Category: Writing

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mAd Horizons

Joan continues to be the stalwart survivor. Sizes up the situation, takes her $2.5 mil and splits. Never will she rely on a man to rescue her. Baby Daddy Roger can’t be trusted to step in. He’s making excuses to Peggy as she roller skates into her new career at McCann. Hope the others take my advice.

And then there’s Don. Betty doesn’t even want a back rub from him. At McCann, as he sits in the conference room with a cast of too many around the table and watches some guy give his original best schpiel from five years ago, he bolts. In search of the elusive ideal mommy. Windows loom. He always likes playing the stranger. Lost horizon. Ageless? Or.  Still wishing for Shangri-L.A.

Sterling, Draper, Campbell & Holloway

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mAd Prey

Who will survive the transition from Sterling Cooper to McCann Erickson? Staff seems smart enough to know their days are numbered. Don may have a role, but he will be a little fish in a big pond. Roger’s corporate power is gone. Pete has always appreciated Joan’s value. Without his nudge, she wouldn’t be a partner. Now, as Joan faces a frat culture, she is rightfully realistic about her future. The consistent pragmatist, will she choose old rich dude or stay the course until she’s sidelined? Peggy will survive as a creative soldier. Her heart-wrenching sacrifice cannot be in vain. Everyone has made trade-offs. Careers over family.

In the end, they are all just prey. I hope there will be a new agency in L.A. Sterling, Draper, Campbell & Holloway.  We’ll see. Last three.

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mAd Dreams

Creepy Glen, Weiner’s son is back and uses his Vietnam-eve deployment to give Betty one last shot. He’s unrecognizable as a tall skinny eighteen, but still creepy. Meanwhile Don is encouraging Sally’s friend to flirt with him. Always wiser than her parents, she tells him that they both are immature gluttons for attention. Joan finds new love in an older rich guy from L.A. with an eye job. She remains centered if a little rattled by what having a young son means to her personal life. Peggy retains her creative career dreams as Don’s are becoming more dim.

Take away. Wish I’d bought a penthouse on the Upper East Side in the early 70’s for $85,000. Or kept a little apartment on 12th Street in the Village. 4 to go.

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bAd Don is Back!

When we left MadMen7 last year, Don had finally shed his Dick (capital D), and returned to being fabulously Draper. Roger took advantage of bittersweet circumstances to enter the M&A era keeping Sterling Cooper intact. Under McCann Erickson. As the 1960’s ended, everyone was gathered around their televisions to watch the first lunar landing in awe. Bobby Morse took us and Bert out in style. The Moon Belongs to Everyone. The Best Things in Life Are Free.

It is next year. Episode 8. bAd Don is back. Yay! If that’s all there is to life, then let’s keep dancing. Joan remains the best character. Bottom line no drama. All the men could learn from her. Wolf Hall will have to wait for a binge.

I did have Wisconsin, Joe.

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Truman Show

Call me crazy. I like Ohio Governor John Kasich. He’s not pretty. Nor polished. Just common sensical. Refreshing. Not saying I’d endorse him. Yet. But.

Cannot endure Hillary’s halting humor for two minutes let alone years. Nor trumped up women’s issues as the centerpiece of a presidential raison d’être. Pay equality does exist. For the same productivity, service, results. Always has in the private sector. Class disparity another stutter. We need fresh and new.

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Women v. Women

Women’s worst enemy? Other women. NYPost exposes Valerie Jarrett and Michelle O behind HRC email leaks. And other intrigues emanating out of the feminist wing. Beware women’s rights advocates. They are all for your rights unless you are wrong. Hillary not liberal enough. Yes, they like another woman, Elizabeth Warren. But, they are backing Martin O’Malley, too. I know. I plead guilty. And don’t even talk to Maureen Dowd. Ouch! Most scathing anti-Hillary column ever. Should be interesting Morning Mika tomorrow. She overtly pushes the Valerie-Michelle-Warren agenda to promote her book and lecture series.

And… just finished the number one best seller The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins. Weak women. Bad men. Yawn. Three needy, vulnerable competing current women tell their stories around an English train track. Intriguing literary device. Reductive in the end.

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False Idols

Genius journalist Richard Engel reports on the destruction of artifacts in Assyria. Modern iconoclasts’ obliteration of civilization. Bibi invades Congress as his election looms. Netanyahu is not Israel. False premise. Scott Walker likens American union workers to ISIS. Frank Underwood would be a better choice. Streaming!

As our false idols defile the culture on every cover. Kardashians. Meanwhile, American Idol does have lots of talent this season. Bon weekend.

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Best In Show

Oscars. Red Carpet. Publicists dressed like handlers at the Westminster Dog Show. Leading their pets around the ring. Not as many actors navigated the gauntlet this year. ABC didn’t ask who-are-you-wearing questions. E! gets sillier every year. Hope they’ll disappear. Neil Patrick Harris. Runner-up. Not as great as expected. Lady Gaga stole the night with her Sound of Music score. Hollywood’s narcissism reigned in the end with Birdman.

Switched to Downton. Perfect time to fast-forward back at the Academy Bores.

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Hello Doilies

Remember those doily mats with hearts glued on them? Valentines in grammar school. That’s cool. After that, not. Grown girlies in hoody footies having 50 shades of grey with life-sized Teddy Bears on Saturday. Yuk. Play cloying Sam Smith googly eyes ripoff of Tom Petty’s I won’t back down. Yuk. Women have lost decades of liberation and respect. Men acting like twits buying expensive wilted flowers and overpriced bad dinners for what? Teddy in the middle.

Speaking of ripoffs. Just finished The Devil You Know by Canadian author Elisabeth de Mariaffi. Her debut novel is a literary thriller. The writing is crisp and clean, and the mystery has its moments, but the young reporter is so silly and the ending so lame as to ruin it. Sorry. Anybody read a great book lately?

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Addled Reads

Addie. Ada. Adelaide. Women-y novels. Not my fave.

The Boston Girl, by Anita Diamant. Syrupy story about a Jewish family pre-WWI in Boston. The smart, cute daughter of three, Addie Baum’s luck was incredible as she escaped the critical eye and neglect of her financially struggling immigrant parents to be welcomed into a high class world with summer trips to Rockport. What?  Yiddish terms seemed forced with a smattering of contextual history. Very light read indeed. **

The Magician’s Lie, by Greer Macallister. Reminiscent of World of Wonders. Turn of the century in America. It’s about Ada, who becomes Arden a female magician, protégée of the first, Adelaide. Boyfriend manager far-fetched. No character came to life except for Ray who was stalker evil. If someone wants to do you harm, the only way to escape is through magic or murder. Ending hard to swallow, like a bad fire-eater. A pretty good escape on a snowy weekend. ***