I liked this one better than the last two for some reason

Jane and  Joan meet in the office and there is a lot of tension Jane is kind of snooty and goes in for the kill asking Joan to send one of the girls to flag Jane's driver down


What did the grandpa mean when he said all hell is going to break lose as Sally was leaving his room ..also what did he mean when he said to Don How's Babylon ?


When the drug connection (Jeff) announced what he had in his arsenal of drugs
He mentioned "Boo"... What is that?

At Sterling's party Don finds the bar and looks like he was a bartender at one time

The man at Rodger's party (Henry Francis) that touched Betty's tummy
They seemed to know each other.... it was strange What was that about ?

Peggy had a brilliant moment when she though up a nice scenario for bacardi rum it seemed to precipitate an epiphany (I didn't think this part was realistic... the ephipany)

Don dropped a bomb on Roger when He said
"No one thinks you're happy they think you're foolish"
I'm interested in seeing how they patch that up

To Whom it may Concern:

Peggy is making me sick
How she relates work to her
personal life.
Do I do that?  Maybe that is just the way we all grow up.

Respectfully yours,

Sexytary

I'm getting a sense that Sally may not be Betty's daughter. Perhaps this is why their stories differ on how long they've been together. Maybe Don and Betty share a secret that's just as "big" as Don's secret. I think we assume that they're together because they're pretty and make a striking couple. But there's more to it than that.

I think Peggy's epiphany is that a vacation doesn't have to be at some exotic locale. That wherever you're drinking Bacardi is a vacation. In other words, I think she had a line on a concept that, in that day and age, would break through conventional thinking. Something original and abstract, as opposed to much of the straightforward thinking of the day.

I didn't get a sense that Betty knew Henry before she met him at the party. But I did get the sense that they had some sort of soul connection.

Who was the guy behind the bar when Don walked in? Was he working the party or was he a guest? There was more to the purpose of that scene than showing Don as a competent bartender.

There was a lot of the dramatic technique of having strangers come in and show us stuff about our heroes... Betty with Henry, Don with guy at the bar, Peggy and the pot dealer, Peggy and her secretary, Joan and the whole party scene. And what about that... the look she gave her husband as she played the accordian and sang. And where did she get/use those skills before in her life?

Very interesting and unique episode.

Some things:

"Boo" was slang for marijuana.

Don (and seemingly everyone at SC) has a bar in his office and knows his way around it. It was common then to have a home bar in a credenza and be bartender to your guests.
As to the fellow he met there, I think there were two events going on at that country club. Roger's soiree, and some wedding that the older guy was attending. He and Don shared some things in common. Both were momentarily escaping their events to grab a drink. Both were seemingly successful, upstanding conservative businessmen who came from humble beginings and see themselves as still on the outside looking in.

I'm really getting to detest Paul as a liberal poser. It's obvious he's petty, shallow, and lacking in many qualities. From ostentatiously parading his black girlfriend around and his Selma marching to show everyone how progressive he is, to his inferiority complex concerning, well, just about everyone at SC. I thought Pete had the market on that, but Paul is right up there, too.

Where is Joan's marriage going? It seems her "Mr. Perfect" is fundimentally flawed. From the date-rape scene from last season we saw him to be ultra-controling. Now it seems he's not as bright a doctor as he boasts. He couldn't impress his boss on his own, so he needed Joan to do it for him. Her look to him seemed to be, "Hey, I'm doing my best here, but there's only so much I can do (to prop up a mediocre husband)."
And her shock at the boss's wife's comment about not having children now? Could she already be pregnant?

Adgal That makes sense That Peggy came up with a unique idea =everyday is a vacation with Bacardi= and brilliant too

I think Peggy's epiphany includes more as revealed in the talk with her secretary. I wonder how she will be when the drug wears off
I also see peggy's character as catering to all the feminists watching the show as far as I know Peggy is the only one other than Don that is gaining a sense of the big picture


Mneely I do and don't see Paul as Petty shallow and lacking in many qualities I kind of admire him for standing up to those guys last week He wasn't a yes man and could have lost his job but funny that no one fired him

he does seem to me to take positions that are expected of him as a rich kid almost to make up for his priviledged life

Nice point about the "Boo"
Also I haven't seem "Mr Perfect" enough to call him ultra controlling   if you're talking about wanting the dining table set differently I don't see why Joan
didn't go a long with it.  Seems to me that she is starting to control him for example when she called him back to give her a kiss and having him vacuum and telling him to "stop talking" I think you're right about the marriage being rocky. he really seems to lack confidence and I think Joan will really start to control things 

Good point about getting Joan to play the accordion to make him look good

The most obvious thing that came to mind for me in the bar scene was that as Don related stories about parking fancy cars, pissing in the trunks, moving around as a boy after the coal mines failed etc - he was more frank about his past with this stranger than we've ever seen him with Betty.  Each time he tells Betty ANYTHING about his past (ie his dad's constant spankings made him want to grow up and beat his dad) she looks slightly blank, saying she never knew that. I think I've only seen him truly open with the real Mrs. Draper in California.

One more thing I want to bring up... was anyone else surprised by the amount of singing in this episode? They've never sung before, but the group sang when they were high and then Joan sang. It was like Mad Men, The Musical.

