Protesters Target Weiner on School Discipline Stance

Anthony D. Weiner has not yet entered the New York City mayor’s race, and may never become a candidate. But that did not stop some protesters from converging on his doorstep on Monday afternoon to challenge one of his educational policies should he decide to run.

Holding bright-color signs and chanting, students and organizers from two groups advocating changes in education, the Urban Youth Collaborative and New Yorkers for Great Public Schools, stood outside Mr. Weiner’s apartment building on Park Avenue South, near Gramercy Park, to denounce a statement Mr. Weiner made in a policy booklet released last month. In the document, titled “Keys to the City,” he wrote that his first educational priority was to “streamline the process of removing troublesome kids from the classroom.”

The city’s current policy emphasizes using suspensions and arrests to enforce school safety. The protesters â€" some of them high school students who said they had previously been arrested or suspended â€" said the policy disproportionately affected black and Hispanic students and unnecessarily disrupted students’ educations.

“Instead of proposing an ineffective and harmful policy for student safety, you should embrace successful and proven strategies like restorative justice that improve safety, reduce conflict and increase learning,” the groups wrote in a letter to Mr. Weiner, which protesters tried to hand-deliver on Monday. (A doorman would not allow them inside the building, at East 20th Street, but took the letter.)

An attempt to contact Mr. Weiner for comment was not immediately successful.

Chima Agwu, 20, a graduate of Belmont Preparatory High School in the Bronx, warned that disaffected students could punish Mr. Weiner for outmoded educational policies by not voting for him in the fall â€" assuming, of course, that he is a candidate.

“You’re asking for a second chance, but you’re not giving the students a second chance,” he said, referring to Mr. Weiner’s efforts to rehabilitate his public image after he was forced to resign from the United States House in 2011 after it was revealed that he had sent salacious photos via Twitter to several women. “All they’re asking for is a second chance to get an education and better themselves.”

Maria Fernandez, a coordinator for the Urban Youth Collective, said the groups hoped Mr. Weiner would sit down with them to discuss ways to improve school safety through mediation or by addressing underlying issues, like inadequate funding for student support services. He had initially agreed to meet with them, organizers said, but later did not respond to requests to fix a date.

According to the groups, 95.2 percent of arrests and 89 percent of suspensions involved black and Hispanic students. Education Department figures for suspensions among the two groups in the 2011-12 school year are lower â€" 52 percent for black students and 36 percent for Hispanic students â€" but still disproportionately high relative to the school system’s overall enrollment. The department does not keep figures on student arrests.

The declared Democratic mayoral candidates â€" “your likely rivals,” as the letter to Mr. Weiner pointedly notes â€" have embraced school safety policies that would try to address these racial disparities, organizers said.

Lauryn Hill Sentenced to 3 Months in Tax Case

Mel Evans/Associated Press Ms. Hill outside court on Monday.

Lauryn Hill, the Grammy-winning singer and songwriter, was sentenced to three months in prison on Monday afternoon for failing to pay income taxes on about $1.8 million in earnings.

The sentence in federal court in Newark, N.J., was a major setback for Ms. Hill, 37, a critically acclaimed but reclusive artist whose solo debut album in 1998, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” established her as a major figure in R&B and hip-hop, earning five Grammy Awards. She recently announced she had plans to record a new album.

Ms. Hill pleaded guilty last year to charges that she had failed to file tax returns from 2005 to 2007, despite owning four companies and taking in more than $1.8 million in gross revenues, according to the complaint against her. In court, she told the judge she had intended to pay her taxes eventually but was unable to do so when she dropped out of the music business to focus on her children.

“I needed to be able to earn so I could pay my taxes, without compromising the health and welfare of my children, and I was being denied that,” Ms. Hill said in court, according to The Associated Press. Ms. Hill faced a maximum sentence of one year on each of the three counts. Her attorney had sought probation.

She is to report to prison on July 8, The A.P. reported. The judge also sentenced her to an additional three months of home confinement after her release.

On Sunday, Ms. Hill’s attorney said she had paid about $970,000 to satisfy her unpaid state and federal tax bills, as well as penalties. That payment came on the eve of the singer’s sentencing, nearly two weeks after United States Magistrate Judge Madeline Cox Arleo had scolded her in court for being slow to square her accounts with the government.

“Ms. Hill has not only now fully paid, prior to sentencing, her taxes, which are part of her criminal restitution, but she has additionally fully paid her federal and state personal taxes for the entire period under examination,” her attorney, Nathan Hochman, said in an e-mail sent to Reuters.

Ms. Hill recently announced on her Tumblr blog that she had signed a new record deal and was writing new material. Last week, she released one of her new songs â€" “Neurotic Society (Compulsory Mix).”

Ms. Hill started out with the Fugees and became a critical darling after her 1998 solo album, which won the Grammy award for album of the year. Then she largely disappeared from view, putting out only two albums in the last 15 years â€" “MTV Unplugged No. 2.0″ in 2002 and “Khulami Phase” in 2010.

Shortly after her arrest last year, Ms. Hill said in a blog post she had dropped out of the music business to shield herself and her children from society, and she portrayed her decision to stop paying taxes as part of that effort. “I did whatever needed to be done in order to insulate my family from the climate of hostility, false entitlement, manipulation, racial prejudice, sexism and ageism that I was surrounded by,” she wrote.

Early Images of American Indians Found in a Vatican Fresco

Musei Vaticani Detail of a fresco of the “Resurrection of Christ” by Pinturicchio.

ROME - Vatican officials say they have found what could be the first European images of American Indians in a fresco painted within two years of Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to the so-called New World.

The lightly sketched group of men â€" nude save for what appear to be feathered headdresses and posed as if dancing â€" emerged during the restoration of a fresco of the “Resurrection of Christ” by the Renaissance artist Pinturicchio, painted in one of several rooms he decorated for Pope Alexander VI between 1492 and 1494.

Writing last week in L’ Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums, suggested that the figures are consistent with the descriptions that Columbus gave in his letters of the indigenous people he saw upon his arrival in the Americas.

The figures’ appearance in the fresco is in keeping with a practice common during the Renaissance of introducing contemporary elements into historical or sacred scenes, said Franco Ivan Nucciarelli, a Pinturicchio scholar who teaches at the University of Perugia. And in particular, Alexander VI had a great interest “in emphasizing his ties with the New World,” which gave him much power, Mr. Nucciarelli said.

