Ian MacKaye turned 50 last Monday and I had a couple links to clear, so here are some Ian MacKaye links.

This is about 3 years old, but I'd never seen it. 40 minutes of Fugazi stage banter in one MP3. It's magical. With the impending release of all 800+ Fugazi concert recordings (currently at 205 recordings uploaded), I imagine this MP3 could eventually be updated. Here's a few of the better ones. "What's your name? David? Please don't come on the stage anymore... David, don't apologize. I know you meant nothing by it." One of the quotes drawn by Chris.


Would Ian MacKaye be cool with this? (via @jeremydlarson)

Does Ian MacKaye still have his gallbladder?

I've posted this before, but Sir Ben Kingsley STOMPS into the shoes of Minor Threat's Ian MacKaye is awesome.



I still haven't heard much about how this came to be, but MacKaye is OK with it.

The editor of Mean Magazine contacted me prior to doing the shoot with Kingsley and asked if I would be OK with the video idea. It struck me as completely absurd, so how could I say no? I've only looked at the video once or twice and certainly wasn't judging Kingsley's ‘front man' potential, mostly I reckon he found the idea as unusual as I did and decided to give it a go. The real creativity in this situation belongs to the people who dreamed up the unlikely pairing. Clearly it was effective idea, as evidenced by the fact that you are writing about it.

Every week, Chris Piascik (@chrispiascik) illustrates his favorite quotation from the episode, and I write up a recap.

Well, shoot. If there were any date related references in tonight's episode, I missed them. Did you see any? This was a weird, weird, weird episode. I'm still trying to work everything out. Two of the scenes (Roger and Jane, Don and Megan) in the episode lasted way longer than the series' scenes normally do, or rather the story lines weren't interspersed with other story lines like normal. Additionally, chronology of the episode was jumbled. Coupled with the variation of shots last week, I can only come to one conclusion: They're messing with us! I don't know if the way the story is told is supposed to be instructive, but there are definitely changes to how the show is presented this year. Have you noticed any other stylistic changes?

-The episode titles are now a crutch for me, so let's just get it over with. "Far Away Places." Everyone is traveling somewhere, and even Roger and Jane are tripping. Just a literal list of pieces from this episode that refer to the title, Don and Megan going away, Roger and Jane tripping, Cooper saying, "Everyone has somewhere to go today," Ginsburg talking about being from Mars, the way Abe and Peggy talked about the literal distance between their homes ('Come all the way up here to make love') instead of just come over, Megan talking about Howard Johnson's "It's not a destination, it's on the way to someplace," taking a bus back after the fight, and Don being on 'Love Leave.' To a certain extent, the theme of Heinz pitch was a trip, kids off somewhere else. More abstract, Peggy is far away from where she wants to be professionally. I'm getting the feeling that everyone in 1966 was terminally unhappy because clearly, they all want to be somewhere else. Pretty sure that the movie Peggy went to see was Born Free, a film about a British couple who raise a lioness in captivity and return her happily to the wild. I bet I could write only about how the movie relates to Mad Men, but I'm not gonna! I will say that the lioness could refer to 3 or 4 characters on the show.

-Oh, Peggy. Her and Abe are fighting because she's distant, working too hard, trying to be Don (professionally at least). "You sound like my dad." Abe compares Peggy to his dad and it's interesting because Peggy is striving toward being accepted in the world of men, but Abe has pretty much given up on it already. I don't know if I was supposed to take that as seriously as I did, but it struck me. She goes into the pitch prepared, and somewhat confident. Stan calls Don blowing off the meeting a vote of confidence, and it is. I read somewhere that Don's unique ability is being able to sell his ideas to clients. The ideas are good to great, but his ability to make the client think they're great is what sets him apart. Tonight was Peggy's Kodak Carousel moment, using nostalgia and fond memories to sell a product. But the angle doesn't fit perfectly with a can of beans. It seemed the client was on the fence, and instead of guiding him over, Peggy knocked him down the wrong side. "And your words are always, "I don't like it." And then she was off the business. She celebrates by going to the movie theater, smoking dope, and jerking a dude off. Oh, Peggy.

-I thought the scene with Don and Peggy on the phone was a dream, and there have been a few other scenes like that this season (to say nothing of Roger and Jane tripping). And it was here where the chronology gets a little screwy. I didn't take great notes on the chronology, because I didn't expect to be watching Madmento (Madmento!!!! I slay!), but until I realized what was happening, and after the LSD party scene, I thought Don's call meant something had happened to Roger. So we see Don take Megan. Peggy pitches and goes to HJ Cinemas, falls asleep on the couch, wakes to Don's frantic call, Roger and Jane go to the party and trip... Then after that I can't remember. In any case, they showed Don taking Megan at least twice. WHY! Why would they do this? What does the disrupted chronology mean to the storyline? Simple answer is everyone's life is always getting disrupted.

