Supreme Court Says the FCC Can Keep On Fining!

By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 12:12 PM - 1 Comment

The U.S. Supreme Court has handed down its ruling in FCC vs. Fox Television Stations, the case that challenged the FCC’s new policy of levying fines even on “fleeting expletives” on television.

By one of those 5-4 decisions that have become common ever since Sam Alito joined the court, the Supreme Court upheld the FCC’s rule, finding that it is “neither arbitrary nor capricious.” The split was the usual one: the majority consisted of the four most conservative justices (Scalia, who wrote the majority opinion, Thomas, Alito, Roberts) plus the moderately conservative Kennedy, while the dissent was filed by Justice Stevens, joined by Ginsburg, Breyer, and Souter.

SCOTUSBlog has more on this case. Basically the court punted on the free-speech issues, with Scalia specifically saying that the decision was not concerned with the First Amendment questions, but merely with whether the FCC is allowed to change its rules. The majority ruled that the FCC provided sufficient explanation of why the rule-change isn’t arbitrary, and everything else is being saved for a future case.

Scalia, as expected, filled his decision with little shots at “the foul-mouthed glitteratae of Hollywood” and the notion that the FCC rule is not arbitrary because it’s aimed to counteract “the pervasiveness of foul language, and the coarsening of public entertainment in other media.” He even wrote that a future First Amendment challenge might succeed if the FCC bans “certain language that is beyond the Commission’s reach under the Constitution,” a clear indication that he doesn’t think any of George Carlin’s Words should be beyond the FCC’s reach. Clarence Thomas, who has more of a libertarian streak than Scalia (and both are more libertarian than George W. Bush’s two appointees, who are straight-up statist in their conservatism), seemed to express more doubts about the idea that the FCC has a right to regulate language.

The case will go back to lower courts, and if the First Amendment challenge ever reaches the SCOTUS, it’s hard to say what might happen: Scalia, Roberts and Alito are probably guaranteed votes for the FCC, but Kennedy and Thomas are less certain.

Pakistan steps up offensive

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 11:53 AM - 0 Comments

Following intense U.S. pressure, Pakistan is stepping up its offensive against Taliban fighters who have spread into Buner district, about 100 km from Islamabad, despite promises to pull back. The Pakistani air force attacked suspected Taliban hideouts in Buner, amid reports of heavy fighting in nearby Lower Dir district, from which thousands of Pakistani civilians have fled. Pakistan effectively ceded control of the once-tranquil Swat Valley to the Taliban earlier this year in a peace deal that allowed sharia law to be implemented in the region if the Taliban would agree to disarm. Instead, the Taliban are using force to push their way into neighbouring districts such as Buner and Lower Dir.

BBC News

Terrorism suspect waterboarded 83 times

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 11:51 AM - 3 Comments

Americans have long known that their government was torturing terrorism suspects, but many accepted it as a necessary evil that got results. That perception was shaped by some timely media managing, like an interview ABC News broadcast in late 2007 with a former CIA operative. The agent, who was involved in the interrogation of an Al Qaeda member captured in 2002 said the terrorist became cooperative after just “20 or 30 seconds” of waterboarding. New documents show the man in question was actually waterboarded 83 times.

The New York Times

Exclusive! Doucet memory loss explained! Rare footage! Must credit Macleans.ca!

By Andrew Coyne - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 11:44 AM - 5 Comments

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.2439863&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]

When people make pigs sick

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 11:26 AM - 1 Comment

Here’s an under-reported aspect of the threat from a possible influenza epidemic that started in Mexico. In Manitoba, where the pork industry is big business, they’re worried about people infecting pigs. The Manitoba Pork Council’s experts say “it’s more likely people will infect pigs than vice versa.” Hog operators are limiting the number of people interacting with their animals, and pigs coming in from the U.S. are being quarantined and inspected for signs of disease. So far no swine flu cases have cropped up in Manitoba, but hospitals across the province are on high alert.