Nor would the inclusion of these figures be out of place in frescoes painted for Alexander VI, the former Spanish cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, Mr. Paolucci noted. “The Borgia pope, elected just a few months before Columbus made landfall, “was interested in the New World, as were the great chancelleries of Europe,” he wrote. “It is hard to believe that the papal court, especially under a Spanish pontiff, would have remained in the dark about what Columbus saw when he arrived at the ends of the earth.”

The figures emerged from under layers of soot and overpainting during a 2006 restoration of the space called Room of the Mysteries, which includes “Resurrection of Christ,” but Vatican experts took a cautious approach to their findings. “We didn’t publicize them because we wanted to carry out further verifications,” said Maria Pustka, who is responsible for restoring the rooms once inhabited by Alexander VI. “Now that further research been carried out, we felt it was opportune to make the finding known.”

Pinturicchio lightly sketched the figures in black and white paint directly onto the dried fresco, an unusual “and interesting” technique, she said, and they were painted over in successive restorations. When wet, the figures disappear altogether, she said.

Early Images of American Indians Found in a Vatican Fresco

Musei Vaticani Detail of a fresco of the “Resurrection of Christ” by Pinturicchio.

ROME - Vatican officials say they have found what could be the first European images of American Indians in a fresco painted within two years of Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to the so-called New World.

The lightly sketched group of men â€" nude save for what appear to be feathered headdresses and posed as if dancing â€" emerged during the restoration of a fresco of the “Resurrection of Christ” by the Renaissance artist Pinturicchio, painted in one of several rooms he decorated for Pope Alexander VI between 1492 and 1494.

Writing last week in L’ Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums, suggested that the figures are consistent with the descriptions that Columbus gave in his letters of the indigenous people he saw upon his arrival in the Americas.

The figures’ appearance in the fresco is in keeping with a practice common during the Renaissance of introducing contemporary elements into historical or sacred scenes, said Franco Ivan Nucciarelli, a Pinturicchio scholar who teaches at the University of Perugia. And in particular, Alexander VI had a great interest “in emphasizing his ties with the New World,” which gave him much power, Mr. Nucciarelli said.

Nor would the inclusion of these figures be out of place in frescoes painted for Alexander VI, the former Spanish cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, Mr. Paolucci noted. “The Borgia pope, elected just a few months before Columbus made landfall, “was interested in the New World, as were the great chancelleries of Europe,” he wrote. “It is hard to believe that the papal court, especially under a Spanish pontiff, would have remained in the dark about what Columbus saw when he arrived at the ends of the earth.”

The figures emerged from under layers of soot and overpainting during a 2006 restoration of the space called Room of the Mysteries, which includes “Resurrection of Christ,” but Vatican experts took a cautious approach to their findings. “We didn’t publicize them because we wanted to carry out further verifications,” said Maria Pustka, who is responsible for restoring the rooms once inhabited by Alexander VI. “Now that further research been carried out, we felt it was opportune to make the finding known.”

Pinturicchio lightly sketched the figures in black and white paint directly onto the dried fresco, an unusual “and interesting” technique, she said, and they were painted over in successive restorations. When wet, the figures disappear altogether, she said.

Early Images of American Indians Found in a Vatican Fresco

Musei Vaticani Detail of a fresco of the “Resurrection of Christ” by Pinturicchio.

ROME - Vatican officials say they have found what could be the first European images of American Indians in a fresco painted within two years of Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to the so-called New World.

The lightly sketched group of men â€" nude save for what appear to be feathered headdresses and posed as if dancing â€" emerged during the restoration of a fresco of the “Resurrection of Christ” by the Renaissance artist Pinturicchio, painted in one of several rooms he decorated for Pope Alexander VI between 1492 and 1494.

Writing last week in L’ Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums, suggested that the figures are consistent with the descriptions that Columbus gave in his letters of the indigenous people he saw upon his arrival in the Americas.

The figures’ appearance in the fresco is in keeping with a practice common during the Renaissance of introducing contemporary elements into historical or sacred scenes, said Franco Ivan Nucciarelli, a Pinturicchio scholar who teaches at the University of Perugia. And in particular, Alexander VI had a great interest “in emphasizing his ties with the New World,” which gave him much power, Mr. Nucciarelli said.

Nor would the inclusion of these figures be out of place in frescoes painted for Alexander VI, the former Spanish cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, Mr. Paolucci noted. “The Borgia pope, elected just a few months before Columbus made landfall, “was interested in the New World, as were the great chancelleries of Europe,” he wrote. “It is hard to believe that the papal court, especially under a Spanish pontiff, would have remained in the dark about what Columbus saw when he arrived at the ends of the earth.”

The figures emerged from under layers of soot and overpainting during a 2006 restoration of the space called Room of the Mysteries, which includes “Resurrection of Christ,” but Vatican experts took a cautious approach to their findings. “We didn’t publicize them because we wanted to carry out further verifications,” said Maria Pustka, who is responsible for restoring the rooms once inhabited by Alexander VI. “Now that further research been carried out, we felt it was opportune to make the finding known.”

Pinturicchio lightly sketched the figures in black and white paint directly onto the dried fresco, an unusual “and interesting” technique, she said, and they were painted over in successive restorations. When wet, the figures disappear altogether, she said.

Early Images of American Indians Found in a Vatican Fresco

Musei Vaticani Detail of a fresco of the “Resurrection of Christ” by Pinturicchio.

ROME - Vatican officials say they have found what could be the first European images of American Indians in a fresco painted within two years of Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to the so-called New World.

The lightly sketched group of men â€" nude save for what appear to be feathered headdresses and posed as if dancing â€" emerged during the restoration of a fresco of the “Resurrection of Christ” by the Renaissance artist Pinturicchio, painted in one of several rooms he decorated for Pope Alexander VI between 1492 and 1494.

Writing last week in L’ Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums, suggested that the figures are consistent with the descriptions that Columbus gave in his letters of the indigenous people he saw upon his arrival in the Americas.

