Dog Days

The New Yorkers Cartoon "Caption Contest #162" goes to the dogs:





My entry:

My LASIK procedure went fine, Roy. Why do you ask?

The winners:

• "Relax, she prefers dachshunds." - okay
  
  
• "Let's just say it attracts a more interesting type of woman." - huh?
  
  
• "Don't look now, but I believe your snake is strangling that dog." - bow wow

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Death by Chocolate

Call me naive, but I wonder exactly what the "legal limit" of this "industrial chemical" could possibly be?

From the ironically titled Mercury News:

Tainted Cadbury chocolate found in Hong Kong
BEIJING—Hong Kong said Sunday it found two Cadbury chocolate products contained considerably more of the industrial chemical melamine than the city's legal limit in a growing scandal over tainted food made in China...

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Recount?

CNN's Soledad O'Brien needs to check her math on what she calls an an "overwhelming" show of hands giving the Vice Presidential debate to Biden. Looks pretty close to me.

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It Gets Complicated

In a previous post, I said that Sarah Palin is no Dan Quayle. I’ll add that the Alaskan governor is no Tina Fey either.

For the complete post, go to The House Next Door ...

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The M-Word

In "Maidenform," a failed pitch by Mad Men’s Don Draper to sell Playtex on promoting a new line brassieres, introduces the idea that Jackie Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe represent two bookends of a male defined feminine zeitgeist. “Jackie” is an avatar of the proper, reliable, homemaker, while “Marilyn,” represents her more overtly sexual and childlike counterpart. This concept came to life in a proposed Playtex ad that contrasted the brunette Jackie clad in a black bra with a blond Marilyn wearing white lingerie. It’s reminiscent of a similar construct from "The Birds" where schoolteacher, Annie Hayworth, is juxtaposed with frivolous, party girl, Melanie Daniels.

Three episodes later, this model of female choices is utterly destroyed right at the start of “Six Month Leave.” The first scene finds Don, still barred from the house by Betty, living at a hotel. Picking up the morning paper, he reads the news that Marilyn Monroe has been found dead. Instead of her full name, the newspaper headline simply identifies the dead icon as “MM.” This will prove significant later on.

The death of Monroe is the talk of the office. Peggy, reintroducing the Jackie/Marilyn idea, mentions to Don that had Playtex bought the lingerie campaign, they’d be spending that morning figuring out how to scrap it. Immediately following Peggy’s comment, we see a quick shot of two office workers, a blond and a brunette, commiserating together. As it unfolds, a number of Marilyn look-a-likes are seen throughout the episode that presents the star’s death as a watershed moment for the characters who’s familiar white male dominated world of the 1940’s and 50’s begins a transition into the more progressive and complicated one of the 1960’s and beyond.

It could be argued that the death of JFK would be a more historically accurate point of demarcation for this paradigm shift. However, as has been noted elsewhere, since MM will skip 1963 and start next season in 1964, the assassination of Kennedy will not be covered on the show itself. Thus, it would seem the discovery that the “Marilyn” persona is a mirage hiding something morose catalytically forces the characters to begin casting aside their innocence born of previous decades and face new, “grown up” realities.

This is accomplished with a retelling of Monroe’s demise through the storyline involving SC copywriter Freddy Rumsen. Although, each of MM’s main characters seem to sympathetically die a little in "SML," Freddy’s fate is the most directly linked with Monroe’s.



When we first see him, that dismal fate is foreshadowed by the newspaper Freddy is reading which is open to a full-page ad promoting a retailer’s “Final Reduction.”

As Peggy, Pete, Sal and Freddy get ready for a presentation to Samsonite luggage executives, Freddy reads them the copy he has written for a magazine ad. It describes the sadness of an imaginary Samosonite customer upon discovering that their suitcase, though beautiful on the outside, is empty. This realization could also apply to the people grieving over Monroe’s death who find out that her glamorous life was nothing more than an ornate facade covering a darker reality. It also ties in nicely later when Betty, still depressed over her marital woes, is shown reading “Ship of Fools,” Katherine Anne Porter’s pessimistic novel set on an ocean liner.