Winnipeg Free Press

Wrecking the good pirate's name

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 11:22 AM - 0 Comments

The antics of pirates off the coast of Somalia have dominated headlines. And it’s been nothing but a big headache for enthusiasts of the other kind of pirates: the “aaar-matey” variety. Fans of the swashbuckling, skull-and-crossbones kind of pirate, who like to dress up as modern-day Blackbeards, say the Somali teenagers with their AK-47s are ruining the pirate’s folksy image and are nothing like the sailors who roamed the seas in the late 17th century. “We’re trying to take something bad [from history] and make it halfway decent,” one pirate impersonator tells the Wall Street Journal. “They’re not helping us at all.”
Wall Street Journal

Sick as a baby

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 11:07 AM - 0 Comments

New risk factors for autism have been identified, and they all have to do with birth. Children who are firstborn or were born breech, or whose mothers were over 34 when they were delivered, all face roughly twice the chance of developing the brain disorder, which affects communication and social skills. The University of Utah researchers who made the discovery plan on replicating their study to see if they find similar results. They’re not sure why these prenatal factors influence the risk of autism. Genetics and neuromuscular dysfunction may be part of the explanation.

Science Daily

Maude didn’t have a "shmashmortion”

By Anne Kingston - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 10:37 AM - 5 Comments

Bea Arthur, who died on Saturday at age 86, became famous for portraying women who were brave, ballsy breakers of TV taboos. As the caustic divorcee Dorothy Zbornak on Golden Girls which aired between 1985 and 1992, she was part of an all-female ensemble in which older women were portrayed as socially engaged, sexual and supportive of one another.  On Maude, which ran between 1972 and 1978, she played Maude Findlay a middle-aged  liberal feminist who confronted menopause, plastic surgery, and, most famously, abortion.  In all of the richly-deserved tributes pouring in, reference is inevitably made to Maude’s most groundbreaking legacy in presenting the first major character to have an abortion on prime-time television.  The two-part episode titled “Maude’s Dilemma” aired in the show’s first season [in 1972], two months before the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalized abortion in the U.S. Predictably, it proved incendiary: CBS was flooded with angry mail and dozens of stations refused to air the program.

The bold story line—one you’d never see on network TV today—was significant not only for presenting a taboo topic, but also in depicting abortion as a difficult decision faced not only by young, unmarried women. More remarkably, given the broad-brushed comedy of the program, was the sensitive and nuanced depiction of a complex and polarizing topic. The decision to have an abortion was presented as a dilemma, even for an entrenched feminist like Maude. The middle-aged character was hesitant and afraid to go through with it—in part because she had been raised during an era in which abortion was considered shameful and was often fatal. Even after she made her choice, she remained conflicted and sad, though not remorseful. The episode managed to make an impossibly subtle point: that upholding women’s “right to choose” doesn’t make one “pro-abortion.” It’s a semantic distinction, to be sure; yet it also reveals the field of gray that punctuates the more readily depicted black-and-white of the topic.

Continue…

Canada on Mexico: Don’t go unless you have to

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 10:20 AM - 3 Comments

Unless travel to Mexico is absolutely essential, Canadian health officials are urging citizens not to go. The outbreak of human swine flu, which has so far killed at least 152 people in Mexico, prompted the Public Health Agency of Canada to issue the warning late Monday. Travellers would be wise to get flu shots and wash hands often, the agency said. The U.S. has issued a similar warning. The World Health Organization, which on Monday raised the global pandemic level to 3, has urged against sealing borders and restricting travel, advocating instead for countries to contain outbreaks at home. Outside of Mexico, where 1,900 people have been hospitalized, cases of human swine flu have been confirmed in Canada, the U.S., Europe, New Zealand and Israel—although none have died. The six Canadians who fell ill have recovered.

CBC News

Fraser Institute Fantasyland

By Andrew Potter - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 8:55 AM - 100 Comments

The Fraser Institute’s long march from right-wing hysteria sheet to respectable and highly influential think-tank has been interesting to watch (and might be the subject of another post someday). But institutional memory is a powerful thing, and it still routinely tosses out stunt releases like “tax freedom day” (the Buy Nothing Day of the right) and this weird one today, lamenting the fact that “The average Canadian family spends nearly half its total income on taxes, more than it spends on food, clothing, and shelter.”. 

The heart of the study is an invidious contrast between the amount of their total income Canadians spend on food, clothing, and housing versus taxes today, compared with similar measures from 1961. And if you hate taxes, it doesn’t look good:

- In 2008, the average Canadian family earned an income of $71,764 and paid total taxes equaling $31,535-43.9 per cent of its income.

- In 1961, the average Canadian family earned an income of $5,000 and paid $1,675 in total taxes-33.5 per cent of its income.

And here’s what they have to offer in the way of analysis of these Shocking Figures:

“Canadian families have seen their total tax bill increase by an astounding 1,783 per cent over the past 47 years,” said Niels Veldhuis, the study’s co-author and the Institute’s director of fiscal studies.

