Wednesday's Word

Word: Go us (V.) phrase

Definition: to sustain, to 'tide over'

Usage:

"That hay ought to go us through the winter."

Also, 'go me," "go you," etc.

Usage: "I got enough money to go me the rest of my life, provided I die tomorrow."

(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)

Did You Know Tuesday

Did you know that coming this August, Archie Andrews will be getting married?

For 68 years Archie has had two hot chicks on his arm...Veronica and Betty.  But which one will he marry?  Well, you'll just have to wait and see.

Monday Chuckle

I find Gallagher to be very funny.  Yeah, the watermelon smashing may have gotten old, but this dude is very funny.

Wednesday's Word

Word: Stramming around (V.)

Definition: What young children are doing after they've been told to "Set still!"

(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)

Did You Know Tuesday

Did you know that the League of American Bicyclists recently listed Maine as the third most bike-friendly state in the United States?  Coming in behind Washington and Wisconsin, Maine moved up 3 places from last year's ranking.

I need to get me a bike.

Monday Morning Chuckle...the Evening Edition

It's an old one, but has to be a classic, eh?

Lost, Season 5, Episodes 16 & 17
The Incident, Parts 1 & 2

The whole black/white theme of the show introduces us to Jacob, and Not-Jacob. Jacob, wearing white, and Not-Jacob wearing dark. The backgammon pieces were white and dark. The stones found in the hands of the Adam & Eve bodies found in the caves in Season 1 were black and white. Black and white represents the yin/yang...the dark side and the light side. Day and night. Good and evil.

Jacob: Jacob is some kind of demigod, it would seem. He's been in the "shadow of the statue" for hundreds (thousands?) of years, weaving his Egyptian and Greek tapestry on a loom. And he wears white. He seems peaceful. And yet he is only half of the Lost puzzle. He appears to some of our Losties off-Island at some point in their lives, either pre- or post-crash. He has an opposite, however. The other half wears dark. We'll call him...

Not-Jacob: Jacob's nemesis....opposite. Seems geared more towards the chaos side of things. Also seems to have appeared to some of our Losties through the years. Touching each of these people marked them, but also apparently protected them from harm until they were able to get to the Island to become part of Not-Jacob's plan. (NOTE: Lots of Lost message boards are referring to this character as Esau, who was Jacob's twin-brother in the Bible mythology, with Esau actually being the first of the two born. For all intents and purposes in the Christian religion, God chose Jacob over Esau, despite Jacob's deception of his father, Isaac, who blessed Jacob as the first-born, which granted certain birth-rites. Esau pretty much hated Jacob from that point on.) He also appears to be some kind of demigod.

Locke: Seems to have died twice, now. First, when he was pushed from the window in the hotel by his father (Anthony Cooper, who was also the con-man that swindled the money from Sawyer's parent's) that led to his falling and breaking his back, and second was by Ben strangling him in the hotel. When he was pushed out of the hotel window originally, Locke appeared to be killed in the fall, but Jacob (Not-Jacob?), wearing gray clothes, so not light and not dark and sitting nearby reading Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor, touched his motionless body and Locke took a deep breath in. Told by Not-Jacob "I'm sorry this is happening to you", Locke is alive, but damaged. And this will fuel the desire to find his destiny. However, the resurrected Locke, or Not-Locke, has been a different being since arriving on Ajira 316. And we learn that this change is because it is (likely) the Not-Jacob entity that has taken over Locke's dead body (dumped out of the crate by Ilana and her team), and has been manipulating all of these characters the whole time.

Ben: What a whiner! "Jacob didn't want to see me" wah wah wah. However, it's this whining that Not-Locke capitalizes on and tells Ben that it is Ben, not Locke, who is going to kill Jacob. Forced to admit to Locke that originally in the cabin, Ben lied and acted like he was talking to Jacob when in fact he wasn't because he was embarrassed to have never seen Jacob. Also, important to note, I think, Ben's reference to Moses when talking to Jacob. He says that Jacob never showed himself to Ben, but as soon as Locke comes and asks, Jacob lets him in like Moses (Moses being one of the few humans to have seen God in the Bible...or at least was able to communicate directly with God). Ben is jealous that Jacob never wanted to see Ben. When Ben asks, "What about me?” Jacob replies, "What about you?". Ben kills Jacob. He kills what he covets.

Richard: How Richard plays out is still a mystery, but he is questioning Not-Locke's motives, though it's unclear if he's aware that the Locke he's seeing is Not-Locke. Also, it's interesting that Richard is sought-out by Ilana and her team to show him Locke's dead body and to alert him that the Locke he's seeing is a deception. It's also interesting that Richard is normally seen wearing black/dark clothes. Maybe he's the omnipotent referee in this galactic game.

