Yes, I think that yesterday's only had one commercial break, at 30 minutes in. It ended at 53 minutes. In order to encourage that sort of thing, I watched the commercials afterward. Well, I let them keep running while I surfed the net.

Liked the new ep. There was one ep that I hadn't seen last season (the one where Betty models), and I realized how many little moments inform the show, and what you miss. There was a great moment when Peggy looked at Joan and said "I just realized something. You think that you're helping", and it was SO telling.

I thought that the scene with Betty and the mechanic was interesting. I don't think it's the first time that she's realized that she can use her looks to get things from men. I did find it interesting that he just gave her the fan belt for $3, and asked nothing in return.

I thought that something bad was going to happen to Betty. . . or that she was going to do something she'd regreat later. Why do Betty's scenes so often bring on the creep factor?

well, she's just so needy and vulnerable.

exactly. I told Beau - man I hope she isn't raped.

I still don't understand why Betty just didn't tell the man, can I give you $3 now and I'll bring you the other $6 tomorrow at your office.

It could also be looking at the situation with modern eyes. The kinds of things we're thinking of were almost unheard of in those days. Of course, that's contrasted by those guys in the elevator.

le nubian:

I think Betty was trying to test whether she could get a man to give her something just for being pretty to compare herself to her call girl friend, but I could be reading to much into it.

I couldn't decide whether Don was sending the book to Rachel or to his hippie ex-girlfriend.

I love all the little ways they illustrated how Peggy is now caught between the two worlds. She has the position but not the respect that goes with it.

This thread is NAFDA. No whitefont is necessary.

I think Betty was trying to test whether she could get a man to give her something just for being pretty to compare herself to her call girl friend, but I could be reading to much into it.

I think you're exactly right.

Given the book, I suspect he was sending it to Midge, not Rachel -- O'Hara is classic downtown, beat poet stuff, and while I can imagine a Rachel who might get that, I'm not sure Don would.

(edited to de-span-ify. thanks for the reminder, Jon.)

I think it would be Rachel, I imagine that don thinks about her a lot. She left him, not the other way around, so I suspect that bothered him.

Just catching up after flying SF on very little sleep and yummy dinner with juliana and jz.

I think yeah, Betty was testing herself in comparison with her old friend-- at least, that's completely how it read to me. And I thought that Don sent the book to Rachel, given the nature of the poetry that was the voiceover. Yeah, Midge would be the one who "gets" it from the beat/artistic perspective, but I think Rachel is the one who might appreciate it, if that makes any sense. And I think that in some ways, Rachel's the "one who got away," in Don's mind. Midge was a dalliance, but Rachel was something special where he was concerned.