Thoughts on Mad Men: 'At the Codfish Ball'

Just when I thought I was back on track with this blog, I fall back off.

I'll explain what knocked me off in a later post, but there just wasn't time to post anything last Monday. And once the rest of the week got rolling, it was hard to catch up. 

It's too bad because I did watch "At the Codfish Ball" last Sunday and had my notes ready to go. Just needed to carve out some time. Alas, my time management stinks.

The usual disclaimer: If you haven't watched this particular Mad Men episode, you should probably stop reading here. These will mostly be quick thoughts on what happened, but there will be spoilers. You have been warned.

• Interesting to finally meet Megan's parents and perhaps get some idea of what makes her tick. But I never would've guessed her mother would be younger, maybe more age-appropriate for Don.

When Megan asked Don, "Didn't you notice her touch you six times in an hour?" I wondered if this was something that had happened before. A little bit icky.

All we'd seen of her previously was Megan talking to her on the phone in French. Definitely figured she was older.

• Julia Ormond was an intriguing choice to play Megan's mother too. Remember when she was considered a hot actress in Hollywood in the mid-90s? Legends of the Fall, Sabrina, and so forth? Not bringing this up to be mean, but it's just interesting to see how acting careers can develop.

I know Ormond was going to play Superman's mother in Zack Snyder's new movie, but eventually bowed out. I wonder if she could be the lead on a TV show down the line?

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• Nobody likes a know-it-all. It's kind of hilarious that Roger might be getting on Don's nerves a bit with everything he learned about the world during and after his LSD trip last week. Don, for instance, hasn't needed psychedelic drugs to be perceptive about people. 

"Lots of people who haven't taken LSD already know that, Roger."

But I'm sure Roger's a lot more fun to be around, now that he's not trapped in a miserable marriage and bitter about Pete Campbell's foot on his throat.

• Didn't see Peggy's relationship with Abe taking this direction. Last week, they looked ready to break up, as Abe seemed to realize he was more of a boy-toy, or just someone for Peggy to use to take her mind off work. Now they're moving in together?

Abe's motivations are curious. He doesn't seem to like Peggy's co-workers. Maybe he just doesn't care for the "boy's club" atmosphere created by Stan and Ginsberg in the copywriting department. Is he worried that Peggy might become "one of the guys"? Is he trying to save her from that, in his own way?

• The more compelling aspect was how Peggy suddenly realized that she did want marriage and a traditional relationship. Her "yes" and "I do" responses to Abe were obviously meant for another conversation, the one she wished she was having.

Maybe Joan kind of planted the idea in her head, and Peggy was under the impression that Joan was happy. There's still a little bit of idolatry there. 

Peggy still wants to be an independent woman, not someone who's defined by the man she's with. But maybe she also doesn't want to be giving out handjobs in movie theaters anymore, either. 

• The fallout with Peggy's mother was heartbreaking, though. Peggy thought she was making an adult decision and wanted her mother to be happy for her. Peggy's mother, however, doesn't want her daugher to settle for less than she's worth — though she has a horrible way of getting that across. 

• By the way, Abe eats ham? 

• Once again, we see how great Megan can be at her job. First, she gets the universal, era-spanning idea for baked beans that the Heinz guy wanted.

Unfortunately, it's too late, as Heinz Guy's wife tips off in the bathroom that her husband has decided to go with another firm. (Actually, Heinz Guy provides another tip himself, when he mentions that they've been in the city for a couple of days and seen a show.) 

But then Megan saves the day. Not only by letting Don know that they had to make their pitch then and there, but building it up as if Don had the idea. Heinz Guy probably never would've accepted the pitch solely from Megan, whether it's because of his misogyny or a belief that Don was the creative genius. 

• Could Don have pulled this off if not for Bert Cooper's scolding last week? Or was this all about Megan seizing the moment and pushing Don back up to what he used to do best?

• Sally Draper! Megan (and her mother) obviously had fun dressing her up like a woman. But Don, even though his eyes were opened as to just how much his little girl is growing up, understandably isn't quite ready for her to go there yet.

Megan's father unwittingly voices that fear with his malaprop: "There's nothing you can do. No matter what, someday they will spread their legs and fly away."

The thigh-high go-go boots were probably a bit much.

