Mad Men has, quite not unexpectedly, become American Dreams. Ugh. Can’t we just be grown-ups?

What are we trying to prove exactly, when, with many disposable vessels and, indeed, ashtrays available, we put out our cigarettes in tea cups, then put said tea cups directly in the sink?

They’re called sports write—urm, bloggers.

From “Truehoop,” on the literary, elegiac end of ESPN’s roundball offerings. (As far as I know. I don’t have access to Insider. If anyone wants go in with me on an annual subscription—I’m looking at you, seedz—let’s connect “offline.”):

It’s hard to argue that the demolition of Pennsylvania Station for an arena that could’ve been placed elsewhere didn’t make New York City a slightly lesser place, as articulated by then-New York Times architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable in May 1963. The opposition fought a losing battle, but the station’s demise was the impetus for the formation of New York City’s Landmarks Preservationist Commission, which is still active — and effective — to this day.

Progress always comes with a price, and the cost-benefit analysis of annihilating a beautiful relic in favor of new development with inferior architectural appeal is one of the tougher calculations a city has to grapple with. Yes, the station was gorgeous, but it was also a money pit. In the early 60s, rail traffic through its grand concourse was declining precipitously, and the city was hemorrhaging dollars to maintain the structure.

After Paul botches the meeting with the developers, Sterling Cooper’s creative director, Don Draper — the show’s central character — is called in to salvage the account. At a three-martini lunch with MSG’s disgruntled developer, Draper makes the case for Madison Square Garden (the scene can be viewed here at about the 1:00 mark).

Draper’s case is an elegant, moderate manifesto for the future:

Let’s say that change is neither good nor bad. It simply is. It can be treated with terror or joy — a tantrum that says, ‘I want it the way it was,’ or a dance that says, ‘Look — something new.’ … I was in California. Everything is new, and it’s clean. The people are filled with hope. New York City is in decay. But Madison Square Garden — it’s the beginning of a new city on a hill.

The rest is history: The original Pennsylvania Station was eventually demolished, and rail traffic was sent underground, beneath the arena we now know as MSG. …

Four decades later, it’s ironic that the building that was the bête noire of architectural preservationists has become the defining symbol of basketball preservationists — a receptacle for the sort of sentimentalism that fueled the opposition to its creation.

By “ironic,” he means “a terrible lie perpetrated by (1) coincidental proximity to all manner of Long Island Rail Road connections and (2) the baffling mass delusion that the New York Knicks have any place of signifiance in the history of basketball.”

How can the city of New York atone for its Mad Men-era crimes, architectural and athletic? I know a guy named Frank and an empty lot on Atlantic Avenue, just waiting to be cleared of its remaining undesirable beatnik millionaire residents…

[Lenovo] Procurement manager Qiao jokes that one takeaway from his nascent relationship with IBM is a knowledge of American business cliches. “I learned oceans apart. And then, after that, bridge the gap,” he says with a grin. “I especially like this one: low-hanging fruit. It’s a very good expression.” [Wired]

So i’ve watched essentially every episode of Mad Men over the last 72 hours, and all i can say is i wish it worked more like The Wire. First season, Sterling Cooper advertising agency, sure. But why not second season, Menken department store empire? Third season, Carla, the beautiful Draper housekeeper? All 1960.

I mean, wasn’t the 2008 election about this not being the decade we think is interesting enough to relive?