I did an unscientific survey of the second episode of Outsourced to see how many of the jokes relied on the fact that the show was set in India. I should have counted the total number of jokes so I could give you a percentage, but if you think I'm watching it again, you're out of your mind. There were less than you might think, though. 7 total, or 9 if you count the 2 times the 'head bobble' which was repeated as a running joke. Most of the jokes came during the beginning or the end of the show, which I guess maybe shows the writers have an idea for what's going to happen and then use the jokes about India as filler. Anyway, I hope the show gets canceled soon.

Didn't know much after like 2:00 or so, but this is awesome.



Via Buzzfeed

Via the Epoch Times news of a couple recently discovered dinosaurs. There's the unfortunately named Utahceratops, a 3-4 ton lizard with a 7 foot long head. There's also the Kosmoceratops, which has an extremely ornate headpiece made out of shell and bones.

Speaking seriously for a second, how many of you would support a petition demanding the name Plutoceratops be given to the next discovered dinosaur? Our lost planet must be remembered somehow! How do you go about putting together these serious internet petitions?

Add Harvard's Kennedy School into the mix of colleges and universities teaching The Wire to their students. Here's an explanation of why that was published a couple weeks ago in the Washington Post.

To D'Angelo, the formal labor market is fundamentally unfair. People are not rewarded according to their true worth, and powerful institutions regularly exploit those with less power. Social inequality is the inevitable result -- the McNugget inventor doesn't get his due. "It ain't about right. It's about money," D'Angelo tells the young dealers.

Reminds me of the The Snot Boogie Rules. "Got to. It's America, man."

(Thanks, Dave!)

Every week, Chris Piascik draws a quotation from the episode to go with the recap I write.

10 episodes down and there are as many balls up in the air as usual. There is a lot going on right now.
-Roger has nothing to do except babysit Lucky Strike and try not to have another heart attack. When Joan comes in with her news, he's not even bothering with his book anymore, he's watching a perpetually drinking chicken. "These things happen, right? Would you stop being so upset?"
-Roger was pretty sleazy in this episode, which was odd, because Joan didn't really seem to want to keep the baby. It was just unnecessary. That is, he didn't need to try to convince her to get an abortion, but he tried to convince her anyway. "I'm just trying to think of what's best for you." He really did sound desperate.
-The Beatles at Shea Stadium peg this episode as mid-August, 1965. Sally Draper was excited and it was nice to see even Betty crack a smile. Well played, Don.
-I wonder how much Mad Men had to pay to license the Beatles Do You Want to Know a Secret? at the end of the episode.
-Speaking of secrets, this episode was full of them. There's Joan's pregnancy, which it's not entirely clear she ended. There's Lane's new life in the US which he proudly shows off to his father. Lane's father was abusive and likely not for the first time. Roger finds out about the loss of Lucky Strike and decides to keep it to himself for a bit. And of course Don. The episode was titled Hands and Knees, but only Roger was really begging. Don was looking for an exit, but he only really begged Pete for help, and not in so many words.
-Lane has a Mets pennant... for some reason.
-The Playboy Club makes its first appearance on the series even though they've been open for 5 years. The Wiki for the Playboy Club is actually pretty interesting. True story, I used to have one of the membership keys until I lost it in a trampoline accident. That was frustrating.
-The blacked out document in the North American Aviation meeting was a foreshadowing of Don Draper's background check. Of course, I didn't pick up on that. The conversation with Betty was funny when they both thought the phone might be bugged. Did you notice, he was instantly sweaty when she mentioned the questions?
-Trudy looks like one of those pink Hostess Sno-Balls.
-It's a little unclear what sway Lane's father would have over him, but he had no interest in talking to Lane's new girlfriend. He did say get your house in order, either here or there, so who knows.
-"We came here for your discretion, not your judgment." The doctor was pretty judgy, wasn't he?
-"And I signed it without looking because that's what I do." Don, you have got to get a better handle on the situation.
-Did you notice that the Time Life Building doesn't have elevator attendants? Bert Cooper presses his own buttons?
-If you thought Roger was desperate for Joan to get an abortion, he was even more desperate with Lee Garner, Jr. He convinced him to give them the 30 days, though. I'm really hoping that Lucky Strike isn't a cliffhanger to end the season. That would be laaaaaaaame.
-Have we seen Don get a panic attack? And why is he constantly puking this season?
-Lane was preening about his new, exotic girlfriend and his father let loose on him. That is an interesting dynamic there, huh?
-Here's a question for you. If Faye and Don are carrying on something of an illicit romance, or even one they're keeping secret, why on earth would she walk out of the bedroom if she heard a knock on the door? There are all sorts of explanations starting with maybe she didn't hear the knock on the door, but whatever... She heard it. Stay in the bedroom until Pete is gone.
-And Don told Faye... He's getting looser and looser with whom he tells.
-Mad Men's been cursing up a storm this season, but you still can't say the f word, apparently. That even made Bert demand Roger apologize. There's a storm coming, we'll see.
-"You see, everything worked out." Ah, Megan. It's Don's sort of MO. Get out of trouble and then do a little hound-dogging. That was an extra long look he gave her, wasn't it?
Anything else?

Last night, NBC debuted Outsourced and it was awful. This is just the latest media offering that had me wondering why there wasn't someone involved that could have put the brakes on this piece of shit. NBC is a big, big company, part of an even bigger corporation and we're supposed believe that no one watched this before airing it last night? I mean, that's the only possibility, right? There's no other way they would have put it on the air. It was awful, unfunny, and offensive. Mostly offensive because of how awful and unfunny it was, but also borderline offensive because 95% of the cast was made up of Indian stereotypes.