• Can we have a spinoff show with Roger Sterling and Sally Draper? Those two have chemistry! Of course, Roger has chemistry with everyone. But Sally knows how to bust his balls. And Roger lets her, which is yet another way of making her feel like an adult.

• Unfortunately for Sally, she's shown that maybe she doesn't want to grow up too fast. She later catches her "date" for the evening getting a blowjob from Megan's mom in another room.

(By the way, was Megan's mother hoping they'd get caught? They weren't exactly in the most private place, even if Sally was the only one to see them. Megan's father easily could've walked in on them, too. Or was no one else curious enough to snoop around?)

The adult world is messy, complicated, and as she says to end the show, "dirty." Poor Sally. 

Thoughts on Mad Men: 'Far Away Place'

OK, I'm hopefully back on track after falling behind the last couple of weeks on Mad Men posts. I think I may have finally worked out the proper Sunday night schedule for myself.

I've done a poor job of maintaining this blog over the past few weeks, so if you're sticking with me, especially when the internet runneth over with TV recaps, I really appreciate it. If I've come to realize anything this weekend, it's how much I need to write about things other than baseball to clear my head.

I did eventually post some thoughts on the previous two episodes here and here, but those may seem kind of old now, as the series keeps chugging along. 

The usual disclaimer: If you haven't watched Sunday night's "Mad Men"episode, "Far Away Place," you should probably stop reading here. These will mostly be quick thoughts on what happened, but there will be spoilers. You have been warned.

• One problem I had with this episode is that several lines in the script seemed a little bit too "on the nose." 

A good example of this occurs early when Peggy is making the presentation to Heinz, and he doesn't go for it. Peggy gets snippy, saying they're giving him what he asks for, to which he responds, "Stop writing down what I asked for, and try to figure out what I want."

Yes, that's the difference between Peggy and Don, and what makes Don so good at his job. And it's certainly a key as to why nothing Peggy's team does is appealing to Heinz Guy. But it just seemed like a strange thing for him to say.

• Peggy must have read Jonah Lehrer's new book on creativity, Imagine. When you're stressed or creatively blocked, get out of the office, go for a walk, do something to take your mind off the task at hand and the answers will come later.

I don't know if Lehrer had anything about giving strangers hand jobs in movie theaters, though. But I admit I haven't read the whole book yet, so I may not have gotten to that chapter.

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• I don't get to as many midday matinees as I used to, but clearly I was doing it all wrong. Bring some marijuana to smoke, offer it to the woman in front of me, and let the hand jive hijinks begin! Maybe I'll try that when The Avengers comes out next week.

Oh, who am I kidding? I can't watch The Avengers high. I need every one of my senses fully functional for that one. 

• If Peggy needed another reminder that she isn't Don, and not "one of the guys," this was it. Heinz Guy might not have even put up with that kind of scolding from Don, let alone someone perceived as the little copywriting girl.

Of course, that infuriates Peggy. But she also doesn't have the deft touch with people nor the charisma that Don does. Nor does she have the gravitas or resume that would let Don get away with something like that.

• Roger Sterling taking LSD? Once again this season, we go into territory that flirts with disaster. But Matthew Weiner and crew are able to avoid the cliche and come up with something that feels relatively fresh.

We don't see psychedelic kaleidoscopes and tie-dye colors after Roger and his wife drop LSD at a party. "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" by The Beach Boys was probably too fitting a song choice. But we do see some effects with the bottle of Stoli booming Russian music when Roger opens it and the incredible shrinking cigarette. 

• Instead, we get something much more powerful and heartbreaking. LSD does get Roger and Jane to "the truth," which is supposed to be the whole idea. Their marriage is a failure. Roger is miserable, and Jane is right there behind him. As she says, Roger doesn't even like her anymore. Maybe he never really did.

Ironically, it's Roger who sees his world more clearly afterwards, while Jane is ready to go back to living a lie. But Roger's ready to be liberated. The truth brings him relief. 

• Maybe Don and Megan need to drop some LSD. That's the contrast we're supposed to see in this episode. One couple embraces the truth, while the other is apparently willing to keep living what increasingly looks like a charade. 

• "Every time we fight, it diminishes us." Would anyone really actually say that? Again, too on the nose. 