Jack: Touched by Jacob wearing dark clothes (Not-Jacob?) after the surgery in which he sliced that woman's dural sac (of which he told Kate about when they first met after the crash). Jack hopes for redemption by re-setting everything with the bomb, after admitting that he regrets not being able to keep the relationship with Kate together. Sawyer tells him to go get her, but Jack says it's too late for that. Jack has become gun-happy since returning to the Island, getting involved in another shoot-out, this time with Dharma Initiative folks while taking Sayid to the Swan Station site with the bomb-core. And then another shoot-out at the Swan site when they arrive to detonate the bomb.

Kate: Young Kate steals a lunchbox while playing with her friend Tom (who played with the toy airplane that was so part of her life the first couple of seasons), but is busted by the shop manager. Jacob appears and tells the manager he'll pay for it. This Jacob was wearing light clothes, not dark, so was it good or bad Jacob? Regardless, he touches Kate and she lies and say's shell never steal again. On the Island, she does not want Jack to detonate the bomb core, but eventually goes along with his plan, especially after Juliet gets on board with the idea.

Sayid: Shot by Roger Linus, he is dying slowly as Jack gets him to the Swan Station with the bomb core. He rigs it to explode on impact once it's dropped down the Swan Station drilling shaft. In flashback mode, we see Sayid and Nadia at the street crossing where she is hit by the car that killed her. It was Jacob (dressed in dark, Not-Jacob?) who distracted Sayid long enough for Nadia to begin crossing and getting hit. Saddest moment in Lost history was her death, telling Sayid to take her body 'home' (to Iraq). Poor Sayid, he also has the second saddest moment in Lost history when Shannon was shot and killed by Anna Lucia.

Sawyer: Gets off the sub with Juliet and Kate (with some force, of course) and returns to the Island, finding Rose and Bernard (and Vincent!) on their way back to stop Jack. In a one-on-one with Jack, Sawyer confesses to just wanting to stay on the Island and not bother going back to the mainland. Tells Jack how his folks were taken in by a con-man and he witnessed the death of his parents. He tells Jack he could've left the Island on the sub and gone back and killed the con-man before he killed Sawyer's parents. But didn't because "What's done is done", he says. Then they start punching each other. Later, he rides to the Swan Station and provides cover for Jack to drop the bomb down the shaft.

Juliet: So sad that ultimately she becomes another sacrifice to the Island. Wrapped up by chains being pulled into the shaft at the Swan Station, she is pulled in, but manages to grab Sawyer's hand for a few moments, telling him she loved him before letting go and plummeting down the shaft. Surviving the fall, but terribly wounded, she uses a rock to set off the detonator Sayid fashioned for the bomb. Previously in the episode, we see Juliet as a child with her sister Rachel being told by their parents that they were separating. Letting go of Sawyer on the Island shows how that moment in her life impacted her decision to die, as she decides she'd rather die than face the thought of losing Sawyer (to Kate). Sawyer loves her, but she would rather have Jack re-set everything, saying "If I never met you, I'll never have to lose you."

Pierre Chang: Uses rational thinking to try to stop the drilling at the Swan Station. Believing Miles' and Daniel's story, he wants the drilling stopped to prevent the Incident. Radzinsky (pretty much Chang's opposite...light vs dark) will not hear of it, and continues the drilling. When the electromagnetic (EM) force is released, all of the metal objects near the shaft begin to be sucked in, and Chang's left arm is pinned and heavily injured.

Radzinsky: Has been working on the Swan Station for 6 years, and wants the drilling of the electromagnetic force, but it's his arrogance that leads to the whole Incident when the EM force is released. Radzinsky, it should be noted, is always dressed in dark.

Ilana: Who is she working for? She sets off to find Richard Alpert (Ricardos, as she called him), because it was him that her and her team (including Bram) need to show Locke's dead body to. Maybe Jacob, the good one, was also visiting people? Ilana did get a visit from Jacob (who was wearing black...Not-Jacob?) while she was in some hospital, with her face bandaged, as though from a burn or something. She agrees to help this Jacob, but he does not say what kind of help is needed. On the Island, she goes into the cabin they thought was Jacob's, but it's burned on the inside (there's a painting of a dog in the corner), and finds nothing except a piece of cloth. She says "He has not been here in a long time, but someone else has been using it." She shows Bram the piece of cloth, which is a corner of a hand-woven tapestry with the image of an Egyptian statue on it...a statue with a human body with the head of crocodile. They head to the remains of the statue.

