My time of day is the dark time
A couple of deals before dawn
When the street belongs to the cop
And the janitor with the mop
And the grocery clerks are all gone.
In the wee small hours of the morning, secrets that were kept can be revealed, and in the strange sweet twilight before dawn, you can see things as they really are, let your longing roam free, and admit to yourself who you are.
Here are some rough notes I jotted down while watching Wee Small Hours:
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People catching other people, seeing through other people’s lies
people throwing things
rejection and the longing for love
and seeing things through to how they end
I am struck first by the throwing things. In the movies and on TV, people throw things dramatically. In real life, that almost never happens, and if it does happen, I’m inclined to think it’s often because it’s an imitation of something seen in the movies or on TV.
Sal tossing the film editing room struck me as cliché, but who could be more desperate than Sal in that moment? Who could hurt more? The statement is “I reject.” I reject that pass and that brutish man. I reject my homosexuality. Or the closet. Or both. I reject what must, inevitably, happen next.
Betty, for her part, throws the money box, and could that be more symbolic? HERE is the facade! HERE is the phony excuse to see you, and the need to be phony, and the desire to see you, and the feeling of not seeing you. “I reject.”
Which gets us to rejection, and longing for love. It was never 100% clear to me that Don was Hot For Teacher until the opening scene of this episode, but by then it was definitely clear. Yet Don doesn’t go to her apartment until after he is rejected by Connie. The father stuff I’ve speculated about before became explicit in Wee Small Hours. For a moment, Don really believed he was loved. Not unconditionally, mind you; Don was more than happy to sing for that supper, but he believed he was loved, and it was Connie’s arbitrary and unfair rejection of Don that drove him to Suzanne Farrell, just as Don’s arbitrary and unfair rejection of Peggy drove her to Duck Philips (as an aside, it looks like Don’s rejection of Peggy didn’t keep her off the Hilton account after all).
Connie rejects Don, and Suzanne at first rejects, and then doesn’t reject, Don. Sal rejects Lee Garner, Jr., which causes Sterling Cooper to reject Sal. Betty feels rejected by Henry and then goes to him, and then rejects him. Everyone wants love, but no one can keep it.
Suzanne says she can see how it will end, but Don doesn’t care. Betty realizes the only “end” with Henry (the end, not of their romance, but of their flirtation) is “tawdry.” She specifically rejects the couch, which is only a little funny if you remember Meditations in an Emergency.
Another motif of Wee Small Hours is insomnia. Betty says she can’t sleep, the baby doesn’t sleep, and Don lies awake. Connie clearly can’t sleep or he wouldn’t keep calling Don in the middle of the night. Lee Garner Jr. probably sleeps fine. The bully.
At the end, with Suzanne, Don at last sleeps like a baby.
In the wee small hours of the morning
While the whole wide world is fast asleep
You lie awake and think about the girl
And never ever think of counting sheep.When your lonely heart has learned its lesson
You’d be hers if only she would call
In the wee small hours of the morning
Thats the time you miss her most of all.
85 Responses to “A couple of deals before dawn”
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What wonderful insight!
I love the point about Don's rejection by Connie the father figure causes him to go after Suzanne.
I just realized that Betty was writing left-handed. Lefties were forced to write right-handed back then.
I was interested in Betty's rejection of Henry Francis. Was she indulging in a fantasy and didn't consider the ramifications until she was at the point of making it reality? When she said to Carla about the civil rights movement "Maybe it isn't time" I wondered if she was referring to Henry too, if she's not ready to embark on an affair with him.
The timing was pure serendipity. Obama gives a speech on gay rights at the HRC, thousands fill the capitol in support of same, and 48 hrs later Mad Men gives us, against the backdrop of the MLK assassination and the original March On Washington, Sal getting fired for not being gay enough.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I don't find Don appealing anymore. I keep expecting him to surprise, but this whole Ms. Farrell thing is so expected. Like she called it a few episodes earlier, he IS just like the others, catting around on his wife. On the other hand, I'm gaining for appreciation for Betty. She's struggling to define herself, to set her boundaries. I get the feeling that someday, she will have a Betty Friedan moment and leave Don for good. I know a lot of us have pegged her to be the childish one, but it seems to me, it's Don who keeps regressing and Betty who's progressing, albeit haltingly.
#5– what do you make of her as a bird-killer? they wrote her as unflinchingly full of rage for that scene– shooting down domesticated animals that were loved by her neighbor. i don't have closure on that, and i can't warm up to a character who does that.
My mind is just whirrring~ over what's to become of Sal.
I'm really stumped that his storyline took this course. Obviously, Lee G. Jr. was a bully — but going so far as to insist Sal be fired seems like a personal overexposure.
Lee basically ensured he'd be outed by insisting on the firing. I mean — Lee couldn't have expected that anyone (of any sexual orientation) wouldn't protest their firing — specifically based on refusal of sexual…er…service.
What if it were Ken? or Harry? Yes, Don knows about Sal — but Lee didn't know that. the whole thing seems hinky to me.
This is not closure to me, for Sal. I expect, nay demand!
a more robust departure or continuing story.
…and well, damn….The Betty Show just rolls on~ all that screen time to become a richer and deeper character — to me, it's the same ol' same. (put her on the bench….PLEASE)
Oh, and more Roger and Peggy would be nice. When I ask for the Moon– I want it. (hee)
#6. I am in no way saying Betty is 100 percent a sympathetic character. I only recently warmed up to her, and see that she's far more complicated than we were first led on to believe. Shooting birds is abhorrent, but I'd say what Don did to Sal was just like that: shooting the innocent. I think Betty is dissatisfied and trying to figure her way out of the trap she's in. She's a wife who doesn't know much about her husband because he won't let her in or thinks she doesn't deserve to know. He gives her trinkets (bracelet) as if that's all she needs when what she wants is someone fully present.
The fact of the matter is that Don has been extremely unappealing this season. His insecurity and father-issues have not been fully articulated, and seem trivial compared to the struggles of Peggy, Sal, Betty, Hollis and Carla. I am no longer able to view Don's behavior sympathetically. For some reason the character has begun to fail in my mind. He enjoys a great deal of privilege as the ideal of white American masculinity personified, and yet he seems unaware of it, so consumed as he is with his traumatic past. And so he deals with his deep frustration by hurting Peggy and by projecting his feelings of marital inadequacy onto Sal (it is one thing to fire Sal; it's another to do it like that!). I know Don has suffered immensely, but in the previous two seasons it seemed as if his troubled history had made him more empathetic, not less.
