1 Kerry Wood
2 Stephen Strasburg
3 Dwight Gooden
4 Mark Prior
5 Oliver Perez
6 Sam McDowell
7 Mark Prior
8 Scott Kazmir
9 Oliver Perez
10 Rick Ankiel

Thanks, Jonah

Let me tell you, reader, there was. The first time I saw this story. On March 3rd of this year, BabyBites.info posted a photo of their year old Happy Meal (2 weeks later, BoingBoing posted via Consumerist). Three weeks after that, Sally Davies started her daily photo project. I don’t know if Sally Davies was inspired to start her project after seeing any of these stories, but even if she wasn’t I can’t be the only one who remembered we saw similar pictures 6 months ago. It’s not even like this was last year. I’m going to go take a minute, you get back to me when you want to share original stuff I won’t care about 5 minute from now.

Updated:
OK, OK, people have been leaving McDonald’s burgers out forever. Jason reminded me of this, while Hubs reminded me of this Supersize Me bonus. And we must never forget one of the original internet experiments, the stinkymeat project.

Via Jonah Keri.

Recently, Alan Cumming wore a plaid suit to the Creative Arts EMMYs.

Recently, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones went back on tour.

These can not all be a coincidence.

I don’t know how to start this week’s recap, so I’ll just remind you that every week, I write a Mad Men recap, while Chris Piascik draws one.

-”It’s an idiom. Did you know that?” Don and Peggy are barely able to conceal their disdain in the interview with Roger’s wife’s cousin who wants a job. His book is all one idea and then ads he’s pulled out of magazines for inspiration. “Don’t you ever tear things out of magazines?” We’ve seen Don tear things out of magazines at least once. That fact foreshadows the theme of the episode. Nice to see the Lemon VW ad make another appearance.
-”It’s a relief to see someone worse than me.” Peggy has never been happy for long. She has a chip on her shoulder about her status in the firm and did at Sterling Cooper, as well. This is probably what drives her, huh?
-They’re hitting the Roger not doing anything pretty hard this episode. In 2 scenes he’s rambling about Howdie Doodie and chocolate ice cream respectively. I guess he’s writing a book now? Also, are Roger and Don friends again? They seemed pretty jovial today, even before the award.
-Flashing back to Don selling furs and the story of how it all started. We’d seen a flashback to that time in Don’s life before, but it hadn’t been fleshed out. Roger looked younger, and they changed up the wardrobe. I hadn’t really thought of this before, but it seems that Don made his way to the top of Sterling Cooper in about 6-8 years, and probably less. Mad Men Season 1 started around March, 1960, and the Korean War ended in 1953. Even if Don was among the first wave of soldiers in Korea, there would have had to be some time for convalescence, time to get found by Anne Draper selling used cars, time to work all that out with her, to move to NYC, etc, etc.
-Don was super eager to get a job and included a book of his work in the fur coat to Joan. So I guess she’s been there for a while.
-”Make it simple, but significant.” Indeed.
-I liked Roger ripping on Ted Chaough (”Isn’t that a lot of extra letters” and “Chagagag”). Not really sure why Ted is so uppity.
-”Don’t talk to me right now.” Don is so mean to Pete Campbell. I think everyone loves it!
-Oh, hello, Duck Phillips. Did someone over-serve you?
-”Who claps for themselves?” The addition of an Art Director character was a bit jarring. Sal played such a big role in the firm (and in several episodes) that it seems like we should have heard from this character before tonight. In any case, I like how Peggy puts him in his place stripping for him and forcing him to concede the point. “Win the prize for the smuggest bitch in the world.”
-You all saw that after both Don and Roger were holding Joan’s hand under the table, Don kissed Joan on the lips before going up to the stage, right? She was definitely surprised. It was more than just a celebratory kiss. The victory kicked off something of a bender. During the Life cereal pitch, Don was super-eager and pretty full of himself. He wanted to prove he could close a pitch while drunk (which I’m actually surprised hasn’t been shown before), and kept rattling off lines until he used one he had heard earlier in the day during the terrible interview. Oops.
-”If everyone set?” “That’s my word for it.” Oh, Lane.
-More Mrs. Blankenship comic relief. She wears a wig and was surly. Why hasn’t she been replaced? She’s the Jar Jar Binks of Mad Men.
-”Award or no award you’re still Don Draper.” “Whatever that means.” I thought we might get through one episode without a question of identity. I guess not.
-”You’ve crossed the border from lubricated to morose.” Ladies and gentlemen, your designated moral compass, Joan!
-Good to have Ken Cosgrove back and Pete Campbell feeling threatened. Cosgrove good naturedly dealing with it. Campbell obviously feels threatened, and always has. Would he be Ken’s boss?
-”Then he sucks on Vick’s.” Real subtle, guys.
-Another subtle moment in the episode was Don badgering Roger into letting him buy him a drink. Probably reading too much into this, but Roger didn’t seem totally comfortable with drinking with Don so early in the day. Maybe he was playing it up, but wouldn’t it be an interesting wrinkle if Don was the bad influence all these years? This idea was reinforced a bit with the scene between Don and Doris. He’s obviously been overdoing it for a long time, even before getting to Sterling Cooper. Though Doris called him Dick at during the scene. When could that have been? I thought he ran away from home and went straight into the army. He was Don Draper when he came home. Someone help me with this one.
-Roger > Don > Peggy > Danny. This progression was pretty clear through the episode and is, I think, the main theme from tonight. Everybody comes from somewhere, gets their start somewhere. Roger didn’t remember hiring Don because he was drunk. Don was drunk and used Danny’s line forcing his hire. Roger told Don he forgot to tell Roger he couldn’t have done it without him. According to Peggy, Don wouldn’t have been able to do it without her because it was her idea. And he wouldn’t have been able to seal Life Cereal without Danny’s line. Danny is really, really short.
-Don is still out of control, but on the evil scale, he didn’t really move backwards at all, and you have to consider that a positive. He did forget to pick up his kids, but as long as he’s not hitting on the nieces of dear friends, or sleeping with his secretary, he’s winning, right?

