Plot: Peg writes to say that she's taken a job as a waitress at Papanek's Coffee Shop to help pay off the second mortgage. This means that she will be waiting on people who are her friends and neighbors. B.J. is angry and ashamed that he can't be doing more to help. He becomes obsessed with earning money--poker, pinball, anything--complaining all the while that no one has it as bad as he does. Hawkeye's arguments fall on deaf ears, but Margaret sharply deflates B.J.'s self pity by pointing out that if he has more to lose, it's only because he HAS the most.

Thanks to Khaja for Plot B: Col. Potter has gotten a ticket for a driving violation. He plans to just "pencil whip" his way out of it, but Klinger, who is annoyed with Potter for making him catch up on paperwork when there's a hot poker game waiting, shames Potter into taking the remedial driving course, run by Rizzo.

Why did Rizzo look so startled when he saw Potter's grade on the written test? Who else would have graded the tests? And having graded them, surely he would have quietly given Potter a higher grade without Potter knowing anything about it. In fact, I know that he must have graded them, because he said that he only graded Potter on the questions he was awake for.

I wonder--was B.J. more upset with Peg's having to work, or the fact that she would be waiting on their friends? If she had gotten a job as, say, a secretary, would it have bothered him?

B.J. says that their second mortgage is coming up in six months. I wonder how many mortgages they have? In the episode where Potter burns his mortgage paper, B.J. comments that they can have another party in nineteen years, when his comes due. I also note that in spite of mortgages and such, B.J. had no qualms whatsoever about putting a down payment on a piece of property.

I hope that Sophy doesn't run over anyone on her way to the 8063rd. Is there a remedial horse course?

In the officers' club, B.J. tries to get Igor to gamble with him, and Igor says, "Sorry, sir, I don't gamble." Since when? In the early season episode where Hawkeye was paymaster and ended up getting $3000 from the Army, Igor was involved with a very high-stakes poker game. (High stakes to me, anyway; I've never seen them play for so much before or since.)

Maybe that's when he stopped gambling.

All I can say, I agree with what Margaret says to B.J. Think about Potter. How much of his kid's (kids'?) childhood his missed out on? How often has Mildred been left alone while Potter was serving his country?

When he was first assigned to the 4077th, B.J. was supposed to 28 years old. Isn't that awfully young to be paying off a mortage? (Was this covered by D.K.'s nits?)

No, I don't know much about mortgages and stuff like that there.

28 is not young to *have* a mortgage. It is young to be paying it off in full. Side note, back then, I believe most mortgages were 20 year rather than 30, however I could be wrong about that.

By today's standards, 28 is young to have a *second* mortgage, but maybe it wasn't so uncommon in the 40s and 50s. (I'm so thrifty, I shudder at the thought of 2 mortgages.) Conversely, BJ seems *old* to have had his first child at age 27 - again by standards of then, not now.

Maybe Igor just wanted to go to bed, which he tells Hawk a few moments later, and says that to Beej as a way to have him back off.

And isn't this Ep after the the purchase of the land that Beej had to borrow the cash from Charles for. Maybe that is the second mortgage.

And unless you have a lot of ready cash you would need a 2d & maybe 3d mortgage to do major renovations to your home (at any age.)

27 might not be so young, since Peg had to work while Beej was in med school and residency and hers was the only source of income, which has been a theme more than once.

Greg, I had a second at age 26. On my first house, I had an 80% first, and the seller carried back 10%, which I paid off as a second mortgage.

Just after Klinger reminds Potter that the Colonel has sent other soldiers to remedial driving school, Sherman raises his right arm to rest it on the saddle. The camera angle changes, and we see the Colonel making the same motion again.

When B.J. tells Hawkeye he feels he's let Peg and Erin down, the coffee cup is nowhere near his lips. In the next shot, he's taking a drink out of it.

Hawkeye suggests B.J. gets Peg's "100 proof cookies" out. Hunnicutt pats his cards together. When Beej says, "Let's don't", the cards are once again fanned out.

If Brown, Castildi and the other guy who took Rizzo's remedial driving course are so new to the 4077^th that they don't even know the Officers Club has a pinball machine, then where did they commit the driving offenses for which they had to take Rizzo's course? It couldn't have been at the Four-Oh-Seven-Seven. They hadn't been there that long. Maybe they committed the offenses at another unit and had to take the course at their new assignment, the 4077^th. Though you'd think the Army would make them take a remedial driving course before they got to the MASH unit.

NANJAO: Klinger lying on the Colonel's bed? I'm surprised Potter allowed that.

Potter pushes Klinger back down on the bed, ordering the private to continue with the tutoring. Max is looking at the Colonel. In the next shot, Max is looking at the manual instead.

I definitely applaud and agree with what Margaret said to B.J. in the Officers Club. Bravo, Hot Lips!

Some bits of trivia revealed in this ep: We learn that Potter had a grandmother named Mavis and a grandfather named Wilbur. We also learn the name of Colonel Potter's mother. It's Emma.

Did the other three students in Rizzo's class not take a road test? I mean, how else could Colonel Potter not know he'd have to take a road test?

I think it's kinda cool that while Potter and Rizzo are discussing the road test you can see Sophie in the background. Nice bit of foreshadowing.

In the Mess Tent, when B.J. asks if the officers mind if he sits down, Winchester's left hand is in his lap. However, when Charles responds, the arm is on the table.

B.J. and Hawkeye are playing Go Fish using mints as chips? Where'd they get all of those mints? (I know Hunnicutt makes the comment that it's a good thing his wife works at a restaurant, but did the mints all come from Mills Valley?)

Is it just me, or does Sophie look darker in this ep than she has previously? Before this, she seemed to be a lighter shade of brown.

"The undrinkable chasing the inedible."

Above post is link spam.

Oh, wait. Whoops.

I admit to being many things, but "spam"?

"The undrinkalble chasing the inedible."