What I love most about The Wire is that the landscape of the show feels just as alive as the real world. Characters just don't 'go away', you feel like they are going on with their lives, just not in a way that is related to this season's storylines. Contrast that with the 2-D and cartoonish world of The Sopranos (no, the Russian never came back!)

Two great examples from this week.

Yes, that was the former dockyard worker with the homeless - I believe he worked up with the computer terminals and made sure no one recorded the disappearnces of the containers. He was also seen at the end of that season, with beer in hand, being dragged away from the closed unionhall. That struck me when I saw him. We see what happens to some people when their way of life goes away in favor of new waterfront condos. A great touch that ties in what many believe (wrongly) was a detour of a season.

Also, the flower store was the same place where a young Bodie went to get flowers for Deangelo's funeral. If you recall, he was led in back where they had AK-47 themed flower arrangements.

Why did it surprise us when Prop Joe got his? We saw this same thing happen to Stringer Bell for the same reasons. Stringer could not "civilize" Avon any more than Prop Joe could do it for Marlo.

My biggest question - why is Dookie getting trained with a weapon? I hope I am wrong about this, but I hope he isn't there when Omar takes a shot at Michael.

That was his mindset. He sat there and fidled around with broken toasters all day - once said it was a shame to see a perfectly good lamp thrown away for lack of a new cord. That was the man's worldview. He felt he could fix Marlo by showing him the benefits of playing the game by his (and the co-op's) rules. Why wouldn't Marlo want that?

The key here was Prop Joe did not know, and never would've believed, that he lost the Greeks to Marlo. No way. And, content, in that knowledge, he believed himself to be bullet-proof.

Question - why would the Greeks back Marlo? He has money, but so did Joe and so do they. And why is Avon helping him, a man that knocked him off the throne. I'm not buying it, something else is going on.

...and you Hillary people are STILL going to lose.

But Hillary's story about Bosnia makes me more likely to view Sinbad favorably. Do I smell VP choice?

If she didn't CRY LIKE A BABY in New Hampshire she never would have made it out of that state. But ya gotta have pride to make it in politics, right?

Oh, and I like how she "battled for healthcare" in the 90's! When she took a week to pitch it, was so bad at it that she was overwhelmingly rejected, and then hid in the White House basement for 7 years. Yeah, that is the consensus-builder we need at the helm! Face it, she's a quitter at the one thing that mattered. She'll quit again.

And as for meeting with the Pittsburgh Tribune Review - enough said. I loved how she "was just answering the question" about Rev. Wright - YET SHE READ HER ANSWER OFF AN INDEX CARD!!! I loved it, she can't even race-bait without being thoroughly scripted.

What the Rev. Wright thing is all about - and why Hillary and her supporters keep bringing it up - is to play on America's racial fears. "See - black men ARE scary...and don't let Obama fool you, he's a black man. Be scared of him!" Ya gotta have pride, right Hillary supporters?!?

I have more respect for W supporters than Hillary's, at least they know they are amoral scumbags and CHOOSE not to care as long as they get the tax cut. Hill's supporters just delude themselves into thinking they're righteous.

And as a Philadelphian, let me tell you - that Rendell and Nutter endorsement don't mean anything here.

Wasn't that quote by Tip On'Neill?