• Interesting that Don overlooks Gene, and Megan kind of has to remind him that he needs attention and affection too. Even though Gene is Don's son, he's grown up while Betty has been with Henry Francis. There's obviously been no relationship with him. 

• Don leaving Megan at the Howard Johnson in upstate New York was obviously a dick move. I probably related a bit too much to the desire to drive away and leave the person I was fighting with to fend for herself, hoping to teach her a lesson. (Of course, I wussed out much sooner than Don, making me look like a fool.)

However, Don's the one who gets the lesson. He'll lose Megan if he handles their relationship the way he always has with other women. And he knows it. But doesn't their end now seem more inevitable than ever? 

• Speaking of HoJo, it's barely a memory. But I'm old enough to remember the old Howard Johnson on the corner of Carpenter and Washtenaw in Ann Arbor, just off US-23.

I remember those orange and aqua colors. I remember that sharp, triangular roof. That roadside sign. Great job by the production design team.

I don't remember much of the food, though. (What I do remember is probably actually food from Bill Knapp's, which was right next to HoJo in Ann Arbor.) No orange sherbet memories for me. (Like Megan, sherbet was never my thing.)

• Who knew Bert Cooper still had some punch left? (Didn't he quit Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce at the end of last season, mostly because of Don's arrogance?) But as a former mentor and boss, he's really the only guy who could give it to Don straight. And someone had to say it. 

"You've been on love leave. It's amazing things are going as well as they are with as little as you are doing."

Pete Campbell or Peggy Olson isn't going to say that to him. They're all too afraid or just don't have the authority over Don. Cooper might not have authority, per se, anymore. But he was there when Don was nobody, and mistakes haven't robbed him of credibility, as they have with Roger. 

• I loved the shot of Don in the glass conference rom, watching Peggy go by, then the copywriting team. Megan is walking with her colleagues, which is what she wanted from the beginning. She doesn't want to just skate by on being Mrs. Draper, which Don hasn't realized.

• So where does Don go from here? Maybe Roger can help him out, since he's now the happy one, and Don is miserable. 

Thoughts on Mad Men: 'Signal 30'

Once again, Sunday night went a little late, mostly because I suddenly felt the need to catch up on two (2 1/4, really) episodes of Game of Thrones, then watch the darling of female TV critics everywhere, Lena Dunham's new HBO series, Girls. 

(Did that come off as snotty? I didn't really mean it to. Well, maybe a little.)

So I was pretty wiped out and had to hit the treadmill running for baseball blogging, come Monday morning. I really need to figure out a new Sunday night routine. 

The usual disclaimer: If you haven't watched the latest "Mad Men"episode, "Signal 30," you should probably stop reading here. These will mostly be quick thoughts on what happened, but there will be spoilers. You have been warned.

• Pete Campbell taking drivers ed? Only in New York. I'm sure it's been mentioned or addressed at some point, but how old is Pete, anyway? Still in his late twenties? Or is he in his early thirties at this point? 

The idea that Pete doesn't feel uncomfortable among high schoolers is kind of intriguing. But maybe he thinks they look at him — or will come to look at him — as sort of a mentor figure. Or, in the case of the girl Pete takes a liking to, maybe just a cool older guy.

• Did Don always hate work? He mentioned it to Megan two episodes ago. Now he's scribbling a hangman's noose on his notes? Maybe it's all just gotten old to him, listening to the same client requests for pitches, going through the same meetings and presentations. 

Maybe that's one of the reasons he married Megan: He thought it would make his job interesting and exciting again.

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• Ken Cosgrove: sci-fi writer! Some shows or networks might have tried to offer a "Ben Hargrove" short story on their websites. I kind of wish Matthew Weiner or AMC had done something like that. Complete with illustrations and everything!

But maybe that would've been kind of cheesy. Plus, it's probably more intriguing if we just have an idea of Ken's writing, rather than a fuller picture. 

• I was kind of disappointed it looked like Ken's writing career was over, after Roger made it clear that he should be devoting all his energy to Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. (Which is really kind of a farce, right? Like none of the other guys waste their extracurricular time on other pursuits, such as boozing and women? Maybe just an attempt to assert authority by Roger.) 

But writers write. You can't make the itch go away. Not when inspiration strikes. Dave Algonquin lives.