I'm with sjrw (#5) – this is the first time since the series started that I thought "Don, you bastard." I really thought Suzanne was going to say no to him! She seemed to be standing strong, until the very end. But she was the only one who gave in – with Sal and then with Betty (and again with Suzanne) I was saying "Don't do it!" and they all listened to me, except for her! Wonderful episode. So full of people making mistakes and being cruel. And the scene at the end with Carla listening to the radio, so poignant. And the acting! So much conveyed with just a look, especially the women – Betty, Carla, Peggy. Great stuff!
#5 I agree. I can't stand Don anymore either. (Read my post on the open thread, I won't go on ad nauseum.) But know this, Betty is still a spoiled child, but Betty cares deeply about appearances. Why would she go through the whole dog-and-pony show of hosting the fundraiser, if she didn't? Oh yes, seeing Henry was something she was looking forward to, but not the instigator. It was to show that the story of why a strange man was in her home had some validity. The only thing that stopped Betty, was Henry crossing the room and locking the door. The secretary had already buzzed in after hearing a crash. Betty had a moment of clarity and she knew that others would find out. If she was going to have to go to the trouble of hosting a party just to throw Carla off the scent, so to speak of Henry standing in her foyer, what would she have to do to sneak off with him and "get a room?" No Betty's not a dummy, nor is she a grown-up.
#6- Betty – the bird killer. Yes, I love it and I loved her in that episode! It was such a delicious way to introduce this Housewife Gone Mad demeanor. And I grasped her response because I thought she was responding to the neighbor scaring HER beloved kids. (Mind you, this was before we saw the true extent of Betty: the crappy mom.) Basically, Polly (the dog) lept and caught the homing pigeon in his mouth…it was instinct. She's a dog. The neighbor screamed at the kids and threatened to kill THEIR beloved pet. That, caused poor Sally to have nightmares. Betty, who was also upset about her dreams of modeling again being killed, goes out and guns down his birds. Love it, love her cigarette hanging out of her mouth, love her stance with gun in the yard, LOVE IT!
What models did Dick Whitman have for being a decent adult? The men (and perhaps the women) were bitterly dissatisfied with their lives and their anger and cruelty leaked out all over the place.
What models did "Don Draper" have–who did he look to to see how he should dress, how he should act, what he should say. Presumably they were people like Bert Cooper and Roger Sterling who are, above all else, about protecting their white male privilege. Would Roger have left Sal alone had he seen him with the bellboy, or out him right away? Was it kindness or power that made Don let him know he knew but that Don would keep Sal's secret as long as Sal "limited his exposure."
When things are going fairly well for him, he is capable of being thoughtful, kind, even generous. But when he's pushed to the wall, Katy bar the door (as my somewhat Don Draper-like father used to say.)
I think all the characters are real and interesting, but none of them particularly laudable. Except maybe Carla.
#11– but what were the dramatic consequences of her actions?– not a rhetorical question– this issue dangles for me just like that cig.
This is 1963. Nobody at SC is going to "out" Lee Garner Jr.
No way, no how.
Great post Deb! I saw this episode with my brother who likes MM but is not a Basketcase level of fan. Toward the end of the episode he asked “does any character on this show have any redeeming qualities?â€
This was a tough episode to watch because virtually every character is weak or a bully, or erratic. Not one is blameless – except Sal and Carla. Sal and Carla have less power and we are reminded they are very low on the 1963 pecking order and expendable. They don’t do anything wrong but are in the wrong place at the wrong time similar to the victims of the Birmingham church bombing.
It seemed to me that this episode was about the pecking order and the flow of power downward from the top – the big clients all the way down to little Bobby. The further up the line the more power and the more abuse of power. Don is powerless to save Sal – but he is such a vicious jerk about it and didn’t need to be. Don is clearly fraying at the edges. I thought about the water poster when Roger said Don is over his heard.
Betty is literally throwing things along wither her tantrums and apparently prefers a Jane Austen style affair because paper is less tawdry. She is acting erratically even for Betty and seems to be closer to the edge than ever. Note that her anger at the fundraiser stems from her fear of “looking like a stooge.â€
Don aggressively goes after the girl but you know this is going to go very badly. Miss Ferrell is battier than Connie! Pete learned his lesson about not going down the hall for his conquests and Don makes a rookie error by starting something right down the street.
There was a lot of disappointment tonight. Connie ‘s disappointed, Betty’s disappointed (neither one for good reason). Heck, I’m a little disappointed too. I love this show precisely because the characters are complex and it does show the warts but this was a tough episode to watch.
I’m thinking back to that last line in Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. Dilsey (and Carla) endure.
I have to agree with davies brother, it's pretty much exactly what I said to my husband after this episode.
Don's behavior with the teacher was so close to Pete's with the au pair. He barged in, she kept saying no, in the end she kisses him back anyway. And we're supposed to sympathize with Don but think Pete is a rapist.
I miss The Wire. Even the drug lords had more redeeming human qualities than anyone on this show right now.
The only part I liked was Pete coughing.
Great post, Deb. I love the fact you guys do these post-episode analysis posts.
I think that when this show represents that there are no blameless characters, it's doing a great job of mirroring true life. Everyone's different, but even those with the highest moral standards are sometimes blind to their own faults. In life, we sometimes gloss over our mis-truths, little white lies, our jealousies, our selfish acts.
Of course the characters in this show display more dramatic and entertaining behavior than what goes on in my life. But there's a lesson here; the show makes me think. I tend to repeat the same mistakes over and over again, just like Don. I'm sometimes struggling like Betty, but act impulsively and not in my best interest.
I sometimes wish Betty would just sit down and spill to Carla for a couple of hours, then shut up and let Carla give her some advice. She needs a REAL friend.
#6. . . you ask about Betty as bird-killer. She was not really trying to kill birds. She was protecting her own young. The neighbor acted like the birds were more important than the children, acted like the kids' had no rights to enjoy their dog and their own yard and he threatened to shoot the dog. Betty was not trying to kill birds. . . she was protecting her young from the neighbor's intimidation and the neighbor's priorizing birds over kids.
She was so NOT trying to kill birds. She was making a point.