Sun and Jin: In flashback, we see their wedding, and we see Jacob (Not-Jacob, dressed in black?) give them his blessing in the reception line (very good Korean, Not-Jacob). He touches them both. Tells them to never take for granted the love they share. They don't know who he is, but boy what an effect he ends up having on their lives.

Hurley: In flashback, he shares a cab with Jacob/Not-Jacob (dressed in black) when he leaves the sanitarium. "I'm definitely not dead," he says to Hurley. Jacob tells Hurley that he is not crazy. Also leaves the guitar case in the taxi when he gets out...the guitar case that we see Hurley carrying with him on the Ajira flight (whose departure information was provided by Jacob) and on the Island. What we don't see is what Jacob told Hurley to get him to go back to the Island. Whatever it is he told him, it's got something to do with the guitar case.

Rose and Bernard (and Vincent): Honestly, the two people who end up being the smartest of everyone in Lost so far ends up being Bernard and Rose. They've found their happy retirement home and have given up the whole "get them before they get us" mentality of Kate, Jack and everyone else. Forgotten for three years after being separated from their Lost-mates during the flaming-arrows retreat, they settled in the woods in a little cabin (a cabin that looked eerily like the burnt out shell of Jacob's cabin) with Vincent and scavenged Dharma food and caught what they needed to survive. They don't care that Jack has a bomb and he's threatening to use it. They just want to have tea and enjoy their time together. In the end, that's all that matters, Bernard tells them. Nice to see Vincent, too.

Other characters
Miles / Eloise / Christian / Bram / Frank Lapidus

Double Take
--Statue of human body with crocodile head is definitely not Anubis, as previously speculated, but Sobek, the Egyptian crocodile god. Some Egyptian creation stories have Sobek creating the world after coming out of the waters of chaos, but he eventually became more associated with the fertility of the Nile
--Jack getting an Apollo candy bar out of the candy machine in the hospital
--I had no problems with Phil being impaled by a long piece of rebar at the Swan Station as the Incident was unfolding. Bye bye Phil. You were a douche-bag for punching Juliet

Funny
--"It's always something with you people. We traveled back 30 years in time and you're still trying to find ways to shoot each other?" - Rose to Kate, Juliet and Sawyer
--"Don't worry dude. Everything will be fine when Jack changes the future...or the past...one of those," Hurley to the injured Sayid
--Sawyer referring to Juliet changing her mind about getting off the sub as "The Great Sub Escape"

Interesting
1. Not-Jacob to Jacob, referring to the sailing ship (the Black Rock, perhaps?), approximately 1800s: "We brought them here. You're still trying to prove me wrong. They come...fight...they destroy...they corrupt." To which Jacob replies: "They only fight once."
2. Not-Jacob telling Jacob that one day he'll find a loophole to kill Jacob
3. Locke to Ben: "Despite your loyal service to the Island, you got cancer. You had to watch your own daughter gunned down right in front of you. And your reward for those sacrifices? You were banished. And you did all this for a man you've never even met. Why the hell wouldn't you want to kill Jacob?" So, Locke (under Not-Jacob's guidance) gets Sawyer to kill his father (Cooper, the con-man who led to Sawyer's parents death), and gets Ben to kill Jacob
4. Charlie's DriveShaft ring found by Sun in Aaron's old crib
5. It was a long time coming...I refer to the Jack and Sawyer fight. Both of these guys can take a punch, eh? Or, since both were touched by Jacob/Not-Jacob, maybe they still can't die, so no matter how hard the smacked each other, both would've survived anyway
6. The circle of dark sand was broken around the cabin where Jacob/Not-Jacob was being held
7. Lost episodes usually end with the black screen, and word LOST in white. But this episode ended with a white screen and black lettering of LOST. Is this a subtle sign that previously things were being run/controlled by Not-Jacob and the times were dark, but next season will be dominated by good? Am I spending too much time on this??

Questions Answered
1. Pierre Chang's left arm is crushed/injured by metal being sucked into the shaft at the Swan Station construction site
2. The Incident is the release of the EM force during the drilling at the Swan Station construction site, or it occurs because of the bomb, but it's here that it occurs
3. The answer to "what lies in the shadow of the statue?" is, "he who will protect us", but Richard said it in Latin ("Ille qui nos omnes servabit")
4. Jacob's lists had the names of the people that he had been recruiting for the upcoming...war?

