Afflicted
Appearances matter. They probably mattered more in the early 1960′s than they do even today.
If you were perceived as damaged or disabled, you were done.
Ask Guy McKendrick. Or Freddy Rumsen. Or Danny Farrell. They are damaged goods.
Lois Sadler, however, maintains full employment.
Society wasn’t big on coming back from things. Oh, something’s wrong with you that we’d rather not have to be reminded about every day? Bye-bye.
Don’s whole life is constructed around denying his disadvantaged past and damaged psyche. The biggest difference between him and Guy is that a damaged psyche is easier to hide than a missing foot.
After Guy’s lawnmower incident there was an interesting post about the Americans with Disabilities Act and what rights he would have had in today’s world. Yesterday’s world had no such thing because the prevailing attitude was to rid the landscape of anything unpleasant. There was no narrative that included an account guy without two feet.
The reason I find this interesting is because it highlights one of the ways we’ve mostly improved as a society. Today if you lost an appendage in a horrific workplace accident, you wouldn’t lose your job. If your drinking began to interfere with your performance, nearly all mid-to-large companies have employee assistance programs and you could seek treatment without losing your job. A young man dealing with epilepsy would have some resource to help find appropriate work rather than drifting from one unsuspecting employer to another.
If you heard the premise of Mad Men and listed all the ways society has changed in the last 40-50 years, you would definitely hit on the casual racism, sexism and anti-Semitism that was more visible then than now. But you likely would not think to include this type of discrimination – I’m not sure what the correct term for it would be. But it’s more than just a few laws that have been enacted. For this, the show should be commended.
Popular culture today overflows with stories of overcoming things. Mad Men was still the age of the hero, not yet to embrace the anti-hero (Catch-22, generally regarded as inventing the modern anti-hero, was published in 1961). John Wayne was the heroic archetype, and weakness was something you avoided or denied, not something you overcame.
But our attitudes today are far more liberal – and healthy – toward accepting what in the past would been deemed useless. We accept redemption – physical and emotional – as part of the social narrative much more than we used to.
I think a number of public and cultural events that took place over the last 40+ years have helped engender this attitude in many compelling ways. Among them:
- Betty Ford – both for her public battle with breast cancer in 1974, and for her admitted addiction to alcohol and subsequent treatment in the late 1970′s;
- Films such as The Graduate and Rocky that intentionally play off pre-conceived societal roles and our conditioned expectations of outcomes;
- America’s experience in Vietnam, which, among many other things, showed that America’s political and military involvement did not equate to moral superiority;
- And yes, the music of Bob Dylan, which asked hard and unflinching questions that had no real answers, but provoked thoughtful analysis of modern life
Obviously these are my subjective examples, and they don’t all directly explain why Guy McKendrick would be better off today than in 1963 … but the world in which his incident happened was in the process of changing in so many directions. One of the outputs of those changes was a social narrative that includes – and even embraces – stories of individuals that achieved despite their afflictions, and not because they didn’t have any.
Basket of Kisses: The unofficial blog of AMC's Mad Men. Where all the cool kids meet & greet to talk about Don Draper, Janie Bryant, Christina Hendricks, Jon Hamm, Matthew Weiner, & subtexty things.
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October 21st, 2009 at 8:14 pm
I watched a movie a few months ago about the man –whose name escapes me–who, being a disabled Vietnam Vet, almost single-handedly (no pun intended…he was actually deaf) pushed thru the ADA.
October 21st, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Frankly I'm pretty shocked that Lois is still with Sterling Cooper. She has a history of screwing up in small ways—including utterly flubbing her turn as Don's secretary—and then she cuts off a guy's foot with a lawnmower in the office.
To be clear: she cuts off his foot. With a lawnmower. In the office.
And not just any guy, of course, but Guy: an extremely powerful, important member of PPL. Who could possibly stand up for Lois in this situation? I'm pretty mystified that her "What did I do?" moment wasn't the last we ever saw of her.
October 21st, 2009 at 9:37 pm
I’m pretty mystified that her “What did I do?†moment wasn’t the last we ever saw of her.
I'm not. Roger Sterling probably adores her for what she did.