Although he hides it well, Freddy is at the tail end of a drinking binge that has rendered him so inebriated that he actually wets his pants in front of everyone. It’s suggested later that Freddy’s drinking problem is related to his experience as a “killer” in the World War 2. Roger and Don can’t understand why Freddy is so hesitant to brag about his war record anymore than they can understand why someone like Monroe, whose success had the world seemingly at her feet, would throw it away.

Incapable of doing the pitch to Samosonite, Peggy steps in and does a great job with the Samosonite people. However, Pete's complaints to Duck starts a chain of events that ends up with Roger deciding to fire Freddy. While Roger and a reluctant Don plan to frame it for Freddy as a “six month leave of absence,” the action clearly amounts to a dismissal.

Referring to the SC blood drive that pits the accounting team against the creative folks in a highly competitive contest to see who can bleed the most, Roger tries to console Don by stating that Freddy can still “give blood.” Roger’s attitude toward Freddy is similar to that of the celebrity industry which continued to cash in on the troubled Monroe for as long as it could until she was finally bled dry while making the aptly titled, but never finished, “Something’s Gotta Give.” Or as Paul Kinsey says about the SC blood drive event, “Media always wins.”

Meanwhile, one of the first shots of Betty shows her literally steaming as she boils water to defrost her refrigerator. Seemingly without direction, she mopes around the house, doing odd chores, drinking wine, and rummaging through Don’s things looking for proof of other infidelities. At one point, we see Betty splayed across the sofa, unconscious, her posture and blond hair suggesting the position that Marilyn herself was found in. Betty’s slumber is interrupted when her friend, Sarah Beth, stops by to borrow a dress.

It’s notable that, at different times, Freddy, Joan, Pete, and Don are all shown lying in repose on various SC couches only to be “discovered” by others and arguably linking them in spirit to the Monroe death scene.

Roger and Don plan a farewell outing for Freddy as he embarks on his leave. This is where the idea of Freddy as “MM” is most dramatically presented.

A panning shot at a restaurant deliberately moves past a blond Marilyn look-a-like and comes to rest on Freddy who’s sitting with Roger and Don at another table. Later on, the three go to an illegal gambling club. Not wanting to give their real names to the bouncer-doorman, they make up fake ones. Freddy’s pseudonym is “Mike Moneybags.” Note that the initials are “MM.” The password to get into the gambling club is “Milwaukee,” also an “M” word. Once inside, yet another Marilyn impostor is shown vacating a gambling table a seat that Freddy immediately ends up sitting in. During their conversation, Freddy talks about his father, a struggling businessman, who constantly moved the family in a vain search for success (“happiness”). Describing how his dad would randomly pick a promising new city, Freddy’s mimics his father by poking an imaginary map and exclaiming “Memphis!”

One of the players at the club is supposed to be real-life heavyweight boxing champ Floyd Patterson. The African American boxer’s presence is a graphic demonstration of the desegregated world that looms on the horizon (at one point Roger sarcastically comments to Don that a rival firm has hired a “colored boy”). It’s, perhaps, worth noting that, at 21 years old, Patterson became the youngest heavyweight champion by defeating Archie Moore (in a fight to decide who would succeed the retired Rocky Marciano). That distinction changed hands years later when a 20-year-old Mike Tyson won the heavyweight crown. The “M’s” are, of course, unintentional, but, nonetheless, in an episode laden with them, make for an esoterically fun coincidence.

Their boy’s night out finished, Don and Roger bid Freddy goodbye. From his demeanor in the cab toward Don, it’s clearly suggested that Freddy is not long for this world. Later on, Roger and Don share a drink at another bar. A bust of JFK is visible in the scene. Given the historical suggestion that Kennedy’s affair with Monroe precipitated the depression that would lead to her overdose, the association of the bust with the two SC executives would seem to indicate their equal culpability in Freddy’s demise.