Questions
1. What was the loophole Not-Jacob found in order to kill Jacob? Maybe it is that Not-Jacob can't kill Jacob, and must find another way to do it, in this case, using Ben
2. So, ultimately, it seems that the people brought to the Island are just game pieces for an eternal war of good vs evil with the two entities, Jacob and Not-Jacob, being the game players. Humans are just the game pieces, like pieces in a backgammon game, with one set light, and one set dark. Or chess pieces. Some have to be sacrificed to achieve victory. But what is the victory? And what are the gods/entities playing this game? Are they Egyptian gods?
3. What is in the guitar case that Hurley is carrying around that he got from the cab ride with Jacob?
4. The screen explodes in white with the detonation of the bomb-core...what does the explosion cause? Jacob, as he lay dying from being stabbed by Ben, said "They're coming...they're coming". Who are 'they'? If the bomb re-sets the time-loop, then it's likely 'they' would be Kate, Jack, Hurley, Jin, Miles, Sawyer (Juliet?) returning to the 2007 timeline. They may be the ones who will stand up to Not-Locke/Not-Jacob. Maybe.
5. How will Lost finish up? What will be the final scene? The end of the war, but since everything repeats, will we see another plane crashing on the Island with all new players as the cycle begins again?
6. Who is Widmore fighting for? Who is Eloise fighting for? Who are the Dharma Initiative fighting for?
7. Who broke the circle of sand at the cabin that let Jacob/Not-Jacob out of the cabin, which may have been a prison of sorts? The circle was likely some mystical force designed to hold the entity inside this cabin, but who would have opened up the circle, allowing Jacob to get out? And who had been living there instead (Rose & Bernard, perhaps?)
8. Where is Claire? Was she ever visited by one of the Jacobs?
9. With the black/white theme still in my head, I can't help but now wonder if the bodies dubbed Adam and Eve by Jack are the bodies of Rose and Bernard, who would also be black/white?
10. What destroyed the statue?
11. What is the SMonster's role in all of this? In Roman and Greek mythology, Cerberus was a three-headed dog that guarded the gates of Hades to prevent any souls that were brought there from escaping, similar to the way the SMonster guards the Island. Does SMonster serve a role like this, protecting the Island and deciding who lives/dies? Remember: Locke has stared into the SMonster, and it let him go, and also Sayid. Why? It killed Eko and was called by Ben to attack Keamy's men. So what is it? Who does it fight for?
12. We still haven't been introduced to Alvar Hanso, so is he involved in this somehow?
13. Was it Jacob or Not-Jacob that has been using Christian Shephard's body? The reasons would be far different for each one, so it would seem important to know who has been appearing as Christian.
14. "If that's Locke, who's in there?" asks Sun when she's sees Locke's dead body after having seen Locke go into the statue base. Good question, Sun, good question.

I'm going to once again reference the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Cause and Effect, because I think this is still a similar theme, with the Island being caught in some kind of time-loop. The more times you go through the loop, the more memory you have of the previous experiences eventually allowing you full knowledge of how to escape the loop. In the Lost scenario, I think they've done all of this before, a couple of times, perhaps. However, the first time through, for instance, Desmond was on the Island, and forgot to push the button, but there was no Oceanic 815 to bring down, and the result of the huge EM release caused the Island, and time itself, to go back to the start. So, the whole process begins again, but the next time through, let's say, Not-Jacob knows to get the Oceanic Flight involved, and this time when Desmond forgets to push the button, the EM release down Oceanic 815, and the time loop continues but this time, with our Losties involved in the story. It's taken a long time to get all the pieces in play, which is why Not-Locke said to Jacob, "You have no idea what I've gone through to be here."

Well, that's it gang. At least until January/February 2010. Good news! There are only approximately 255 more days until the final season of Lost begins! (I wish I could turn the Island-Wheel and jump forward to start watching it now...)

Feel free to share your views, theories, money....remember: it's good vs evil. Muahhahhahahahaha!

Have a great summer.

Boston Bruins....Game 7 vs Carolina

I'm afraid to post before the game is even played...y'know, for fear of "cursing" the B's.

But...C'Mon Bruins!!!  Beat Carolina tonight...for me.  Please?

I sure hope this kid is at the game again. He was at Game 5 and nobody was having more fun than him!  He was shown briefly on the VS broadcast.  It all gets funny at about the 1 minute mark of the video.  Someone at the game was filming the video highlights on the scoreboard during a break in the action. Dropkick Murphy's Shipping Off to Boston rockin' the crowd.

Wednesday's Word

Word: Dub around (V.)

Definition: to putter without much accomplishment

Usage:

"Pat likes to dub around in that canoe, but she still can't paddle a straight line."

