The 12th Annual Newtown Road Race, held September 2, was a family event loaded with impressive personal success stories for young children and seniors in high school on up to senior citizens including some 80-plus years of age, as a matter of fact.

Jason J Edwards emceed the annual race event, which benefits Newtown Youth & Family Services. Abby Giansiracusa sang the National Anthem before the runners departed from the park entrance up the hill on Elm Drive, shortly after 8 am on a crisp fall-like morning in which temperatures were in the 50s.

Christian Lestik, a Newtown High School senior, ran with several members of the cross country family, and won the 5K race for the second year in a row, shaving nine seconds off his winning time, as he came across the Dickinson Park finish line in 17:31.

Its a lot of fun. I love the course, said Lestik, 17, who was 16 seconds faster than second-place runner and NHS cross country teammate/fellow team captain Joel Duval, also 17.

Brenda McRae was the top female finisher, logging a 13th-place result with a time of 20:23.

The fact McRae, of Sandy Hook, ran the race at all was an impressive feat never mind the fact she lead the female field. McRae, 33, is less than a month removed from spinal surgery; she injured her back catching her daughter during a fall on a pool deck this summer.

So Im very happy with my time, McRae said.

McRae and her family moved to town only a year ago, but she has already made a name for herself in Newtown road races, winning the female division at the Turkey Trot and Sandy Hook 5K. So how does the Newtown Road Race stack up?

This ones the best. Its flat, the weathers perfect, said McRae, before going to watch her children in the events Kids Fun Run.

Newtowns Tim Bartlett and his children, Hannah and Dylan, ran the 5K race together.

They both leave for college tomorrow so we figured once last fun thing to do together as a family, Tim Bartlett said after they refueled with snacks under the park pavilion.

Sandy Hooks Brian McGambley was among several participants to jog the course while pushing a child in a stroller. He had Grace and his wife, Jeannette, went with their other daughter, Brynn, also in a stroller.

Its a fun time. Its kind of our family thing, McGambley said.

Anthony Moreno, 17, placed third in 19:11; Austin Burns, 21, was fourth in 19:24; Philip Tisi, 35, placed fifth in 19:33; Jose Pasini, 44, was sixth in 19:39; Alex Wong, 16, came in seventh in 19:42; Matt Brantl, 16, was eighth in 19:49; Johathan Nahmias, 16, was ninth in 19:56; Jake Bulkley, 13, finished tenth in 20:09.

Bulkley is not a runner, but rolled out of bed and decided last minute to give it a go, said his dad, Scott Bulkley, who also ran the course with his wife and children. Jake Bulkley, who plays lacrosse and tapped his natural athleticism, won the 13 and under age bracket. Scott Bulkley is the lacrosse coach at Newtown High. NHS Athletic Director, Matt Memoli, also ran the course.

Joe Whelan, 53, was 11th in 20:11; and Todd Perrin, 16, placed 12th in 20:19. After McRae, Michael Connelly, 13, came in 14th with a time of 20:31; Cody Gotthardt, 23, was 15th in 20:35; Thomas Hartley, 16, placed 16th in 20:38; James Christos, 35, was 17th in 20:40; Fernando Caetano, 59, came in 18th in 20:54; Kevin McDonald, 60, was 19th with a time of 20:58; and Ally McCarthy, 13, was 20th in 21:00.

Eastons Edward Soderberg, 81, won the 80 and over age category, finishing in a time of 41:53.

This was great, Soderberg said of the course, which he ran for the first time.

Soderberg, who has completed two half marathons this year, is doing his part to help others stay fit; he teaches exercise classes through the Monroe YMCA.

James Bergeron, 82, wasnt far behind Soderberg, coming across the line in 42:30 to round out the two-man 80-plus division results.

The husband and wife running tandem of Pat and Bill Smith, of Newtown, again had strong performances. Pat, 70, won the 70-79 age division in 32:05, and Bill, 75 (soon to be 76 and still running strong) was third in his division with a time of 32:07.

I love it. Its agony while youre doing it, but I love it, Pat said of running.

The Smiths didnt start running until 2011. It was around the time of Bills 70th birthday, Pat recalls, and he wanted to do something special so he signed up for the Newtown Road Race, having had no buildup or training for the 5K.

I was just happy he didnt want to jump out of an airplane so I ran with him, Pat said.

They both won their age division that first time around, and have stuck with it, also participating in other Newtown races throughout the past handful of years, and winning age divisions multiple times.

Rita Kelly (42:28) and Sandy Lubin (42:43), both 72, were the second- and third-place finishers, respectively, and Elizabeth Eaton (44:13), 75, was fourth in the female 70-79 division.

The top four males in the 70-79 range were Frank McGowan, 72, who finished in 28:29; Frank Maco, 70, who was second in 29:54; Smith; and Ken Ziman, 70, who came across in 38:04

Age division champions are as follows: Female 13 and under Ally McCarthy, 13, 21:00. 14-19 Allie Paynter, 17, 24:16. 20-29 Meredith MacMillan, 28, 25:11. 30-39 Amber Kerr, 37, 22:46. 40-49 Leah Begg, 48, 23:57. 50-59 Laura Nowacki, 52, 22:39. 60-69 Debbie Perry, 61, 26:10. Male 13 and under Jake Bulkley, 13, 20:09. 14-19 Joel Duval, 17, 17:47. 20-29 Austin Burns, 21, 19:24. 30-39 Philip Tisi, 35, 19:33. 40-49 Joe Pasini, 44, 19:39. 50-59 Joe Whelan, 53, 20:11. 60-69 Kevin McDonald, 60, 20:58.

Visit the Plattsys Timing webpage for overall results and age division results.

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Family Fun And Personal Success Stories At Annual Road Race - The Newtown Bee

In carrying out the Trump administrations directive to maximize employee performance, OPM has said, agencies are to make the performance rating process more than a routine and rote implementation of procedures a few times a year.

A recent memo to agencies says that successful performance management is dependent on continuous employee engagement between employees and supervisors throughout the performance appraisal period . . . our research shows employees feel most empowered and enabled to succeed when supervisors involve them in continuous dialogue throughout the annual performance management cycle.

The goal, it said, is to create clear, shared understanding of expectations and goals; align position responsibilities and agency mission; identify areas of strength or needs for improvement; support employee development; and clearly communicate how an annual rating is derived.

It said this should include: brief but regular and meaningful communications to discuss priorities and needs; valid, regular, and timely data to provide feedback on performance progress, including varied perspectives from multiple stakeholders; coaching and development to help employees succeed and flourish; and support for professional and personal success and wellness.

The OPM memo and accompanying guidance on the ratings process address just one of the topics in the April OMB memo telling agencies to draw up plans for maximizing employee performance. Agencies also are to make sure their policies do not create unnecessary barriers for addressing poor performance, and ensure that managers are trained on managing performance, are held accountable for taking disciplinary action when warranted, and receive support from HR, labor-relations and other central offices if they do take such actions.

