Dec 092009
I totally apologize for loving anachronisms as much as I do. They just tickle me. Here’s some tickling:
Anachronism on the bookshelf
In this still from Mad Men’s tenth episode of season three, look at the book above Betty Draper’s right shoulder: it’s a compendium of the first three novels of W.E.B. Griffin’s “The Corps” series, “Semper Fi,” “Call to Arms,” and “Counterattack.” The books were published in 1986, 1987, and 1990 respectively.
9 Responses to “This is AWESOME”
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I love it! Anachronisms are fun to find, if annoying because they ruin the mood, in their own way.
Now, my own particular guilty pleasure is keeping a little notebook in which there is a page devoted to the various misspellings of hors d'oeuvres. In one year alone I have come across six in mailings and invitations to me: hors d'veoures, H'orduerves (my personal favorite), hor d'oeuvres (dang! they almost got it!), hors d oeuvres, hors d'oevres, and hors d'ouvres.
Sorry. I know this had nothing to do with anachronisms, but the enjoyment is roughly the same.
Hmmm. What happened here? There was a reply from someone who mentioned a cookbook dated 1967. Now it's gone.
We had a server migration. Someone might have commented during it and the comment would then have been lost.
The book on the other side of Betty, "Meeting With Japan" was one of the first books for American business people on dealing with the Japanese. It came out in 1959, or five years after the U.S. led reconstruction was complete. Did SC have any Japanese clients? Would Don have had reason to travel to Japan?
Here is the book to which the missing post referred.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=1…
The blurb says it is seen in Betty Draper's kitchen and that the volume on offer is a 1967 first edition.
Brenda,
My personal suspicion as to that book is that it was originally a gift from Cooper.
I've only just started watching "Mad Men," and I'm only halfway through the first season. That makes me sort of an anachronism. But I was glad to find this thread, because several things have already rubbed me the wrong way. I'm commenting here because I don't know how to introduce an original topic.
The phrase "at the bottom of the food chain" may have existed as a scientific term, I don't know, but it's totally anachronistic for 1960's popular speech.
I'm trying to remember–when Don Draper falls down the stairs and we see his childhood self lying there, is he wearing long trousers? He's 8 – 10 years old, guys, and this is maybe the late 'Thirties or early Forties. He should be in knickers.
The long hair and beard on Midge's Village hipster friend, who goes out with Midge and Don to the beat poetry club, are screamingly anachronistic–1968, in fact. This was so bad it threw me right out of the scene. A little beard, fine, with short hair. It's principally the clothes that should mark him as a beatnik–but he should still be wearing, say, a corduroy jacket.
Except for the last, this is nit-picking. Granted, I was only 9 in 1960, but most everything is so physically accurate it makes me feel as if I've entered the Twilight Zone. This was just the time, for example, when a well-to-do couple would have been saying "Maybe we should get an air conditioner for the bedroom."
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The speech is very good, too. The young actors have obviously been coached to avoid "uptalk"–turning statements into questions–and other current bad habits. I don't hear any Valley Girl vowels.
Having said that, I have to say that I do not believe the picture of male-female relationships in the office for a minute. It is a cartoon of the Bad Old Days, and at the heart of the worst thing about the series–constantly snarking away at the poor old Fifties, who aren't around to defend themselves.
What goes on is so inimical to any kind of office efficiency, and therefore to the Bottom Line, that it is simply not believable. My impression is that any reasonable street-wise office worker like my mother, who was from Brooklyn, who could take care of herself and also gave off the air of not being interested in fun and games, would be left strictly alone, and would in fact be protected by the older men. As a Jew I'm prepared to believe that life among the goyim on Mad. Ave. may have been a bit different (I loved it when Midge's sister used the word "shikker", which I haven't heard in many years), but not that different.
Also, when Pete visits Peggy in her apartment, it seems to me that he is putting his life and his career in her hands. If she chose to make a stink about it, she could ruin even his career, even in 1960. Men then may not have understood sexism, but they understood "tacky" and they understood "scandal." Going to the apartment of a new secretary in darkest Brooklyn two days before his wedding!
Thanks for listening.
I am a bit late posting to this topic but just found the site.. One of the things making me crazy is hearing people say "Am unna" instead of "I am going to" or "Lemme" not "Let me". I read in one place that it was Jersey thing to say "I am going to" as "amana" all run together but I hear it everywhere in my world as sort of young people's lazy slang… When Don is interviewing the two men that Duck makes him hire – in Season 2 I believe – he says one of those Lemme or Omana followed by "ask you a question"… Made me want to scream… Does anyone else hear that?
Welcome, Kat. I never noticed, but I’m soaking in it too and tend to pick up weird tics. If you’re “guilty” of a certain pronunciation, you don’t hear it in others.
My husband and I used to make fun of the Iron Range Minnesota accent and now that we’ve lived here for a while I’m not sure we even hear it. Also, I know say “spendy” without irony.