This isn't going to be a big "I hate Betty Draper" screed. I agree with my co-blogger Tami, who, in September, wrote in a piece called "Sexism Makes Me Hate Betty Draper:"

The character of Betty Draper, who was fresh and hopeful in season one, is now nervous with periodically shaking hands. She is withdrawn, bitter and cold. She is alternately dismissive and cruel to her children (particularly her daughter), her friends and other family members. She is unhappy and the world knows it. Personal misery can make for an unpleasant personality.

I understand why Betty is the way she is. She was molded by her family and a society that viewed women like her as dolls not living, breathing women with needs and desires. In Sunday's episode, Betty's father Gene hints several times that he, too, didn't know what kind of person he was raising. He mentions that Betty is nothing like her independent mother, his wife, who was working when he first met her. He frets that he shielded Betty from too many things, raised her to be a princess—"Scarlett O'Hara" he calls her. After he tries to discuss his final wishes with his daughter, she huffs: (paraphrasing) I know it must be hard for you to face whatever it is your facing, but can't you keep it to yourself? It's selfish and morbid for you to talk to me about it. I'm your little girl! Later, Gene tells his grandaughter, Betty's child, that she can be whatever she wants to be..."no matter what your mother says." It is likely a message he never gave his "little girl" Betty. Nor does it seem he encouraged his wife's independent streak, as there is no mention of her working after they married. [...]

A commenter named Lgreer28 on Television Without Pity asked just this question to the Betty haters:

I find it amazing that people are always pointing out Betty's immaturity, while ignoring the immaturity of the other characters. Why do they expect her to be the perfect parent? Why is it that her flaws are not tolerated, yet the flaws of the other characters are? Why do they constantly complain about Betty's flaws and ignore Don's? Why do they ignore the fact that Don is no more a perfect parent than Betty? Why do they ignore his own immaturity or his tendencies to indulge in his own illusions?

Indeed. Betty is a bad mother, but "Mad Men" is riddled with bad fathers. Betty is selfish, but not nearly as selfish as her errant husband. As for my beef, Betty hardly created the hierarchy of race and femininity that strangles her and all of the other women on the show—black ones, included. There is scarcely a man on the show who hasn't committed Betty's "crimes" and much more and who isn't 10 times more responsible for perpetuating the inequities of the time. Yet, she is the person that gets all of our hate, which maybe proves that when it comes to sexism, we aren't so much more enlightened than folks were in Betty's day. We tut and gasp over the biased treatment of women on "Mad Men." "My God, I'm so glad things are different today!" But as we analyze the show and its characters with our 21st century eyes, a woman is still judged more harshly than a man for similar infractions. We've laid aside the mid-day gin at the office, the skinny ties and girdles. But it seems that, in some ways, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

In addition to Tami's take, Amanda Marcotte writes about the ire of some conservatives that so much focus is given to Betty's unhappiness:

Oh, I can't imagine what it must be like to be a social conservative invested in that show. You must flinch every time Betty walks onscreen, looking pained, bored, and miserable. That she herself is a petulant brat doesn't make up for that, because the show is making the point that oppression isn't suddenly right because the oppressed aren't perfect people. And the show implies that certain ugly character traits are the result of oppressive systems, that Betty Draper is a miserable person because she's been turned into one. How dare the show suggest that bitchy women might be more pleasant if they weren't treated like second class citizens? And so [Benjamin Schwartz, writing for the Atlantic] gave you an out: Betty's character makes you uncomfortable because it's not realistic, and January Jones is a bad actress, and women in the 50s were never bored because being someone's sex-and-domestic appliance is what every woman really wants! It's not you, it's January Jones and the evils of feminism. [...]

And really, Schwartz's contempt for the character and his scapegoating of the actress—-and especially the applause he got from social conservatives for it—-shows the underlying contempt for women in the paternalistic platitudes about how women were happier when being a housewife was mandatory. Dreher's being upfront about it. Asking us to spend time on the feelings and thoughts and fantasies of Betty Draper is boring, because the whole point of wives is that they're in the background, making it possible for the real actors—-mostly men—-to make things happen.

The conservative reaction to the Draper marriage shows exactly how effective that storyline is in making its point. A lot of liberals, I've found, are bored with Betty for another reason entirely. They can't understand why she doesn't just pick up and leave already, if she's so unhappy. We're on the other side of it—-so feminist that it's hard to wrap our minds around the psychology of someone who isn't. But conservatives flip the fuck out, get defensive and start scapegoating January Jones, going so far as to argue that her dull affect is evidence that she can't act, when in fact it's evidence that the actress is being fearless in her portrayal of someone whose entire personality has been flattened out by boredom.

I have to admit that part of the Betty hatred comes from the fact that I can empathize with Carla. Betty is, as Tami explains, "the embodiment of pre-Feminine Mystique, upper-middle class, white womanhood." It's part of the same reason I also hate Pete Campbell.

But more than that, there is another element at play. More than just Betty's character flaws, what makes her unwatchable is the painful lack of an inner life.

As I wrote about the fate of minorities on the series in season one, the third season has been categorized by stripping away at the inner lives of all the women on the show, Betty most markedly. Betty, from seasons one and two, had a strong inner life outside of Don. Even while she was confused as to the general reason for her shakes and malaise, she was curious and introspective. She maintained arm's length relationships with other women, but still revealed much of herself. On occasion, she acted out of character, expressing her protective streak by shooting the neighbor's birds, or when she decided to take out her aggression sexually, using a sexy stranger.

For most of season three, Betty's been pouty and insolent. The shades of insight into her motivations and personality have generally vanished, as Betty is mainly used to help advance the plot, at the expense of her own development. (Weiner, in an interview with the Daily Beast today, appears to view her childlike nature as key to her character.) Now, again, this isn't unique to Betty - Peggy and Joan also lost their inner lives this season, appearing mostly in the context of the men they were involved with (romantically or professionally).

But watching Betty go through the motions of finding out Don's secret and falling for another man while stripped of her inner life was something like watching her die a slow, painful death. Gone are the casual conversations with Francine, just hurried discussions about the reservoir. The look into the inner workings of Betty Draper achieved with the psychiatrist are a memory. Without her inner life providing insights to her behavior, we are left with a direct reading of Betty: spoiled, selfish, cruel. The only time a glimpse of the season one and two Betty surfaces is during her finale fight with Don, his careful facade smashed to pieces. They attack each other, brutally, Don focusing in on their class differences and Betty dredging up the scorn, confusion, and anger that's plagued her for the last three years:

In the end, Betty flies off to Reno, leaving behind the suburbs, the failed marriage, and the lingering doubts of her own sanity. She's moving forward with a man she doesn't know, in order to escape another man she doesn't know. Fitting, really.

So while I hate Betty, I kind of can't help to see her for who she is - a flawed, miserable person stuck in an increasingly desperate gilded cage. The marriage was already poisoning the two children - having it end will probably be for the best. Perhaps Betty's story line could have been salvaged. Perhaps Matthew Weiner could have humanized her more, given her more space to experience grief and rage before she got the upper hand by finding Dick Whitman's box of secrets. Perhaps then, instead of being a tangle of privilege and petulance, Betty Draper would have been seen as a woman in an impossible position, seeking a savior, instead of looking like an opportunist.

But either way, it's over. The Draper family is dead. Long live the Drapers.

Related: Sexism Makes Me Hate Betty Draper [What Tami Said]
Why Does Betty Draper Have To Make Wingnuts Feel Guilty? [Pandagon]
"Fuck Pete Campbell!": Mediations On Mad Men And Whiteness [Racialicious]
Why "Mad Men" Is Afraid Of Race [Double X]
On Mad Men And Race [Racialicious]
"Shoot" Wins ADG, Matt Weiner's Visions, Birds [Basket of Kisses]

After an entire season of having his sleep interrupted by Betty, the baby, and Conrad Hilton, Don finally had to wake himself up. This seemed to be one of the themes of this episode, as Don put all his effort into to saving Sterling Cooper, and came to terms with the fact that he couldn't do the same for his failed marriage.


When his relationship with Connie was severed after the news that Sterling Cooper and its parent company were being sold, Don was justifiably bitter, saying, "You come and go as you please, and you don't care that my future is tied up in this mess because of you." It's ironic that it completely escapes Don that he just verbalized exactly how Betty feels about their marriage.

Connie replies, "I've got everything I have on my own. It's made me immune to those who complain and cry because they can't. I didn't take you as one of them, Don. Are you?" He's not. And Connie's speech was the horse kick in the head Don needed to stop feeling sorry for himself and start feeling empowered as a man who is actually in control of his own destiny.

Like Connie, Don is immune to those who "complain and cry" at the idea that they don't have something of their own—namely, Betty.


But unlike Connie—who took a shine to Don because he saw a piece of himself in the creative genius—Don, at times, resents in others what he does himself. Seriously though, didn't you reflexively rubberneck and think, "Who you callin' a whore?" It isn't even a pot/kettle situation: Betty hasn't even consummated her relationship with Henry Francis yet. (And yes, she did fuck that guy in that bar that one time, but her extramarital bedpost is still relatively intact compared to Don's, which has been whittled down to a toothpick at this point.)

More ridiculous was Don's insistence that Betty should see a doctor because she hasn't been "herself". The fact of the matter is that she hasn't been herself during the entire marriage—and possibly for her entire life. She's been the woman she was told she should be. The change Don has seen is evidence that she's actually been getting in touch with herself and her wants and her needs, and she's realizing that Don doesn't fulfill them. She was right when she said she deserved more.


