I still miss Sal........I loved watching Sal pilot the Men's club way of thinking in the sixties while profoundly entrenched in his closet. Though, it was rather strange and hurting to see most of his experiences. I honestly don’t know why his story was finally crashed, Perhaps it was a character in the making.....

Regarding the "Don + Anna '64": that Don painted on Anna's wall -- when I first saw this scene I was touched, thinking is was Don's way of showing Anna affection, like a little boy would to his childhood sweetheart. But, after thinking about it some more I've started to wonder why he used the name Don on the wall, and not Dick since that's what everyone calls him out in Cali?

I don't believe that his words were in any way a type of "agreement".  Instead, I am now wondering if, when he wrote Don, he didn't mean himself but Don, Anna's husband whose identity he stole. Dead Don. Who presumably, Anna will soon be "rejoining". Don + Anna '64 now takes on another meaning for me.

Maybe this was Don's way of showing Anna respect, for her allowing him to use Don's name while loving Dick for who he was. Or, maybe it was his little way of letting her know that he knew her fate.

Drapery, he wrote Dick + Anna '64.  It didn't say Don.

Oh. Whoops.

Thank you Jack.

It was a very poignant good-bye from Don. Anna is the only person in the world that he can be himself, Dick, around. And he knows she probably won't be there by Easter. He really is alone now.

Talking about Anna,  she's dying and I think she's keeping it a secret....

Actually, I believe the niece told Dick that they are keeping it a secret even from her. Hard to fathom in this day and age, a doctor advising family members not to inform a dying patient of her condition, "...since she doesn't have long anyway..." Why just upset her?

Quote from FutureMenz:

What does this have to do with anything?

Look, Sal was a minor character, and not a very good one.  Also, the way he acted was so unmistakeably gay that he would have been found out in no time flat, especially in an office of gossipy women and boozing war veterans.  It wasn't at all realistic.

Don's Money!
Where the hell is this dude getting finances to support the likes of Betty and Ann's lifestyles...? He's always been this high roller executive and Don't tell me His funds are coming from a mere-in house copyrighting gig!

Quote from Drapery:

He didn't write "Don" on the wall; he wrote his real name: Dick.  You may have noticed that throughout this episode and others, Anna has commonly referred to him by his real name rather than the one he assumed when he swapped his dog tags in the jungles of Korea.

When you think about it, this is the obvious thing for her to do.  Dick makes it clear that in exchange for his new identity, he will always provide for her, but whenever he has stopped by to visit, he has a freedom to be himself that doesn't exist anywhere else.  That's why he writes his real name on the wall.



"Dead Don," huh?  Yeah, interesting thought, but...no.

What exactly do you think her thought process would have been like in that imagined scenario?

(As she reads the wall for the first time)

"...Don and Annna '64? (Gasps) I'm dying of CANCER?!" 

Ha ha!

jackspratt and I are right - it reads "Dick and Anna '64."

white bread, you sound like a homophobic bigot.

Geez rnch play the homophobic card –

Sal was a smarmy gay guy who added nothing to the creative juices of the office as far as I could tell.   The one item that did pop out was the sketch he did for a client that looked like the cover of a retro gay novel.  That showed him placing his own overshadowing occupation with his sexuality with producing something that would sell whatever – gum was it?

So the reality, I would confess for most straight men, apples to apples all things being equal an annoying gay guy is more annoying than an annoying straight guy.  The annoying gay equals prissyness – a ‘fun gay’ equals Paul Lynn.  I suspect a thick headed redneck hetro male is more annoying for gay men than the equally offensive straight guy who likes theater and isn’t a knuckle dragger.   So there is the prejudice of the human character.  The solution - replace Al with a Paul Lynn.

Do you mean Paul Lynde from Hollywood Squares?

Center Square to block rnch.

Yeah, rnch, your comment was quite uncalled for.

Everyone here likes the show, but a lot of them are not equipped to give proper analysis of the episodes (as Drapery has demonstrated above, and elsewhere). 

You're clearly in that category too if you can only react emotionally with name-calling when someone critiques a character you have...well, an obvious infatuation with.

Wow looks like I have been missing all the er...fun
I do think that although Sal's effiminacy was obvious to us the viewer in 2010; that in the 60's being married was enough of a "cover" to keep any questions at bay.
Regarding Anna, it seems she knows she's dying she was behaving stranger than ever so loosey goosey laid back and hippie like. Maybe she did a Tarot reading on herself...

Wow. Thanks White Bread. You sound like a real swell guy to me, too. I'm pretty sure I didn't deserve that comment.  I admit I made an error in thinking it said Don instead of Dick, and thanked Jack for correcting me above. So for you to give an in-depth analysis of my erroneous musing just comes across as slightly malicious, in my opinion.

I have a right to post my stupid opinions in here, just as much as you or anyone else does.  So whatever improper "analysis" of the episodes I have written "elsewhere"----ooooohhh, I'm so sorry if I have insulted your or anyone else's intelligence on this board.

Careful, White Bread. You're single-handedly blowing your fellow Canadian's reputation as being the nicest people on the planet.

My only complaint about the Dick or Don + Anna is that I wish the current show would be as insightful as Drapery’s comments and  use metaphors and symbolism that they did so well in season 2.   I like ripping people up as much as the next anonymous troller and I like a vicious debate in real life even more BUT I really hope that we don’t devolve into a snipping contest.  I want to be free to make mistakes and be wrong with predictions without getting stomped on by the fellow “intellectuals” who are here cooling off..

Look, I'm sorry if I offended anybody.  I was trying really hard to be a jerk in the last couple of comments, and I think I managed to do it pretty convincingly. 

I'm always happy to meet a fan of Mad Men in the flesh, and really, I should be just as happy that this gathering of fans from all over is just a mouse click or two away. 

I look forward to chatting about whatever happens on Sunday night with y'all. 

Drapery makes terrific observations in my view.  And ya gotta love the name.

Water under the bridge--and I apologize for any snippy-ness that may have come across in my posts.

I also apologize to the innocent bystanders.  Move along now, nothing more to see here!



Looking forward to curling up with a good cuppa and the new episode tomorrow night, and then returning here for more lively discussion.

I'm worried...if Don keeps up this behaviour, he will need a Freddy Rumsen "6 month leave"