• How about this "pact" between Ken and Peggy? He'll take her with him if he goes to another firm? Is this the first we've heard of this? I think it is. I don't know why, but I kind of find it reassuring that these characters might have a future beyond SCDP (and/or the end of this series). 

• As I said in my previous Mad Men post, any scene with Roger is a good one. But the exchange between him and Lane was a good one. Roger might have a grudging respect for Lane, and Lane still feels like an outsider, despite all he's been through with the firm.

Here, both get something out of this. Lane feels accepted because Roger wants him to succeed. And Roger gets to play mentor, passing on his knowledge and experience to someone who truly wants his advice. Both guys get to feel important. Maybe this plays out more throughout the season.

• Don's plaid sport coat: Wow. (That's a title for a future Tumblr, I'm sure.) So Megan wants to jazz him up a bit away from the office. But Don, in interacting with co-workers, always wants to maintain the facade, to keep the power dynamic in place. He's not friends with any of these guys, and doesn't want to be, as we saw a couple episodes ago with Harry Crane. 

• Don's drink order: "Big and brown." That's a philosophy we should probably all adopt. Although it's probably likely to be coffee or Diet Coke for me. 

• No matter what, Don's still the big cheese. The cool guy men want to be, and women want to be with. Everyone wants to please him. It's a big deal when he attends Pete's get-together. And you know all the wives dug it when Don took off his shirt to fix the sink. 

• How soon before you realized that Roger, Don and Pete had taken the Jaguar guy to a whorehouse? Hot, young women hitting on old British guy? Yeah, that's a brothel.

This is where we see Roger's ability to figure out what the client is really looking for. "Fun" and "good time" really only mean one thing, right? And Lane's a bit too square to know that.

• If I can work the line "Because he was caught with chewing gum on his pubis!" into any aspect of my life, I will consider it a great success.

• In five seasons of this series, we may have never seen anything better than Lane Pryce and Pete Campbell in a fistfight. Sleeves rolled up, revolving their fists like bare-knuckle brawlers. And the other partners just watching, mouths agape at what they're witnessing. Just awesome.

• Of course, nothing's more awesome than seeing someone finally give Pete the beating we've all wanted him to receive. He's had it coming throughout the series, but certainly this season. Besides obviously pushing it too far with Lane, Pete reached his height of insufferability when scolding Don for judging him after sleeping with the whore. 

• For the first time, Don even sort of admits that he envies what Pete has. But Pete's too indignant and full of himself to see that he finally got what he's always wanted from Don: affirmation. But as mentioned earlier, they'll never be friends.

And Pete showed his naivete by even saying that following his beatdown by Lane. 

• "You're a grimy little pimp!" You are, but thank you for reading, anyway. 

Thoughts on Mad Men: 'Mystery Date'

Lesson learned for me: If I don't watch Mad Men when a new episode premieres on Sunday night, it will be a few days before I get to it. Obviously, that means notes on the episode won't be posted until later in the week, either.

Sundays have become kind of a prep night for Monday and the week to come at the new Bleacher Report gig, so if that 1-2 hours gets taken up by something else, it's kind of hard to get it back. I'm not great with time management, though, so maybe I just need to plan better. 

Anyway, the usual disclaimer: If you haven't watched Sunday night's "Mad Men"episode, "Mystery Date," you should probably stop reading here. These will mostly be quick thoughts on what happened, but there will be spoilers. You have been warned.

• Megan's been pretty cool with just about every issue or foible Don has (other than being kind of a geezer who doesn't like to party with her younger friends), even the whole Dick Whitman thing. But his past womanizing is obviously a problem for her. 

And she probably has no idea what a dog he's really been over the years. (Although Megan's terms like "worked with" and "careless appetite" implies that she might have an idea.) All the women, all the affairs, all the near-disasters caused by Don's need to dip his wick and be loved by a strong (albeit somewhat damaged) woman. 

Could this eventually be a deal breaker for Megan?

• This is something Don never had to deal with in his marriage to Betty. Another example, perhaps, of being careful what he wishes for.

Don wanted someone who understood his lifestyle more, maybe more of a "city girl" instead of a suburban housewife. But with Megan going to work with him, going into the city with him, means they're going to run into some of Don's past flings. 

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• It probably won't happen for a while, if at all, but I keep waiting for Sally Draper to blow up. Part of me thought she'd jump up from her chair and shove that tuna sandwich in her step-grandmother's face.