The aftermath of Monroe’s death and the vacuum it leaves in their perceived worldview has different repercussions for the three main female characters: Betty, Joan and Peggy.

Joan, her external persona most closely associated with Monroe, takes it hard. However, as shown in “Maidenform,” her choice of black lingerie suggests that she really aspires to be a “Jackie.” This is consistent with the path of domesticity on which she has embarked with her fiance doctor.

On the other hand, Betty, who wore white "Marilyn" lingerie in "Maidenform," is left more dramatically unsettled. The alternate role she sought now ripped away and the Draper's troubled marital status leaving her current “Jackie” identity in a tenuous state, has made Betty's future uncertain. A hint of what’s in store for her character is demonstrated by the scheme she devises to deliberately endanger her friend Sarah Jane’s marriage by arranging a cozy lunch for her with riding club heartthrob Arthur. “Keep mixing,” Betty tells her kids who stir a bowl of cookie dough like the cauldron she has placed Arthur and Sarah Jane in as they embark on an afternoon of flirtation and, perhaps, more.

The real winner is Peggy, neither a Jackie nor a Marilyn (beige bra), who garners a promotion out of Freddy’s sudden departure. Whether realizing it or not, she's at the cutting edge of a new paradigm that will pair the traditional housewife with the career women. Peggy is a bit saddened that her rise is precipitated by Freddy’s fall. However, she consoles herself with the trappings (a raise, bigger office) that go along with that role.

Freddy was a good egg. But, to make an omelet, you’ve got to break one or two.
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Shaddup

What a crock. She bitches about the GOP and their culpability in the financial crisis.

Below that, Lou Dobbs provides some perspective. But, is anybody listening?

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Switch

Since Joe Biden has decided to use Michigan Governor Granholm instead of Tina Fey to play Sarah Palin in his practice debates, can we have Fey as our governor? She can't do any worse.

From the Washington Post:

Biden's Debate Prep Partner: Gov. Granholm

Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden has tapped Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to help prepare him for his Oct. 2 debate in St. Louis with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

The move is perhaps the most obvious nod to the question Biden is being asked by Democrats at nearly all of his events: How will the longtime senator take on the GOP fresh -- and female -- face who is now reshaping the race? Granholm is expected to spend several days playing Palin as Biden makes his preparations.

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The Components of Attitude

Just as a hurricane threatened to halt the RNC a month ago, the drama surrounding the U.S. financial crisis, precipitated by the failure of AIG and Merrill Lynch, looked like it was going to prevent the first presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama from occurring Friday night.

For the complete post, go to The House Next Door...

Note:
The boys at Red State Update managed to merge a debate review into a Paul Newman tribute. Nicely done!


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Cutline

Here's a great example of bad timing.

A run of paper web ad for Kroger grocery stores featuring scissors is placed within the online version of a story concerning a man who's had his penis amputated.
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Dumb and Dumber

It looks like the honeymoon is over for Luke Russert:

From The Washington Post:

NBC's Russert says he made `dumb' statement

NBC News reporter Luke Russert said he made a "dumb" misstatement on the "Today" show Wednesday when he suggested that smart people supported Barack
Obama for president.

...Russert, son of the late "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert, is covering youth issues for NBC News. He filed a report for "Today" about campaign activity at the University of Virginia, and talked about it live afterward with Matt Lauer.

Russert, 23, said about the university: "The smartest kids in the state go there so it is leaning a little bit toward Obama."

Oops. Now he's either implied that students at other colleges in Virginia aren't as smart as those at the University of Virginia or that you have to be dumb not to support Obama. Or both.

Later on in his blog, he tried to backpeddle. His "explanation" is worse than the original statement:

..."I meant to say that many of the kids who go to UVA are from affluent, highly educated households who are leaning (toward) Obama and hence their kids lean Obama," he said. "Plenty of smart college kids will vote for John McCain from UVA and plenty of smart kids go to Virginia Tech or George Mason and they, too, could end up being big Obama voters."

