tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2289595359432630118.post831058791162887720..comments2024-03-18T04:36:26.547-04:00Comments on Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress: Mad Men 3.10: The Faintest Ink, The Strongest TelevisionPaul Levinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07609987407926836519noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2289595359432630118.post-60974655286138397032009-10-19T11:32:53.950-04:002009-10-19T11:32:53.950-04:00Dr. Levinson – I enjoy your weekly reviews of one ...Dr. Levinson – I enjoy your weekly reviews of one of favorite shows: Mad Men. Your entry “Mad Men 3.10: The Faintest Ink, The Strongest Television”, like the Mad Men episode itself, touched a nerve with me for a number of reasons. My career, after a short stint as a reporter with the Irish Echo newspaper and my studies with you and others at Fordham University, took me into Public Relations, not advertising and my dream of becoming Darren Stevens. My father, William McNamara (who passed away in March 2006) was a career Western Union man. I have cheery memories of accompanying him to work in the early 1960s when he took overtime Sunday shifts from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. I loved banging away at Western Union’s classic Underwood typewriter, an experience I think helped steer me in the direction of communications. Western Union not only misread the impact of telephones in 1881, the equipment I toyed with on the Sundays in the early 1960s - including loud spinning cylinders that transmitted typed messages from Syracuse, New York to my father’s office in Huntington, Long Island (according to my Dad),should have led Western Union to be the ones who invented fax machines and maybe even wireless internet. Perhaps, Mad Men will copy the real life Western Union of its 1963time period and recreate the actual ads the telegraph company was running back then: Don Wilson of Jack Benny fame pushing Western Union’s CandyGrams. -Jim McNamaraJim McNamranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2289595359432630118.post-55470794728937215932009-10-19T11:26:50.643-04:002009-10-19T11:26:50.643-04:00I don't think that Paul is a mediocre or untal...I don't think that Paul is a mediocre or untalented ad men. We don't really know if his idea was any good or not. He doesn't remember it, which means that we'll never know what it is. But if Paul could create something like the Maidenform ad from Season 2, this only tells me that he is a talented and imaginative ad man. He may not be at Don or Peggy's level, but I suspect that he has talent. If he ever learns to get over his pride and insecurities, he just might discover how talented he truly is.<br /><br />I don't think I like Suzanne Farrell very much. For all her so-called honesty, there is something hypocritical about her that I cannot put my finger on.<br /><br />I could also wax lyrical about how romantic Don is with Suzanne or that he might be falling in love with her. But my gut instinct tells me that if he ever ends up marrying Suzanne, she would would find herself in the same situation as Betty. After all, he had been in love with Betty when they first met. He thought he had managed to connect with her. What if this is how Don or Dick Whitman deals with the people in his life? Especially in his romantic life? What if he is one of those types who enjoy the illusion of new love, but cannot deal with maintaining an emotional connection with someone for over a long period of time?The Rush Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13667282586023023623noreply@blogger.com