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OPM Stresses Employee Engagement in Ratings Process - FEDweek

LEFT: Chris Maxey RIGHT: Rod Key

In celebration of its two-year anniversary, Murfreesboro-based Ufit has a big announcement: the local personal training and fitness studio will now be known as Ufit Wellness Studio.

"Our mission is to educate and empower our clients - not only through physical fitness, but also with a well-rounded nutrition and wellness plan - and our new name reflects that focus," says studio director Chris Maxey.

Ufit invites local residents to celebrate its 2nd Anniversary with a Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 13, inside the studio located at 169 Mall Circle Drive in Murfreesboro.

In the past year, Ufit Wellness Studio clients have lost a whopping 965 pounds and 1,420 inches. As part of its anniversary celebration, the Ufit family will donate 965 pounds of supplies to Greenhouse Ministries.

Attendees can enjoy live musical entertainment and enter for a chance to win giveaways, including a FitBit, Ufit personal training sessions, and more!

Along with a new name and increased emphasis on nutrition and health, Ufit also welcomes Rod Key as new owner of the business. He brings more than 25 years of fitness coaching and entrepreneurship experience to the team, as well as the vision and leadership of a USMC Gunnery Sergeant.

"I'm very excited to be involved in the success of Ufit and we have big plans to reach many more folks who are ready to take control of their health." Key said. "Come see our highlighted success stories from real people in Murfreesboro. If you've been on the fence about getting healthy, this is a perfect opportunity to learn about Ufit from clients who are currently in our program. We have helped hundreds of clients create and maintain a healthy lifestyle. You can be next!"

To learn more about Ufit or to schedule a free consultation, visit http://www.personaltrainingmurfreesboro.com/, call 615-797-8348, or visit the studio at 169 Mall Circle Drive in Murfreesboro.

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Ufit Rebrands with Increased Focus on Health, Wellness Personal training studio - Wgnsradio

Flashback to June 1st 2016

The date I had written atop the private entry in my journal I randomly happened to stumble upon the other day. As I read the entry, I began noticing the strong emphasis Id placed on the low-down, personal, nitty-gritty aspects I had going on in my life at that time.

This was a very uncomfortable period of my life (Ill be filling you in on those details later on in the second half of the article), but coming back full circle, reading the depictions of my previous experiences made me realize how these same lessons still felt incredibly applicable and very much relevant to whats happening within my current life today.

So what do I mean by low-down, personal, nitty-gritty aspects?

Im referring to emotional gunk. That stuff we all have living inside us but would rather neglect until were absolutely forced to look at it whenever it decides to inconveniently resurface, and resurface it will no matter how resourceful we think weve become in keeping it all tucked away safely under tight lock and key. I dont blame you. Who doesnt feel like keeping their emotional unpleasantries hidden sometimes?

Uncomfortable emotions can feel like enemy foreign invaders, although as experiences theyre the furthest thing from foreign since we all share them in common. It just may not seem like we do because the majority chooses to rarely comfortably display any uncomfortable feelings out in the public eye. This has become particularly noticeable since the dawn of social media, where true vulnerability and rawness become easily overlooked and oftentimes replaced by heavily stylized, over-glossed content displaying fast-track schemes of becoming rich, physically fit or beautiful. And while theres noting inherently wrong with having or wanting any of these things, I see the issue as how the attainment of success is being displayed in the way these adverts conveniently leave out any details of discomfort, hard work, growing pains or the discipline required from you to achieve such high levels of success.

As I sat writing this article, what came to mind was perhaps my favorite quote in reference to success, and I like it so much, I even decided to use reference to it in my title, but just as a warning, this quote drops the F bomb, and occasionally Ill be dropping the F bomb throughout the article too. So if certain language types offend you, do yourself a favor and please stop reading.

Now without any further ado, may I present to you this fabulous quote which of whom the author is unknown:

Success is like being pregnant, everyone says congratulations but nobody knows how many times you were fucked.

Keenly accurate, and quite humorously, this quote really plays on the perspective of how the world only seemingly pays attention to the end result of success, but rarely if ever glimpses into the sheer depths of resilience dedication and mindset required to get you through the many sleepless nights, hunger, heartache, hard work, pain and struggle you will face along the journey of getting there.

Do you actually have what it takes to be successful?

Do you have the ability within you to get fucked by the process countless times on your way to the top with the resiliency to continually rise up, choosing to hold your head high each time it happens again and again?

Or are you part of the majority of people who believe theres some magic elevator out there you can just hop onto in order to fast-track your way straight into the pinnacles of success?

Well, from personal experience I can tell you these magical elevators dont exist. To become successful means taking the stairs all the way up, and theres a lot of goddamn stairs. This is not a trek for the weary and if you feel incapable of mustering up within you the willingness to put in the work to formulate the necessary growth mindset youll require to get there, just duck out now and save yourself the hassle, and youre better off going back to the comfortable box from which you came, because without the proper mindset aimed at the ability to grow, adapt and change you wont make it, and truthfully, this is why most never do.

You cant avoid failure. In fact becoming successful demands failure. You cant learn the ins and outs of what works for you and what doesnt any other way. An entire library of knowledge and all the Google searches in the world dont mean anything until you actually dive straight into the line of fire, stick your neck out and put what you believe it is you know to the test. Then and only then will you prove to yourself what youre capable of and make the necessary changes you need to get better because success can only be gained through experience, and I can promise you, there will certainly be times when it feels like these experiences fucking youlong, slow and HARD. So be smart and always wear protection.

The type of person who gets fucked sideways a couple times, decides packs their bags and run back home with their tail tucked between their legs? Or are you the type who when reaching the end of their rope they tie a knot in that sucker and hold on for the ride even tighter? The second type knows that regardless of whatever happens, theyve shown up wearing the adequate protection of the growth mindset so no matter what life throws their way, theyve got this.

You have to realize that long withstanding success is a gift not given to everyone, and its definitely not granted to the weak of mind. The famous saying only the strong survive is applicable here, because a strong vision, passion, drive, and support are required of you to push through the muck of struggles.

This journey of success will test you, so when lifes shit hits the proverbial fan, the proper mindset is needed to keep you from getting emotionally too far ahead of yourself and returning back to the present moment.

No matter whats happening in your world externallyremember this too shall pass.

The seasons of life are cyclical and forever always changing in nature. The same can be said for any adverse situation you may be facing because just like the turning of each season, whatever struggles you may be in now, shall most certainly pass too.

It always seems darkest before the dawn, but when dawn finally hits the sunlight exponentially grows brighter and brighter until suddenly you look around and find yourself basking in full-blown daylight.

So regardless of how dark life can sometimes gets, just keep on keepin on my friends. The sun doesnt care if it blinds you, so be like the sun and dont allow any adversity dim your fucking shine.