-Ginsburg is from Mars. He claims the man he lives with is not his father. At first I thought this might be true, but the more he kept hitting the alien thing, I think he was being figurative. Peggy doesn't think it would be possible for him to have been born in a concentration camp, but at least chronologically, it's possible. Peggy caught him twice having a conversation with his father, first on the phone, and then when as the father wanted to use the photocopier for his "case." Is he a crackpot? Peggy was high during the 'alien' conversation, probably taking it more seriously than she would have normally. "Are there others like you? I don't know. I haven't been able to find any."

-1966 ritzy New York LSD party! Woo. A study of things that are true and not true and on and on. "It's a myth that tracing logic all the way down to the truth is a cure of neurosis." Who is normally trying to trace logic? Who is neurotic? It doesn't sound like this profound bit of dialogue refers to any of the characters, but maybe it's instructive in the sense that figuring out who all these characters really are will result in any understanding of their actions. This was a funny scene. "Dr Leary, I find your product boring." Roger not feeling anything until hearing music when opening the vodka bottle, and then imagining he was at the 1919 Black Sox World Series (frauds like him). Roger and Jane's breakup was remarkable in it's peacefulness. I wouldn't have expected him to give up knowing how much it was going to cost him "It's going to be expensive", so either he's been supremely inspired by Don's happiness, and/or business has been improving. "Are you leaving me?" "We're leaving each other." "I don't know German."

-"Dawn I need you to get me out of everything." I don't know much what to say about Don and Megan's fight except the trip started off on the wrong foot. Megan is trying to establish herself professionally and Don's not honoring that. I don't think he minds her working, but I think he didn't really expect her to want to work. She's only 5-10 years younger than Betty, but she's got a completely different mindset, at least at the moment. Also, there's no way this scene would have worked if everyone had a cellphone. Eventually she would have picked up. The flashback to coming home from last September's California trip, when they were happiest, to them lying on the floor after a semi-physical fight, paraphrasing, "Every fight we have diminishes this a little bit." Megan is going to keep pushing back, and it'll interesting to see how Don reacts. At least tonight he was contrite.

-The fight also gave us an opportunity to see the layout of their apartment, which is huge.

-"I have an announcement to make. Today is going to be a great day." It seems like people on the show are constantly making announcements. I think Pete's used the phrase at least twice. Don and Megan at the end of last season. Lane last week.

-Bert Cooper tells it like it is, Don has been shirking work to hang with Megan, and I'm curious to see what the result of this conversation is. I still wonder what Bert's role in the office is besides talking about the oncoming scourge of socialism. And he still doesn't have an office. Maybe this is it. Keeping all the others in line. Was he a creative before turning into management? I don't think I can see that.

-And no Betty again. Or Lane. Or Joan. Or Pete past that line. Joan and Betty at least were more central characters last season, but they've been somewhat replaced by Megan. On the other hand, they've both had shows where their storyline was primary.

What did I miss?

I always like these videos, but this one's especially well done. What It's Like to be a Dog Toy.



Via Stellar Interesting

I somehow missed this when it came out 2 months ago, but BuffaloBeast.com's 50 Most Loathsome Americans list is a great read every year. Also interesting to see how much has changed with some of the folks on the list since it was published.

12) Donald Trump
Crimes: Besotted by his own garish ignorance, The Donald stumbled into a depth of buffoonery last year which made Gary Busey seem respectably grounded. Like an awful P.T. Barnum with an unkempt raccoon on his head, everything from floating a presidential run, dabbling in birtherism, and trying to moderate a debate (that none of the Republicans were stupid enough to touch) was unadulterated self-promotion aimed at boosting ratings for NBC’s ode to capitalist douchebaggery “The Apprentice.”
Smoking Gun: “I have a great relationship with the blacks.”
Sentence: Dipped in gold, buried in Ron Paul’s backyard.

Teller, from Penn & Teller, is suing a Dutch magician for copyright infringement for taking one of his illusions.

A Dutch magician with the stage name Gerard Bakardy (real name: Gerard Dogge) saw Teller perform the trick in Las Vegas and developed his own version. Bakardy sells a kit—including a fake rose, instructions, and a DVD—for about $3,000. To promote the kits, he posted a video of his performance to YouTube and prepared a magazine ad. (With the video down, the link points to screenshots from the video filed by Teller in his lawsuit.)