When you're in a hole, stop digging.

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Will That Be One Scoop or Two?

Insert your own sexist boob joke here: _____

From WNBC.COM:

PETA Urges Ben & Jerry's To Use Human Milk

VERMONT -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman.

"PETA's request comes in the wake of news reports that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the cow's milk in the food he serves," the statement says.

PETA officials say a move to human breast milk would lessen the suffering of dairy cows and their babies on factory farms and benefit human health.

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Guilty

I'm adding the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to the "confirmed spy" list, right under Alger Hiss and Bill Belichick.

From the New York Times:

A Spy Confesses, and Still Some Weep for the Rosenbergs

...For more than 50 years, defending Julius and Ethel Rosenberg was an article of faith for most committed American leftists. That the couple was framed - by officials intent on stoking anti-Soviet fervor and embarrassed by counterespionage lapses that allowed Russian moles to infiltrate the government - was at the core of a worldview of Communism, the Korean War and the ensuing cold war, and an enduring cultural divide stoked by McCarthyism.

Now, that unshakeable faith has been rattled seismically. Not for the first time, of course; in the 1990s, secret Soviet cables released by Washington affirmed the spy ring's existence. But this time, the bedrock under that worldview seemed to transmogrify into clay.

The rattler was Morton Sobell, 91, the case's only living defendant. He admitted in an interview that he and Julius Rosenberg had indeed spied for the Soviet Union. His admission prompted the Rosenbergs' sons, Michael and Robert Meeropol - self-described magnets for global anguish over their parents' execution in 1953 - to publicly accept, for the first time, that their father committed espionage. Ronald Radosh, co-author of "The Rosenberg File," a comprehensive account of the trial, declared that "a pillar of the left-wing culture of grievance has been finally shattered."

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Burned Again

Based on the lackluster finalists for #160, it'll be a cold day in hell before I win the New Yorker "Cartoon Caption Contest."


My entry was consistent with real estate jargon and the theme of damnation:

"...and the interior has plenty of that Old Testament charm."

The "winners," not so much:

• "The heating system is pretty old but very reliable." - this can't seriously be among the "best"
  
  
• "I strongly recommend that you read the fine print on this one." - okay, I guess
  
  
• "The seller is extremely motivated." - send us Merrin!

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The More Things Change...

A new blogger pal of mine, Lauren, emailed me this interesting observation:

I think this whole "energized youth" vote in this election cycle has more to do with the commercialization (i.e., Paris Hilton in a campaign ad?!) of politics than it does with grassroots Internet activism. The presidential race is the ultimate "American Idol" episode in which everyone gets to be Simon.

I'd add that the sentiment could be retroactively applied to well before this current election cycle.

I was reminded of a great Bob Newhart bit from the 1960's, "Abe Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue." In it, Newhart references "The Hidden Persuaders," Vance Packard's 1957 book on advertising and public relations.

One of Packard's contentions, which still holds true today, is that as political candidates get closer and closer together in terms of ideology (save a few issues, McCain and Obama are both running as populists) the voting public is really voting for the person as defined by their well-crafted images.

The premise of Newhart's routine (see below) was that if the science of public relations had existed during the Civil War, and there was no Abraham Lincoln, then advertising men would have had to create a "Lincoln." He then goes on to demonstrate that a phone call between Abe and his PR man would go "something like this:"

• Abe I got the note, what's the problem...you're thinking of shaving it off?
  
  
• Where's the shawl Abe...you left it in Washington? What are you wearing?...A sort of cardigan?
  
  
• Regarding the Gettysburg Address: "Abe you haven't changed the speech have you... you what, you typed it?...How many times have we told you, on the backs of envelopes....how are the envelopes holding out? You could stand another box...okay....What else...you changed four score and seven to eighty-seven?
  
  
• No...no...no, you were a rail splitter THEN an attorney...just read the bio I gave you.