There are plenty of moments where emotions run high, intense frustration, anger and sinking disappointment, and I know every single one of these feelings all too well

When I eventually hit rock bottom back in November 2015, I had already spent two years prior inadvertently spreading myself thin financially, thus by the time November arrived, it catapulted me into a life of not only being spread thin financially but also now physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally too.

I found myself stuck in a position no one ever wants be, choosing between whether Id spend my last dollars on putting a roof over my head or eating once a day. I decided to opt for the roof.

Id just moved to Bali two months prior, and everything Id planned out to prevent something like rock-bottom from happening, specifically my online job and the yoga teaching gig I scored at a five-start resort, both fell through within my first week here. I was actually stuck in Bali, and even though I can think of far worse places to be stuck in, this didnt negate how the mere thought of becoming homeless in a third world country quite frankly scared the crap out of me, and the equally terrifying exchange of now only being able to afford to eat just one piece of fruit per day felt no better.

Talk about being tested.Talk about wanting to give up.Talk about feeling like I had just been royally FUCKED.

In fact, I was about to live out my worst nightmare as someone whod previously spent his entire life successfully basing it on financial security. The concept of death never much scared me. For me my greatest fear was to be alive but unable to afford basic survival.

The critical aspect of my mind went nuts. I could practically hear it scream YOURE KILLING US YOU FOOL! But oddly enough my heart seemed to know the entire time that I was exactly where I was meant to beand back then in those moments I was meant to be was lying on the floor next to a puddle-like mixture of vomit and tears losing my freaking mind.

The scenario above hardly paints the dreamlike portrait of success often portrayed in social media fairy-tales, and honestly I felt more like my life had become the punchline of some insidiously cruel joke. Like somehow the Universe had gotten its rocks off by dropping me on my head and leaving me with felt like at the time, abandoned to die. Ironically its when I finally surrendered to the way my life was in those moments, was precisely when a new version of life rush in and thus The SoulTrekker was born.

The SoulTrekker became the new identity I needed to overcome these hurdles, and I had to release my past self in order to step into my transformation and become him. The old fixed mindset I had used before was now dead, but I didnt mourn its passing. As Fredrich Nietzsche so eloquently wrote: I threw roses into the abyss and said: here is my thanks to the monster who didnt succeed in swallowing me alive.

Fast forward to a year later and it was like damn deja-vu all over again. May 2016 eerily reminded me of November 2015

Eight bucks to my name and once again unsure how I would put a roof over my head, but this time it was a bit worse. I wouldnt be able to eat just one piece a fruit per dayI wouldnt actually be able to eat anything at all.

But this time around my mindset had shifted and I was seeing life through an entirely new lensthis time around it didnt feel like my worst nightmare. In fact I wasnt afraid at all. Id already done this same dance before and I survived. Not only did I survive, but recognized how painful experiences can become the gifts we need to propel us forward into new heightened levels of self-awareness when we decide to not remain locked inside them like a prison.

The pity-party was over for me. Id turned the chapter on my old story of I Am a Victim and wrote a new story with an entirely different title called: Empowerment. I was breathing in a newfound humility with a much different understanding as to what the acts of trust and faith truly mean. I realized I had the meaning of surrender all wrong, I didnt needed to surrender to anything outside of me, I only needed to surrender to myself.

Another chance at rebirth and another opportunity for the legendary Phoenix to rise from the ashes once again.

I welcomed in the experience this time around. Did I warmly welcome this experience with a false sense of positivity? Hell no I didnt, Im human. I was fucking pissed. My welcome was more the frustrated grumble of Oh come on! Really?! Youre back AGAIN?! but since Id danced with it before, I decided to do the tango in welcoming part two of this experience in to the best of my ability.

Is there honestly any part of the birthing process where it doesnt get messy? I doubt it, and as a man biologically incapable of ever physically experiencing giving birth, I may never know, but one thing I do know is the end result is usually beautiful, and the re-birthing process really is no different in this sense, including the whole process of getting fucked countless times before it finally happens.

Success is like being pregnant and the entire process of getting to achieve success is worthwhile because life can reveal the incredible vastness of your true potential, and the abilities you have to go hard by following your dreams into creating something really big in your life.

The role of men is changing in the 21st century. Want to keep up?

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Photo Credit: Pixabay

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Success is Like Being Pregnant: Everyone Says Congratulations, but Nobody Knows how Many Times You got Screwed - The Good Men Project (blog)

The U18 Melfort Spirit girls softball team finished sixth at Westerns in Richmond, British Columbia from August 10 to 13.The Spirit finished the round robin with a 2 win 4 loss record.

We had three games that came down to the last at bat loss by a run in the seventh so we could have easily been 5-1 which would have taken us into Sunday, Spirit coach Darren Rokochy said.

Their final record was tied for sixth place which Rokochy thought was an excellent showing.

Rokochy added that the team played its best ball since it was formed and has shown some incredible growth in the past few seasons.

This is definitely making this Spirit team a true contender going into next season, he added.

Some highlights in the tournament included their first over the fence home run provided by Etta VanBurgesteden.

It was truly an awesome moment for her and the team, Rokochy added.

Westerns were overall a success in the eyes of the organization.

Our team had personal success by knowing we lost to the winning team by a run in the last at bat, beat the silver medalists, and lost to the bronze medal team as well by a run in the seventh All in all it was a great performance from the girls.

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Spirit play well but finish sixth at Westerns - Melfort Journal

My journey to becoming an athlete and ultimately a personal trainer was unexpectedly ignited by meeting my first running coach. Her name was Chris, and she changed my life forever because of her size-friendly fitness approach. Chris coached me without ever mentioning my weight, body size, diets, or the looming bikini season. She always approached our sessions from a position of athletic performance and never screamed out crazy phrases such as Sweat is just your fat crying!

Thank God!

I had experienced all kinds of #thinspo fitness leadership, and although I didnt know any different at the time, weight-focused fitness didnt work for me. I always felt an underlying tone of shame because I had such a hard time making it to bikini season in the right body. My fat cried a lot, but it never went away, and in the eyes of many of my fitness coaches, I wasnt succeeding because my body wasnt leaning down.

It wasnt until I met Chris that I realized that perhaps fitness leadership didnt have to be about laying down the pressure to slim down, get ripped, and look hot! Through her leadership, I realized that just maybe, I could kick ass athleticallyin this body. (What?!)

Size-friendly training was new territory for me, but I immediately responded, and the rest is history.

Through my business, Ive found that many women approach trainers and inquire apologetically, often feeling inadequate about their current health status and fitness condition. The first thing I tell them is that reaching out to make a change is a power move. Remember: You are the one hiring the trainer, and you should approach this process like any good CEO would hire for top management. It is OK to vet your trainers and ask them hard questions. Its important to know what you require in a trainer, and from there you can craft an interview.

What are your views on diets?

