Faye Miller knows what she’s talking about. I’ve wondered a lot about where Faye went from there. Mostly because I’ve followed in her footsteps. She was smart and perceptive about human nature and psychology. She could use it mercilessly in her job, or compassionately for those she loved. She was herself imperfect, but willing to try. She accepted Don’s past and failings, and expected him to succeed in working through it all to get better. Except, after a good start, he decided to turn away from the complications of doing so and drop her for a girl who believed the lies he told about himself. It’s a tough world for a woman like Faye. Too smart for her own good. I’ve tried at various points to imagine what her life was like after, but I can’t. Truth is, I have no idea where you go from there.

Faye Miller knows what she’s talking about.

I’ve wondered a lot about where Faye went from there. Mostly because I’ve followed in her footsteps. She was smart and perceptive about human nature and psychology. She could use it mercilessly in her job, or compassionately for those she loved. She was herself imperfect, but willing to try. She accepted Don’s past and failings, and expected him to succeed in working through it all to get better. Except, after a good start, he decided to turn away from the complications of doing so and drop her for a girl who believed the lies he told about himself.

It’s a tough world for a woman like Faye. Too smart for her own good. I’ve tried at various points to imagine what her life was like after, but I can’t. Truth is, I have no idea where you go from there.

Mad Men Mr. Men.

Mad Men Mr. Men.

“Swiss Dots has produced a new limited-edition screenprint inspired by a 1960’s promotional poster for Helvetica, a version of which keeps popping up on Mad Men this season.” (Via Gary Hustwit at the Objectified blog.)

“Swiss Dots has produced a new limited-edition screenprint inspired by a 1960’s promotional poster for Helvetica, a version of which keeps popping up on Mad Men this season.” (Via Gary Hustwit at the Objectified blog.)

Mad Men: Christmas Comes But Once a Year

As a companion to my weekly episode essays on the Deliberatepixel blog, I post here the best of the other recaps, videos and items of related interest on the internet. (This edition is for last week’s episode, because I’m running late. This week’s should be more timely.)

sashafrerejones: The last coincidence. Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce “moved” into the Time-Life building “before” this letter arrived. I don’t know which words to use when measuring the gap in correlation. Zero? Instant? “Mad Men” is “now” set in the building where my parents met. It’s the building where they began dating, when my Dad was married to someone named Ella I didn’t know about until I was thirteen. (My thirteen-year-old is on the couch next to me. I have no bombshells for him.) “Mad Men” is made up and my parents are not. Though my father began working as an advertising copywriter later in the sixties and stayed in that field for more than twenty years, he was working for Time-Life in 1964 when he was stationed in their building. That year—circa NOW MM S4—is when Liza Frere and Robin Jones got married. My mother claims she was known as “LIza Frere, not Lisa, and it was before that OTHER Liza,” an assertion I have not fact-checked because fact-checking your mom is gross.  I have not written back to this correspondent, which would disappoint my father. I can’t help thinking I am going to see my father come around the corner in a future “Mad Men” episode. Every picture of him from this time I’ve seen shows him smoking and drinking. And smiling. As Mad Men stories with personal connections go, this is pretty great.

sashafrerejones:

The last coincidence.

Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce “moved” into the Time-Life building “before” this letter arrived. I don’t know which words to use when measuring the gap in correlation. Zero? Instant?

“Mad Men” is “now” set in the building where my parents met. It’s the building where they began dating, when my Dad was married to someone named Ella I didn’t know about until I was thirteen. (My thirteen-year-old is on the couch next to me. I have no bombshells for him.)

“Mad Men” is made up and my parents are not. Though my father began working as an advertising copywriter later in the sixties and stayed in that field for more than twenty years, he was working for Time-Life in 1964 when he was stationed in their building. That year—circa NOW MM S4—is when Liza Frere and Robin Jones got married. My mother claims she was known as “LIza Frere, not Lisa, and it was before that OTHER Liza,” an assertion I have not fact-checked because fact-checking your mom is gross. 

I have not written back to this correspondent, which would disappoint my father.

I can’t help thinking I am going to see my father come around the corner in a future “Mad Men” episode. Every picture of him from this time I’ve seen shows him smoking and drinking. And smiling.

As Mad Men stories with personal connections go, this is pretty great.

Sneak peak: Mad Men Season Four Episode Two, “Christmas Comes But Once a Year.”

Mad Men: Public Relations

As a companion to my weekly episode essays on the Deliberatepixel blog, I post here the best of the other recaps, videos and items of related interest on the internet.

Stay tuned for the next episode video preview.