Mad Men: "I'd ask my secretary, but she's dead."

For a couple of episodes, I thought this might have been Billy Crystal

See ya later Miss Blankenship! Hired by Joan to simmah Don down after he plowed his former secretary, Miss Blankenship served the show well, giving us a nice taste of slapstick during the darkest period of the show's run. With Don doing his best Courtney Love impression, Joan having her breakdowns and Betty transforming from Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader, Miss Blankenship's appearance on screen gave us a much needed comedic break from the hard hitting show.

(For the record, my friend Fedd who does subtitling for TV shows in Los Angeles and watches TV and movies ALL DAY LONG claims that "The Shield" hits very hard.)

As this episode centered around the women of show and their places in life (including Sally), it must also be stated that this lady did quite a nice job.  

Is that a ficus?

Other quick thoughts:

- I get Don being hard on Sally when she first showed up to his office, but why not get down on one knee and tell her that he's very angry, but relieved that she's safe and will discuss it with her later? Did men not do this back in the 60's? He seemed a bit gruff.

- It's amazing how every one of us wants Joan's husband to die in Vietnam.

- Speaking of Joan's husband, in the comments section of the NYT write up of this week's episode, a guy (bobm, Wheeling WV, Sept 20th, 12:25pm) attempts to defend Rapist Greg. His main arguments are that despite his faults, his ambition to become a surgeon is noble (so noble that he's joined the army!) and his sexual behaviors are right on part with many of the other Mad Men characters. I'm not agreeing with him, but his post was very provocative.

- Joan took her bonkers status to a whole new level by demanding that Roger give it to her in that seedy, public stairwell. 

Ryan Howard takes on Arantxa Sanchez Vicario

- Don's new workout regimen has inspired me to go swimming. It's looks so refreshing! I'm going to LA Fitness this afternoon to play racquetball and will definitely be taking a dip afterward. I'm also very excited to take a shower there and dry my balls off with a hairdryer (and I'm not kidding!).