Do you have experience with size-diverse clients?

How do you make accommodations for larger-bodied clients?

Do you understand the barriers people of size face when approaching fitness? How do you help clients with this?

Its also OK to ask to view their facility and ask for references; you are the boss, and the people who work for you must be the best.

The trainer-client relationship is an intimate one, so finding the right fit is absolutely essential for success.

I have been to trainers who never mention nutrition and others whove prescribed 1,200-calorie meal plans and thought bread was the devil. This left me starving and then ultimately binging and ultimately feeling like a failure. A size-friendly trainer wont be focused on weight reduction and wont measure performance and success solely by a scale. He or she will be more focused on strength and fitness performance and will use other markers for success.

Size-friendly trainers will have the experience to back them up. Theyve thought through every exercise in your program and have knowledge of and experience with the mechanics of larger-bodied clients. For example, they wont ask you to perform difficult moves like burpees because they know that someone with weight in their mid-front will find this exercise difficult to maneuver. Size-friendly trainers dont learn this mid-workout when they realize you cant do it; they know it in advance and have a library of modifications ready in their back pocket so they can make every workout feel like a great success.

Not every coach or trainer will have personal experience with understanding that fitness can be intimidating, but there should be some understanding that for some people, just showing up is a huge success in and of itself. Trainers should be compassionate and understanding that fitness culture can feel unwelcoming to many. They should take extra steps to make your session a positive experience. They should meet you at the door with a warm welcome, deliver a well-thought-out plan, ask if you are comfortable, and never push you beyond your limits.

I recently signed up for a fitness app and entered in all my particulars. It didn't ask me about my fitness goals, but I was assigned the Fat Blaster program. Who said anything about me wanting to blast fat? Ive had similar experiences with trainers; they assume, because of our conditioned fitness culture, that I am there to lose weight. A size-friendly trainer will never assume and will take the time to listen to your goals and help you achieve them. If you have a trainer who decides your goals for you, its time to let him or her go.

As trainers, we are schooled in the Rating of Perceived Exertion as a method to look for cues in the physical strain a client is experiencing. However, there are many cues to look for beyond that. I find when people get really quiet, it's a sign that they are taxed and at their limitand that this is a good time for a check-in. I look for grimacing facial expressions, and I take note of facial coloring and the amount they are sweating and breathing. Its really important as a trainer to manage the load put on clients. A size-friendly trainer will understand that doing a workout with a heavier load is more strenuous than the same routine would be for lighter clients. It would be like asking a 150-pound woman to do her squats holding 100 pounds in weights; this load must be taken into consideration. If youre being worked too hard without any awareness from the trainer, it may be that he or she is relating the workout to his or her own fitness level or body size, not yours.

Motivation never comes from shame, pain, or strain. Your body, at every size, is amazing and the fact youre in the gym giving everything youve got deserves nothing but positivity. The body-positive movement has been fighting for years to allow women to accept and embrace their bodies. The idea that you need to be "ready" because bikini season is coming is actually a very cruel way to motivate. Shaming motivation plays on the pressures women already feel and negates the tireless work of the movement. Your trainer should elevate and celebrate who you are and the amazing body you live in. Anything less should get kicked to the curb, immediately.

Now, lets kick some ass in the body you have.

Louise Green is a plus-size trainer, founder of the fitness program Body Exchange, and author of Big Fit Girl: Embrace the Body You Have. Follow: Instagram @LouiseGreen_BigFitGirl, Twitter @Bigfitgirl, Facebook @louisegreen.bigfitgirl

You might also like: CrossFit Athletes Try Their Hardest to Keep Up with a Professional Ballerina

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How to Find a Size-Friendly Personal Trainer - SELF

NEWTOWN >> Pickering Manor hosted its first ever Outdoor Community Yoga event on Saturday, August 26 at the Manors North Field and was open to everyone of all ages and skill levels. The weather was spectacular.

About 50 people came out for a morning yoga class taught by Alison Gilheany of Yogasphere. Smoothie King of Newtown provided attendees with free Watermelon Hibiscus Hydration Smoothies.

Everyone had a great time and attendees were already asking when the next event would be held. The event was free and attendees walked away with a free water bottle, a Yogasphere class pass and Smoothie King coupons.

Pickering Manor and the attendees are looking forward to hosting another outdoor community yoga event next year. Pickering Manor looks forward to doubling the number of attendees.

Located at 226 N. Lincoln Ave. in Newtown, Pickering Manor is a non-profit Continuing Life Plan, Senior-Living Community, offering 10 semi-detached cottages, 24 apartments, 22 private personal care units and 47 licensed Rehab/Skilled Nursing beds. Pickering Manor has a 5-star overall quality rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services the highest score possible. For more information about Pickering Manor, visit http://www.pickeringmanor.org or call 215-968-3878.

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Pickering Manor's first Outdoor Yoga event in Newtown a huge success - Bucks Local News

Rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer tossed the game-winning touchdown pass to help lift the Browns over the Saints in last weeks preseason opener.

Defensive end and No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick Myles Garrett had a tackle-for-loss and hurry that forced New Orelans off the field.

Briean Boddy-Calhouns goal line stop on fourth down sent Clevelands sidelines into a frenzy. Former practice squad member Trevon Coleys strip-sack set up a Browns touchdown.

All of these things were what second-year head coach Hue Jackson described as small victories in awide-ranging interview with MMQBs Peter King.

Those little wins, he said, ultimately can add up to something big.I think when we talk about it, its making sure that our players the guys who are our core players lets find a way to let them have personal success, Jackson told King on a podcast following a 20-14 win against New Orleans.We don't know what its going to look like as a team. We know where we want our team to look like and be, but if players can start getting personal wins, then they turn into unit wins and then they turn into team wins.

Thosecomments echo what Browns owner Jimmy Haslamsaid while meeting with the news media earlier this month.

Wins and losses are a part of it theres no doubt about that but I think its how our team performs, how do we come back and do we win close games? he said.

Do we come from behind and win a game? Do we beat a good team? Do we win a game on the road? Are our younger players getting better? Both Hue and (chief strategy officer) Paul (DePodesta) talk about small wins.

After a 1-15 campaign in 2016 that saw one of the leagues youngest rosters struggle, the Browns are poised to improve this fall with a significantly retooled roster.

They re-signed key players like Jamie Collins Sr., Joel Bitonio and Christian Kirksey, fortified their offensive line in free agency and curated a promising NFL Draft class that includes Garrett and two more first-round picks in do-everything safety Jabrill Peppers and tight end David Njoku.

Jackson reflected on his first year with the Browns and why hes optimistic Cleveland is heading down a path that'll help it snap a string of disappointing seasons.

We have to get this done. That's something Dee and Jimmy and our executive team talk about all the time. We have to get this right, Jackson said. There's not a thought that we won't, that we have to for our fans, for the players, for this organization, this once-proud organization that people need to look at and say, 'Hey these guys are doing something great.'

