, for another run, then get everything set and puzzle about deck which won't go through Modify and Load, and we decide to take 6:25 train out. 6:25 comes and we're standing on chilly platform joking over bags. At 6:45 we're off, but find no seats, so stand in line for the diner and finally order fish and have pleasant, though rocking, meal right into NYC at 8:15. We get cab and she leaves me off at office while I empty bag and then grab cab home. I talk to Bill for awhile and watch TV and start on "Exodus" by Leon Uris. Get to bed about 1 am, after seeing very sad production of "Letter from an Unknown Woman," with Joan Fontaine, while talking with Bill.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 23. Up at 10 and fix apartment up a bit and eat breakfast at noon. Get record player back for $18 and listen to it and get back to "Exodus" again for a long stint. Change off with New Yorker during supper, at 5, start on letters, and watch "The Lullaby" a riotous comedy on Play of the Week, over at 12:30. I dress and fix myself up and walk down to Outside Inn, after hamburgers and wandering in the neighborhood. From 2 to 3 I'm looked at by nothing nice and I leave, buy paper, get back to read it and work the Puns and Anagrams puzzle (WHEN will I EVER learn??) and get to bed at 5 am!
SUNDAY, JANUARY 24. Up at 11 to a good rousing come, then breakfast, more "Exodus" until 2, and play on TV, then to Met for Greek statues and meet Bill and Tom, who comes here for coffee and ice cream and TV, and Tom cleans out some of his stuff, and they go and I watch "Takarazuka" on TV and come twice over a cock book left by Bill with cute South African with a wide-whale jockstrap. Finish "Exodus"---quite a book---and get to bed at 1:30.
MONDAY, JANUARY 25. Up feeling not bad for only six hours sleep. Shower and eat and in at 9 precise. Talk to Barbara about results and Tom about ML error and answer questions and do nothing myself except make many jokes with Mozelle. Out at 5 sharp and pick up shirts and suit, relay them to apartment, then out for groceries, which I put away and get out at 6:15 for the Winter Antiques Show at the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington. See Julian and other antiques ala country fair, but nothing impressive---and nothing good under $30. Out at 7:30 and get down to "Tiger Bay" for a cute short on a talking French poodle with the "Len Lye walk" and a captivating Hayley Mills. Out at 10 and back to read a bit of "Dr. Zhivago" until 11:30, and then it hits: I grab a pair of scissors and whack off most of my pubic hair, then painfully shave rest of abdomen. Cut myself on scrotum and knick myself with razor, so that I'm sore and bleeding, but I come up and look in mirrors and turn lights on and put tights on and come three times and get to bed, very exhausted, and feeling nude, at 2:30.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 26. Feel hungry since I had NO supper last night except 3/4 of a chocolate cake and an apple. Watch workmen on building across the street, then at 9 take laundry out and eat ham and eggs and toast and toasted Danish for sumptuous breakfast and get to work at 9:30. Try debugging ZFTM, which is very complex, and get involved in an interviewing discussion, etc, and get little done at 5. Supper of soup and juice at Barry's before a competitive computer meeting (Honeywell 800) at IBM and stupid questions and I get in at 9:30. Finish cake and start on sex, feeling bristly as hair feels unshaven. Study strange attachment of pelvic arch, scrotum and penis and study lights and shadows in tights and shorts. Come twice, not as much as last night, but then I'm tired and haven't had supper for two nights. Read "Zhivago" for about an hour and go to bed---room in complete mess, but it's 11:30.