Helping a Neighbor

Being down about Edwards dropping out of the race, I decided to post something to cheer us all up. This is from one of my favorite The Big Bang Theory episodes. Enjoy.

And here we have, Is Sheldon a Robot?

Guilty Pleasure

OK, I'll just admit it. I like The Big Bang Theory -- a lot.*

The critics that I've read don't. Although there does seem to be agreement that the actors are much better than the material. There is, the critics say, too much stereotyping of nerds going on here. Well, yes there is. I admit it.

The critics seem to think that these characters are so stereotyped that they aren't likeable.

But, the reason I like it so much is that these characters remind me of a group of teens who used to hang out with Richard, playing Dungeons and Dragons and talking about that world as though it was real. Very, very bright kids. Much smarter book wise than socially. Never fated for high school popularity. And earnest and fun to be around, at least for me. Supremely likeable.

Indeed, to a lesser degree** they remind me of the Elves', Gnomes', Leprechauns', and Little Men's Chowder and Marching Society.

* I seem to have a very eclectic sense of humor. I laugh at dry and witty humor, I laugh at broad humor. Having spent enough time with my Yu'pik mother, I laugh at very earthy humor. Puns. Knock knock jokes. Jokes based on obscure literary or scientific references. I will pretty much laugh at any excuse to laugh, as long as it isn't cruel.

** Because we were more into literature and less into science and math than either Richard and his pals or Howard, Leonard, Sheldon, and Raj, seen above with Penny, the non-nerd from across the hall.

Click on picture to enlarge and notice details of the room. The two flip charts and the telescope.

Potpouri III

Julie commented on Nothing New that she and Maya and Ted had watched Moonlight, which caused Maya to want to watch Buffy. And that reminded me that, for you vampire fans, Blood Ties is currently on Friday nights on Lifetime. This is a story about Victoria, a cop who had to retire because she is losing her day vision and is now a private investigator who specializes in supernatural cases and is assisted by Henry Fitzroy*, the illegitimate vampire son of Henry VIII.

And I got to thinking about Forever Knight, and Nick's car. Although the series began in 1992, Nick drove a 1962 Cadillac, because it was the only car with a big enough trunk for him to sleep in if he should be caught out with sunrise approaching.

For you Christopher Gorham (Jake and Ugly Betty's Henry) fans, the science fiction network is currently rerunning his first series, Odyssey 5.

The story revolves around a set of people on a routine spaceflight on August 7, 2007: three astronauts, a scientist, and a television news reporter. However, during the course of the flight, the Earth suddenly dissolves into a fiery ball, and explodes. The crew of the space shuttle Odyssey resign themselves to death, but a non-organic being called the Seeker rescues them. Fifty other worlds have been destroyed in the same way as Earth, but the seeker has always arrived too late to observe it or find survivors. However, this is the first time he has met survivors of such a tragedy. He offers to send them back in time 5 years (and therefore to present day, at the time of the series), so that they can prevent the disaster. In a twist, their consciousnesses are sent back and not their physical bodies, as physical time travel is impossible. They only know the name of the thing that did this: Leviathan.

Each of the five crew members who returns is not only trying to figure out what went wrong and fix it, but to also deal with their own lives. Gorham plays Neil, who only his crew mates don't think of as a 17 year-old computer whiz screw up. The commander has a family to hold together, the reporter a five year old son to get diagnosed with a rare cancer in time to save his life, the woman astronaut must try to prevent her senator father's corruption from ruining her family, and the scientist would like to use the time to enjoy a hedonistic life, since he doesn't believe that they can save the world. Very well made.

It is definitely fall here in Juneau. Which means that the summer fruit is over for us, and pomegranates and persimmons not ripe yet. Of course, A&P has some scrunchy little pomegranates on stock for $4.99 each (and I used to pick them off my grandmother's trees!), but the good ones come to Costco in a big box of 20. Every week I call and ask if they are in yet, and when they are I will feast. Meanwhile, this is a great time of year for winter squash and root vegetables. I like to steam beets, cauliflower, broccoli, onion, red potatoes, and carrots together. Also a good time to start making soups and stews.