But Don was right, too. Betty built herself a life raft in order to jump ship from her marriage. Don wasn't exactly the whole problem—depending on him to make her happy was. And now she's going to depend on Henry. Will she have to go through a second divorce to realize that what she wanted and needed was independence?


Which brings us to Peggy. Earlier, Roger told Don, "You're not good at relationships because you don't value them." Don's relationship with Peggy in this episode mirrored that of his relationship with Betty. He doesn't ask, he just assumes that she'll follow him around "like a nervous poodle," and everyone thinks he does all her work, even him. He's taken her for granted, saying, "There's not one thing that you've done here that I couldn't live without." She lets him know that she's had other offers—just like Betty.


But unlike his interactions with Betty, Don tries hard to win Peggy back. Like many people, Don subconsciously places more importance on the work that Peggy does more than the work of a housewife. It's interesting how in every scene in his office, Peggy always sat on the right, and Don—in the power position—on the left. Now their roles are reversed. And he says everything to Peggy that he should've been saying to his wife, like, "I've been hard on you, but only because I think I see you as an extension of myself. And you're not."

Perhaps Don took Roger's comment about valuing relationships to heart, because he stresses to Peggy, Pete, Lane, and Roger how indispensable they each are. He seems to know exactly what to say to everyone to make them feel valuable—except for his own estranged wife.


Or his children, for that matter. Although he does try.


Still, his efforts are paying off in some ways. Peggy needed that validation from Don, and now she's sure of her worth—and it doesn't involve fetching coffee for Roger.


Joan—and Roger—however, always knew exactly how valuable she was, and is.


Trudy's pretty valuable, too. She's becoming a Lady MacBeth of sorts, and is proving to be instrumental to Pete's success. It's yet to be seen if he knows this.


Unfortunately, though, the eldest Draper kids are merely afterthoughts. Are they really gonna live with Carla for those whole six weeks that Betty is in Reno?


At the end of the episode, the closing song included the lyrics, "The future is much better than the past. In the future, you will find a love that lasts." Betty's face seems to imply otherwise. Like Don said, "Something happened—something terrible—and the way that people saw themselves is gone." We shall wait and see.

First: A hobo is a worker who wanders. Wikipedia notes that in addition to "travelers," gypsies were often referred to as "Wise Women."

Don has certainly wandered; Betty is just now getting wise, so to speak. Right at the very beginning of the episode, she challenges Don: "You have no more money." A question phrased like a statement, because she knows the answer. She's seen the stacks of cash in his drawer. She's giving Don a chance to come clean, even though she knows he won't. Not that easily.

The other woman in Don Draper's life, Suzanne Farrell, was also wising up: "I see a man who is not happy," she says. "I'm happy now," Don replies. It's a lie. He's lying to himself. Or it's the truth; and he's happy with things the way they are: Cheating on his wife, sneaking into Miss Farrell's apartment for secret sex and pasta. Either way: Not what Suzanne Farrell believes, or wants to hear.

Meanwhile, Joan was coaching her husband's interview skills. Another example of the "Wise Woman." As usual, Joan is on the money. (Anyone else think she would make a good shrink?) Her intuitive way of dealing with her husband; explaining: "This is a talking profession," came off as experienced and savvy. She knows how to work with people; she's a gifted communicator. In addition, when describing the qualities her husband should project: "You're smart, you're funny, you're great to be around…" was Joan just projecting her own qualities on to him?

Also, since this episode was about secrets coming out of the drawer and into the light, his "I can't believe I never told you that" fit right in.

In bed, Suzanne said to Don: I just wanted more than I thought I would want. But it will pass." This reminded me of "This too shall pass," the phrase Solomon (the famous Biblical wise man) saw on a ring. The ring was supposed to have power: "If a happy man looks at it, he becomes sad, and if a sad man looks at it, he becomes happy." Happiness fades, but so does sadness. Don thinks he's happy — it'll pass. Suzanne is sad they can't be more to each other — it'll pass. Perhaps she's been in this situation before?

In her father's house, Betty spills what she knows about Don to her lawyer: "He's been married before… It's a lie so big." Her lawyer, acting as a stand-in father figure, recommends: "Go home, give it a try." Adding: "That's what I'd tell my own daughter."

Another thing fascinating about this scene is how the lawyer calls Betty "Betsy." It's been interesting how she has so many different names; with her dad, she would say, "It's me, Elizabeth." Don calls her Betty, Betts or Birdie. What does she want to be called?

Roger Sterling and his old flame, Annabelle Mathis, had a boozy night in which they referenced the war, Casablanca and a love affair gone wrong. The sexual chemistry was palpable, but when she said "you still want me," he replied: "So what." And: "It's different with this girl. I'm sorry."

Roger also dealt with his other old flame — when Joan called, asking for help with work. There was something close to pride in his voice when he recommended her for a job, saying, "She's expensive."

Joan's husband Greg screwed up his interview then took his anger out on her: "Stop acting like you know everything." Rational Joan: "We need money." Greg ranted: "You don't know what it's like to want something your whole like, and to plan for it, and count on it, and not get it." Fool! Joan knows all too well what that's like. She thought she'd be the wife of a surgeon, not supporting a whiner/failure. When Joan hits Greg on the head, not only is she pissed: She is trying to knock some sense into him, and rejecting his notion that she doesn't know what it's like to work towards something all your life.

The sole comic relief in last night's episode occurred during the dog food focus group, in which the pup owners projected their own personalities on to their pooches, who were eating horse meat. Peggy's line, "I can't turn it off; It's happening" basically describes everything about this show: Life is not a well-produced commercial. It's messy business not even Don Draper can control.

We found out that Roger Sterling's old flame broke his heart. She said: "You were the one." It's like she's emptying out her own desk drawer of secrets. Unfortunately, Roger Sterling wasn't moved by her revelations.

Don and Betty's showcase showdown over the desk drawer was chilling. She exhibited a steely resolve hinted at (remember when she shot the birds?) but never explored. It was both shocking and a relief to see Betty becoming a font of strength. Don's comebacks — "you changed your name" — were so weak, he was basically destroyed. So much came tumbling out of Betty — "I respected your privacy too long"; "You're a very very gifted storyteller" — it was almost horrifying. So raw, so stripped down of the usual gloss. So out of the comfort zone. Don Draper shaky? Don Draper unsettled? Don Draper fumbling with his cigarettes? Unprecedented. Betty eventually showed signs of concern — not pity — and offered to get him a drink. But that didn't stop what happened next:

Don Draper cried.
He spilled everything about his mother the 22-year-old prostitute, his Uncle Mac, his half-brother Adam and how they're all dead. We witnessed the Death Of Don Draper As We Know Him, and it was hard to witness.

By the by: Nothing good can come of Greg joining the army. Him saying "Vietnam… If that's still going on…" is most likely foreshadowing. We have the burden of knowing of course it's "still going on." And lots of people die. Good luck with that, Greg.

It was kind of insane that while Betty and Don's confrontation was taking place, Suzanne Farrell was waiting in Don's car. "What happened? Did you get caught?" she asked, which we knew was a double entendre: Never mind the affair. He got caught in the biggest ruse of all: His life.

At the very end of the episode, we see the Hobo and the Gypsy for whom the script was named. It was Halloween, after all: The day which celebrates pretending to be someone you're not. Don Draper's spent years faking it; ironic that he's suddenly been forced to take off his mask. But when Betty watched him kiss the kids goodbye as he went to work, it was as though she was watching a stranger.

So. When Don and Betty took the kids trick-or-treating, and the neighbor said, "Who are you supposed to be," it was an excellent question. Don Draper is his unflappable, hardened exterior. Now that it's cracked, who the hell is he? Is he Dick? Is he Don?

The end titles were set to "Where Is Love," from the musical Oliver!. Though the film was released in 1968, the show premiered in London's West End in 1960 and hit Broadway in 1963.

Oliver!, as you may know, is loosely based on Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. In the show, Oliver is an orphan who has the courage to ask for more, ends up hanging with pick-pockets (what is advertising but sleight of hand?), but is actually an innocent, though crime is all around him — what he wants more than anything is a sense of belonging. A family.

Earlier: Mad Men: "Enjoy The World As It Is. They'll Change It, And Never Give You A Reason"
Mad Men: Everyone Is Disappointed
On Mad Men, When Is It Rape?
Mad Men: Sex, Lies, & The Recline Of The Roman Empire
Mad Men's Appeal Is All About Joan
Mad Men: Drinking, Dancing, & Screwing
Mad Women Experience Frequent Aftershocks
Mad Men: It's All Fun & Games Until Someone Loses A…
Mad Men: Blood, Sweat, And Tears
Mad Men: "It's A Dead Man's Hat. Take It Off."
Mad Men: "I'm Peggy Olson, And I Want To Smoke Some Marijuana"
Mad Men: "Just Don't Get Pregnant."
Mad Men: Ann-Margret Gives Master Class In Womanly Arts
"His Name Is Dick - After A Wish His Mother Should Have Lived To See"

As someone who also chain smokes and enjoys a wine or two every night, I'm terrified of age progression photos, although they seem to be a pretty good argument for quitting bad habits. Age progression—via Photoshop—is also pretty useful when it comes to missing children. (And pretty accurate, too. The one that authorities created for Jaycee Dugard was remarkably true to life.)

For Betty, I assumed that she would maintain her figure and hair as much as she could, being so vain and all. But 20 years in the future, before the ubiquity of Botox and laser treatments, Betty would begin feeling the effects of the life she's lived, including wrinkles, age spots, thinning hair, and a growing nose.


For Don, it seemed to make the most sense to base his aging on Frank Sinatra's. However, I was shocked as hell when the liver spots, rosacea, deep lines, enlarged nose and ears, and receding hairline made him a dead-ringer for Mel Gibson.