I can see why the actors would keep quiet about how awful this was, they're in it for the paycheck. Maybe the directors and producers, as well... But no one higher up was afraid that a show this bad would be unable to draw advertisers? I've got a lot a questions about this. Someone please help.

Remember this dude whose get up and go just got up and went? This feels...dated.

It's good we've finally come to this. If you're the type of person to get married, but want a little piece of mind, you ought to call WedLock. The idea of divorce insurance is seedy on its own. What really bothers me is it's such a shitty deal.

WedLock, as it's coyly named, is a new type of casualty insurance that gives the unhappily married policyholder a payout after he or she is unhitched. It costs about $16 a month for every $1,250 of coverage. But to discourage people from signing up just prior to their divorce, policyholders must ante up for four years before the policy will pay out. It adds a premium of $250 per unit for every year the marriage survives beyond four. So if a policyholder who bought 10 units got divorced after 10 years, he or she would have handed over $19,188 and would receive a payout of $27,500.

Each week, Chris Piascik draws something from the episode to go with this recap.

I think it's the middle of July and I say that as a way of introduction to this recap because I don't have anything else.
-Wow, what an opening. Don and Faye knocking boots, loudly. And just a month ago, Don couldn't go any further. "Lock the door behind you, as a courtesy." Is it discourteous to leave doors unlocked in this situation? "I'm taking everything interesting with me." It's just an apartment, Faye, my journal is in my briefcase.
-I guess we're through worrying about Don, huh? I had thought he was going to be a bad guy for longer, but he's turned it around.
-Joan's husband got called up to serve in Vietnam, which almost all of you have been looking forward to since before he even joined the army.
-"It's a business of sadists and masochists, and you know which one you are." This was truly Mrs. Blankenship's finest episode. From the "Not a chance" in the crossword puzzle scene with Bert, to this line, to dying.
-"One more drink and it will come out." The scene with Peggy and Abe was interesting. He's so earnest and sincere. Unfortunately, Peggy isn't a political person. Yet.
-"Most of the things that Negroes can't do, I can't do either and no one seems to care." I usually don't know the episode titles when watching or writing these, but I wanted to look it up today because I thought it'd be Glass Ceilings or something. Not far off, it's "The Beautiful Girls." This week was all about the ladies. The elevator shot at the end of Joan, Peggy, and Fay going down the elevator should have had the ghost of Blankenship in it. It was 3 working women at very different places in life and in the work force. Faye Miller got where she was because she made a choice to not have kids, and because as Ms. Blankenship pointed out, she opens doors without waiting to ask if it's OK. Peggy is just not starting to pay attention to human rights, but she's coming at it from a selfish perspective. Even little Sally Draper. She can't stand the way things are and ran away to make a change. It's not hard to imagine that foreshadowing future issues, but also seeing it as something all women during that time would want to do. "She died like she lived, surrounded by the people she answered phones for." From Ms. Blankenship to Sally, girls have it tough.
-Via Jessie, Faye Miller is the name Marilyn Monroe often used to check in to hotels the mental hospital.
-"Why do we have to convince him?" Don is still playing hard to get with the clients.
-"I offered you money and I said thank you." I just put this here because it reminded me of the scene 2 weeks ago when Don told Peggy "I give you money, you give me ideas." "That's what the money is for."
-"I would have my secretary do it, but she's dead." If you want to get someone to do something for you, try this line. If it's not true, everyone will get a good laugh. If it is true, it's amazingly effective.
-Normally, they're very good about this sort of thing, and this is admittedly nitpicking, but when Roger and Joan were in the diner, the ash on Joan's cigarette kept changing length...
-During the mugging, Roger kept his eyes down and didn't look the mugger in the face. And then Joan kissed Roger first. I wonder where this will go. Probably nowhere. Was this a Sal at the park moment?
-The french toast with rum was funny, but the punchline was telegraphed when Don kept eating. I chuckled.
-When Bert Cooper said he'd call Ms. Blankenship's niece, did that remind any of you of Don having to call Stephanie? Is Ms. Blankenship the only one who really knew Bert Cooper?
-I didn't realize this until Bert said something about it, but he doesn't have an office. That's why he always seems to be sitting around. I wonder where his art is.
-"Our job is to make men like Fillmore Auto, not make Fillmore Auto like Negroes." Being from Boston, I sometimes have a hard time picking up on accents that are supposed to be Boston accents. I didn't realize this until just now. I didn't know the Fillmore Auto dudes were from Boston, but I suppose it makes sense.
-"It feels like it was a test and I failed it." Nah, Faye, you did fine. Is everything a test to you? It obviously concerned you, if you were up all night. She seemed to do OK with the babysitting, though.
-"Jesus, what a mess." I believe this will be the subtitle for the comprehensive 25 DVD box set when it comes out after the series ends. Mad Men: Jesus, What a Mess.

What follows is an email dialogue initiated by a fellow named Gideon Odoom. What are you waiting for, Gideon?

Gideon Odoom: pls i want to know the person who sent in this message
Me: Which message?
Gideon Odoom: so what is this used for
Me: Used for fun.
Gideon Odoom: then i dont know how can teach or show me
Me: I don't know what you're talking about.
Gideon Odoom: am still waiting
Me: What are you waiting for?

The other thing about Gideon is he kept responding to mail at the bottom of all the prior text instead of at the beginning.