Sanford and Son Episode: Happy Birthday, Pop

"Sanford and Son" was a comedy series that originally aired on the NBC network from early 1972 until the spring of 1977. The show was based on a British show called "Steptoe and Son," that began in the 1960s. This American show was set in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. In those times Watts had a predominantly, but not exclusively, black population, and indeed, during its years of original episodes, the diversity of the neighborhood was shown, while giving emphasis to the area's black majority. Today, Watts is a majority Latino neighborhood. 

 

This episode first aired on NBC in January 1972. Harold Fong, who plays the waiter in the restaurant, was a Chinese-American actor who played a lot of generally minor Asian characters in movies and on television from the 1940s through to the 1970s, but he was one of those actors people might recognize, but they likely didn't know his name. 

Episode Cast:

Redd Foxx as Fred Sanford 

Demond Wilson as Lamont Sanford

Harold Fong as the waiter in the Chinese restaurant

Jack Manning as the man seated at the next table in the restaurant

It's Fred's 65th birthday and he thinks Lamont has forgotten, and Lamont lets his dad go on believing that, until he surprises him with a new hat, a gray fedora (see 'Word History' below). Lamont also has a nice birthday card with the hat, and Fred wants to read the card out loud, although Lamont doesn't like that idea, as he thinks the card is mushy. Fred reads the card out loud and the father and son squabble a bit over Fred reading the card, especially when Fred tells his son the sentiment of the card means more to him than the hat. This prompts Lamont to say, "Okay, keep the card and I'll take the hat back!" Fred protests and Lamont says his dad is never satisfied. Things gradually calm down and Lamont tells Fred he's taking him out for his birthday, as he has a nice evening planned for the two of them to celebrate and to spend time together, and that first they'll be going out to get a drink, then Lamont has made reservations to a movie and finally they'll be going to dinner. Fred complains a little about having to wear a coat and tie, but things seem fine. 

 

So Fred puts on his suit and tie and wears his new hat and Lamont takes his dad into a nice upscale bar. Fred looks at the list of drinks and orders a Shirley Temple, and Lamont tells him that's a drink frequently served to children, and that Fred should order something else. So Fred asks if the place has beer on tap (also known as 'draught/draft beer'), but the bartender tells him they only have bottle beer, which brings a reply from Fred that, "I don't like bottle beer, it makes me burp; I don't like to burp." So the bartender goes to wait on other customers while Fred decides what he wants. When the bartender comes back, he suggests that Fred have an "Old Fashioned" (typically whiskey, sugar or simple syrup, water and angostura bitters), but Fred is unfamiliar with the cocktail and instead he takes offense at being called "old fashioned." Lamont settles things down by ordering the Old Fashioned for his dad and a martini for himself. Lamont comments about what a nice place it is, but Fred complains that they don't have a pinball machine. When Lamont tells him places like that don't have pinball machines, Fred says they might have it in the backroom, so he yells out, "Hey, do you have a pinball machine?" Lamont is embarrassed. The bartender brings their drinks and Lamont asks how much he owes. When the bartender says "Two dollars and fifty cents," Lamont gives the bartender $3 and tells him to keep the change. Fred is upset, saying, "We could have got a half case of muscatel for $3." (Note: Remember, this was 1972, and $2.50 for two cocktails was considered expensive back then. Many neighborhood bars in those times charged ten to fifteen cents for a glass of beer. $2.50 is equivalent to between about $17 and $18 in 2022. Also, in those days, muscatel had a reputation for being the drink of winos and cheap wine. Hic! Now wait a second, I said back then, not now! hahaha) Fred takes a drink of the Old Fashioned and right away he complains that it's too sweet and he says it's like syrup, but without the hotcakes. Lamont has had enough and he gets Fred and they begin to leave, but Fred can't go without turning and shouting, "Hey, get a pinball machine!" 

 

Lamont takes his dad to the movie theater to see "Fiddler on the Roof" (Note: This was the film adaptation of the major hit Broadway musical that had been released in the mid 1960s, and the film was also a hit. The story has to do with a Jewish family in western Russia in the early 1900s.) During the intermission, Fred and Lamont come out into the theater lobby with Fred complaining about the movie. Fred's bigotry comes out when he says you can't understand the movie unless you're Jewish. When the buzzer sounds to signal the second half is about to begin, Fred is surprised that there is more to the movie! He tells Lamont to go back into the movie and that he'll take the bus home, but of course, Lamont won't let that happen and he agrees to leave and to take his dad to dinner as promised. When one of the theater personnel tells Fred and Lamont the second half is starting, Fred replies, "The movie is too long ... get some cartoons on there!" 

 

Lamont takes Fred to a Chinese restaurant and Fred's bigotry makes another appearance, as he tells Lamont he heard that someone found soap in their Chinese food, because the Chinese cook and do their laundry in the same pot. Fred also has the waiter bring a third chair so Fred can put his new hat on it. The waiter takes the chair from the next table where a couple is not using it. Lamont does the ordering and when he orders fried wonton, Fred says, "I ain't gonna eat that, that stuff will kill ya," but Lamont calms things down and the waiter takes the order. Now Fred turns his attention to the couple at the table next to them, and he tells them about it being his birthday and he shows them his new hat. The man can't wait to get away from Fred as he already has his check, but when they stand up to leave, Fred grabs his arm and tells him they saw the movie, which he calls, "Fiddler Up A Roof." He also tells the guy if they haven't seen it, not to waste their money, but the man says, "I heard it was VERY good." Fred turns to Lamont and privately says, "He must be one 'em" (implying that the guy must be Jewish). The man wishes Fred a "happy birthday," and as the couple leaves, Fred says to Lamont, "That's a nice white fella." 

 

The waiter brings their food and Fred puts his finger into one of the dishes and smells it, "Ew, that smells," he declares, and he continues, "Smells like insect spray ... I'll bet they gave it a shot so that when it got out here, would nuthin' on the plate move." This upsets Lamont and he has hit the limit, so he gives Fred some money and tells him to go buy his own dinner, because he's leaving. He gets the check and the waiter asks Fred if he wants to take the food home, but Fred answers, "I don't like Chinese food, make me burp." Fred puts his hat on and covers up the food with a napkin. When Fred gets outside, there's a crack of thunder and it starts raining. Fred quickly takes off his hat and puts it under his suit jacket. 

 

The next morning, Lamont is waiting for his breakfast, but Fred comes down from the upstairs still in his robe. He tells Lamont he's not cooking breakfast, because he's retired, and he's expecting a good monthly sum from Social Security. Lamont questions whether that will prove to be true, because his father hadn't earned enough to receive a large amount. Fred gets the telephone and calls the Social Security office. He asks how much he'll be receiving each month, and while he waits for the person to look up his information, he tells Lamont the kitchen is closed due to retirement. The person comes on the line and Fred gets a funny look on his face and hangs up the phone. He asks Lamont, "How do you want your eggs?"          

Photo is of the 2002 Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment Season One DVD release (Columbia TriStar is now part of Sony Home Entertainment)

WORD HISTORY:

Fedora-This name for a type of hat with a crease in the crown and with a soft, bendable brim comes from the feminine form, "Fedora," of the Russian male name "Fedor." "Fedor" is "Theodore" in English, and the meaning is "gift of god," a compound form, with the first part going back to Indo European "dhes/dhehs," meaning, "god, deity;" thus also, "sacred, holy."^ and the second part going back to the Indo European root "do" (long 'o'), meaning "give."^^ The first part gave transliterated Greek "theos," meaning "god," and the second part gave transliterated Greek "doron," meaning "gift." Together these gave Ancient Greek the name "Theodoros," which was taken by Russian as transliterated "Fedor/Fyodor" (the 'th' was rendered in Russian as 'f'), and the feminine form "Fedora." In late 1882, a play by French dramatist Victorien Sardou called "Fedora," which he named after the main character, began a popular run of performances. In the play, the character Fedora wore a creased hat with a flexible brim. The character was originally played by then popular actress Sarah Bernhardt, which helped to promote the use of such hats among women and the name of the play and character being applied to the hat. This was borrowed into English (by American English) with that meaning by the mid 1880s.   

 

^ This part of "fedora" makes it related to "feast," "fair" (the noun form only, meaning 'gathering for selling, buying or a promotional event') and "festival," all words of Latin derivation borrowed by English from Latin-based French, and to "fest," a word borrowed from German, which had it from Latin, and to "theology," a word borrowed from French, which had it from Latin, which had it from Greek.  

 

^^ The second part is related to "dose," a word borrowed from French, which had it from Latin, which had it from Greek, and to "donation," a Latin word borrowed by English via French.    

Get Smart Episode: Hoo Done It

"Get Smart" was a comedy that spoofed the secret agents of the Cold War and the movies and television shows about those agents. "Get Smart" originally aired on the NBC network for its first four seasons, and on the CBS network for its fifth and final season. The show depicted the "good versus evil" battle in two organizations, "Control" and "Kaos." This episode is a parody of the Agatha Christie story "Ten Little Indians," made into the movie, "And Then There Were None." *

This has been one of my favorite episodes since it was first broadcast in November of 1966. In those times we were still living in the aftermath of World War Two, and the subject of that war was very popular in books, articles and movies. Most Americans were not afraid to say Nazis were bad, and there was no coddling of Nazis and fascists with statements like, "there were good people on both sides." Further, the idea that a fascist want to be dictator would ever sit in the White House, and that he would encourage underlings to storm the U.S. Capitol Building, with some shouting to hang the vice president of the United States and to kill the Speaker of the House, would have been challenged by both major political parties without hesitancy, and swift justice would have been administered to the fascist plotters involved, with NO HAND WRINGING or COMPLICITY by most, and likely all members of both parties serving in the House of Representatives and the United States Senate. Back then, however, there was still a fear of the rise of Nazis again ... IN GERMANY, NOT IN THE UNITED STATES! A number of Nazi war criminals were still running around loose, but they were being pursued in a number of cases. This episode of "Get Smart" has a reference to the war and to Nazis, but most certainly not in ANY positive way. See further below for the specifics.   

