Mad Men 1x08

The Hobo* Code

Season 1, Episode 8

& Cooper: Don, I am appreciative of your talents, and although that cannot be measured, I have made an effort to quantify.
    Don: $2,500. L...
    Cooper: Thank you. That's what you say. Have you read her? Rand. Atlas Shrugged. That's the one.
    Don: Yes. Yes, it is.
    Cooper: See, I know you haven't read it. When you hit 40, you realize you've met or seen every kind of person there is, and I know what kind you are. Because I believe we are alike. I assume that's flattering*. By that I mean you are a productive and reasonable man, and in the end completely self-interested. It's strength. We are different... unsentimental about all the people who depend on our hard work. Take $1.99 out of that $2,500 and buy yourself a copy.
    Don: I will.


& Don: You're a nonbeliever. You've enlisted my expertise, and you've rejected it to go on the way you've been going. I'm not interested in that. You can understand.
    Lipsticks client: I don't think your three months or however many thousands of dollars entitles you to refocus the core of our business.
    Don: Listen, I'm not here to tell you about Jesus. You already now about Jesus. Either He lives in your heart or He doesn't. Every woman wants choices, but in the end, none wants to be one of a hundred in a box. She's unique. She makes the choices, and she's chosen him. She wants to tell the world, "He's mine. He belongs to me, not you." She marks her man with her lips. He is her possession*. You've given every girl that wears your lipstick the gift of total ownership.
    Lipsticks client: Sit down.
    Don: No. Not until I know I'm not wasting my time.
    Lipsticks client: Sit down.

[ later ]

& Lipsticks client: Nice work. I think you may be right about this.
    Don: Well, we'll never know, will we?
    Lipsticks client: What?!
    Don: It's not a science, Hugh. We'll do our best.

---

& Salvatore Romano: The espresso beans mean health, wealth, and, um... happiness. Seems redundant, I mean, if you already have health and wealth.


& Don-kid: I'm supposed to tell you to say your prayers.
    Hobo: Praying won't help you from this place, kid. Best keep your mind on your mother. She'll probably look after you.
    Don-kid: She ain't my momma.
    Hobo: We all wish we were from someplace else, believe me.
    Don-kid: Ain't you heard? I'm a whore child.
    Hobo: No. I hadn't heard anything about that.
    Don-kid: You don't talk like a bum*.
    Hobo: I'm not. I'm a gentleman of the rails. For me, every day is brand-new. Every day's a brand-new place, people, what have you.
    Don-kid: So you got no home. That's sad.
    Hobo: What's at home? I had a family once: a wife, a job, a mortgage. I couldn't sleep at night tied to all those things. Then death came to find me.
    Don-kid: Did you see him?
    Hobo: Only every night. So one morning, I freed myself with the clothes on my back. Good-bye. Now I sleep like a stone: Sometimes under the stars, the rain. The roof of a barn. But I sleep like a stone.


& Roy: Look at you... satisfied, dreaming up jingles for soap flakes and spot remover, telling yourself you're free.
    Don: Oh, my God. Stop talking. Make something of yourself.
    Roy: Like you? You make the lie. You invent want.
    Don: Well, I hate to break it to you, but there is no big lie. There is no system. The universe is indifferent.


& Don: Ask me.
    Don's son: Uh, why do lightning bugs light up?
    Don: I don't know. But I will never lie to you.


-- Dict:
Hobo — Бродяга
flattering — лестный
possession — обладание; собственность; объект владения
bum — бездельник


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