And I think the word you're looking for is "ablism." It still exists. They may not be able to say they're firing you or not hiring you or not promoting you because of your disability, but companies can always think of an excuse. It's true that it doesn't mean an automatic career-ender any longer, which is certainly progress. And certainly there have been medical advances since 1963 — medications, prostheses, surgeries, etc. — which would have made a huge difference for Guy's foot and Danny's epilepsy. But access and accommodation for PWD — in the workplace and elsewhere — is a constant problem that always needs attention, and people's understanding of invisible disability is still somewhere in the Dark Ages.
October 21st, 2009 at 10:29 pm
One word for that kind of discrimination is "ableism". A good definition is provided by Princeton's WordNet: "Ableism: discrimination in favor of the able-bodied."
October 21st, 2009 at 11:57 pm
I do agree that we more accepting of dissabilities now then we were in the 1960s, but there is one point I’d like to make. Advertising Agencies were different from other occupations. Post WWII and Korea, there were a significant number of men who had lost limbs during battle. Not all of them ended up on welfare/dependent on others. Some were able to find jobs. However, ad agencies were very concerned with image, so you are correct in that Guy would not be welcome at Sterling Cooper.
While the anti-hero did really become popular until later in the decade (Easy Rider, Bonnie and Clyde, Cool Hand Luke,) your comment on strength reminded me of a counterpoint to John Wayne. James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause.” During the scene at the mansion, Judy (Natalie Wood) tells Jim (James Dean) that being Plato’s (Sal Mineo) friend when no one else wanted to be was being strong. However, that movie was strictly for teenagers. Adults probably saw him as whiney, and didn’t understand what the fuss was about.
It’s always interesting to compare “Mad Men” to the America of today, see what’s changed, what hasn’t, and whether the changes have been for the better. Although in case, I’d say the change was absolutely for the better.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:10 am
I don’t know if I’d put Freddie alongside Guy and Danny. Freddie’s lifestyle has been the cause of his health problems, much like Roger’s heart attacks and Don’s high blood pressure. Poor Freddie just didn’t have the same power to keep his job. If Roger had been a lower status employee he might have been canned for his health issues too.
There’s also Anna with her artificial leg, who seems to have problems finding a husband, though she is doing fine with Don’s help.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:48 am
The Kennedy family also made significant efforts toward destigmatizing mental illness and retardation during the 60's, including JFK's 1963 agenda to increase social support networks in lieu of state institutions (the Community Mental Health Acts) and Eunice's 1968 founding of the Special Olympics.
Obviously this was all inspired by the Kennedy's personal experience with Rosemary, but the increased visibility and opportunities for people with mental disabilities in the community that have evolved from this legislation has improved the lives of millions.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:07 am
My brother was diagnosed as epileptic sometime in the late 1950s: I remember the unsettling aspects of the seizures that could happen at any time, but I remember being woken at night, several times.
My mother, who would be considered clinically depressed today, worried that somehow her affliction had caused this in her son. (And her worry that she was affecting her children negatively may have been one reason she committed suicide, according to an aunt.)
It seemed that my father rejected my brother as damaged, as well, or that could also have been because my brother had absolutely no interest in either sports, or science, my father’s interests.
However, my brother’s epilepsy was soon controlled by the prescription drug Dilantin and the seizures subsided until his early 20s, when it was finally discovered that our idiot pediatrician was still prescribing a children’s dosage. (Not helped by my brother’s then fascination with non-prescription drugs, either.)
Although there seemed to be a sense of shame attached to epilepsy in the late ’50s-early ’60s (as with any other visible “affliction” or disability at the time) my brother’s epilepsy was controlled for the rest of his life.
Now in his fifties, my brother has somehow grown out of his epilepsy, and no longer needs the prescription — he knows full well the feelings of a seizure coming on, and they simply don’t any longer.
A quick glance at the wikipedia page, seems to contradict one aspect of Mad Men’s portrayl of an epileptic, “Seldom during seizures do people lose bladder or bowel control.” Also don’t remember that affecting my brother, even as a child.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:32 am
I like the use of "rid the landscape". Get it? And is it so, so wrong that I want " I am afflicted" on a t-shirt? It is, you're right.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:34 am
The word "afflicted" used by Danny himself was interesting to me.
I got just the faintest of hint of an interesting angle from a real skinny thread at Michael Berube's blog. I skulk around a lot. He teaches lit, and cultural and disability studies at PSU.
I'm no academic by any stretch, but he is always an interesting read and he likes teh MadMen too.
He mentions a sociological theory labeled Stigma, here's the wiki link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigma_(sociological... if anyone's curious. Is anyone familiar with this?