Episode Cast: 

Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86

Barbara Feldon as Agent 99

Joey Forman as Harry Hoo

Maureen Arthur as the Contessa 

Peter (Raoul) Frank as Omar Shurok

Tol Avery as Otto von Werner

Anthony Eustrel as Milton Conrad**

Bob Michaels as Ben Gazzman

Max and 99 go to a remote Pacific island to meet with a retired British colonel who has information about a KAOS plot. The island is overgrown with jungle and there's an active volcano that rumbles every hour on the hour. They meet the owner of the hotel and the grounds shortly after their arrival. His name is "Milton Conrad," a play on "Conrad Hilton," the head of the Hilton Hotel chain. When they arrive at the hotel, the retired British officer is killed when his birthday cake fires at him as he tries to blow out the candles. As the two Control agents begin to investigate the murder, Hawaiian detective Harry Hoo shows up. ***

The hotel employees leave on the boat going back to the mainland, but there are four other guests staying at the hotel and they are all suspects in the murder: Ben Gazzman,**** an adventurer, Otto von Werner, who claims to be a Swiss clock maker. When Max says that he must have been a Swiss neutral during World War Two, von Werner says, "I was never neutral, I  was just taking orders," and he lists his hobbies as "water colors, classical music and torture." Further, in an attempt to persuade his two skeptical questioners of his genuineness,  von Werner sets a large clock on the table, where a small Hitler doll comes out with outstretched arm and shouts "Sieg heil, Sieg heil." When Max says, "It's not 2 o'clock," von Werner replies, "Don't argue with him, if he says it's 2 o'clock, you'd better believe him." Then there is the Contessa Dorino(?) Montenegro who had been drinking Manhattans with the Colonel earlier in the day. Finally, there is Omar Shurok, who says he is Lebanese and a spy who spies on every country, except Austria, because his mother is spying on Austria.

Telephone service on the island goes down when someone cuts the lines, and 99 leaves the island to get help on an inflatable raft  she and Max had stored in their luggage (hey, they're secret agents! Haha), but in the meantime, each of the other suspects is killed. A note is found at the scene of one of the murders, supposedly left by the victim, but only with the letters "HH," which Max guesses could mean Herbert Hoover or Hubert Humphrey.***** Max and Harry Hoo assume the killer is in hiding on the island, so they decide to deceive the person in order to bring them out of hiding. Max and Harry draw their guns on one another, with each accusing the other of being the murderer. They end up exchanging fire, and they both slump over. A secret panel opens and out steps Milton Conrad. When he approaches the two bodies, they both straighten up and point their guns at him, but .... they forget that they had replaced the bullets with blanks for their ploy to draw out the killer. Conrad points his gun at them and the guys are in a real predicament until a shot rings out and Conrad falls to the floor. The shot was fired by 99, who wasn't able to reach the mainland in the raft and instead returned to the island. 

The British colonel had found out that the Contessa, Gazzman, von Werner and Shurok were all KAOS agents and he was going to report the information to Max and 99; so Conrad, also a member of KAOS, killed him, but then killed each of the others to keep them from talking. The stories in a lot of comedies don't always add up, but it's best not to take them too seriously; after all, they're comedies, relax and laugh. Don't stress yourself over such silly things as the plot not being perfect. 

* For the article about the movie "And Then There Were None," here is the link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2019/07/agatha-christie-story-and-then-there.html

** In the show he introduces himself to Max and 99 as "Milton Conrad," but the ending credits show the character's name as "Hillary Conrad." Perhaps that was to be the character's name, but it was changed to "Milton" somewhere along the line and somebody didn't get the memo. Haha 

*** The "Harry Hoo" character had appeared in a previous episode. The character was an obvious play on "Charlie Chan," and Harry Hoo wore white suits, something that was often, but not always, done by Charlie Chan.

**** The character of "Ben Gazzman" is a play on the name of actor "Ben Gazzara, " who was at that time starring in an NBC series called "Run for Your Life," where Gazzara's character had been given between a year and a year and a half to live by his doctor; so, he tries to get in all the living and adventure he can. The Gazzman character in the episode of "Get Smart" says his doctor gave him two years to live, and when he's asked when the doctor told him that, he answers, "1944," and the show is set in 1965-66. Hahaha 

***** For those unaware, Herbert Hoover was a former president of the United States who had died, at age 90, almost exactly two years before this episode was filmed. Hubert Humphrey was the then vice president of the United States when this was filmed, and he was a candidate for president two years later in 1968.

 

Photo is from the 2008 HBO Video release of "Get Smart: The Complete Series" (Season 2)

WORD HISTORY:

Dire-This is an interesting word^ that goes back to Indo European  "dwei-ro," which had the notion of "fear, hate." This "perhaps" gave Latin "dirus,"^^ meaning "fearful, dreadful, ominous." English borrowed the word from Latin in the mid 1500s, with the meaning "boding ill for something, dread of bad consequences."

^ It is a distant relative of the "dino" part of dinosaur, a word borrowed from Latin,  which got the "dino" part from Greek, where it meant "terrible, something feared."

^^ I say "perhaps," because while Latin "dirus" is undoubtedly from the Indo European form, whether Latin had "dirus" directly from this form is debatable, and "dirus" seems not to have been a common Latin word, leaving open the possibility of some intermediate source that provided Latin with its form. The sheer obscurity of the word and its use in religious context for "bad omens" could have seen Latin get the word elsewhere, but perhaps from a closely related language, with the word passing into dialectical Latin until later in Latin when it became somewhat more common.

Get Smart Episode: My Nephew the Spy

This episode originally aired in December 1965 and it guest starred Conrad Janis, who became known in the 1970s for playing Fred McConnell, the father of Mindy on the popular ABC comedy "Mork and Mindy." As I write this, Conrad Janis is 93 years old. Charles Lane was one of those actors who was recognizable, but not generally known by name to much of the public. Lane appeared in many movies and television shows, especially in Lucille Ball's various television shows, often portraying a stern or gruff character. He also played one of the reporters in the movie "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." Charles Lane died in 2007, age 102! Maudie Prickett was another well known face from her many appearances in films and on television, but as with Charles Lane, she was not generally known by name. She was familiar to many of us from playing Hazel's friend Rosie on the 1960s television series "Hazel."

Episode Cast: 

Don Adams as Maxwell Smart

Barbara Feldon as Agent 99

Edward Platt as the Chief of CONTROL

Conrad Janis as Victor/KAOS agent

Charles Lane as Uncle Abner

Maudie Prickett as Aunt Bertha

Vincent Beck as Herman/shoe salesman/KAOS agent

Max investigates a men's shoe store as a possible KAOS front, only to be followed home by one of the salesmen and KAOS agents. As the two men wrestle on the floor of his apartment, Max's Aunt Bertha and Uncle Abner come visiting, and Max can't let them find out he's a secret agent. Max introduces the KAOS agent to his aunt and uncle as "Victor," an old army buddy. As Max tries to keep Victor guarded, his Uncle Abner sets off a few of the special devices in the apartment. (A funny little note: when Max initially tells Victor to play along in his cover to his aunt and uncle by saying they are old army buddies, Victor says, "Yes, we served together in the Luftwaffe," to which Max says, "Wrong army!" No need to take any offense, as KAOS was often depicted as being pro-Nazi/fascist and pro-communist. But to the Nazi part, never fear, Don Adams' paternal side was Jewish and Conrad Janis is Jewish, and besides, the creator of "Get Smart" was Mel Brooks, who is Jewish, and he often poked fun at Nazis and by doing so, he reminded us of how despicable they were. I love Mel Brooks! By the way, at the time of this article, he is 95!) When Agent 99 comes to the door, Max introduces her to his aunt and uncle as the maid, and Aunt Bertha, a take charge kind of person, promptly puts 99 to work cleaning the apartment. Finally, Aunt Bertha pushes a button and a net drops from the ceiling over Max and Victor, and this allows Victor to escape, but Max follows him, and Aunt Bertha and Uncle Abner follow Max. Victor goes back to the shoe store and Max goes in, but here come his aunt and uncle. They assume Max sells shoes, so his uncle wants to buy a pair of shoes from Max, who bungles trying to get his relatives out of the store before the KAOS agents discover them. Max's behavior at the apartment and at the store make his aunt and uncle believe he is involved in some illegal operation, like gambling (Note: In the 1960s, unlike today, lotteries, cassinos and many other forms of gambling were illegal, except in a very limited number of places in the U.S.). Max goes into the back room and brings out ONE shoe for his uncle, who promptly sends him back for the other shoe. Victor and the other salesman, Herman, are suspicious and they go out into the front of the store. Max's aunt and uncle yell to Victor, and Abner says that Max didn't tell them that the two friends worked in the same store too. Victor says, "Too? Where is Max?" When they say he's in the back, the two KAOS agents dash into the back room and a big fight breaks out with Max, who ends up knocking them out. When Aunt Bertha and Uncle Abner question all of the happenings, Max says they had a salary dispute (hahaha!). Max reports in to the Chief and the shoe store is exposed as a KAOS operation that was smuggling secret information out printed on the inside of shoes. (Hmm, I always wondered why shoes have all that print on them.) Bertha and Abner are concerned that Max won't have a job now, and Bertha tries to convince Abner to buy the shoe store, and letting Max run it. Abner likes the idea of buying the store, but NOT of letting Max run it. Max comes in and tells them not to worry, and that he can sell something besides shoes. He then accidentally kicks the switch that triggers the rug to roll up around his aunt and uncle.    

