Mary Young

            On Saturday morning I felt dizzy during yoga and started to recognize food poisoning later on. I think It was the African chicken that David gave me last week but that I didn't eat until last night. It tasted good and I'm sure it would have been fine if I'd eaten it right away or frozen it but I made the mistake of thinking it would keep in the regular part of the fridge for a whole week. 

            I finished working out the chords for "On n'est pas des grenouilles" (We Are Not Amphibians) by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through it in French. But I still have to adjust my translation of the last one and a half verses before publishing it on Christian's Translations.

            I got an email from Albert Moritz telling me that with the help of George Eliot Clarke he'd finally gotten through to Michael Callaghan about me sending my manuscript to Exile Editions. He gave me a direct email address and suggested that I don't send it immediately because it would look too much like I was jumping on him. He said to wait a couple of days but not too long. It doesn't guarantee I'll be published but Albert says Michael seems well disposed and he added that my good cover letter will be helpful. I have to add some edits to the manuscript and maybe turn it into a pdf and then I'll try to have it ready and send it on Thanksgiving. 

            I weighed 89.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I went out to No Frills. There were no grapes other than the squishy Ontario ones. I bought five Courtland apples, two half pints of raspberries, a beef brisket, dental floss, Toscanese pasta sauce, maple syrup, skim milk and Greek yogourt. I also bought a kilo of honey even though I'd already bought one recently. But the Casablanca honey was too pungent for me. I might try to use it for cooking. 

            I weighed 90.1 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five year old cheddar and a half a glass of lemonade. 

            I took a siesta and slept half an hour longer than usual. 

            I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor and while I was riding I worked out a translation for the second verse of "On n'est pas des grenouilles" using a misquoted for the sake of rhyme reference to "The Ryme of the Ancient Mariner": "We are not filled up with terror then / to drink too much grog / even though it may disorient / when our brains get fogged / Not like that ocean fairing man / who started to sink / Crying "water everywhere I scan / and nothing to drink!” 

            When I got back to my building my upstairs neighbour and my former second floor neighbour were just walking away. I called, "Hey you Ethiopian guys!" I wished my former neighbour a happy Thanksgiving and he returned the greeting. My current neighbour David invited me for lunch tomorrow but I told him I couldn't go for lunch with him until December because of school work. He wanted to know what my assignment was but it was hard to describe since I haven't started it yet. 

            I read 3.2 of Henry IV part 1 which is mostly a conversation between Henry IV and his son Hal, the future Henry V. Hal apologizes for his behaviour and will now lead a force against the traitor Hotspur. 

            I read chapter 10 of The Scarlet Letter. Chillingworth the physician has befriended Dimmesdale the minister and is treating his illness. But his real purpose is to uncover a secret that he knows he is hiding. At the end of the chapter he catches him asleep and looks under his garments to discover something that excites him. 

            I read 2.3 of Henry IV. Falstaff accuses the hostess of the Boar's Head of picking his pocket. She complains of the money he owes her. He calls her a sex trade worker. Hal arrives to diffuse the situation and to give Falstaff his military orders. He will command a troop of infantry.

            I hade pizza on naan with Parmese sauce, a cut up slice of ham and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching an episode of Gomer Pyle. 

            In this story Gomer has his first leave in four years and goes back to Mayberry. He didn't write ahead because he wanted to surprise everyone but he finds Andy, Aunt Bee, Opie have all gone on a fishing trip together. A captain from the state police is acting as sheriff. The only people there to recognize Gomer is Mr Ferguson and Mrs Petrie who has memory problems and says she hasn't seen Gomer for three weeks. Gomer is surprised to learn that Floyd's Barber Shop is gone and replaced by Emmet's Fix It Shop. At Goober's Filling Station Gomer finds Goober has also gone on the fishing trip and replacing him is a young man named Vergil. Vergil has to make a house call and Gomer offers to take over. Two guys pull up with New York accents and a car in bad shape. Gomer fixes the car so it can still travel but it's leaking oil. They pull a gun on Gomer and rob the station. Both Virgil and the captain think Gomer is incompetent for having fixed the getaway car. Gomer follows the drops of oil to the abandoned car, fixes it and drives it to keep looking for the thieves. He finds them hitchhiking but doesn't recognize them until they pull a gun on him again and make him drive them. When they reach a fork in the road Gomer tells them that to the left is Mayberry and to the right is their escape route but they don't believe him and make him turn left. Gomer pretends the steering has gone faulty on their car and jerks all over while driving until he attracts a state trooper. There is a car chase reminiscent of an old Buster Keaton film as Gomer leads the motorcycle cop to the captain's roadblock where the crooks are captured. Gomer leaves Mayberry early but from the bus he sees Andy and everyone else returning from the fishing trip. 

            Mrs Petrie was played by Mary Young in her final role. She started her career on Broadway in 1899. In 1913 she starred on stage with John Barrymore in "Believe Me Xantippe" and in 1924 she co-starred in "The Dancing Mothers". She was almost sixty when she made her first movie and began playing mostly elderly women. She played Mrs Deveridge in "The Lost Weekend", Ma James in "Alias Jesse James", and Mrs Breckenbridge in "Blondie's Holiday."