I'm cramming now to see if this can be used to solve the riddle of the Don.
Oaktown Girl do you comment over here?
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:25 am
#7 Freelancewoman. Thank you for your commentary and sharing your personal story. Today, epilepsy is often reffered to as a "seizure disorder" in order to take away that old time stigma. People do not realize that in the U.S. alone, almost 3 million people have some form of epilepsy. I felt sorry for Danny that he lived in such an intolerant time as the 1960's, that he didn't have the benefit of medical attention and/or medication, and I was greatful that our society has come such a long way to be more tolerant of each other. As recently as a few years ago, it was reported that The Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, John Roberts, had a seizure off a dock in Maine. The media began to explain that this was not his first seizure, and so by definitition, he had epilepsy. I wish they had continued on with that coverage… but instead it seemed to loose its fizzle. It would have been a wonderful lesson to all with seizure disorders, that anything is possible, and that this disorder (like any other) should not define or limit a person in achieving their potential in life.
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:44 am
@ "less of me": Erving Goffman's "Stigma" is a quick read, and examines the effects of social perceptions on self-identity (particularly in a disability context) – I really recommend it if you have a bit of interest in the topic.
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:47 am
#6–Anna doesn't have an artificial leg, she has a limp and uses a leg brace.
Feministing points out that unemployment is still very high among people with epilepsy. Here's the link: http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/node/1139
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:04 am
Joy and Deborah– Thanks!
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:56 am
I've posted before that I'm 23 and in a wheelchair, and I have had older people say things to my parents when we were out like "It's so nice that you take her out." And you're just dumbfounded at how to respond!
More to the point though, I wasn't that surprised to hear Danny say he's afflicted. Maybe they could try to hide it from other people for a little while, but it's not like he doesn't know. People are always touchy about pointing out or commenting in any way that someone is disabled. But it's not like its a secret I'm sitting down, I'm well aware lol and don't mind talking about it. It's much better to be asked than stared at. And after awhile you don't even noticed the stares, it's the people with you that it bothers because they aren't used to that attention, so I just tell my able bodied friends when they bring it up that they stare because we're pretty. And with my friends and family we all use the word crippled and joke about it. But if a stranger says it in a serious or hurtful way, well, that is not tolerated. So that line seems natural to me, but I wasn't around then so maybe it's not for '63.
And as far as ADA, we had to sue my high school in 2002 to get them to put in ramps and a decent sized bathroom, and electric door opener buttons. Which is beyond bull shit since schools receive extra money every school year for each disabled student to make just such adjustments.
My third thought is that I have it pretty easy as far as disabilities go. I've never had trouble with a job (even when my service dog decided to pee in the middle of the office on day!), but a teacher in high school did cancel the Europe trip I was supposed to go on because she didn't want to bother with me going, even though I had an woman with the school who was ready to pay her own way and hang out with me if there was someplace I could go.
But I am so lucky I can use my arms, that I'm completely independent. I don't have seizures or narcolepsy or any other 'affliction' that limits my capabilities and is out of my hands. My grandpa was narcoleptic and that was awful, and difficult for him to hold down a menial job, let alone anything decent. My friend Alli is epileptic and can't drive, so she just moved to the city so it wouldn't be an issue. I'm lucky my parents took me out and I'm lucky that I just happen to be sitting down, but can still fight, if need be, for what needs to be corrected out in the real world.
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:56 am
Sorry if that was a bit rambling…
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:04 am
Also made me think of the new campaign Glenn Close started, Bring Change 2 Mind and the stigma of silence. http://www.bringchange2mind.org/
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:16 am
acdavis, not at all rambling! I'm reminded that when we did the "accepted students tour" of my son's college, he met a girl who uses a wheelchair, and he came running up to me (there were separate parent and student events) and asked how to politely interact with someone who uses a wheelchair. Does he bend down to make eye contact? Is it okay to mention? And really, rather than ask those questions and learn that, or risk a faux pas, many people would just rather ignore you.
And then there are "invisible" disabilities like Danny Farrell's. The symbol for disability is a wheelchair. My ex-husband is chronically ill and for a few years could not walk unaided. When our son, who was a toddler at the time, saw the wheelchair on our license plate, he thought that meant Daddy would now have to use a wheelchair instead of a cane. But the point is, people expect the wheelchair. I've seen people express hostility to someone with disability license plates because they look able-bodied. Issues of disability are very complicated. I kind of love that we discuss them here.