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27. Up tired as hangover from 4 hour night before. To work late and groan at dishes in sink. Meeting at work reveals Lucy and Irwin and Jean Wagner are leaving, letting the chain of command be Ted (Manager), Fred (Coordinator), Barbara (Senior Analyst); Administration, Clerical and Operators, then the Analysts (Dick, Paul and Don), then the job coordinator, Anita Rodelitz, my "next in line" and then "we three" senior programmers: Don (not here); Marta (going for six months) and me. Very interesting. Get runs set for Poughkeepsie and decide to leave tomorrow at 12, with Mozelle and her brother. Home at 5:45 and come once in sexy red slit tights, then finish rolls and butter and take off for Cinema 16, after watching "Curse of Pompeii," to see Louise Brooks, a magnificently simple and beautiful star in a Pabst "Diary of a Lost Girl" which is second only to Dreyer in Card's opinion (Director of Eastman House). Home by 10 to feel stubby belly and look at me in jockstrap and overalls and then grease up cylinder and sponge with KY, stick in into the back of a chair on my bed, and pretend at browning. It works not too well, and house is in shambles. Eat supper between 10:30 and 11:30 and read New Yorker, then slave through thousands of vile, curdled milk and cheese and cereal smelling dishes, fix place up just a bit and then write this before falling into bed, much too late, at 1:45 am.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 28. Up at regular time to throw stuff into suitcase and cab to work a little after 9 (10 minutes to hail cab on teeming Second Ave). Work till 12 and order lunch and take off with George Duckett and Mozelle and Cathy at 1 for Poughkeepsie. Eat lunch on way and cut through fog-shrouded, fairyland woodlands to get to IBM at 4:15. Get on machine for half an hour at 5 and stand for an hour before low-speed printer as high speed one is on the blink. Get many compilations ready for card to tape and compile at 6:30, and until 10 we look through for mistakes. Quit and take cab to Poughkeepsie Inn for Cathy's clock, but it's not there and we get to the Motor Hotel to find they have no rooms. Eat at Howard Johnson's (finishing our steaks just before midnight) and then get two rooms at Dorchester Arms, way out from IBM. Hers is huge and mine is tiny and I get to bed at 1 am.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 29. Wake at 9 and get up at 9:30. Shower and dress and get over to Cathy's at 10 for breakfast of rolls and coffee and juice. Pay bill and call cab for IBM and get to work again, me getting compilations ready for test runs, and Cathy debugging. We go on at 2:30 for 15 minutes and some things work well and others don't at all. Get printing done and call cab for train at 4:50. Get stuck in traffic and at 5:30 we race down track only to find that the 5:25 isn't in yet. I buy tickets and finally it comes in and we find two seats. A man who I figure is Stan Reed comes and stands alongside and talks about Barbara Cope and the machines of IBM: SSEC (non-stored programs, card spools, 1948-52), the CPC (1950), the 701 (1952-56), the first stored program machine, the 702, then the 705, the 704, the 709 (forgot about the 650 before the 705), and the transistor ones, the 7080, 7090, 7070 (in detail), and the huge Stretch, Super-Stretch and the visions of Harvest. Dazed, we get off train at 8 and I'm off to office and race home for "The Four of Us" and eat supper and read TV Guide and New Yorker and finally get to bed at 1 am.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 30. Wake at 9 and loaf till 10:30. Up for breakfast and tackle "Dr. Zhivago," reading straight through lunch and finishing at 7:30. Not really a fantastic book, as the reviews would indicate. Watch "Farmer's Daughter" and then read TV Guide and nothing much more and watch "The Stranger" and "Miss Julie" by Strindberg on Play of the Week, and then go to bed after reading all the Sunday Times at 1:30.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 31. Up at 11:30 to watch Camera Three and "Street Scene" and at 12 (with lunch) for "Head of a King" and at 1 for "Casablanca" and at 3:15 for "Cavalleria Rusticana" and at 4:30 for Stravinsky conducting his "Firebird," Eileen Farrell and Leonard Bernstein, then at 7:30-9:30 for "Fabulous Fifties," great TV show, with supper, and with letters during "Unfinished Dance," and get to bed, tired, at 2. Write all this on Feb. 10, which goes against my grain.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1. Nothing of special note, all this written on Feb. 13, saw the movie "Pride and Prejudice," and somewhere here saw "La Plume de Ma Tante."
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2. Worked and went to the library for records. Back to eat and listen to them and come and moan for NOT being able to write. About here I tell myself I MUST write at LEAST one page a day, but I cannot. Movie: "Man in the White Suit," and somewhere here saw "At the Drop of a Hat."