#6 are you some kind of animal lover that blindly thinks all animals more important than humans? The neighbor had been an asshole to the kids about their dog. Sally woke up with bad dreams cause the neighbor was so threatening. . .what did you think of that neighbor's abuse of children?
and big deal if Betty killed a couple pigeons. . . that is such a teeny tiny narrow way to judge a character
I have never 'liked' Don in the sense that if he were a real person, I'd never want him as my friend. But I have loved him as a character. But he seems to be sliding downhill. Maybe all the drinking is catching up with him? I never see anyone seriously considering that all the alcoholc Don and some of the characters drink all the time could ever be alcoholism. . but we have seen that Roger's Jane might be an alkie and we have seen that Suzanne Farrell tipples alone at night (like when she called to apologize after the parent-teacher meeting on the day baby Gene was born). . .
Don has to have a lot of negative conditioning from his very sucky childhood and mostly that catches up with folks . . . because, geez, sleeping with Sally's dippy schoolteacher is a loser move. Suzanne Farrell spells trouble with a capital 'T' . . . she'll end up pregnant and/or Sally will find out her daddy has stepped out . . . this is a betrayal of Sally, not just Betty. . . it is pure loser move. I have not seen Don make a loser move before.
And this season, we have seen him be mean to his subordinates, a lot like his father was mean to him. . . kinda like Don is mean just for kicks, just cause he can, just cause being mean is a buzz. . . Don is slipping.
In a fairy tale justice kind of way, it might be fun to see Betty rise and Don fall. . . some women emerged from the onset of femnism in the sixties in better positions. It's not impossible for Betty to come up a winner.
I can't wait to see what happens next. I am already mourning the fact that I have to wait almost a year for Season 4.
Why are people criticizing Betty for not having the affair? I think she did the right thing, especially when she came so close to doing the wrong thing. Yeah, her affair with Henry would have been tawdry. She saw the writing on the wall and backed away.
It's obvious to me that what Betty really wants is a meaningful relationship. Even if she wraps it up in a fantasy dream sequence. She wants a meaningful relationship in which the man of her choice won't be emotionally distant to her and treat her like a trophy wife, or treat her like a prize to be used for some hot, quick sex on a desk. She already had that kind of sex and I can only surmise that it didn't really satisfy her. I get it that Henry didn't want to meet Betty at her house. But she had to come to him? What is that?
As for Don's mean disposition, I think it's possible that he may have inherited from his father. But I think that Sally has it, as well and may have inherited from her father.
I like all the characters. I find the show fascinating to watch. I hope all the characters who do "bad" things according to our modern morality continue to do them, and I hope nothing bad happens to them. That would mirror life. I need a morality tale, a fall for any of the characters. I'd rather just see their actions themselves as the so-called "fall," whether or not payment exacted for their sins is shown in an episode or not.
# # 16 Donny Brook Says:
"Don’s behavior with the teacher was so close to Pete’s with the au pair. He barged in, she kept saying no, in the end she kisses him back anyway. And we’re supposed to sympathize with Don but think Pete is a rapist.
I miss The Wire. Even the drug lords had more redeeming human qualities than anyone on this show right now.
The only part I liked was Pete coughing."
_____
DonnyBrook, the teacher has been baiting Don for some time. She has power — to choose to get in the car and out of it — or to fall into bed or not.
The au pair — was sexually assaulted by a bored man-child with sociopathic underpinnings. Loads of difference (imho).
re: "…even the drug lords had more redeeming human qualities than anyone on this show right now."
Agreed. I'm so damn tired of being beat over the head with a limp-Betty. I need Roger to get drunk and put on Pryce's suit of armor or have Bert caught dressed as a geisha.
The dreariness infecting ALL of the characters is wearing me down.
Apropos of not much else, anyone else catch that the news on the radio following the broadcast of MLK's speech – right before Don cut it off – was about the murder of Emily Hoffert & Janice Wiley in NYC? It was known as the "career girl" murder – two young women living in an apartment, killed by a junkie (though a young black man was originally convicted after a coerced confession.) It's strange – when Peggy was first deciding to move to Manhattan, I thought of that murder as soon as her mother blurted out "you'll be raped!" – I knew it had happened in 1963 and remember from the book about it that the media at that time was emphasizing the idea of danger lurking everywhere in the city for single young women.
Don's meaness is rising in him like yeast raises dough. It's the example he was given growing up, the bone-deep "plain mean" core of a dirt farm hillbilly like Archie. If you compare his face in Season 1 and now, it looks like much more time has elapsed than 2 years — he looks ten years older. The rejection by Connie will only crystallize this. I believe the affair with the teacher is some kind of descent for him, that maybe we've seen the last of the "good" Don.
And poor Sal.
#18: I sometimes wish Betty would just sit down and spill to Carla … She needs a REAL friend.
That can't happen because of the power imbalance. Betty made it clear that Carla "works for me". Carla can be a paid listener, perhaps, but never Betty's friend. What both women need is freedom. I suspect Carla knows this but Betty doesn't.
#15: There was a lot of disappointment tonight. Connie ‘s disappointed, Betty’s disappointed … Heck, I’m a little disappointed too.
These last two episodes seem to be setting things up for the knock down season finale. The Don-and-Connie deal has raised the pressure on Don and Sterling Cooper. That whistle is going to blow and there will be a tectonic shakeout at the firm. We've already lost Joan and Sal. Don is hating himself right now and can't continue working for Roger.
Joan will NEVER go back to SC. She is too good for them and certainly smart enough to see that. She is free and, in the Republic of Dresses at least, in command. Joan has a job and she has self-respect — she is now ready for a divorce.
Sal is free too. He didn't want to be outed but now he is. He can NEVER work with Don again without giving that up. Once you are grouped with "you people" there is a community there where acceptance is greater than anything you've left behind. There's no going back for Sal and I'm glad. The way forward is tough but it is the only way.
Don is, ironically, least prepared for a divorce — from Connie or from Betty. He is trapped but either he breaks free or the rest of the world leaves him behind. The revolution is coming. We want freedom for these characters as much, if not more, than they do.
If Don is fired, does that release him from his no-compete clause? Will his false identity make the contract invalid? Will he be outed by Suzanne in his own community? Most likely, the JFK assassination will leave all of the questions and arrows on the organizational chart in doubt. As in: nothing that has happened before makes any difference now.
