Don Beddoe

            On Saturday morning I changed the "do, re, mi, fa, so la, si" placements that someone had posted for "Relax Baby Be Cool" by Serge Gainsbourg into chords, based on me feeling that the song should start with G. If "G" is "fa" then "D" is "do" and so on. It probably would have been quicker to just work out the chords without doing all that but I was interested in learning something about how the scale works. 

            During song practice my tooth hurt when some syllables or transitions between them cause the bottom part of my mouth or my tongue to touch the tooth that I probably cracked when biting down on a cherry stone. I was able to get through all the songs but the momentary twinges were very distracting.

            I made an appointment with Midtown Dental at Yonge and Bloor for Tuesday July 6 at 14:00. 

            I weighed 89.2 kilos before breakfast. 

            Just after noon I took a bike ride later than usual for a Saturday because it had taken some extra time to find the phone number for Midtown Dental and to talk with Alexia the receptionist about my problem. I rode to Yonge and Bloor and when I got back my neigbour Benji was standing outside our building. He noticed my haircut and told me he hasn't been to a barber since before his sister's funeral in October, but he'd probably be getting a haircut on Monday. He was talking with a little bald white guy about our age who is of Portuguese descent but from Mozambique. He served in the army there and fought in their war. 

            I went out to No Frills where I bought three bags of grapes, one bag of cherries, a pack of chicken drumsticks, some cheap extra old cheddar for cooking, a jug of orange juice, and some skyr. Outside of the supermarket a tall old man with longish white hair was standing and holding his baseball cap upside down by the peak and instead of asking for change was saying, "Donations?" 

            I weighed 88.1 kilos before a late lunch. I had Ritz crackers with five year old cheddar and a glass of lemonade. 

            I was posting my blog when suddenly I felt warm liquid drop on the back of my right hand. I looked and saw it was blood but I couldn't figure out where I was bleeding. When I went to the bathroom I saw in the mirror that there was blood on my right earlobe. After wiping it off I couldn't see any cut on my ear. I had shaved my ears the day before and sometimes I have drawn blood doing that but didn't then. When Amy cut my hair she ran the electric razor over my ears and I guess it's possible that caused a little cut but there was no blood then. It's very strange that I would suddenly bleed for only a moment and for there to be no trace of a wound. 

            I weighed 88.6 kilos at 18:00.

            I worked on my poem series "My Blood In A Bug." 

            I spent about 45 minutes in securing the leather pieces to work as a cover for my Roland amp in its role as a surreal shock therapy machine. I sewed together the two main top strips but there's a lot more sewing that I need to do. It has to hold together while still looking disturbingly ragged. 

            I colourized another damage spot in my skateboarder photo. I made pizza on naan with Bolognese sauce, a cut up burger and old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching two episodes of Mayberry RFD. 

            In the first story a new pet shop opens up in Mayberry and Mike wants a dog. Sam doesn't think Mike is responsible enough to be a dog caregiver. Then Mike wants a job working at the petshop and Aunt Bee helps talk Sam into it. There is one dog however at the shop that nobody wants to buy because it's a mongrel and has no great financial value. Aunt Bee helps Mike sell Sam on letting Mike take the dog by telling him that she saw suspicious characters in pinstripe suits hanging around. Things are going well but Mike has been sneezing and develops blotches on his face. The doctor says he's allergic to dogs. Bee talks Howard into buying it by playing on his historical and intellectual interests. She lies that the dog is half Hungarian Pooley and half Royal Scottish rabbit hound, a breed that she made up. 

            In the second story we learn that Goober's filling station is part of a franchise belonging to the Acme Refining Company. A new representative of Acme comes to inspect and is disapproving of the casual manner with which Goober runs the station. He tells Goober that he has to start wearing a uniform, stop letting his friends hang out there and start trying to make a profit. Goober tries but is very unhappy and quits. He takes up selling shoes. It seems there is still gas at the station after Goober closes it because Sam is getting some when a car pulls up and a distingushed looking older man gets out. It turns out that he's the owner of Acme and as he is from a small town he doesn't like the fact that it's being deprived of the kind of gas station that fits the town's character. The result is that Goober is asked to take over again and run the station the way he wants to. 

            The Acme owner was played by Don Beddoe, who was the son of the famous Welsh tenor Dan Beddoe. From 1929 until 1938 he worked almost exclusively on Broadway. He played Pat Grady in the radio soap opera "John's Other Wife." In the late 30s he began acting in movies. In the 1950s he branched out into television. He also worked in real estate and had the idea for the first high rise trailer park but it never got off the ground. On Television he played Mr Tolliver on "The Second Hundred Years," he was in the cast of "Life With Father", and he played Mr. Thatcher on "Nanny and the Professor". 

            The Acme rep was played by character actor Woodrow Parfrey, who was said to bring a quirky charisma to every role he played. He starred on Broadway in "Advice and Consent", he played a prisoner in "Papillon", and an orangutan judge in Planet of the Apes. He lived in poverty during the depression and became a prisoner of war after the Battle of the Bulge. He is known for his roles in "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and "Charley Varrick."