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Mad Women

One of my minor nits with Mad Men is how often its female characters are depicted as the downtrodden, helpless victims of a male dominated 1960s world. Plot elements tend to over exaggerate the plight of these women for the sake of drama and Mad Men’s more “progressive” contemporary audience. Despite living in a world of ubiquitous sexism that makes us cringe today, the majority of real women I know from that era managed to live happy, fulfilling lives. This happiness, I submit, wasn’t a manifestation of some sort of sociological Stockholm Syndrome. Truth be told, these women were as much A PART of the mores of that time as they were its victims.

That’s why I got charge out of “A Night to Remember,” Mad Men’s eight outing for Season 2. It finally allowed two of the more oppressed characters, Betty and Peggy, to push back. Don’t get me wrong; it's still very much a man’s world. But this time, these women don’t submissively acquiesce to the testosterone induced flogging that society has been dishing out for them on a weekly basis. In fact, a theme running through this episode concerns the power that females, knowingly or not, can wield in that world BECAUSE of their gender.

The title itself conjures up catastrophic images of, literally (if you pardon the pun), titanic proportions. It ostensibly refers to Peggy’s “pro bono” work with Father Gill designing marketing pieces for an upcoming church dance. But, like most things on Mad Men, its dual meaning equally, and perhaps more pointedly, applies to Betty and Don’s story.

As the episode begins, Betty is still processing the revelation from “The Gold Violin” that Don has been screwing around with Bobbie Barrett. By the end of “A Night to Remember,” Don’s indiscretion will have more negative ramifications for the Drapers than Betty puking on their beloved new Cadillac’s red interior. As she did after first hearing of the affair from Bobbie’s jilted husband Jimmy.

While simmering in her own thoughts, Betty is at home preparing for an important dinner party that the Draper’s are hosting so that Duck Phillips and Roger Sterling can meet Crab (yes, "Crab") Colson of the PR firm Rogers and Cowan. The discovery of a wobbly dining room chair seems to be Betty's tipping point as she calmly proceeds to smash it on the oriental rug. This occurs in full view of the children who are watching television from another room. While the actual television is out of camera range, you can hear that it’s tuned to a Three Stooges short with Shemp (I’m a bit of a connoisseur). My first reaction was to wonder what more these poor kids would have to endure? It’s bad enough to have a basket case for a mom. But the Stooges without Curly? Come on!

To my surprise, however, upon a closer listening, I heard a few of Curly’s distinctive “nyuk, nyuk, nyuks” thrown into the mix. Since, Curly and Shemp never appeared together onscreen (okay, they did once in "Hold that Lion," but Curly only made a cameo and didn’t have any lines), it’s clear that the director didn’t just drop in a sound clip from one Stooge outing for atmosphere. They actually constructed a track from a number of different shorts that would be recognizable as The Three Stooges BUT would also add meaning to Betty’s actions.

In this case, the key lines came from a 1947 Stooge short, “Brideless Groom.” The scene they choose was of Shemp getting the tar kicked out of him by a blond hottie, who, the entire time she’s putting the boots to him, professes to be a helpless female. That scene ends with Shemp getting violently tossed through the front door and out of the “helpless” woman’s home (see clip below). Given Mad Men’s attention to details of this sort, I can’t imagine it to be a mere coincidence.

Later, Duck, another “brideless groom,” arrives at the Draper party sans date. It’s a good thing his lady friend (probably fictional) canceled, as the Drapers are a chair short. However, one could conceivably argue that all of the men at the party are “brideless” in some way. Of course, the aforementioned Duck, whose wife has left him. Then there’s Roger Sterling whose marriage seems less than satisfying. Crab Colson’s wife is a portrayed as a drunk who bounces off walls. And finally, Don, who has yet to realize his soon to be “brideless” status.

In the process of positioning SC to land the Heineken beer account, Don feels that Betty, an affluent, suburban housewife, is a good sample of a viable target market. To that end, Don uses the occasion of the party to enlist her as the sole and unknowing subject in a consumer behavior experiment. To the laughing delight of the marketing professionals at the party, she passes Don’s test with flying colors by selecting the fancy imported Heineken for the event.