"But at the same time, we understand that it doesn't just happen overnight, that there's a process to this and I know sometimes that's a hard word for (the fans) because I think theyve heard that so much. They want to see results.

Jackson believes last weeks win regardless of the stakes was a good example of what happens when small victories add up to something more.

Its small victories like tonight that says to them, OK, things are turning.' Because a year ago, we probably wouldnt have won that game there at the end and probably couldnt finish it that way and come out with the victory and we did regardless of who was out there playing or whatever it was," he said.

That was significant improvement from last year to this year. So hopefully they can see the small victories that are happening within the organization and theyll see that those small victories are turning into bigger victories and will hopefully one day turn into championships.

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Why 'small victories' can add up to something big for Browns - ClevelandBrowns.com

As a spokesman for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Mr. Lewis raised vast sums for charity; as a filmmaker of great personal force and technical skill, he made many contributions to the industry, including the invention in 1960 of a device the video assist, which allowed directors to review their work immediately on the set still in common use.

A mercurial personality who could flip from naked neediness to towering rage, Mr. Lewis seemed to contain multitudes, and he explored all of them. His ultimate object of contemplation was his own contradictory self, and he turned his obsession with fragmentation, discontinuity and the limits of language into a spectacle that enchanted children, disturbed adults and fascinated postmodernist critics.

Jerry Lewis was born on March 16, 1926, in Newark. Most sources, including his 1982 autobiography, Jerry Lewis: In Person, give his birth name as Joseph Levitch. But Shawn Levy, author of the exhaustive 1996 biography King of Comedy: The Life and Art of Jerry Lewis, unearthed a birth record that gave his first name as Jerome.

CreditPhilippe Halsman/Magnum Photos

His parents, Danny and Rae Levitch, were entertainers his father a song-and-dance man, his mother a pianist who used the name Lewis when they appeared in small-time vaudeville and at Catskills resort hotels. The Levitches were frequently on the road and often left Joey, as he was called, in the care of Raes mother and her sisters. The experience of being passed from home to home left Mr. Lewis with an enduring sense of insecurity and, as he observed, a desperate need for attention and affection.

An often bored student at Union Avenue School in Irvington, N.J., he began organizing amateur shows with and for his classmates, while yearning to join his parents on tour. During the winter of 1938-39, his father landed an extended engagement at the Hotel Arthur in Lakewood, N.J., and Joey was allowed to go along. Working with the daughter of the hotels owners, he created a comedy act in which they lip-synced to popular recordings.

By his 16th birthday, Joey had dropped out of Irvington High and was aggressively looking for work, having adopted the professional name Jerry Lewis to avoid confusion with the nightclub comic Joe E. Lewis. He performed his record act solo between features at movie theaters in northern New Jersey, and soon moved on to burlesque and vaudeville.

In 1944 a 4F classification kept him out of the war he was performing at the Downtown Theater in Detroit when he met Patti Palmer, a 23-year-old singer. Three months later they were married, and on July 31, 1945, while Patti was living with Jerrys parents in Newark and he was performing at a Baltimore nightclub, she gave birth to the first of the couples six sons, Gary, who in the 1960s had a series of hit records with his band Gary Lewis and the Playboys. The couple divorced in 1980.

Between his first date with Ms. Palmer and the birth of his first son, Mr. Lewis had met Dean Martin, a promising young crooner from Steubenville, Ohio. Appearing on the same bill at the Glass Hat nightclub in Manhattan, the skinny kid from New Jersey was dazzled by the sleepy-eyed singer, who seemed to be everything he was not: handsome, self-assured and deeply, unshakably cool.

When they found themselves on the same bill again at another Manhattan nightclub, the Havana-Madrid, in March 1946, they started fooling around in impromptu sessions after the evenings last show. Their antics earned the notice of Billboard magazine, whose reviewer wrote, Martin and Lewis do an afterpiece that has all the makings of a sock act, using showbiz slang for a successful show.

Mr. Lewis must have remembered those words when he was booked that summer at the 500 Club in Atlantic City. When the singer on the program dropped out, he pushed the clubs owner to hire Mr. Martin to fill the spot. Mr. Lewis and Mr. Martin cobbled together a routine based on their after-hours high jinks at the Havana-Madrid, with Mr. Lewis as a bumbling busboy who kept breaking in on Mr. Martin dropping trays, hurling food, cavorting like a monkey without ever ruffling the singers sang-froid.

The act was a success. Before the weeks end, they were drawing crowds and winning mentions from Broadway columnists. That September, they returned to the Havana-Madrid in triumph.

Bookings at bigger and better clubs in New York and Chicago followed, and by the summer of 1948 they had reached the pinnacle, headlining at the Copacabana on the Upper East Side of Manhattan while playing one show a night at the 6,000-seat Roxy Theater in Times Square.

The phenomenal rise of Martin and Lewis was like nothing show business had seen before. Partly this was because of the rise of mass media after the war, when newspapers, radio and the emerging medium of television came together to create a new kind of instant celebrity. And partly it was because four years of war and its difficult aftermath were finally lifting, allowing America to indulge a long-suppressed taste for silliness. But primarily it was the unusual chemical reaction that occurred when Martin and Lewis were side by side.

Mr. Lewiss shorthand definition for their relationship was sex and slapstick. But much more was going on: a dialectic between adult and infant, assurance and anxiety, bitter experience and wide-eyed innocence that generated a powerful image of postwar America, a gangly young country suddenly dominant on the world stage.

Among the audience members at the Copacabana was the producer Hal Wallis, who had a distribution deal through Paramount Pictures. Other studios were interested more so after Martin and Lewis began appearing on live television but it was Mr. Wallis who signed them to a five-year contract.

He started them off slowly, slipping them into a low-budget project already in the pipeline. Based on a popular radio show, My Friend Irma (1949) starred Marie Wilson as a ditsy blonde and Diana Lynn as her levelheaded roommate, with Martin and Lewis providing comic support. The film did well enough to generate a sequel, My Friend Irma Goes West (1950), but it was not until At War With the Army (1951), an independent production filmed outside Mr. Walliss control, that the team took center stage.

This group of films demonstrates the breadth of Lewiss talent as an actor, comedian and director.

At War With the Army codified the relationship that ran through all 13 subsequent Martin and Lewis films, positing the pair as unlikely pals whose friendship might be tested by trouble with money or women (usually generated by Mr. Martins character), but who were there for each other in the end.

The films were phenomenally successful, and their budgets quickly grew. Some were remakes of Paramount properties Bob Hopes 1940 hit The Ghost Breakers, for example, became Scared Stiff (1953) while other projects were more adventurous.

