Bobby Diamond

            On Sunday morning I dreamed as I often do that I had another apartment someplace else. It was so familiar in the dream even though it wasn’t like I’ve lived in. There was the feeling that I hadn’t been there in a while. Sometimes I have a cat in these other places and I wonder how they survive without me regularly feeding them. 

            I memorized the fifth verse of “L'âme slave” (Slavic Soul) by Boris Vian. There is only one verse left to learn. 

            I worked out the chords for the third verse of “Je suis capable de n’importe quoi” (I’m Capable of Anything) by Serge Gainsbourg. Next is a short instrumental and then I think just repetitions of the chords I’ve already established. I might have the song finished tomorrow. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice. Tomorrow I’ll begin a two session stretch of playing my Epi acoustic guitar. I might be getting my Martin back soon. 

            I weighed 87.2 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I removed the bathroom mirror and sanded the lower part of the eastern wall to the right of the shelves. I washed the area and before mounting the mirror again I had to go to the hardware store to get some more adhesive Velcro strips because the lower one came off from the wall when I took down the mirror. It didn’t take long to put it back up but the new strip is visibly sticking out slightly from the bottom of the frame. I need to remove it again later anyway to apply a bit more drywall compound in a few but far fewer spots. All that’s left to sand are the areas under the eastern and northern shelves, then the doorframe and the door. 

            I weighed 88 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the early afternoon since last Sunday. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. It was a pleasant day for a ride. The squeak was gone from the brakes on the Surly after Gordon sanded the rotors and the pads yesterday.

            I weighed 87.4 kilos at 18:00.

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:00. 

            I converted to WMV all the jazz cartoons that I downloaded in MP4 format from YouTube. Tomorrow I’ll import them into Movie Maker. 

            I reviewed the song practice videos of my performances of “Laisse tomber les filles” and “Leave the Naïve Alone” from October 11 to 15. I played “Laisse tomber les filles” on my Martin acoustic guitar on October 11 and 13 and on both days the final takes were okay. On October 15 I played it on my Kramer electric guitar and the take at 2:15 in part C wasn’t bad. I played “Leave the Naïve Alone” on October 14 on the Martin and the take at 41:00 wasn’t bad. 

            I made pizza on a slice of multigrain sandwich bread with marinara sauce, pesto, Genoa salami, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching the first season finale of The Bill Cosby Show. 

            Harvey Sanderson, a journalist for the school paper comes to interview Chet because they are doing a series of feature articles on various members of the faculty. He wants to get some interesting stories and anecdotes on Chet’s sports background in college. Chet has lunch in the cafeteria with his fellow gym teacher Tom Bennett. Chet feels special that the paper is doing a feature on him but Tom tells him they are doing that with all the teachers. He tells Chet he should relate his track and field story but Chet doesn’t want to. Chet sees a new teacher he finds attractive but Tom tells him to forget about it because Gail Hathaway is a Math teacher and Math teachers are snobs where phys ed teachers are concerned. Chet invites her to join them and sure enough she snubs him. In the interview Chet tells Harvey he had an offer from the Pittsburgh Pirates but turned it down to teach. He also says he was a boxer and won all of his fights. He was amateur but he did beat a professional named Kid Mayers. He goes on to describe the fight while acting it out. Tom drops by to get some forms and tells Harvey to ask Chet about his track story. Chet doesn’t want to tell it but when Tom tells Harvey that he’ll tell it, Chet gives in and tells it. It involved running a relay but succumbing to rigor mortis before the finish line. Chet tells Harvey not to print the story because he’d be undermining a teacher in the eyes of the students. But Harvey does print the story and at first Chet is angry and tells Harvey. But then the principal, who is normally very critical of Chet, approaches to tell him how great a story that was because it shows teachers are human. Then the snooty Math teacher sits with him because she was impressed that he was humble enough to tell a story in which he didn’t come out on top. Harvey comes to offer Chet a retraction but Chet talks about the founding fathers and how freedom of the press is at the core of US democracy.

            It’s weird that the Gail Hathaway was played by the same actor that plays his sister in law on the show. 

            Harvey was played by Bobby Diamond, who was a child actor and made his film debut in The Greatest Show on Earth. He starred in the TV series Fury. He starred in the 1962 film Airborne. He was offered the role of the middle son in My Three Sons but turned it down and was considered for the part of Robin in Batman. He was a star gymnast on the rings in college. He earned a law degree in 1970 and became a civil and criminal law attorney.