The other story is about the new, cool fella on Desperate Housewives (Sundays, ABC, CTV, 9 p.m., weeknights Bravo!, 7 p.m.). If you’ve been watching this season, you’ll know that Susan (Teri Hatcher) has a new boyfriend.

Jackson is a house painter, a nice guy and terrifically handsome. He’s been seen a lot, half-naked.

Jackson is played by one Gale Harold. A few years ago, the handsome Harold was my neighbour. He was renting a house directly across the street, while filming Queer as Folk in Toronto. The owner had told me his name before he arrived and, of course, I Googled him. The first thing that popped up was a website devoted to his charms and it was called “The Most Beautiful Man In The World.” He wasn’t around much, but on Saturdays his devotion to vintage motorcycles was evident. He’d be on the sidewalk, in shorts and a T-shirt, cleaning an ancient machine before taking it for a short spin.

Young Harold was amiable and polite, caused no fuss. Once, he had to come to my house, briefly, and let it be known that he’d seen my negative review of Queer as Folk and didn’t think much of it, or me. But he was way polite about it. Around that time, I let it slip to a lady at work, a big fan of Queer as Folk, that the show’s star was my neighbour and, of a Saturday, he was always out working on the motorbike. The next Saturday, I happened to glance out the window and, while Harold wasn’t around, said lady could be seen walking very, very slowly down the street peering this way and that – obviously in search of “The Most Beautiful Man In he World” in a manly pose with his bike.

My street isn’t Wisteria Lane. At that point, Desperate Housewives was only an idea in the mind of the creator, Marc Cherry. But for a minute there, I thought I’d unleashed a soap opera on the street. Every Sunday when I watch the Wives, I think of it. And smile. Hope my stories distracted you from the looming recession.

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