Thats My Boy (1951), The Stooge (1953) and The Caddy (1953) approached psychological drama with their forbidding father figures and suggestions of sibling rivalry; Mr. Lewis had a hand in the writing of each. Artists and Models (1955) and Hollywood or Bust (1956) were broadly satirical looks at American popular culture under the authorial hand of the director Frank Tashlin, who brought a bold graphic style and a flair for wild sight gags to his work. For Mr. Tashlin, Mr. Lewis became a live-action extension of the anarchic characters, like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, he had worked with as a director of Warner Bros. cartoons.

Mr. Tashlin also functioned as a mentor to Mr. Lewis, who was fascinated with the technical side of filmmaking. Mr. Lewis made 16-millimeter sound home movies and by 1949 was enlisting celebrity friends for short comedies with titles like How to Smuggle a Hernia Across the Border. These were amateur efforts, but Mr. Lewis was soon confident enough to advise veteran directors like George Marshall (Money From Home) and Norman Taurog (Living It Up) on questions of staging. With Mr. Tashlin, he found a director both sympathetic to his style of comedy and technically adept.

But as his artistic aspirations grew and his control over the films in which he appeared increased, Mr. Lewiss relationship with Mr. Martin became strained. As wildly popular as the team remained, Mr. Martin had come to resent Mr. Lewiss dominant role in shaping their work and spoke of reviving his solo career as a singer. Mr. Lewis felt betrayed by the man he still worshiped as a role model, and by the time filming began on Hollywood or Bust they were barely speaking.

After a farewell performance at the Copacabana on July 25, 1956, 10 years to the day after they had first appeared together in Atlantic City, Mr. Martin and Mr. Lewis went their separate ways.

For Mr. Lewis, an unexpected success mitigated the trauma of the breakup. His recording of Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody, belted in a style that suggested Al Jolson, became a Top 10 hit, and the album on which it appeared, Jerry Lewis Just Sings, climbed to No. 3 on the Billboard chart, outselling anything his former partner had released.

Reassured that his public still loved him, Mr. Lewis returned to filmmaking with the low-budget, semidramatic The Delicate Delinquent and then shifted into overdrive for a series of personal appearances, beginning at the Sands in Las Vegas and culminating with a four-week engagement at the Palace in New York. He signed a contract with NBC for a series of specials and renewed his relationship with the Muscular Dystrophy Association a charity that he and Mr. Martin had long supported by hosting a 19-hour telethon.

Mr. Lewis made three uninspired films to complete his obligation to Hal Wallis. He saved his creative energies for the films he produced himself. The first three of those films Rock-a-Bye Baby (1958), The Geisha Boy (1958) and Cinderfella (1960) were directed by Mr. Tashlin. After that, finally ready to assume complete control, Mr. Lewis persuaded Paramount to take a chance on The Bellboy (1960), a virtually plotless hommage to silent-film comedy that he wrote, directed and starred in, playing a hapless employee of the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach.

It was the beginning of Mr. Lewiss most creative period. During the next five years, he directed five more films of remarkable stylistic assurance, including The Ladies Man (1961), with its huge multistory set of a womens boardinghouse, and, most notably, The Nutty Professor (1963), a variation on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, in which Mr. Lewis appeared as a painfully shy chemistry professor and his dark alter ego, a swaggering nightclub singer.

With their themes of fragmented identity and their experimental approach to sound, color and narrative structure, Mr. Lewiss films began to attract the serious consideration of iconoclastic young critics in France. At a time when American film was still largely dismissed by American critics as purely commercial and devoid of artistic interest, Mr. Lewiss work was held up as a prime example of a personal filmmaker functioning happily within the studio system.

The Nutty Professor, a study in split personality that is as disturbing as it is hilarious, is probably the most honored and analyzed of Mr. Lewiss films. (It was also his personal favorite.) For some critics, the opposition between the helpless, infantile Professor Julius Kelp and the coldly manipulative lounge singer Buddy Love represented a spiteful revision of the old Martin-and-Lewis dynamic. But Buddy seems more pertinently a projection of Mr. Lewiss darkest fears about himself: a version of the distant, unloving father whom Mr. Lewis had never managed to please as a child, and whom he both despised and desperately wanted to be.

The Nutty Professor transcends mere pathology by placing that division within the cultural context of the Kennedy-Hefner-Sinatra era. Buddy Love was what the midcentury American male dreamed of becoming; Julius Kelp was what, deep inside, he suspected he actually was.

The Nutty Professor was a hit. But the studio era was coming to an end, Mr. Lewiss audience was growing old, and by the time he and Paramount parted ways in 1965 his career was in crisis. He tried casting himself in more mature, sophisticated roles for example, as a prosperous commercial artist in Three on a Couch, which he directed for Columbia in 1966. But the public was unconvinced.

He seemed more himself in the multi-role chase comedy The Big Mouth (1967) and the World War II farce Which Way to the Front? (1970). But his blend of physical comedy and pathos was quickly going out of style in a Hollywood defined by the countercultural irony of The Graduate and MASH. After The Day the Clown Cried, his audacious attempt to direct a comedy-drama set in a Nazi concentration amp, collapsed in litigation in 1972, Mr. Lewis was absent from films for eight years. In that dark period, he struggled with an addiction to the pain killer Percodan.

Hardly Working, an independent production that Mr. Lewis directed in Florida, was released in Europe in 1980 and in the United States in 1981. It referred to Mr. Lewiss marginalized position by casting him as an unemployed circus clown who finds fulfillment in a mundane job with the post office. For Roger Ebert, writing in The Chicago Sun-Times, Hardly Working was one of the worst movies ever to achieve commercial release in this country, but the film found moderate success in the United States and Europe and has since earned passionate defenders.

A follow-up in 1983, Smorgasbord (also known as Cracking Up), proved a misfire, and Mr. Lewis never directed another feature film. He did, however, enjoy a revival as an actor, thanks largely to his powerful performance in a dramatic role in Martin Scorseses The King of Comedy (1982) as a talk-show host kidnapped by an aspiring comedian (Robert De Niro) desperate to become a celebrity. He appeared in the television series Wiseguy in 1988 and 1989 as a garment manufacturer threatened by the mob, and was memorable in character roles in Emir Kusturicas Arizona Dream (1993) and Peter Chelsoms Funny Bones (1995). Mr. Lewis played Mr. Applegate (a.k.a. the Devil) in a Broadway revival of the musical Damn Yankees in 1995 and later took the show on an international tour.

Although he retained a preternaturally youthful appearance for many years, Mr. Lewis had a series of serious illnesses in his later life, including prostate cancer, pulmonary fibrosis and two heart attacks. Drug treatments caused his weight to balloon alarmingly, though he recovered enough to continue performing well into the new millennium. He was appearing in one-man shows as recently as 2016.

Through it all, Mr. Lewis continued his charity work, serving as national chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and, beginning in 1966, hosting the associations annual Labor Day weekend telethon. Although some advocates for the rights of the disabled criticized the associations Jerrys Kids campaign as condescending, the telethon raised about $2 billion during the more than 40 years he was host.

