Alan Hale

            On Sunday morning it was snowing fairly strongly and it looked like the roads were going to be too messy for me to later take a bike ride. 

            I finished posting my translation of “Vie, mort et resurrection d’un amour passion” (Life, Death and Resurrection of Passionate Love) by Serge Gainsbourg and memorized the first verse of his song “Nicotine". The speaker is talking about her lover having left to buy cigarettes but she knows that he's left forever. I think that’s something like how Gainsbourg left his first wife and children. 

            I had saltines and old cheddar for lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride and there was little trace of the snow that had fallen in the morning. It was quite cold and so it was surprising that the snow would have melted. I rode to Ossington and Bloor, then south to Queen and home. 

            I re-read several chapters of Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen and read over my paragraph assignment a few times, only making a few adjustments. My paragraph assignment was due at midnight but I handed it in at 20:00 to get it out of the way and because I couldn’t think of anything more to do with it. I was pretty disappointed with the marks I got for Brit Lit 1 assignments so it’ll be interesting to see how Brit Lit 2 goes. 

            Here’s my completed assignment: 

            The alarm clock invented the day – Leonard Cohen 

            Unreflecting Love is the Cure for Time

            in John Keats’ sonnet “When I have fears that I may cease to be” 

            John Keats’ sonnet “When I have fears that I may cease to be” warns that worries over time rob one of the moment. The speaker dreads that time will run out before his dreams of immortality as a poet and of lasting love are realized (1-4, 9-12). He laments the limits of minutes while ironically reflecting on his wish that love be “unreflecting (12).” But he also knows that uneasiness over when he or his love will be gone is a waste of time. He understands that the power of the moment appears when one is unencumbered by angst over time and yet he apprehends the future and thereby curbs his enchantment (11-12). Evidence that trepidation about time separates him from his goals is shown symbolically by the em dash that divides line twelve. His ruminations on “never” confine him to solitude after the dash, which represents the shore that separates him from the world (7, 10, 12-13). Following the dash is “then” which points to the result of the three occurrences of “when” in each quatrain: “When I have fears …(1),” “When I … think I may never …(7)” and “When I feel … I shall never …(10).” “When” he limits his time with brooding “then” he is separated from the moment (12-13). After “then” he thinks his way to oblivion (13-14). The rhyming of “think” and “sink” emphasizes that his dangerous preoccupation with time will result in the sinking of the ships of fame and love that could otherwise sail him over the ocean of the world (13-14). Analysis shows this sonnet has two alternative results. The conclusion of his impatience after the dash is fatal solitude, but the solution of “unreflecting love” before the dash is moored to that shoreline of the world by a semi colon and waiting to carry him out onto the social sea (12). 

            I had just fifty pages left in my re-read of Northanger Abbey before dinner. I made naan pizza with salsa for sauce, a crumbled up burger and cheddar cheese curds. I had it with a beer while watching Andy Griffith. 

            In this story a lonely, very strong and very aggressive farmer named Jeff Pruitt comes to Mayberry to look for a wife. He thinks it shouldn’t take longer than a couple of days to find one. Andy has to stop him from standing on the corner and grabbing and picking up every woman that passes by to check her weight. Barney and Thelma Lou decide to help Jeff out by letting him crash a woman’s party that Thelma Lou is having at her house. There are lots of pretty women there but Jeff immediately fixes on Thelma Lou and decides she is going to be his wife. Barney is obviously upset and tells Jeff she’s his girl but when Jeff asks Barney if he’s asked her to marry him he admits he hasn’t. Jeff argues that he has asked her and so that makes her more his girl than Barney’s. Finally Andy plots with Thelma Lou to scare Jeff away by making him learn manners, wear a tie, eat finger sandwiches and consider selling his farm to settle in Mayberry because Thelma Lou is a city girl. Jeff says he’ll take Bertha the tough farmer next door who likes him the way he is. 

            Pruitt was played by Alan Hale Jr. who would become a star two years later for his role as the Skipper on Gilligan’s Island. The son of the great character actor Alan Hale, he was in movies from the time he was a baby and worked until his death. He was one of the few child actors who made a smooth transition from juvenile to adult roles.

            I hadn’t finished my dinner when this show was done so I watched another one. 

            In this story Opie joins a club called the Wildcats and they secretly meet in the barn of Jubal Foster. Opie is made The Keeper of the Flame and has to take care of the candle the club sits around. Every time they have a meeting Jubal discovers them and tries to catch them before they make it over the fence. When Jubal complains to Andy about the trespassers he points out Opie as one of them. Opie however is sworn to secrecy. The real reason Jubal doesn’t want the kids at his place is that he has a still in the barn. One day after he chases the boys away he checks his still but accidentally knocks over his oil lamp which sets fire to the alcohol and burns down his barn. Jubal blames the boys for the fire and then a box containing a candle and matches is found under Opie’s pillow. Andy feels responsible now for the burning of the barn and so he goes out to Jubal’s with Barney to negotiate payment. But while they are talking Barney goes to get a drink of water from a bucket, which turns out to be moonshine. When Andy sees Barney suddenly drunk he places Jubal under arrest. Andy apologizes to Opie but tells him that rather than playing with matches he should become the keeper of the flashlight in his club, and gives him one.