Obviously, however, they went on to bond a bit later in the episode. Pauline understands that Sally wants to become an adult faster because her childhood has been a mess. And Sally seems to realize that Pauline is trying to protect her — in her own way — from the terrible world out there. 

• Is Michael Ginsberg the new Don Draper? I know I keep going back to this theme of the old guard like Don and Roger sliding into obsolescence this season. But Ginsberg is a physical embodiment of it for Don to confront. 

Don's experience told him that Ginsberg screwed up by confessing another pitch to the Topaz people. But is that something he would've done in his early days? Maybe not, since Don's idea tends to be the one the team goes with. What happens when clients start liking Ginsberg's ideas more?

• Roger with anybody usually makes for a good scene, but the scene with him and Peggy was golden. Poor Roger can't get a foothold anywhere anymore with the company he helped build. Now he's being extorted by the copywriters? 

Of course, this also shows Peggy's growth. We've known for a while that she's no longer a pushover and wants to be taken seriously as "one of the guys." But when she knows she has Roger by the balls, she doesn't let go. "Do you want me to take your watch?"

• The dream sequence was toeing some dangerous territory. It's not unprecedented for Matthew Weiner, as he's portrayed flashbacks much like dreams in the past.

But watching the episode as a whole, it was clear they were building to something with Don's sickness. (Did anyone else initially dread that the cough meant lung cancer?) So it wasn't that jarring to see Don having a fever dream. 

• Alan Sepinwall asked in his recaps when viewers knew they were watching a dream. I think it became clear to me pretty late, when Don was shoving Andrea under the bed after choking her to death.

But really, there were clues all along. How did Andrea find Don's place when she hasn't seen him in years? And was this really going to become a series in which Don was a murderer and had to deal with that? Mad Men becomes a completely different show with that.

• Has there ever been a male character on Mad Men more hated than Joan's lunkhead husband, Greg?

It never quite seemed plausible that a woman as strong as Joan would put up with being married to such a jerk. But maybe she saw Greg as her only path toward a traditional marriage and family. Joan also seemed to need an identity outside of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. She wasn't going to have that with Roger. 

• The scene with Joan telling Greg to leave was extremely satisfying. Even more so because Joan finally acknowledged Greg raping her in Season 2. But given Greg's past tendencies toward violence, was he going to hit Joan during their argument? 

Joan probably took care of that, however, by belittling him and his need to feel like a man. And how about him bolting out the door without even saying goodbye to his baby son? What a champ. 

Thoughts on Mad Men: 'Tea Leaves'

Watching TV on Sunday night might get a bit tricky. Not only is "Mad Men" back, but Season 2 of "Game of Thrones" also began last night. Throw in the TV from the previous week that I'm probably trying to catch up on and... I suppose this is why DVRs were invented.

Anyway, enough of my first world, white guy problems. (I can see Ms. A. ready to throw a shoe at her monitor.) Sunday nights are pretty nice right now. 

The usual disclaimer: If you haven't watched last night's "Mad Men"episode, "Tea Leaves," you should probably stop reading here. These will mostly be quick thoughts on what happened, but there will be spoilers. You have been warned.

• Anyone who missed Betty Francis last week got their fix right away in this episode. (I don't actually know anyone who's a Betty "fan," other than those who enjoy looking at January Jones.)

We immediately see the contrast between her and Don's new wife, Megan. Betty can't fit into a dress, as she's put on weight. (Initially, I wondered if she was pregnant, as Jones really was at the time. But it looks like Betty's just enjoying her ice cream and Bugles. And Jones is wearing the same prosthetics Elisabeth Moss wore when Peggy Olsen was pregnant.)

Meanwhile, at the Draper pad, Megan slinks into a short dress and Don zips her in easily. Oh, and Megan is speaking French on the phone. Hot.

• The Heinz guy wanting the Rolling Stones — or a Stones song — for a canned beans ad is hilariously clueless. As Roger Sterling said later on, "Baked beans and The Rolling Stones — a client's idea if I've ever heard one." Are the fussy and overreaching demands of Heinz going to be a season-long issue for Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce?