(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)

Did You Know Tuesday

Did you that the highest selling liquor in Maine is Allen's Coffee Brandy?  Though I don't know anybody who drinks this stuff, in 2008 more than 1,063,000 bottles were sold and that was nearly 40,000 more than were sold in 2007.  This product accounts for $12.8 million in revenue.

Behind this foundation for a sombrero were Orloff Vodka in second place (276,000 bottles) and in third was Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum (264,000).

I'm just waiting to hear about the highest selling beer, though I'm afraid it'll be something shitty like a Budweiser product.

**Figures according to Maine's Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations

Monday Morning Chuckle

I've never been to Cleveland.  How about you?

Lost, Season 5, Episode 15
Follow The Leader

Daniel: Okay, I guess he's dead. And as we've been told, dead is dead. Well, except when it's not.

Locke: Claims his place as leader of the Others. Brings Richard with him into the jungle for the purpose of catching up with himself during a previous time jump. He will have Richard remove the bullet in his leg received when shot by Ethan during the time-jump. He also tells Richard to give the message that he needs to bring everyone back from the mainland, and that he'll have to die to come back. FREAKY! Once Richard returns from this task, which Locke watched from a distance, he tells Richard to take him to see Jacob, and he wants to take the entire camp to see Jacob with him. He tells them all that the plans to kill Jacob when he gets there. Maybe Jacob, as happened to Locke, must be "killed" in order for things to set themselves straight...?

Ben: Is now the second fiddle guy behind Locke, and he doesn't like it. Ben is surprised at Locke's timing in getting to the downed plane in time to have Richard go meet up with him, to which Locke replies "The Island told me". Ben has never talked to Jacob, which makes sense since Ben appears to have been a fill-in leader while the Island waited for Locke to be ready to take on this role. If this is the case, then this might explain why Ben is still so cold toward Locke and his desire to go back to see Jacob and why Ben is pissed that Jacob talked to Locke. Ben's devotion to Jacob is similar to a person's devotion to a god they can't prove exists....he's never seen him or talked to him, but worships him without question.

Richard: He's an advisor who has held this role for a very, very long time, according to Ben. He tells Sun that he was on the Island in 1977, but saw all of them (Jin, Kate, Jack, et al) die, but does not offer how. In the end, Richard seems to have started to question himself in choosing Locke after Locke talks about having to kill Jacob. His brief conversation with Ben implies that neither of them are sure if Locke is the person who should be leading them.

Eloise/Ellie: After shooting Daniel, she sees the journal and recognizes her handwriting in the message she would write in the future to her son, Daniel. Relying on Jack and Kate (who are now on the outs with the Dharma Initiative group), she sets off to take them to the Jughead bomb, now buried in the concrete and under the Swan Station construction. She tells Charles Widmore that she will be going and that she's taking Daniel's body with her.

Jack: Starting to sound like Locke, eh? Jack believes that setting off the bomb will re-set everything. But what Jack doesn't understand is that even if the Oceanic 815 flight still continued on its way to LA, the only thing that really changes is that they land in LA, not the fact that this will prevent any future tragedies from happening because tragedies happen every day, not just on the Island. For Jack, it seems that he's just trying to find his destiny in the way Locke is finding his. Everything Jack has tried to do to help the group has failed, so it seems he's finally conceding that he must let destiny take him where it wants. But Jack is less about destiny taking over than he is about forcing things to happen. Jack is instead denying what has happened to them for the previous three years instead of taking the lessons he's learned during that time. Jack doesn't seem to be finding redemption, which is an underlying theme of the show.

Kate: Kate does not want to re-set everything. Tells Sayid that she and Sawyer brought Ben, whom Sayid assumed was dead, to the Others to be saved. She asks Sayid and Jack, "When did shooting kids and blowing up hydrogen bombs become okay?" She thinks Jack is as crazy as Locke because of the "this is our destiny" comment. I'll give Kate credit in that she's still the only one who hasn't caved to the idea that they need to be there. Kate still has a sense of loyalty to the Oceanic survivors (or she's doing it all for Sawyer, but I hope not) and is possibly still on her mission to rescue Claire.

Sayid: Returns with guns-a-blazing and takes out one of Eloise's men when he was about to shoot Kate. It looks like Sayid and Jack will be working together.

Sawyer: To get off the Island with Juliet before the upcoming incident, he agrees to provide information to Radzinsky. We aren't shown or told what information he gives up, but he and Juliet do board the sub. "Good riddance," he says as the lowers into the sub hatch. Hopefully he and Juliet didn't go and sell everybody out cuz that would make them totally jerks. It seems more likely that Sawyer the con-man told them something of a lie. We'll see.

