Month: April 2010

Springing a Jack Trap

Tonight’s episode of 24 was a study in the paths its main characters have taken.  For one, Jack Bauer continued doing what he’s done at least once a season since the show started: going rogue.  Not just operating outside the authority of the U.S. government, but taking action against it.

On the other hand, you have President Allison Taylor, who we learned last season was a person of such character that she’d sacrifice her family to do the right thing for her country.  But things have changed this season: she’s travelling down the path of corruption, escorted by former President Charles Logan, the poster boy for presidential corruption.

So Jack is doing what he’s done many times before to varying degrees of success.  And the President is uneasily participating in a cover-up to secure a peace deal.  It will be interesting to see how Jack and the President converge and if both, one or neither will get what they want.

Also tonight, we met two new characters.  Michael Madsen is playing the part of Gene Hackman in Enemy of the State. And one of the new American villains, a private security contractor, is played by D.B. Sweeney, who hasn’t been seen since (one of The Civee’s favorite movies) The Cutting Edge.

Continue reading “Springing a Jack Trap” →

King Tom

A New Hope

As I mentioned in a few other places last week, The Civee and I now have a daughter. Hope Rosemary Chansky was born last Tuesday.

Hope was originally due Wednesday April 7, but with my luck I knew she’d be born on a Tuesday, which is not only the day of the week on which most babies are born (or so we were told), but it’s also the day on which Lost airs. So she didn’t get here on the seventh.  On Monday (the 12th), The Civee had an appointment during which the doctor found her amniotic fluid was low. The doctor told us to go home, get our bags, grab something to eat and come back to the hospital since The Civee needed to be induced.

Once we got back to the hospital, I saw how strong my wife truly was- she made it more than nine hours without any pain relief.  At about 6:15 a.m. we started pushing and about a half hour later, she was born. She was 20 inches long and 7 lbs 15 ounces. She was a little bit noisy at first, but the doctors said she was healthy. Hope scored a pair of nines on her Agpar tests (that’s out of 10, which is virtually unheard of).

Even before she was born, we’ve known a few things about her.  We’ve had her name picked out for quite some time.  Hope came from a long three-a.m. philoshphical conversation The Civee and I had sometime back around aught-two or aught-three .  And Rosemary is a combination of my grandmother’s name along with a shared part of our mothers’ first names.

We’ve also known that she would have a cleft lip and palate. This is a common and correctable situation. Sure, she has a special smile, but it causes her no pain and the surgeries to fix her palate and lip are routine.  To be honest, looking at her, I don’t even notice it.  The only time it comes up is during feeding.  Because her palate is not completely formed, she is unable to create the suction necessary to feed from a bottle.  The solution is a special squeezable bottle combined with a great sense of timing.  I find myself very involved when it’s time to feed her, starting out with talking to her, squeezing gently once or twice, waiting for a response, and then watching as I start a routine of “one…two…squeeze” and so on.  It’s actually kind of fun, and as she gets used to it, she goes a bit faster, making me go even faster.

Sure, it’s only been a bit more than a week. And I’ve changed numerous diapers, been peed on (and worse) and haven’t gotten a full night’s sleep (and all the above applies to The Civee as well).  But it’s been a lot of fun hanging out with and getting to know this incredible little person.  And we’re really looking forward to growing along with her.  And I think I’ve learned the most important lesson of fatherhood: nobody bothers a dude with his baby asleep on his chest.

(If you don’t get the titular line of this post, please go back and re-watch Star Wars Episode IV)

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The Last Recruit for Team fLocke

A while back, Charles Widmore told John Locke that a war was coming to the Island and unless John was on the Island when it happened, the wrong side would win.

In a way, John ended up back on the Island. So did Widmore. And now, the first shots have been fired in the war between Widmore and fLocke (and possibly Jacob).

And we have to wait two weeks to find out what happens next.

Continue reading “The Last Recruit for Team fLocke” →

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Charles [Logan] In Charge

Last week, I was unable to write the weekly 24 recap and after finally getting caught up, I can say that I missed a lot.

Now that President Hassan is dead, the focus of the season seems to be bringing the Russians and the IRKians together to complete the peace treaty.  The Russians clearly don’t want to sign on, so they’re playing tough to get.  To get the Russians on board, President Taylor has enlisted the help of one of the series’ best villains, former President Charles Logan, last seen stabbed through the neck by his crazy ex-wife.

Meanwhile, Agent Renee may have spotted a Russian mobster as part of a paramedic team, but Jack told her to forget it.  They went back to Jack’s place for a romantic interlude where, after the aforementioned interlude, the previously mentioned mobster picked Renee off from across the street.

And at the beginning of this week’s episode, Jack is pissed.

Continue reading “Charles [Logan] In Charge” →

King Tom

Putting Jack Bauer On Hold

Because The Civee is going to give birth tonight (or early tomorrow morning), there won’t be a timely 24 recap this week.

Also, I’ve been unable to convince The Civee to name our daughter Chlöe.  You win some and you lose some.  I hope everyone out there has a good night and enjoys the episode.

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Desmond: Making Sure Everyone Lives Happily Ever After

In any Lost universe, Desmond Hume is special.

We’ve heard characters who are familiar with the intricacies of time and space tell Desmond he’s special.  We’ve seen Desmond’s consciousness go back and forth in time.  And now, we’ve seen Desmond serve as a one-man link between the on-Island reality we’ve come to know over the past six years and the Sideways reality Lost’s final season has been based around. Continue reading “Desmond: Making Sure Everyone Lives Happily Ever After” →

King Tom2 Comments

Jack Bauer Vs. New York Traffic

Well that was surprising.

First off, I didn’t realize until late this afternoon that tonight’s episode of 24 was to be two hours.  But the clock is winding down, and with May a handful of weeks away, I guess FOX decided to speed up the final hours of the last longest day of Jack Bauer’s life.

As for surprising, well, (and this is something we’ve seen on 24 before), sometimes you (and in this case, Jack, President Taylor and the rest of CTU) have one of those days where you do everything right, hit all your marks, but everything goes wrong.  Well for Jack, it went very wrong…

Continue reading “Jack Bauer Vs. New York Traffic” →

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Any Day Now

The Civee (or more accurately, the baby) is due in four days, on Wednesday.  Although, the doctor says she could come any time before or after that date.

It’s a good thing that for the last few months, we’ve been concentrating on buying a house and moving into said house.  Because if we hadn’t, we’d be sitting around looking at each other (not that we don’t like doing that) waiting for the baby to get here.  As it has happened, we bought the house, painted, fixed some things up, moved and got organized.  And while we still have a lot of things left to do, now we’re sitting around and waiting for the baby to get here.

Until then, we’re not trying to plan too much.  And while I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few months talking to The Civee’s belly and telling my daughter not to come out on a Tuesday, that’s still very likely.  So I may miss a night of Lost (or 24, and as my luck would have it, I’d miss an episode just when the preview looks like it will be classic Bauer), but it will be worth it.

I’m not sure I’ll get much blogging done in the hospital.  But once we’re there, I’ll be twittering on a somewhat regular basis (twitter.com/tomchansky).  And while I may have time to get a few more blog entries in before then, in case I can’t, I’ll see you on the other side.

King Tom3 Comments