• We see yet another example of generational shift during the dinner with the Heinz guy. His wife is bored by the work talk, and assumes Megan is too because the women don't care about this stuff. Except Megan does. She loves it. It's one of the things that attracts her to Don. She has ambitions of wanting to do his job someday.

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• Black people! (I keep forgetting that Don's former maid, Carla, had a recurring role on the show.) Last week's "equal opportunity employer" ad gag forced SCDP into hiring a couple of applicants for secretarial jobs. So Don has a new secretary, Dawn, and that leads to a couple of jokes. 

Does this secretary end up with someone at the firm? Will Lane want another chocolate bunny? 

• Writers smell like pee, says Roger. Hmm, I wonder if I smell like pee? I'm self-conscious about that sort of thing. I'm going to shower after posting this.

• "You're so square, you've got corners," Megan says to Don before he goes to (hopefully) meet the Stones. Again, a crack at Don's age and his increasing detachment from cultural tastes of the day.

We see this to an even greater extent with Don and Harry hanging out with the groupies backstage after the show. Don initially looks older — and more square — than he ever has. Until he digs further with one of the groupies and hits on exactly what she hopes to accomplish if she gets to the dressing room to meet Brian Jones. It's why Don has been so successful. He knows people and their psychology.

• Could this be the season of Harry Crane? Roger still gets all the best lines, but Harry is right behind him so far after two episodes.

Following last week's hilarious break room incident when Megan catches him talking dirty about her, Harry tries to have a moment with Don over a sack of White Castle sliders after the Stones concert. Except Don isn't interested in being buddies with Harry, nor sympathetic to him wanting to stay away from home as long as possible. Or maybe Don just thought scarfing down 20 sliders was way uncool.

• "When is everything gonna get back to normal?" asks Roger, again establishing the theme of this season. (Is Matthew Weiner being too heavy-handed with it?) Nothing is ever going to be normal again for the guys who ruled the late-50s and early-60s. 

Happy Birthday, Dad

Today is my father's birthday. He would've been 68 years old today.

On my recent trip to Malaysia, I was frequently reminded of his younger days, when he met my mother while serving a term with the Peace Corps.

I enjoyed hearing stories of what he was like back then. One of the great regrets of my life is that I never took the time to talk to him about those days. What was his courtship and early relationship with my mother like? What was his daily routine and lifestyle in Malaysia? What was his favorite food there? How did he deal with using those squat toilets?

I'm having trouble believing that it's been seven years since he's been gone. So much has happened in that time.

I look at things like iPods, DVRs, cheaper broadband internet and wi-fi, and think it's a shame that he wasn't able to enjoy these luxuries that would've made his life easier and more enjoyable. If you'd have told him he'd be able to download NPR's Fresh Air or find various jazz and classical podcasts that he could listen to on his own time and take anywhere with him, he would shake his head and smile.

Though I would've had to walk him through them constantly, he would've loved connecting with old friends and meeting with like-minded people. He would've enjoyed following the writers and journalists he admired on Twitter.

He would've loved it here in Asheville, with its mountains, trees, pleasant climate, laid-back lifestyle and nice people. He should have been able to enjoy retirement with my mother and make new friends.

Selfishly, I wish he was here to see me achieve some success as a sportswriter. If for no other reason than he would know that something finally worked out after all my years of lost, unfocused slacking.

I wish he was here to enjoy his granddaughter, to read to her, to feed her, to change her diapers, to sing and dance with her, to help her learn to walk. He would've been a wonderful grandpa.

Happy Birthday, Dad. You are missed tremendously. We love you.

Thoughts on Mad Men: 'A Little Kiss'

During the last season of "Mad Men," which (inexplicably) took place almost two years ago, I posted my thoughts on each episode on my blog.

The biggest reason I did this is because my main TV-watching partner, Ms. A., didn't have cable (!!!), wasn't able to watch the show, and thus couldn't engage in a deep post-mortem with me. So I had to get this stuff out of my head for my own sanity. And here we are again. 

Also, I didn't want to keep posting responses and thoughts on Twitter, because not everyone watches a show at the same time and I didn't want to spoil anything. (Plus, if you're not into "Mad Men," those tweets are surely annoying. I wish more of the people I followed — especially TV critics — felt the same way.) 

I realize there are plenty of other "Mad Men" recaps to read online today, so if you're reading this, I appreciate it. 

