Plot: It's a horridly hot night, and no one can sleep, except Col. Potter, who's taken a sleeping pill. Klinger is experimenting with the P.A. system, Margaret has prickly heat, Charles is working on his family's income tax, with Father Mulcahy's help, and B.J. is fretting because Peg will need to clean out the roof gutters. One by one, everyone makes use of the semi-concious Potter.

Igor's lucky that he lived to see the dawn. I'm surprised that Charles didn't make the welkin ring after his carefully sorted papers went flying.

"Igor's lucky that he lived to see the dawn." - D. K. Henderson

I suspect what saved Igor was how imperative it was that the taxes get done. That, and Margaret's and the Colonel's P.A. conversation.

It's almost amazing how long it took Margaret to realize she and Potter were being broadcast throughout the compound. That P.A. system is usually pretty loud.

I don't know about anyone else, but I have long assumed that there was another P.A. system somewhere else inside the 4077th. It is well known that very few of the announcements over the system were made by Radar or Klinger. In some cases we hear announcements being while Radar (or Klinger) are onscreen. I think there's even been instances where we hear announcements when the scene take place in the Company Clerk's office. Yet neither Max or Radar are making the announcements. If there is another P.A. system, why is everyone worried about Klinger taking it apart?

BJ is worried about gutters at home, and at one point, he makes the statement that if the gutters aren't cleaned, "the next big rain the gutter will overflow right into the basement... that's where the furnace is."

I may be wrong, but are there that many basement furnaces in Southern California? That is more of a northeastern problem, isn't it? (I only know from Southern Texas where there are no basement furnaces around)

What part of Texas are you from, Steve? I'm a Dallas native, though earlier this month I've moved to Ill-annoy. You're the fourth Nitcentralite I know who lives in or has lived in Texas.

BTW, I used to live in Orange, Texas back in the early 80s.

Benn,

I live in Houston now, (as has my family for 5 generations), but I have lived all over east Texas. I went to college in Fort Worth (with my Master's Degree at SMU in Dallas).

I have pretty much spent my whole 42 years of life in Texas, except for 4 years in Maryland (thank you US Navy) and 3 years in Central Florida (I moved back to Texas in February)

BTW, as a child, I lived in Beaumont and Port Arthur, but never made it to the Eastern point of the Golden Triangle. :o)

I only visited (repeatedly) Beaumont and Port Arthur. One of my best friends in those days, Robert Webb, was born in Port Arthur. I also went to Port Arthur because it had the only real comics shop in the area, The Book Stan. I went to Beaumont to go to the Parkdale Mall and to attend concerts at the Beaumont Civics Center. Well, I saw Gallagher at the Julie Rogers Auditorium once.

Up 'til now, I've lived all but three or four years of my nearly 40 years in Texas. Two of them were here in Illinois and a year and a half was spent in Blytheville, Arkansas. I have no idea how long I'll stay in Ill-annoy this time around.

Regarding stevegoad's post on 12/28/02: Allow me to point out to you Texans that BJ is not from So Cal - Mill Valley is in the Bay Area north of the Golden Gate. But I don't know if basements are common in that part of the state.

At the start of the ep, Potter enters Klinger's office. From the outside, we can see Potter raise his left arm. In the next shot, there's no indication the arm had been raised.

Wonder whatever became of Klinger's ambition to be a television repair man? This is the only time we ever hear any mention of it. Must've been a passing fad with the Corporal.

First of all, where'd Charles get the desk lamp he's using in the Mess Tent? And why is he using it at all? The Mess Tent has plenty of lights in it, so he shouldn't really need it, should he?

While talking to Charles about the Winchesters' CPA, Father Mulcahy turns his head twice in successive shots around the time he says, "My, my. How awful."

I've always thought "Emerson" was Charles' middle name. Yet the Major says the IRS has become interested in the finances "of the Winchesters and the Emersons", indicating that Emerson is actually a part of his last name. Or am I reading too much into this?

Again in the Mess Tent, Father Mulcahy and Charles are talkling about the Winchester taxes. When the Padre says he doesn't quite understand, he's looking at Charles. In the next shot, he's looking away from Winchester.

Back in OR... When Margaret wipes off B.J.'s foreheaad, Hunnicutt takes the stethoscope out of his ears. However, in another shot, just after Margaret finishes wiping off Beej, the stethoscope is once again back in his ears. The 'scope is in and out of his ears for a couple more shots.

In the background in OR, there's an electric fan. But for some reason, it's not aimed at the operating table. It's pointed away from the surgical team. It's not going to do them a whole lot of good pointing to the door of OR, is it?

Did they change the combination to the safe? Klinger says only Colonel Potter knows the combination. Yet, earlier in the series we're told Hawkeye knows it. And B.J. probably knew it, too. (And wasn't the combination Mildred's measurements?)

"Beaver biscuits!"