“The tax burden faced by Canadians extends well beyond income tax. When you add up all the taxes Canadians pay to all levels of government, the typical family is sending more of its income to government than it spends on basic necessities such as food, clothing, and housing.” 

Get it? Food and clothing and housing are “necessities”. But taxes? That’s a “burden.”

Let’s look at it another way: Since 1961, the amount that Canadians spend collectively providing themselves with defence and other forms of security, health insurance, unemployment insurance, pensions, clean air and water, consumer protection, infrastructure,  research and education, and other public goods has increased by 1,783 percent per family. Astounding? I’ll say! Burden? Hardly. 

Despite what the Fraser Institute wants you to think, this is an entirely good thing. Only in the bizarro-world fantasies of anti-tax conservatives could a world where families spend over half their income on private necessities be considered preferable to the one we have today. If it’s invidious contrasts the Fraser folks are after, why look to 1961? Today, the average North American spends about 10 percent of disposable income on food alone. In 1933 it was more like 25 percent.

Ahh, but the tax “burden” was so much lower then.

(Not Exactly) Total Recall: Liveblogging Doucet at the Oliphant Inquiry (Day 2)

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 8:23 AM - 24 Comments

9:13:34 AM
Gather ’round, Oliphantiacs, as ITQ begins the (realtime) tale. It was a dark and stormy night — well, technically it’s morning, although you wouldn’t know it from the bleak grey of the sky. It certainly qualifies as *stormy*, however, which has made for waterlogged – and, as alway, umbrella-less – liveblogger, but she won’t let that stop her from savouring the second day of showstopping testimony from Fred Doucet. Honestly, it’s probably better than the idyllic sunshine of yesterday has been blown away by dark skies; it makes it much easier to resist the urge to play hookey and spend the afternoon skipping stones across the Ottawa River, although it’s going to make those power walks the various legal teams like to take through the grounds distinctly less enjoyable.

Anyway, I know, I know – you’re not here for the weather report. The hearing hasn’t yet gotten underway, but the witness – who I’ve not caught smiling yet – is already in his seat at the front of the room, and the various legal means are chatting amongst themselves. Meanwhile, the journalists – hey, that’s me! – are wondering whether we can expect something more in the way of substantial answers from Doucet than the various permutations of “I can’t recall” that marked yesterday’s performance.

9:29:19 AM
Just to remind y’all, tomorrow – that is, if they manage to finish with Doucet today – we get our first former prime minister: Kim Campbell will take the stand.

9:33:24 AM
And here we go!
Continue…

Jason Kenney is ironic

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 1:11 AM - 23 Comments

The Immigration Minister twitters about this afternoon’s QP.

Solid, straight questions from opposition today on the swine flu. Too bad that it takes something so grave to adopt such a tone.

'A work in progress'

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 12:49 AM - 13 Comments

It is, rather obviously, a bit soon to declare her handling of the swine flu outbreak a resounding success, but Canadian Press files a good quick take on Leona Aglukkaq’s performance in the early going.

The caution exhibited by the former health minister for the Nunavut territorial government apparently doesn’t just apply to pandemic decisions. Aglukkaq deflected almost all questions during her three news conferences to her officials, including chief public health officer Dr. David Butler-Jones…

Aglukkaq called the three opposition health critics Sunday before speaking to reporters about the flu outbreak, then arranged an in-depth briefing for them with her officials Monday. Her Sunday call, said Bennett, was “to ask for advice and also to make sure we were on the same page and comfortable with the path going forward.”

NDP health critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis described the Conservative minister’s gesture as a new experience — “quite a shock, actually.” ”For a rookie minister, she’s on top of this file and she’s responded very effectively,” said Wasylycia-Leis. “She’s probably one of the better rookie MPs in the House.”

Genocide remembered on the Hill

By Mitchel Raphael - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 12:31 AM - 3 Comments

The Congress of Canadian Armenians recently honoured MPs who had voted in 2003 to support a private member’s bill recognizing the Armenian genocide.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff is greeted by Azad Chichmanian of the Congress of Canadian Armenians.