Last night's episode was titled,"The Color Blue," referencing this post-coital conversation between Don and Sally's teacher Suzanne,, wherein they ponder a question one of her students asked, "How do I know if what I see as blue is the same as it is to you?" Don remarked, "People may see things differently, but they don't really want to."

Part of the shared human experience is the desire to be understood, to have others (or at least someone) see things as we do. But another part of the human experience is that we each have a different lens—shaped by our individual experiences—that renders a worldview unique to each person. So, basically, we're all doomed to misunderstandings.


Exhibit A: The teacher's brother.
He has epilepsy (or "fits") which is making socialization/work/life difficult for him: it freaks out those who don't understand the disorder. As the brother, Charlie, sees it, "Other people are the problem." He's tired of being misunderstood to the point that he doesn't want to even try to assimilate anymore. His sister tries to renew his faith in humanity when she tells him, "People are ignorant. They're scared of things they don't understand." But he may not have understood.


Exhibit B: Paul Kinsey
He's in the "other people are the problem" camp as well. And when he says "people" he means women, specifically Peggy. As Peggy pointed out to Don when she was asking him for a raise a few episodes back, Kinsey makes more money doing the same job as he does ("and not always as well"). In this clip, Paul's pitch for the Aqua Net account falls flat, but Peggy comes to the rescue with some good ideas. Paul sees her good work as a negative reflection on himself, rather than a positive reflection on his team.


Paul thinks he's telling Peggy something she doesn't already know when he says, "Wearing a dress isn't going to help you with [the] Western Union [account]." Clearly he thinks being a woman is a benefit for Peggy's career, rather than a hurdle.


While Kinsey was jerking off and getting wasted, Peggy was actually hammering out ideas, and making sure to keep track of them. If Peggy views her gender to be a hurdle in this business, maybe she understands that she can't do anything to fuck it up.


Once Kinsey finally has his inspiration, he's too busy being proud of himself to write it down. Perhaps, since he hasn't had to deal with the same setbacks as Peggy in this business, he isn't as prudent about his work. So, in that way, perhaps Peggy "wearing a dress" does help her with the Western Union account.


While Don is busy acting like Tony Soprano (sleeping over the goomah's house and lining his desk drawer with cash), Betty is busy reading The Group by Mary McCarthy, which was on the New York Times best-seller list in 1963. It's a novel concerning a group of women who come from affluent backgrounds and graduated from Vassar together in 1933. They find that the Great Depression has given them a more autonomous lifestyle, as they are encouraged to work and have careers. Again, the Depression was viewed by many people one way, and by this "group" as something completely different. Amazon says:

Mary McCarthy filets Ivy League society, socialism, 1930s child-rearing practices, sexual double-standards, psychoanalysis, and men in general.

Betty probably relates to the character Kay (which was loosely based on McCarthy's own life), as Kay "subsumes her own talent to the artistic 'genius' of her egocentric and philandering husband." Interestingly, since last night's episode, the book has gone from a ranking of around 64,000 to 3,200 on Amazon.


Interestingly, Sterling Cooper was founded in 1933, the same year The Group takes place.


While doing the laundry, Betty happens upon a set of keys that belong to Don. She seems relieved at first that they fit into is desk drawer (and not some women's apartment), but then she finds Dick.


He's gonna have some explaining to do. But after Don doesn't return home from work, Betty rethinks rocking the boat with a confrontation, and returns the box and key where she found them.


Does anyone else think that Don made a huge mistake giving his card to the teacher's brother, who "always" needs money? I have a feeling this guy is gonna blackmail Don for his drawer cash.


In the end, Kinsey, realizes that he's not so misunderstood, when Don and Peggy both empathize with his "lost idea." And in the end, he realized that Peggy's intelligence is what helped her out with the Western Union account.


In the car, on the way to Sterling Cooper's anniversary party, Roger's mother, who seems to be suffering through a bit of dementia, manages to drop a super insightful (not to mention, heavy on the foreshadowing) quip when she told Jane, "Enjoy the world as it is. They'll change it, and never give you a reason." November 22, here we come.

The opener — Betty being caressed by an unseen man — who we just know is Henry Francis — was actually a dream. And Betty's first disappointment of the episode.

Don Draper is headed into work early when he sees Suzanne Farrell — Sally's teacher — jogging. Interesting that she's wearing a top from Bowdoin College: Harriet Beecher Stowe started writing her influential anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin in Bowdoin's Appleton Hall while her husband was teaching at the school. Also interesting: When talking about reading Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech to her class, Miss Farrell says: "It would be nice for them to hear an adult say it." Is she assuming parents aren't discussing such things with the children? (Is she correct? And is she disappointed that she's the only one who cares?) Don is clearly intrigued by a puzzle he can't solve, saying: "Who are you? Dumb or pure?" Alas, Don's adman coercion has zero finesse when he commands: "Have coffee with me." If you accept coffee as a euphemism for cheating on your wife, then it's especially wry when Miss Farrell says, "Maybe that's why you can't sleep. Too much coffee."

I like the hints that Don Draper and Suzanne Farrell are old school versus new school: Don's got his '50s tail fins on his car; she's jogging, ahead of the fitness craze. He's the buttoned-up businessman; she's a creative type, into current events.

Also, this scene and the next had sounds of distant thunder… A humid summer rain? Or foreshadowing of the storm that's coming?

Meanwhile, Betty makes a bold step and reaches out to Henry.

Henry reaches right back.

At the office, Sal is settling into his role as commercial director, yay! Only the client, Lee Garner — of Lucky Strike — can't be pleased. Boo. Lee's "long, wet lunch" adds to his mood; and he makes a move on Sal. Sal is not accommodating; Lee is upset. No one likes to be disappointed.

Betty's next letter to Henry is part flirtation and part cry for help: "But I do have thoughts." Her disappointment is clear: Her life isn't living up to her expectations.

More disappointment: Conrad Hilton is feeling so alone. Don tries to reassure him; Hilton says, "You're like a son." In fact, there's something more between Connie and Don than with Connie and his own kids, because, as Connie explains, "you never had what they had." Meaning the fortune of growing up with a rich father. This kind of talk taps into Don's daddy issues, and you can almost see his armor falling when he says, "Thank you… I mean it."

More disappointment at Sterling Cooper: The company's on the verge of losing Lucky Strike, thanks to Sal's refusal to engage in some man-on-man action with Lee Garner. Don is, in turn, disappointed with Sal. Don says, "Lucky Strike could shut off our lights." What he means is: "Obviously you fuck a client, if that is what the client wants!" Sal — recently told he was fired by Roger Sterling — was hoping Don would intervene. No such luck. Disappointment!

Sal was stunned/hurt/destroyed/disappointed as he packed up his portfolio. Sob.

While Don was at work dealing with disappointment, Betty had a surprise visitor: Henry Francis. Unfortunately, Carla interrupted their hand-holding in the foyer. When Don gets home, Betty feels the need to tell him about "that man from the governor's office" — and make sure that Carla can hear. Don's response: "I don't care." How very disappointing. As for Carla, she seems to know that there are shenanigans afoot. Betty may feel like she doesn't have to explain herself to Carla, but she can't help herself. The power dynamics between them are strained.

After Don and his team create a "great" campaign for Hilton, Connie is "deeply disappointed" in Don for not including a reference to the moon. More daddy issues, more let downs. It's hard to please your stand-in-father! And it's hard to have a psuedo-son who doesn't listen!

Even more frustrating: When your dreamlover penpal doesn't show up to the political fundraiser you only threw to get closer to him. Even though Betty is filled with desire, she doesn't want to do it on a desk or in a motel, come on. "It's tawdry." Henry Francis says, "I don't know what you want." Betty's disappointment seems to have many levels: This is not how she thought it would be. She wants romance, or meaning, or something. He should know what she wants. Except doesn't know what she wants, either… But a quickie on the office couch isn't it.

At home, Betty walks in as Carla is listening to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 'Eulogy for the Martyred Children', which MLK gave at the funeral for the four black girls killed in a Birmingham, Alabama church bombing on September 15, 1963. When Betty says, "You can leave it on YOUR station" — emphasis mine — she is reinforcing the idea that she is separate from Carla, and that black people issues are not white people issues or national issues. Betty's reminding Carla that she, Betty, is on another level. Betty pushes this further by saying, "It's really made me wonder about civil rights. Maybe it's not supposed to happen right now." Since she's already turned the radio off, poor Carla didn't have the chance to get up to the part in Dr. King's speech when he said, "We must not lose faith in our white brothers. …Somehow we must believe that the most misguided among them can learn to respect the dignity and the worth of all human personality."

Meanwhile, somewhere in New York (infamous gay hangout The Ramble in Central Park?) Sal is calling his wife while surrounded by lots of MENZ. Since turning down an encounter got him into trouble, he may as well go drown his sorrows in some al fresco sex.

Lastly, Don and Suzanne have a face off fraught with sexual tension: "I know exactly how it ends," she says. She's practical, guarded, pragmatic. When she says, "I don't think you've done this before this way," is she insinuating that she has? No matter: Don's aggressive and impulsive: "I want you. I don't care. Doesn't that mean anything to someone like you? " He's not willing to entertain the idea that she's not impressed by him: That would be too disappointing.

