On Thursday morning I finished posting my translation of “Apocalypstick” by Serge Gainsbourg. I memorized the first few lines of his song “Exercise en forme de Z” in which he uses words with the letter "Z" or sometimes "S" when it sounds like "Z" a lot to tell the surreal story of Zazie's visit to the zoo.
In the late morning I rode to Freshco. For the first time in a long time their grapes were not all too soft. I got four bags, a pint of strawberries, a bag of oranges, a loaf of Bavarian sandwich bread, a whole chicken, kettle chips, three bags of milk, two cans of peaches, two containers of Greek yogourt, Breton cranberry crackers, hot salsa, orange juice and a pack of toilet paper.
I re-read “Beachy Head” by Charlotte Smith out loud. From the viewpoint of that cliff she covers the history of England, it’s current state, her own biography and adds poetry by fictional characters that live there.
I also re-read “Kublai Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge" a couple of times.
I had chips, salsa and yogourt for lunch.
I didn’t take a bike ride since I'd already been out to the supermarket but I did do some exercises at home.
I put Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen on a flash drive and put it on my laptop so I could read a chapter in front of the computer, another on the couch, and so on back and forth. That way I wouldn’t feel so stiff from sitting in the same place while continuously reading.
Catherine, a middle class country girl from near Salisbury takes a holiday in Bath, visiting with friends of her parents. At first it’s pretty lonely but at a ball she meets a charming young man named Tilney but after two dances she doesn’t see him again, although she wants to. She makes friends with a girl named Isabelle who begins dating Catherine’s brother. Isabelle’s brother John begins also taking Catherine out but he's a braggart and a bore. She goes out with him to be nice to Isabel. When Tilney returns and shows interest in Catherine she arranges to take a walk with him and his sister, with whom she also wants to be friends. But John wants Catherine to come for an open carriage ride with Isabelle, James and himself and John lies to her that he saw Tilney and his sister otherwise engaged and not intending to walk with her. She goes for the ride but sees Tilney and his sister on their way to her place. John won’t stop the carriage so she can get out. Eventually Catherine gets to spend more time with the Tilneys. Then Isabelle announces that James has asked her to marry him and so she and Catherine will be sisters. That's about halfway through the book. It’s somewhat engaging because circumstances keep getting in Catherine’s way to fulfill her dreams with Tilney. It’s also interesting from a historical perspective to see how dating worked in the early 19th Century. Apparently this story turns darkly Gothic in the second half.
I had a potato, two chicken drumsticks and gravy while watching Andy Griffith.
This story begins and ends with Barney trying learn judo from a book, with not very good results. The main plot involves a married couple named Fred and Jennie Boone that constantly argue until they start smashing things and cause the neighbours to complain. Andy finally threatens to throw them in jail if they don’t try to get along. He makes them come to his office every morning to practice talking nice to each other. It starts to become a habit and they seem to get along in a contrived away. But the way they behave towards everyone else becomes angry and nasty until it even gets violent. Finally Andy realizes that their arguing is their way of expressing love and he gets them to go back to insulting one another and fighting.
Jennie was played by Claudia Bryar, who played supporting roles in Psycho II and I Was A Teenage Frankenstein. She was the mother of Paul Barrere, who was a guitarist and singer for the band Little Feat. Jimmy Page said in 1975 that Little Feat was his favourite band from the United States.
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