The figures’ appearance in the fresco is in keeping with a practice common during the Renaissance of introducing contemporary elements into historical or sacred scenes, said Franco Ivan Nucciarelli, a Pinturicchio scholar who teaches at the University of Perugia. And in particular, Alexander VI had a great interest “in emphasizing his ties with the New World,” which gave him much power, Mr. Nucciarelli said.

Nor would the inclusion of these figures be out of place in frescoes painted for Alexander VI, the former Spanish cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, Mr. Paolucci noted. “The Borgia pope, elected just a few months before Columbus made landfall, “was interested in the New World, as were the great chancelleries of Europe,” he wrote. “It is hard to believe that the papal court, especially under a Spanish pontiff, would have remained in the dark about what Columbus saw when he arrived at the ends of the earth.”

The figures emerged from under layers of soot and overpainting during a 2006 restoration of the space called Room of the Mysteries, which includes “Resurrection of Christ,” but Vatican experts took a cautious approach to their findings. “We didn’t publicize them because we wanted to carry out further verifications,” said Maria Pustka, who is responsible for restoring the rooms once inhabited by Alexander VI. “Now that further research been carried out, we felt it was opportune to make the finding known.”

Pinturicchio lightly sketched the figures in black and white paint directly onto the dried fresco, an unusual “and interesting” technique, she said, and they were painted over in successive restorations. When wet, the figures disappear altogether, she said.

Another Side of RuPaul

“Have you ever worn a wig, or done drag?” RuPaul Charles, the host of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” asked me recently as he shopped for wigs on Hollywood Boulevard.

It struck me as more than a question - almost an invitation … or maybe a threat. The knot tightening in the pit of my stomach at the prospect of appearing in drag suggested that what RuPaul had been telling me about his 35-year career was true: appearing publicly in drag was somewhat like “treason” in our hyper-masculine, gender-obsessed society.

Not all of our interview was so deep, but a lot of it was. Perhaps most surprising was that while many Americans see the country marching inexorably toward greater equality for gays and lesbians, RuPaul does not. He said he had been around a long time, and while he might marry his partner of 19 years, “just for business reasons,” he could easily see the pendulum of acceptance swinging in the opposite direction. He said that had happened after Sept. 11, as fear took hold in American society and culture.

And, he said, he was certain the pendulum would swing again.

The finale of the fifth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race is to be broadcast tonight on Logo.

Another Side of RuPaul

“Have you ever worn a wig, or done drag?” RuPaul Charles, the host of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” asked me recently as he shopped for wigs on Hollywood Boulevard.

It struck me as more than a question - almost an invitation … or maybe a threat. The knot tightening in the pit of my stomach at the prospect of appearing in drag suggested that what RuPaul had been telling me about his 35-year career was true: appearing publicly in drag was somewhat like “treason” in our hyper-masculine, gender-obsessed society.

Not all of our interview was so deep, but a lot of it was. Perhaps most surprising was that while many Americans see the country marching inexorably toward greater equality for gays and lesbians, RuPaul does not. He said he had been around a long time, and while he might marry his partner of 19 years, “just for business reasons,” he could easily see the pendulum of acceptance swinging in the opposite direction. He said that had happened after Sept. 11, as fear took hold in American society and culture.

And, he said, he was certain the pendulum would swing again.

The finale of the fifth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race is to be broadcast tonight on Logo.

Another Side of RuPaul

“Have you ever worn a wig, or done drag?” RuPaul Charles, the host of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” asked me recently as he shopped for wigs on Hollywood Boulevard.

It struck me as more than a question - almost an invitation … or maybe a threat. The knot tightening in the pit of my stomach at the prospect of appearing in drag suggested that what RuPaul had been telling me about his 35-year career was true: appearing publicly in drag was somewhat like “treason” in our hyper-masculine, gender-obsessed society.

Not all of our interview was so deep, but a lot of it was. Perhaps most surprising was that while many Americans see the country marching inexorably toward greater equality for gays and lesbians, RuPaul does not. He said he had been around a long time, and while he might marry his partner of 19 years, “just for business reasons,” he could easily see the pendulum of acceptance swinging in the opposite direction. He said that had happened after Sept. 11, as fear took hold in American society and culture.

And, he said, he was certain the pendulum would swing again.

The finale of the fifth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race is to be broadcast tonight on Logo.

Another Side of RuPaul

“Have you ever worn a wig, or done drag?” RuPaul Charles, the host of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” asked me recently as he shopped for wigs on Hollywood Boulevard.

It struck me as more than a question - almost an invitation … or maybe a threat. The knot tightening in the pit of my stomach at the prospect of appearing in drag suggested that what RuPaul had been telling me about his 35-year career was true: appearing publicly in drag was somewhat like “treason” in our hyper-masculine, gender-obsessed society.

Not all of our interview was so deep, but a lot of it was. Perhaps most surprising was that while many Americans see the country marching inexorably toward greater equality for gays and lesbians, RuPaul does not. He said he had been around a long time, and while he might marry his partner of 19 years, “just for business reasons,” he could easily see the pendulum of acceptance swinging in the opposite direction. He said that had happened after Sept. 11, as fear took hold in American society and culture.

And, he said, he was certain the pendulum would swing again.

The finale of the fifth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race is to be broadcast tonight on Logo.

Frank Bascombe Back in Short Form For Now

When Richard Ford read from a story featuring his beloved character Frank Bascombe at the 92nd Street Y last week, one had to ask if this meant Bascombe would soon return in a fourth novel. Mr. Ford had previously told interviewers he was done writing about Bascombe when he concluded his trilogy of novels, “The Sportswriter” (1986), the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Independence Day” (1995) and “The Lay of the Land” (2006).

I recently asked Mr. Ford via e-mail whether the excerpt portends a new novel. He said the piece he read was from “Falling Forward,” a short story that is, for now, not part of a longer project.

The new story takes place in the days before last Christmas, and it prominently features the effects of Hurricane Sandy on New Jersey. “[My wife] Kristina and I did go down to Toms River and across the bridge to Lavalette and Ortley Beach in late fall â€" when the cleaning up was well underway but also a bit over-matched by calamity and thus quite moving,” Mr. Ford said. “I’d also been, previous to that, plucked-at a bit, wanting to write something in Bascombe’s voice, and had already considered writing a story â€" about what I hadn’t decided. So, in a sense, the two experiences fused, and ‘Falling Forward’ has been the result.”