Earlier: On Mad Men, When Is It Rape?
Mad Men: Sex, Lies, & The Recline Of The Roman Empire
Mad Men's Appeal Is All About Joan
Mad Men: Drinking, Dancing, & Screwing
Mad Women Experience Frequent Aftershocks
Mad Men: It's All Fun & Games Until Someone Loses A…
Mad Men: Blood, Sweat, And Tears
Mad Men: "It's A Dead Man's Hat. Take It Off."
Mad Men: "I'm Peggy Olson, And I Want To Smoke Some Marijuana"
Mad Men: "Just Don't Get Pregnant."
Mad Men: Ann-Margret Gives Master Class In Womanly Arts
"His Name Is Dick - After A Wish His Mother Should Have Lived To See"

We see our heros and heroines in odd situations: Betty sensual, Peggy naked in bed with an unknown man, and Don face-down on a hotel floor.


Back at the office, Don tries to impress Conrad Hilton by ordering his secretary to hold his calls. The look on her face is priceless.


Betty's fellow Junior Leaguers have read the recent blockbuster environmental book Silent Spring, and invoke it in their fight against an ugly water tower in their neighborhood. Also: "It's not adorable to pretend like you're not adorable," apparently.


Betty sneaks a call in Don's office with Henry Francis, her new father-surrogate. Notice at the end, she pulls on the Don's always-locked Bluebeard drawer to see if he left it unlocked, and then gives up.


"Can I keep it?" Duck tries to woo Peggy to his new firm with the lure of an ugly Hermes scarf.


A Melba Toast box! A callback to Betty's complaining that all the Melba Toast was gone.


Betty's all over herself in that sundress — about to cheat on the vibrating clothesdryer, perhaps?


Betty tells crush Henry Francis "We all have skills we don't use."


Sally's teacher thinks she's so hot, and tries the "hitting on you by pretending you're hitting on me" trick, but Don blocks her advances by telling her "I'm not bored."


Roger Sterling: the Kramer of this show.


Don, seeming to forget that she knows where the bodies are buried, is a total dick to Peggy. "Every time I turn around you've got your hand in my pocket. There's not one thing that you've done here that I couldn't live without. You're good, get better, stop asking for things." Funny how Cooper could say the same thing to Don!


New email signature: "I wanna take you in that bedroom, lock the door, take your clothes off with my teeth, throw you on the bed, and give you a go around like you've never had."


Betty knows Don's contract with Sterling Cooper is a proxy for his contract with her. "Where do you think you'll be in three years?"


Don meets wholesome draft-dodgers Doug and Sandy, and takes the red pill(s).


Oops, the red pill means Don has to watch his father tell a dirty joke about hillbillies. Worst Matrix ever!


The hippie robbers called Don "Cadillac." So his ensuing injuries are, of course, a "fender bender."


Betty gets the fainting couch of her sex dreams.


Cooper reminds Don that he's in no position to fight the contract, because of what Cooper knows. You might even say he's lucky to even get to sign a contract like that, when plenty of full grown men who are who they say they are would be happy to sign away three years of their lives to Sterling Cooper.

There will be blood! In fact, the increasingly unhinged grammar-schooler, we quickly learn, has taken her acting out to another level: assaulting a fellow pupil, Becky Pearson - "Sally told me she's a bruiser," is how Betty describes this female version of Golding's "Piggy" character - and shoving her head into the faucet of a public water fountain during gym class. This scene, of course, sees the return of Sally's flower-childish schoolteacher, Miss Farrell - Suzanne Farrell, for those familiar with dance history - who has called Don and Betty into her classroom to inform them of the situation, and to make clear to audiences (as if we hadn't already noticed) that every adult in Sally's life besides her parents seems to actually pay attention to her. Betty for one, is too busy hiding from reality while simultaneously regressing to a childlike state: The soon-to-be mother who needs to be mothered? Sure, but I, for one, am beginning to tire of her mild hysterics.


Back at the office, the resident British bean counter, Layne Price is on an alliterative, cost-cutting tear, much to Don's chagrin. I loved how he arrived late... and left early.


Is it just me, or did this brief glimpse of Joan's eyes give the appearance of barefly-contained amusement?


After setting Price straight with an offer of spirits and a well-crafted sales pitch in defense of his creative team, Don returns home to a strangely-empty home and a ringing telephone. On the other line: Sally's apologetic teacher, Miss Farrell. Where she seemed appealingly adult and self-possessed (compared to the Drapers, that is) earlier that day, here - replete with cradled cocktail and fallen bra strap - she comes across as not only flirtatious but fragile, as if she is somehow mirroring the delicacy she spied in Betty that morning in order to gain Don's attentions. ("I don't even know why I"m calling," she says. Ha! We do!) However, I'm not sure that Miss Farrell's dancing - literally and figuratively - will lead to any sort of dalliance between her and Don: despite telling Betty that it was "no one" on the phone, he seems bemused, not besotted. Perhaps he's realizing that, to every woman but his own daughter, he's a sort of father figure.


The episode's labor and delivery scenes will no doubt be the most discussed. I've never given birth, so I can't speak for the realism - or lack thereof - of Betty's experience of the stages of childbirth, but I found her rapid descent into a helpless, mildly-psychotic, hallucinatory fugue state annoying at best, insulting at worst, if only because, as Peggy says later on in the episode, the Drapers are "old hat" at this. Are we to really believe that Betty would fall apart so profoundly at the very moment her mothering instincts are most needed? Perhaps, but it's such a far cry from the self-awareness and possession she displayed in previous seasons that it rings a bit false to me, even with the added trauma of her father's death.


To further underscore this helplessness, Mad Men producers inserted this brief scene of Betty - - stuffed into a desk, of sorts, that she can actually fit into - struggling with a pen and her hospital admission papers. (As for that "pineapple" line, the tropical fruit was apparently considered an abortifacient.)


Teacher knows best.


To be honest, I wasn't particularly intrigued by the scenes between Don and his new hospital waiting-room buddy, first-time dad and prison guard Dennis Hobart. After a few swigs of Johnny Walker Red (and a few puffs on a cigarette) Don pushes back at Dennis' insistence that the criminals in his charge at Sing Sing have only their parents to blame - "it's a bullshit excuse," Don says - but the parallels between the particulars of Don's birth and Dennis' own fears for his wife and baby ("If something happens to her...how could I love that baby?" were interesting, as was the beginning of an assertion that would be repeated by Don throughout the episode (to Dennis, to Sally, to Peggy) that everything will be "fine". Oh, and did anyone notice Lisa Simpson made a cameo as the nurse?


As Don is engaging in his strange getting-to-know-you session with Dennis down the hallway, back in the delivery room, Betty's psychosis is stepped up a notch, either because or despite of the 25ml of Demerol that have been added to her IV cocktail. "I can't do it," she protests while writhing on the table, having abandoned all sense of personal agency. "I'm just a housewife. Why are you doing this to me."


Those 25 mg of Demerol, of course, lead us into another drug-induced fugue sequence, in which Betty goes in search of her father, finding him in the kitchen of her Ossining home, mopping up blood. "I left my lunch pail on the bus, and I'm having a baby," she informs him in her girly voice. Her mother, and, presumably, a mortally-wounded Medgar Evers - just one of many nods (Admiral televisions! Ebony; Jet; Hollis the elevator operator; Roger's snarling sarcasm with regards to Martin Luther King) to the racial tensions and realities of the period - also make an appearance. "You're a housecat," Gene tells her. "You're very important and you have little to do". Adds her mother, holding up a handkerchief soaked with Evers' blood: "You see what happens to people who speak up?"


Back in the real world, Duck Peterson has not only reappeared, but is actively courting both Pete Campbell and Peggy Olson to rival agency Grey. I saw this scene less about the Pete/Peggy relationship - although I love how quickly Pete pivoted from disavowing a "secret relationship" between himself and Peggy to accepting congratulations for the pair's supposed "focused ambition" - than about Peggy's idea of her own importance. The confidence seen in her pot-smoking session has quickly given way to insecurity. "I don't know," she answers when Duck asks her, "You're a freewheeling career gal with great ideas. Am I wrong?"


He's not wrong, of course, and, armed with the ammunition that is Duck's attention, Peggy drops in on Don to ask for a raise: Her secretary, she says, does not respect her because of her low pay; Paul Kinsey makes more, yet doesn't do as good work. And, then there's the little issue of the equal pay act. Don's rejection of Peggy's request- and, by extension, her - is swift, and her disappointment palpable, punctuated by the yearning for what he has and she does not. (Notice how she fondled those baby shoes?) And then this: "You're gonna be fine, Peggy." She doesn't even hear him - why should she? He's been saying it so often, it's hard to believe it anymore.


Back to the baby! Despite Don's veiled disapproval over the idea of naming his newborn boy Eugene, thanks to a quick glance at the birth certificate - someone alert World Net Daily! The longform birth certificate has been found! - we see that Betty not only gone ahead and named her new son, but that she is referring to herself by her full Christian name and maiden surname. Just as I worry about Betty, I worry about the baby: "Is he going to sleep in Grandpa Gene's room?" asks Sally, raising the specter of retaliatory violence. And another baby may have met an untimely end: For whatever reason, when Don passes Dennis and his wife in the hospital hallway, Dennis averts his eyes - and there is no newborn to be seen.


The significance - if any - of Eugene Scott Draper's birth date has yet to reveal itself. According to a quick perusal of Wikipedia, nothing particularly notable happened on the day and year of his birth (we ran his birth date though an astrology generator and came up with this - anyone want to analyze?) although, perhaps coincidentally, on that date, a year later, Americans saw the murder of civil rights activists Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Mickey Schwerner. I would like to explore the themes of race, civil rights and violence more in this episode - particularly the connection between Evers and the dearly-departed Gene Hofstadt - but that will have to wait for another day.

Introduction

The interpretation of your astrology chart begins on the following page.

