Bread with Lard

Needless to say, I've had a number of lapses from the fish-salad-soup regime I laid out herein some weeks ago, but I don't regret any of them, as it was never meant to be an absolutist regime: "Moderation in all things, including moderation," is my creed. A goulash here, a stuffed cabbage there... and in due time we return to the Golden Fish. "If You Lose Your Mind, Come Back" was the slogan of Shambhala Sun Summer Camp.

I try to avoid drinking in the afternoon, but the pub on the corner of the street where I live offers free slices of bread with lard until 5 PM, and today I simply couldn't resist having a pint of beer and a few slices of larded bread as I read another few pages of King Jesus by Robert Graves, a secular, but fanciful account of Jesus' life, full of dry yet intriguing arcana: it reads like another addendum to The Lord of the Rings, written by the Oscar Wilde who wrote "Salome," on quaaludes.

Speaking (I was a minute ago) of "Food, Glorious, Food," in a fit of whimsy I looked up Mark Lester, the actor who played Oliver in the film Oliver! (though he first achieved wide acclaim as "Jiminy, who stuttered" in Our Mother's House), on IMDb. It turns out that like most child actors he dropped acting after a few years and is now an osteopath, married to another osteopath. How lovely! I then looked up Jack Wild, who played the Artful Dodger-- he stucked with acting, but it's been a rocky road. You may have seen him as "Much the Miller's Son" in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The only film I had seen him in besides Oliver!, though I don't remember his part, was Jacques' Demy's The Pied Piper, one of my absolute top 20 or so favorite films, though I've only seen it once (don't think it's yet available on video or DVD). You definitely have to see it if you get the chance. It's the saddest, truest fairly tale you'll ever see on the big screen.

On another note: Jesus, the execrable music in this internet cafe is, quite simply, intolerably loud and intrusive. I completely forgot the brilliant segue I had planned... sorry.