I was disappointed when we learned that season 3 will be set in 1963 — because I knew we would have to wait another year for any real change. Well our wait is almost over. Season 4 will come after a seismic shift in reorganization of the characters and dynamics of this show. There is no way out now. We're headed over the cliff. But for every cliff there will be cliff hangers.
The revolution will not be televised.
Unless Don buried his ginormous blue cadillac under some brush, someone is going to see it parked in front of Miss Farrell's house in the middle of the night, and soon. Carleton, on one of his morning jogs? Certainly the people whose garage she is renting. Wow, is this going to end very very badly. That teacher sure has his number though. And clearly this isn't her first time diddling a daddy. Perhaps she'll end up in the Unadilla school system next.
You know, last week I was still kind of hopeful that somehow, under the right circumstances, Don and Betty could figure out a way to communicate with each other and ultimately make it work. I believed that on some level they were in love with each other.
After this week, there doesn't seem to be any point in this marriage anymore, at least as far as the two of them go. I suppose, after Don trying to be a good boy and thinking he'd rekindled something with Betty in Rome, that her total rejection of him once they got home just sealed the deal. There's no going back from this line they've crossed. Yes, granted, Betty didn't actually pull the trigger with Henry, but she wants to. She just needs to find a way to make it look right (appearances being so so important). Something that looks romantic, not tawdry.
Don is in way way over his head. Interesting that this is the first episode I can remember with Roger that he hasn't made any wisecracks. He is just straight up dealing with the unravelling situation around him at SC. He was right on target with Don – you are in way over your head, buddy.
Connie's rejection was cruel too in its own way, although perhaps more cruel than he realized. Daddy hurt Dick again, and Dick runs to find a Mommy who will love him. But of course, ultimately, Mommy hurts him too because she doesn't love him either. Interesting that both of Dick's mothers, Evangeline and Abigail, have dark hair.
I'm starting to feel like I'm stuck in my own abusive relationship with MM. How many Sundays can I subject myself to this emotional pain?
#13- her consequences? Hmmm…not sure there were any. Or any that we, the audience saw played out (her neighbors putting a 'for sale' sign in their yard, for example. haha!) As I remember correctly, the season began with a nervous, handshaking Betty. In the Shoot episode, particularly the ending, we begin to see the unstable persona.
I wish I had been a MM fan from the beginning, so I could have read Deb, Roberta, Anna B, Bert Cooper, etc… takes on every infinite detail of this show. I got on board only mere months ago, when season 1 was shown on Comcast's On Demand.
I totally want Betty to prove victorious over Don. She made the choice not to cheat because she wants something more from her husband. Like Henry tells her I dont know what you want, and while Betty realized she doesnt know what she wants, she does know that having the affair would be wrong especially to Don whom I bet Betty in her naive self believes Don truly loves her more after Rome. But Don of course acted out in the affair with Suzanne out of frustration and depression and overall impulse. It will end badly, and I hope that Betty finally hammers the nail into his coffin for good. I am by no means defending Betty. She is just as screwed up as Don, but atleast we have seen her progress into someone who is not a child anymore. She is making decisions which are not hurting her family, where as Don is making impulse reckless decisions which are hurting his family and friends. I think the whole poster for the season 3 with Don sitting down and water rising up to him is that indeed, Don is getting into deep unclear water and nobody will be around to save him because he is alienating everyone. Don needs to be taught a lesson, and while Betty did teach him a lesson in season 2, he needs something more drastic, maybe a love suicide from Suzanne or a FIRED from Roger. Whatever is going to happen I really hope something bad happens to him, because he has been getting off all the time. Let him suffer a bit.
That is my favorite piece of music from Guys and Dolls, so thanks for posting those lyrics.
I agree, Don is burning bridges right and left. He has given up on being a faithful husband. He has given up on Roger. He has given up on Peggy. He has allowed Sal to be fired. He didn't listen closely enough to Connie to give him the moon. He is now playing with fire with Suzanne Farrell.
What will he let stay IN his life, or will he cut it all lose and start over? He's done that once before.
@Russen – I'm not so sure Betty is doing this to win Don's love. After her reaction to the Rome trip and now this week's dalliance with Henry, I feel pretty certain she's given up on Don, and now she's looking for fulfillment outside her marriage. But, once she finds out about Miss Farrell, as she most certainly has to, the shit is really going to hit the fan with their marriage. I thought at one point (oh, up until this episode maybe) that if Don could finally unlock that desk drawer for her, come clean to her about his past, and own up to his pain and fears and failings, maybe things could get patched up. I think we just sailed past that possibility.
***
Was Roger literally putting Don on notice? As in, "Get your act together or you're fired?" Somehow though, I don't think getting fired is Don's greatest fear. If nothing else, he's got plenty of money to get through financially, and he most certainly could get another job, assuming his non-compete would be void at that point. (Say Don, did you ever actually READ the contract you signed?)
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Grasping to find some positive note about this weeks' episode, it was nice to see Don with a really great pitch for Hilton, even if Connie didn't appreciate it.
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Man, am I depressed this morning.
What will he let stay IN his life, or will he cut it all lose and start over? He’s done that once before.
Yeah, honestly, who's left? Anna.
Just wanted to mention one thing re Betty. Remember when Nelson Rockefeller married Happy? The issue of her children came up, and someone said, "why did he marry her?" "Because he loves her," was the response. Betty's fantasy is finding her Nelson Rockefeller, a powerful man who will love her, give up everything for her, and take her and the three children off to Pocantico Hills, or its equivalent.
Just wanted to mention one thing re Betty. Remember when Nelson Rockefeller married Happy? The issue of her children came up, and someone said, “why did he marry her?†“Because he loves her,†was the response. Betty’s fantasy is finding her Nelson Rockefeller, a powerful man who will love her, give up everything for her, and take her and the three children off to Pocantico Hills, or its equivalent.
Except that Nelson didn't take Happy's kids off to Pocantico Hills. She signed away custody of her four children as part of her divorce. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,2…
Nelson have 5 children by his first wife, but I think they were mostly grown at the time of the divorce. He & Happy had two children of their own.
And we have no indication that Henry has any money at all. Even as much as Don does…
What was Pete smoking? Isn't he a smoker like the rest?
When Connie said he wanted the moon did he mean an absolutely fantastic ad campaign or did he actually want Don to mention the moon in the campaign?