  

 Picture is from the 2008 HBO Video release of "Get Smart: The Complete Series" (Season 1, with sleeve cover)

WORD HISTORY:

Talon-The ultimate origin of this word is uncertain, but what is known is "talon" goes back to Latin "talus," which meant "ankle, knuckle bone of animals (the bones were also used as dice, which gave the word that meaning too)," which later produced Medieval Latin "talonem," which meant "heel." This passed to Latin-based Old French as "talon," which meant "heel, back of the foot." English borrowed the word around 1400, initially as "taloun," perhaps from an Anglo-French form, or from the influence of some Anglo-French spellings (Anglo-French seems to have mainly used "talon"), meaning "claws of beasts or birds," but later more tendency towards "claws of birds of prey."   

Gilligan's Island Episode: The Little Dictator

This episode was first broadcast in September 1965.

"Gilligan's Island" was a comedy originally aired on the CBS television network in the mid 1960s. The show's first season, 1964-65, was broadcast in black and white, but the show began airing in color with the 1965-66 season. The basic idea of the series was that seven people had been shipwrecked during a severe storm after the tour boat they were on sailed from Hawaii. The boat was beached on a small uncharted island where these seven representatives from various parts of American society had to learn to get along in order to survive. Some viewers took the show far too seriously, as many particulars of the episodes certainly didn't make sense,* but those of us who loved the show didn't care, and "Gilligan's Island" was and still is one of my all time favorite shows. The show was canceled after the 1966-67 season, but these episodes from the 1960s were aired for decades in syndication in the United States and around the world. In addition, three full-length movies were made in the late 1970s and early 1980s featuring all of the original cast, except Tina Louise, who remained embittered about how the show had damaged her career, as movie and television execs felt she was too tied to her "Ginger" character from the show, and this restricted the roles offered to her. Some of the other cast members were embittered too, until they came to realize how beloved they and the show were to so many people around the globe.

Cast:

Bob Denver ................. Gilligan
Alan Hale, Jr. .............. (the) Skipper
Jim Backus ................. Thurston Howell III
Natalie Schafer ........... Mrs. Howell, aka "Lovey"
Tina Louise ................ Ginger Grant
Russell Johnson ......... the Professor
Dawn Wells ............... Mary Ann
Nehemiah Persoff ...... Presidente Rodriguez 
 
This episode was done as a parody of Central and South American countries of that time period in the 1960s, as so many of those countries often were politically unstable back then. This episode uses a fictional country called "Equarico" to make that point. The guest star was Nehemiah Persoff, a favorite of mine, and a man now 100 years old! 

A deposed dictator from the fictitious Latin American country of "Equarico" is exiled to the island, complete with his pistol. He meets Gilligan and introduces himself as Ex Presidente Rodriguez, but Gilligan doesn't believe him and sarcastically introduces himself as George Washington, which brings Rodriguez to mistakenly reply, "They exiled you too?" From this point on, Rodriguez calls Gilligan "George." In the world of Equarico, Rodriguez has learned that "he who has gun is the leader." Rodriguez implements this doctrine and he sees the castaways as his new subjects, and he declares himself as "the provisional presidente, until such time as it is safe to hold free and democratic elections." When the castaways ask, "When will that be?" Rodriguez responds, "You should live so long." The castaways make a couple of attempts to overthrow Rodriguez, but they fail, which brings Rodriguez to prepare to execute Gilligan, but when he pulls the trigger of the pistol, the gun is out of bullets. The castaways now take the dictator into custody. Rodriguez assumes he will be executed or exiled, because that's what happens in Equarico. Instead, the castaways simply want Rodriguez to become one of them and to be a good citizen of their island community, where he can become "anything he wants." Of course, what Rodriguez wants is to be the leader, and he plans to use Gilligan ("George") as the means to achieve that wish by trying to convince Gilligan to become the "leader" of the island, with Rodriguez always being there to "help" him. (Democracy is always vulnerable to want to be dictators, if people don't keep vigilant.) He tells Gilligan to sleep on the proposal and Gilligan has a dream about being the "leader," but in his dream, he realizes that much is wrong in his realm, and that Rodriguez won't let the truth about his nation's problems come to his attention. Rodriguez is self aggrandizing, interested in his own well being, not interested in the country and its people. Gilligan's loyal and truthful cabinet members (all portrayed by the castaways) are executed by Rodriguez, who fears the truths about the country they are trying to show to Gilligan. Rodriguez finally tells Gilligan that he has no real power, rather he is a puppet ruler, with Rodriguez pulling the strings. Gilligan awakens from the dream and races outside to tell Rodriguez he will not be his puppet, but he finds Rodriguez getting into a boat sent by Equarico to take him back to that nation so he can be restored to power, as there has been another revolution. He promises he will send a ship to rescue the people on the island. The castaways begin to learn a few basic words in Spanish for their trip, but on the radio comes the announcement that Rodriguez has again been overthrown and exiled to the top of the Andes Mountains. So much for any rescue. 

* No question about it, the castaways had access to things that magically appeared, and to items that certainly would not have been carted along on a tour boat, including Mr. and Mrs. Howell's extensive wardrobes. I suppose if you totaled up everything the seven people had available to them, the tour boat, the SS Minnow, might have been closer to the size of the Queen Mary. In one episode, Gilligan thinks he's won a million dollar sweepstakes, bringing Mr. Howell to grant Gilligan a membership in Howell's exclusive club, complete with a special blazer adorned with the club seal. Where did Mr. Howell get the special blazer for Gilligan? I don't care. Remember, this was a comedy. In another episode, the castaways salvage movie equipment and costumes from a sunken ship; the key here being "sunken ship." The thing is, the equipment and costumes are all in perfect condition and totally dry, in spite of the fact that the ship had sunk decades earlier, and again, it was a sunken ship, as in, how did everything remain dry? Again, I don't care, and it was a funny episode.

Photo is from the Turner Home Entertainment/Warner Brothers' Complete Second Season DVD Set 

WORD HISTORY:
Puppet (Pupa)-This word is distantly related, through Indo European, to "few," a word from the Germanic roots of English, but it is more closely related to "pupil," meaning, "student and also the middle of the eye," both (meanings) of Latin derivation and borrowed by English from French. It goes back to Indo European "pau," meaning, "small in size or amount." This gave Latin "pupus," meaning "boy, a male child," and "pupa," meaning "girl, female child" (see "pupa" below), but with the feminine form also meaning "doll;" thus also, "puppet." This gave Latin-based Old French "po(u)pee," meaning "doll, puppet," which provided the basis of the French diminutive "po(u)pette;" thus, "little doll, puppet." English borrowed the word as "poppet" (initially as "popet"?) meaning "small doll, small person." This then became "puppet" by the 1500s and with the meaning of "a small doll made to move by attached strings, wires or sticks" (later also including "hand manipulated dolls in glove form"). About that same time came the generally negative figurative meaning of, "a person manipulated by another to act in a certain way." The word "pupa," meaning "an intermediate stage of development of an insect," is a direct borrowing, circa 1775, from the above mentioned Latin form, which had that meaning attached by Swedish botanist/zoologist Carl Linnaeus in the mid 1700s.        

Ironside Episode: Memory of an Ice Cream Stick

This episode of television crime drama "Ironside" first aired on NBC in January 1968.

Some background: The title of the series, "Ironside," refers to Robert T. Ironside, the Chief of Detectives of the San Francisco Police Department, who was seriously wounded by a sniper attack and left paralyzed from the waist down and, thus, he was confined to a wheelchair. Upon his recovery from the basic wounds, the "Chief" is made a special consultant to the police department, which assigns two young permanent officers to him, these being Detective Sergeant Ed Brown and Officer Eve Whitfield. He also hires, on his own, Mark Sanger, a young delinquent, whom the Chief works to reform. Oh, I almost forgot ... Sanger is black. The Chief hires Mark to be his personal assistant and the driver of a refurbished paddy wagon police vehicle to haul around the Chief and his wheelchair, as well as radio and mobile telephone equipment. (To younger people: no Internet or cellphones like today in those times.) The series was very representative of the second half of the 1960s and early 1970s, with "culture clash" (music styles, clothing and personal appearance styles, drug use, antiwar activism, women's rights, racial fairness), "generation gap" (many of the same issues as 'culture clash,' because of generational differences), and the striving to see racial minorities, especially black Americans, be treated fairly in society. The writers for the series didn't have to really make things up, as all of these things I've mentioned, and likely some I've inadvertently left out, were right there in front of us for all to see. 