Mr. Ford didn’t rule out the idea of a possible novel, saying he would “at least try to write another Frank Bascombe story this late spring, and see how that goes.”

“What draws me to writing Frank Bascombe is what’s always drawn me: he’s funny (and it’s thrilling to write things that are funny); but also he offers me the chance to write into the breach between what Henry James calls, ‘bliss and bale’; in my own way, to connect ‘the things that help and the things that hurt’ and to find some kind of reconciling vocabulary for both,” Mr. Ford said. “I always think that when I’m writing Frank Bascombe I have the chance to write about the most important things I know, and that’s always been irresistible â€" as it probably is for most writers.”

Want Your Name on a Building? Prepare to Be Generous

Michael Kirby Smith for The New York Times New York’s most affluent citizens have been able to have their name slapped on buildings all over the city for the right donation. Sanford Weill, the former chairman of Citigroup, and his wife, Joan, gave hundreds of millions of dollars to Cornell’s medical college.

Don’t look back, Donald Trump; when it comes to having one’s name emblazoned all over New York City, Ronald Perelman might be gaining on you.

In appreciation for a pledge of $100 million, Columbia University said last week that it would name a planned building after Mr. Perelman, a billionaire financier. The building, the Ronald O. Perelman Center for Business Innovation, will be one of a growing roster of facilities in New York City bearing the Perelman name.

The list already includes the Ronald O. Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, the Ronald O. Perelman Rotunda at the Guggenheim Museum, and the Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical School. Ms. Cohen, who died in 2007, was Mr. Perelman’s ex-wife.

Mr. Perelman also has his name on less-concrete things like fellowships and even the dermatology department at NYU Langone Medical Center.

Michael Kirby Smith for The New York Times The business school at New York University carries the name of a major donor, Leonard N. Stern, a graduate of the school.

His generosity has gained him entry into the pantheon of financiers and business owners whose names are chiseled in granite around the city. Among its members are Sanford Weill, the former chairman of Citigroup; Kenneth Langone, an investor and founder of Home Depot; Henry Kravis, the private-equity maven; and the Tisch family.

At Columbia Business School, Mr. Perelman’s gift matches one from Mr. Kravis, whose name will adorn another new building there.

Indeed, $100 million seems to be the minimum tariff for naming rights these days. That is how much Stephen A. Schwarzman, a financier, promised to the New York Public Library, which named its central building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan after him.

Michael Kirby Smith for The New York Times The medical center at New York University bears the name of Kenneth Langone, an investor and founder of Home Depot, who gave the center $200 million.

Mr. Langone gave twice as much â€" $200 million â€" to N.Y.U. five years ago to have its entire medical center bear his name. That same year, Mr. Weill and his wife, Joan, gave $250 million to the Cornell Medical Center, which they had already given two gifts of $100 million.

To hoi polloi, all this celebrated largess may look like a tussle for recognition among titanic egos. But Mr. Langone said there was no competition among his peers to have their names attached to the greatest number of facilities.

“My wife and I agree our names are around enough,” Mr. Langone said in a telephone interview. He added, however, that the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, of which he is a trustee, may soon name something for him.

Along with the medical center, the night school at N.Y.U.’s Stern School of Business is named for Mr. Langone, who earned his master’s degree in business administration there. Mr. Langone said he could not recall how many millions he had given to the business school.

He noted that his initial gift of $100 million to the medical center had been anonymous. But he said that after he agreed to give an additional $100 million, officials of the university had persuaded him that “if you let us publicize this, it’ll have babies.”

That proved true, he said, rattling off the names of several other wealthy families, including the Tisches, that in turn gave large sums to the medical center. He said the center had raised more than $1 billion since his latest gift was announced.

“Like the one-percenters or not,’’ Mr. Langone said, “for whatever reasons, they’ve shared their good fortune.’’

A House Built Close to the Train, but Only Temporarily

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times A two-story “house” was unveiled Monday morning inside Grand Central Terminal. It is a marketing promotion for Target and will remain only through Tuesday.

Among the items that have passed through or made a temporary home in Grand Central Terminal in the last 100 years: Three elephants on the way to a circus in Boston; an art school; a tennis court; a Redstone rocket; a Philippe Petit tightrope walk; a model train show. And now, a two-story house.

Over the weekend, two teams of 50 construction workers each toiled for 48 hours to raise a 21-foot-high, 1,540-square-foot living space in Vanderbilt Hall, the vast marble-floored entryway near 42nd Street.

The home includes a full-size kitchen, dining room, living room, master bedroom, bathroom, guest room, two rooftop decks and a linen closet. Its entryway is paved in faux brick; its doorway is guarded by thick white columns and a gathering of manicured bushes. Access in and out is easy, though, because each room lacks a wall.

The house is a marketing promotion for Target and is outfitted with wares from its new home line. How much did it cost to launch the product line in one of the busiest and most famous transportation centers in the world? “I wish we could say,” said Amy Joiner, a spokeswoman for Target, “but we can’t.”

On Monday at 7 a.m., with commuters streaming in from Greenwich, Conn., and Westchester County, a few hired hands peeled back a set of black curtains to unveil the home. At least a dozen “brand ambassadors” â€" women wearing large white hair bows and red lipstick â€" began to gush like extras on Home and Garden television, inviting visitors to “feel, touch and see everything on display.”

Robert T. Russell, 67, an accountant wearing a paisley tie and a blue plastic button (“Minds are like parachutes,” it read. “They only function when open.”) stopped to ogle. “It’s a very smart move on their part,” he said, standing by the faux brick entry. “Look at the traffic they’re getting.”

Building a house in Grand Central Terminal, of course, came with a unique set of challenges, which fell to Kelli Frazier of Deutsch LA, an advertising agency hired by Target. As the executive producer of “experiential” marketing, Ms. Frazier thinks up flashy publicity stunts for companies and brings them to fruition.

She oversaw the house project from the beginning. “This is the biggest thing we’ve built for anybody,” she said. “Our other clients are a little less adventurous.”

The house began to take shape in March in New Hampshire in a workshop owned by Trigger, a company Deutsch used to assist with the construction. When the structure outgrew the workshop, Trigger employees moved it to a warehouse in Long Island City. There, they built it completely â€" a test run â€" then disassembled it.

