Monica Lewis

            When I got up on Wednesday morning the odour of soot was still strong from my having left a potato in a pot on high for four hours the night before. Although there had been no smoke when I got home on Tuesday the place must have been full of smoke while I was at work. Burnt potatoes supposedly contain a potentially carcinogenic chemical called acrylamide, so the smoke from it can't be very healthy either.

            It was still reading week and so there was no Romantic Literature class between 11:00 and 12:00 but I wanted to put in an hour of work on my essay to take advantage of the extra time. I found though that just like on Monday I got very sleepy around what would have normally been class time, so I went to bed and took an early siesta from 9:00 to 10:30. After that I was able to put in an hour and a half of work on my paper, writing about William Blake's symbolism of the rose as female sexuality.

            I got an email from Tracy, the model coordinator at OCADU, telling me she had to cancel my booking for next Tuesday because she'd made a mistake in giving it to me. I'd thought there'd been something odd when she offered me two more Tuesdays with Greg Damery right after I'd already done two but I didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. I took the bookings and worked the third booking so she couldn't cancel that because they haven't figured out a way to cancel yesterday yet. Not long ago I might have been pissed off, but I hate working that early in the morning anyway.

            In the early afternoon I rode down to Freshco to buy bread but I also got blackberries, strawberries, grapes, a strawberry-rhubarb pie, yogourt and spoon-size shredded wheat. Somebody forgot their medium pizza on top of a pile of shopping baskets at the beginning of the express checkout. At least I'm not the only forgetful person around.

            After bringing my groceries home I went out to the liquor store to buy a can of beer and on the way back while I was waiting to cross the street to my building a jeep straddling the white line got scraped hard on its left side by a streetcar that was trying to get by. Nobody was hurt.

            When I started scouring the stainless steel pot that I’d blackened the night before I discovered that the heat had actually melted the welding that attached the bottom plate to the pot. I think it's still functional but I should probably buy another stainless steel pot soon.

            I guess because I'd taken such an early nap I started getting sleepy at 19:30. I went to bed with the intention of sleeping for half an hour but I ended up conking out for an hour and so when I got up it was time to make dinner.

            I had a fried egg with toast and a beer while watching an episode of Peter Gunn.

            This story begins as usual with a man in a suit walking. The guy's name is Si and he's just gotten out of prison where he'd served four years for armed robbery though he'd actually taken the rap for another guy named Joe, who promised him $100,000 when he got out. As Si is walking a police car starts to follow him and so he ducks down several alleyways to avoid them. He ends up at the back of a warehouse where suddenly a guy with a gun steps out. They struggle and the gun goes off, killing Si's assailant. But the cops hear the shot and come to find Si holding the gun and so he is arrested for murder.

            While in jail Si hires Gunn to find his girlfriend Sally, who he hasn't seen in four years. Gunn goes to Wilbur’s Beatnik club where the same three-piece jazz combo of flute, upright bass and drums are playing but with no poet this time. He finds Wilbur sculpting a very abstract and unrecognizable bust of his silent, gum-chewing girlfriend with the expressive eyes, Capri. Gunn asks Wilbur how he is and he says, “I just keep swingin, it creates a wild draft and I stay cool!” Gunn asks where he can find Sally Hall and Wilbur tells him to go to the Classic Book Shop and ask for the first edition of Through the Looking Glass. Gunn goes there and is directed to the back where a bookshelf slides sideways to reveal a casino. He finds Sally and she says she feels bad about what’s happened to Si but she can’t do anything about it. Gunn goes to Mother’s where Edie is singing “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” from the 1939 musical “Too Many Girls”. 

            Gunn goes to the alley behind Mother’s where he often waits for Edie but he is attacked by one of Joe’s men and Joe tells him to stay away from Sally. 
            Gunn goes to Lieutenant Jacoby and convinces him to let Si go to help catch Joe. Si goes to Sally’s place and Joe arrives. He says, “I guess I owe you $100,000”. “No you don’t owe me anything, but I owe you something!” Si gives Joe a couple of hard punches and Joe collapses. Si leaves and Joe gets up and follows, shooting him in the back in the hallway. Just then Gunn and Jacoby arrive to both shoot Joe.

            This was the most poorly written of the Peter Gunn episodes so far, with choppy dialogue and a lame story. All it had was that same slick Blake Edwards touch in the look and action of the show.

            Capri was played by Capri Candela, but I can’t find any references to her outside of Peter Gunn.

            Sally was played by Monica Lewis, who was a jazz singer and was most famous for being the voice of the cartoon character Chiquita Banana.

            The 1939 musical “Too Many Girls” starred Desi Arnaz, who reprised his role when it became a film in 1940, which also starred Lucille Ball. They met on set and eloped in November of the same year.