So here's the deal: If you haven't watched last night's "Mad Men"episode, "A Little Kiss," you should probably stop reading here. These will mostly be quick thoughts on what happened, but there will be spoilers. You have been warned.

• I'm so glad I can now watch "Mad Men" in HD. I don't know if others had AMC in HD on their cable systems, but it was added to Charter only very recently. (The last time I was able to watch the show with such clarity, it was on a tiny picture on my iPod Classic.) The colors, set design and period clothing really pop now. 

• Black people! On a roundtable with Charlie Rose last Thursday, Gayle King (who was obviously trading in on co-hosting CBS' new morning show with Rose) asked the show's creator, Matthew Weiner, if we we would see black people on the show. (Besides Lane Pryce's chocolate bunny, that is.) Weiner said we would when they became a presence on Madison Avenue. Looks like the Civil Rights movement finally made it to midtown Manhattan. 

• Did anyone else think Sally Draper was a time bomb waiting to explode, spending the weekend with Daddy and his much younger new wife? It didn't happen this time, but probably will later on. 

• "You wanna lay in bed with Mommy?" Joan asks her newborn baby (whose butt got an extreme close-up). Millions of men throughout America watching "Mad Men" nod involuntarily.

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• Don Draper's marriage to his former secretary, Megan, is obviously going to be a major storyline this season. How it plays around the office and in inter-office politics is surely going to be a recurring subplot, as well. But how being (presumably) happy is going to affect Don looks like it might be a theme of the season.

Peggy mentions that Don is now "kind and patient," two traits he was hardly known for in his more sharkish days as a superstar ad man. Has Don lost his edge? More importantly, does everyone else think he has? And do you have to be mean, do you need an edge, to be truly good at what you do?

• Another indication that this could be a prevalent theme is a conversation Pete Campbell has with his wife, Trudy. "Dissatisfaction is a symptom of ambition," she says. It's the coal that fuels the fire. Again, can you be successful if you're content? 

• By the time this is posted, I fully expect there to be a Twitter or Tumblr called "Pete Campbell's plaid blazer." Don't let me down, internet. 

• Favorite line of the night, from a sailor attending Don's surprise party in his swinging penthouse bachelor pad: "I thought there were gonna be girls here." Of course, Megan's sex kitten rendition of "Zoo Be Zoo Be Zoo" probably took care of that. Si chaud!

• I'm not sure what I'd rather watch again over lunch today: Megan singing in French or cleaning the rug in a bra and panties. Oink oink.

• Where did Harry Crane's weight go? Not that he was ever fat, per se. But he looked a bit chubby compared to his colleagues. Maybe it was the clothes. Nice job, Rich Sommer.

• Megan hanging out with the younger people (i.e., her hipster musician friends) at the surprise party, while Don looked on resentfully, was reminiscent of the simmering conflict with his mistress Midge and her beatnik crowd in Season 1. 

Later on, when the two were fighting, Megan made a crack about Don being old. (He took care of that by banging her on the living room rug, which was still strewn with party crumbs and mess. Nothing Don Draper can't take care of with some sexy time. Especially if it's rough, with some hair-pulling. Even at 40, he's still got it. Oh, if only Don could lay the Heinz people out on the conference table and ravish them.)

This marriage looked kind of desperate all along, like Roger Sterling's marriage to Don's former secretary, Jane. Surely, this isn't the last time the age (and lifestyle) difference will be apparent. 

• So everyone is thinking Lane and Joan are going to have a thing, right? After they shared a moment in his office? Actually, it would be kind of cool if they just became great friends and confidants. But Lane, especially, seems particularly eager to stray, as his fantasy dalliance with Dolores — the woman whose picture he swiped from a found wallet — indicates. 

Malaysia Diaries: In search of kimchee and a nap

So maybe you're thinking, "Ian, are you ever going to actually write about Malaysia?"

You could also be thinking, "Dude, it's been two weeks since you've written anything on your blog, let alone anything on your Malaysia trip. I don't care what you do anymore; I have an NCAA Tournament bracket to fill out." 

OK, that's fair. I'm not happy about it, either. I was kind of hoping to be done — or near done — with The Malaysia Diaries by now. But I've been preoccupied with some stuff, which I'll probably be writing about in one form or another. 

