Zizi Jeanmaire

            On Saturday morning during song practice the machine head for my B string became so stiff that I couldn't turn it in the direction of sharpening it into tune. I took a screw driver and tried loosening it but then it popped off and wouldn’t screw back on. I had to finish my rehearsal with the Oscar Schmidt, which goes out of tune even more easily. I haven’t got time to take the Washburn to Remenyi until after the middle of April. Is it too much to ask to have a guitar that stays in tune like I used to have? It’s weird that both guitars go off on the B string. 

            I finished memorizing “Rétro song" by Serge Gainsbourg. I looked briefly for the chords to this song sung by Zizi Jeanmaire and discovered that she died last summer at the age of 96. It’s strange that it never showed up in the news feeds that I read. 

 

            

            In the late morning I went out to No Frills. The still had very cheap red grapes so I got eight bags. I bought a sack of potatoes, cinnamon-raisin bread, a strawberry-rhubarb pie, a can of coffee, a box of Earl Grey tea, a box of spoon size shredded wheat, kettle chips, hot salsa and a jug of lemonade.

           There was a guy sitting on the sidewalk and panhandling near where I was unlocking my bike. I gave him one of my bags off grapes and he seemed to appreciate it. He thanked me twice. 

           I weighed 88.8 kilos before lunch. I had a tomato, dill and roasted peanut salad. 

           I weighed 89.1 kilos at 18:05. 

           I spent a couple of hours on my essay, getting rid of irrelevant quotes and rephrasing an condensing ones that help my argument. I knocked it down from 18 to 11 pages, which is still about two and a half times more than I need. 

           I weighed 89.4 kilos before dinner. I added coconut milk to my lentil chili and had half a bowl with plantain chips while watching the third season finale of The Andy Griffith Show. 

           In this story Andy and Barney learn that two bandits from a four man gang have been captured and will be brought to the Mayberry jail until state police can pick them up. Barney insists that they need a second deputy and so he deputizes Gomer. he stations Gomer on the roof of the jailhouse but Gomer keeps dropping his rifle off the roof and breaking it. When the prisoners arrive Barney imposes strict discipline such as making them march out of their cell to the other one for their meals. But the crooks are just playing along until Barney lets his guard down. Barney overhears them saying that in a real prison there would be a shakedown and they’d be forced to leave their cell while the guards check for weapons. Suddenly Barney calls for a shakedown but while he’s checking their cell they walk out the door. Fortunately Andy is outside and he marches them back in at gunpoint. After locking their cell Barney absent mindedly puts the keys on the hook on the wall between the two cells. When Barney leaves the room they let themselves out and leave. Once again Andy brings them back in. Later two plain clothes state detectives tell Andy that they think the other two crooks will try to break their pals out and so they hide in the alley. Andy sends Barney up on the roof with Gomer to keep him out of trouble. But from above Barney sees the detectives and thinks they are the rest of the gang. He captures them and puts them in the other cell. Just then the other bandits arrive and put Barney in a cell with the detectives and then free their buddies. But as they are leaving Andy comes up from behind. But then Gomer drops his rifle from the roof onto Andy’s rifle and knocks it out of his hand. The crooks are about to run when Gomer also accidentally drops the contents of a bunch of Christmas lights he’d been told to pick up from the roof. When the bulbs hit the pavement they pop in such quick succession that the crooks think Andy has a machine gun and they surrender. Andy brings the four men into the jail and tells Barney that his plan of capturing the men worked. 

            One of the detectives was played by George Kennedy, who served in WWII and spent 16 years in the army. He won the best supporting actor Oscar in 1967 for his role in Cool Hand Luke. He co-starred in all three Naked Gun movies. He was a regular on Dallas and The Young And The Restless.