Episode Cast:

Raymond Burr ....... Chief Robert T. Ironside, aka simply, "the Chief," or "Chief"
Don Mitchell .......... Mark Sanger
Barbara Anderson ... Officer Eve Whitfield
Don Galloway ......... Sergeant Ed Brown
Mel Scott ................. Sam Noble
Jack Kruschen ......... Willie Busch
Ena Hartman ...........  Millie Roberts
Gene Lyons .............  Police Commissioner Dennis Randall 

A racketeer is found murdered and a recent parolee, Sam Noble, is questioned about the killing, as he was one of the last people to see the man alive. The fear among the San Francisco authorities is that a gang murder could set off a series of retaliatory killings by rival gangs, and bring about a gang war. When Sam Noble is questioned, Mark Sanger recognizes him as a man from his neighborhood when he was a child, and who had given Mark a quarter for an ice cream stick to do errands for him.* Mark introduces himself to Sam, who indeed recalls Mark from a decade earlier and that seems to be the end of it. The Chief, meanwhile, recounts Sam's lengthy criminal record and states that they likely haven't seen the last of Sam Noble. Later, Sam sees Mark in a coffee shop and they talk briefly, but a supermarket robbery has been reported to police and two police officers enter the coffee shop and put both Sam and Mark against the wall and search them. Mark is furious when he tells the Chief what happened, but Ironside tries to calm Mark by explaining that Sam fit a description of the robbery suspect, and that obviously, the officers thought Mark was a possible accomplice, and both men had to be searched for weapons. When the Chief makes a somewhat casual comment that Mark probably won't see Sam Noble again, Mark takes offense and says that no one can tell him whom to befriend. Their voices rise as they have a bit of a clash, and their friendship seems threatened. The Chief's perception of Sam is as a convicted criminal who is probably not reformed, and potentially a bad influence on Mark, and maybe even a danger to him (throughout the series, the Chief is very protective of his staff). On the other hand, Mark associates Sam with "the best times" of his life, his childhood, and even though Mark has lots of "street smarts," he doesn't want to see or hear anything that casts a shadow over Sam's past role as the guy who bought him ice cream. This is the crux of the story: our desire to hold onto our happy memories, and perhaps to try to relive those memories. Maybe others have a different take on it.

Anyway, Chief Ironside has a kind of father like relationship with Mark, a very interesting and daring thing in those times, when racial tensions in the U.S. were often seething. I'm sure some white Americans, especially, but not exclusively, in the South, and probably some black Americans, were furious over such a mix. Both the Chief and Mark are bothered by their argument and later, in a good will gesture, the Chief tells Mark to go to the steakhouse across the street for dinner, and to put it on his account. When Mark leaves the building, Sam Noble is outside waiting to see him. He says he wants to apologize for Mark getting dragged into the mess with the police. Mark is happy for Sam's apology and he sees it as a sign that Sam has reformed, so he invites Sam into the steakhouse with him. During dinner Sam tells Mark he will be starting a new job in a few days, and this goes a long way toward reassuring Mark that Sam has changed his ways and he lets Sam know that the Chief doesn't really trust him. Mark is a bit shocked to hear Sam admit that he can't blame the Chief, and that, "A rap lasts a lot longer than the time you spend inside. Well... it lasts until people trust you again."**

When Mark returns home, the Chief tells him that Sam has long had ties to racketeers, and that there's a good chance he had gone to see the murdered racketeer to collect on a payoff. This all brings the Chief and Mark to argue about Mark's association with Sam again, but this argument escalates beyond the earlier disagreement. Mark talks with Eve Whitfield about what he should do, because now he feels he should not have argued with the Chief, and that he can't explain why he defends Sam Noble against the Chief's suspicions. Mark wants to apologize to the Chief, but the hustle and bustle of the ongoing case leaves no time alone for the two. One of the top racketeers tells the chief the name of the man who is taking over for the murdered racketeer leader. Sam arranges to see Mark and he tells Mark this same name, which only confirms to Mark that Sam is trying to go straight. When Mark finally has some time alone with the Chief, they try talking again, but the Chief restates the possibility of Sam still being outside of the law. This begins to make Mark angry again, but the Chief recounts the bad times in Mark's life, and how Mark had to love when he was a child and Sam Noble bought him ice cream and candy, and the Chief says he knows he seems to be taking this one part of Mark's life with so many fond memories and ruining it, but that he doesn't mean to do so. Mark tells him not to do it then.

The new racketeer leader is found dead and his wall safe emptied. When the Chief goes to investigate, he lets Mark go out on his own for awhile. Mark goes to Sam's hotel room, only to find Sam packing. Mark is curious that Sam would be leaving town when he is scheduled to start his new job. When Mark looks into Sam's suitcase, there is a large amount of money inside. Sam draws a gun and intends to use Mark as a hostage to get out of town. It was Sam who killed and robbed the new racketeer leader. Mark now sees Sam as he really is, and when Sam tells him to cooperate and he might buy him an ice cream stick, Mark answers, "I'm not a kid anymore." Life has its brutal moments of reality.

Sam has Mark call the Chief to get him to end the hunt for Sam. With Mark's life hanging in the balance, the Chief carefully works things to drag out the process to see if they can get a fix on where the call is coming from. They only get a generalized area of the call, so numerous police units go to the area. When Sam has Mark call back, this time the call is completely traced by the police to the phone booth of Sam and Mark's location. When Sam tries to escape, he is grabbed by police officers and handcuffed. Mark is safe.

Back at home, Mark starts to apologize to the Chief, but in a very touching moment, the Chief says, "Mark... Sam Noble bought you ice cream when you were a kid. It was a good time of life. There's not a man in the world who wouldn't fight as hard as he can to hold onto the best time of his life." Mark realizes he has found a new "best time of life," in his life with, and taking care of, the Chief, which includes games of darts, and Mark challenges the Chief to a game, and the Chief tells him, "You sir are about to be taught a lesson in humility."       

* Actor Don Mitchell and his character Mark Sanger were in their 20s in the "Ironside" series, so his childhood years were in the1950s. To a child, a quarter's value in those times made them "rich," and believe me, I know ... ahh, I mean, I've heard that.

** For those unaware of this slang usage of "rap," it means, "a charge or accusation against a person, usually by indictment," and a "rap sheet" is "a written record of a person's arrests and the charges against them." "To beat the rap" means, "not pay a penalty for a charge against one."

Photo is of the Shout! Factory Season 1 DVD Box Set

WORD HISTORY:
Snipe (Sniper)-This word's origin is highly uncertain, but it "seems" possibly related to "snout," a word from the Germanic roots of English, with any further lineage unknown. The idea here is that "snipe" is the name for a bird with a long pointed beak (snout), which has been a game bird found near water going well back in history. There are numerous forms in the Germanic languages, but no one has actually settled upon an Old Germanic form, or whether the bird name was borrowed into Germanic. Old English (Anglo-Saxon) had "snite," but whether this is an altered form of the word (likely, in my opinion), or an entirely different word, is unknown. Many have assumed that what is now "snipe" in English, was borrowed as "snippe/snipe" (ending 'e' pronounced eh/ah) from Old Norse circa 1300, but that related Germanic language used "myrisnipa," literally "moor snipe." Perhaps the Old Norse word influenced the existing English word in pronunciation and spelling? Modern German has "Schnepfe," which was once spelled "snepha/snepfa/snepho;" Low German has "Snipp," Dutch has "snip," Swedish has "snipa," which means a long, narrow pointed boat (get it?), and also, "snäppa," for a "sandpiper," a bird found near water and similar to a snipe, Norwegian has "snipe." The verb developed from the noun in the 1700s from the idea of hiding in bushes to hunt snipes. This then developed into the noun "sniper" in the first half of the 1800s ("sniper"="typically a skilled marksman who fires upon enemy personnel from bushes or some other type of cover"). The verb later (about 1900?) also took the figurative meaning, "to make negative remarks about someone in a round about way or from a distance."        

Get Smart Episode: Tequila Mockingbird

This episode, first broadcast in January of 1969, has long been a favorite of mine, primarily because of two scenes, both of which brought me to hysterical laughter (I'll note them below). Back in the 1960s, while Oscar Beregi was not known to many people by name, his face WAS well known. Beregi was born in Hungary and almost always played "bad guy" roles, often Nazis, although in real life, Beregi was Jewish. Don Adams, whose real family name was "Yarmy," was also of Hungarian Jewish descent on his father's side, but he was raised Roman Catholic after his Irish and German mother's religion. I'm pretty certain I once read that his brother, Richard Yarmy, was raised Jewish, so the family was raised by tolerant parents who were willing to compromise. They also had a sister, Gloria (Yarmy) Burton. Richard appeared in two or three episodes of "Get Smart," and Gloria was one of the writers for two or three episode scripts for the series. Further, their father appeared briefly in an episode and Robert Karvelas, who played Larabee, was their cousin from their mother's side of the family.

This episode's title is a play on the book and movie, "To Kill A Mockingbird," both very popular during the 1960s, but it also uses the notion of "The Maltese Falcon," the famous Humphrey Bogart film. Last, but not least, it also has elements of a parody of the Clint Eastwood film, "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly," which had been released less than a year before the filming of this episode. One other thing, Max and 99 had been married in an earlier episode, so they are husband and wife in this episode. I note this, because in those days, a couple of the scenes, including the ending, would likely have caused great hand wringing and promises of damnation and hell if the two characters hadn't been married. Even married couples were still shown on television as sleeping in separate beds. So at one point in this episode, it is made clear that Max and 99 are "Mr. & Mrs. Smart." Leaving the Middle Ages has been, and still is, difficult for some people... hell, leaving caves has been difficult for some.            