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3. Home to watch "The Tempest" on TV and read Kerouac's "The Subterraneans," a longly suffering novel. Get haircut.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4. I eat breakfast out and get to the office late, at 8:50. Jam stuff into bag and dash down to Grand Central. Ride up, talking about her sisters, and we grab cab to Pokeepsie Motor Hotel, which is full. Get into cubicle and find Irwin and Stan Reed and Roger Khang in the cafeteria line, so we get down to talk to them. Eat and arrange tour for next day. Then get on machine about three for one-half hour, then off and work around and on again about 8 pm, after pushing off Mockdonald Monitor, for 20 minutes, then put stuff down and grab cab to Poughkeepsie Inn for supper until 11:30, then up to room and I read Tribune and Times and Colliers and watch "Beast with Five Fingers" and get to sleep.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5. Watch 30 grueling minutes of Channel 13's "Daywatch" and have breakfast in PI and get to work. Look over things and get out at 1:40 for plant tour. Get there at 2 and see 705 data processing center, look at the core wirings, board wirings, an automatic resistor placer, soldering baths, and an elaborate transistor producing assembly-line on semi- and completely-microscopic scale. Get through at 4:30, when we should have been on machine. Get over at 5 and Jay Jannici jokingly says we "can't come anymore," since we cancelled our contract for a 709, which was the only thing that let us use theirs. We get on for 15 minutes and get everything printed in a flourish and absolutely JAM everything into card carrier and briefcase and be very rude to Dan Tannenburg and grab cab to station and get right on train. Eat supper on it and watch NYC coming up from dining car. I leave stuff off at work and get back, intending to go barring, but I get to bed at midnight.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6. One of my typical Saturdays. Up late, dawdle until I fix breakfast, then dawdle. Watch last of "Juno and the Paycock" on TV, and again determine to go out, but it's no good. Out for paper and finish it and get to bed at 3. Spend hours going through theater STUBS book, getting the biggest and smallest and the number and off-Broadway, too. Gosh, I'm nuts.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 7. Up late and quite literally read the yellow pages of the phonebook before I throw it out. Quite a job, but rather informative. That's about it. Sweep floors, first time in a month---it's about time.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8. Barbara finds her program is all correct. I interview Bill Becker and like him, though Anita and Don don't. Barbara likes him too, and when I leave, Ted's talking to him. They hire him. Home to look over dozens of copies of Life and throw them out. Watch "Tiger at the Gates," by Jean Giraudoux on POTW, sponsored by Esso, which had hilariously short commercials. By then it's time to go to bed, but I can't sleep, and toss and turn and play tapes and get to sleep finally at 2.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9. Work to get ready for the next trip, which turns out to be to Baltimore. Schedule time and reserve flight seats and get all set. To library again. Also, gave ARMA to Jack O'Connell, and hopefully I won't have any worries about that any more. Home to look through dozens of old copies of New Yorker, taking out good stories and tearing off covers. Watch the Westminster Dog Show, to see a fluffy Peke win the "Best of Show," and then shave and go down to the Outside Inn for a 7&7 and a look at the people, some of them not bad, but they aren't the ones that look at me. I leave at 1 and get back to bed.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10. Get out early to Custom Shop and order four shirts and get to work at 9:45. Get everything set for Baltimore and talk to Jack and Barbara and at 5 he reveals we might have trouble with finding or even getting into the Martin Company. Out of work and home and fiddle and scrub floor in bathroom. Down to Cinema 16 to see "Siefritz on Protoplasm" and medical films and stupid thing on reproduction. Back to get to bed fairly early.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11. Up at 7, dress and get to work at 8:15, to find that my key doesn't fit door. Get building fellow to open door and stuff things into briefcase and grab cab to LaGuardia. Cathy is waiting for me and we get tickets and eat breakfast and get back down on plane. Fly down in an hour through fluffy gray clouds and land at 10:50. Ride in limo to Emerson Hotel and check in, have lunch, and get 1 pm station wagon to Marietta. Ride in back seat and get motion sick, but it's quite a trip. Into main gate and get pass to Engineering lobby. We walk there and get personal escort to our area and find the 709 and the printers and the peripheral equipment and our desks and we get on for 20 minutes, but have trouble with PS. We look at results, but can't find anything wrong, since I didn't get dump. Get new runs set up, eat supper and get on at 9. Print results and leave at 11:15, after getting guard to unlock the lobby so we can get our coats. Call cab to hotel and get there at 12, to get up to bed and fall asleep, quick.