#16–The thing was Suzanne was entirely consensual. Even when she said no, she never said "I don't want to." She said other things, 'it's dangerous,' 'you might get caught,' 'this will end badly.' While saying that, she was also saying she was attracted and interested. And she definitely volunteered to be with him.
#27–Good point about the obviousness of Don's car.
#35, Pete is a non-smoker, but the Lucky Strikes guy insisted he smoke. It was a way of showing how much power he has over the people of Sterling Cooper, to force them to do unpleasant things to keep the account. Basically it's showing that if he'd made a pass at Pete, Pete would have grinned and bent over.
Connie wanted a literal moon. Don thought he was being metaphorical.
@ Russen #29
…nobody will be around to save him because he is alienating everyone.
That makes me think of Don's warning to Pete early in Season 1, that he'll end up alone in his corner office because "no one will like you." We've seen Don go out of his way to be cruel to the few people who felt a personal loyalty to him, first Peggy (though, interestingly, it turned out that Don did put her on the Hilton account), now Sal. Perhaps Karl's quote on the main thread from The Godfather, "It's not personal, it's business," really is Don's credo. And we all know how that turned out for Michael Corleone: alone, friendless, his hapless brother's murderer (which, come to think of it, we might say about Don as well.)
Someone upthread said there was a theme about power this episode. I really noticed it when Bobby said to Carla "I told you I don't want salad!" and Betty snapped back "Carla doesn't work for you, she works for me". Not only did she not reprimant him for his lack of manners, but she was asserting her power. (And geez, she seems to hate that kid. I can't remember her ever speaking to him unless it was to issue an order or criticism.)
@ Russen #29
I totally want Betty to prove victorious over Don. She made the choice not to cheat because she wants something more from her husband.
I don't think that's why she made the choice not to cheat. I don't think it had anything much to do with Don. She's been fantasizing romance, and she was looking around the room at reality–having to be quiet so that the secretary won't hear and then fixing your hair so that your walk of shame is not so shameful is not the same as the dream of being kissed on the fainting couch.
Betty chose not to take that road (at least for now) but not because it was the moral high road. It wasn't about morals.
#36 Yes, yes, all that, but what struck me while watching it was that Don's behavior was almost exactly the same as Pete's: "I want you, who cares what you think?" It made me just as sick.
This show has become such a downer. They are really overplaying it.
Is Sal off the show for good?
Isn't Henry from Ossining, or at least from Westchester? I don't think he's rich as Rockefeller (to quote another song lyric) but there's something about him that says old money to me. That's a reason why Betty would be attracted to him. He's her own kind.
I forgot that Happy gave up custody to her children in the divorce. But do you think Don would contest that, with everything Betty has on him? Though he clearly loves them, he does not strike me as a Mr. Mom.
Henry doesn't feel like old money to me. He was a furniture mover and his accent lacks prep school polish.
#37, Oh Deborah, I wish you hadn't put that image into my head of Pete and Mr. Lucky Strike, Jr.
I'm not a bit sure that Betty has any more clue about what she wants at all, but at least she does know she doesn't want clandestine quickies to solve her life. For Betty, that's progress.
As for Don, ugh! I'd really hoped Don getting horny for the future Mary Kay Latorneau would prove to be a false lead. It's positively unforgivable on both their parts. Clearly she's old hat at this and not only is she more than willing to screw Sally's Daddy in the neighborhood, but see her every day at school. And Don has as little respect for Sally as he does for Betty. This is familial suicide for Don.
Roberta I totally agree now. I think Betty is so lost she doesnt know what she wants. But I am starting to agree that Don and Betty are over, its only a matter of time before either one of them serves the other with divorce papers. My guess it will be Betty after she finds out about Ms. Farrell. And it wont be hard for Betty to get sole custody of the kids. Her husband is a fraud, she will have so much dirt on him, it is obvious that the judge will grant her sole custody leaving Don all alone. And you know what I hope she does do it. After what Don has done to Sally, I wouldnt want him near her again. What I mean by Don doing to Sally is sleeping with her teacher whom she really liked. Do you know how psychological f-ed up that would be for Sally? I also hope that Betty puts that teacher in her place, now that Betty is becoming a politico I bet she will have that teacher begging on her knees for a job.
I really don't see Betty becoming a politico. She almost screwed a politico, then decided it was "tawdry."
And would she really want full custody of the kids? Even with a good divorce settlement, she might not be able to afford as much of Carla's time. Having 3 brats around full time would really cramp the style she would like to have.
While 'net surfing yesterday I landed on this story by Gay Talese in Esquire in April 1966 entitled "Frank Sinatra Has A Cold."
http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ1003-OCT_SINAT…
Beginning in paragraph 5 with naming the song "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" and its description as "music to make love by" the entire piece is whisperingly evocative of the era of Mad Men. I invite all Basketcases to read and enjoy.
There seems to be an intentional effort to highlight Connie's Christianity (worn rather agressively on his sleeve) and Don's apparent agnosticism (or atheism?). The Drapers don't seem to go to chuch at all. Very unusual for 1963.
Don always changes the subject or assumes the question is rhetorical when Connie asks him questions like "Do you ever pray on a difficult problem?" I think it will become another excuse for Connie to reject Don.
I wouldn't be surprised if Connie's late-night drink with Don where he professed his fatherly affection was nothing more than a set up to make the later, bullying rejection of Don that much more satisfying.
even if Betty does not become a politico I bet she will have the power to tarnish that Teacher's reputation. I mean if she didnt even do it to Helen Bishop in season 1 imagine what Betty will do with the rest of the women. They are going to eat that girl alive.
@Russen – I get the distinct feeling that this wouldn't be Miss Farrell's first run-in with some pretty angry wives. She's clearly been around the block with the daddies, and Ossining is just her latest stop. Like I said above, next stop Unadilla, or some other upstate backwater school district? She won't be staying in Ossining for long after this affair gets out, even if she cries rape and tries to put all the blame on Don.
I'm starting to feel like a masochist for putting myself through this every Sunday night. Can there be any positive outcome for any of this? Hard to see it from here.
How is MM going to make me care about Don again? I kind of lost it this week.
@49 Jon — I agree with you 100%. I think there is going to be a BLOWOUT between Don and Connie, reinforcing that Don has no one (after that whole "I see you as my son") exchange.
And also just wanted to say that this show is drawing me in even more than before. I have never looked forward to a show this much.