On Friday at midnight, they loaded the parts on to three 48-foot trucks and one 26-foot truck and prepared for the voyage to Grand Central.

Ms. Frazier said coordinating the project in New York City was kind of like bringing the circus to town â€" but a lot more complicated.

There were the parking permits for the trucks, and the rules that the governed construction. The house had to be broken into 4-foot-by-8-foot panels to fit through the terminal’s narrow doorways. The house consists of more than 200 panels, which fit together like puzzle pieces.

The Police Department’s canine unit sniffed every item, including the cosmetics being used for makeovers on Monday, to check for explosives. Every light fixture and pillow had to be sprayed with fire retardant. The house had to be outfitted with emergency exits. There were “rounds and rounds” of approvals from various government agencies, Ms. Frazier said.

And there was the issue of the hall’s gilded chandeliers, complicating Deutsch’s dream of a towering two-story home. “Typically, you’re just like, ‘Oh, we can remove the chandeliers,’” Ms. Frazier said. “But these are forces of nature. You don’t mess with these.”

The solution? Ms. Frazier and her team positioned the house between two light fixtures. The guest room is on the second story, and juts up between them.

The house will stay in Vanderbilt Hall until Tuesday evening, when breakdown begins. The furnishings will be donated to a local charity.

Does it seem like a lot of work for just two days? “It does,” said Hermina Belin, 46, a lab technician heading home to Peekskill after visiting a friend in the city. “I thought it was very nice,” she said. “But a bit too manicured for me.”

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times The house being assembled on Saturday inside Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central.

Two Actors Join Pinter and Beckett Repertory Run on Broadway

Billy Crudup (“The Coast of Utopia”) and Shuler Hensley (“The Whale”) have been added to the cast for the two-play repertory of Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” and Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” coming to Broadway this fall, the producers said Monday. Mr. Crudup will play Foster in “No Man’s Land” and Lucky in “Waiting for Godot,” while Mr. Hensley will take on Briggs in “No Man’s Land” and Pozzo in “Godot.” They will join the previously announced cast members Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart for a 14-week run at the Cort Theater that is scheduled to begin with previews on Oct. 26 and an opening night set for Nov. 4. Both works will be directed by Sean Mathias. The specific schedule and performance dates for each play have not been announced.

Two Actors Join Pinter and Beckett Repertory Run on Broadway

Billy Crudup (“The Coast of Utopia”) and Shuler Hensley (“The Whale”) have been added to the cast for the two-play repertory of Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” and Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” coming to Broadway this fall, the producers said Monday. Mr. Crudup will play Foster in “No Man’s Land” and Lucky in “Waiting for Godot,” while Mr. Hensley will take on Briggs in “No Man’s Land” and Pozzo in “Godot.” They will join the previously announced cast members Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart for a 14-week run at the Cort Theater that is scheduled to begin with previews on Oct. 26 and an opening night set for Nov. 4. Both works will be directed by Sean Mathias. The specific schedule and performance dates for each play have not been announced.

Two Actors Join Pinter and Beckett Repertory Run on Broadway

Billy Crudup (“The Coast of Utopia”) and Shuler Hensley (“The Whale”) have been added to the cast for the two-play repertory of Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” and Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” coming to Broadway this fall, the producers said Monday. Mr. Crudup will play Foster in “No Man’s Land” and Lucky in “Waiting for Godot,” while Mr. Hensley will take on Briggs in “No Man’s Land” and Pozzo in “Godot.” They will join the previously announced cast members Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart for a 14-week run at the Cort Theater that is scheduled to begin with previews on Oct. 26 and an opening night set for Nov. 4. Both works will be directed by Sean Mathias. The specific schedule and performance dates for each play have not been announced.

On Trial for His E-Mails, Interrogating Witnesses, and Himself

Aaron Lee Fineman for The New York Times Christopher X. Brodeur in 2001.

On the eighth floor of the Brooklyn Criminal Courthouse - a place where misdemeanors are adjudicated and court proceedings consist mostly of brief appearances in front of a judge - the bizarre trial of Christopher X. Brodeur is now entering its third week.

On Friday, Mr. Brodeur, 45, called himself to the witness stand and began questioning himself in a format that took full comedic advantage of the absurdist situation.

“Mr. Brodeur, would you explain,” he would say, as a preface to a typical question.

“Well, I’d love to,” he would respond to himself, and then launch into a lengthy answer.

Mr. Brodeur is charged with violating a restraining order by sending an e-mail to an acquaintance, Harry Stuckey, who became Mr. Brodeur’s nemesis after a failed attempt to open an artists’ collective in Williamsburg.

Similarly, Mr. Brodeur was convicted in December on a criminal contempt charge in connection with violating a restraining order by sending an e-mail to Rachel Trachtenburg, a 19-year-old model and a member of the girl band Supercute.

Mr. Brodeur, a musician, artist and political activist, has spent the past 13 months in Rikers Island - partly because he cannot come up with the $15,000 bail set by the court.

Mr. Brodeur, has run twice for mayor of New York City, winning 4 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary for mayor in 2005. But he became best known for making headlines after his numerous arrests for harassing government or elected officials - most notably Rudolph Giuliani, whose radio show Mr. Brodeur would regularly call into, with taunts.

Mr. Brodeur is known for sending out mass e-mails to friends, enemies, reporters and government officials alike, often with obscene rants about the dishonesty of certain elected officials.

As usual, Mr. Brodeur is representing himself in the current trial, but the judge has insisted that a court-appointed lawyer, Steven Hubert, be present as a legal adviser.

So Mr. Brodeur is brought into court each day in handcuffs and wearing an outfit of layered T-shirts and sweatshirts. He has a beard and long hair and he remains handcuffed to his chair. He is cheery and sharp of mind, and ever loquacious in his relentless, meandering questioning of witnesses - most of whom are his various friends and former friends.

The legal crux of the trial â€" Mr. Brodeur’s e-mails - has largely been overshadowed by his domination of the proceedings by questioning witnesses about the minutiae of how he was wronged in various ways.

Isn’t Christopher honest, he keeps asking witnesses. Isn’t he a famous political activist, a whistle-blower. Isn’t he talented.