You will find that the interpretation of your chart is written in simple language, uncluttered by astrological jargon. If a statement appears to contradict another statement, then you exhibit these opposite qualities at different times in your life. For example, a statement that you are highly sociable and gregarious and a statement that you prefer solitude seemingly contradict each other; this means that you vacillate, and need both sociability and solitude at different times.

The astrological factor that the interpretation is based on is also given. The astrological factor is given for the benefit of astrologers and students of astrology. If you are not a student of astrology, then obviously the factor will not be meaningful to you, and you can ignore it.

If you find this interpretation of your birth chart interesting and informative, you might want to discuss your birth chart with a professional astrologer to learn more about the astrological influences on your life.

Planetary Positions, Aspects, and Orbs

Your birth chart interpretation is based on the positions of the planets at the time of your birth. For the benefit of students of astrology, these positions, along with other technical information, are listed below:

Sun 29 Gem 17 Pluto 9 Vir 47
Moon 27 Gem 41 N. Node 20 Can 28
Mercury 7 Gem 52 Asc. 21 Gem 38
Venus 10 Gem 23 MC 26 Aqu 45
Mars 9 Vir 26 2nd cusp 12 Can 18
Jupiter 15 Ari 47 3rd cusp 2 Leo 43
Saturn 22 Aqu 51 5th cusp 28 Vir 44
Uranus 1 Vir 57 6th cusp 10 Sco 21
Neptune 13 Sco 11

Tropical Placidus Daylight Savings Time observed

Aspects and orbs:
Conjunction : 7 Deg 00 Min Trine : 5 Deg 00 Min
Opposition : 5 Deg 00 Min Sextile : 4 Deg 00 Min
Square : 5 Deg 00 Min Quincunx : 3 Deg 00 Min
Conjunct Asc : 3 Deg 00 Min Above, 5 Deg 00 Min Below

Section 1: How You Approach Life and How You Appear To Others

The following is a description of your basic stance towards life, the way others see you, the way you come across, the face you show to the world. In Chapter 3 you will read about the "The Inner You: Your Real Motivation", which describes the kind of person you are at heart and where your true priorities lie. Read this chapter and the next one and compare them - there may be significant differences between them, in which case "the inner you" may not shine through and others are in for some surprises when they get to know you at a more than superficial level. This chapter describes the costume you wear, your role in life, while Chapter 3 talks about the real person inside the costume.

Gemini Rising:

You are always questioning and learning, and you seem young and alive no matter what your chronological age, for your mind is always alert, curious, flexible and open to new experiences. You have a childlike enthusiasm for anything new and you learn easily, but you also get bored rather quickly. You can be something of a scatterbrain, for you tend to have so many ideas and irons in the fire that it is hard to keep track of them all. You need and crave variety, change, mental stimulation, and an active social life.

Articulate, clever, often funny and witty, you are always a refreshing and interesting conversationalist. You enjoy meeting and interacting with a variety of different people. You are friendly, flirtatious, and charming in a light, playful way, and no matter how badly you may be feeling, you never appear heavy or somber. You may seem frivolous to other, more serious souls. You have a sense of humor and a sense of perspective that prevents you from taking yourself or life too seriously. In fact, you may seem flippant or unconcerned about matters that others consider very important.

In general, you respond to life mentally and objectively rather than emotionally, and you may not empathize with people very much. You do not like to be weighed down with too much responsibility or with others' emotional burdens. Furthermore, if you cannot UNDERSTAND something reasonably and logically, then very often you would prefer to ignore it, including your own and other people's irrational feelings, desires, and needs.

Consistency and reliability are not great virtues of yours and your life is apt to be full of changes and movement due to your restlessness. You become nervous and fidgety if things are not moving quickly enough. You are interested in what is current and up-to-date, the newest trends in thought or style.

Your gifts are a quick mind, verbal facility, a flair for language, social sophistication and polish, the ability to communicate, converse, and build bridges between people and between ideas. You tend to become an incessant chatterbox or gossip if you do not have work or other activities that utilize your mental, verbal, and social skills.

Saturn Trine Asc.:

To others, you appear capable, mature, and down to earth. Even when you were young, there was a certain practicality and responsibleness about you that inspired people to rely on you. You keep your cool in most situations.

Section 2: The Inner You: Your Real Motivation

Ascendant in Gemini and Sun in Gemini:

The way you appear or come across to others is very congruent with your true nature so "what you see is what you get". The description below reinforces what you read about yourself in the previous chapter.

Sun in Gemini:

You are, in many ways, an eternal child. Your mind is bright, alert, curious, flexible, playful, and always eager for new experiences - and your attention span is often quite brief. You grasp ideas quickly and once your initial curiosity has been satisfied, you want to go on to something else. You crave frequent change, variety, meeting new situations and people.

It may be hard for you to decide just where your talents and true vocation lie, for you have a multitude of interests and are loathe to limit yourself by concentrating on just one. You are easily distracted by all of the other fascinating possibilities. Your curiosity and restlessness propel you into many different experiences in life, and you are willing to taste or try anything once. Doing the same thing over and over again, even it is something you do well, is real drudgery for you.

You live in your head a great deal - reading, observing, thinking, spinning ideas around - and you need mental stimulation every bit as much as you need food and drink. In fact, if you had to choose between a good book or movie and a good lunch, you would very likely choose the former. You have a creative mind and often live by your wits.

You are also a very social creature, with a strong need to communicate and to interact with people. You enjoy using and playing with words and have a real flair for getting your ideas across in a clever, interesting, articulate manner. Writing or speaking are areas you have talent for.

You also have a rather light and mischievous sense of humor, and often do not take anything too seriously. Though you crave emotional involvement, it is hard for you to achieve it, for you are frequently unwilling to commit yourself to anything, to take responsibility, or to limit your personal freedom and mobility.

Your happiness lies in using your creativity and your language skills to communicate something meaningful, to teach, inspire, or bring people together. You have an unbiased mind and can usually offer a fresh, clear, uncluttered perspective. Your faults are your lack of constancy and persistence, and your tendency to overlook or ignore deep emotional issues and other people's feelings.

Sun in 1st house:

You have a clear sense of yourself and therefore convey a strong impression to others of who you are and what you want. Assertive and self-motivated, you can be a leader - one whom others look to for direction - but you compete and often clash with other strong individuals. You feel a need to be in control of your own life and you can be too self-involved, too immersed in your own interests, and oblivious to others at times.

Sun Conjunct Moon:

The above description of you is so deeply ingrained that you have little objectivity and often little appreciation for other, different ways of approaching life. You tend to be one-sided. There is little ambiguity in your makeup and you generally know what you want and what will make you happy.

Sun Sextile Uranus:

You are an original! You radiate a sort of electrical excitement about the things you are interested in, and convey this to others, but you get bored rather quickly also. You don't mind being a bit unusual or breaking a few rules either.

Sun Conjunct Mercury/N. Node

You have a strong need for intellectual contacts and associations and like to share your intellectual interests with others. This could be in meetings or by joining various clubs and organizations.

Sun Conjunct Venus/N. Node

You are polite and gallant and make a special effort to meet others half-way. You have the ability to give and receive love. Nurturing friendships, personal love relationships and social life is important to you.

Sun Conjunct Jupiter/Pluto

You are capable of extraordinary physical or mental efforts to gain success and achieve something that will bring you recognition and respect. You have a strong need for authority and power over others and are likely to perform better in a leading position.

Section 3: Your Elemental Nature

Your fundamental needs, values, and orientation towards life are symbolized by the four astrological elements. Each person has their own unique balance of these four basic energies: fire (warmth, inspiration, enthusiasm), earth (practicality, realism, material interests), air (social and intellectual qualities), and water (emotional needs and feelings).

Your "elemental make-up" is described below. Remember that most people are "unbalanced" or lopsided, and if you are lacking or deficient in a certain element (or elements), it simply means that you need to consciously develop that aspect of yourself to learn to appreciate and/or to work harder in that dimension of life.

Sometimes we overvalue the element that we are least endowed with, sensing it as a lack within ourselves, but more often we neglect or ignore it. The qualities described below will be reiterated and explained in more detail in the following chapters.

Air Element is Strong (F,E,A,W Scores = 2,6,40,1):

You have a great capacity to relate to, appreciate, and understand different people and points of view, and you tend to be quite liberal in your attitudes. You are primarily a thinking person who requires much intellectual and social stimulation, conversation, and interaction. You comprehend abstract reasoning and concepts very quickly and like ideas, language, and culture. You can't imagine being happy in a world without books, films, or interesting companions.

There is an androgynous quality to you, and you relate equally well to men and women, having both male and female characteristics in nearly equal measure yourself. You tend to see someone as a person first, rather than identifying them solely with their gender.

Friendship is very important to your sense of well-being. You thrive on camaraderie, teamwork, social participation and sharing. However, you are also quite objective about them and there is often a touch of impersonality or detachment to your relations with others.

Your mind is your real gift: thinking clearly, logically, and creatively, planning and organizing efficiently, and communicating intelligently. However, you tend to live in your head - reading about, talking about, and observing life without becoming completely immersed in it. Avoid becoming a dabbler. You need to develop constancy, stability, and depth.

Fire is Weak (F,E,A,W Scores = 2,6,40,1):

You are likely to be overly humble or unsure of yourself and to look to others for inspiration, motivation, reinforcement, and approval. Tending to be somewhat passive, you must learn how to take initiative and motivate yourself.

A lack of warmth (either physically, emotionally, or both) may be evident in you, which can show itself physically as a low energy level, paleness and lack of color in the skin, or a tendency to be easily chilled, and emotionally as a marked coolness or aloofness with little spiritedness, joyfulness, or enthusiasm for living. Eating warming, spicy foods, living in a warm, sunny place, and using fire in your daily life (lighting candles, using a wood stove or fireplace for heat) can help balance you. Also, spending time with warm, cheerful, positive-minded people and developing a philosophy based on spiritual optimism can stir up your own zest of life.

