Finally got to see it on On Demand (damn Comcast… but that’s another thread). What really intrigued me about the episode was George’s breakdown and seemingly connecting to Nate. His breakdown not only seems to indicate that he knows that he can’t connect to others, but perhaps that he also misses Ruth more than he’s letting on. However, he does seem to be connecting to Nate. Not just with the tripping of the comic book geek, but also in discussing meat and mushrooms with Nate talking about how he worked with a food co-op. Perhaps they get closer?
Had a bit of a nervy moment when Ruth and Bett were drinking tequila in the hot-tub. With this episode’s theme of life as a “series of accidents,” and Bettina’s comment that their extended visit was beginning to feel “like a marriage,” it was a little too uncannily like their customer of a few episodes’ back. (The one where hubby & wife are drinking tequila and getting it on in the hot-tub, then she gets out, slips in the shower, and dies.) It was ominous, but I’m glad they just knocked the horse out from underneath her. I thought they were going to write Kathy Bates out of it, which would be a shame.
I have to ask something about the exposition on “grinding the corn” (the sex act, not the metaphor.) Uh, would Claire really need explanation on the basic mechanics of what was happening so close to home? Would many women? I mean, occasionally I’ve been asked “What was that thing you were doing?” and I’ve always assumed it was a sort of rhetorical question. I mean – they were there, right? What was up with that? Was it inept expository dialogue? Sort of “We couldn’t show this, even on HBO, so here’s a recap for those keeping score at home.” Or was it intended to show Claire as somehow disconnected from her sexuality, even when it works for her? Or Cornhoer as kind of remote and theoretical?
What was said exactly about accidents promoting growth? I forget now, (was a bit beery when I watched it,) but I was reminded of it at least three times during the episode: When Maya knocked over her juice (“Uh oh!”) and George had whatever breakdown/breakthrough he had while trying to reassure her that it was okay, with Keith’s claim of “accident” with the whole Celeste thing, and the nuclear accident that gave the Blue Twister his superpowers.
Also, I’m not sure if it’s intentional or coincidence, but I’m a hobby mycocultivar and I noticed something interesting. George commented that portobellos are grown on horse manure. That’s a little simplified. They’re (usually, in North America anyway) grown on sterilized straw, horse manure, and cornmeal. 
Of course “grinding the corn” has overtones of destruction yielding nourishment. (As the bard wrote, “They wasted over a scorching flame the marrow of his bones – but the Miller used him worst of all for he crushed him 'tween two stones.”)
This was her first orgasm ever. She wasn’t thinking clearly during the act.
That would make sense to me if she were already in an orgasmic state when he her friend started in on his new technique – but I thought the point was that that was what finally put her over the edge.
Is this one of those things that is practically incommunicable over the gender gulf? Every time I make inquiries into women’s subjective experience in that department I end up getting more and more envious.
To be fair to Claire, didn’t she ask why it was called “grinding the corn,” not “how did you manage to get me off”? I think she knew what he was doing, but only was wondering why it was named as it was. Once he explained, she seemed to understand the connection.
Ahh… now that makes perfect sense. I just remembered that he described it in detail and forgot the question he was responding too… I do remember her asking “What’s ‘the corn?’” now.
Thanks.