I think the issue is the $3K DVD, and not so much the performance, but I don't know. Teller's had the copyright since 1983, and you CAN copyright magic apparently.

So what's left? According to New York Law School professor James Grimmelmann, copyright law protects pantomimes and choreographic works. So Teller may be able to claim the "Shadows" routine is protected under these categories. Teller describes "Shadows" as a "dramatic work."

Teller's case may hinge on exactly how similar Bakardy's routine is to Teller's. in a 1983 copyright registration, Teller describes the sequence of actions that make up his performance. Ars Technica was not able to find a copy of Bakardy's video, so we weren't able to determine how similar Bakardy's routine is to the one described in Teller's copyright registration.

Via Mudwerks / Kayfabe

Every week, Chris Piascik (@chrispiascik) illustrates his favorite quotation from the episode, and I write up a recap.

"Everyone in this office has wanted to do that to Pete Campbell." First of all, this episode's historic references: The title of the episode, Signal 30, comes from a 1959 Driver's Education movie with mangled cars and bodies. Pleasant film. On July 30th, 1966 England beat West Germany 4-2 in the finals of the World Cup. In overtime, England's was awarded a goal on a ball that hit the crossbar and shot straight down. This was controversial. On August 6, Braniff Flight 250 crashed in Nebraska. On August 1st, Charles Whitman killed 16 people and injured 32 more, in an incident at the University of Texas. I'm not sure if there's more references than usual this year or if I'm relying on them as a way to start the recaps.

-Don continues to be in the background as other characters' story lines are highlighted. This episode it was mostly Pete and Lane with a little Ken/Ben Hargrove/Dave Algonquin. Not shocking for Don? He didn't want to go to Pete and Trudi's. Shocking for Don, he grinned like an idiot at baby Tammy Campbell and then told Megan he wanted to make a baby. He's in a great place, seemingly, and Pete resents him. In the first or second episode, I wrote about how Pete and Don had traded places, and that theme was addressed again tonight with the dinner party in the suburb and the visit to the brothel. The cab ride was also a good contrast between them. "Roger is miserable, I didn't think you were." "You don't get another chance at what you have." "And if I had met her first I wouldn't have thrown it away." Pete is ruffled, drunk, and embarrassed. Don is together. This exact contrast happens again at the end of the episode in the elevator. Pete's beat up and lost, "I have nothing, Don." Despite not being a central part of the episode, Don did have some great lines."She got this far on subterfuge. "Saturday night in the suburbs, that's when you really want blow your brains out." "It's too bad your husband can't close a deal like this." "I'm timing this for when we arrive. I want to hit the doorbell with my chin." "No one grows up wanting to be in advertising." "I'm too drunk for you to drive.""Let's make a baby."

-This season, also, Don talks more about his past, to brothel proprietors: "I grew up in a place like this," and to dinner party companions: "You miss the horseshit, huh?" There was a bit of this earlier in the season, too. I liked the interaction between Don and the madame. He definitely looked totally comfortable.

-Pete Campbell, Pete Campbell, Pete Campbell. He's so reviled a character, I find myself feeling sympathetic towards him. Creepy Pete in a high school driver's education class hitting on a senior. Smug Pete mocking Lane. Clumsy Pete making the sink worse. Arrogant Pete testing out a prostitute's talents. Deflated Pete riding down an elevator with Don. For the second time this season, he was threatened with violence from one of the partners, and this time there was no way for him to weasel his way out of it. I used 'weasel' in that previous sentence because that's how Mad Men recaps are supposed to talk about Pete Campbell. Can't be avoided. His driving classes were predicted at the beginning of the season while on the train. His seatmate mentioned taking later and later trains and also driving back and forth as well. The dripping sink, obviously, is a metaphor for Pete's current status. He's being driven mad at home, and to a certain extent, at work, too. He thought he had fixed it, but he'd made it worse, and Don had to put it back together again. I guess this shows some jealousy or envy of Don by Pete. Does Don have what Pete wants? Is Pete jealous that Don put his past life behind him and recreated himself? What are Pete's passions besides dancing the Charleston? If he could recreate himself, who would he be? Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.

-Cos Cob, CT. "No bakeries, no Greenbergs..." Oh, Trudi.