Positively, you are unlikely to be egocentric and have a capacity for great patience and peacefulness.

Water is Weak (F,E,A,W Scores = 2,6,40,1):

You have difficulty dealing with your own and others' emotions. Feelings and the emotional reality of a situation are often ignored or discounted by you and you may thus seem insensitive or uncaring to others. Deep emotional rapport, empathy, compassion, and sensitivity to the feelings of others is something that you need to develop, and will be in more evidence later in life rather than in your youth.

Though you may appear emotionally self-sufficient or above it all, your denied feelings can result in physical problems, so it is wise and important for you to learn to acknowledge and express all of your emotions.

You may also find that you crave a great deal of liquid, or to live near bodies of water, as a way to gain balance.

Section 4: Mental Interests and Abilities

Mercury in Gemini:

You have an extremely active, lively and versatile mind with a multitude of interests and an inexhaustible curiosity about life. You are quick to grasp new concepts and equally quick to lose interest in an idea or project once your curiosity has been satisfied. You like to taste a little bit of everything -concentration and disciplined study are not your strong points. Mentally restless, you may change jobs or locations frequently, or do work that involves movement, travel, and variety.

You have a flair for language, playing with words, speaking, writing, or teaching in an entertaining and informative way. You also enjoy meeting new people, conversing and learning a little bit about them, and you work well with the public.

Sales, advertising, communications, journalism, or public relations are good areas for you. Your ability to be articulate and to communicate well is one of your greatest strengths.

Mercury in 12th house:

You don't speak up readily, even when you have a lot to say! Also, your mind tends to drift and you find it difficult to study very factual material that doesn't have much color or imaginative appeal. Your intuition and first impressions are likely to be quite accurate, however, and you tend to depend upon this faculty in making decisions.

Mercury Conjunct Venus:

You appreciate aesthetics and have a fine sense of form, design, and beauty. You could develop considerable technical skill as an artist, designer, craftsman, or creative writer. You could also sell objects of beauty - artistic products, cosmetics, jewelry, etc.

You have the ability to please and harmonize well with others and tend to ameliorate relationships between people. Your sense of humor, tact, and personal charm are of great benefit to you in any work with people on a one-to-one level.

Mercury aspects Venus and Mars:

Although your tact was commented on above, you can also be very direct, even brutally frank, in the way you communicate, as mentioned below.

Mercury Square Mars:

Argumentative and rather aggressive and critical in discussions, you tend to turn any conversation into a debate, and sometimes a verbal war. You could be a spokesman for a righteous cause, a lawyer vigorously defending a client, a sharp analyst or critic. You are a convincing speaker, but are not especially receptive to the ideas and opinions of others. You have a forceful intellect and an aptitude for mental work.

Mercury Square Pluto:

Never satisfied with the face value of anything, you are always probing beneath the surface for deeper reasons and hidden motives - though you rarely reveal your own. You have a very suspicious, even paranoid, side. You mind is penetrating and deep and you have an aptitude for research, investigative reporting, or private investigation. You are keenly interested in the deeper aspects of the human psyche, with a sort of "x-ray vision" regarding the inner motivations and intentions of others. You are drawn to anything secret, hidden, or mysterious, and may pursue esoteric or occult studies. You are also a forceful and convincing speaker or writer, with the ability to influence people's thinking by the sheer power of your conviction.

Section 5: Emotions: Moods, Feelings, Romance

Moon in Gemini:

You do not appear to be an intensely emotional or sentimental person, and you are often unaware of your own or other people's deeper feelings and emotional needs. Tears and tantrums bewilder you and make you very uncomfortable. You would rather settle differences by talking things out reasonably and rationally, but you tend to ignore or poke fun at any attempt to probe your own or others' inner depths.

You avoid heavy, demanding emotional involvement and are wary of making personal commitments.

You need plenty of mental stimulation and you feel close to people with whom you can share thoughts and mental interests. Conversation is very important to you. The strong, silent type of partner is not for you.

Moon in 1st house:

You have a soft exterior and tend to relate very personally and sympathetically to other people. However, you sometimes let your emotions overpower your reasoning and logic, and consequently you are sometimes biased in your opinions. You are impressionable and rather gentle, or at least that is the way you appear. Your feelings are on the surface and you can not hide your emotions.

Moon Trine Saturn:

You have an inner poise and balance that enables you to act in a cool, efficient manner during emotional traumas and stress. You keep perspective and objectivity about highly charged emotional issues - sometimes to the chagrin of others who might wish that you would react more intensely. You are quietly supportive and faithful to your friends and loved ones.

Moon Conjunct Mercury/N. Node

Your interaction with others has an emotional overtone and you have a strong desire to share your feelings with others. Your circle of friends is likely to be large and you enjoy many pleasant meeting with them.

Moon Conjunct Mars/Jupiter

You are very intuitive and have the ability to make the right decisions guided by you inner feelings. You have a sense of honor and pride and are considerate of others. Others respect you and are willing to help you, because you don't act out of petty motives.

Moon Conjunct Jupiter/Pluto

You have a very rich emotional life and the ability to do the right thing at the right moment. Through an appeal to the feelings, you are able to influence the public; you may have the desire to work in some capacity to bring about social improvements.

Venus in Gemini:

In love, you are more interested in a person's sense of humor and intelligence than in their physique. You like a partner who is mentally alive and who keeps you guessing a little bit, and you become restless and bored with someone who never asks questions, never changes or surprises you. Talking, sharing ideas, going places together, and learning new things together is very important to your happiness. You need lots of social stimulation, are something of a flirt, and like to have many friends of both sexes. A possessive, jealous partner is very stifling for you.

Venus in 12th house:

You often hide your affection, or find your feelings difficult to express or get across to the person you love. Being openly affectionate and trusting often doesn't seem safe to you. You may feel your love won't be appreciated or reciprocated. You may get involved in secret love affairs or fall in love with a person who is quite unavailable to you. Love and sacrifice often seem to go hand in hand for you - having to give something up to be with the one you love, or having to relinquish some person or some aspect of an important love relationship.

Venus Square Mars:

You are intensely amorous and attractive to the opposite sex, and are not inclined to friendly platonic relationships. There is much tension in your love life - often because you put your desires ahead of your partner's, and are impatient about having your love needs satisfied. The whole arena of love, romance, and sex is endlessly fascinating for you and you are not happy without a love partner. You can "burn yourself out" by pouring so much of your energy into romance.

Venus Quincunx Neptune:

It is absolutely essential for you not to deceive yourself when it comes to love, romance, or the true nature of other people. You tend to be in love with love, and can be incredibly naive and easily seduced. Confusion, disappointments, and regrettable mistakes in both emotional and financial matters may result. On the other hand, it is also possible you will use your attractiveness or charm to deceive others. Clarity, directness, honesty, and realism regarding romantic love and people in general, need to be developed.

Venus Square Pluto:

You experience powerful, compelling emotional and sexual attractions, and you may feel that you have little choice or control over your desires. You have an intense need for love and may be emotionally greedy or insatiable. Your love life is passionate and often tumultuous and painful as well. Jealousy, power struggles, or possessiveness can become areas of conflict in your relationships. Positively, you can be unusually creative and bring about beneficial and healing changes in the lives of others, motivated by your deeply felt love.

Section 6: Drive and Ambition: How You Achieve Your Goals

Mars in Virgo:

You are a perfectionist and have high standards for your own work. You often feel that if you want something done right you must do it yourself, for others do not do as thorough a job as you do. Doing a task well is very important to you, and you may labor over minute details that others wouldn't bother with. You strive for accuracy, efficiency, and precision, and you become very irritable when things are not done "right".

On the other hand, you can become so much of a perfectionist and so self-critical that you will not even attempt many activities and projects, feeling that your efforts simply won't be good enough. You are usually modest and realistic in assessing what you can accomplish and, if anything, you underestimate yourself. Of course, practice makes perfect, and if you do apply yourself diligently in some area, you gradually gain self-confidence as you master skills and develop expertise.

You conserve your energy and pace yourself so that you do not waste or diffuse your efforts. An unwillingness to take risks or venture from the beaten track can sometimes limit your opportunities. In short, you may not aim high enough and settle for too little in life.

Mars in 4th house:

It is not easy for you to show the world at large your angry or competitive side, but your family sees this side of you more often. Temper tantrums, tumultuous family relationships, or a great deal of competition between you and one or more of your relations is likely. You like to be the one in charge in your home and you put a lot of energy into making it the way you want it.

Mars Sextile Neptune:

Unlike some who have hopes and fantasies, you are a person who tries to live out these dreams, no matter how impractical or fantastic they seem. You have a quixotic, idealistic streak. You may be more inspired to work for some higher cause than simply for your own personal achievement.

Mars Conjunct Pluto:

When you want something, you go after it with passionate zeal and are sometimes so driven by your desire that you lose all objectivity. You get so deeply involved in whatever you are pursuing that you become one-sided, even fanatical. Strong-willed and stubborn, you insist on having your way no matter the cost. You are fascinated with power. You often try to overpower anything or anyone you perceive as an obstacle, if not physically then by the force of your will. You can be ruthless and impersonal when it comes to achieving your ambitions and goals in life. You have enormous energy and are capable of extraordinary effort and great achievement. You can also become a compulsive workaholic.

