A bemusing take on fun in today’s New York Times: Katie Roiphe looks at “Mad Men” (a show I too adore: go Team Peggy!) and seems to conclude that, as satisfying as it may be to drink organic milk and be part of an audience of  “successful, healthy couples … sitting in their bedrooms with flat-screen TVs”, the deepest appeal of the show speaks to a hidden, defiant, dangerous urge to have … well, to have … fun. “The idea that you would do something just for the momentary blissful escape of it, for intensity, for strong feeling, is out of fashion.”

Whose fashion? Here at Under the Poppy HQ, fun is not a by-product, it’s our raison d’être and our middle name; Diane and I made it part of the mission statement pretty much from Day One. As in all the best cultural brothels, a delicious serving of creative transgression – or transgressive creativity, they do look the same in a bowler hat – can be yours for the price of admission, and be assured that the daily effort it requires of the many involved is just a lot of fun all on its own.  Every second is not a hoot (paperwork!), but cumulatively, we’re having a pretty damn good time here and we’re confident that that will translate to your experience, should you choose to give us an evening.  As for the book, see the post below, bearing in mind that fun can be another name for love.

And turning sideways for another wink at “Mad Men,” surely some of the visceral appeal of this show is that its characters are always all dressed up and lookin’ fine, in costumes of great sexiness and dash; “costumes” to us but to them, of course, the daily suit for the daily task. Part of the appeal of that “thrill of casual vice” is how hot it looks and how hot it makes one feel. If it’s even more fun to watch “Mad Men” while decked out in a merry widow (try it!), how much fun will it be to slip into some Victorian punkwear to come and see our show?

Have fun today.