-Befitting the title of the episode, there were lots of driving references: The driver's ed classes, Megan telling Don he was driving to Pete's, Don doodling a noose next to the note 'Traffic Meeting', Megan driving home, Pete telling the cab driver he'll have to drive him to Cos Cob, CT (about 30 miles outside the city). Where are we going?

-"Then, pretend I shall." Well done, Lane, NOW you can be American. Or at least the Mad Men version of an American. Lane and his wife went to the pub to watch the World Cup finals with other British people. While there, he gets a chance at the Jaguar account. He wants to pretend to be an account man, but he's terrible at it. He has trouble relating to everyone, actually, and that's no recipe for sales. "Cooper speaks British." "You're a grimy little pimp." I think Lane thought the Jaguar account would be something that was his only, which explains his anger at losing it, but the fight... I guess he'd been bottled up forever and he just needed to pop. Riveting analysis right there, huh? Well, remember how Cynthia said Ken predicted the Texas sniper with his story about the robot killing all the commuters? Why did he do it? "Because he's a robot..." Maybe Lane snapped after one last insult from Pete and was tired of being a robot? So you can tie the sniper to Lane. You like that better? "If they try to make you feel different than them, you are. That's a good way to be." "I just seem to find no end to my humiliation today." Or ever my friend, or ever. Don't be the guy caught with chewing gum on his pubis.

-Ken's writing still, and has written enough to collect 20 stories and meet a wife. I don't remember the story that he had published (season 3?) being science fictiony, though. Incidentally, Kurt Vonnegut worked early in his career in public relations, which is almost advertising. I'm not sure why, but I don't think Pete was the one who told Roger about Ken's writing. It doesn't seem like Pete is on good enough terms with Roger to even bring it up. It's not going to stop Ken, though, he's just going to kill Ben Hargrove. And the pact with Peggy. Was that new? "If I go anywhere, you go with me." I'd like to know more about this pact.

-I don't think we'd ever really seen Roger showing ANY type of knowledge about business, so it was refreshing to see his 'how to'. An account man who can tell creative exactly what to put in the RFP would certainly be valuable, and Roger must have been deft at collecting this information during dinners past. Roger explained to Lane how to get the other party to open up, to connect on a level outside of business, but Lane just couldn't do it. He was thwarted over and over. "Just let him talk." "Then you're in a conspiracy. The basis of a "friendship"." I also liked, "Be nice to the waiter." This was Roger at his finest, just as him comparing his writing to Ken's was him at his lowest. "When this job is good it satisfies every need. Believe me, I remember." I'm not totally sure you do, Rog.

-"You don't stop a war before an election." Bert's political advice was prompted by Don saying something about Johnson ending the war before the election. Kind of strange they'd be talking about the election 2 years before it happened. What is this, now? Were presidential elections always 3 years long?

-I think the last thing to talk about is turbulence and violent change which has been a theme throughout the entire season. Pete's driver's ed Lolita was talking about this week, "Things seem so random all of a sudden and time feels like it's speeding up." She was talking about how her parents might not let her go to college because of the violence (she mentioned the sniper and the Chicago nurses from last week). Maybe Don's not been too much in the lead this season because his life is not currently in upheaval. I've never really thought about violent change as an overarching theme for the show, but I'll have to consider it more. It's definitely being highlighted weekly this year, though. Also, Pete, stop being a creep.

What did I miss?

For some reason, the official title of this video file is Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap Official Trailer #1 - Ice Cube Movie (2012). All well and good, but I think it's Ice T's movie. In any case, yes. This movie is relevant to my interests.



Via Stellar Interesting

Between the new glow in the dark dinosaur quarter and getting rid of the penny, Canada money is kicking US money's ass. Holy crap.

The quarter, being released by the Royal Canadian Mint April 16, features Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai, a large herbivore whose bone fragments were discovered by Grande Prairie, Alta., science teacher Al Lakusta in 1974... Photo-luminescent technology that won’t wear off means the regular image of the dinosaur on the quarter will transform into a glowing skeleton in the dark.

Via Stellar Interesting

It's interesting, the response generated pretty much any time show runners discuss their shows, especially if the shows are beloved shows like The Wire. We own these shows now, not the creators, actors, etc, so anything they say can be taken the wrong way. This phenomenon of a transfer of ownership always fascinates me and it was illustrated again yesterday when Facebook bought Instagram. It's a good thing for a brand/product for this to happen, it means people care enough to invest personally, emotions and feelings, in what you're doing.

Last week, The Wire creator David Simon was interviewed in the New York Times seemingly criticizing people for showing up to watch The Wire 4 years after it went off the air.

