The twist at the end was great. Cylon and human in endless cycle of creation, evolution and destruction was a creative touch. Universe as endless cycle is the best philosophical explanation for the meaning of the existence. And, I will admit to not seeing that twist coming.

It was very easy to hate Gaius Baltar for 60-some episodes, but the final two minutes of exposition was a clean, simple explanations for a previously inexplicable plot crutch. Hat tip to the writers and to everyone who ever followed a self-destructive romantic urge.

27 years later this is still the gold standard by which all commercials are measured. But a gazillion dollars of advertising haven't been a complete waste. There are some gems floating on the radio spectrum to the outer galaxy.

These commercials were culled from my own memories and the nominations of friends. It's more heavily weighted to recent years, but who cares. No order either. Free-form Artist's Tuesday.

(Apologies that these links don't open in a separate tab. I'm still a technical noob.)

Great music, great visuals and a wrenching narrative twist. Paging all hopeless romantics.

You can have more fun here: http://www.retrocommercial.com/

I've lived in 3 states in the past 6 years, all while working for the same company. Despite significant geographic and demographic differences between each of these states, my colleagues live achingly similar lives.

Here are the most significant differences for upper-middle class people between each location, in my opinion:

1) Idaho - White collar professionals live extremely well in Idaho relative to other states. I had friends at my firm with one income, four kids, and school loans who were able to afford a boat and two new cars. I recognize this has changed a bit, since house prices are still a fair amount lower than the rest of the nation, I think this is still true.

2) Oregon - Community participation is highly valued across all religious and political persuasions. This can take the form of volunteering, charitable contributions or simply attending local beer and wine festivals. This happens on a much more limited scale in Idaho and not at all in New York.

3) New York - Class envy is the order of the day. I've always read about how intense this emotion is on the East coast, and everything I read was right. NJ natives have a complex about not being from NYC, lawyers are jealous of bankers, Columbia alums speak disparagingly of Harvard, and on up the food chain. I imagine the Giulianis love to put pins in their Bloomberg voodoo doll.

Greatly overstated differences:

1) Idaho - The impact of religion (particularly LDS) is greatly overstated. The Mormons I know don't have have secular friends, similarly for Christians and the irreligious. (It really sucks that there isn't a better word to describe sanity) Yes, it's a hard-right Republican state, but unless you're trying to get birth control at 10pm or liquor on a Sunday, this doesn't much affect your day to day life. The one exception I will readily grant is that Mormons absolutely protect their own in a business setting.

2) Oregon - Being "green". Please. Friends who drove Toyota Priuses would take MULTIPLE international trips on a flying environmental cigar.

3) New York - The impact on day to day life of the "melting pot" of New York is dramatically overstated. Other than your subway ride and ordering your Subway sandwich, you are highly unlikely to interact with multiple races in a day.

Our debt to her as a family can't be measured.

It may be that our mythology about the Depression has outgrown its reality. But the Depression shaped everything about her view of the world. Savings and security were first, and first always.

That, and pride. She told the story that in elementary school all her family could afford was a peach sandwich, with two peach halves in bread. So, she would go behind the cafeteria and eat her lunch in private. That fierce defiance of her circumstances continued through her poverty, her lifelong marriage to an alcoholic, philandering husband and her commitment to instill a powerful sense of pride and self-worth in her children.

Carrying a family of alcoholics, high school dropouts and criminals up out of poverty, into college, and across the middle class threshold is no mean feat. Doing that all as a woman, in mid-20th century America, with little more than a high school education is nothing short of remarkable.

7 years after my last semester of college, I still find myself thinking in terms of winter = school/summer = break. Working for a company with a May fiscal year end probably exacerbates that.

You can take things even farther back in time and see that it's interesting that our agrarian rhythms live on long after we've disconnected ourselves from any actual reliance on the cycle of the seasons.

The case for a higher estate tax seems clear cut. I have yet to see any believable evidence that a higher marginal estate tax would disincentive people to work harder during their lives. A lower tax *may* encourage people to save more, but America needs more spending and less saving, so I don't think this is a desirable outcome.

The dark side of lower taxes on estates is that we inculcate our own version of the European aristocracy as wealth continues to grow across generations. We saw how that worked out.