His meandering questions prompt constant objections from the prosecutor, Jessica Wilson, which then prompt mini-law lessons from Judge Michael Yavinsky.

Mr. Brodeur has been prickly with the prosecution, signing court documents with names including Liberace, Judy Garland and Thomas Jefferson.

The Brooklyn district attorney, Charles Hynes, who has been the target of many of Mr. Brodeur’s obscenity-laced e-mail screeds, is up for re-election this fall, and is afraid that Mr. Brodeur will challenge him, Mr. Brodeur claims.

Mr. Hynes is prosecuting him as “political payback,” Mr. Brodeur said, adding, “We’re here because Charles Hynes is fighting for his political career.”

The judge has been highly tolerant of - and alternately entertained and flustered by - Mr. Brodeur’s courtroom antics. The charge carries 90 days maximum jail time, and the judge will deliver the verdict. He has helped out as Mr. Brodeur has stumbled on questioning formats, and has kindly corralled the defendant in, as his questioning strayed.

Last week, Mr. Brodeur called to the stand Thomas Ritchford, a computer programmer and former Google employee who was friendly with Mr. Brodeur during the formation of the artists’ collective.

Mr. Ritchford testified that Mr. Stuckey took money from himself and Mr. Brodeur.

Chase for Escaped Prisoner Shuts Subway Lines

A search for an escaped, handcuffed prisoner snarled subway service across much of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and into the Bronx late Monday morning, the authorities said.

After a man was arrested at his home on Monday in connection with a string of thefts, the police said, he jumped out of a police car near 145th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem around 10:15 a.m., pushing an officer and scurrying into a nearby subway station.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it had suspended service on the entire B line and on D trains between 34th Street in Manhattan and 161st Street in the Bronx, as well as A and C trains from 59th Street to 168th Street in Manhattan.

Shortly after noon, a police spokesman said that the search for the man was “still active.”

Helen Mirren Is Not Amused as Drummers Disrupt Performance

Marching drummers in London’s West End were surprised to learn that their parade had disrupted a nearby performance of “The Audience” at the Gielgud Theater on Saturday night, but the real shock came when the actress Helen Mirren appeared on the street, dressed in full costume as Queen Elizabeth II, and berated them for doing so.

Ms. Mirren, who stars as the Queen in “The Audience,” which chronicles Her Majesty’s meetings with Britain’s prime ministers over a 60-year period, lived out the fantasy of every bystander who has ever been unintentionally stuck near a parade, using some strong language to halt the festivities during the play’s intermission.

The drummers were marching as part of a promotion for As One in the Park, a gay music festival that will be held in London this month.

“I’m afraid there were a few ‘thespian’ words used,” Ms. Mirren told The Daily Telegraph. “They got a very stern royal ticking off, but I have to say they were very sweet, and they stopped immediately.”

Mark McKenzie, a parade organizer, told the Telegraph, “Not much shocks you on the gay scene, but seeing Helen Mirren dressed as the queen cussing and swearing and making you stop your parade â€" that’s a new one.”

Aerosmith Cancels Show in Indonesia

Aerosmith has canceled a show in Indonesia because of security concerns after the police stopped a plot to bomb the Myanmar Embassy, wire services reported.

The concert promoter, Ismaya Live, said the show this Saturday for 15,000 people in Jakarta had to be called off for safety reasons, though it did not spell out the connection between the concert and the bomb plot.

The Indonesian police said on Friday they had arrested two men suspected to be Islamic militants and had seized bombs; the men are accused of plotting to blow up the Myanmar Embassy in Jarkata to protest that country’s treatement of Muslims.

This is not the first time a Western rock act has pulled out of a show in Indonesia because of the political atmosphere. Lady Gaga canceled a concert on her “Born This Way Ball” tour last year after conservative Islamic groups threatened violent protests.

Talking ‘Mad Men’: A Merger, and the Show Rights Itself

Every Monday morning, Logan Hill and Sloane Crosley have been offering their post-”Mad Men” analysis. Ms. Crosley is traveling, but read on for Mr. Hill’s take and then in the comments tell us what you think about Don’s rash decision, Joan’s outburst, Pete’s pratfall and Peggy’s predicament.

I’ve been a grump about “Mad Men” lately, but this week, the show was at its very best.

The latest episodes have been rolling out in the middle of the NBA playoffs, and, as a fan of both basketball and quality prestige television, I’ve had a hard time separating the two. This season, “Mad Men,” filmed in Los Angeles, has often felt like the Lakers: A storied franchise, stocked with great players (Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, John Slattery, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks) and led by a world-class coach (Matthew Weiner), the team was floundering without direction and a wonky game plan that just wasn’t working. Resting on its laurels, the show seemed to overvalue historical footnotes and period-perfect art-direction instead of risky, actor-driven drama.

Last week, “Mad Men” bottomed out. The King assassination episode devolved into a “We Didn’t Start the Fire” grab bag of references to everything from Marx to the Second Avenue subway, the gentrification of the Upper West and Upper East Sides, Paul Newman, Tecumseh, Eugene McCarthy and “The Planet of the Apes.” That poorly directed, diffuse episode made mere montage of tragedy and boiled over into a “Lord of the Rings”-style series of portentous endings and loose ends. We got too much of everything but what the show does best: American business.

This week’s beautifully written episode plays to the show’s strengths â€" the actors â€" and the business of advertising. Suddenly, its lead performers seem to know why they’re on-screen.

Roger practically bounds off the bench, ready for action, and he has rarely been better: The aging, insecure accounts man beds a stewardess to mine her for information (even using his dead mother as a come-on) and it works. In the first-class lounge, he scores an audition with Chevy, rubs it in Pete’s outraged face, and turns the firm on its nose. “Good idea,” says the Chevy man. “I’m full of them,” says a water-sipping Roger. And he’s right. Much of this season has been moribund, but Roger shakes it awake.

Don, meanwhile, is a powerful jerk again and the show is better for it. When he hands Herb, the Jaguar man, a business card and tells him it’s “the name of the guy who’s going to be handling your account from now on,” it’s thrillingly brutal. It’s no wonder that Don seduces Megan when he goes home, because, as Pete says, it’s never been about the money for Don. It’s always been about power, about momentum. For six seasons, Don’s animating force has been mojo â€" that commingling sense of amassing power â€" and this is the first episode this season that shows him grappling with it. Even when Joan calls him out for his narcissism, Don pushes right back, focused on his push for power â€" right or wrong â€" because that’s what has motivated him for six seasons. This week, when he’s wrong it feels so right.