After the party, Betty confronts Don about his making her the butt of a joke in front of his colleagues.

Of course, the Heineken “experiment” isn’t really what she’s mad about. Betty finally lets Don know that she’s aware of his fling with Bobbie. Ever the salesman, Don asks her to tell him what she thinks she knows. Betty immediately pushes back by astutely pointing out that he’d find a way poke holes in whatever she said. I hate to admit it, but I almost felt as frustrated as Don when his pitch to sell his innocence falls short.

As portrayed, Betty’s breakdown and eventual rebellion over Don’s affair is both plausible and powerful. That night, after her fight with Don, she retreats to bed, wearing the same dinner dress. The next day, still wearing the dress, she rifles through Don’s things looking for clues of his infidelity and only finds “stupid marketing stuff.” At one point, Betty steps on a wineglass and breaks it into pieces. I took this as a deliberate reference to a Jewish wedding ceremony where a similar act is performed. The symbolism of Betty pulling a shard of glass out of her bare foot doesn't bode well for the Draper marriage.

Meanwhile, back at the office, Harry Crane’s television department gets the blame when, Maytag, an SC client, complains about the placement of one of their TV ads. Apparently, their washing machine spot touting the benefits of a new agitator was juxtaposed with a television show whose plot that involved a Communist “agitator.”

As a result, Harry is given the impossible tasks of reading ALL the scripts for upcoming television shows with an eye toward keeping their client’s commercials optimally positioned.

Historically, this was a very real dynamic for that day. In fact, ad agencies arguably had more influence than the Mad Man episode portrays.

Rod Serling once recalled, "Before the script goes before the cameras, the networks, the sponsors, the ad agency men censor it so that by the time it's seen on the home screen, all the message has been squeezed out of it. One time we couldn't mention Hitler's gas ovens because a gas company sponsored the show." This was the inspiration for his classic anthology series, The Twilight Zone, where the sci-fi plots effectively camouflaged his more controversial themes from the prying eyes of network and ad execs.

Failing to get any official help from Roger, Joan Holloway is temporarily brought on board to read scripts. She’s a natural and takes to it the same way Peggy took to writing ad copy. Her efforts turn out to be a big hit with SC clients, some of whom are the characterized as garden-variety lechers who enjoy meeting with Joan as much as the advice she gives them.

This success convinces Roger to formally create a position in Harry’s department that allows Joan to go back to her regular duties. When finding out that the script reading job is going to a younger, less qualified male, Joan handles it well. But it’s clear that she is crushed.

I think many would interpret Roger’s actions as the vindictive move of a spurned lover. But, I see it differently. It appears that SC treats its television department as a bit of a necessary nuisance. This is comparable to how many ad agencies treated their web teams in the middle to late 90s. To Roger’s way of thinking, the script reading task was beneath Joan and an unwelcome distraction from her more prestigious role as Office Manager. Thus, it could be said that Roger was doing what he thought was in the best interests of his one time virtual “bride.”

This brings me to Peggy and Father Gill. As the Sacrament of “Holy Orders” effectively marries Gill to the church, he may be the episode’s fifth brideless groom. It’s refreshing to see a Catholic priest portrayed as something other than a grizzled old Charles Durning type or a failed Lothario a la The Sopranos. I really hope they don’t devolve his relationship with Peggy into a clichéd romantic one.

Peggy and Gill have to contend with a gaggle of church lady organizers who prove to be just as difficult as any high-powered SC customer. They think that the concept, “A Night to Remember,” is too suggestive for a young person’s dance. Peggy reminds them that their advertising efforts should be directed at the young girl market. Consistent with the theme of female power, she predicts that if the girls show up at the dance, so will the boys.