+++
Update: The first 2 comments below bring up an interesting point that I had considered, but decided to interpret differently. Basically they suggest that at 2 points in the episode, characters got into situations where they blacked out. Roger either agreed to hire Don during a blackout, or Don convinced him that he had. Also, Don blacked out and picked up a waitress as Dick Whitman. I don’t really want to believe that Mad Men would resort to blackouts as a plot device, which is why I interpreted it differently. I read the Dick Whitman waitress pick up as a flashback to some time in the past. On the other hand, there’s too much to imply if we’re to believe Don made up the story about Roger hiring him, hoping that Roger would forget. Lots to speculate on this week.

Update 2:
On having occasion to watch the episode again, I’m thinking that it is the same weekend and Don was so wasted, he did tell Doris his name was Dick… Also, I didn’t realize this before, but the Life Cereal pitch had notes of the Kodak Carousel pitch. Nostalgia. It was funny to hear the Kodak Carousel pitch drunken and rushed.

“I wanted to transform the subway from its dark, degrading, and impersonal reality into images that open up our experience again to the color, sensuality, and vitality of the individual souls that ride it each day.” In “Subway”, passengers of the city’s subterranean world are portrayed in detail, revealing the interplay of its inner landscape and outer vistas, set against a gritty, graffiti-strewn background and displayed in tones that Davidson describes as “an iridescence like that I had seen in photographs of deep-sea fish”.

This was all over Tumblr the other day. It’s via them.

Via Cosmo Catalano

Also, I finally had a reason to make a Keep Calm poster.

Each week, I write a recap of Mad Men, and Chris Piascik draws one.

I’m going to watch Mad Men until the series ends. It’s my favorite show right now. I’m not giving up or anything, but in a couple years, I wouldn’t be surprised if people refer to this episode as the one were Don Draper water skied over a shark. From the first scene with Mrs. Blankenship wearing the silly magnifying glass and providing general comedic relief, to the Italian Job-style montage when they hoodwinking an up-and-coming agency into blowing a pitch, this episode just seemed to have far more fluff than usual. I like the hoodwinking and I’m tired of Blankenship, and this episode was different.

