Sheldon Leonard

            On Saturday morning I finished memorizing “Mélodie interdite" (Forbidden Melody) by Serge Gainsbourg and started working out the chords.

            In the late morning I headed out to the supermarket. As I was leaving the building Benji was coming back in because he’d forgotten his mask when he went to order food at The Skyline. At No Frills the grapes were too soft so I bought two bags of oranges and a bag of grapefruits. I also got potatoes, peppercorns, a box of Earl Grey tea and a tin of dark roast coffee. 

            I had crackers with old cheddar for lunch. I read a couple more chapters of Zadie Smith’s On Beauty. It’s mostly about the mother Kiki trying to relate to her husband and her children. The father Howard has to deal with the fact that his academic arch enemy is coming to teach at his university. The family goes to an outdoor Mozart concert in Boston where Levi meets a young poet named Carl when Zora accidentally takes his Discman from under her seat, which is identical to hers. Kiki invites Carl to her and Howard’s anniversary party. The Discman and the fact that Levi quotes Tupac puts this novel in the mid 1990s. 

            From the afternoon to the evening I made it to almost halfway through the book. Carl shows up at the party but Howard turns him away. A famous poet named Clair, who is also a professor and a colleague of Howard, is a guest at the party. Under the influence of alcohol she flirts with Howard and it becomes obvious to Kiki that she is the one with whom Howard had the affair. Later Zora meets Carl at the pool and he reveals himself to be a spoken word poet. Zora is trying to get into Clair’s poetry class but her work is not good enough. Zora is however one of the top students at the university and she tells the dean that Clair is biased against her because of her tryst with her father. The dean makes Clair accept Zora in her class. The daughter of Howard’s academic and philosophical enemy Monty is an incredible beautiful girl named Victoria. She enrols in Howard’s class and flirts with him. 

            I mixed ground pork with thawed out frozen diced onions, garlic powder, chili paste, corn syrup, and barbecue sauce and made burgers. Because of the sugar however they got a little black on the outside. I had one in a sandwich with mustard and piri-piri sauce and a beer while watching Andy Griffith. 

            In this story a wanted criminal is in Mayberry. Not knowing how dangerous he is Barney writes him a ticket for littering. The state police arrive and he tries to escape but stumbles against Barney and they both fall together. They are so tangled up that it looks like barney has deliberately taken the escaped convict down. The crook swears he’ll get him for that. Barney is hailed as a hero but then the criminal escapes custody again and Barney is terrified. However he swallows his fear and goes out on the manhunt with Andy and the state police. While searching the old barn Andy notices some straw falling from the loft. He tells Barney that the barn is going to be the centre of communications and leaves him there alone but watches through a window from the outside. Andy knows the criminal is there and planning on trying to sneak up on Barney. Andy throws a rock through the window that hits a bucket behind Barney. Barney stands and nervously fires his revolver and the crook suddenly surrenders. 

            The producer of the Andy Griffith Show was Sheldon Leonard. He started out as an actor who often played heavies and gangsters. His voice was known on the Jack Benny radio program as a racetrack tout who always would say to Jack, “Psst! Hey bud! Come here!" and then he would give him absurd advice about whatever Jack was about to do as if he was giving a horserace tip. Later he produced The Danny Thomas Show, Gomer Pyle, Dick Van Dyke and I Spy. The characters of Sheldon and Leonard on the Big Bang Theory were named in honour of Sheldon Leonard. 

            I got up to about halfway through On Beauty by Zadie Smith. Zora is preparing to go to a poetry night at a club in Boston with Clair’s class and Levi just happens to be going as well because is friend Carl will be reading there. This book is apparently based on Howard’s End by E.M. Forster but I haven’t read it or even seen the film, so I don’t know what the similarities are other than there being a main character named Howard. I assume Howard is the protagonist in Forster’s book and the character studies aren’t spread out as much.