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12. Up at 10 and come and call Cathy and get downstairs for breakfast and check out in time to get the 11 am limo to Martin, getting there at 12, after quite a roundabout trip. Look at ZINP and ZOUT with grim determination, and get all set to debug on machine, getting changes down pat, determined to get the two programs through. In huge suspense we get on machine at 3:15, and both of them run through. We print the output tape and get 17 cards. I check them and find them to be quite right. Cathy gets printouts and I decide we can catch the 4:50 plane. We jam stuff in bag again, and I get secretary to call a cab. Rush and roar out, leaving ID's along way, and get to cab after running down the road. Ride to Friendship Airport takes half-hour, and $8, which just about breaks us. We find no seats, but get on standby list. Buy a box lunch and get on plane, finally, to egg salad sandwiches and leaky shakes. Full moon and sparkling Manhattan greet us and we land at 6 at LaGuardia. I take cab home and put stuff away and read all the mail and watch the movie "The Stranger" until 1 am, when Frank and Cliff come in and we all take off to Bob Brown's, where we read stories and drink and look at pictures until 4:30. Home and to bed, exhausted!
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13. Up at 12 and eat breakfast and talk to Cliff until 1:30, when it possesses me to go to Met. Take cab and get left with $1.80. SRO goes and only seats left are expensive and I got only checks. I take off to Whitney Museum for talk and pictures, then up to "Bookcase" for $8 in books, many good ones. Buy groceries and back to read "New York, Places and Pleasures," and bit of Andre Gide's "Journal, Vol. 1." Eat supper at 12 and read Aldous Huxley's great novel "After Many a Summer Dies the Swan," the first half. I get to bed at 2:30, completely eye-weary.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14. Up at 12 again and breakfast and Cliff leaves and I take off for Prokofieff's Overture, Karaev's Ballet, Tchaikovsky's Concerto by Balentin Klimov, Shostakovich's Concerto by Van Cliburn and 1812 by 180 brass---TWICE, at the Moscow State Symphony at Madison Square Garden. I get home with a headache to have supper and record a bit and read papers. Watch "The Last Bridge" until 12 and stagger to bed!
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15. Talk to Barbara and Al and Cathy about corrections and joke with Mozelle about "Suddenly, Last Summer" more and more in my opinion a great movie, and then the day is over and all I've done is early resolved to get deck ready for final compilation this week and late despair of ever getting it done. Out at 5:30 and get here to record Beethoven's Overtures onto the backs of many of my tapes---recording some over and over. Leave at 8:15 to get to "Intolerance" and Mozelle at Minor Latham. Take cab and get there at 9 to reserve best seats in balcony. Stare at Chuck and huge black bear coat (no connection) and Mozelle gets in late and movie starts. Really gripping and humorous and suspenseful and masterful and dazzling. Get home at 1 to make list of 10 greatest movies I've seen and that's at the top. To bed, very weary and cursing because I was supposed to eat and wash socks and I did neither in the evening, at 1:45.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16. Up wearily to shower and take pounds of clothing to cleaners and launderers. Breakfast out and get to work late. Interview a guy who's gorgeous and pleasant, but he's just not smart and Sue and Lynn are sad. But most of all I am sad. Fill out form and whole business takes two hours. Then to work with corrections and to lunch and back to huge decks and new cards and Gio shows me how to set up cards for 026, or whatever it is, and I get to work and erroneously tell Ed Schneider how to punch cards and he does it all wrong. Work till 5:30 and talk to Fred about his coming fifth child and then with Don and Paul to a competitive computer (RCA) meeting at IBM, which is over at 7:15 and I get home at 7:45 to record Beethoven and listen to records and watch Joan Fontaine on TV and talk to Tom and Bill and wash dishes and 24 pairs of socks and listen to end of records and get to bed at 1:30---entirely TOO LATE.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17. Get ready for trip at work, taking the entire day, from 9 to 4:30, to fix up the huge deck of corrections for the final compilation. Stacks of cards overwhelm my desk and overflow onto Bob's desk. Finally at 4:30 I've finished and we go card to tape on two tapes and I leave at 6 to eat here and get to bed entirely too late. Movie: "Mata Hari."
