Clint Howard

            On Tuesday morning I memorized the first verse of “Mesdames, mesdemoiselles, mes yeux" (Madames and Madmoiselles, My Eyes) by Serge Gainsbourg and most of the second verse. There are only three verses with no chorus and it's basically a list of twenty four adjectives detailing what is wrong with men. 

            It was warm during song practice and I had most of my windows open. 

            This was the fifth day of my fourteen day fruit fast. It's boring but not difficult. 

            I took a siesta from noon to 13:40. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Ossington and Bloor and since I was running low on tomatoes and avocados I stopped at Freshco to replenish my supply. I also got four bags of red grapes and a scotch bonnet pepper. 

            My neighbour Benji was standing outside of our building and I chatted with him for a while. He referred to the tree under which a lot of down and out immigrant people hang out at the corner of Queen and O’Hara as "The Tree of Misfortune". He said he was quoting someone that told him that. I mentioned that I'd read that his native Guyana has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Benji said murder too and everything else. He says that he got an education there under British rule but since Britain let them govern themselves the population has become illiterate. 

            Benji says that the freezer in the Popeyes downstairs is not working properly and he thinks they are cooking rotten meat. I don’t know, but I suspect that Benji is a bit prejudiced against the Bangladeshis that run the place. He doesn’t seem to like any immigrants that came to Canada after he did in the 70s. 

            I spent a couple of hours researching references in Oscar Wilde’s “The Artist As Critic”. I was determined to stay awake until dinner but I got sleepy again and took another siesta from 19:30 until 20:30. 

            I had tomatoes and avocadoes for dinner with the chopped up tip of the scotch bonnet pepper on top while watching Andy Griffith. 

            In this story there is a new, tough kid in town named Steve who has taken over Opie’s circle of friends. He’s encouraging them towards petty theft and vandalism and since Opie doesn’t want to participate he calls him Dopie and challenges him. He gets Opie to throw an apple at a street lamp and he misses. Then Steve throws a rock and breaks the lamp but when he sees the sheriff’s car coming he puts the rest of the rocks in Opie’s hands and runs with the other boys. Andy believes that Opie didn’t break the lamp but when Opie won’t say who did Andy tells him to bring the other boys to his office. Everyone but Steve comes, who says he doesn’t have to. Andy has a talk with the boys and says next time he’ll tell their parents. Later when Opie hears that the boys led by Steve have stolen tomatoes from a store he finds Steve and challenges him. The much bigger kid says, “Step across this line” and Opie does so. He says, “Knock this block of wood off my shoulder” and he does so. He says, “Step inside this circle” and he does that too. Finally Steve says he can’t fight because he’s wearing his good pants and he leaves. He asks the other boys to come with him but they refuse and they are all back with Opie.

            One of the characters who appeared in this episode and the last one was a four year old named Leon who is always wearing a cowboy outfit and always eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He never says a word and only shakes or nods his head. Leon was played by Ronny Howard’s little brother Clint. Four years later he co-starred in the series Gentle Ben. He appeared as a powerful child named Balok on the original Star Trek series and later as a Ferengi in Star Trek Enterprise. He was also on Deep Space Nine, Star Trek Discovery and in an episode of Fringe he played a man who thinks he lives in the Star Trek universe. He’s also done a lot of horror films. He’s a conservative but he says he keeps his mouth shut at work because most actors are liberals. He played Creepy Rodney on My Name is Earl. He’s appeared in most of his brother’s movies. 

            

            One of Opie’s friends was named Carter French and he was played by Richard Kieth, who had been a drummer since the age of three and played Little Ricky on I Love Lucy. He became the drummer and singer for an internationally successful Christian rock band called “David and the Giants”. He is now the executive director of the touring company of his wife’s Christian ballet company Ballet Magnificat. He considered Dezi Arnaz a mentor and was very upset when he died.