* The Fitz prefix to a name is a British variant on O'X or MacX. In later times, similar forms were coined for members of the English and British royal family, who historically lacked a surname, and particularly for illegitimate children of kings and princes (Fitzroy - son of the king, Fitzjames - son of the king James II of England, and FitzClarence - son of the Duke of Clarence).

Nothing New

I'm probably giving you more information on my viewing habits than is smart if I want you to continue to admire Granny's wisdom, but I just can't refrain from commenting.

So, this year we have Chuck, a new comedy/spy program about Chuck, a charmingly awkward computer repair nerd for Buy More, who accidently gets a top secret computer downloaded into his brain and gets conscripted into working as a spy while continuing to live his old life.

Reminds me a lot of Jake 2.0, a comedy/spy program about Jake, a charmingly awkward computer repair nerd for the NSA, who accidently got infected by itty bitty computers and developed super powers and was conscripted into working as a spy while continuing to live his old life.

But, of course, Chuck has no idea what he wants to do with his life, while Jake did want to become an agent. Also, Jake was cuter.

(By the way, if Jake looks familiar to those of you who never watch science fiction, he is currently Henry on Ugly Betty.)

Gee, a new show that looks like an old show. Must be a coincidence, right? I mean, television doesn't go around borrowing premises.

Although . . .

Another new show this season is Journeyman, about Dan, who with no control or volition gets thrown into the past to fix things that went wrong. He never knows what he is supposed to fix until the end of the episode. He meets his ex-fiance, who he had thought dead, as he travels and she gives him not too much help. It interferes with his regular life; he has trouble getting back to his wife.

Not unlike Quantum Leap, where Sam got thrown into the past to fix things that had gone wrong. Oh, yeah, he had no control over it and never knew what he was there for until the end of the episode. He met his assistant, who was in a hologram chamber, as he traveled and he gave him not too much help. It eliminated his regular life; he forgot that he was trying to get back to his wife.

But, of course, Dan is a reporter and Sam was a physicist. And Sam was cuter.

Twice in one season. How odd.

Couldn't happen again, could it?

And then we have Moonlight, a show about Mick, an ethical vampire who fights his nature, works as a private detective, and has a thing with a mortal woman. He doesn't kill to live, subsisting on blood from the blood bank, which he keeps in the refrigerator (and drinks from wine glasses) in his handsomely decorated apartment. Although he is weaker during the day, he does not lose all of his powers come daybreak or refuse to enter a house he has not been invited into, nor does he sleep in a coffin. When he functions as a vampire, his eyes go wierd and his canine teeth grow.

Not unlike Forever Knight, a show about Nick, an ethical vampire, who was a cop on the graveyard shift and had a thing for a mortal woman. He no longer killed to live, subsisting on cow's blood, which he kept in wine bottles in the refrigerator of his handsomely decorated apartment. Although he couldn't go out in the sunlight, he did not lose all of his powers come daybreak, or refuse to enter a house he had not been invited into, nor did he sleep in a coffin. When he functioned as a vampire, his eyes went wierd and his canine teeth grew

But, of course, Mick is 85 years old and Nick was 800. And Nick was cuter.

Chuck and Jake.
Dan and Sam.
Mick and Nick.

Naw, just a coincidence.

Remembering How It Was

AMC is running a series, Mad Men, about a New York advertising agency in 1960. I've caught the last three episodes, and I'm hooked. They have the look and feel of the time down so perfectly. Even though I was a high school senior and then a college freshman and in California in 1960, and the series is about working adults in The Big Apple, it almost smells like 1960.

They smoked, and thought nothing of second hand smoke. They drank almost all day long. They were sexist and racist and other things we have outgrown.