For reasons that remain largely unexplained but were apparently related to a disagreement with the associations president, Gerald C. Weinberg, the 2010 telethon was Mr. Lewiss last he had been scheduled to make an appearance on the 2011 telethon but did not and he had no further involvement with the charity until 2016, when he lent his support via a promotional video. (The telethon was shortened and eventually discontinued.)

During the 1976 telethon, Frank Sinatra staged an on-air reunion between Mr. Lewis and Mr. Martin, to the visible discomfort of both men. A more lasting reconciliation came in 1987, when Mr. Lewis attended the funeral of Mr. Martins oldest son, Dean Paul Martin Jr., a pilot in the California Air National Guard who had been killed in a crash. They continued to speak occasionally until Mr. Martin died in 1995.

In 2005, Mr. Lewis collaborated with James Kaplan on Dean and Me (A Love Story), a fond memoir of his years with Mr. Martin in which he placed most of the blame for their breakup on himself. Among Mr. Lewiss other books was The Total Film-Maker, a compendium of his lectures at the film school of the University of Southern California, where he taught, beginning in 1967.

In 1983, Mr. Lewis married SanDee Pitnick, and in 1992 their daughter, Danielle Sara, was born. Besides his wife and daughter, survivors include his sons Christopher, Scott, Gary and Anthony, and several grandchildren.

Although the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences never honored Mr. Lewis for his film work, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for his charitable activity in 2009. His many other honors included two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame one for his movie work, the other for television and an induction into the Lgion dHonneur, awarded by the French government in 2006.

In 2015, the Library of Congress announced that it had acquired Mr. Lewiss personal archives. In a statement, he said, Knowing that the Library of Congress was interested in acquiring my lifes work was one of the biggest thrills of my life.

Mr. Lewis was officially recognized as a towering figure in cinema at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. The festivals tribute to him included the screening of a preliminary cut of Max Rose, Mr. Lewiss first movie in almost 20 years, in which he starred as a recently widowed jazz pianist in search of answers about his past. The film did not have its United States premiere until 2016, when it was shown as part of a Lewis tribute at the Museum of Modern Art. Also in 2016, he appeared briefly as the father of Nicolas Cages character in the crime drama The Trust.

In 2012, Mr. Lewis directed a stage musical in Nashville based on The Nutty Professor. The show, with a score by Marvin Hamlisch and book and lyrics by Rupert Holmes, never made it to Broadway, but Mr. Lewis relished the challenge of directing for the stage, a first for him.

Theres something about the risk, the courage that it takes to face the risk, he told The New York Times. Im not going to get greatness unless I have to go at it with fear and uncertainty.

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Jerry Lewis, Mercurial Comedian and Filmmaker, Dies at 91 - New York Times

If theres a lingering criticism to be made of Halt And Catch Fires storytelling going into this fourth and final season, its that the shows underlying schematics arent always gracefully integrated into the drama. Id say its programmatic, if youd allow a computer pun this early in the season. Still, in telling the interconnected stories of four characters who forge their identities through technology, perhaps thats less a bug than a feature. (Last pun, I promise.)

Cameron Howe, explaining why she wont allow the company to include instructions with her newest game, the immersive, enigmatic Pilgrim, exclaims, This isnt a game you play. Its a game you live. Back in California after nearly three years working on the game in Japan, she cant hide her contempt that all the recruited game-testers care about are the then-new blood and guts of Mortal Kombat. You cant even kill anything, whines one, frustrated at Pilgrims open-world exploration. (To be fair, the fact that solving one random puzzle sends you back to the beginning of the game is an example of Cameron pushing her game as life metaphor to the limits of gamers patience.) Cameron loves all kinds of games (Battle mode?, she asks Gordon after waking up to the sounds of him playing Mario Kart after sleeping on his living room floor), but her own games (Space Bike, Pilgrim) are acts of self-expression, and self-exploration.

Donna Emerson (ne Clark, now comfortably sharing custody with ex-husband Gordon while relishing the freedom of being in the drivers seat of an on-demand affair with a handsome lover) has solidified her corporate position, doling out (and cutting off) funding for teams of techies desperate for her largesse. Donna sought to break out of her traditional role as supportive wife and motherand den mother to Cameron and the unruly gang at now-defunct Mutiny. And she has, patterning her career path after successful friend-turned-peer Diane. We see the two women secretly mocking the new (male) hire promoted above them, and Donna, her morning smoothies concocted and served up by her eager and overqualified assistant Tanya (new cast addition Sasha Morfaw), crisply insists that those seeking funding wow her with the next big idea. I was really rooting for you guys, she says offhandedly before walking out of one meeting, leaving the flustered underachievers wondering if theyve just been cut off. (They have.) Donna was shunted into the responsible (or killjoy) role much of the time at Mutiny, but now she has the power to turn the faucet on or off. After theyre defunded, we see the tech team childishly lashing out at each other (Dont touch me!) in the background while Donna sits serenely inside her glass-fronted office. If shes to be the one in charge of bickering would-be computer geniuses, now she can simply dismiss them when they become too much trouble.

Gordon Clark remains the core groups functional fuckup. Having built up the company he, Joe, and Cameron embarked upon at the end of season three into a stable (if not thriving) internet provider concern, he seems at peace with his level of professional and personal success, much as weve seen him at various points in the series. When Gordon fails to recognize the need to risk security for the lighting-strike genius of Joes nascent idea of Google, essentially, Joe accuses Gordon of sleepwalking. Youre trying to convince yourself that its all right to stop, Joe tells him, further entreating, Youre a builder, you need to build. But Gordons gearhead brilliance has always sought to stall out somewhere comfortable, and here, throwing himself an over-lavish company party for his 40th birthday (complete with performance by the Blue Man Group, who messily use the body-condom-ed Gordon as a human paintbrush), he urges Joe to abandon his traditional head-in-the-clouds thinking in favor of helping their company (CalNect) fight off the encroaching tidal wave of free AOL discs that threatens to sweep smaller providers like them right out of town.

As for Joe MacMillan, getting his head back in those clouds means emerging from the CalNect basement, where hes been ensconced for the three years since we last saw everyone. Season four opens with a showily impressive eight-minute sequence revealing how the promise of the Joe-Cameron-Gordon team splintered almost immediately, with the pained Gordon watching helplessly (via tracking shots, sly dissolves, and gradual lighting and scenery changes) as Cameron returns to Japan (and husband Tom), leaving Joe and Gordon to work long-distance attempting to get their visionary browser Lodestar to market first. (They fail, beaten by real-life online pioneer Mosaic.) Confronting the returned Cameron in his Post-It-festooned workspace (Joes been meticulously tracking every new website he can by hand), he blames her distance (in every sense) for the failure, snapping, If we had worked on this, together, it could have been amazing.