I take it that the sports bra was invented after 1963? That Miss Farrell must know that her bouncing perky twins must attract the men in Ossining like Don and Carleton.
Empress, ha! I remember the sports bra being introduced. I'm thinking 80s.
gypsy I agree. This whole teacher thing is bound to be a disaster. At first I thought Betty's affair would bring about disaster to her and her family, but turns out it is going to be Don for sure. I have no sympathy for him what so ever. I started to believe that our Don was a good guy underneath, but his greed, and bull shit approach of moving forward with one's life is getting old, and in fact with him preaching this to everyone, nobody seems to care anymore.
#53 To be fair to the teacher, she was running in the very early morning when she could reasonably expect no one would see her.
Why are we assuming Betty would WANT custody of the children if she left Don? I can see her taking baby Gene and leaving Sally and Bobby behind.
To be fair to the teacher, she was running in the very early morning when she could reasonably expect no one would see her.
Well, just because she's running before the invention of the sports bra doesn't mean she has to run without ANY bra. But either way, let's not kid ourselves, Miss Farrell is just as intent on playing this dangerous game as the horny daddies are. She knows exactly what she's doing. The drunken phone call, for starters? The wacko conversation during the eclipse? She is trouble. AND she knows it from experience but she's doing it anyway. She's no more innocent than Don is.
Wonder if she has any idea what she's getting into with Don, though. She just opened up a whole huge can of worms on that one. I don't think this is going to end up like boffing Carleton for her this time.
I've been thinking about Pete's rifle a lot since last night….
Jon,
Connie's rejection of Don would be the rejection of a son by a father figure. Satisfying? Perhaps — but world-shattering, in another way.
Unless it really is Don's conscious intention to run around collecting fathers, that is. I see his tendency to encounter them as more of an unconscious — happy or unhappy — accident.
By the way, I loved what Connie says to Don in this episode:
"You're my angel … like a son. More. Because you didn't have what they had. You understand."
The beauty of these lines lies in knowing what the old man's kids were like at the time. The survivors are now old, of course, and the kid who was the biggest thorn in his father's side now seems set to pull a Connie and leave his fortune to charity. (Having a granddaughter like Paris is just that scary.)
Still, 1963 Conrad is dead-on. His kids can spend, travel, and marry, but they have no idea how to work for a living.
That little speech to Don is what stings when Connie tells him he is "disappointed", later on. "You did not give me what I wanted," he says.
So this "parent's" love is conditional. Just like all the others.
That was my only moment of sympathy for Dick/Don last night, Anne B. But, I doubt Archie ever said he loved him.
Which makes it all the more crushing of course.
#55 I guess that could be true. Maybe she got sick of running in the mornings after catching Carleton ogling at her too many times. Lucky for her, Don is became an insomniac.
I can't wait until we hit the late 60s, and Sally goes wild child on us. If she found out about Betty and Henry, she'd probably get over it pretty quickly. But her daddy and Miss Farrell, the teach she loves and looks up to? She'll need those drugs to get over that.
#41, To be fair, I think you have a point, Donny. Technically speaking the scenes with Don and Pete seem to mirror each other.
- man arrives at woman's home in the middle of the night, obviously angling sex
- man hassles woman to let him inside, once inside comments on the nice surroundings
- man doesn't wait for consent, just steps right into woman's personal space, telling her what he wants
- woman seems reluctant but submits without a fuss
Which is to say both incidents would read the same in court! The main differences would be that Pete was very drunk while Don wasn't and that Farrell seems to be attracted to Don while Gudrun didn't seem attracted to Pete. I'm using the word 'seems' here because I'm still very puzzled over whether Farrell likes Don or not. The tipsy bra-strappy phone call certainly seemed like flirting, but in the eclipse scene and in the final scene she seemed to be expressing a lot of distaste for philandering men like Don. She says she knows this affair will end badly so why is she doing it? I don't buy that Don is sooo hot that women will overlook his jerkiness.
Part of me thinks Miss Farrell has been used and discarded by married men before and she is perhaps 'testing' Don to see if he is any different. Maybe she is some sort of self-appointed honey-trap. I get the feeling that Farrell could really make Don suffer if she wanted to.
I don't agree with Roberta. I think that Betty knows what she doesn't want. She doesn't want a cheap and tawdry affair or tryst, like she had in "Mediations on an Emergency". She wants a meaningful relationship with someone. That would explain the letters she exchanged with Henry, her anger at Don for keeping her in the dark about his contract problems, and her tears following the dinner with the Barretts in "The Benefactor". And when she visited Henry's office, she realized that she was not going to get it from him, anymore than she was ever going to get it from Don.
gypsy,
Yes! That rifle!
I've been thinking about it too. As a metaphor, you understand.
I think that we saw Matt and company take a "rifle" off the wall* in the grass-fondling/maypole scene, earlier this season. In Wee Small Hours, that thing finally … um … went off.
* Apologies to Chekhov. ("One must not place a loaded rifle [or a pretty teacher] on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it.") Things typically don't end well in Russian plays, either.
Let's see if it remains only a metaphor, Anne! We still have 4 more episodes, and things are definitely heating up.
#27 Gypsy Great analysis of the situation. Don wants to get caught. It is no longer about the thrill of the chase or the rush of the new affair. When Don tells Betty that Connie just called and wants him to come over, she replies that she didn't hear the phone ring (because she suffers from insomnia too). With Connie calling the Draper residence at all hours of the evening, what will happen when Betty answers the phone and Connie asks for Don?
So the question now is why is Don back on the road to self-destruction? Because Don got played. Like a piano. Annie quotes Connie, "You're an angel . . . like a son." Man, that's the oldest play in the book. Older, successful businessman takes the young, talented relatively new guy under his wing and promises to help him along the way. What is shocking to Don and the audience is that he starts to see himself that way. And then the truth of their relationship is revealed when Connie tells him the work is good but he is disappointed. "What did you want from me? Love?" Since the very beginning, its been about what Connie wants.
Connie and Lee Jr. in this episode are examples of powerful people imposing their will on those underneath them. What gets Connie off is making Don come over at 11:30pm for a drink in downtown Manhattan. Once he agreed to this, Don became Connie's bitch. So what does Don do after Connie's rejection? Impose his will on Miss Ferrell. No birth control. No pulling out. I predict another unwanted pregnancy. Only this time, Miss Ferrell is not going to have an abortion or "give it away".