Also, I wonder if Joan is pregnant in real life. She looks a little chunkier than usual and the more I looked for a baby bump, the more I noticed that they kept doing things to disguise that area.

The elder man at the bar was attending a wedding at the same country club.  He said he was from San Antonio, NM and his name was Connie.  These facts point toward the gentleman being Conrad Hilton, of hotel fame.
This storyline may circle around to Sterling Cooper business or be a interesting tidbit inserted to reveal the rabid among us.

And,...I hate to hear comments that reveal a hatred of how Peggy is developing.  She is trying to mimic the boys in all areas of her life and act like her mentor, Don.  Next week she'll reveal her desire to move to Manhattan, she has already had casual sex, drank and smoked in the office, and is fearlessly aware she has accomplished a lot and is as capable as the male gaggle she works with.  I'm pretty proud of Peggy.  It took me much longer to tell a male colleague of mine of his 'place' at a meeting.  Go, Peggy!  The jury is still out on whether she and I would be friends...

(We get more information on how she is as a sister and a daughter next week.)
__________________

Interesting call on the Conrad Hilton angle. The episode was entitled My Old Kentucky Home, (although there was no bourbon in the bar? What's up with that?) Anyway, the Kentucky Derby took place on May 4, 1963. The party was for Derby Day.
This was also the day of Nelson Rockefeller’s wedding. Connie was there to attend a wedding. (Although in reality, Hilton is not known to have attended THAT one, and it was at Pocantico Hills. Did anyone catch where the country club was located? Perhaps Mad Men finally took some artistic license?) And finally Rockefeller was a Republican which Connie makes a comment about.

A little more on Don's bartending skills.
I watched him make Old Fashions for himself and Connie. I make these myself, and there are several steps to it. I noticed that (with the exception of substituting rye for bourbon) he made it exactly right, and in the right order. Bravo to Don and the Mad Men crew for their mad drink making skills!

Did anyone else notice when Pete and Trudy were dancing The Charleston, they looked strangely like Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed in It's a Wonderful Life?

Ah! I forgot about the Charleston! That's three "musical theater" scenes in one episode. Something is up with that, I say. Something. Is. Up.

@adgal:  Something. Is. Up.
Something like Nero fiddling while Rome declines (and burns?)

Nice pickup on the Hilton angle leggzz.  If you google up a picture of Conrad Hilton, you'll note a more than passing resemblance between him and "Connie" - especially the mustache.

What is Peggy's deal?  She was so mean to her new secretary Olive, so blatant in her quest to not end up like the generation of women before her (like that's such a bad thing, staying home to raise non-latch key kids!)  Peggy's really starting to bug me....tries to be so much like Joan....NEVER.  Joan makes the feminine mystique effortless, Peggy is a fish out of water.

I think Peggy is trying to take the best of both worlds and make it work... I think she decided to start acting more assertive / "mean" because no one was taking her seriously otherwise.  It does seem like she's trying to become one of the guys though, not Joan.

What about the song in blackface? Count that as four musical scenes.

I watched it again - this time it sounded to me as though Roger were trying to imitate Jolson.  Even in 1963, I don't think a blackface impression of Jolson would have raised eyebrows.

You're right, madmaam!

Four musical routines in one episode. And nobody seems to care. There's something going on, I say! Something is going on! And no one seems to care!!!!!

*running off to medicate myself*

It was the song & dance episode! Really enjoyable, especially Joan's 'C'est Magnifique'. Peter's Charleston got a little over the top, but he has to be accomplished at something. Can't wait to see what they think of next.

Watching Pete and Trudy, I had to laugh because all I could think of was, "Looks like someone's been taking lessons at Arthur Murray's."

Did anyone else think it was strange that they were dancing the Charleston?  That dance was from the 1920s.  In the 1960's they would have been dancing the jitterbug.  It was the time of American Bandstand and Motown and NO ONE did the Charleston that I can recall.

Well I guess it was an old man's party... and everyone seems to agree that the blackface was also anachronistic.  There seemed to be a lot of throwbacks to a previous era at that party, perhaps because the attendees were older, richer, white-folk who were remembering their hey day some 20-30 years previous?  Although Mr. & Mrs. Campbell are obviously not part of this group... maybe it's to them what swing dance is to young people today.  Some of us definitely still do it and enjoy it (and it's even further back for us).

Nostalgia is a funny thing.  Our grade school choir gave a concert in what had to be 1966 or '67. We sang Simon and Garfunkel's "Feelin' Groovy" and "Sounds of Silence" alongside "The Charleston" and "Carolina in the Morning".  I remember asking my grandparents what a "buck dance" and a "wing dance" was...

Exactly!  It happens all the time.

The episode had a lot of nostalgic elements to it, and you're right, Pete and Trudy dancing the Charleston was out of place in the 1960s.  But then again, so was Roger and Jane in their "negro makeup," and so were the Mint Juleps and a bunch of other things. 

Sterling-Cooper is a boys club that's been doing things the same way for a long time, and Roger's little party is a throwback to old times during a time that's on the verge of big change.  It's interesting because the audience knows they're not quite there yet on the show, but it's still close enough at hand to make you cringe more and more.