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18: Up at 7 and don't eat breakfast in order to get to 635 to grab tapes and dash in cab to airport, getting there at 9:15. Cathy has already gotten tickets and we dash onto plane. Take off and get nice view of Manhattan in the morning mists and at 11 we're at Baltimore. Check in at Lord Baltimore and miss station wagon on the way out, so we grab a cab and get there at 3. Cathy sets up her ZINP tests and I find that we should go tape to punch to get the extra cards added. Cathy tests and gets odd stops and I fix up deck and we work steadily through until 12, when I finally get a compilation of the whole huge thing ready. Results are fantastically wrong, and I correct deck and get ready to compile again. We try it on line, but the heat increases and the power shuts off and that's the end of that. We're out at 1:30 and Mack drives us into town in truck and we eat at Waldorf cafeteria amid screaming faggots and that's the end of the day at 3:30 am.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19. Up at 12 and eat lunch in Oak Room, where I have eggs Benedict, which, surprise, contains ham! Miss ride at 2 and go to Museum (Walters) to dash through and get back to hotel to find we've missed THAT taxi, too. Ride again to plant in cab and get to work at 5. Run final compilation from scratch again, and everything looks good and by 10 Cathy finally proves that ZINP works. I check all symbols and at 1 we put on a test case. It runs and runs and writes half a tape of snaps and we decide to shut it off. Print it out and call a cab to town, getting there at 2:30. Check in to Lord Baltimore and leave bags and get down to hire cab to a "good eatery" and cabby graciously takes us to "Maria's" in Little Italy and we have honeydew and prosciutto, tasty, and I have sweetbreads and wine, very good indeed. We stay until 4, when we're chased out. Call cab and get back to hotel and I read a couple ghost stories and get to bed at 5:30 am.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20. Cathy buzzes me at 11 and we get down to check out and cab to the Greyhound station, where we have a hot dog lunch and a rolling ride to DC. Get good views of the Catholic Cathedral and the defaced dome of the Capitol. Call Mozelle and arrange to meet at National Gallery, which Cathy and I walk to and through, but no Mozelle. We eat supper and buy tickets to "The Good Soup" and one for Mozelle and dawdle at HJ's over Hot Fudges until curtain time. We stand and it's quite a funny, bawdy play. Over at 11 and Cathy is driven to airport and I take off running for the Hut. Meet Frank who invites me to a party, which I go to until 5, when I am incredibly weary and I freeze until I catch cab to Frank's and fall asleep in incredible squalor of his room.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21. Up at 3 and dress and thank Frank and take cab down to station to get luggage and check in to the Manger Annapolis. Buy paper and read it and have lunch and get ready to meet Jack at 8:30 at the Hut. We have beers and I a sandwich and we leave for Jim's place in Georgetown. Four of us spend uncomfortable time talking and listening to records and drinking liquor and we're led upstairs to tape room, where I get semi-erection and get attacked by Dalmatians, who lick with a vengeance. Getting scratched, I feel weak-kneed and Jack literally throws them off by the scruff of the neck. We leave and get to the hotel and he lays completely still while I work over him. He comes quickly and I proceed to torture and he gets up to leave. Car doesn't start and we're embarrassed, though he asks me to stay with him next time. I get back to jerk off and get to bed.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22. Up at noon to shower and hunt for the Washington Birthday sales. Nothing great and I check out and get to North Station for Braniff empty flight to NYC. Trip is in clouds and I miss most of everything. Grab cab and get to 660, paying $7 for the fare from Idlewild---never again. Get home about 5 and suddenly decide I want to see "The Flying Dutchman" and I take off for Met and buy a seat in Box 2. Being first there I grab best seat and find they switched operas on me. It's quite good, though, and I just might be persuaded to go back more, after "Madama Butterfly." Catch busses back here and toss stuff on floor and collapse into bed at 1 am.