Continue…

Barack Obama's 100 days of ‘change’

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Monday, April 27, 2009 at 10:00 PM - 2 Comments

In the span of 100 days in 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped his exile on the island of Elba, regained the crown of emperor, and then went down to eventual defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. In 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt used his first 103 days in office to launch an array of emergency legislation that remade the American economy and created the New Deal—in the process drawing comparisons to the fast-moving Corsican. Since then, it has been a ritual to judge presidents on their first 100 days—the period when maximum energy pulsates through the White House, with a new president enjoying public support and still far enough away from congressional mid-term elections that he can get the tough things done.

George W. Bush’s first 100 days appeared competent, if modest: he launched an initiative to allow faith-based groups to access government money for social programs, abandoned the Kyoto Protocol, initiated an energy task force, and began the push for education reform and tax cuts. Bill Clinton’s first 100 days were rockier: he succeeded in pushing through Congress a massive budget in record time but became mired in controversies over cabinet appointments, gays in the military, and the ill-fated health care reform led by his wife. Continue…

"I'm Too Fast To Let It Catch Me!" — Swine Flu Warnings From 1976

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, April 27, 2009 at 9:20 PM - 4 Comments

I checked to see if anyone had YouTub’d any clips from the last big swine flu scare, in 1976. Sure enough, there are two public-service commercials warning of the dangers of swine flu, and while I’m sure other people have linked to them already, they need to be seen as much as possible, because President Ford wants you to have the necessary information. The second one is probably better for its weird combination of apocalyptic fear with a La Ronde style story with a chirpy voice-over (“But Dottie had a heart condition, and she died!”):

The Commons: You bore us, Mr. Ignatieff

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, April 27, 2009 at 7:10 PM - 31 Comments

The Scene. Shortly before 2 o’clock, in the midst of the capital’s first truly sweltering afternoon this year, a man in a dark suit and plastic animal mask—depicting a sheep, it seems—stood outside the Centre Block entrance reserved for Members of Parliament, handing out copies of former MP Garth Turner’s new book. Said book, as the animal mask was apparently intended to relate, is entitled Sheeple, a term apparently applied to people who often take on the characteristics—curly white hair covering most of the body, fondness for grazing, tendency to do as told—of sheep.

This was conceivably done to make some point. Or poke fun. Or sell a few books. Or some combination thereof. And, for sure, there should be nothing to prohibit anyone from making points, poking fun, or selling books about all that is obvious and absurd and obviously absurd about this place.

But then, in fairness, so much has changed in the six months or so since Mr. Turner was unceremoniously voted out of office. For one, the party to which he was most recently a member has found a new leader, this one fluent in all sorts of English verbs and tenses. For another, that leader has insisted on Question Period being something other than an opportunity to try and convict one’s rivals of various moral crimes.

Today’s session, for instance and as coincidence would have it, began with several fine and reasoned exchanges of inquiry and information. For perhaps a full half hour—with a man in a suit and an animal mask sweating away outside—the proceedings were both graceful and informative, genteel and respectful.

Oh, and boring. Dreadfully, dreadfully boring. Continue…

Outbreaks and pandemics: a timeline

By Susan Mohammad - Monday, April 27, 2009 at 6:43 PM - 2 Comments

Swine flu, which has killed about 150 and sickened another 1,900 in Mexico since April 13, is spreading fast. Cases have now been confirmed in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Scotland and Spain, prompting governments to issue travel warnings and to declare public health emergencies. The swine flu has also stoked plenty of fear among the general public. (Photos: As a country dons surgical masks, the rest of the world braces for the worst) For a little perspective, here’s a brief history of global outbreaks and pandemics:

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
2002-2003
Death toll: Almost 800
Symptoms: High fever, headache and an overall feeling of discomfort. Some sufferers develop mild respiratory symptoms and a dry cough. About 10 to 20 per cent experience diarrhea. Most develop pneumonia.
How it spread: When a person touched a contaminated surface and then touched his or her mouth, nose, or eyes. Or person-to-person contact (coughing, sneezing). Chinese health officials in Guangdong province initially listed the first case of SARS as “atypical pneumonia.” It only went public when Dr. Carlo Urbani, who was working in Vietnam, reported it to the WHO (Urbani later died of SARS). Starting in early 2003, the virus spread to more than 30 countries, infecting 8,000 people, in a few months.

Avian flu (1997- )
Death toll: 257
Symptoms: Typical flu-like symptoms (fever, cough, sore throat, and muscle aches).
How it spread: Most commonly passed along through contact with infected poultry, or surfaces contaminated with secretion/excretions from infected birds. Person-to-person transmission is very rare. The first major outbreak occured in Hong Kong in 1997, with 18 cases (six died). The most recent outbreak began in December 2003. Avian flu has killed more than 60 per cent of those who have contracted the virus.

