The Magic

The Magic of An Ordinary Monday

Monday evenings during this time of year mean only one thing in my house...Monday Night Football! (As if Sunday and now Saturday games weren't enough.)

Well, I enjoy a good game just as much as anyone else and I certainly enjoy hanging out with my husband. However, I have noticed over the years that these NFL Monday night games seem to possess him. I'll observe him either screaming with anger at the tv or shouting with joy at it. Of course, this all happens in between his roof-raising snoring.

To cut to the chase...this past Monday set out to be no different from any other. Or so I thought. When I had all I could of Monday Night Football and its possession of my husband, I decided to leave my Prince Charming and watch tv in another room of the house.

Usually, I fall asleep around 10pm on most week nights, so I knew that whatever I started to view would help me fade into a nice sleep. Or so I thought.

As I flipped through the channels, I noticed that the pilot episode of "The Sopranos" was beginning to air as an encore. So I thought, what the heck...I'll check it out. I would be asleep before the show was over anyway. Or so I thought.

In this episode, Tony Soprano's daughter is in the kitchen having a conversation with her girlfriend and her mother. They were discussing spending Christmas vacation in Aspen. Suddenly, the girlfriend said, "It's so cool you're gonna be able to come to Aspen with my family at Christmas. Last year at Aspen, I saw Skeet Ulrich. As close as from where you're sitting. Oh, my god."

Immediately, my eyes widened...whoa, did she say SKEET ULRICH? Was I hearing things correctly? I know my brain has been held captive by all the recent updates and pics to the blog, but I was certain I didn't project his name into a Sopranos episode.

So I went to my computer and googled "sopranos pilot episode transcript" and scanned for Skeet's name. I found it. Oh my...I wasn't hearing things! I was relieved. It took me a couple of hours to fall asleep after that...but I did have Skeet Dreams that night. Magical...simply magical!

The episode was first aired on January 10, 1999.


For discussion...

What are your thoughts about this mentioning of Skeet's name in a Sopranos episode back in 1999?

How and why did the writers come to choose his name to be mentioned in that dialogue?

Looking forward to your responses.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!