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:36 am
I love the "Mad Men" offers a way to explore other issues that are tangential to the episode. I also think it's great people find this blog a safe space to talk about their lives. It adds a great deal of insight.
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:42 am
DEAR GOD DONT BEND DOWN! lol I feel like a little kid whose parents are getting down to talk them about something important.
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:07 am
Ha! Don't hold back, tell us how you really feel!
I bet there are other wheelchair users who feel the opposite way; that the lack of eye contact is unbearable rude. Which just brings us back to the basic principal: Treat wheelchair users like human beings and respect their preferences.
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:17 am
Thanks for the insights, freelance & acd. The more it becomes common knowledge how to treat a person with a disability, the easier it will become for everyone. There is still so much ignorance. And able-bodied people don't seem to want to know; I recently took an optional class at work about customer service for people with disabilities and only 2 other people took it. It should have been mandatory.
I have had a couple of good friends with epilepsy, and it's a strange thing, it varies a lot, even in the same patient over time. One friend would have a seizure as soon as she quit taking her meds, another hasn't taken meds for years and only has a service dog who takes warns her and cares for her during the rare occasions she has a seizure. This friend is a teacher in middle school and they let her manage her disorder as she sees fit. So, yes, there is progress.
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:33 am
Viva zatopa! (not quite right but I choose not to dam the stream of consciousness sometimes.)
Right back at ya with the fist bump, non-terrorist variety of course– at least at a public blog.
I almost L-edOL about your appraisal of the cutlery over there. Spot on. I share some of their interests and attitude but I just lurk and learn. I get the feeling his commentariat don't share his enthusiasm for the show, which is weird because that's where I got the fantastic tip to check out the Basket!
This is like "Great Link Day" in here. Thanks acdavis!
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:50 am
@ 21 acdavis- Any other advice? I just found out I'm needed as staff for an event this weekend, and there is someone attending in a wheelchair. I don't want to offend him/her. Thanks for you help. I apologize to my fellow basketcases for going off-topic.
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:11 am
freelance woman, I'm so sorry for the loss of your mother and her inability to get the help she needed. However, I am glad your brother is doing well now. Thank you so much for sharing your story. acdavis, thank you for giving us your perspective as well. A friend of mine once was temporarily in a wheelchair, just for a week or so, and she had to go to the airport and could not believe how unbearably rude people were to her. It sounds like you do an excellent job of taking it all in stride.
I sometimes wonder if so many people feel nervous or behave rudely around people who have disabilities b/c they fear that it might happen to them one day. We are all one illness or accident away from that ourselves whether it is temporary or permanent. Like poor Guy.
People are so strange, it is always amazing how humans always have to have someone to discriminate against or pick on or make the outsider no matter if they are different in big ways or small ways. We are such odd animals.
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:47 am
I don't think you need to be face to face to make eye contact, but that very well could just be for me
RetroGirl – Don't automatically start pushing someone, but there's no harm in asking if they would like you to help. Plus I'm paralyzed from the middle of my boobs down, so when I'm leaning forward to push it totally throws my shitty balance even more off if someone just comes up behind me. Don't lean on the chair or like rest your arm on their shoulder, or pat them on the head. I know a lot of this seems obvious but you'd be surprised!
If the event is something where people will be seated, make sure they have a good seat, especially if it's a concert or something. You can see when everyone's sitting from most any seat, but a lot of times people will stand up for a long period of time and you're screwed. If there's a service animal don't pet it or talk to it without asking first. It amazes me how many adults will just come right up and start loving on a service dog. When is it ever smart to get in any dogs face that you don't know, let alone a service dog.
Don't assume you know why the person is handicap, but if the person seems open, feel free to ask. People ask if I was in a car accident all the time, or just assume I was and ask about it. And however you ask don't say 'What's wrong with you?'
Those are the basics I'd say!
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:08 am
@ 27 acdavis- Thanks. You've really helped me a great day. My grandmother always said, common sense isn't so common, so stating the obvious isn't a bad idea.
I now return you to your regular program of how amazing "Mad Men" is, and how brilliant all of the contributors are. (by contributors I mean cast/crew/production team of the show, everyone who writes for the Basket, and everyone who comments)
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:33 am
acdavis, thank you for sharing your perspective and your insights. I think some of the rudeness to people with disabilities, from typically compassionate people, stems from ignorance of how to approach something that they don't understand and fear of getting it wrong.