Pierre Chang: Confirms with Miles and Hurley that they are indeed from the future. He wants to get people off the Island just as Daniel told him to do because of the upcoming incident. His attempt to convince Radzinsky to clear the Island is ignored until Sawyer cuts a deal.

Radzinsky: Brutally beats Sawyer trying to get information out of him concerning where Kate and him took Ben. Also tells Horace that he is no longer in control, signs that the peaceful hippie-dom of the Dharma Initiative is starting to unravel. Man, that's way out. Regarding Radzinsky, he likely assigns himself to the Swan Station in the future if he ends up learning what the Others/Hostiles are going to try to do with the hydrogen bomb.

Miles: Understands why his father made them leave the Island and seems to have a bit of resolution regarding his father.

The Island: So, when did a population first exist on the Island? Was it back in Ancient times (Egyptians)? While we know some people arrived on the Black Rock (which would tie-in Hanso and the Dharma Initiative), we don't know if there was there a population of people already there. We know that the Dharma Initiative was there in more recent history and we've seen other people arriving on the Island, but in smaller groups (Rousseau and her team; the Oceanic 815 passengers; the freighter people; the Ajira passengers), but we have yet to learn if there was an existing group of people who have lived there forever, or at least pre-Dharma. What if the Island is like Oz (so frequently referenced in the show) and Jacob turns out to be nothing but "a man behind the curtain"? Who is in charge of the Island? An entity that isn't seen but controls the body of someone who has already died (i.e. Jacob)? This might explain why Jacob is so revered by the likes of Richard and the hostiles, but it still doesn't explain why it exists and what it is trying to accomplish with its human chess pieces.

Other characters
Hurley / Sun / Phil / Jin / Charles Widmore

Double Take
--More Egyptian heiroglypics on the walls of the underwater area called he Tunnels by Eloise

Funny
--Hurley making sure to grab some Dharma Vanilla Cookies with the other food-stuffs
--Chang getting Hurley to confirm that they are indeed from the future ("What year were you born?", "Who's the president?")

Interesting
1. Watching Locke watch himself near the crashed drug plane. I guess it does not create any sort of issues to have the same person appear with themselves in another timeline
2. Phil hitting Juliet was uncool, and me thinks he will eventually pay for that
3. The underwater entrance to the Tunnels
4. In the 1977 timeline, Radzinsky is acting like a psycho in his reaction to Sawyer, but we know from Kelvin, who told Des that Radzinsky killed himself with a shotgun blast (or maybe Kelvin killed him and was lying to Des?), that it was Radzinsky who cut out the 3 minutes of the Swan orientation video, and since that video carried a 1980, so we know he'll be around at least until 1980

Questions Answered
1. Pierre Chang does indeed force his wife to leave the Island to take their son (Miles) with her
2. Charlotte is also seen leaving during the time that they are loading people onto the sub after Chang tells everyone to leave the Island

Questions
1. So, with Daniel's death, it's possible that his solution to the Island's time issues will not be resolved by the detonation of the hydrogen bomb? If so, can anything correct the upcoming incident?
2. If the Others do end up having to move the Jughead bomb, how will they move something so big and let's not forget, leaking radiation? I'm sorry, did you say they could use the SMonster to do it? Well, you may have something there.
3. Will Desmond still be able to change things as was hypothesized by Daniel? Daniel's theories could prove wrong (remember: the Universe is self-correcting) and if this is the case, then Desmond would not be the one who can change things in the timeline.
4. Does the SMonster get around the Island by traveling in the underground Tunnels? Do the Tunnels "lie in the shadow of the statue?"
5. Why the ship-in-the-bottle? Is this a reference to the Black Rock? Maybe Richard (and Jacob?) arrived on the Island on the Black Rock and Jacob was chosen by the Island to be the link with the people on the there? Perhaps the Black Rock's arrival on the Island re-awakened whatever spirit/entity lives there and it took a dead Jacob's body to use as its voice? But what would this entity be? A long dormant Egyptian spirit (Anubis?) or something like that? I'm just supposin' here...
6. What/who is Jacob?
7. What will Ilana's role be in all of this and who is she working for? (I'm still thinking she's with Eloise somehow)
8. I ask it every week...where is Claire? Where is Vincent? Does Aaron end up having a role in all of this?
9. Will our Losties who are in 1977 somehow carry forward to land back in the 2007 timeline with Locke, Ben, Sun, etc?

Tune in next week for for the two-hour season finale: Lost, Season 5 Episodes 16 & 17 "The Incident Part I" and "The Incident Part 2".

Until then, grab yourself some Dharma Vanilla Cookies and get ready for the show!