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23. Work is confused and I get little done. Back home to mail checks for telephone and mail letter for Income Tax return. Out to Cinema 16 for "Cry of Jazz," and back to incredibly messy apartment. Eat supper and to bed---coming down with a cold. Call Mom, too, because I'm too lazy to write a letter. Finish "Famous Ghost Stories" edited by Bennett Cerf.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24. Work on nothing, really, and home. About 10 I get really hopped up and steam up bathroom by filling tub. Get sheet soggy and myself sexed and with mirror and chest and tub and have just a high-old time. To bed under many blankets, but I don't really sweat, so it doesn't kill cold. That all was last night, since I watched TV from 8 to 11 tonight.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25. Find some bugs at work and find that Cathy is about through. Changes in job looked over and inserted---things coming to a climax. Call plane for a trip to Baltimore, but the fields are icy and they cancel, so I don't go. Home to watch the "Secret Life of Adolf Hitler" on TV and talk to Bill and get to bed. Listen to records on player and have good time there. Lazy days.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26. I call Harvey, to return his call and we arrange to meet for lunch at 12:45. I get interview from 11:30 to 12:30 and grab cab to be ten minutes late. Meet Jim Molten and we three go to Sardi's where I have decent minced chicken and we look at ghastly caricatures and gape at Sal Mineo's eye patch---on Sal Mineo. Back to call Jim and arrange to meet at 5:30 outside Radio City. I get another interview with Mr. Congedo, and find it hard to turn him down, so I refer him upward. Scat out at 5:30 and grab another cab and he's not there yet. We grope for words and get into lobby and gape at mirrors and get in for really awful stage show and fairly whimsical "Once More with Feeling" with a really great Kay Kendall. Out at 9 and go for supper to Jade Palace at 52nd St. and 3rd, and meet Ming and Ann and Mr. Tony and have gristly duck. Talk rather haltingly and we leave each other at 11. I stop in at Outside Inn for an awful hour, and there's no one there so I leave and get home and bed, after reading the last of the ghost stories until 4.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27. Wake up at 9 to a wrong number and doze till 12 and doze more till 2. Up for breakfast and call Jim. I read a bit and fix place up just a bit and eat supper and get out to meet Jim in Village at 8:30. We wander to the "Cock n Bull" and gape at the lovable teenagers parading past and I have awful almond coffee au lait. Out to the Roue for good hot chocolate and jazz and sit till 12, when we pass The Lion, have a drink at Main Street, meet Al and narrowly avoid Bill and we part company and I stood on line for crowded smoky Lion. Jim looks at me when he comes in and later comes over and we talk and go to Caffe Capri, nice place and I invite him here. He's shocked, I'm sure and I'm also smelly, but I get to bed with my first new person in literally months, and though it's not particularly exciting---it's a nice change. Awfully hard to get to sleep with snot-filled nose and there's NOTHING in the morning.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28. He leaves at 11 and I get out to Cinema 16 to a good program of Khajarao, Peking, and "All my Babies." Out to watch TV and talk to Bill and Jim and read "The Law" and eat supper and write about a week and a half of this and read the Sunday Times and take a---thank goodness---short time for the double acrostic. Watch "Rigoletto" on TV. Lazy and depressed and I doze for an hour and watch more TV and finally get to bed at 12:30. Getting ready for a nice long siege in Baltimore.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29. All this written on 15th. Up late and to work about 10, talk with Barbara and get everything ready and leave at noon by cab to LaGuardia to fly down to Baltimore and check into hotel and wait for limo at 4:15. It doesn't stop and I wait till 5:10, and when THAT doesn't stop, I get cab to Martin's and complain to guard about lousy service. Get walked up to 709 and get turned over to Dave. Work from 5:45 to about 8:30 getting two runs in and find Cathy put corrections in wrong. Catch cab back to town and get into Oak Room at just 9:45 and have supper with same sort of sauce as before and get out at 11. Up to look around room and through telephone book and come and get to bed in cool crisp sheets at 11:45, after leaving message to be called at 7:30.