Cast:
Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 -----------Don Adams
Agent 99 -------------------------------Barbara Feldon
Edward Platt ---------------------------the Chief
Dietrick---------------------------------Oscar Beregi
Ignacio Valdez ------------------------Lewis Charles
Esperanza ------------------------------Poupee Bocar
Larabee ---------------------------------Robert Karvelas  

"Esperanza" is a CONTROL secret agent in Mexico. She gets hold of a valuable ceramic figure called "the Tequila Mockingbird." She works in a cantina (bar/saloon) as a dancer and castanet player. In one of the "special devices" used in this series, the castanets are used by the agent to send a message to CONTROL headquarters in Washington DC, where another set of castanets receives the message. As she performs her routine in the cantina, chief of police Ignacio Valdez and a KAOS agent named Dietrick discuss how to get the Tequila Mockingbird, but they are unaware of Esperanza's involvement with the Mockingbird at that moment. Dietrick has promised Valdez $500,000 for the valuable ceramic bird.* As the two men sit and listen to Esperanza, Valdez taps on the table to the castanets and Dietrick picks up that the sequence is a message. In a brief, but hilarious scene, Dietrick says to Valdez, "She's sending a message with those castanets, do you know who she works for?" Valdez asks, "Western Union?" (To this day when I hear this exchange, I can't help but chuckle and to think back all of those years ago and how that scene struck me so funny.)**  Of course Dietrick was looking for Valdez to answer, "CONTROL," and he orders Valdez to kill Esperanza.

Esperanza is killed before she can transmit where she hid the Tequila Mockingbird, so the Chief assigns Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 to go to Mexico and to find and bring back the Tequila Mockingbird. 99 uses the name Rosita Delgado, and she is hired at the cantina as the replacement for Esperanza. Max is sent as a down and out doctor, Earl Lybecker, and he arrives by burro rented from "Hernandez Rent-a-Buro." He quickly meets both Valdez and Dietrick, but then he gets into 99's room through the window. 99 is preparing for her opening performance, but the two find a clue that had been left behind by Esperanza when she had the room. The clue is a small ax with a red "w" on the handle. After Max leaves, 99 determines that the clue means the red candle (red 'w' + ax= red wax) on one of the barroom tables holds the secret to the Tequila Mockingbird's location.

99 goes out into the barroom to perform her songs. Max is seated at the table with the red candle, with Dietrick and Valdez standing nearby, and Dietrick has received a telegram telling him the real identity of Max and 99. In another hilarious scene, as 99 sings and dances, she tries to signal to Max to look at the candleholder, but he simply mimics the gestures she makes of pointing to the candle. Valdez too is caught up in 99's singing and dancing, and he doesn't get the signal she is giving to Max, but Dietrich sees what she is doing. 99 finally picks up the candle to light Max's cigarette, after which she turns the candleholder over to expose Esperanza's message that "the bird is in the fountain," located just outside the cantina. Max dashes outside as Dietrick gets the candleholder and sees the message too. Max gets the Tequila Mockingbird out of the fountain, but then Dietrick and Valdez approach. A "Mexican standoff" ensues, as the townspeople and 99 look on, and a man takes a siesta as the next move is awaited by the others. Dietrick wants the Tequila Mockingbird, and he no longer needs Valdez to help him get it, so he sees Valdez as expendable. Valdez now sees a chance to make a lot of money, and he can get it from any KAOS agent, not just Dietrick, so he doesn't need Dietrick either. Max wants to keep the ceramic bird for CONTROL. Finally Valdez starts to draw his gun, and Dietrick draws his gun and wounds Valdez, who fires and knocks Max's gun out of his hand. Then in a split second, the man who seemingly was asleep off to the side points and fires a pistol and wounds Dietrick. This man is the Chief, disguised as a Mexican citizen of the town. The Chief and Larabee take Dietrick and Valdez into custody and Max and 99 ride off on the "Hernandez Rent-a-Borro."

* $500,000 from those times is now equivalent to more than $3,500,000.

** For those too young to understand the connection between some clicking castanets and Western Union, it goes to Western Union being the main and best known telegraph company in the country and the world dating back to the about the mid 1800s. Telegraph used the dot and dash system of Morse Code, but in more modern times, as technology changed, telegraph usage went into decline, culminating in Western Union ceasing actual telegraph service in 2006, although the company is still in business with other services, including its long time business of money transfers.

 Picture is from the 2008 HBO Video release of "Get Smart: The Complete Series" (Season 4)

 

WORD HISTORY:

Castanet-This word, commonly used in the plural, "castanets," is related to "chestnut." Its ultimate origin is not known, but it goes back to transliterated Greek "kastáneia," meaning "chestnut." This was borrowed by Latin as "castanea," which passed to Latin-based Spanish as "castaña" (chestnut), and then produced Spanish "castañeta," meaning "castanet; a hollowed piece of wood or shell typically used in pairs fastened together at one end, then clicked together to provide a sound to keep time with music." English borrowed the word from Spanish in the mid 1600s.         

Get Smart Episode: Our Man in Toyland

This was one of the early episodes of the "Get Smart" television comedy series, which spoofed the spy mentality of the Cold War era. The episode first aired in October of 1965 and featured guest star John Hoyt, a familiar face to television viewers and movie goers in those times, although most people likely didn't know his name. John Hoyt played many a villainous role, and I have to believe it was his likeness that gave rise to the cartoon caricature of "Fearless Leader" on the "Rocky & Bullwinkle Show," which was televised in the early 1960s, first on the ABC network, then on the NBC network. Another familiar face of this episode is that of Helen Kleeb, who made many an appearance in movies, and many more appearances on television for decades. Helen Kleeb lived to be 96 years old, and she made television appearances well into the 1990s. To put this episode's ending into perspective, World War Two, the Korean War and the Vietnam War (then ongoing and escalating significantly) had created a substantial market for military-themed toys, like guns, grenades, bazookas, bayonets and bombs; and yes, I did say "toys." My mother had worked for a (then) major toy manufacturing company a few years before this episode aired, although I can't recall if she ever saw this episode, and "Get Smart" was not really her kind of comedy.      

Main Cast:

Don Adams: Maxwell Smart, CONTROL Agent 86, "Max"
Barbara Feldon: CONTROL Agent 99, "99"
Edward Platt: Chief of CONTROL, "Chief"
John Hoyt: Conrad Bunny/store manager/KAOS agent
Helen Kleeb: Frieda/store clerk, KAOS agent

The Chief of CONTROL assigns Maxwell Smart, along with canine agent Fang, also known as "K13," to find out how KAOS is getting secret government information out of the U.S. to hostile interests through merchandise at a local department store. The Chief already has placed Agent 99 and some other agents in the store and they will report any suspicious activity to Max, who will pretend to be a customer. Max goes to the store and is followed by a KAOS agent. The other CONTROL agents keep track of the KAOS man and report his movements to Max, who meets the Chief in the department store restaurant, where the KAOS agent is arrested. In the meantime, Max had gone to Agent 99, who was working in the perfume department of the store. She tells him she thinks KAOS knows who she is. The store manager, Mr. Conrad Bunny, approaches and Agent 99 tells Max he might be interested in a new perfume called, "Jasmine," which is a code to say she's in trouble. Max says he'll return later.

After the arrest of the KAOS agent in the restaurant, mentioned above, Max goes back to the perfume counter to get Agent 99 to safety, but another woman is there. She tells Max that he is mistaken about another woman having been working there earlier, because she's been the only person there all day. Max plants a microphone on the perfume counter and he hears the woman talking with Conrad Bunny who says that Agent 99 has gotten away from them, but that they have successfully disarmed her. He says that the store will close shortly and then they can search the entire store for 99. The clerk tells Mr. Bunny about Max having been to the counter and asking for the woman who wanted to demonstrate "Jasmine" perfume for him. Bunny remembers the earlier customer and figures the man (Max) is working with Agent 99. He says they must find both of these people and kill them. Max goes to get help from the three CONTROL agents stationed at points throughout the store, but two are missing, and he finds the third agent dead.

With closing time nearing for the store, Max and Fang go looking for 99 and they find her hiding in a small office. She tells Max she's discovered how KAOS is sending the secret information. She brings out a doll, called "Polly Dolly," that is equipped with a small tape cartridge to give it the ability to "talk." Mr. Bunny replaces the doll tape cartridge with one he has recorded with the secret information on it. He then marks the doll in a certain way so that it can be identified as one with secret info on it for KAOS agents overseas. The dolls easily clear customs officials, because no one is looking to play the tape cartridge. So Max and 99 get Fang to take the doll out of the store through the ventilation system to the Chief, which he does. The Chief calls for all available agents so they can raid the department store.

Klutzy Max hits the keys on an organ in the music department of the store, so Mr. Bunny knows where they are. To lessen the light, Max empties his gun shooting out the lights in the room, but when Mr. Bunny and two KAOS agents come in, Max tries to bluff his way with the empty gun. The bluff fails, but 99 picks up a toy water pistol which Max uses on Conrad Bunny, knocking his monocle to the floor, where he steps on it. Max and 99 flee into the toy department where they begin using the military toys to ward off Mr. Bunny and his KAOS agents. The toy weapons cause Bunny and company to seek shelter behind a counter, so Max finds the ultimate toy weapon called "Destructo," a remote operated flying bomb, which demolishes the counter where the KAOS agents are hiding. Max tells Agent 99, "We had at our disposal every fiendish and destructive plaything ever devised for the pleasure of little children. All those poor devils had were real guns and bullets." hahahahahaha!!!! The Chief arrives with several CONTROL agents and as they take Mr. Bunny away, he grabs a gun Max is holding. He tells how he'll at least kill one of them and he fires the gun. It turns out the gun was a dart gun and Max is standing with a dart in the middle of his forehead.
       
Picture is from the 2008 HBO Video release of "Get Smart: The Complete Series" (Season 1)

WORD HISTORY:   

Chaos-This word is distantly related to "yawn," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "chasm," a word English borrowed from Latin, which got it from Greek. It goes back to Indo European "ghih/gheh," which had the notion, "to be wide open." This gave transliterated Greek "khaos," meaning, "large empty space." This was borrowed by Latin as "chaos" and English borrowed the word circa 1400. The use of the word in a religious sense for, "the void in the universe before creation," developed in the 1500s and this developed into the more general "turmoil, confusion, disorder," in the 1600s, the meaning which has carried into modern times.