Feel free to share your views, theories, money....

Wednesday's Word

Word: Turned around. (Adj.)

Definition: lost

A euphamism. A hunter may have spent the better part of an afternoon getting out of a cedar swamp on a cloudy day when he'd forgotten his compass, but if asked why he's late for supper will note merely that he'd been "turned around some." If he had to spend the night in that swamp, he'd been "some turned around."

Rural folk get "lost" in the city, but "turned around" in the woods.

(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)

Did You Know Tuesday

Did you know that there are over 20,000 varieties of beer brewed worldwide? I'd like to say I've tried them all, but I'm about 1, 269 short of reaching that goal.  **burp**

More interesting beer factoids can be found here.

Monday Morning Chuckle

Lost, Season 5, Episode 14
The Variable

This was Lost's 100th episode (the clip-shows aren't counted).

Daniel: Jeez...I feel so sorry for Daniel. He's wicked smaht, and after having been manipulated since he was a child to show an unwavering loyalty to a scheming mother, he returns to the Island from time spent in Ann Arbor (likely with the DeGroots/Dharma) in an attempt to stop the situation that seems to have gotten this all started: the building of the Swan Station and the subsequent release of the strong electromagnetic (EM) force that exists under that part of the Island. Unable to convince Pierre Chang that he is indeed from the future and can assist with the EM issue, he then wants Jack and Kate to take him to The Others to plead his case. We also see Daniel interact with young-Charlotte and he tells her to leave the Island when Dr Chang tells them to. Will Daniel's attempts to change things work? It seems doubtful if, as Eloise has said in the past, the Universe will self-correct. During a previous time-hop, he talked to Richard Alpert (circa 1954'ish) regarding the Jughead hydrogen bomb that was on the Island, and told them to bury it in concrete. Hoping for a conversation with Richard about this issue, he goes into the Others camp with a gun drawn, and while Richard seems calm and doesn't think he'll fire the gun, Ellie (his mother, but not yet) shoots him in the back. As he lays on the ground wounded, he says to her "you knew all along this would happen and you sent me back anyway. I'm your son". So sad for him to be betrayed by her. I don't believe he'll die, however, and I have solid reason, especially the video I posted a couple of weeks ago of Pierre Chang sending message from 1977 to 2007...you can hear Daniel's voice in the background. It seems unlikely he had time to make the video message with Chang yet. Daniel ends up being one of the rare characters who does not have father issues, but a mother issue.

Eloise Hawking: The Worlds Greatest Mom.....not. For as long as we can tell, she has been manipulating Daniel into eventually solving (we think) the Island's special properties. And she's also been gearing him up to return to the Island, but not before he makes notes of his studies and revealing (at least to Jack and Kate) that the main issue with time travel is not the constants, but the variables (people). Eloise has disdain towards Charles Widmore and actually seems mad when she tells Charles that her sacrifice is that she sent Daniel back to the Island knowing full that he'll.....well, she doesn't finish the sentence, but we learn that she would've finished the sentence with the words "be killed". However, beyond all of this, Daniel had said that it was his mother who needs to get them where they belong.

Sawyer: As his guise continues to teeter on the side of collapsing, he tells Juliet she was right about their world crashing in with the return of Jack/Kate/Hurley/Jin. Though he and Juliet try to get away before they can be found, the shootout between Jack/Kate/Daniel and Radzinski and his men causes Radzinski to go to Sawyer's house. Upon arriving, they find Phil in the closet tied up, and Juliet and Sawyer are captured.

Juliet: She knew that things on the Island were going to change dramatically with the return of the O6. She, of course, is totally right. "It's over for us here" she tells Jack and Sawyer. It seems tensions have begun to flare up between Juliet and Sawyer as she makes sure that Sawyer still has her back, and he asks the same of her.

Charles Widmore: Daniel's father, with Eloise as the mother. So, this would be the union he had with someone from the Island. Ben had accused Charles of having another child with someone off the Island, so that child would be Penny (we don't know who Penny's mother is). It's interesting to note that Ben is not the only one trying to get people to the Island: not only did Widmore get Desmond to go to the Island (via the around-the-world boat race lie), he also got Daniel to go there to look into the Island's interesting properties. Interestingly enough, when speaking to Eloise about Penny, he says he had to sacrifice that relationship, but when Ben was talking about killing Penny, Widmore was in a much more protective stance regarding his daughter.

Pierre Chang: Though his part in this episode was brief, a couple of things happen involving him. First, he finds Daniel's claims of being from the future to be absurd. He also doesn't believe Daniel when he tells him that adult-Miles is his son.

