Big Pickles

Now that the Olympics are over I can get back to Mad Men. This is an awesome show.

Ever since I started watching this show I've been meaning to look up the exchange rate between 1960 dollars and current dollars. I estimated it at about 10 based on clues in the show, but that felt a bit high. Turns out it's more like 7. (That's not counting any adjustment for the difference in buying power of $1 in Manhattan vs. suburban middle America, of course.)

Anyway, they talk about money a lot on this show, so you need to have some feel for how much things cost and how much people are earning. I'm sure someone else has already done this somewhere, and when I find it I'll post a link, but until then:

Don Draper makes $35,000 a year, which would be $245,000 to us. He once got a $2500 ($17,500) bonus and tried to use it to take his beatnik mistress to Paris, but she declined. So he gives her the money, tells her to buy a car, and never speaks to her again. When he makes partner he starts making as much as $45,000, or $315,000 in today's dollars. When his long lost brother tracks him down, Don gives him $5000 to leave town and never contact him again. That's $35,000 to us, and more than Pete Campbell makes in a year.

Pete Campbell starts the show making $75 a week. That's $525 to us or $27,300 a year. Not nearly enough to afford the $32,000 ($224,000) apartment his wife Trudy insists on buying. Oh, but the Realtor says they can get it for $30,000 ($210,000) so that will help. Good thing Trudy's parents can front the down payment. Pete and Trudy got a "chip & dip" for their wedding valued at $22 ($154) which he was able to exchange for a .22 rifle.

Harry Crane makes $200 ($1400) a week, and is dismayed to find out that his coworker Ken Cosgrove makes $300 ($2100). That's $72,800 and $109,200 a year to us. Luckily, Harry finds a way to impress his bosses and earn a $25/week raise ($81,900).

Peggy Olson starts out making $35 a week. That's $12,740 a year to us, and even Don is surprised to hear how little she makes. He makes it sound like she's asking a lot when she requests a $5/week raise for taking on the duties of a junior copywriter, but he probably would have given her more. Even with her raise, she's making the equivalent of $14,560 annually. No wonder she was upset when someone swiped $3 ($21) from her locker.

Don's wife, Betty has to call a tow truck when her car breaks down. He informs her that he has the part she needs in the truck, and he can fix the car on the spot for $9 ($63). That's a little more than the $4 ($28) she has in her wallet, but she manages to get by on her charm, as she always has. Later on, their son Bobby breaks the hi-fi. Betty informs Don that it will cost $18 ($126) to have it repaired, or just $9 ($63) if they want to haul it down to the shop themselves. Don doesn't.

Anyway, if you think you might want to start watching Mad Men, you should probably practice multiplying by 7 in your head. Or have a calculator handy.

Labels: tv

So I'm watching an episode of Sesame Street yesterday for the first time in years (we just replaced our TiVo, and pickings were slim) and I happened to see Tina Fey and her Bookaneers in a segment that was irresistibly cute. Then Brian Williams did a short where he says "Squid squid squid squid squid squid."



Was Sesame Street always this clever or was I just too young to appreciate it? Anyway, I know YouTube is full of classic Sesame Street clips from the 80s, but they don't have everything. Muppet Wiki to the rescue. They document everything involving Muppets, which includes every episode of Sesame Street.

Check out episode 1575, where Mr. Rogers visits Big Bird but no one believes him, just like with Snuffy. Classic.

Labels: tv, wiki

Clive Thompson compares the Weight Watchers diet to Role-Playing Games (games like Dungeons & Dragons, The Legend of Zelda, or World of Warcraft). In those games, and similar games like The Sims, you spend a lot of time doing menial, repetitive tasks in pursuit of a larger goal, and that's kind of like what counting calories is like. Plus you get better at learning strategies to maximize your fullness per points and stuff, just like a game. I can totally see it.

Incidentally, the reason I don't do WW is the same reason I avoid online RPGs like WoW. The games can be addicting, and I find that WW causes me to obsess about food to a degree that seems--I don't know--unhealthy.

Labels: food, games

At what point do we quit calling these "stairs" and just accept that it's a rock climbing wall with really well-defined holds?

Labels: pictures

Oh, so that thing is supposed to be a stack of french fries?

Melissa and I thought it was a sucker tree.

If you're at all interested in the recent Russian invasion of Georgia, what caused it and what it all means, War Nerd Gary Brecher gives a pretty good rundown of it at his blog, Exiled Online.

It's a fun read, but pretty irreverent. You've been warned.

Labels: news

...from just one letter from the movie poster.

Seems impossible, but you'll be surprised how many of these you know. I got 14.

ETA: Here's a hint. If no. 29 were a Jeopardy answer, it would be in the category "Stupid Answers."

Labels: movies

You've probably heard about US Men's Volleyball head coach Hugh McCutcheon, who is taking leave from coaching the Olympic team because his wife's parents were attacked in China.

During my freshman year at BYU, McCutcheon was an assistant coach for the BYU Men's volleyball team, and I took a couple of his PE classes. I just wanted to say what an awesome teacher he was. That was some of the most fun I ever had in college, not to mention the best volleyball I ever played.

During a scrimmage late in the semester, this one hot shot on the opposing team spiked the ball hard in my direction. Through a combination of involuntary reflexes and blind luck, I was able to make the dig and keep the ball in play. After the point, McCutcheon walked over to me and told me that it was a great play, but he didn't like my attitude. After a dig like that, he said, I needed to get in the face of the hitter and let him know just how much I enjoyed denying him the satisfaction of a clean kill.

That's probably what I liked best about him. He enjoyed cutting the cocky guys down to size and giving the quieter players the recognition they weren't claiming for themselves.

Labels: sports

I first came across this article a couple of years ago, but I was reminded of it again somewhat recently. I don't think I've blogged about it before, but if I have you'll forgive the repetition.

Repenting Hyperopia

This article proposes that supposedly farsighted (hyperopic) choices of virtue over vice evoke increasing regret over time. We demonstrate that greater temporal separation between a choice and its assessment enhances the regret (or anticipated regret) of virtuous decisions (e.g., choosing work over pleasure). We argue that this finding reflects the differential impact of time on the affective determinants of self-control regrets. In particular, we show that greater temporal perspective attenuates emotions of indulgence guilt but accentuates wistful feelings of missing out on the pleasures of life. We examine alternative explanations, including action versus inaction regrets and levels of construal.

(Emphasis mine.)

I think this article is interesting because it touches on something that I've felt and a lot of people I've talked to have felt, but rarely gets any press. Some of the work/life balance stuff out there gets close, I think ("Nobody on their death bed ever wished they spent more time in the office.") but those ideas are usually still expressed in a forward-looking context.

One example where I've seen this play out is by talking to former mission companions. Almost all of them have expressed regret for being so concerned about the rules and less focused on the immediate experience. If they could go back, they say, they would worry less about following the rules exactly and spend more time helping people and even having fun.

(Interestingly, I heard this advise repeatedly before my mission, from returned missionaries, but I largely ignored it. The incessant call for exact obedience from the leadership has much more sway with a new missionary who just wants to do the right thing.)

Obviously, the consequences of short-sighted decision making are real and can be dire, so I'm not advocating "eat, drink and be merry" by any means. I'm just saying that warnings against such may be over-represented, and that it might not hurt to remember that as life goes on, we value the memories of those times when we lived it up maybe a little too much over the memories of when we were careful and prudent.