Pete sees his father-in-law at a Manhattan whorehouse with the “biggest, blackest prostitute you’ve ever seen” (Sketchy Bob from the agency offers to pay for Pete’s assignation. What is he, some corporate spy? Some government mole?). Pete also complains to Trudy, who won’t sleep with him, that he doesn’t understand why she maintains “every other aspect of this marriage except the one that matters.” He pratfalls down the stairs, loses his account, is degraded by his hypocritical father-in-law, and is otherwise unmasked as the sputtering impotent cretin we know and somehow love to hate. Forget Bizarro Pete taking offense at Harry’s racism for unclear familial reasons: The old nasty Pete is back.

Meanwhile, Peggy rushes into the future, moving into her new apartment on the horrific Upper West Side, negotiating with Abe, kissing her boss, and fantasizing about making out with her boss while kissing Abe. The primary dramatic struggle of Season 6 has been that Peggy was pushed offstage at the end of Season 5. When the show’s most sympathetic character left Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, it felt like the oxygen was sucked out of the building. So who cares that this newly merged company, made up of Peggy’s old and new agencies, is tackling an ugly car (the Chevy Nova)? Thanks to the merger, the show’s most vital character is suddenly thrust into the center of a work-love triangle.

The first batch of episodes has felt like a Cliff’s Notes for the era. This episode is still mirroring the times; it’s just not explaining its metaphors every two minutes in overt dialogue. And it gave fans plenty to love: Pete’s spill down the stairs, Joan’s outrageous dresses, Megan in Cleopatra regalia, actual pleasurable sex, Abe’s anachronistic musculature (Dude looks positively CrossFit), and the return of Trudy’s insane nightwear. Surely, this all could have been accomplished much sooner, but now this uneven season seems like it might be righted: Coach Weiner has thrown the rock to his bigs â€" Roger, Don, Pete, and Peggy â€" in an episode that reminds us that this series (which has never been terribly brilliant about civil rights or the Vietnam war) is often a thrilling, hilarious document of how American creative business got big, and at what cost.

“This business is rigged,” Don laments at the bar. Yes, it is. But how? That is the show’s sick thrill.

Logan Hill is a journalist who has contributed to The New York Times, New York, GQ, Rolling Stone, Wired and others.

Talking ‘Mad Men’: A Merger, and the Show Rights Itself

Every Monday morning, Logan Hill and Sloane Crosley have been offering their post-”Mad Men” analysis. Ms. Crosley is traveling, but read on for Mr. Hill’s take and then in the comments tell us what you think about Don’s rash decision, Joan’s outburst, Pete’s pratfall and Peggy’s predicament.

I’ve been a grump about “Mad Men” lately, but this week, the show was at its very best.

The latest episodes have been rolling out in the middle of the NBA playoffs, and, as a fan of both basketball and quality prestige television, I’ve had a hard time separating the two. This season, “Mad Men,” filmed in Los Angeles, has often felt like the Lakers: A storied franchise, stocked with great players (Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, John Slattery, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks) and led by a world-class coach (Matthew Weiner), the team was floundering without direction and a wonky game plan that just wasn’t working. Resting on its laurels, the show seemed to overvalue historical footnotes and period-perfect art-direction instead of risky, actor-driven drama.

Last week, “Mad Men” bottomed out. The King assassination episode devolved into a “We Didn’t Start the Fire” grab bag of references to everything from Marx to the Second Avenue subway, the gentrification of the Upper West and Upper East Sides, Paul Newman, Tecumseh, Eugene McCarthy and “The Planet of the Apes.” That poorly directed, diffuse episode made mere montage of tragedy and boiled over into a “Lord of the Rings”-style series of portentous endings and loose ends. We got too much of everything but what the show does best: American business.

This week’s beautifully written episode plays to the show’s strengths â€" the actors â€" and the business of advertising. Suddenly, its lead performers seem to know why they’re on-screen.

Roger practically bounds off the bench, ready for action, and he has rarely been better: The aging, insecure accounts man beds a stewardess to mine her for information (even using his dead mother as a come-on) and it works. In the first-class lounge, he scores an audition with Chevy, rubs it in Pete’s outraged face, and turns the firm on its nose. “Good idea,” says the Chevy man. “I’m full of them,” says a water-sipping Roger. And he’s right. Much of this season has been moribund, but Roger shakes it awake.

Don, meanwhile, is a powerful jerk again and the show is better for it. When he hands Herb, the Jaguar man, a business card and tells him it’s “the name of the guy who’s going to be handling your account from now on,” it’s thrillingly brutal. It’s no wonder that Don seduces Megan when he goes home, because, as Pete says, it’s never been about the money for Don. It’s always been about power, about momentum. For six seasons, Don’s animating force has been mojo â€" that commingling sense of amassing power â€" and this is the first episode this season that shows him grappling with it. Even when Joan calls him out for his narcissism, Don pushes right back, focused on his push for power â€" right or wrong â€" because that’s what has motivated him for six seasons. This week, when he’s wrong it feels so right.

Pete sees his father-in-law at a Manhattan whorehouse with the “biggest, blackest prostitute you’ve ever seen” (Sketchy Bob from the agency offers to pay for Pete’s assignation. What is he, some corporate spy? Some government mole?). Pete also complains to Trudy, who won’t sleep with him, that he doesn’t understand why she maintains “every other aspect of this marriage except the one that matters.” He pratfalls down the stairs, loses his account, is degraded by his hypocritical father-in-law, and is otherwise unmasked as the sputtering impotent cretin we know and somehow love to hate. Forget Bizarro Pete taking offense at Harry’s racism for unclear familial reasons: The old nasty Pete is back.

Meanwhile, Peggy rushes into the future, moving into her new apartment on the horrific Upper West Side, negotiating with Abe, kissing her boss, and fantasizing about making out with her boss while kissing Abe. The primary dramatic struggle of Season 6 has been that Peggy was pushed offstage at the end of Season 5. When the show’s most sympathetic character left Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, it felt like the oxygen was sucked out of the building. So who cares that this newly merged company, made up of Peggy’s old and new agencies, is tackling an ugly car (the Chevy Nova)? Thanks to the merger, the show’s most vital character is suddenly thrust into the center of a work-love triangle.