Law & Order Episode, Seaon 7: Past Imperfect

"Law & Order" was a crime drama series originally broadcast on NBC from 1990 until 2010. This episode always intrigued me. I've had lots of dealings with lawyers over the years, because of work, and one of those attorneys had a dry, but funny way of saying things, although at times the dry remarks were skewering to others, and this episode always makes me think of him. Whether he's ever seen this episode, I have no idea, but I can imagine him chuckling a little about the last scene in this episode. Many of the episodes of this great series required viewers to pay attention, because there could be twists and turns in the plot and this episode is no exception. 

Main cast for this episode:

Sam Waterston: Executive Assistant District Attorney  Jack McCoy
Steven Hill: District Attorney Adam Schiff
Carey Lowell: Assistant District Attorney Jamie Ross
S. Epatha Merkerson: Lieutenant Anita Van Buren
Jerry Orbach: Detective Lennie Briscoe
Benjamin Bratt: Detective Rey Curtis
René Augesen: Sonja Harlan
Bray Poor: Grant Silverman
David McCallum: Craig Holland
Adam Kaufman: Douglas Burke
Katherine Borowitz: Defense Attorney Marjorie Larson
Kitty Chen: Judge Elizabeth Yee

A birthday party put together by Craig Holland for friend and neighbor Chrissy Sandler turns ugly when Holland finds Chrissy dead in her apartment. The dead woman's son, Douglas, shows up for the party, but he becomes a suspect, as he has had a somewhat rocky relationship with his mother and tests confirm some blood found in Chrissy's apartment is from a blood relative. The medical examiner also finds evidence of violence on the body and the police begin to question people about Chrissy's death. The dead woman is a former model who had had drug problems in the past, and when the police go over her financial records, they find a check for $2500 made out to "cash," with an illegible endorsement signature and no forms of identification noted by the bank teller who cashed the check. This takes the police to the bank where the check was cashed. The bank teller, Sonja Harlan, receives praise from her superior, but also a scolding for not having noted the identification used to cash the check. She claims she must have seen identification, but that she simply forgot to write it down. The police are essentially satisfied and they decide to head over into New Jersey to see Chrissy's mother, who is in a nursing home there and suffering with Alzheimer disease. The elderly lady has good days and bad days, but during her talk, she mentions that her daughter came to visit her fairly recently, although the nurse doesn't believe it to be accurate. So Briscoe and Curtis ask to see the sign in log for visitors. They find a visit to the lady from Sonja Harlan, the bank teller!

The police return to New York City and stop Ms. Harlan as she leaves work. They want to know why she would visit an elderly woman in a nursing home. After some back and forth with the police, she tells them, "She's my mother." Harlan tells the police she didn't disclose the information about her mother, because her mother had given birth to her out of wedlock, and that she (the mother) gave her up for adoption when her mother was 18; "It's not something she was proud of." All of this prompts the police to check on Harlan's movements on the day Chrissy was killed. The bank cameras show Sonja leaving for lunch wearing a white blouse, but then returning later wearing a different blouse and carrying a purse, which she hands off to Grant Silverman, the bank loan officer, and as Lennie Briscoe puts it about Silverman's relationship to Ms. Harlan, "The rumor around the coffee machine is, he's been stamping her bank book for the past few months." (They came up with some clever lines in this series... hahaha) Another video shows Silverman leaving the bank with the purse a little later, and the police theorize that it contains Sonja's white blouse, with her mother's blood on it. Chrissy's neighbor Craig Holland tells the police Chrissy had a purse like the one Ms. Harlan appears with in the bank video, and that the purse is missing from Chrissie's apartment. After obtaining a search warrant for Harlan's apartment (a judge refuses to grant a search warrant for Silverman's home), the police find one of the mother's blouses in Harlan's closet. They arrest Sonja Harlan and take Grant Silverman in for questioning. Silverman tells the police Sonja told him the purse had gym clothes in it. Down the hall, Harlan is under questioning, and she tells the police her mother gave her the purse. Then, when she struggles with her answers, she asks for her lawyer. When the police ask for her attorney's number, she tells them, "You've got him down the hall." In the meantime, Silverman, feeling the pressure, admits that he looked in the purse and that it contained a blouse covered in blood, and that Sonja told him her mother had an accident. When the police questioning Harlan leave her and go to Silverman to ask if he's Sonja's attorney, he says he "represents" Harlan. Sonja Harlan hires a top defense attorney, Marjorie Larson, and she moves to invoke attorney-client privilege regarding Silverman's statement about the blood covered blouse and anything Harlan had told him about what happened to her mother. Judge Yee, the trial judge, agrees and Silverman's testimony is out.*

The police go through Harlan's records from the search of her home and they find that she and Silverman had been checking into the fairly recent death of a wealthy man, Harold Lancer, who was worth $250 million when he died at an area hospital. They also find that Silverman did indeed act as Sonja's attorney, as he wrote the hospital where Harold Lancer died from cancer about Lancer's tissue biopsy. Jamie Ross goes to the hospital where she finds out that the hospital kept a tissue sample from Harold Lancer for cancer research and that Silverman had been in contact with the hospital about that tissue sample. It turns out, Chrissy had told Sonja that she was Harold Lancer's "love child." Then Silverman contacted the law firm representing Lancer's estate about getting Lancer's tissue sample tested, as Lancer had been cremated, and this was now the only means to see if Lancer was Sonja's father. Lancer's will named his heirs as his "wife and his children," but it didn't specify the children by name.** Silverman told the lawyers representing Lancer's estate that if a paternity test proved that Harold Lancer was Sonja's father, that Sonja would pursue a case for a full share of Lancer's estate. The thing is, Sonja needed her mother's cooperation to attest that Lancer was the father to establish a basis for the paternity test. Jack McCoy decides to go to trial with the evidence they have.

At the trial, the main attorney for the Lancer estate testifies about Silverman's contact with him, and about how Harlan, if proven to be Lancer's child, would be entitled to $53 million, as a valid claimant to the estate. Sonja Harlan takes the stand and testifies how it was much easier to trace who her mother was (she and Silverman found a birth record), and then once she found her mother, her mother told Harlan who her father was. Harlan tells the court that her mother was the one who suggested that Sonja pursue legal action to claim part of Lancer's estate, and that this would be a partial remedy for her life in foster homes and "all I've been through." She also testifies that her mother knew she had to sign papers saying that Lancer was Sonja's father, but that her mother wanted to first break the news to her son, but that her mother would have signed the papers if "someone hadn't killed her." McCoy points out that Mr. Silverman likely told Sonja that there was a kind of time limit for her to succeed in her claim, because once the will had gone through probate and the estate had been divided among Lancer's family, it would be extremely difficult for Harlan to make a claim. McCoy presses her as to why her mother hadn't signed the papers after a couple of weeks had passed. Sonja again says that her mother wanted to tell her son about everything first, and that the whole thing was up to her mother. McCoy then asks her if she was willing to walk away from $53 million, and she answers by noting that Silverman, as her attorney, would get a third of the money, and that she would have given her mother some of the money. McCoy theorizes that her mother wanted more money than Sonja was willing to pay her, so she wouldn't sign the paper and that Harlan became angry and killed her mother. Sonja replies that her mother loved her, but McCoy says that wasn't true, that her mother saw Sonja as an accident, and that she only really loved her son (he was the son by her former husband, a rock band star).

During discussions of the case at the DA's office, Jack McCoy decides to try to get Silverman to break over by challenging the "attorney-client privilege" ruling, by asserting that Silverman was an accomplice to his client, Sonja Harlan. McCoy has Silverman arrested and he then meets with Silverman and his lawyer. He lays out the case that Silverman knew Sonja was going to make her mother sign the papers one way or another, but that he did nothing to intercede to prevent violence, and then, once the mother was dead, he helped to dispose of evidence (the bloody blouse). McCoy says it's at least attempted grand larceny. Then McCoy lays out the benefit to Silverman if he testifies that he helped dispose of evidence and also testifies to what Harlan had told him about her mother's death ... that based on the DA's theory of the case, Harold Lancer was Sonja Harlan's father. If Harlan is convicted based on that theory, New York State will accept that as true, which will provide the basis for the paternity test, and if the test proves Lancer was her father, Harlan will get $53 million, with Silverman getting $17 million of that amount. McCoy says further, he would accept a plea of misdemeanor attempted grand larceny and recommend five years probation for Silverman. As Silverman consults with his lawyer, Jamie tells McCoy that he's buying Silverman's testimony, to which McCoy answers, "I just motivated him to tell the truth." Silverman accepts the offer and tells MCoy that Sonja's mother didn't know how she was "when she doesn't get her way...She had so much hate inside her. Her mother should have just signed the damn papers."

McCoy and Jamie meet with Harlan and Marjorie Larson. Larson tries arguing that everything Silverman has now admitted is still privileged, but McCoy answers that Silverman stopped being her attorney once he helped Harlan destroy evidence and he alludes to Judge Yee agreeing with him. He offers 12 1/2 to 25 years as the sentence, and it is accepted by Harlan. She then tells them her mother wouldn't sign the papers, because she admitted that she was a call girl when she got pregnant by Lancer. Her mother was afraid everyone would find out, especially her son, and that even the possibility of all that money wouldn't change her mind. Sonja implies how frustrating it all was, that her mother told her about her father and all of that money, but then she wouldn't help her get the money. Then she says how it was her mother's birthday and the party her neighbor was having, but her mother wanted her (Sonja) to leave, but that her son was invited to the party, "that's who she wanted, him, not me ... That bitch," she calls her mother. Even her attorney cringes.

