{"id":2112,"date":"2019-08-02T07:00:07","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T07:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/?p=2112"},"modified":"2019-08-02T06:56:07","modified_gmt":"2019-08-02T06:56:07","slug":"ag-is-always-silver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/2019\/08\/02\/ag-is-always-silver\/","title":{"rendered":"AG is gold, not silver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I wanted you to hold my hand through obsessing over a plot point<\/a> in a sitcom from about 12 years ago. This week, I don’t. Please don’t help me with this one, please don’t answer the key question at the heart of something I’ve now been trying to find out for 25 years.<\/p>\n

Actually, it’s 25 years tomorrow. <\/p>\n

And what I don’t want to know, but I do, and I don’t, but I do, is about Quincy, M.E<\/em>. Specifically, what happened at the end of season 2, episode 10, An Unfriendly Radiance<\/em>, by Rudolph Borchert. <\/p>\n

I can tell you, because I have back issues of Radio Times, that this aired on BBC1 at 11:05 on Wednesday 4 August, 1994, and that I was watching it while dressed in the best suit I have ever owned.<\/p>\n

Tell me you don’t get dressed up for Quincy and then leave before the end.<\/p>\n

Looking at that Radio Times listing, I’m struck by how The Rockford Files<\/em> was on later (BBC1, 14:15-15:05, Find Me If You Can<\/em>, season 1, episode 9, teleplay by Juanita Bartlett, story by Roy Huggins using his pen name of John Thomas James.)<\/p>\n

The Rockford Files is much better than Quincy, but 14:15 on Wednesday 4 August, 1994, would be too late.<\/p>\n

I’d be married by then.<\/p>\n

I didn’t mention that the best suit I’ve ever owned had a flower in it. Or that I was sitting really carefully and resisting tea because I was being practical about not risking any spills, and because I was being really shaky.<\/p>\n

No question, I’d have watched whatever was on, it just happened to be Quincy, and it just happened that Quincy was a moment of stillness on my wedding day. It was also Angela Gallagher’s wedding day, but I don’t think she got to have any stillness, and if she watched Quincy that morning, she’s never admitted it.<\/p>\n

Also no question, even as ready as I was, even though it was impossible to leave until the car came, impossible as it was to think about anything else, I did get into that Quincy episode. And then I did get out of it again, no more than 25 minutes in.<\/p>\n

So for all these years, there has been a bit of me that really wants to know if Quincy saved the day, and there’s more of me that likes not knowing.<\/p>\n

Except.<\/p>\n

I wanted to credit the writer, so I looked up the episode online \u2013\u2013 and I’ve found the episode. It shouldn’t be there, it’s been illegally uploaded to YouTube, but it’s there.<\/p>\n

It’s still not going to be the video I’m likely to watch this weekend. <\/p>\n

And if I’m not kidding about how I think of this episode often, it’s really because I think of that moment and I think a lot of that day twenty five years ago. So long ago, so far away, and yet Angela Gallagher is still with me.<\/p>\n

She might not be after she sees this image. It’s irresistible, it’s a Before and After image from the day. The alternative is that I show you how we looked then and now, but that won’t happen because while Angela would look wonderful in both, I wouldn’t in either. Even with that suit.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

Before and After<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I wanted you to hold my hand through obsessing over a plot point in a sitcom from about … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[178],"tags":[1540,982,981,1539,1541,1542],"class_list":["post-2112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-selfdistract","tag-juanita-bartlett","tag-m-e","tag-quincy","tag-rockford-files","tag-roy-huggins","tag-rudolph-borchert"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4chyI-y4","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2112"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2117,"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2112\/revisions\/2117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}