"He's been dying of the same heart attack for twenty years." – Michael Corleone
#60 Thank you, falafel, that's exactly what I meant. Same can be said for Lee, Jr., with Sal. Only Henry Francis is a gentleman. It's surprising one even exists in this universe.
Mad Men: where all the men are rapists and all the women are crazy! Woo hoo!
I totally agree, DRush. I thought it was fairly obvious that Betty has had the cheap affair and wants something more this time. In her letters, she told Henry quite emphatically that she does "have thoughts"; her problem is that no one wants to hear them. She thought Henry might, but it turned out he was just like the guy in the bar.
#64 Frank,
What else I saw in Connie's words to Don ("you're an angel"): an echo of Don's own words to his wife, back in Season 1.
Those words were not yet an expression of fact. They were wishes. What else do you say to someone who gets out of bed at a few minutes to midnight to have a drink with you? To the person who accepts the loss of her job, even justifies that loss to herself, then has a lovely dinner waiting when you come home from work?
As for "love": I'm not sure that's what the "angels" want. I see them wanting to finally earn their wings and fly, far away from all that keeps them earthbound.
"Angel" seems like an odd thing for one man to call another, even a man of deep religious convictions like Connie.
I hope Connie is not just toying with Don (there I go already, caring about what happens to Don again) as a power play. Do you think Connie does feel a connection to Don, or is he just using him.
On another subject, it occurs to me that Miss Farrell is going to take JFKs death particularly hard. I bet she's running because of JFK's physical fitness program. Anyone else remember that in the early 60s? My parents even had us doing jumping jacks and running in place every day! Funny, I'd forgotten all about that til this morning, thinking about Miss Farrell out jogging.
#65, I don't know if I see Henry as a real gentleman. He wouldn't politely attend Betty's fundraiser. He seems to have decided after meeting with Betty a whole three times, that their courtship is now over and it's high time they were having tawdry sex in his office.
There are distinctions that can be made between Don and Greg and Pete and Henry and Lee Jr., etc, but I think they are all complicit in the same culture of male entitlement. Don showed again in his talk with Sal that this notion of sexual obligations is deemed acceptable. It feels like the very idea of sexual harrassment hasn't been invented yet. But to be fair, I don't think it comes down to evil individuals – it is an evil in society that these men are conforming to, in differing degrees.
You mention The Wire, another great show that asks the viewers to sympathise with a variety of "bad guys", crooked cops and murdering criminals. Again I think those characters are largely shaped by their society and their environment. We the viewer can comfortably say that shooting someone in the head over a petty grivance is wrong, wrong, wrong…but as far as the corner kids know, that is just the way that life is.
#68 Gypsy–Yes, I remember, "The President's Council on Physical Fitness." That was when they first started worrying that America's youth was getting soft and out of shape. Of course, the irony is that nearly 50 years later in an era of super-sized portions and high fructose corn syrup seemingly added to virtually everything, that all those kids of yesteryear appear positively svelte today.
Re The Wire: It was a show that had complete compassion for its characters, no matter how flawed. It took people who have already been marginalized and showed their underlying humanity and made you root for them. Mad Men makes its privileged, physically attractive characters rotten to the core and invites the viewer to slowly come to despise them.
The Wire used to make me weep on a regular basis, and find compassion in my heart for murderers, politicians and drug lords. Mad Men makes me simply disgusted and annoyed at the supposition that most regular middle or upper class Americans have not one shred of decency or integrity.
@ 12 freeperson- I think you have it exactly right. Don told Sal to limit his exposure. Don did not care what Sal's personal life was like, as long as it did not interfere with life at the office. Don saw it as Sal's personal life affecting Sterling-Cooper, which he couldn't have.
To make sure I have my Hilton geneology, Connie Hilton is Nick's father. Connie thinks Nick is just a spoiled playboy. Fast forward a few decades. Nick is Paris's grandfather. Nick thinks Paris is a spoiled girl, and plans to give his money to charity, rather than have her waste it. If I understand this correctly, that is delightfully ironic.
Both The Wire and Mad Men are/were beautifully underwritten shows that allow for plenty of interpretation on the part of the viewer. Both exist as a comment on modern life, as well as an escape from it.
I relied far more on the world The Wire created for me, and brought almost no baggage to it from my own life (because I had no experience with the life most of the characters lived). The beauty of the language, the depth of story, the weight of the characters' pain: those resonated in indelible ways. As did the humor, which was pitch-perfect and as dark as every single night hit.
I don't necessarily see Mad Men's characters as morally bankrupt. Because they remind me of people I knew (and know), because that world preceded and in some ways explains the world I grew up in, I feel some compassion for the characters' inability to reach beyond their comfortable habits and enjoy lives of greater honesty and risk.
The thing is, this world still has not changed. A whole lot of conventional people still like doing things in the old, conventional ways: and they easily get away with maintaining, protecting and enforcing the status quo, often at the expense of others. I credit Mad Men with keeping my eyes open to this.
In The Wire, the system that the people were a part of was encouraging the evil behavior very explicitly and meant survival: Stringer needs someone dead, he tells you to kill them or be killed; Rawls tells you to juke the stats or you lose your job, etc. However, no one is holding a gun to Don's head to yell at Peggy, betray Sal or seduce that teacher. Just because you can "get away with it" doesn't necessarily mean it's imperative for your survival. That's a very large difference.
I still think there is a sense of a "food chain" on Mad Men. Most everyone is fucking someone over, whilst getting fucked by someone else. Don usually has power over women and his office underlings, but there are also people like Connie and Cooper who have power over Don. In this episode, Lucky Strike Lee had the ultimate power to ruin the company. Characters can be the villian in one scene and a victim in the next.
But Donny, I agree. The last three episodes especially have been very unflattering to our core characters. It does feel like overkill. This episode really depressed me.
Another theme in this episode is submission to a master, whether it's Don to Connie, Sal to Lucky Lee (then Don), or Carla to Betty.
In the shots of connie in his room late at night, there is a glass of "Hair Tonic", a rosary, a Holy Bible, business papers, and his glasses. Behind him is a painting, which I knew would be thematically important. I couldn't quite make it out on the TV freeze frame, but it appeared to be a religious painting with someone being supplicated to by someone else. From the composition I guessed that it was a painting of Mary Magdalene with Jesus, perhaps washing his feet. After looking at a screencap, I am 99% sure that's what it is, rarely is there a religious painting where a man in a beard is standing and a blonde woman is supplicating, when it isn't Jesus and Mary Magdalene:
http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b146/little_eni…
Sports bra, 1977 http://www.944.com/blog/who-invented-the-sports-b…
#70, I second that!
