An anonymous petitioner writes: "I would LOVE to know my character. I'm a 40-something gal who grew up in Ohio, spent some time in Georgia, and now live in Washington. I manage a bunch of engineering groups that design flying machines. Oh, and I was once in Arab, AL (I'm sure that figures into my personality somewhere)."Nice use of geographical shout-outs. By why stop there? “I often change planes in St. Louis. My car was assembled in Canada from parts manufactured in Japan. I enjoy maple syrup from Vermont …”
Sorry, I’m in a bad mood. My visions are even more out of control than usual. Still, I shouldn’t take it out on you. Before I start on your reading, I want you to know that your parallel universe TV character does not necessarily say anything about you as a person. As I stated in an earlier post:
“Most TV characters are extras or walk-ons. You are probably the 'old army buddy' who dies before the first commercial break. You almost certainly aren’t the starship captain or even the tough-but-sexy emergency room nurse. That’s just how it is – nothing I can do about it.”
But oddly enough, you actually are a tough-but-sexy emergency room nurse.
Show: Carrier Group Police, (1950-1961)
Genre: Military drama
Your Character: Nurse Joan McAfee
Actors(s): Sorry, no information available.
Show Details: Carrier Group Police followed the adventures of Commander Tyree Lang, a “Navy Cop” serving in the Pacific during WWII. Every episode took place aboard the USS Forrest (an American aircraft carrier) and its various escort vessels. The show found a successful formula and stuck with it: 1) Crime discovered 2) Crime investigated 3) Bad guy shot, or falls over the side, or is shot and then falls over the side. By the end of the shows 11-year run, Lang killed more American sailors than Admiral Yamamoto.
Your character, Nurse Joan McAfee, kept her cool through every possible combination of gunfight, operation, typhoon, and Japanese attack. She saved lives, and could be compassionate when needed, but she didn’t exactly overflow with kind feelings. She habitually abused the doctors (who were mainly present as comedy relief). In Season 3, she slapped a sailor who was suffering from combat fatigue. While McAfee never actually told a patient to “shut up and die already” (anymore than Rick really said “Play it again, Sam”), the quote was attributed to her character anyway.
Of course, Lang and McAfee had an unrequited romance throughout the show’s run. But they could never be together. Joan was a Marine, and (in her words) Lang “was just a Navy man.”
3 comments:
Wow, you are in a bad mood, Mr. Touchy! What part of “you choose how much to tell me, truth or lies, it doesn’t matter” was insincere?
Regardless, this exercise has been fascinating. Now that you have pointed me in the right direction with my parallel universe character, I find that I have flashes of episodes myself. Your perspective on the show is interesting in an “excellent recorder of history but poor interpreter” sort of way. Yes, Nurse McAfee had a reputation among the male crew for being abusive and somewhat cold. It’s even true that she isn’t what we’d call “nice.” But she absolutely overflowed with kind feelings – she took care of everyone that crossed her path in the way that they most needed, even when it came at great personal cost to herself. The combat fatigue slap? That sailor needed to go on for 5 more minutes to finish the fight, and then Nurse McAfee personally made sure that he got the help he needed back in the states. The famous “shut up and die already” episode? When you’re up to your eyeballs in people dying in agony and trying to save as many of them as possible, a sailor that comes onto the scene moaning and groaning about how much his sprained ankle hurts needs to be put aside. Yes, the ankle probably hurt. Yes, in a different time and place Nurse McAfee would have shown more sympathy. But at that particular moment, he (and the doctor she had just literally kicked in the backside as he was stealing pain meds instead of giving them to badly wounded sailors) needed to be reminded to quit complaining and, if not help, at least get the hell out of the way. Her treatment of Lang was equally kind (although not nice): she knew that she wasn’t the kind of girl he really wanted to marry (war heroes campaigning for high office in the 1950s needed someone a little more nice and less genuinely kind). He didn’t get it, so she cut off the relationship in the only way that would allow him to get on with his life. Nice? No. Kind? Of course.
Thanks for the reading. Good luck with those out of control visions.
It’s rare, but it does happen – people gaining insights on their own characters after a reading. But that usually happens whem the person and the character have very similar mental traits. Boy, I didn’t expect that in this case! If you truly are able to see information about Nurse McAfee, then you know that I left out a few details in order to spare your feelings. Details, for example, on why captured Japanese soldiers would often faint or attempt seppuki the moment they found out that they were onboard the good ship Forrest. Let’s just say that a nurse really knows how to hurt a guy, particularly if said guy won’t give up the information that could save the lives of US Marines …
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. On an unrelated matter, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize if I have in any way given you offense in my character reading of the very admirable and heroic Nurse McAffee. Best regards, and JD Atlanta is not my real name.
Good heavens - I am not at all offended! I'm simply sharing with you another facet of your gift. I'm not sure that I am much like Nurse McAfee at all. Perhaps simply being sympethetic to another's point of view is enough to create a bond with my parallel universe character.
Thanks for the additional thoughts.
Best regards, and Anonymous isn't my real name either.
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