Well I know I wouldnt exactly want a fan blowing dirt and dust and such into the open patient on the table. Also any any circulation at all is better than none and a fan pointed at the doors blowing past a person instead of on them would help circulate the air. But not cool the person much if the humidity and such is so high that evap cooling wouldnt occur.

First of all, OR should be sterile to begin with. So there shouldn't be any danger (or a minimum of danger) of risk of dirt and dust being blown into the patient. Second of all, the air from the fan isn't going anywhere near the surgical team. It's on the right side of the screen, pointing away from them. I'm not sure it's doing them any good at all.

"Beaver biscuits!"

I dont doubt OR should be sterile and clean and that the MASHERS do all they can to make it such. But lets look at the structure. Loosely swiging doors propped open, windows open, flies insects and all sorts of other crud can just come floating, flying or otherwise crawling in.

Dust can move on the slightest breeze and by having a fan blowing at the patient and doctors it would just aggravate things. By having it off to the right and blowing a crossbreeze across the room it might help move stuff around and have a lsight enough breeze to help make the doctors feel cooler. Though apparently not by much as evaporative cooling (sweating) requires some air movement to take the evaporating molecules away from the body not let them linger in great glistening globs of goo.

What open windows? IIRC, the windows were closed. They're not even made to be opened. When Hawkeye needed to cool things off in OR, he used a scalpel to cut the windows open. (The windows were made of a clear plastic.) The doors to OR tend to remain closed, too. Besides, given that they have operated in the outdoors, which has to be far more unsanitary, I don't see how having a fan blowing, an oscillating fan, could be any worse.

I see what you're saying, R. I just don't agree with it. But of course, I could be wrong, too.

"Beaver biscuits!"

I've always thought "Emerson" was Charles' middle name. Yet the Major says the IRS has become interested in the finances "of the Winchesters and the Emersons", indicating that Emerson is actually a part of his last name.

If "Emerson" is Charles's middle name, then I would assume that it was his mother's maiden name; thus, "the Winchesters and the Emersons" represents both sides of his family tree.

My mother's maiden name was Matlock. My middle name is Louis. (Like I said, though, I could be reading too much into that.)

"Beaver biscuits!"

Different family traditions, Benn? Since I assume you don't come from the same areas as Charles the Third?

Nor am I anywhere near the same class as Winchester. I know of some women who have combined their maiden names with their husband's family name to create a new surname. That doesn't seem to be the situation in Charles' case, though. If it were, then his name would probably be "Charles Emerson-Winchester III".

"Beaver biscuits!"

Ooops Benn I forgot that the windows in the OR where like that. usually though in military tents the plastic windows like that would unzip so hawkeye taking a scalpal to them would seem to be a bit excessive. (also makes one wonder if destruction of military equipment might be another one of the things in hawk's record)

And I could be totally wrong about this too as I dont have the DVD's and am working off long forgotton mental images of the shows.

Nor am I anywhere near the same class as Winchester. I know of some women who have combined their maiden names with their husband's family name to create a new surname. That doesn't seem to be the situation in Charles' case, though. If it were, then his name would probably be "Charles Emerson-Winchester III".

Oops. I forgot about the "III". If the "Emerson" came from his mother, and the "Winchester" came from his father, and he's the third bearer of the name. . .I really don't want to think about his family tree.

LOL. No kidding, TWS.

Beaver biscuits!

What's complicated about being the third Charles? It's a royal name, after all, fitting with the snobbiness of his family.

It would mean he's the third Charles Emerson-Winchester. In other words, the pairing of the names "Emerson" and "Winchester" go back three generations. What it comes down to is that if "Emerson" is part of his family, it's from his grandparents - or perhaps his great-grandparents. The Emersons could now be a somewhat distant relation to him. It certainly can't be a direct line. And it almost definitely is not his mother's maiden name.

I should point out that Charles has never refered to his family as "Emerson-Winchester". It's always been "a Winchester would never..." That leaves me to believe that "Winchester" is the true family name.

"Beaver biscuits!"

But if he's simply the third Charles in the Winchester family and takes Emerson after his mother's family name, he can't be called "Charles III Emerson Winchester", because that's not the correct order, right, so the number would go at the end anyway? Or am I seeing this wrong?

Maybe his middle name is emerson named after one of his other relative's family name as his father and grandfather did before him to recognize some great alliance marriage long ago.

Constanze, the "III" indicates he's the third person in his family to be named "Charles Emerson Winchester". By English custom the "III" always goes at the end of the name. (I myself could easily be a "II". Instead, my parents chose the designation of "Jr.")

"Beaver biscuits!"

Benn, I thought the Jr. implied that your father had the exact same name, but the II implied that there was a generational skip (with the exception of royalty, of course):

i.e.:

Grandad: John Smith
Dad: John Smith, Jr.
Son: John Smith III

versus

Grandad: John Smith
Dad: Fred Smith
Grandson: John Smith II

You're probably right, Scott. I've always thought they were interchangeable. I could be wrong, though. (Of course.)

"Beaver biscuits!"

I think ScottN was right about that too. At least thats the way I've always heard it done.