This is a test, right? The behind-the-scene thing placed tape-trading off somewhere in the Analog World like Trinidad & Tobago, where they do things with magnetic tape that the Digital World does with thumbdrives.

The Irish are watching Wire on the Gaelic channel, in American. Because -- let's face it -- if you can translate Wire into English, the jump from American to Gaelic is easy stuff..

Goddamit, they're showing it on TG4 when I'm OUT OF THE FUCKING COUNTRY? I STILL haven't got past Season One, and they weren't showing it in Ireland when I was there, and they're not showing it in England now I'm here. Goddamit.

I envy Jars.

Jars can look forward to seeing Season Two, which contains performances and writing that make the end-credits of the episode into a slap in the face that brings you groggily back to mundane reality.

Before Jars there still expands the lush, fertile valley of Season Three, which is like "Okay. Got Season Two firmly in mind? Good. Now fuck all that. Here is what it is really about."

I was going to do a whole thing on the "fertile valley" metaphor, but I got confused. With valleys, we need peaks. Which is like saying that Season Three is some kind of low ... thing. Which is all kinds of wrong, making my metaphor crumble into crumbly bits.

Crap. Now I've got metaphor all over the carpet.

Frank Sobatka killed me, though. Made me cry a lot. Chris Bauer should have won an award for that performance, because it was truly brilliant. And I kind of think they're all what it's really about. Like Lester said "All the pieces matter." All the seasons matter, too. ETA: in regard to swapping tape with your neighbors, yeah, I'd expect so. Wasn't trying to make the Irish sound backward or anything; maybe Neighbor One gets more channels. They did say that particular channel only plays one English-language show and that The Wire is that show. Yeah, you're right, Gus. I still feel that I have to translate from time to time and I have read a lot of Simon & Burns' writing and seen six seasons of Homicide.

Just had a long Skype with an n-th cousin in Ireland. Wire is huge there, like all-caps HUGE.

This sorta shocked me, since the only Irish guy in it is pretending to be Italian. So, I was like "Why?" and my n-th cousin was all "If you say 'like' once more, you will catch such a slap!".

Then he laid it out for me. The structure of Wire -- here-is-how-cops-work, here-is-how-robbers-work -- just clicks right in to the Irish mindset. My n-th cousin, who is a proper caravan-dwelling straight-up pavee "Gypo" on the wrong side of the law, watches so he can critique both sides.

Robber-side: "Are ye plain daft? Never let your breath go into any kind of microphone when it's shenanigans that on your mind!"

Cop-side: "Follow the money. Have your grass Bubbles do a buy with an RFID bill. Follow that sucker to the top."

Cool.Maybe that instinct passed from my being part Irish- American. And, yes, many cop writers do say they have more in common with the criminals than the "citizens". Or maybe I like it so much because at this stage in my life, I don't feel like a citizen, either.

And to think I once said "A show about the drug trade? God, how depressing!" See, that's why it's good when liberals change their minds, or in Rightspeak "flip-flop" Because I didn't know what I was talking about, and just pictured when NYPD Blue arrested, say, Skel Number One, over and over.That *would* have been depressing. The Simonverse is a tough world, but I'm not really depressed by it.

Jesus, that was pitch-perfect, all the way through. Funny as hell, too.

Funny as hell, too.

The thing that killed me at the beginning was that it HAD to be a fake Home Depot. They are never that helpful there.

I can tell this season is going to be a heartbreaker. Again.