The number of people blogging television online — it’s ridiculous. They don’t know what we’re building. And by the way, that’s true for the people who say we’re great. They don’t know. It doesn’t matter whether they love it or they hate it. It doesn’t mean anything until there’s a beginning, middle and an end. If you want television to be a serious storytelling medium, you’re up against a lot of human dynamic that is arrayed against you. Not the least of which are people who arrived to “The Wire” late, planted their feet, and want to explain to everybody why it’s so cool. Glad to hear it. But you weren’t paying attention. You got led there at the end and generally speaking, you’re asserting for the wrong things.

In an interview with Alan Sepinwall, Simon clarified his comments.

And through a miscommunication — probably my fault, I have no way of knowing — I have apparently told everybody that I don’t want the show watched except on Sunday night at 10 o’clock, which apparently is the exact opposite of things I’ve been saying in interviews for years. It is contradictory of everything I’ve said before. I’m reading it in the paper and I’m not making sense to myself. Sorry. My bad.

Turns out his comments had more to do with the recent Grandland.com The Wire character tournament.

The comments I made that seem to critique viewers who found “The Wire” late were not so intended. I thought, when I made that remark, that I was speaking to the reporter not about viewers in general, but specifically about folks pursuing the recent bracket-tourneys about best characters, shows, scenes, etc.

Via David

Every week, Chris Piascik (@chrispiascik) illustrates his favorite quotation from the episode, and I write up a recap.

I'm calling this Mad Men Episode 3, assuming the 2 hour first episode counted as Episode 1. However, AMC called tonight's episode Episode 4 and I don't know what to do. EPISODE TITLES ARE IMPORTANT FOR WEB TRAFFIC DON'T YOU KNOW?

OK, let's quickly go over the real stuff referenced in this episode. On July 13th, 1966, Richard Speck murdered 8 student nurses in Chicago. Also, for six or so weeks starting the 2nd week of July, 1966, 35K airline workers were out on strike shutting down a big portion of summer air travel.

There were so many symbols in this episode, I'm tempted to just list symbols and what I think they mean. I'll probably do that anyway. I should also mention I felt so analytical and brilliant about last week's recap until I saw the title of the episode (Tea Leaves) and realized that the themes had been telegraphed pretty clearly. To avoid that happening again, I looked up the title of tonight's episode at the first commercial break. I saw it called, "You're Married to Me Now," something Megan said to Don early on in the episode. I thought this made a good title. Then the advisory council said something about "Mystery Date," and I was like, "Yes, Sally was watching that television program, what of it?" Anyway, this isn't interesting to you, but suffice to say, I thought the title was "YMTMN," but it was actually "Mystery Date," which makes more sense. There were a lot of mystery dates this episode. They could have also called this episode "Sleep," because that tied everything together, too.

I can't remember if I mentioned it last week or not, but Don has not really been the focus as much this year as last year. The majority of this episode in particular wasn't about him, and I'm curious if it was a choice by the writers to start relying more on the other characters this season. Regardless, it'll make "Everything Don Draper Said Season 5" much easier to do.

In the first scene with the creative team, they're talking about pantyhose, and "Why is transparency important?" was said. I'm noting it because so much of the show is about lack of transparency, about pretending to be one way, and being another. And then Stan had the pantyhose on his head like he was a burglar. Or a nurse murderer.

Two or three things about Michael Ginsberg. I like him. It's weird that he's been there a week and they're already letting him pitch clients, right? Also, he was pretty shaken by the nurse murder pictures that Peggy's friend brought in (also, she's still around). He called everyone sickos, but Don is the sick one this episode. F. This whole episode folds around itself over and over like a pretzel. And then the pitch. Ginsberg nailed it, and it was almost like the pantyhose executive was hitting on him. Then the Cinderella thing where he goes on and on for no reason. The image I got in my head during the Cinderella story was of Joan. Not totally sure why, but it's not out of place either. Then, after a funny scene at the bar, Ginsberg disappears. "He's so decent." "You know you almost got fired just now?" Also during the pitch part of the show, they brought up Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. I wasn't cluing in on the 'sleep' tie in so much then, but two fairy tales having a lot to do with sleep. Eh? Eh?