Hong Kong influenza (1968-1969)
Death toll: About one million
Symptoms: It’s often confused with the common cold. But the symptoms (high fever, joint pain, lack of energy) worsen and last longer. Symptoms normally cause a victim to become bedridden for up to two weeks.
How it spread: Human to human (coughing, sneezing). Named after the city where it was first detected in 1968, the virus returned in 1970 and 1972. The elderly were hardest hit. In the U.S., 34,000 fell victim to the Hong Kong influenza between September 1968 and March 1969.

The Asian flu pandemic (1957-1958)
Death toll: About four million
Symptoms: Fatigue, aches and pains and fever that can last two weeks.
How it spread: From person-to-person contact. The pandemic was first identified in the Far East in February 1957, and was detected in wild ducks in Southern China before mutating with the existing human flu strain. The virus first made its way to the U.S. in the summer of 1957 (in all, it would be blamed for 70,000 deaths in the U.S.). Although infection rates were highest among children and pregnant women, the elderly suffered the highest rates of death.

The Spanish flu pandemic (1918)
Death toll: 20 to 100 million
Symptoms: The flu was initially misdiagnosed as cholera, dengue or typhoid since (unlike other flu strains) victims experienced hemorrhaging from the nose, stomach, and intestine, or bled from the ears. Most deaths were caused by bacterial pneumonia caused by the influenza.
How it spread: Some researchers say it began in Tibet but moved towards Europe along trade/shipping routes. It was deadliest in young adults between 25 and 30, killing more men than women. By some estimates, as much as 40 per cent of the world’s population became ill.

Russian flu pandemic (1889)
Death toll: 1 million
Symptoms: Fever, pneumonia and traditional flu-like symptoms.
How it spread: The ‘Russian flu’ is believed to have originated in China, but spread rapidly throughout Europe before landing in North America, Japan and Latin America.

Bubonic plague — ‘The black death’ (14th to 17th century)
Death toll: 25 million — the disease originated in Asia but some say it killed 50 per cent of Europe’s population, having spread by fleas.
Symptoms: Vomiting, diarrhea, respiratory failure, headache and swollen lymph glands. Other symptoms included spots on the skin that are red and then turn black, heavy breathing, vomiting blood, and pain caused by the decaying of the skin.
How it spread: Bites from infected fleas, rodents, and lice. There are still between 1,000 to 3,000 cases reported annually, but antibiotics can be used to treat the disease if caught early.

Like you, I blame the Aspers

By Paul Wells - Monday, April 27, 2009 at 6:35 PM - 16 Comments

Newspaper circulation in the U.S. continues to collapse. “Now at a record rate.” Kind of a good news/ bad news day for Rupert Murdoch: His Wall Street Journal is the only top-25 paper to gain even a sliver of circulation over last year; but his New York Post loses one-fifth of its circulation in a single year.

Fox refuses to carry prime-time Obama news conference

By Paul Wells - Monday, April 27, 2009 at 6:27 PM - 32 Comments

Excellent decision. The President of the U.S., of whom this corner is sometimes quite fond, has been talking way too much. He has an excellent cabinet, except maybe that Napolitano lady; let them take the lead on more files. Cultivate some mystery. As for the moment at hand, he’s holding a news conference to commemorate 100 days in office. There’s no pressing issue he hasn’t already spent a lot of time talking about. Swine flu? He was on teevee this morning talking about it. On the cable news networks. Of which Fox has one. It’ll carry his Wednesday news conference; in the meantime the main network will carry an episode of (irony alert) Lie to Me. It’s actually not true that every word a President says is so important it has to pre-empt Tim Roth comedies.

Et Tu, Family Circus?

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, April 27, 2009 at 5:24 PM - 12 Comments

This is today’s instalment of The Family Circus, and I can’t think of a better illustration of the fact that the recession has taken over the funny pages.

Actually, I find this pretty funny, mostly because of P.J.’s sad expression. He knows that Billy isn’t kidding and being all whimsical and kid-like: Bil really is going to kick one of them out of the house. But note that Dolly is looking at Billy in a condescending way, because she knows full well what Billy will not admit to himself: as the oldest and the one best able to support himself, he’s going to be out of the house and in the coal mines by next week. (The Comics Curmudgeon seems to hate Jeffy the most of the four Keane kids, but for me, Billy is clearly the most obnoxious.)