"You're supposed to tell them to trust me," Peggy later testily complains to Father Gill while reading him the riot act after he to backs down to the matrons over the wording on the promotional flyers. He agrees and then changes the subject to discuss Peggy’s apparent lapse in faith. She hasn’t been receiving Communion. Again, it was nice to hear a character of faith sincerely explaining the spirtual benefits of their religious dogma. Nonetheless, Peggy politely, but firmly, brushes him off.

As Betty and Peggy exert their power, it’s Joan who seems have lost some in this episode. Her doctor fiancé clearly doesn’t understand the feeling of satisfaction she received out of the script reading assignment and actually looks forward to the day when Joan can stay at home “eating bon bons.” At dinner, she waits dutifully on her man and even jumps to fulfill his rather rudely delivered request for a glass of water.

Later on, we see Joan changing for the night. Promoting her sexuality to get ahead now seems to be a two edged sword. Dejected, Joan personifies the expression, “you’ve made your bed, now lie in it.” The straps of her tight and sultry outfit, an asset at work, now seem equally constricting as they leave deep, visible marks on her shoulders.

The shot of Joan undressing is juxtaposed with a scene of Father Gill removing his vestments as he readies for bed. The conclusion one could reach is that his vocation is equally constrictive for him. Snuffing out a cigarette, an act that bonds him to the other worldly male characters on the show, Father Gill unwinds by getting out his guitar to sing the Peter, Paul and Mary spiritual “Early in the Morning.” By the way, it may really be Colin Hanks singing, but the dubbing left something to be desired.

Betty, seeming to have come to terms with Don, has finally changed clothes and is back at work in the kitchen. Make Room for Daddy plays on the television. Danny Thomas, who along with Desi Arnaz, were the original alpha-male sit-com husbands, is consoling his son Rusty who has just gotten dumped by a girl. Ironically, when it cuts to commerical, a Jimmy Barrett spot for Utz Nuts appears just in time for Betty to see it. Afterward, in the same calm demeanor she displayed breaking the chair, Betty calls Don at work and tells him not to bother coming home.

“A Night to Remember” ends with the now almost tiresome device of a montage showing the dust settling on the various story lines set to music.

Peggy sits in a tub staring ahead despondently. Has Father Gill’s questioning caused her to pull further back into her shell? Or does the bath represent a sort of second baptism which will signal her attempt to return to the flock?

The last shot shows a dejected Don still at the office and alone. Grabbing a Heineken from the kitchen refrigerator, this time, nyuk, nyuk, nyuk, the joke is on him.

---

Shemp getting beat up by a poor, defenseless woman in "Brideless Groom" (end of part 1 and start of part 2):



From IMDB "trivia": In one scene, Christine McIntyre discovers that Shemp is not the "Cousin Basil" she thought he was, and slaps him around, then punches him and knocks him through the door. McIntyre, who was not a professional stuntwoman, leaned too far in when she "punched" Shemp, and actually did hit him, breaking his nose. The sequence was left in the picture.


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Life Imitating Art?

Sometimes a picture's worth a thousand words...

From Fox News:

Clinton Cancels Rally Appearance After Learning Palin Invited

Hillary Clinton has pulled out of an appearance at a New York rally next week to protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad because she doesn’t want to be seen alongside Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in a “partisan” event, her aides say.

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Out of the Mix

Dammit. I didn't get around to submitting my idea for the New Yorker "Cartoon Caption Contest #159." Given the NYer's propensity for picking the wrong entrees, I don't think it REALLY matters.



I was going to send:

"The cafeteria was out of two-by-fours, stir it with your ruler"

Which I think holds up to the actual finalists:

• "Can you please pass the cow?" - not bad, not great
  
  
• "Let me start by welcoming you all to Narcoleptics Anonymous." - zzzzz
  
  
• "By a 9-0 vote, the rest-room expansion project is approved." - sometimes, I think they're just pulling them out of a hat

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The Politics of Surfing

A Barack Obama ad takes John McCain to task for not having computer skills:



Obama spokesperson, Dan Pfeiffer, further opines: "It's extraordinary that someone who wants to be our president and our commander in chief doesn't know how to send an e-mail."