In the final scene at some later, unspecified date at the DA's office, Jamie tells McCoy and Adam Schiff that the paternity test proved Harlan to be Lancer's daughter, so she will get the $53 million and Silverman will collect his $17 million. Jamie comments, "No wonder everybody hates the legal profession." A bit agitated McCoy tells Jamie to make sure that Chrissy's son gets a copy of Sonja's full confession (allocution in court), so that he'll be able to collect from Harlan and Silverman "when he sues them for his mother's wrongful death." Adam smiles and says...."Lawyers!"       

* I'm not an attorney to agree or disagree with the judgment, but the DA's office argues that if Mr. Silverman were representing Sonja Harlan, he would have told the police that and kept his mouth shut. Marjorie Larson, Harlan's defense attorney, argues that Sonja Harlan believed that Silverman was her attorney, and that this belief is the only thing that counted. It is that argument that Judge Yee accepts.

** To me, this is the weak part of the script, as it's hard to believe that a multimillionaire would have such a loosely worded will, and not an ironclad will written by a top law firm and reviewed by several attorneys of that law firm, although anything is possible.

Photo is of the 2010 DVD set for Season 7 by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment 

WORD HISTORY:
Fragrant-This word goes back to Indo European "bhragh," which meant, "to smell, to give off an odor or scent." This gave Italic "fragro," meaning, "to give off a sweet smell, to smell of something" (the beginning Indo European "b" became "f" in Italic). This gave Latin the verb "fragrare," with the same general meaning, and its participle form was "fragrans," meaning, "giving off a sweet smell, smelling of something." English borrowed the word from Latin as "fragrant" in the 1400s.

Law & Order Episode: Jeopardy

A wealthy widow helps a cash strapped judge get a large loan at a super low interest rate. The problem is, he is the sitting judge in a case involving the woman's son, who is on trial for murdering 3 people, including his own brother. On top of that, the judge and District Attorney Adam Schiff are long time friends.

The story opens with shots being fired inside the office of a computer magazine publisher. The police respond and find 2 employees and their boss shot to death. The boss is Edward Nicodos, part of a family that owns a food distribution company. The detectives go to Mrs Elaine Nicodos, played by Sada Thompson, and her son, Peter, played by Peter Frechette. Mrs. Nicodos is a widow and VERY wealthy, and the mother of Peter and Edward. The detectives find that Mrs. Nicodos gave her son Edward the money to start the magazine, which is struggling,* and Peter insists his brother's magazine is separate from the family food business. As they investigate further, the detectives find out the secretary to Peter Nicodos kept a gun in her desk and that Peter had given approval for her to keep the gun on the premesis, so he knew the gun was there, but further, Peter had a key to her desk. They also learn the secretary has filed a report that the gun is now missing, and that the gun is the same type used as the murder weapon.

Detectives Briscoe and Curtis, played by Jerry Orbach and Benjamin Bratt, respectively, later learn that Eddie's magazine did a negative review of a video game and that the game designer filed a lawsuit against the magazine AND against the Nicodos food business, claiming the businesses were linked. The detectives find out from the game designer's lawyer about a payment of $10,000 a month from the Nicodos food business going to a shell corporation, Gaston Inc, and the theory is it's really a payment going to Eddie's business; thus the lawsuit connecting Eddie's magazine to the family food business. When the detectives go to the address listed for Gaston Inc, they find that Peter Nicodos has a mistress living there, Celia Gaston, played by Brettanya Friese. She tells them that she saw Peter the night Eddie was killed, and that he told her they had to break up, because Eddie had told the attorney for the game designer about their relationship and he threatened to make the relationship public, unless Peter settled the lawsuit with the game designer. Ms. Gaston also says Peter left her as angry as she had ever seen him about Eddie. The detectives also take some clothing of Peter's from the woman's closet, as there had been some clothing fibers found on one of the victims in the killings. The clothing proves to be negative, but the lab technician does find cat hairs on Peter's clothing, and cat hairs were also found at the murder scene (Ms. Gaston has a cat). The technician says it will take him a couple of weeks to determine if the hairs match (the hairs match, but it took longer than anticipated, which will come into play). In the meantime the police arrest Peter Nicodos for the three murders.

In front of the judge who will preside at the trial, Judge Edgar Hynes, played by Louis Zorich, Peter's attorney asks the judge to bar Ms. Gaston from testifying, as her testimony is hearsay. The judge agrees, and Executive District Attorney Jack McCoy, played by Sam Waterston, tells the judge that she can testify as to Peter's mood and anger, because she directly witnessed it. The defense attorney, Mr. Rothenberg, played by Jeffrey DeMunn, argues that Peter was angry at his brother over not attending a memorial service for their father, and that this could be misconstrued by the jury. The judge bars Ms. Gaston's testimony completely. When McCoy tells DA Adam Schiff, played by Steven Hill, about how Judge Hynes gutted much of their case, Schiff sort of smiles and tells McCoy that he's known Edgar Hynes for 35 years and that he was not a "bleeding heart" years before, and not likely to be one in the present. McCoy decides to proceed with the trial based on the evidence they have. At the trial, the lab technician is testifying, and Rothenberg asks to speak to the judge. He argues that he only received the evidence about the matching cat hairs 2 days before trial and that his whole strategy was based upon the belief that the prosecution didn't have this evidence. He asks that the lab technician's report and testimony be excluded, and the judge grants it. McCoy is angry, as he had even offered to delay the trial to give the defense time to prepare their case. Detective Curtis testifies about some evidence, and McCoy rests the prosecution's case. Rothenberg asks for dismissal of the charges, because the prosecution failed to prove the prima facie case, and the judge agrees; the charges against Peter Nicodos are dismissed. Elaine Nicodos smiles as her son is now free.

McCoy tells Adam Schiff how Judge Hynes sided with the defense on everything, and while Adam is skeptical about McCoy's case against Peter Nicodos, he goes to meet his long time friend Edgar Hynes over drinks. Hynes defends his handling of the case, and as he gets up to leave, Adam asks about the judge's wife, and mentions that they might all be able to get together for a trip on the judge's boat. Hynes tells Adam that his wife filed for divorce and that he had to sell the boat. Later, a very troubled Adam tells McCoy to look into Judge Hynes. They find that Judge Hynes specifically requested the Nicodos trial and that he had received a $600,000 second mortgage with a super low interest rate (saving him $300,000 interest), even though he had little equity in the house, and had loads of debt. They find out from the bank that Elaine Nicodos had interceded with the bank on the judge's behalf, and that she made it clear that if the judge didn't receive preferential treatment from the bank, she would take her many millions of dollars to another bank.

The police bring in Judge Hynes and Adam Schiff interrupts the questioning, sending everyone from the interrogation room, including the judge's attorney. Hynes tries defending himself, but Adam bluntly tells him that he personally authorized the arrest warrant for Hynes. The judge admits that the divorce had financially crippled him and that Elaine Nicodos offered to help him with the loan. A badly shaken Judge Hynes begs Adam for help, but Adam tells him he will go to prison, as after all, he was willing to let a killer of three people go free. Later, McCoy meets with Elaine Nicodos and Mr. Rothenberg. McCoy explains to Elaine that her bribery of the judge is a serious charge, but she says she doesn't care, because it saved her remaining son, and that McCoy can't do anything to him now. But McCoy tells them he's going to have Peter arrested and that he's reinstating the murder charge. Rothenberg fumes at McCoy about "double jeopardy," ** but McCoy tells him, he isn't worried about it.

McCoy and Rothenberg go before a judge hearing their arguments about "double jeopardy." McCoy successfully argues that "double jeopardy" doesn't apply, because the defendant was never in jeopardy, as "the judge was bribed, the fix was in." Peter and Elaine Nicodos and Mr. Rothenberg meet with McCoy, who offers Peter a minimum sentence of 25 years before he can be considered for parole, which brings a scoff from Rothenberg, who prepares to leave with Peter. Then McCoy tells them he will prosecute Elaine Nicodos, which can get her a 25 year sentence, but that he'll take 12 years for her (she's older, so you can infer that this is like a life sentence). Peter tells McCoy he'll plead guilty and serve the 25 year sentence, if McCoy drops the charges against his mother. McCoy accepts. Later, as McCoy, Claire Kincaid (played by Jill Hennessy) and Adam discuss the case, Adam takes a brief phone call. When he hangs up, he tells the other two that Judge Hynes was found on the beach with a gunshot to the head. Kincaid was just about to have a drink, Scotch I think, and Adam tells her to "Bring that over here."

* The "Law & Order" series was noted for tying stories to the times, and this episode includes this element about Edward Nicodos starting a computer magazine. While that wouldn't cause anyone to even blink an eye now, when this episode was filmed in the mid 1990s, such things were not common, and this use of the Internet for a magazine published exclusively online was relatively daring, and the fact that the magazine is struggling shows how society had not yet adjusted to the new technology; a pretty accurate depiction by the writers of this episode. Printed newspapers and magazines sold by mail, home delivery or newsstands were still very much the way publications were marketed. 

** In the legal system, "double jeopardy" prevents people accused, or even convicted, of a crime from being charged and put on trial more than once for the same crime. Randy is charged with stealing a cookie from a vending machine, but he is acquitted. Law enforcement then discovers there is a video of Randy actually stealing the cookie. Randy can't be charged again. I guess that's how the cookie crumbles... Damn that cookie was good! Further, if Randy were actually convicted and got a sentence of 30 days in jail, but the prosecution felt that was too lenient, the prosecutor can't retry Randy for the same stolen cookie in an effort to get a 90 day sentence.
  