Jack and Diane 2009

By Scott Feschuk - Monday, April 27, 2009 at 4:52 PM - 3 Comments

Little ditty ’bout Jack and Diane
Two American folks going broke in the heartland
Jack never was a football star
Diane got pregnant backseat of Jackie’s car

Cookin’ up chili dogs inside the Tastee Freeze
Diane says, “It’s all I can get, despite my two degrees.”
Jackie says, “Hey Diane let’s run off behind that shady tree,
Hide away from that repo man who’s coming for me.”

And Jackie say:
Oh yeah, life went on
Right up until our credit was gone
Oh yeah, I say life went on
Right up until our credit was gone.

Jackie sits back reflects his thoughts for a moment
Scratches his head and looks at Diane’s pay
“Well you know Diane what’s this here big fat zero?”
Diane says, “Baby, that’s our 401(k).”

Jackie say:
Oh yeah, life was great
Until the lapse of our teaser rate
Oh yeah, I said life had hope
Until all three of our Visas maxed out

Let the market drop
Let it crash
Let your zero-down mortgage bite you
In the ass
Hold off foreclosure as long as you can
Changes come around real soon make you sleep in a van

Little ditty ’bout Jack and Diane
Two American folks doin’ the best they can.

The Debate On Torture

By John Parisella - Monday, April 27, 2009 at 4:50 PM - 10 Comments

With fears of a potential swine flu epidemic sweeping the world, and with the report cards coming in on Obama’s first 100 days, you would think the debate on the torture memos from the Bush–Cheney era would be off the table. It is possible that White House officials believed Obama’s preference that we learn from them and move on would be enough to circumscribe the issue and carry the day. But they were living in fantasyland if they believed that this dramatic news item would be a one week wonder. In fact, it was the president’s about face on prosecution that kept the news story going and will probably make it a dominant issue throughout the next 100 days.

Continue…

Callbacks To Early Episodes

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, April 27, 2009 at 4:40 PM - 2 Comments

Last night’s King of the Hill (yes, I watch it instead of Bob & Doug) was one of their better recent episodes, a solid and funny story about Hank that actually told us something new about how he relates to his father, his friends and his family. But even if it hadn’t been a particularly good episode, I’d probably have been favourably disposed toward it because it had so many callbacks to earlier episodes. It was full of references to things that were established in the first few seasons of the show but haven’t been mentioned since: Dale’s gay dad, the generic army-guy nicknames of Cotton’s war buddies, Luanne’s skill as a mechanic, Hank’s stepmother Didi (who hasn’t been seen on the show since approximately 200-ought-2). Sure, it had its share of continuity errors, like forgetting that they did a whole episode about Hank’s dad wanting a burial plot, but it ended with a joke that went all the way back to the first season: in some of the earliest episodes, Hank would end the show by riding up on a lawnmower and giving us a PSA about some issue raised in the story we just saw (an issue that nobody except Hank cares about), and in this episode he rode up in exactly the same way, in animation that might well have been re-traced from the first season’s tags. (Note: this kind of fourth-wall breaking is a little different from other examples mentioned in the earlier post, since this occurs after the episode proper is over, and is the equivalent of an actor stepping forth after the show to deliver a message.) It was like a little nod to people who have been watching the show since the first year.

I don’t know if other people enjoy it when long-running shows do references to the early episodes; I always like it, even though I’m completely aware that it’s really of no significance (unless the plot absolutely depends on a link to those early shows). One of the things that has kept The Simpsons tolerable in the Al Jean era is that Jean, who has been with the show since the first season, keeps throwing in references to the first two or three seasons, like using “Close to You” as Homer and Marge’s theme song. Doctor Who sometimes throws in references to its past incarnations, to good effect. And the collapse of Buffy‘s seventh and final season happened around the same time they stopped including nostalgic references to the first season. There’s just something fun about knowing that the writers remember some of the same episodes you do; it’s like a little reward for being a longtime viewer.

Here’s an example of a first-season callback, one that’s over 25 years old: in the last season of Happy Days (the show that somehow incorporated every single imaginable trend and trope in the entire TV universe, good or bad), Fonzie abandons his leather jacket for the windbreaker that he wore in the first season — a little in-joke between the writers and any viewers who happen to remember the very earliest episodes.