The problem, as pointed out in NPR's "The Corner," is that a couple of articles from 2000 cite McCain's war injuries as making it difficult (if not impossible) for him to use a keyboard.

Slate, Feb 11, 2000:

Six months ago, no one would have pegged McCain as the most cybersavvy of this year's crop of candidates. At 63, he is the oldest of the bunch and because of his war injuries, he is limited in his ability to wield a keyboard.

Boston Globe, March 4, 2000:

McCain gets emotional at the mention of military families needing food stamps or veterans lacking health care. The outrage comes from inside: McCain's severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes. Friends marvel at McCain's encyclopedic knowledge of sports. He's an avid fan - Ted Williams is his hero - but he can't raise his arm above his shoulder to throw a baseball.

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Atheists for Palin?

Christopher Hitchens, author of the unambiguously titled "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything," on Sarah Palin in Slate:

...as often as I have forwarded some alarming e-mail about her from a beavering comrade, I have afterward found myself having the sensation of putting my foot where the last stair ought to have been and wasn't. Was she in the Alaska independence Party? Not really. Did she campaign for Pat Buchanan in 2000? The AP report from 1999 appears to be contradicted by her endorsement of Steve Forbes. (Not great, I agree, but not Buchanan, either.)

...Sen. Barack Obama announced that Jesus had died on the cross to redeem him personally. How he knew this he did not say. But it will make it exceedingly difficult for him, or his outriders and apologists, to ridicule Palin for her own ludicrous biblical literalist beliefs. She has inarticulately said that her gubernatorial work would be hampered "if the people of Alaska's heart isn't right with god." Her local shout-and-holler tabernacle apparently believes that Jews can be converted to Jesus and homosexuals can be "cured." I cannot wait to see Obama and Biden explain how this isn't the case or how it's much worse than, and quite different from, Obama's own raving and ranting pastor in Chicago or Biden's lifelong allegiance to the most anti-"choice" church on the planet.

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The Trouble With Charlie

I finally watched GOP Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's interview with Charlie Gibson from Thursday night. Contrary to convential wisdom, I think he actually did her a favor.

Gibson was VERY tough on Palin. And, to my surprise, she held up fairly well.

Sure, she stumbled a couple of times. Her answer to the "Bush Doctrine" question was ackward and she could have handled it better. But then again, Gibson's question was a tad ambiguous. The "Bush Doctrine" isn't really a clear cut thing like the Monroe or Truman Doctrines.

Charles Krauthammer, a McCain supporter, who's cited in Wikpedia as the first one to use the term, writes in the Washington Post:

There is no single meaning of the Bush doctrine. In fact, there have been four distinct meanings, each one succeeding another over the eight years of this administration -- and the one Charlie Gibson cited is not the one in common usage today. It is utterly different.

I still oppose the Palin pick and agree with David Frum who says it better than I could:

I have been disturbed about the choice from the start, as you know. And I have not seen any reason to feel less disturbed ... She really could be president! And here's where my fellow conservatives really worry me. They are so attracted by the symbolism of the selection that they show no concern — never mind for her executive competence — even for her views.

However, I didn't see anything from last night that scared me off.

And from a "performance" standpoint, I think Martin Sieff best summed it up for me:

Whatever her inexperience and other shortcomings, Palin did not fall into that trap in her ABC interview. At no point did she appear fearful or threatening. Gibson's aggressive questioning on her religion and her son's coming military service in Iraq, by contrast, runs the risks for the Democrats of strengthening support for Palin among working-class, married women, especially those with husbands or sons serving in the military.

The pattern of previous presidential election interviews and debates has always been that individuals who come across as intellectually superior, arrogant and condescending forfeit support that goes to their perceived victims. This dynamic played a crucial role in propelling George W. Bush into the White House eight years ago. It remains to be seen if Gibson's perceived arrogance and condescension will give Palin another boost.

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