-The mention by Roger Sterling of Selma probably puts this episode at the first week of March. “You still think they don’t need a civil rights law.” It was interesting that Sterling was the one to say this to Cooper, as he doesn’t seem the most liberal of all the characters. On the other hand, Cooper, while appearing conservative, doesn’t seem like a total dick.
-A lot of Sterling’s appearances this year have been littered with one liners and jokes. The poop puns at the beginning of the partners meeting is no exception. “Lucky Strike is great, meeting adjourned.”
-Who is Dr. Lyle Evans? Seems like it isn’t a real historic figure, which… Well, no reason not to make up historical people and send your viewers to Google, right?
-Sally was obviously a big part of the episode, acting out by cutting her hair so Don would like it, and then being an adolescent at a slumber party. (Uh… I don’t even think I can write about it, but when was the last time you saw THAT subject matter covered on TV, even on, gasp, cable?) Is there any connection to how Sally is acting out and how Roger is acting out. Sally wants to make a statement about the divorce, and if Pete is right about Roger, Roger wants to make a statement about not being the top dog at SCDP. “The rest of us are trying to build something.”
-Oh, Ted Shaw / Ted Chaough, Good luck, champ. “Well, if it isn’t the inscrutable Don Draper.” He looked like James Spader didn’t he? Don played him pretty well with his misdirection. Additionally, the scene where Don goes in to resign the motorcycle campaign was Kodak Kodachrome-level Don Draper… There hasn’t been a ton of that energy yet this year.
-”Do you know the river of shit I’m gonna get from her mother.” Is Betty Draper the coldest woman on TV? If not, she’s in the running. Interesting that both Don and Henry push back on Betty slapping Sally. “That was impulsive, I’ll apologize.” Don used to call Betty a child pretty often. That got addressed in tonight, as well. When talking to the school psychiatrist, Betty started talking and couldn’t stop, and she got that creepy smile when looking at the doll house. Betty needs help. “I feel like Sally did this to punish me.” Damn it, Betty, it’s not all about you.
-Remember when Carlton slapped that other dude’s son and the other dude got weirded out?
-Did you see the sigh Henry Frances let out after Betty went up the stairs? There is a lot of regret in that sigh.
-All of the scenes with Honda were funny. Mostly because of Pete Campbell or the translator, “I don’t know what this room is for.” “It’s a cantaloupe.”
-”I’m still wondering what makes you work.” Love it.
-The auteur commercial director, is there anyone more annoying? Besides Ted Shaw / Ted Chaough, at least. It’s hard to tell if Ted will be a recurring character or not. It makes sense to give Don an external competitor, it seems a little late in the game to introduce a new agency to play that role. We’ll just have to wonder, though I’m glad they didn’t just the easy way out of using an ex-Draper employee. “And give me 20 different words for pimples.”
-”Why does everyone need to talk about everything?” Don started by talking about not seeing the value of talking, and then shared a lot with the good doctor, an “interested stranger”. On the other hand, she must find Don pretty irresistible to let him in on her fake marriage act.
-”And when I drop them off, I feel relieved. And then I miss them.” Unlike Don regressing into eternal badness, if last week he was neutral, I’d have to say this week he moved forward, towards the light. If only for showing concern after Betty slapped Sally and opening up about missing his kids. The theory that Don was going to continue to spiral downward with each irredeemable act is not looking good right now. Not saying he couldn’t continue to fall, or that there were any great reveals this episode, just that the trend was reversed.
-”Since when is forgiveness a better quality than loyalty?” It’s hard to know what loyalty means on Mad Men. Sterling is probably the worst philanderer than Don.

My latest @eatBoston event is today and tomorrow. Ice Cream Showdown! The best ice cream shops from the Boston area setting up in a parking lot to support deserving local organizations. This year is 2 days in 2 different parts of town. Full info including participants, T Shirts, etc at the link above.

One wouldn’t think a picture of Kermit and Jim Henson could be so poignant. One would be wrong.

Via Victura

He often said he had to be a writer because he wasn’t good at anything else. He was not good at being an employee. Back in the mid-1950s, he was employed by Sports Illustrated, briefly. He reported to work, was asked to write a short piece on a racehorse that had jumped over a fence and tried to run away. Kurt stared at the blank piece of paper all morning and then typed, “The horse jumped over the fucking fence,” and walked out, self-employed again.

I looked in the SI Vault and couldn’t find anything written by Vonnegut, but this anecdote is reported widely around the web.

Maybe there will be more evidence at the memorial library opening soon in Indy.

Via Brian Sample

50K bees trapped a Deputy in a police car for 3 hours when a truck hauling bees allowed the bees to escape. GET BETTER TRUCKS. The fact there’s no music and little talking in this video creeps me out.

Via The Daily What

But the biggest difference may very well be the money. The minimum annual salary in Major League Baseball currently sits at $400,000. Meanwhile, most players at the minor league level who haven’t reached minor league free agency are lucky to make $10,000 over the course of a season; a survey of players revealed that those in rookie ball make $1,250-1,300 a month while players in Triple-A, the highest level of the minors, can make roughly $1,000 more per month while under the contracted amount.

(Thanks, Jonah and Andy)

Every week, I write a recap about that night’s Mad Men episode and Chris Piascik draws one.