In the first episode that I saw, the secretaries test lipstick that the agency is representing. As they try on the shades, they blot their lips on tissues, which are then dropped into a waste basket. After the session, one of the secretaries brings the waste basket to an ad exec, saying, "Here's your basket of kisses." Of course, he wants to know where she got the phrase and she tells him she just thought of it. Later he is telling a few other ad men about this and describes listening to her make intelligent comments as weird. "Like watching a dog play the piano."

And, of course, when she is encouraged to write ad copy, it is on her own time and she doesn't get paid extra.

All of which got me to thinking about how things were for women in those days. About having a B.A. and being asked in job interviews for my typing speed. I also remember one job interview when I was asked what kind of contraceptive I was using. And an interview while I was still married where they wanted to know if my husband would object to my working occasional Saturdays!

When I returned to college after Julie was born, I was 23. And had two small children. UC Berkeley wanted me to get permission from my parents to live off campus! I was having none of that, and responded that I would be happy to live in campus housing with my children. It's amazing what having the guts to stand up for yourself will accomplish. Faced with the prospect of a three week old baby in the dorms, suddenly I didn't need permission after all. My Aunt Florence was newly widowed and returned to University of the Pacific at the same time. She had to get the dean's permission to live off campus although she was 41 and she only got it, as a single woman, because she owned a house within a mile of the campus. One day she was in the grocery store, wearing grey wool slacks and a white cotton blouse, and the dean of women came up to her and explained that if she was seen in town again in slacks she would be expelled.

I remember being told in 1975 by the financial director of the agency I was working at that "no woman can manage a business." Barely two weeks after that, there was a situation where someone had to go to the medical director and tell him something he wasn't going to want to hear. It should have been the accountant, who wouldn't do it. So then he called the financial director, who back peddled like crazy and refused to do it. So, I did it. By the time I got to the man's office, the fact that two men had been afraid to do it had me a little bit tense, but I took my foot in my hand and did it. The response? "Why the hell didn't Larry or Bob come to me about this? Are you the only one in the agency with guts?" Bob didn't really say too much about women being able to manage after that. Well, he did once, but I looked at him and looked at the medical director and looked back and he had the grace to blush.

My grandfather gave my mother some money in the mid-60s, and she decided to buy stock with it. She had to get Daddy's permission. Daddy was outraged. "This," he declared, "is her money. Her father gave it to her. It has nothing to do with me. Why should she need my permission to spend it on anything she wants?" But, that was the law. It was also the law that a married woman needed her husband's permission to have a bank account or credit card in her own name. And, if she didn't, if he died, she had no credit history.

And although things are no longer that bad, they still aren't perfect. It is interesting that watching Mad Men throws certain behaviors in the here and now into sharp relief.

Sometimes It's Worth Turning On

Miss Marple
I was watching PBS Mystery -- Miss Marple, The Murder At the Vicarage. Miss Marple has been knocked down and so is on a cane. The police inspector, who has not met her before, isn't sure how to take the help she is giving him (is she right? is she nuts?) and he says, "I don't know whether to buy her a box of chocs or kick her stick out from under her."

Smallville
In junior high and high school, I was a big Superman fan. Loved Lois and Clark when it was on TV. But, somehow I had never watched Smallville, although my brother Forrest has not only recommended it, but when I was in California for two months last summer lent me the DVDs, which I then didn't watch. So, this weekend I watched one of the shows from the first season.

It is actually very good. Not what I expected -- no cape and tights, no flying. He isn't going around being Superboy. Full of inside jokes like Clark Kent has a crush on Lana Lang, who is dating somebody else. Lex Luthor seems to be a good guy at this point and claims Clark as his best friend. Clark makes a comment about not knowing what he wants to do when he grows up, but he knows he doesn't want to put on a suit everyday and fly around.

The best part was at the end when Clark told his father that the kid who had been the sort-of-villain that week, having the superpowers transferred to him for a short time, "didn't get the most important gift I did. You and mom as parents."

How about that! The writers of Smallville recognize that how a kid turns out may depend on how his parents raise him! How cool is that?