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.

"I just realized something. You think that you're helping", and it was SO telling.

I do like Joan, in the sense that she's in control of her sexuality, but she's not doing much to encourage a change in the office status quo. Of course, early times for women's lib, yet. Still, she seems pretty happy with being the top dog among the secretarial pool, because it is top dog and gives her an actual degree of power within the office. She can even, sometimes, tell the men what to do (they could have the creme de menthe and, was it vodka? from the storage cabinet, but nothing else.) She can't, or is unwilling to, go past that in her own mind and even, I think, wonders why anyone would want to. Hence, her "helping" Peggy. Until Peggy starts treating the other women like the men do and she gets the copier in her office.

I am curious to see how they handle Peggy's growth. Whether they're going to have her turn into a total ballbuster or if she's going to realize at some point you can gather more flies with honey and how she'll play that, if she does. From what I've seen last season and so far in this episode, she's so hung up on that if you follow the rules, life should treat you "fair." She wanted fairness for her three dollars and ended up getting two people fired. Plus, I don't think she realizes, yet, that Don promoted her to piss off Pete, not necessarily on merit, even if she is as capable as any of the men. Will Don, at some point, demote her because it suits his office politics and how will she react? Plus, I think I need to go back and rewatch, was it only speculation among the guys that she had been pregnant or did they actually know? The comment abut the fat farm led me to believe they didn't, plus her comment to Pete about wanting children "at some time," meaning not right now.

So, no one else thought it interesting that Don couldn't perform on Valentine's Day in the hotel? I figured one of the prescriptions the doctor gave Don was for high blood pressure and he didn't warn Don they'd make him impotent. Kinda curious to see how that falls out.

I think the book is for Midge. Seems much more the type of thing she'd go for. I didn't think, though, that Don was that invested in her. Rachel, yes, but not Midge to that degree.

Mad Men did quite well in the ratings.