Greg's coming home. And then he's home. Then he's going back. And staying. Then he's leaving for good. Joan wanted Kevin there when he came home, because she didn't know how Greg was going to be. I forget how she phrased it to her mother, but she wanted to start gaining more control in the marriage. When it was clear later in the episodethat wasn't going to happen, she decided to end it. "I've got my orders, you've got yours." I wonder if that's the end for Greg. On the first morning, Joan slept very well. On the morning she kicked him out, she mentioned how she hadn't slept at all. Also, the dinner was super awkward, a "painful charade" (a phrase that could describe the lives of at least half the characters on the show). Joan's mom interjecting about Joan playing the accordion... Gold. "You're not a good man. You never were. Even before we were married and you know what I'm talking about." Clearly Joan hadn't forgotten, and this obviously had an impact on their marriage. Maybe it's even a reason Greg decided to go back to Vietnam? He didn't know how to live with Joan after what he did? That's a pretty sympathetic take on his thoughts. One last note about Greg, I thought his opinion on race (paraphrasing 'they're plenty brave') was interesting. Kind of a throwaway line that added depth to his character.

Oh, Roger. How many times this season will he use all the money in his pocket to fix one of his mistakes. After not assigning Michel Ginsberg to the Mohawk account yet, he's got to give $410 to Peggy, who was looser, giddier, more confident in that scene than usual. She knew she was in power, and she played it just like Crane did with the office switch. She played it like a man, and she seemed super pleased with herself. "The work is $10. The lie is extra." Was Roger asleep when Pete came in to tell him about Monday's meeting? Is he totally slipping, or just having a bad run?

Peggy took Dawn home to sleep at her house after catching her going to sleep in the office. It's important to point out that Dawn had only been there a week or two, too. Maybe Peggy's just that nice, or maybe we're supposed to feel like it's later in the summer than the two time-marking events mentioned above. In any case, they had an interesting conversation. Peggy talks about having to act like a man all the time and sometimes not wanting to. She asks Dawn about wanting to be a copywriter, and seems kind of taken aback that Dawn might not want to (or more likely, Dawn realizes that won't happen soon). "I know we're not in the same situation, but I was the only one like me for a long time." As soon as Peggy said something like, "We have to stick together," I knew something was going to go wrong, though I figured it would be a couple episodes from now. And then the part with the purse was brutal. Peggy was drunk, forgot about the purse, realized her money was in there, glanced at it a second too long, and Dawn noticed. I think I have more to say about this scene, but it's late, and I'm not feeling quite artful enough. It's frustrating, though, because I don't think it was necessarily racism for Peggy to be nervous about her purse, and I don't think it's quite fair to Dawn to make her character reflexively react to Peggy as if it was racist. It's as if there's a complexity to Peggy, but not to Dawn. See what I mean about not being artful enough?

Mystery Date of the episode? Sally is stuck with Pauline and Gene, and woo boy. Pauline has an arbitrary sense of discipline inspired by her father, "That was for nothing, so look out." Pauline is a funny foil to Grampa Gene (it even rhymes with Pauline), who Sally got along with swimmingly. I wonder if there will be more Pauline/Sally or if this is it. "Watch the sunset from your bedroom window. It's the saddest thing in the world." What a funny thing to say. So Sally's premature preoccupation with sex led her to terrify herself reading about the Chicago Nurse Murders. After going downstairs and startling Pauline (with the carving knife for protection), they split a sleeping pill and knock themselves out. Sally sleeps under the couch, reminding us of the one nurse who survived by hiding under the bed. So Sally is safe now? Or is Sally now addicted to pills?

Don, Don, Don... He's sick as a dog in the elevator and bumps into an old flame, Andrea. Megan is jealous, because she knows Andrea was had while Don was married. (Allison and Faye get a pass because he was divorced.) I couldn't really tell if they'd run in to other former flings or not. "All I can think is you feel guilty which makes it worse than I thought." She's challenging Don more than I would have expected from what we knew about her last year. It's a good thing for him. I liked them using the dream sequence to address the infidelity issue. ("A mistake you love making" is a clever turn of phrase.) So far, Don doesn't seem to have slipped, and he resisted it during his hallucination, but only for a time. Then, when he saw he was losing, he killed Andrea and - ready? - shoved her under the bed. He feet sticking out referenced both the Wicked Witch of the West, and the pantyhose pitch earlier that day. I don't know what either of those things mean in this context, though, so let's ignore them. Maybe Don hiding her under the bed was a reference to him saving himself from his past? From his infidelity? I'm a bit concerned that now he cheated in his hallucination, he'll do it in real life. Like he was OK while the topic hadn't come up, but now that it's out of the box, he won't be able to stop himself. "Everybody probably thinks that she did this, but I know it was you."

Sorry, you're not getting a conclusion tonight.