Eep, I meant #79.
#48 musingegret said
"…Beginning in paragraph 5 with naming the song “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning†and its description as “music to make love by†the entire piece is whisperingly evocative of the era of Mad Men. I invite all Basketcases to read and enjoy."
speaking of… I was in Starbucks yesterday and saw Barbara Streisand's new album while in line. The song "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" is on the album. I assume it's the same one…
I don’t wish to derail, but #70, could we cool it with the fat-bashing? More kids than ever play organized sports. More kids than ever eat organic foods, whole grains, a huge variety of fresh vegetables and fruit. I don’t buy all this “kids were healthier 50 years ago” crap. I was around in the 60s and 70s; with a total of one exception, I was the ONLY kid in my school who got whole wheat bread for sandwiches, the ONLY kid whose parents didn’t buy snack cakes or sugared cereals. I practically dove on spinach when it was served to me. And I was one of the chubbiest girls in my school. People, including very young people, ate crap then, and plenty of it. I’m pretty sure Sally and Bobby Draper don’t have any idea what brown rice tastes like.
Sorry if my remarks offended you Meowser, but I don't think I was "fat bashing." My comments were based on my empirical experience teaching school and study after study confirming that as a country we're far heavier than we were during the MM generation and that there's a direct correlation between an increase in portion sizes (ever see "Super Size Me?") and the over abundance of cheap, high fructose corn syrup which flavors *everything* and not just sweet food. All you have to do is compare the size of an old sixties bottle of coke (about 6-8 oz, compared to standard size vending machine can now–12 to 15 oz). The National Institute of Health says that the average sugar intake for the average American in one generation has gone from 150 grams to 300 grams, which is huge, and fully one third of the American adult population is overweight. In fact, it's become such a nationwide problem, that Congress has just begun to consider taxing sugary soft drinks like Coca-Cola (who is now starting to run full-page ads suggesting how responsible they are), and in PC San Francisco where I live, there's already legislation on tap.
And with the kids, sorry, but the situation is desperate. More of them than ever have Type 2 Diabetes, a form of diabetes which usually doesn't surface until adulthood. Yes, we ate plenty of junk food in the early sixties when the President's Commission of Physical Fitness was started in the Kennedy years, but as I mentioned earlier, portion sizes were smaller, we drank much more milk–the kids I taught had to be forced to drink it, juiceboxes are ubiquitous–and –gasp–*we got more exercise* just by walking to school, longer recesses, and all the informal running around we did before and after school. When I was going to school in the late fifties and early sixties, there was maybe one poor kid in every class who was a "fatty." When I taught elementary school here, it was not uncommon in a class of 25 kids to have at least 4 or 5 in each class who were seriously overweight. That's huge (sorry about the pun
. The National Institute of Health is speculating that this may in fact be the first generation to live shorter lives than their parents.
You say more kids than ever play organized sports. I don't know where you live, maybe that's true in the suburbs but that surely is not true in a major urban area like San Francisco where I live and taught. Maybe one reason "more kids than ever play organized sports" is because the daily PE we got as kids in the sixties–a full forty mintues worth–has by and large been cut, at least here, to 3x a week for 20 minutes, and the organized sports leagues have to supplement what we used to get as a matter of course. Kids' lives are much more scheduled, and indeed probably overscheduled–many don't have informal free play and the kind of lifestyle we now lead and all the attendant fears for their safety–means that they are by and large driven to school.
The reason the President's Commission on Physical Fitness was started was because the genesis of our current health problems had their roots in the MM era–the excessive drinking, the increasing mechanization of routine work (i.e., the John Deere tractor lawn mower) that used to burn calories, the increasing proclivity of watching the still-new tv instead of throwing a ball around–got them all worried that as a nation we were starting to get soft. So what I was saying was not that we were all that great then but given the gradual, cumulative changes in our lifestyle, it looks much better by comparison.
I remember what school PE was like in the 70s. It was mostly a lot of standing around in an itchy gym suit and about 3 minutes of actual moving around. Kids would get more exercise from putting on the music for five minutes in the middle of the day and dancing than we ever got from PE, and they wouldn't be scared off physical activity for life from other kids taunting them for stinking so bad at gym.
And "dire"? Seriously? For children who grow up poor, yeah, their situation is for crap, because their stress levels are off the charts, there's no safe place for them to play, and they have limited access to high-quality food. But I see no reason for handwringing about middle-class and affluent children; as a group, there's nothing wrong with them (although there can, of course, be individual exceptions).
Type 2 diabetes was never even tested for in kids before 1988 — trust me, nobody ever took my blood — and now they look for it under every rock. The standards for what is considered "diabetic" have also tightened; it used to be a fasting blood sugar > 140 was diagnostic, and since 1997 it's 125, and now you're "prediabetic" if it's over 100 and you're fat. You can't compare new data to old when no old data exists; therefore, we don't know that there has been any increase in FBS at all in kids in the last 30-40 years.
And even the ADA, not exactly a fat-friendly group, says on its Web site that the prevalence of T2D today in people younger than 20 is rare enough they don't even keep statistics on T2D in particular. However, extrapolating from other data on their site about diabetes in general, the prevalence is something like 1/8 of 1 percent. Oooh, scary. And considering that the majority of the prevalence is in children of lower socioeconomic status, the number of middle-class and affluent kids who have it is more microscopic still. Not to mention that kids have fluctuations in insulin sensitivity and blood sugars throughout childhood and adolescence that could greatly skew results; many of these "diabetic" kids might not actually be diabetic at all.
Sorry for the derail, Deb and Roberta, but I really hate all this "kids were so much healthier in the Mad Men days" nonsense. It's just not true.
Well, sorry Meowser, why don’t we just agree to disagree on this one.
I’m actually about as far from being a health Nazi as you can get, and I certainly don’t want to get into a protracted discussion about this. All I’m saying is that I think it’s pretty well established by now that as a country we’re now in horrible shape, a lot of which has to do with pervasive societal/industrial factors, and that a lot of those factors got their start in the MM era, hence President Kennedy’s Commission on Physical Fitness.