[Julie] in Chains, New Baby Born Today!

How Do You Like Them Apples?

I was at Home Depot the other day, getting new filters for my furnaces, when I thought about big box stores. My hometown of Warren, Pennsylvania, did not have any national chains when I was growing up. But that changed when Pizza Hut came in 1978. It opened to such fanfare that the first month it was open, our little town of 10,000 managed to outeat every other Pizza Hut chain in the entire country. In the years following, Warren generally steered clear of restaurant chains and big box retailers. So while residents may have all been feasting on Pizza Hut, we'd still buy clothes at Levinson Brothers, groceries at Quality Market, and furnace filters over at the Lawn & Garden Center.

Levinson's and Quality have long since closed, but the Lawn & Garden Center is still open. While my parents like supporting local businesses, it's tempered with pragmatism: "We're retired and have to watch every penny," my Mom declared. A few years ago a new shopping complex opened, anchored by Aldi's and a Super Wal-Mart. My Mom quickly discovered that shopping at these two stores reduced her grocery bill by about 30 percent, and it's hard to argue with that kind of savings.

A Pittsburgh-based business has made it easier to buy local, a nonprofit called Good Apples (you can read more about them here). The upfront cost will likely be higher than buying at a grocery store, but since it's fresher (with a longer shelf life and less waste), it will probably end up being about the same. This is the perfect time for Good Apples to open, since Farmers Markets don't operate in the winter. So instead of going to the Strip for fresh, local produce (ugh), they deliver it to you. And any way to put more money in local pockets can't be a bad thing.

A Delivery (Nearly) Nine Months in the Making

I am, of course, talking about (drum roll, please) Lost. The new season is starting tonight, and with the last new episode airing in May, 2008, the gestation period has almost been as long as a human pregnancy.

Why am I so addicted to Lost, you might ask. The simple answer is the story: the writing is sharp and smart, the characters are well drawn, and the myriad details--from the complex back stories of all the characters, the set design (the story takes place in real time on an island, but flashbacks and flashforwards take place all over the world)--simply boggle my mind. It's written and designed much like a movie, and you know it's done its job when you forget they shoot the whole thing in Hawaii. The story (and set) transports you to such disparate places, including Iraq, Australia, Korea, and Berlin.

While some people like me, REALLY get into the show and appreciate all of the subtle nuance and influences, you can also watch it just as an interesting and entertaining show and not think about how the Swan Hatch was really a kind of Skinner Test (see what I mean?).

So what is Lost all about? Here's a truncated version of what's gone on for the last four seasons. Lost is the story of a group of survivors whose plane has crashed on an island in the South Pacific. Two strong leaders emerge: Jack, a doctor who deals in fact and doesn't believe in fate, and Locke, a man on a lifelong mission to find his place in the world, who believes it is destiny that brought everyone to the island. All of the survivors are flawed people, and have unresolved issues with their parents, especially their fathers. Even the seemingly nice and normal people have dark secrets.

Soon after the crash, the survivors soon discover two things about the island. First, the island is inhabited. Second, that the island has strange properties and has a spooky and dangerous entity they nickname "Smokey".

The survivors eventually learn that people have lived there for presumably hundreds of years, not unlike the ancient Mayans. The Survivors also learn that about 30 years ago, a group of scientists came to the island and built many structures, including homes and an intricate series of buildings (called hatches or stations) to be used for specific experiments, taking advantage of what they call "the unique qualities of the island." These experiments included studying electromagnetism and even the possibility of time travel. This group was called the DHARMA Initiative.

While the original island inhabitants had a seeming harmony with the island and "Smokey", the DHARMA Initiative claimed the island for their own purposes, and referred to the original inhabitants as "Hostiles". A boy raised in the DHARMA Initiative named Ben befriends the leader of the Hostiles, whose name is Richard. Ten to 15 years after this initial meeting, Ben leads a plot to kill all of the DHARMA scientists, including his own father. After the DHARMA people are killed, Ben becomes the leader of the group the Survivors call "the Others."