MC Conjunct Saturn:

Your role in life is apt to be one of great responsibility and you take your tasks very seriously. A certain heaviness weighs on you because of this. You may have been unusually ambitious or mature at a tender age. You advance and attain your aspirations through dedication and perseverance, rather than fortune.

Sun Trine MC:

Happiness and fulfillment in your career are likely, because you give your all to it and will not make the sorts of compromises that others feel compelled to make in order to succeed. Self-expression and being your own person are very important to you.

Enormous aid is apt to come to you through your father or another important man in your life. Your relations with superiors and those in a position to boost your career are usually excellent.

Moon Trine MC:

Your career is apt to involve protecting, caring, nurturing, or "mothering" in some aspect. Home, family relationships, cherishing the past, continuing a tradition are also featured. You're apt to be quite popular through your profession or business.

MC Opposition Mercury/Neptune

Your inner life tends to be full of imagination and you are likely to have far-reaching ideas and plans. Peace-loving and generous, you are very sharing in your relation with others. But you also could become the victim of unintentional slights.

MC Opposition Venus/Neptune

Your disposition could seem a bit strange to others and you have a tendency to lose yourself in illusions. You have a very dreamy nature and are inclined to fantasize about erotic and sexual situations.

Section 7: Growth and Expansion: Areas That You Enjoy

Jupiter in Aries:

You believe strongly in the power of positivity and in each individual's ability to make life anything desired through one's own initiative and effort. The more you rely on yourself, the better you feel, and you find it difficult to ask for or accept outside help. The joy of competing (and especially winning!) runs deep in you.

Jupiter in 11th house:

You have good fortune working with groups, organizations, and others who share your ideals. You go further if you unite your efforts with others, as in clubs, networks, or civic associations. Social improvement, or benefiting your community is very important to you.

Jupiter Quincunx Neptune:

You are prone to impractical dreams and schemes and quixotic visions of what could be. If your plans are too farfetched or grandiose, they are apt to never be realized. Even if other factors in your chart indicate that you are a well-grounded, realistic person, you still have this unfettered imagination which sometimes runs away with you. Occasionally you can be duped.

Jupiter Conjunct Mercury/Saturn

You have a serious and structured perception of reality, are able to concentrate well, and you do everything in a methodical way. Very thorough and industrious, you work hard towards the accumulation of possessions and property.

Jupiter Conjunct Venus/Saturn

You are likely to keep more to yourself and seem to be happier by yourself than being with other people. You prefer a simple way of life and could get married to someone with considerable difference in age.

Section 8: Areas That Challenge You Or Are Difficult For You

Saturn in Aquarius:

You have an innate distrust of groups and/or a cynical attitude toward society that may leave you feeling out of step and unable to participate in activities with your peers. Overcoming a sense of aloofness and alienation from others is an important task for you.

Saturn in 9th house:

Your attitude toward religion, philosophy, and politics is very conservative and possibly narrow or rigid. On the one hand, you may believe in nothing that is speculative or intangible, requiring proof for any idea presented to you. Each idea is thoroughly and systematically examined. On the other hand, you may tenaciously cling to your grand philosophical or metaphysical beliefs and opinions, refusing to modify them or to be open and receptive to others' insights and perspectives.

Your overall outlook on life is serious, and you may feel that life or God will punish you if you do not watch your step!

Now we will discuss patterns of behavior which you instinctively and habitually revert to when under stress - a mostly unconscious process and one which you are apt to overdo because it is so familiar and thus easy for you. The direction you need to follow in order to develop balance, greater awareness, and wholeness is also described.

N. Node in Cancer:

When under stress you are apt to close down the flow of your emotions, ignoring your needs and feelings in order to do what you perceive as your duty or simply what the practical realities of the situation require. This can lead to a certain rigidity and hardness. If overdone, self-control, self-discipline, or an exaggerated concern over what society, family or others expect of you makes life more a burden than an adventure.

Developing tenderness, caring, feeling, and the feminine, nurturing aspects of yourself is an important step in your unfolding. You need to learn how to nourish and lovingly attend to both yourself and others. Letting yourself be taken care of sometimes is okay!

N. Node in 2nd house:

The arena you are most likely to wrestle with these issues is in your dealings with money, financial security, tangible assets and possessions. The qualities described above are ones you need to integrate in tangible ways: how you make a living, building assets and a secure material base, what you do with the resources you have. Try to avoid overinvolvement or entanglements with other people's money matters, legal business, and personal affairs.

N. Node Conjunct Mercury/Uranus

You co-operate well with others and have the ability to give and receive stimulating suggestions. You are always receptive to new ideas and ready for spontaneous group efforts. You seem to have an instant recall of things and are likely to act just as quickly.

N. Node Conjunct Venus/Uranus

Your feelings are heightened when you are with others and you have the ability to open up to them and show your feeling without reservation. Lead by your instincts, you are likely to have many spontaneous contacts with other people.

Section 9: Originality and Imagination Areas Where You Are Creative, Unique, Unstable, or Compulsive

Uranus in 4th house:

Your childhood or your relationship with your parents was unsettling or unstable in some way, so that you may never have felt that you had firm ground beneath your feet. One of your parents may have been unusual, eccentric, or an inconstant influence in your life. Abrupt changes in location or in family relationships may have made you feel insecure, but positively you were given more freedom and less pressure to conform to conventions, which enables you to be more of an individual and less tethered to restrictive ideas of how one "should" behave, feel, or live.

Neptune in 6th house:

You have a sensitive physique and may have allergic responses and sensitivities to foods, medicines, or anything you take in from the environment. Emotional stress and confusion seem to affect you physically, even more quickly than they affect other people.

Pluto in 4th house:

There was much that was hidden or secret in your childhood home, and you absorbed a sense of shame or a feeling that you need to hide and protect who you are from others. One of your parents had an especially intense bond to you and profoundly influenced you, perhaps dominated or controlled you in subtle ways. Unlocking the secrets of the past, and learning to be intimate and close to others without controlling or being controlled are issues for you.

Uranus Conjunct Neptune/Asc.

You tend to submit to other people's wishes too easily and put their needs before your own. At times you may suddenly realize their underhanded motives and find out that they were only trying to deter you from the pursuit of your objectives.

Neptune Opposition Mercury/Jupiter

You are very imaginative and well inspired, but have a tendency to think that nothing can defeat you. You may take foolish risks by misleading or deceiving other people with schemes that you know to be dishonest.

Neptune Opposition Venus/Jupiter

You tend to seek eternal happiness and have only beautiful images in your mind. You overlook the very real aspects of life and may fall in love with someone because he or she is so perfect. But afterwards, you may have difficulty accepting their faults and end up being disappointed.

Section 10: Generational Influences: Your Age Group

In this chapter we will discuss characteristics and traits of your generation. Of course, you may not share all of the characteristics of your generation, but you are greatly affected by the tone that is set by your generation.

The first topic is "The Subconscious and Emotional Drive of Your Age Group". In this section we will describe a deeply felt urge, even compulsion, of your age group. This deeply felt drive comes to the surface with great force and power, and consequently leaves in its wake considerable upheaval and change. The second topic is "The Ideals and Illusions of Your Age Group", that describes the dreams, fantasies, and spiritual aspirations of your age group. The third and last topic is "What is New and Different in Your Age Group", which describes areas in which your age group tends to be innovative, inventive, unusual, and also where it may be unstable and unreliable.

The characteristics described below may affect a group of people for anywhere from a few years to about 30 years. There are one or more different astrological factors described in each of the three sections below.

The Subconscious and Emotional Drive of Your Age Group

Pluto in Virgo:

You are part of a 15 year group of people that are driven by the need to find an ethical standard and a clear sense of what is right and what is wrong. There is a subconscious drive to straighten out all the world's evils and create a world of perfect order. There is a feeling of repulsion to anything ugly, dirty, or grotesque. Oddly enough, there is also often a fascination with these very things that are so distasteful, and often a feeling of hopelessness and despair about the world's condition.

These inner, emotional and conflicting qualities are reflected in the attitudes and life styles of your generation. Most people of your age group are conservative and ethical, and a small minority goes to the opposite extreme and relishes being strange or unusual in appearance, and sloppy or even grotesque in manners and appearance. There seems to be no middle ground for your generation. Usually, the rebellious type of behavior comes out during adolescence, and tends to subside thereafter, and your age group tends to be very conservative in later life.

Your age group is not very good at compromising and tends to have strong ideas about what is right and what is wrong. There is a strong feeling that you must extinguish evil in the world. Certainly, fostering good works is very commendable, but a categorical and simple-minded response to complex issues is not helpful. Your age group will undergo great transformations in attitudes regarding Good and Evil and will swing to great extremes. Your generation will also make great contributions in the areas of medicine and nutrition, ecology, and education.

The Ideals and Illusions of Your Age Group

Neptune in Scorpio:

You are part of a 14 year group of people that have very intense psychic sensitivity and imagination. Your age group is very attracted to the strange, weird, and unusual. The sense of the macabre and bizarre is strong, and this is reflected in much of the music, art, and fashions of your age group. Novels and movies with mystery and chilling suspense are also popular with your age group. Emotional depression, drug use, and suicide are likely to be relatively high in your age group. There is also a deep mystical sense, and Eastern religions and meditation are very attractive to your age group.

Neptune Sextile Pluto:

The entire generation to which you belong has tremendous opportunities for spiritual rebirth and awakening. This will not be forced upon you or precipitated by unavoidable events, rather it comes from an inner yearning and a natural propensity to seek the depths.

What is New and Different in Your Age Group

Uranus in Virgo:

You are part of a 7 year group of people who employ their skills and creativity to bring about a great deal of practical reform in education, medical care, and other social services. Your innovations are not radical or unusual, but they are usually effective.

