I might be looking too hard for another JFK foreshadow but the way that the draft dodger knocked out Don in the back of the head reminds me of how the final bullet that took out Kennedy at Dealey Plaza. And then came the blood just like the last two episodes. Of course when you look at the Zapruder film it's more like, "Back and to the left back and to the left".

I just thought it was interesting that the solar eclipse (which occurred on July 20, 1963) figured into this bunch of very strange events. July 23, three days later: Peggy woke up with Duck and Don woke up badly. Oh, and that old coot Coop showed his evil side. Very weird episode, especially with Don's dad popping in again.

On 7/23/63, the Beatles release "She Loves You" in Britain. It's the beginning of the end for Brylcreem and a whole lot more.

I was twelve years old and in a few days I would be starting junior high school. It's impossible today to imagine the impact that the Beatles had on America. It was an almost completely insular society, with very little foreign influence. The British invasion and the new Mod and Rocker styles that came with it knocked our collective socks off.

The Beatle haircut was only the beginning of many dinner table controversies that culminated in civil rights and the Vietnam. Long hair on boys and men may seem laughably trivial now but letting one's hair grow was a revolutionary act, especially in Republican suburbia and Madison Avenue.

The scene in which Don picks up the hitchhikers encapsulates the "world turned upside down" nature of the times. Normally Don's fancy car and the fact that he works in advertising would impress even the most jaded kid. But these kids value nothing that Don does, including the Hobo Code, which Don lives by. Don may be a drifter but he's been in his own way, an honorable one.

To see Peggy and especially Betty kick over the traces, was absolutely thrilling.

BTW - Any votes on who will be first at SC to grow their hair long?

The significance of 7/23/1963 is that on that day, the Beatles released the single, "She Loves You" in Britain.

It's the beginning of the end for the old way of looking at the world and Don is no longer the Boy Wonder. Even Cooper is no longer to be completely trusted.

Since Joan is the only person who hasn't in some way betrayed Don (along with Pete, of all people.) Perhaps she will be the one to help him pick up the pieces.

Oops! sorry for the double posts! I didn't think the first one had gone through.

all prime numbers!

Is 2 a prime number? I know it is divisible by itself and one, but it also can be halved into a whole number, so I don't know if it can be prime. I don't remember. And 9 and 6 aren't, unless you're just taking about 7/23 alone.

I say Kurt is the first to grow his hair long--and Smitty.

As usual, everyone has such great observations. Yep, all kinds of change and allusions to change in this episode. I sense that we will be getting more and more of this as the season goes on, just as change began to accelerate in the mid sixties, ending up with 1969: the moon landing, Woodstock, etc. Let's hope the show keeps going that long!

What is so funny to me sometimes is how far away 1969 seems from where they are now--in culture, style, music, attitudes, and how much happens between those mere 6 years! But really, that's like summer of 2003 to us right now, which is so just yesterday to me, and almost no different than this summer in my activities, mindset, lifestyle, etc.

@katie I heard that Mathew Weiner wanted the story of the series itself to end in the year 1970. I think that entire series is about how a society changed from a very linear society to a very free thinking society though the prism of an ad agency.

I hope Mathew Weiner has just as much passion for the groovy sixties as he does for Kennedy camelot sixties.

JoanBaez, I am betting Paul will be the first to grow his hair long.

Great comments, everyone!

I might be wrong, but I could swear the date on the contract was 1965!!

A completely different take on 723. Roman custom was to date years from the founding of Rome, which while disputed has been argued to correspond with 753 BC. Thus if we subtract 723 from 753 e get 30 BC, the previous year he defeated Mark Anthony and Cleopatra, died and Octavian (later Caesar Augustus) became de facto emperor, and Rome ceased to be a republic. When Don/Dick signs the contract he has become subservient to an Empire, not I suggest PPL, but Conrad Hilton, and the American Empire.