Ron Howard

            On Sunday morning I ran through singing and playing my translation of “A la pêche des coeurs" (To the Fishing Hole for Hearts) by Boris Vian. I still need to make a few adjustments to the English lyrics before uploading it to Christian’s Translations. 

            I finished working out the chords for “Lucette et Lucie” by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through it once in French. I can upload it to the blog when I’m finished with my Canadian Literature essay. 

            Song practice went more smoothly than it has lately since only the B string went out of tune and so it just took a minute or so each time to get it back. I was done a little after 8:30.

            I usually have lunch at around 13:30 and then take a siesta at 14:00 but I started feeling sleepy at noon and so I ate and slept an hour early. I got up at 16:45. 

            I worked on my Canadian Literature essay and spent a couple of hours on my opening paragraph. I had part of the second paragraph written by dinnertime. 

            I heated up some mystery balls that had been in the freezer for a few months. I think they might have been breaded chicken or pork but I couldn’t tell for sure. I put a few fries in the oven with them and had them with a beer while watching Andy Griffith. 

            In this story Andy decides to ask Ellie to the church picnic dance but since he hums and haws nervously around the question she finally just accepts his invitation before he asks. Later he thinks to himself that she lured him in and that she's trying to nab a husband. He decides to tell three other guys that Ellie finds them irresistible and they start bothering her. Then Opie reveals to her what his father said to Aunt Bea about Ellie being a desperate hunter. Later when Andy comes by she fixes him in a soda but adds mustard, milk of magnesia and castor oil. After he drinks some of it and asks if she was trying to poison him she says "I wish I could!" and then she gives him an angry piece of her mind. Then she tells him that she’s going to the dance with the first person that walks in the door. Barney walks in and she tells him she accepts his invitation. Later Aunt Bea convinces Andy to apologize to Ellie and suggests that he could trick Barney into not taking her. Andy tells Barney that he's going to deputize someone else to look for pickpockets at the picnic and so Barney says he wants the job because then he would get the citation. Andy comes to her door with flowers but he doesn’t apologize but rather keeps on offering her the favour of giving her a date. She closes the door on him three times. Finally she tells him that she already has a date and Opie comes up the walk with flowers. Then she tells Opie that it might not be appropriate for a desperate hunter to be out alone with a young boy and she wonders if there’s an escort available. Andy offers the services of the local sheriff. 

            Of course Opie was played by Ron Howard who went on to star in Happy Days and then to become a big shot director. But his most charming performance for me was as the little boy with the lisp in The Music Man.