He meant he wasn’t through drinking yet.
ETA: Oops. Didn’t see previous post.
Thank you! Great book.
I was coming in here to say the same thing. Doubleday, yes. But a short story connection? Not unless Ken was writing under the name of Ray Bradbury.
It was interesting that Peggy bought a copy of Galaxy to read his story (since I doubt this was her usual fodder.) But the types of stories that he wrote were not Frederik Pohl era Galaxy fodder. Jakobssen a few years later I could maybe see. Nor If, nor
F&SF, and definitely not the Campbell Analog. Sol Cohen had gutted Amazing/Fantastic in mid 1965, and he had worked through the backlog by then. I don’t think Moorcock had taken over New Worlds yet.
I’d they’d publish one by Philip K. Dick if they had one. But not back then, certainly. Not even Dick.
However, there were plenty of sf writers who also were in ad agencies to make their money, so that part at least rang true. Ken should mention Gravy Planet some time.
Megan plays Don expertly. She is not air-headed, she is not capricious, she is not shallow, but she is manipulative in spades. And she’s not psycho.
Don killed his past last episode - and I bet Megan is keeping him tired out enough so that he is just not that interested any more. Megan will never have a headache. She doesn’t understand Don perfectly yet, but is learning.
BTW, this was my favorite episode of the season. I also saw Signal 30 in Driver’s Ed in 1968. I like how the safe old '50s, early '60s world is changing as shown by coverage of the mass murderers.
I also loved the contrast between Don’s real background and Pete’s privileged one is shown - in the sink, the whorehouse, and the fight. Don would have won. Don wouldn’t have been cut out by a jock either.
Remember though, that Don also lost a fight in the office, just like Pete did. When he spent the night working with Peggy, he ended up in a fistfight with Duck and Don ended up saying “uncle.” It was telling that earlier in the evening, Peggy asked Don if he ever killed anyone during the war he said no and then when he’s fighting a drunk and crazed Duck (maybe he was a little daffy, too), Duck says somehting like “I killed 5 men on Iwo Jima,” and he looked like he meant it.
I think Don sees the worst of his own personality in Pete, but Pete doesn’t have any of Don’s positives.
Many of Don’s positives seem to be coming from the very background he is ashamed of.
Excellent point, Pete is Don with a cushier childhood.
That’s true, and I think that one of the implications of that is that no one ever expected a damn thing of Don, so everything he’s accomplished is something he can congratulate himself for. Pete was raised with the expectation that he’d be very successful, and no matter what he actually accomplishes, he’s only meeting (or worse, not meeting) expectations. No points will be awarded for just doing what’s expected of you.