Your generation also has a curious mixture of both conservative, ethical people, and rebellious, disruptive people. There seems to be little middle ground for your age group, and you swing to one extreme or the other. The conservative people strive to reinstate strict moral standards, want to swiftly punish criminal behavior, and strive to highlight the importance of old-fashioned values in our lives, laws, and overall life style. On the other hand, the rebellious people of your generation are angry at the established way of doing things and act in a defiant, crude, and coarse manner.

Bitter much? I don't blame her. The latest episode of Mad Men opens with a musical number from the 1963 film version of Bye, Bye Birdie in which a wide-eyed Ann-Margret flirts shamelessly with the camera while Sterling Cooper's male members look on, enraptured. The occasion for the screening: Inspiration for a new ad campaign for "Patio,", a Tab-like soft drink that will later become Diet Pepsi and is meant to keep 60s ladies looking svelte and feeling sexy. When Peggy expresses disdain for the idea, she is quickly shot down by the men, who have not quite shaken off the shiver that went up their legs minutes prior. (Shorter Ken Cosgrove: You may be skinny again, and therefore attractive, but your opinion still means shit.)

The focus on women's weight turns out to be a recurring theme. Back in the Draper household, Don chastises Betty over the missing melba toast - "Jesus, Bets. Have some oatmeal. That baby is going to weigh a ton." - and the first thing out of Joan Holloway's mouth later that day is praise for Betty's baby-bump. ("Other than Wilma Flintstone, I haven't seen someone carry so well." A few minutes later, Roger Sterling weighs in: "Oh look, Princess Grace just swallowed a basketball.")

Uh, thanks?


The Drapers have more pressing issues to deal with than Betty's expanded belly, of course. Betty's ailing father, Gene, has been abandoned by his wife, and her brother, William, is angling to put him in an old folks' residence and acquire his rightful prize: the ancestral home. Betty, who has invited her extended family for a visit is, in her own passive-aggressive way, having none of it. Pregnancy, you see, is a "condition" that works in a woman's favor when appropriate.



But back to Peggy, the real star of this episode, and, I'd argue, the series itself. As the opening scenes make painfully clear, the scrappy copywriter's dealings with men need an update. Luckily, Joan Holloway - Harris? - can, as always, provide assistance:



As can the previously maligned Ann-Margret. Being 25 and acting 14 is apparently easier than it looks at first glance. It broke my heart to see Peggy defaulting to this type of performance so quickly.



In what was perhaps the episode's most painful scene, Peggy goes over the soda campaign with Don, whose awe for Ann-Margret seems in direct proportion to his disgust for a strongly-opinionated woman. "You're not an artist, Peggy; you solve problems," he tells her after she speaks of her disdain for the Patio pitch. "Leave some tools in your toolbox." Somehow, coming from Don, this sentiment doesn't seem nearly as benevolent as Bobbie Barrett's "it's a powerful business" iteration.



Peggy, however, is nothing if not a quick study. Hot on the heels Don's minor smackdown - and a strange encounter with Roger Sterling in the office elevator - she decides to test out some of those previously neglected tools at a Brooklyn watering hole near her home, where she reels in a well-meaning, but fairly bland young student with the very same line she saw Joan deploy so masterfully earlier in the day. I was alternately fascinated and disappointed with the manner in which Peggy both took control of this seduction and summoned her silly-girl side. "You're funny," says her suitor after she makes a grab for his burger. Yeah, I guess you could call "funny". "Phony" would be another word.


Back at the Draper home, the situation regarding Gene, Betty and William has become increasingly untenable, and Don, in an tour-de-force of emasculation, reads William a riot act that is reminiscent of Pete Campbell's own Drapered humiliations.


Betty seems both surprised and impressed.


The episode closes with a dreamy Maypole dance scene near the Drapers' home in Ossining - Don seems taken with the young elementary school teacher, but it was hard to tell if he is responding to her sexually (her free-spiritedness reminds me of Don's bohemian ex, Midge) or reacting to what she symbolizes. As Don says in his lunch meeting with one of the MSG men, "Change is neither good nor bad, it simply is. It can be greeted with terror or joy, a tantrum that says I want the way it was or a dance that says, look, something new."


Random notes: Is this a literal sign of things to come? Also: Speaking of rape, did anyone catch Joan's comment that once her husband finishes his medical residency she's better "watch out"?


As for this lady, Lane Pryce's wife, what was with her comment regarding the number of "Africans" and "insects" in her new Sutton Place neighborhood?


And did anyone else note the date on the wedding invitation for Roger Sterling's daughter?

Don will hear a familiar canine whimper during a smoke break. Is it— could it be— Chauncey?


Betty will stand by her (super) Man.


The Sterling Cooper gang will prepare for their network-synergy dance-off with the cast of Breaking Bad.


These men will be old.


Peggy will be smug.


Betty will become disillusioned with material possessions.


Really disillusioned.


Like, "Who am I, really, inside?" disillusioned.


Joan will wonder why all the good-looking men are either married or rapists.


Sal will wish he could just find the right lady to settle down with.


The guys will prepare for their skill-matched dance-off with the cast of The Big Bang Theory.


And, finally, an actual spoilery-type-thing: Don and Sal will have dinner with stewardesses (for Don) and a pilot (for Sal)!

I tried to be as self-appraising as possible, and it does actually look like me! Except I dress like Juno and I recently quit smoking (but the smoking-lips choice looked so much, you know, cooler.) At the end, the application lets you choose from a variety of settings and unceremoniously plops you into them.


If I ever had the chance to toast with Don Draper, you'd better bet I'd be levitating and staring off into the middle distance.


I call this one "Lonely Picnic."


"Let's just stare at that drunk new girl until she goes away."


"Fuck you and your tea, Birdy. I need the hard stuff."


I call this one "Lonely Bedroom."


Wait a second, I thought I chose the "Joan Holloway" body. Why does she get to be so much thinner? Is that in her contract? No fair.


Here I am giving a presentation about to get an intervention.


Andrew Wyeth's little-known masterpiece, "The Drunk Avatar's World."

[These avatars are based on the brilliant illustrations of the artist Dyna Moe.]

1.) Self-Pleasure
Housewife Betty Draper learns what else a washing machine can do for her.

2.) Marketing Self-Pleasure
Don Draper learns that women can be beneficial in non-secretarial positions.

3.) It's About How Women Want To Be Seen By Men
You'd think it'd be easy for men to market products to women, since they know how women think.

4.) Sexual Harassment
Pete offers Peggy some fashion advice.

5.) Be A Woman
Bobbie offers Peggy some real advice.

6.) Don't Be A Single Woman In Her Thirties
Joan is embarrassed that she's over 30 and that everyone knows it.

7.) The Pill
The Pill won't turn unmarried women into "strumpets."

8.) Abortion
Sometimes women don't want to have children for reasons other than "getting fat."

9.) Chivalry?
It's nice that some men would stick up for some women, but it sucks that the women couldn't stick up for themselves.

10.) Single Mothers
Divorced women are dangerous for real estate. Plastic bags are safe for children.

11.) "It Looks Complicated, But The Men Who Designed It Made It Simple Enough For A Woman To Use"
Joan shows Peggy around the office, and tells her to stare in the mirror naked.

12.) Peggy Wants To Be Treated Like A Xerox Machine
Modern women of the '60s were aggressive. And that's cute.

13.) Husband-Monitored Therapy
Women went to therapists so their husbands would know what their problems were.

14.) "Let Them Know What Kind Of Girl To Be"
Men knew that women needed the most basic instructions, like how to be.

15.) And More Sexual Harassment
There was always more than enough to go around.

Is Mad Men a Feminist Show? [HuffPo]

[Pasadena, June 10. Image via INF]

A profile of January "Betty Draper" Jones reveals that the actress is being offered “a lot of dramatic roles as a sadder, more neglected housewife.” Meanwhile, Elisabeth Moss has taken on yet another Peggy Olsen style good-girl in Speed The Plow: "They're both sort of guileless. They have something that can be mistaken for naiveté, but it's not. It's just enthusiasm." You can't win. [Vanity Fair, Playbill]

[Beverly Hills, Sepetmber 25. Image via Splash.]

Let's start with my new obsession: Betty's equestrian style. It makes me regret that I have nothing saved from my horseback riding days, because I've spent upwards of 3 hours (that's not an exaggeration) on equestrian clothing sites and realized that building this look will probably cost me about $800. Howevs, I'm totally getting one of her shirts. But I would kill for this bag:

And her winter coat goes so perfectly with all of it:

As do those gloves:

And speaking of gloves, I think it's about time that we bring back opera gloves and costume jewelry.

The accompanying dress was also awesome. Other than New Year's and maybe Halloween, I can't think of an occasion to wear those where I wouldn't look like a total tool, though. Oh, and dresses! Peggy's was adorbz:

And duh, Joan's ruled, too. Now I'm thinking about investing in some serious foundation garments this fall:

Now, on to set design. Obvs this shelf is choice:

I dug this blond wood headboard:

And the matching lamps on the nightstands:

Now I need multiple silk pillows with large buttons:

And for some reason I was really drawn to this stupid framed art of a metal dog:

I also wouldn't mind a globe in my house. I suck at geography, so it would actually serve a dual purpose. I imagine that Betty went all out to make Don's office cozy and official. And smoked the whole time. Christ, I wish I could look that glamorous while chain smoking. Instead, I'm in a muumuu and my hair and face are competing for the Greasiest Surface in Brooklyn award.

Lastly, Roger Sterling's office is all kinds of awesome. I want to have that wall art.

And I wouldn't mind having him, either.