Roman-Fleuve

            On Saturday morning I memorized the second verse of “Velours des vierges” (Velvet Virgins) by Serge Gainsbourg. I also found that the last two lines of the final chorus were different than the others. In looking for a translation of “roman-fleuve" I discovered that its actually a literary term used in English to describe a series of novels that explore the same group or family of characters. The direct translation would be “novel-stream”. It’s hard though to pin it down exactly, since trilogies like The Lord of the Rings or series like the Harry Potter books don't count. They have to be longer and each novel has to be complete but flow to the other while expanding its own history, like Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga. So I learned a new word this morning. 

            Around midday I went to the supermarket. There were no grapes so I bought four bags of oranges. I also got three mangoes, some broccoli, a pack of white mushrooms, soy milk and paper towels. 

            For lunch I had sliced tomato on toast with salt and pepper. 

            I didn’t take a bike ride because I'd already been out and I didn't do any exercises in the afternoon because they are too time consuming when I’ve already taken up the time of having gone out to the supermarket. 

            I re-read another sixty five pages of On Beauty by Zadie Smith, taking me to almost three quarters of the way through. 

            I had beans and toast for dinner with a beer while watching Andy Griffith. In this story Floyd the barber is so busy that when a retired barber named Bill Medwin comes and asks for a job, saying he’ll bring his own customers and a second chair, he jumps at the chance. But Andy becomes suspicious when some of Bill's customers show up every day in black sedans. Then Bee tells him that the town phone operator has been listening in on conversations about girls with names like Tiger Lil not coming home until ten to one, Brown Eyed Mary arriving at eight to five, but Lindy Lou having been supposed to go to his place but not showing at all. When Andy hears those kinds of names and the words “place" and "show" he realizes that Bill is using the barber shop to take bets on horse races. Andy tells Barney about this and says they can’t arrest them unless they catch them red handed. When Andy is out Barney decides to go under cover in drag as a little old lady and to try to place a bet with Bill and his men. But when Barney tries to dive for the satchel containing the bets they grab him. Barney is hitting them with his purse when Andy walks in and arrests Bill and his men.