The Survivors meet a man named Desmond, whose sailboat crashed on the island about 4 years ago. He was rescued by a man named Inman (presumably a DHARMA person who survived the earlier purge) who works at one of the DHARMA stations. When Inman dies, Desmond continues to work at this DHARMA station. About a month after the Survivors crash, they discover this station, and Desmond. Along the way, the Survivors find also Ben, capture him, and imprison him in the station.

As the Survivors learn more about this Station, they debate amongst themselves whether the work of the Station (entering a numeric code into the computer at regular intervals) has a real purpose, or if it's just some psychological experiment. Opinions are divided and eventually they stop entering the number--and the station implodes. No one is killed, but the release of pent-up electromagnetism allows the world, for a split second, to reveal the island's location.

One person who is looking for the island is named Penelope, or Penny. She is Desmond's girlfriend, and the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, Charles Widmore. Penny is convinced Desmond is missing, not dead, and launches an effort to find him. When the location of the island is revealed (it's assumed Desmond's boat had some tracking beacon), it put her one step closer to finding him.

The actual mission of the Others is unclear, but it is clear that they are serious stewards of the island and don't want the Survivors or anyone else compromising their work, whatever that work is. While some people's health improves while living on the island (a paralyzed man can walk again, a woman's cancer goes into remission), the Others are not so lucky. About 4-5 years before the plane crash, pregnant women are dying before giving birth, and the Others are facing their own self-extinction. A fertility doctor from outside the island is brought to the island to help figure out the reasons for this phenomenon. The doctor's name is Juliet.

Just as there is dissention amongst the Survivors regarding the purpose of that DHARMA station, there are fractures showing amongst the Others. Eventually Juliet leaves the Others and lives with the Survivors.

Of course, the Survivors' main mission is to get off the island. Two groups of people arrive on the island and their purpose is revealed: to study the island and also to capture Ben, the leader of the Others. They are under the employ of Charles Widmore (coincidentally? the father of Desmond's Penelope) and they'll capture Ben at any cost. These people are called the "Freighter People" because they have a freighter about 20 miles from the island.

However, some of these Freighter People are sympathetic to the Survivors situation. With their help, they start ferrying Survivors from the island by zodiac boat to the Freighter. The Freighter also has a helicopter--Desmond and six of the Survivors are on that helicopter when they witness the Freighter exploding--and the island disappearing. Everyone who was ferried over to the Freighter is presumed dead. The Survivors who were still on the island are still alive.

The helicopter is ditched in the water and all survive and are on a liferaft from the helicopter. They are picked up by a boat, helmed by Penelope.

On the boat, they concoct a scheme to fit the story the public at large has given about the plane crash. Desmond and the helicopter pilot stay on Penny's boat, and the Six Survivors (called Oceanic Six), on the same liferaft, travel to an inhabited island. Once rescued, the Oceanic Six make no mention of their experience on the island, and they point to a different island as the one where they crashed. Even one of the Survivors, Kate, claims a baby who survived as her own, even if she's not the mother.

Ben also gets off the island and is actually responsible for the island disappearing. With Ben leaving the island, Locke takes his place as the leader of the Others. It seems that Richard has been following Locke from the time he was born. Locke finally has found his place in the world.

But has he? In the last season through a flashforward three years after the Oceanic Six get off the island, we learn that Locke has died, that bad things have happened to the Survivors left on the island, and that Jack has to convince all of the Oceanic Six Survivors that they need to return to the island--with Ben as their guide.

Whew! I skipped over a lot, but didn't want this to be a million pages long. Tonight there will be a similar recap at 8:00 p.m. of what's happened from the time of the crash to where the last episode left off. It's worth an hour of your time to check it out. Then the season premiere is at 9:00 p.m. Enjoy--I know I will!