Anyway, I'm getting to Malaysia. But first, I have to get there, if you know what I mean. And I can't let our 10-hour layover in Seoul go without writing a little bit about it. 

We arrived in Seoul at about 5:30 a.m. local time. The airport was quiet and virtually deserted that early, which suited our dazed state of mind following a 14-hour flight from the States pretty well. (Although finding a place that was open to serve some coffee wouldn't have been bad.) 

With the sleek white-and-silver motif of the terminal, it felt sort of like being in a science fiction movie. If only we were floating. Physically, I mean. Mentally, we were totally floating. 

Going in, we knew a 10-hour layover would be rough. I would've loved to write about a food-hopping, booze-soaked trek through Seoul, like the ones Anthony Bourdain does on his new show. But the idea of going through immigration to leave the airport, trying to navigate a completely foreign city (which is who knows how far from the airport), getting back, going through security (and probably immigration) again, all while completely zombified from lack of sleep, held little appeal. 

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Besides, it was also really cold in Seoul. Like 24 degrees. There was snow on the ground and ice on the windows. I never knew it got that cold in Korea. I guess it stands to reason, given where South Korea is located in the hemisphere. But I was surprised (and surely naive), nonetheless. 

Knowing we would have 10 hours with not a lot to do, and preferring not to try and sleep on the rows of seats at the gate, we reserved a room at the airport transit hotel. (Although if we'd opted for sleeping on seats, Seoul's airport apparently expects this, because the seats don't have armrests. You can actually stretch out, if you prefer to piss off your fellow travelers by taking up three seats while they're looking for a place to sit.) This might be one of the best decisions we've ever made.

We reserved a six-hour stay at the transit hotel (12 and 24 hours are your other options), but if we checked in before 7:30 a.m., we'd have to buy a 12-hour stay. So we had about an hour to kill. 

If there was anything reassuring about our layover in Seoul, it's that many travelers were in the same circumstance. Maybe that's a slogan Seoul can use: "Asia's transit stop." At least one area is devoted entirely to people who need to take a load off and rest during a layover. As we walked down the concourse adjacent to the hotel, we saw several people sleeping (or trying to sleep) on the ledges of flower beds. If not for the sleek interior design, you might think this was a homeless shelter.

I wonder if those people were just so tired that they flopped down on the first bed-like surface they could find. Perhaps they couldn't take about 20 more steps. If they had, they would've found what we found. A cafe! (Coffee! Water! Diet Coke! Pastries!) And next to the cafe was a lounge. With lounge chairs. At least I think that's what you'd call these. 

There was only one chair open, so I let Mom have it. Besides, I wasn't exactly comfortable sleeping around a bunch of strangers. Also, I was afraid that if I went to sleep there, I wouldn't wake up. So I opted for checking e-mail, sucking down coffee and water, typing journal entries, and taking unsolicited snapshots of my sleeping mother. It's OK, Mom — you look fine. And you weren't snoring. Much.

Finally, we got our room. I wish I had a picture for you, but the space was so small that when I raised my camera, I was practically hitting the other wall. There were two single beds in the room, but close enough together that Mom and I were almost sharing a bed. Honestly, I didn't care — so long as I could sleep. Any time I tried to roll over, I almost fell off the bed. But I got five good hours of slumber. 

The room had a TV on the wall, upon which I could not find the Super Bowl. However, as cool as it would've been to watch the Super Bowl on an international channel, I wouldn't have stayed awake for the game. Also included were a small desk in front of a mirror and a mini-fridge. Oh, and a bathroom, of course. And after 14 hours on a plane, a hot shower was extremely welcome. 

It was kind of a letdown that the Seoul airport didn't include many restaurants with the native cuisine. But that might be for the best. Do you really want to sit next to someone on an airplane who's just eaten a spicy stew with kimchee? Or do you want to be trapped on a plane for seven hours after eating spicy stew with kimchee?

There was one place that sold fried rice and noodles, but when we stopped there at 6:30 a.m., it was sold out of seven of the 10 dishes on the menu. Seriously. Maybe they just hadn't been prepared yet. So as disappointing as it was, we had Smoothie King. In South Korea. But I ordered a red ginseng smoothie to give it an international feel. Take that, Bourdain. 

OK, we're going to Malaysia in the next post. I promise.