I was trying so hard to pick up the first book today, because I totally have a fixation now. I was only able to get the second one, but I endeavor to find the first.

DEXTER!!!

Julie Benz is so great at being broken.

It's so true! When I watch her on this show, it feels like a more refined version of her human-Darla on Angel. She's remarkably talented.

Damn, you know, I haven't given much thought, or not in a long time, to how much you need to trust somebody to let them teach you shit. Because it is, after all, a concerted effort to *put stuff in your brain* and possibly also *take stuff out* that, stupid, wrong, or shortsighted as it could be, may be all your parents ever gave you...and so you might still want it. It's not so much that Simon &Burns show us new stuff so much as letting us see the old stuff in new ways.ETA: If, say, Grad Student Chick had confessed to some sadness upon hearing such young people plan for their deaths, that would have marked her as irretrievably punkish? Or has she just heard that so often, it's all in a day, or what?

Damn, that's some high-tension stuff they're doing on the show. And now I don't know whether Randy or Namond has a bigger target on his chest. And Michael's implied history of abuse came crashing down today.

That episode was so tightly written (Richard Price, I know) that I can hardly believe that it was less than an hour long. The Bunk undid Omar's incarceration. Carcetti visited homicide, the Eastern, heard Rawls out, and made his move with Daniels. Rawls threw his cards on the table with Burrell. Another wake, another sober McNulty sighting. Prez and his team completely took down the horseshit Leave No Child Behind hypocracy. Colvin and the university people got through to the corner kids. Prez got through to some of his kids. Michael's world became infinitely shittier. The seeds of Randy's destruction were sown. Prop Joe is the funniest motherfucker on the show all the sudden. The seeds of Namond's destruction were sown (in the form of his mother!). Slim Charles appearance, which is never unfortunate. Herc attempted to force Marlo's hand. The major crimes unit is coming back in a big way. Lots of Snoop and Paltrow, and the last of the nail gun that started the season. Did I miss anything?

Herc's still looking for um, Fuzzy Dunlop, but no. Nice little precis, bunk. I hate Namond's mother. Even more than Michael's mother the fiend. That's pathetic and all that, but in a way that I could accept. Namond's mother puts him in harm's way on purpose...that sucks.

How much am I loving Ms. Zenobia this episode?

She was awesome, but that was some harrowing shit for our kids. I love how Carcetti's getting himself schooled, too.

He's learning a lot but it's troubling. I think he'll find, like Prez, that he can only do a fraction of what he wants to.

So the Deadwood S2, disk 1 has showed up from Netflix. I'm eager to watch. Probably tonight.