Whereas last week, the episode was slow taking a lot of time with what happened, this week seemed to jump around. There was less of a focus on “What I want to do” vs “What’s expected of me,” and more of a look at the advertising world. These are nice episodes, too.
-”Brief nudity.” Well, now!
-”Why is this empty?” “Because you drank it all.” There are more and more references each episode to Don’s drinking. Is this building to something? Later in the episode, Alison calls him a drunk.
-Clearasil needs to be moved, putting Pete in an awkward position, which everyone seems to love doing. This is similar to Don having to fire the airline when Duck Phillips thought they had a shot at (Pan Am? US Air?).
-”Lucky Strike noticed they’re being billed for all the work we do for everyone else at this agency.” I’d happily trade Lee Garner for Sal at this point.
-Peggy seems to work really hard at not feeling awkward in unusual situations. Being hit on by a woman in a dingy loft party? No problem! Let’s be friends. It did lead to some of the best dialogue of the night, “I have a boyfriend.” “He doesn’t own your vagina.” “No, but he’s renting it.” “You’re not working on something else,” because everyone in advertising has a novel in their bottom drawer. “Art in advertising? Why would anyone do that after Warhol.” “Sorry, for someone to sell their soul, they’ve got to have one.”
-The moment when Peggy was trying on Faye’s engagement ring, Don saw her, and she saw him notice her… It’s almost like Don and Peggy still share something between them, deeper than having slept together. Peggy doesn’t know about Dick Whitman, right? She’ll eventually find out.
-And then Peggy and Alison. Alison assumes Peggy had slept with Don, as well, and that they could commiserate. Peggy pushes back hard on this. What they shared is deeper than a one night stand. Interesting that Alison couldn’t hack it, though. This is why you have rules, Don. Don’t break’em.
-Pete also had some great moments in the episode. I had the sound off and I watched the scene with his father-in-law while I was writing this. You could tell what was being said, just from the expressions. Great acting. Then Pete goes home and seems genuinely excited about having a baby. Did you catch the, “How would you know how this feels?” line?
-Pete and Ken was funny. It’s nice to have Cosgrove back, he looked a little heavy. I liked how he went after Pete for stuff he may or may not have said, and some stuff he definitely didn’t. Ken looks heavier and seems down on advertising. Though he’s happier now than when he was at McCann. The writers don’t think too highly of McCann, do they? Just for old times, Ken says something ridiculous without any sense of irony at all, “Another Campbell, that’s just what the world needs.”
-And at the end of the episode, Peggy and Pete had a moment. It seemed like recognition and forgiveness? They smiled. Did the cut to the old people, “Did you get the pears?” mean anything, or was it just a cut? Did you get the pears? Pairs?
-Alison and Don’s confrontation was great. This time, however, Don didn’t seem to be trying to be cruel. He wasn’t hurting her because he was being selfish, he just didn’t know what to do to fix the situation. Don thought it was nice to let Alison write her own recommendation. Alison was furious because she thought it showed Don cared even less about her. If he cared, he would have been able to write something nice.
-Cooper. Hanging out in reception eating an apple. Why not?
-”Every time you jump to conclusions, Tom, you make me respect you less.” That’s a burn!
-What seemed to be a relatively recurring theme this episode, new vs old advertising. Science (Faye Miller) is telling them to stick with what’s work, but Don rebels against this, and to a certain extent, Peggy trying to get the artist involved, does, as well. Don’s argument is that people don’t know what they like. They don’t say what they want and how they want to be marketed to and the good advertisers will tell them. This has come up before, though usually in regards to clients. Don and Peggy work well together because, not only do they think of new messaging, they think of new angles. This goes against what the “science” says. “A new idea is something they don’t know yet, so of course it’s not going to come up as an option.” “You can’t tell how people are going to behave based on how they have behaved.”
-Part of Don’s aversion to Faye Miller’s science is his passion for privacy. He doesn’t like market research and all the tricks Faye uses to get her information.
-Don was less of a bad guy in this episode. In conversations this week, I mentioned I thought it was possible Don would last the series without ever becoming redeemable. What if he was just a bad guy, a cad, who just kept getting worse? He’d certainly be interesting as a protagonist, and Matthew Weiner would have experience with that type of character from The Sopranos. In the previous 3 seasons, there was always a charm to Don. We hadn’t seen that in the first 3 episodes, and, in fact, he went in reverse. I’d say Don was stayed in neutral in this episode, what with the lack of hitting on secretaries and nieces of very close friends.

What did I miss?

Via Balloon Juice.