How much progress have we really made since the '60's on treating people who are "afflicted"?
While WWII and Korean vets who sacrificed a limb for their country were probably honored and accepted back home, but those who suffered burns or facial injury, likely were not. And our history of accepting the thousands of mentally and physically damaged Viet Nam vets was as horrific as the war itself. Even with our current veterans from Desert Storm and Iraq and Afghanistan, the uncomfortably high suicide rates, don't suggest we're welcoming them back into society.
Back in the day, children with disabilities were typically hidden away into institutions by families who could afford it. Rose Marie Kennedy was lobotomized in an attempt to "cure" her affliction – whether it was depression or a mental disability. People with certain illnesses were sterilized against their will so as not to "spread the disease". When state institutionalization was done away with in the 70's, many of the people released became homeless.
And while resources for families with members who suffer from a variety of "afflictions" are probably better than ever before, are we as a society all that much more accepting of them? I don't know.
Bringing it back to Mad Men. The Carpetbaggers, great trashy book/film will be released in 1964. Jonas Cord driven to prove he's not "crazy" like his brother, pushes everyone who loves him away, gives into every want when he wants it and is driven to achieve financial success to escape his lonely childhood and secret. Hmm, reminds me of some other character….
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:01 am
fist bump to less of me — I’m an avid lurker at le blogue Berube. Some very sharp knives are to be found in that drawer. It’s nice to see the crossover.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:40 am
I love the Lipp Sisters. Thank you again and again. Another great commentary in this Afflicted post.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:54 am
My brother overcame his afflictions — epilepsy, dead mother, rejecting father — in his early '20s, and went on to have a whole, full and productive life.
Perhaps the character Dan — and those epileptics surveyed who are in the main, jobless — have a more severe form of seizure disorder, that can't be controlled by medication.
The prescription drug Dilantin is also an anti-depressant, so that may have had something to do with my brother's upward mobility when they got the level right.
The point is, we all have our afflictions, some more noticeable than not. And in the early '60s those that were obvious tended to be discriminated against.
Don's afflications are hidden, but there, none the less.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Coop, this is terrific!
And wonderful comments from the posters. freelancewoman and acdavis, thank you in particular for adding your voices.
This is the topic I considered posting about as well. I prefer yours, though.
I found Danny abrasive, meanest of all to himself. I saw in him a young man who has turned his "affliction" into a combined swindle and cause: No, this pain is mine, I am different from you. I'm over here, you're over there, across the great gulf of ability. Help me: I can't help myself.
If Danny were doing something to change his circumstances, change others' perception — say, showing Don how the two of them are similar — I might have reacted differently. But he isn't. Danny isn't so much trapped in his affliction as building a foundation on it, planning to move right on in.
"The problem is other people," he says to Suzanne. Well, maybe. But the problem is also in his perspective, and the words he's chosen to describe who he is.
When my husband and I were dating, he told me a story about the power of words and what they say about us:
A patient arrives at a hospital in an ambulance, unconscious. Everything is wrong: internal injuries, head trauma, broken bones, the works. The patient remains in a coma for days, andearns a nickname among hospital staff: "the trainwreck". As in, "Please check the trainwreck in IC 4."
On day five, the patient regains cosciousness. A nurse asks, "Do you remember what happened to you?"
Says the patient, "I can't remember anything … but I think I was in a train wreck."
Words have power: more than we know. Danny Farrell's argument for his own marginalization works because his sister loves him, and because Don is broken enough to see the seams in a fellow con man; but most of all, because it means Danny gets to keep it.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:35 pm
I don't see the Danny character as a con artist: his experience has been, he's bright, but has been fired from jobs — pushed out from mainstream society — over something not only out of his control, but not particularly harmful to that society.
Yet he's being treated as though he's crazy, retarded, you name it, and unemployable except in an insane asylum as a janitor.
I had a stepnephew who was dyslexic, but in the '60s was undiagnosed and so then warehoused at his school with the mentally retarded, and his dyslexia was never addressed.
Finally, in his twenties he taught himself to read, passed numerous licensing requirements for major electrical work, was likeable and employed, but the damage had been done. His father, too, had rejected him, and he fell back repeatedly into drug use, spent some time in jail on drug use charges, and died of an overdose in his early 30s.