And it could have beenGordon admits that Joe and poor Ryan had been right about the coming of the open internet, but pleads that Joe simply enjoy the benefits of having been right. Joe buys in for a while, allowing traces of his old, take-charge demeanor to emerge during a board meetingbefore uncharacteristically deferring to Gordon. But a stray parting thought from Cameron about the need to catalog the exponentially expanding number of websites sends Joes mind, again, spinning out into the realm of the possible. Despite the fact that first Gordon then Cameron describe his concept of mapping every available website in one directory as Like the Yellow Pages?, Joe has the old Joe MacMillan fire rekindle inside the shaggy, somewhat squirrely basement tech geek hes become over the intervening three years. And then, also like the old Joe, his enthusiasm spreads.

If Halt And Catch Fire too-readily allows its characters to define themselves in metaphor, thats because the characters are all, in their individual ways, defining failure and success that way. In the second episode, Signal To Noise, which picks up immediately after Joe learns via telephone that Cameron and Tom have split up, the pair slowly thaw toward each other as Camerons says of her seemingly random back to the beginning puzzle in Pilgrim, Maybe it means everything. Now you can approach the path youve taken in an entirely new way. But, effortful as the metaphor may be, it leads to the lovely, episode-long conceit that Joe and Cameron playfully allow their initially tentative telephone reunion to sprawl through one whole night and following day. (We see Joe swapping out one cordless phone for another when the battery runs low, and the two at one point adorably admit that they have had to pee for a long time.) Lee Pace and Mackenzie Davis make Joe and Camerons connection here deeply touching and funnyeven as we see how events outside their artificial, two-person world continue worrisomely without them.

While Joe and Cameron unplug themselves, both are willfully unaware of looming disaster. Cameron ignores a message from Atari, but a second knock at her hotel room door brings notice that her stubborn purity of vision has sent Pilgrim to an uncertain future in the form of an indefinite postponement. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Joe, CalNect is on the brink of sudden disaster, Gordons dream of mid-level success unraveling in a snarl of busy signals, angry customers, and Gordons realization that phone provider MCI has deliberately scuttled their bandwidth in preparation for an in-house ISP. Theyre a public utility! They cant play winners and losers!, exclaims one CalNect employee, but Gordons face, as it inevitably does at least once a season, registers the fact that, once again, hes watching his plans explode in his face. (The head of Donnas firm warily describes the internet at this time as frontierland, and Gordon realizes that he hasnt prepared himself or his company to survive there.)

The clich (that Ive helped disseminate) is that Halt And Catch Fire only became a good TV show (and then a great one) once it abandoned its Mad Men-cribbed blueprints. Like Joe and Gordon copying that IBM chip in season one, the product they came up with was counting on borrowed prestige to smooth over some clunky design. In So It Goes, when Donna tells one of her teams, You need to be pursuing your own vision, not aping somebody elses right?, it echoes the course correction creators Christopher Cantwell and Christopher C. Rogers made in their own, under-the-radar AMC workshop. As A.V. Clubber Eric Thurm writes at The Verge, the show had to let go of the single, great misunderstood genius trope so common to the modern creator narrative in order to both present a truer picture of the innovation process, and to become a richer show.

Joe MacMillans genius for inspiration and manipulation are still vital going forward, but its hisand the showsrecognition of the different skills of those around him that make the gathering electric storm of ideas gathering around Joes indexing concept so thrilling in Signal To Noises final minutes. Sadly for these characters, their skills and personalities clash as often as they are complementary. Witness Gordon and Donna, their gentle, affectionate sparring at a very civil exes dinner yet providing the seeds for the coming conflict over competing versions of Joes idea. Or, again, Joe and Camerons restorative phone marathon. Joe, hearing the sleeping Cameron fall silent, quietly tells her through the phone, Ill just keep talking because I think youre still there. Are you there? Im here, and its so exquisitely lovely it raises gooseflesh. But, as Gordoncaught again in the middleintuits, things between these two are anything but simple enough to be fixed with a phone call, of any length. Why do you keep putting yourself through this with her?, Gordon asks Joe during their much more cozy 40th birthday camping trip, similarly warning off Cameron when she crashes in his living room after the Blue Man Group party. Am I cruel?, Cameron asks, and Gordon brushes the idea away. (Its delicately heartwarming how these former antagonists have become buddies.) But, after Gordon realizes that Joe has become fixated on Cameron once more, he visits her at work and is interrupted before returning to the question. Gordon wants everyone to recognize things among this group of friends, lovers, exes, and coworkers need to be kept separate. (He refuses Bozs request for a loan because Diane and Donnas relationship makes everything too complicated.) But the characters of Halt And Catch Fire dont pull apart that easily. The series central tragedy is that these brilliant people will always be at the center of great technological advancesonly to lose out on the big prize in the end. Weve seen them essentially invent online gaming, social networking, the internet, and now Googlebut theyre doomed by their own humanity not to get the credit in the end.

Halt And Catch Fire has developed into a confident, fast-moving enterprise, and theres a lot to take in in these first two episodes. (I havent even mentioned the blessed return of Toby Huss Boz, here still uneasily with Diane, but bluffing his way through meetings with Donna, then Gordon, doing his old shitkickers storyteller schtick to conceal how desperately he needs cash to hide a bad investment from Diane.) But what the show reasserts with such fluidity here is that these people are inextricably bound by a shared belief that there are truths to be found in the unceasing evolution of technologyand the possibilities for self-expression and communication it represents. Donna, berating one tech team for looking backward (using the internet to compile dead data), tells them, Were in the future business here. Cameron sees her games as a place for people like her, who both need and fear human contact, to revel in a shared experience of discovery, and wonder. Speaking to Bos last season, she explained that the fact that theres no way to actually win at Space Bike is part of its beauty, and she tells a colleague that Pilgrim is for people who know that the journey is an end in itself. You have to trust the player, she explains. Joe tries to rope Gordon into his half-formed idea of an online index at least partly by appealing to the shared spark of inspiration that has made the two of them such a good, if combustible, team. Nobody remembers the power company, is Joes response to Gordons plea for him to come up out of that basement.

Its that connection that all these characters share that makes what could feel like a contrived restart feel more like an inevitable, if fraught, reunion. The pieces for this seasons plan to have the gangseparately and togetherrace toward the invention of something brilliant and essential all click into place seamlessly. They spark off of each other. Cameron sparks Joe, Joe works through it out loud to Gordon, Gordon inadvertently lays the groundwork for Donna to recognize the same idea when one of her teams makes a similar, last-ditch pitch. Gordon, saddled with younger daughter Haley after she gets caught skipping school, ruminates both on Joes heap of scribbled URLs and his daughters impressive, self-created personal web page. At its bestand this two-part premiere is very promising for this final season indeedHalt And Catch Fire welds character and inspiration into something exhilarating.

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Halt And Catch Fire returns with an assured, graceful two-part premiere - A.V. Club