The first batch of episodes has felt like a Cliff’s Notes for the era. This episode is still mirroring the times; it’s just not explaining its metaphors every two minutes in overt dialogue. And it gave fans plenty to love: Pete’s spill down the stairs, Joan’s outrageous dresses, Megan in Cleopatra regalia, actual pleasurable sex, Abe’s anachronistic musculature (Dude looks positively CrossFit), and the return of Trudy’s insane nightwear. Surely, this all could have been accomplished much sooner, but now this uneven season seems like it might be righted: Coach Weiner has thrown the rock to his bigs â€" Roger, Don, Pete, and Peggy â€" in an episode that reminds us that this series (which has never been terribly brilliant about civil rights or the Vietnam war) is often a thrilling, hilarious document of how American creative business got big, and at what cost.

“This business is rigged,” Don laments at the bar. Yes, it is. But how? That is the show’s sick thrill.

Logan Hill is a journalist who has contributed to The New York Times, New York, GQ, Rolling Stone, Wired and others.

Talking ‘Mad Men’: A Merger, and the Show Rights Itself

Every Monday morning, Logan Hill and Sloane Crosley have been offering their post-”Mad Men” analysis. Ms. Crosley is traveling, but read on for Mr. Hill’s take and then in the comments tell us what you think about Don’s rash decision, Joan’s outburst, Pete’s pratfall and Peggy’s predicament.

I’ve been a grump about “Mad Men” lately, but this week, the show was at its very best.

The latest episodes have been rolling out in the middle of the NBA playoffs, and, as a fan of both basketball and quality prestige television, I’ve had a hard time separating the two. This season, “Mad Men,” filmed in Los Angeles, has often felt like the Lakers: A storied franchise, stocked with great players (Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, John Slattery, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks) and led by a world-class coach (Matthew Weiner), the team was floundering without direction and a wonky game plan that just wasn’t working. Resting on its laurels, the show seemed to overvalue historical footnotes and period-perfect art-direction instead of risky, actor-driven drama.

Last week, “Mad Men” bottomed out. The King assassination episode devolved into a “We Didn’t Start the Fire” grab bag of references to everything from Marx to the Second Avenue subway, the gentrification of the Upper West and Upper East Sides, Paul Newman, Tecumseh, Eugene McCarthy and “The Planet of the Apes.” That poorly directed, diffuse episode made mere montage of tragedy and boiled over into a “Lord of the Rings”-style series of portentous endings and loose ends. We got too much of everything but what the show does best: American business.

This week’s beautifully written episode plays to the show’s strengths â€" the actors â€" and the business of advertising. Suddenly, its lead performers seem to know why they’re on-screen.

Roger practically bounds off the bench, ready for action, and he has rarely been better: The aging, insecure accounts man beds a stewardess to mine her for information (even using his dead mother as a come-on) and it works. In the first-class lounge, he scores an audition with Chevy, rubs it in Pete’s outraged face, and turns the firm on its nose. “Good idea,” says the Chevy man. “I’m full of them,” says a water-sipping Roger. And he’s right. Much of this season has been moribund, but Roger shakes it awake.

Don, meanwhile, is a powerful jerk again and the show is better for it. When he hands Herb, the Jaguar man, a business card and tells him it’s “the name of the guy who’s going to be handling your account from now on,” it’s thrillingly brutal. It’s no wonder that Don seduces Megan when he goes home, because, as Pete says, it’s never been about the money for Don. It’s always been about power, about momentum. For six seasons, Don’s animating force has been mojo â€" that commingling sense of amassing power â€" and this is the first episode this season that shows him grappling with it. Even when Joan calls him out for his narcissism, Don pushes right back, focused on his push for power â€" right or wrong â€" because that’s what has motivated him for six seasons. This week, when he’s wrong it feels so right.

Pete sees his father-in-law at a Manhattan whorehouse with the “biggest, blackest prostitute you’ve ever seen” (Sketchy Bob from the agency offers to pay for Pete’s assignation. What is he, some corporate spy? Some government mole?). Pete also complains to Trudy, who won’t sleep with him, that he doesn’t understand why she maintains “every other aspect of this marriage except the one that matters.” He pratfalls down the stairs, loses his account, is degraded by his hypocritical father-in-law, and is otherwise unmasked as the sputtering impotent cretin we know and somehow love to hate. Forget Bizarro Pete taking offense at Harry’s racism for unclear familial reasons: The old nasty Pete is back.

Meanwhile, Peggy rushes into the future, moving into her new apartment on the horrific Upper West Side, negotiating with Abe, kissing her boss, and fantasizing about making out with her boss while kissing Abe. The primary dramatic struggle of Season 6 has been that Peggy was pushed offstage at the end of Season 5. When the show’s most sympathetic character left Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, it felt like the oxygen was sucked out of the building. So who cares that this newly merged company, made up of Peggy’s old and new agencies, is tackling an ugly car (the Chevy Nova)? Thanks to the merger, the show’s most vital character is suddenly thrust into the center of a work-love triangle.

The first batch of episodes has felt like a Cliff’s Notes for the era. This episode is still mirroring the times; it’s just not explaining its metaphors every two minutes in overt dialogue. And it gave fans plenty to love: Pete’s spill down the stairs, Joan’s outrageous dresses, Megan in Cleopatra regalia, actual pleasurable sex, Abe’s anachronistic musculature (Dude looks positively CrossFit), and the return of Trudy’s insane nightwear. Surely, this all could have been accomplished much sooner, but now this uneven season seems like it might be righted: Coach Weiner has thrown the rock to his bigs â€" Roger, Don, Pete, and Peggy â€" in an episode that reminds us that this series (which has never been terribly brilliant about civil rights or the Vietnam war) is often a thrilling, hilarious document of how American creative business got big, and at what cost.

“This business is rigged,” Don laments at the bar. Yes, it is. But how? That is the show’s sick thrill.

Logan Hill is a journalist who has contributed to The New York Times, New York, GQ, Rolling Stone, Wired and others.