If their world repeatedly tells someone they're damaged, despite evidence to the contrary: they may become damaged, or bitter.
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Reading this makes me understand why I had such an emotional reaction to Danny and Suzanne's relationship and how it tied to Don. I noticed that with Adam there was a bit of an affliction. We don't know exactly what(of course the rejection by his only living family member definitely factored into his eventual death), but he did seem marginalized and in need of love and affection. He was able to live on his on and work but he was very isolated and socially awkward(or so it seemed).
It reminded me a bit of my baby brother. He is autistic but because my mother was adamant in getting him help at an early age, he is much more functional than most autistic children his age. He's been lucky to have therapists working with him all his life and he's been around his classmates since kindergarten and they love him. I really had not taken the time to understand what he deals with because I have lived on my own most of his life. Now, due to the crazy circumstances of our economy, I am at home and see him every day. I am more and more impressed each day with how amazing this kid is. Academically, he is number 2 in his class(he's a sophomore) and he gets better and better each week. He is not the most sociable person but he can relate to other people on a level that most autistic kids aren't able to do. My mother worries constantly about what life will be like for him once he's an adult, but I think we are so fortunate to be in this time. Even a mere 20 years ago he could have been sent away to a facility and not given the opportunities he is fortunate enough to have today.
What I find is that we are more accepting of different people but there is still ignorance. Even within my own family(about my brother). I think that is what my mother worries about. Plus she has her own memories of growing up in a time when people like my brother were hidden away and untreated. But, I constantly tell myself that even though my brother may be aware of his difference that does not stop his positive attitude. He is happy as long as we love him(and he can watch tv shows on dinosaurs, which are his obsession).
Thanks for this post. And thanks to freelancewoman and acdavis for sharing your stories. I've been thinking about my brother's future a lot lately and this helps me sort it out.
October 29th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Less of Me –
Sorry for the late reply, I've just received notice of this thread now.
Yes, I have been known to haunt Michael Berube's blog on occasion. And since he's become a late-adopter and happy-discoverer of Mad Men, I've made multiple references and posted links to BoK, which I call "The Official Unofficial Mad Men blog". I've also received at least one "thank you" over at Michael's blog the tip about Basket of Kisses. I'm pretty sure Mr. Berube first found out about BoK through yours truly, as well.
October 30th, 2009 at 4:22 am
#32 Anne B – love the train wreck parable. If you replace "train wreck" with "whore child," you pretty much have Dick Whitman. Which is basically the post.
The self-help movement was so far off at this time, however stories like Danny's and Freddy's et al. show how it was just as inevitable as civil rights and the women's movement.
Dick/Don was able to transcend his affliction though his own form of self-realization. The fact that he stole a comrade's identity, deserted the US Military and left at least three families destroyed in his wake is what makes for great drama.
But contrasting Don's self-realization with Guy/Freddy/Danny reminds us that America rewards the exterior without examining the interior.
October 30th, 2009 at 6:22 am
Oaktown, that is awesome, thanks.
October 30th, 2009 at 6:47 am
Oaktown Girl – Hello. I've happily flown through Berubean Airspace (or whatever it is today, it seems no one has a superior air force anymore.) since he came back to Blog, and it was your tip that sent me over here. They haven't yet been able to drive me off.
It's a big MM hyperbaric chamber, I can inhale the "toasted" goodness, and the chat gets me to the next Sunday.
See me in a verbal tussle, please jump on in!
And OT, I share your disgust of the Stankees. I'm not a Philly Phanatic at all but before last night, I was hoping they could find a way to beat NYY in THREE games! Such a thumping Selig calls it off by Sunday. Mercy rule or something.
I know. I'm still hoping my parents get me a pony too. Oh well.
October 30th, 2009 at 7:13 am
Jeez, I am so slow on the uptake sometimes. Was Suzanne in essence having her brother institutionalized when she sent him to that hospital/facility in Bedford for the "job?" Is that why he was so anxious to flee?
Now I can't even remember what facility it supposedly was.
Did I miss something here, or am I over-analyzing it?
October 30th, 2009 at 7:40 am
I might of missed something, though I don't think so.
I think it was just a regular menial job at a place that may have been accustomed to the imperfections and could handle such. A seizure at a hospital would be a common occurrence and safely managed. However he being in that place, the odds were good it might eventually lead to something more long-term at some point.
Run, Danny, run!