Other characters
Phil / Hurley / Kate / Jack / Radzinsky / Miles

Double Take
--Pretty amazing that child-Daniel knew that the metronome had ticked 864 times while he was playing the piano
--Whoa! How about that shootout
--Code for the Pylons 1-4-1-7-1-7
--The flashback to Daniel crying in front of the TV after seeing the news story about the Oceanic 815 wreckage

Funny
--Well, I hope people are finally happy to see Daniel wearing something other than the white shirt and black tie
--"You guys were in 1954? Like, Fonzie-time?" -Hurley
--Jack to Daniel: "You need a gun to talk to your mother?" Daniel: "You don't know my mother."

Interesting
1. As a child, Daniel loves playing the piano, but his mother has other ideas for his brilliant mind, and when she says the piano would be a distraction from him fulfilling his destiny, he says "I'll make time"
2. Daniel was at Dharma headquarters in Ann Arbor
3. Daniel asks Jack if Eloise told Jack it was his "destiny" to go back to the Island. The word destiny has now been used several times by people: Locke feels he has a destiny; Eloise told Daniel about his destiny; Eloise told Jack it was his destiny to return
4. Eloise wrote in the cover of the journal she gave Daniel for his college graduation "No matter what, remember, I will always love you. Mother" She knew she would eventually shoot him on the Island
5. Theresa was Daniel's girlfriend at Oxford...she's the one we saw lying catatonic in the hospital in the Jughead episode
6. Widmore telling Daniel that he and Eloise are 'old friends' after Widmore tells him "you're a man of special gifts" and Daniel says he sounds like his mother. Yeah, no kidding
7. Even after all of his calculations and time-jumping, Daniel confesses to child-Charlotte that he may not actually be able to fix things
8. In the flashback scene of Daniel watching the news about the recovery of the (staged) Oceanic 815 plane crash, we're reminded of his memory issues (related to his experiments), and we later hear Eloise tell him that if he goes to the Island as part of Widmore's team, the Island would heal him, which it did regarding this memory loss (remember when he and Charlotte first got to the Island, she was testing his memory to see if it was indeed coming back)
9. When Eloise is at hospital to see Desmond, she has conversation with Penny (who is the daughter of Widmore and someone else) and tells Penny that she is the casualty of a bigger conflict

Questions Answered
1. Daniel is the son of Eloise Hawking and Charles Widmore (something that was surmised in the wrap-up for Whatever Happened, Happened on April 3, 2009)
2. The variable is people (kind of an easy way out, but it is effective)
3. The button had to be pushed every 108 minutes in the Swan Hatch because of the (upcoming) accident in which the Dharma team (led by Chang) will drill into this pocket of electromagnetic power. Pressing the button will be required in order to release small amounts of the EM so that it doesn't build up. The one time Desmond forgot to press the button, it brought down Oceanic 815, which later caused Daniel to arrive on the Island on the freighter, and this is what set off the chain of events that we've been watching. Daniel believes detonating the Jughead bomb will prevent all of this from happening to them
4. The massive amounts of concrete used to encase the EM energy in the Swan Hatch is more, according to Daniel, than used at Chernobyl. Sayid also made this comment when they first found the Swan Hatch
5. Widmore has given up contact with Penny (so Penny also has father issues)

Questions
1. We know that Daniel returns to the Island in the sub, but, when did he leave to go to Ann Arbor? After time-hopping back to 1977, we never see him leave
2. What was the experiment that caused Daniel to have the memory issues, and also put Theresa in the coma?
3. Will it be Desmond and Penny who eventually become the Adam & Eve bodies found by Jack in the caves after Oceanic 815 first crashed on the Island?
4. The answer appears to be a 'yes' at this point, but I'll ask it anyway: is the release of the EM force - the larger one we haven't seen but know is coming - the 'incident' that Pierre Chang (then known as Marvin Candle) mentioned one of the Dharma vids, and which also likely will result in the loss of his left arm?
5. Where the hell is Claire? And Vincent?

Tune in in two weeks for Lost, Season 5 Episode 15 "Follow the Leader". Until then, don't go storming into someone else's camp carrying a gun.

As a note: the final episode looks like it will be a two-parter scheduled to air Wednesday, May 13, effectively episodes 16 and 17 for the season, titled "The Incident (parts 1 & 2)". Then the long wait until next January.

Feel free to share your views, theories, money....

In the meantime, the video I mentioned earlier that some of you may (or may not) have linked to a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned it. You can hear a baby crying (baby-Miles?), you will also hear adult-Miles off-camera, and I believe Daniel off-camera also.