Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the science fiction/ existential drama The Prisoner. For Part One, in which I examined the themes and concepts at play in the series click HERE
Episode Title: THE CHIMES OF BIG BEN. In the ongoing debate about the exact numbering of the 17 episodes of The Prisoner I place this as the 3rd in the series. Any comments that I have regarding the Alternate Chimes of Big Ben will be made in this same post.
Leo McKern makes the first of his three appearances as one of the Village’s rotating series of Number Twos. Despite his villainous role he gets the audience on his side right off the bat. He does that while watching the surveillance video of Number Six as he wakes up for the day and voices his observation that the Prisoner “Can make even the act of putting on a dressing gown seem like a gesture of defiance.”
Leo McKern’s character’s verbal fencing with Patrick McGoohan is as much fun to watch as Columbo’s cat and mouse games with the murderers on his show. (And yes, I know McGoohan was no stranger to Columbo, both the 1970s series and the later revival.)
The part where the Prisoner intentionally adds three lumps of sugar to his tea just because Number Two says his file reflects that he takes NO sugar is particularly enjoyable. It’s also one of those scenes that is not appreciated by people who don’t have a nonconformist bone in their body.
McKern as Number Two also proves to be the most informative of those rotating Village executives. His attempts to persuade our protagonist to just tell the Villagekeepers why he resigned and then join their conspiracy go beyond just admitting that he, too, tried to resist when he was brought to the Village.
Leo makes it clear that the Village represents the model for the Earth of the future as pursued by highly-placed elements from both sides of the Cold War. He paints a picture of inevitability for the Prisoner in hopes that he can make McGoohan cave in while retaining his sense of personal honor. If a Global “Village” is inevitable there’s no shame in surrendering to it. Continue reading
THE AVENGERS Volume One, Number 91 (August 1971) 
TAKE ONE GIANT STEP … BACKWARD 
Balladeer’s Blog has long emphasized the need for Third Parties in America since the Democrats and Republicans are just rival gangs of white collar criminals. 
ELEVEN YEAR HIGH PERCENT OF AMERICANS SAY THINGS ARE GOING WELL – CNN’s own polling is telling us this – which means the figure is probably even higher than the 59% they quoted. At any rate , I always make it clear that after the 2016 election I don’t trust polls and surveys done by the corporate media but Trump-hating fascists eat, sleep and breathe by such polls and surveys so I periodically have fun mentioning results like this. 
SAMANTHA BEE STUPID – The relentlessly unfunny Samantha Bee looked like an even bigger fool than she usually does recently after New York’s Democrat Attorney General Eric Schneiderman – whom she praised and groveled for in an interview – had to resign amid #METOO accusations of brutal VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN. At least FOUR accusers have come forward. 
LLOYD MARCUS: DESPITE THE MEDIA, TRUMP PULLING DOWN WINS FOR WE THE PEOPLE – As I always mention, Lloyd is religious and I’m a non-believer. 
THE WRECK OF A WORLD (1889) – Written by W. Grove. (No other name available) This novel is the sequel to Grove’s A Mexican Mystery, an ahead-of-its-time work about a train engine devised to have artificial intelligence. The machine – called only The Engine in that story – rebelled and took to preying on human beings in horrific fashion. For Balladeer’s Blog’s review of that novel click 
Our story begins in what was to Grove “the far future” of 1949. After a fairly superficial depiction of the world’s political and scientific situation in this imaginary future the meat of the tale begins. All in all the author did not present 1940s technology as being much more advanced than what was available in the 1880s. Grove might have done better to set his tale in 1899 or just into the 1900s to detract from his lack of vision on this particular element. 
It’s no secret that I consider President Trump to be America’s first de facto Third Party President, nor that I consider him to be the new Franklin Roosevelt AND the new JFK. He has accomplished a great deal for the working class and the poor and I’m not going to ignore all that just because the violent fascists and moronic conformists who hate him whine about him 24/7. These are historic times kicked off when Trump shattered the glass ceiling in November of 2016. 
At a tense hearing at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, the judge said Mueller should not have “unfettered power” in his Russia probe and that the charges against Manafort did not arise from the investigation into Moscow’s alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. 
ONE SEED 
TWO SEED 
THREE SEED 
FOUR SEED
FIVE SEED 
TANGAHAU – In my opinion Tangahau is more like an Odysseus of Bellona and Rennell Islands than Takitaki (covered previously). However, Tangahau’s reputation as a wanderer originally from the Duff Islands seems to tip the balance to Takitaki. Here’s a brief look at Tangahau’s cycle of myths. 
APPALACHIAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE: CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – It took SIXTEEN Innings for a winner to be determined in the clash between the two teams still standing in the AAC. Those two teams were the 4 seeds – the POINT UNIVERSITY SKYHAWKS – and the 2nd seeded TENNESSEE WESLEYAN COLLEGE BULLDOGS. 
Another look at the make-believe “educators” (LMAO) who have reduced colleges and universities to faith-based institutions that are as irrational as any religious “schools.” 