Photo is from the 2008 Edition of the Universal Home Entertainment Law & Order Sixth Year DVD box set

 WORD HISTORY: 
Joke-This word is related to the first part of the word "jeopardy," a word borrowed by English from French. It goes back to Indo European "yek," which meant, "to speak, to utter." This gave its Italic offspring "joko/ioko," meaning, "something said, an utterance," but also, "something said in jest." This gave Latin "iocus," meaning, "a joke, amusing entertainment." This was borrowed by English in the 1600s (mid 1600s? alternate spelling "joque?"), meaning, "something said to provide amusement, especially something said to bring about laughter." Later, by extension, the meaning included, "something or someone not to be taken seriously (often, but not always, meant disparagingly)."   

Law & Order Episode: We Like Mike

This episode originally aired in April 1997 on the NBC television network 

One Sunday morning, Mike Bodak, played by Frank John Hughes, stops to help another man, Matthew Sherman, change a tire. As Bodak walks away to clean his hands at a nearby doughnut shop, he passes a guy on the sidewalk; a Hispanic guy with a dragon tattoo on his hand. A few minutes later Sherman is found dead by his sister. He has been shot in the chest. Detectives Briscoe, played by Jerry Orbach, and Curtis, played by Benjamin Bratt, investigate the murder, aided in a supervisory role by Lieutenant Anita Van Buren, played by S. Epatha Merkerson. After getting some info, they track down Bodak, who is at his wedding rehearsal, and question him. Bodak works a couple of jobs, with his main job being a bellhop at a big hotel. Later, after checking out Bodak's story, they find he wasn't completely honest with them about the time he left work the day of the murder and about a large tip he received from a visiting Saudi prince, so they suspect him of killing Sherman. When the detectives go to Bodak's apartment, he admits that he left work early to go to another job answering calls at a bookie's,* and that he was naturally afraid to tell them about the job. Then they find Matthew Sherman's blood on Mike's jacket. They arrest Bodak at his wedding. During further questioning, he tells them about seeing the Hispanic man with the tattoo, "and he looked kinda scary," which prompts Briscoe to say, "Hey, this is New York, everybody looks scary."** The detectives find Bodak's description of the man is similar to a description of a man who robbed a woman in the same neighborhood, so Mike's story takes on credibility.

After checking around about the Hispanic man, the detectives learn his name is Ricky Garcia, played by Benny Nieves, and that he's been arrested for shoplifting. The plan is to have the lady who was robbed look at a lineup with Garcia in it to see if she can identify him. Garcia is released early and the lady is mistakenly brought to the courthouse where Garcia is being released. She sees Garcia and tells the detectives. They arrest Garcia. This leads them to Garcia's apartment (they have a warrant), where he lives with his brother. They find a pistol and a sock with blood on it, and the brother, played by Fernando López, has Matthew Sherman's wallet on him. When Ricky Garcia is confronted with the evidence, he confesses to the murder, in writing. The case now goes to the District Attorney's office (District Attorney Adam Schiff played by Steven Hill, Executive Assistant DA Jack McCoy played by Sam Waterston and Assistant DA Jamie Ross played by Carey Lowell). It all looks so easy... too easy.

With Garcia's confession, Bodak is released from jail with the apologies of the DA's office, but he naturally still has bitter feelings. Garcia's attorney, a Mr. Shuman, played by Casey Siemaszko, challenges the circumstances of the identification of Garcia by the lady in the courthouse.*** The judge agrees (judge played by Ron Frazier), and the attorney presses on by telling the judge that without the tainted identification, there would have been no search of his client's apartment, and therefore, no gun or bloody sock found. Again the judge agrees, which leaves the DA with only the wallet taken from Garcia's brother. The attorney isn't done, however, and he successfully argues that the wallet alone is not enough to hold his client in jail. The judge agrees and dismisses the charges. Garcia is freed. Now the DA needs Mike Bodak to identify Garcia as the man he saw on the street just prior to Matthew Sherman's murder. When Jamie Ross talks with Bodak, he is more than a little reluctant to get involved, but she tells him in a great way, "(You're) a decent guy who got screwed, but when a decent guy has the opportunity to put a killer behind bars, he stands up." Bodak's basic sense of decency brings him to agree to see if he can identify Garcia from a number of photos. He immediately picks out Garcia, who is then arrested again. His attorney's attempts to get him released fails this time, but the judge refuses to allow the gun (which was identified as the murder weapon) and the bloody sock back in for a trial. Now Bodak drops from sight and communication. Jamie Ross goes to his apartment where his bed has been slashed and where he has received a threatening phone call regarding his identification of Ricky Garcia. Mike wants to stay out of the whole thing, but again, Jamie appeals to his sense of decency and duty by telling him that without his testimony, Garcia will get away with murder.

The police tape and trace a threatening phone call to Mike Bodak that comes from Garcia's brother's workplace. They arrest the brother. Jack McCoy talks with Mike and the father (played by John Doman) of Mike's fiancée, who keeps pressuring Mike to stay out of the case. Still, Mike's decency makes him commit to testifying. Ah, don't breathe easily yet! The trial starts and Jamie comes in to tell McCoy that Bodak can't testify, because he's been arrested while working at a bookie's. The judge grants a recess and Jack McCoy goes to the Bronx**** to make arrangements for Mike Bodak to testify in the Garcia trial, as Bodak was arrested in the Bronx. The problem becomes, Bodak's attorney, played by Stuart Burney, doesn't want Mike to testify, because he's fearful Mike could incriminate himself by having to admit to working at a bookie's, operated by an underworld figure. The Bronx will likely want Bodak's testimony against this operator. Mike tells McCoy, "I don't understand. All I did was help a guy change a tire." As the old saying goes, "No good deed goes unpunished." This young man is in a furnace room and the furnace is about to get much hotter.

Mike chooses to testify and he identifies Ricky Garcia. Now Garcia's attorney asks him about his work for the bookie. The attorney casts doubt on Mike's story that he stopped to help Matthew Sherman and that maybe he stopped to collect a gambling debt for the bookie. The attorney asks Bodak to say exactly what he does for the bookie, but Mike's attorney signals that he should not answer, and Mike invokes his Fifth Amendment right to not incriminate himself. Now the defense attorney asks that Mike's testimony be thrown out, because he can't just selectively answer some questions, but not others. After a brief recess, the judge asks Mike if he will answer the defense attorney's question, but Mike again invokes the Fifth Amendment. As he leaves the stand, the judge tells the jury to completely disregard Mike's testimony and Mike is flabbergasted by the fact that he saw Garcia walking towards Matthew Sherman on the morning of the murder is not being allowed to be considered by the jury. The defense attorney also asks for a dismissal of the charges. McCoy tells Mike that this is it, that he must make a choice, but Mike's own attorney is telling him not to testify further. Mike goes back to the stand and he tells what he did at the bookie's. He then tells the jury that it doesn't matter what they think of him, but that it doesn't change the fact that he saw Garcia. As Mike leaves the stand, Ricky Garcia is squirming in his seat. The jury convicts Garcia. The Bronx district attorney drops the charges against Bodak and Adam Schiff says how important it is to have a decent person like Mike Bodak to help make the criminal justice system work.

Just a comment or two. The one troubling part of the script is how no one heard the shot or shots that killed Matthew Sherman, including Mike Bodak, who had just left Sherman. Otherwise, the script is good and it shows that Mike Bodak isn't a perfect person; after all, he did work for the bookie, a choice he made on his own, but none of us is without our flaws, and the writers didn't make Bodak a totally unblemished character with the aura of an angel.     


* For those unaware, a "bookie" is a place that takes and pays bets for all sorts of activities, although most typically for sporting events. Properly the term is "bookmaker," but "bookie" has long been used in every day speech. They are illegal in many places and they have long been associated with organized crime, which will come into play in this story.

** "Law & Order" was known for some of its sarcastic humor and interesting characters. This episode has both, as the doughnut shop owner is hilarious, but so is the lady neighbor of Bodak's fiancée, and Detective Briscoe gets in his own couple of smarta-- lines that should bring a chuckle; not that I would know anything about smarta-- lines (typed with the most innocent look I could muster).

*** While I'm not a lawyer, the issue about police lineups to have eyewitnesses identify suspects is to have a fair process, with no indication of who the actual suspect is among those in the lineup, who are supposed to be "similar" in appearance. The issue in this episode of "Law & Order" seems to be that the witness was brought to the courthouse by mistake, and then she saw the suspect in the courthouse with his attorney, thus possibly prejudicing her to identify Ricky Garcia. While she actually pointed out Garcia completely independently of the police, the defense attorney was able to convince the judge later that the identification was not fair to the accused, and the judge used the term "tainted" in reference to the identification.    

**** The Bronx is one of the boroughs of New York City. It has its own district attorney; thus, Bodak is out of McCoy's jurisdiction in Manhattan, another borough of New York.   

Photo is of the 2010 DVD set for Season 7 by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

WORD HISTORY:
Aura-This word is related to "air," a word borrowed by English from French, which got it from Latin, which got it from Greek, which got it from Indo European. It goes back to Indo European "awer," which had a notion of "raise, rise." This gave transliterated Ancient Greek "aer," which then produced Greek "aura," meaning, "wind, breeze, moving air." This was borrowed by Latin as "aura," meaning, "air, breath of air, wind." It was borrowed by English circa 1400 with the meaning, "soft breeze," but the sense of "atmosphere" also came to be present, and then used figuratively for "the feeling or sense of atmosphere around, and coming from, some being" (first half of the 1700s?).