>>>Hi Mike,
>>>
>>>>Saving the best for last, on Friday Allie and I went to look at some golden retriever puppies and I bought one of them on the spot.
>>>
>>>Good luck - but I hope you got a plan for situations forcing you to live away from home during the week...
>>>
>>>>The one we chose is female and one of the reddest of the litter.
>>>
>>>There you go again showing your leftist streak again colour-coded ;-))
>>>
>>>>... is pronounced the same way as that of my recent ex-girlfriend's daughter. No reconciliation is expected or being pursued by either of us but it's still too uncomfortably close. I can just imagine that conversation -- "You named your dog after my daughter?" No thanks.
>>>
>>>I know that I am very reserved about putting what I consider private information somewhere on the net -
>>>but especially if it concerns 3rd persons, names and personal relationships...
>>>I haven't really connected to the FB mindset, as can be seen by my picture here ;-)
>>>
>>>Still, you might rethink the scope of information offered - you cannot retract,
>>>only ask for forgiveness - a situation I try not to enter.
>>>
>>>all the best with your new dog
>>
>>Thanks, Thomas.
>>
>>Re red, maybe I should name the puppy Nancy Pelosi ;-) That really is a joke.
>>
>>If you are suggesting I should not mention my daughters, they are part of their generation and are out there on their own. It's not revealing anything to suggest their Facebook IDs. From what I have seen they conduct themselves with decorum. In fact on Saturday Allie expressed her disapproval of the things one of Emily's friends says on FB. "You just don't say that stuff." I honestly don't worry about my daughters beyond the low level angst that never leaves any parent. They have turned out well.
>
>Why would you want to harm the dog by naming it Nancy Peolosi?? LOL... I thought you liked the puppy...

I really wouldn't name her that.

Over the weekend I watched some more of The West Wing. It just gets better and better. What I admire about the writing is that they respect the intelligence of the viewer. The pedal is not pressed to the metal. The last episode I watched featured the President's middle daughter Eleanor, who I don't think had even appeared before. She is an ace, a med school student at Johns Hopkins, but it emerges that she has always felt less loved than her two sisters. The president has been so busy with his own career that he hadn't noticed. They reconcile. In the final scene they are watching a movie (Dial M For Murder) together. What I liked, even more than the reconciliation, was that the script didn't hit the easy closing note. 99 out of 100 movies or TV shows would have ended with them hugging or clenching hands. It just fades to black with them sitting next to each other. The point has been made and doesn't need to be amped up. Very cool.

There are so many great characters. I think my two favorites are Josh and C.J. Re C.J., I now know what the initials stand for. Maybe I missed it earlier but in episode 32 it comes out that her name is Claudia Jean.

It will interest me to hear what you and Marcia think about the politics. The show is set in a relatively liberal White House, and political issues are of course all over the place. I do not see it as a liberal diatribe. It's a show about people in intense circumstances and the relationships between them, not politics.

In the second season a new character is introduced, a leggy blonde Republican star. She wipes the floor with one of the president's top aides on a TV show. The president says I want her with us. The staff react apoplectically, really mad even at the idea of it. She initially turns it down flat. Since I was about 2 I have always wanted to work in the White House, she says, but not this White House. The scriptwriters find ways for her to be in the west wing a few times and she comes to know a little about the staff. She sees how hard they work, how committed they are, and she realizes they have that in common. The allure of power attracts her. She joins. There is a brilliant ending to one episode featuring her love of opera.

Enjoy!