111. 38 Across

January 11, 1977 (U-821)

Written by: Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum
Directed by: Burt Metcalfe
Guest Stars: Dick O'Neill, as the Admiral. Oliver Clark, as Lt. Brooks. Ron Kolman, as Shapiro. Mo Mo Yashima, as the Korean Mother. Bill Shinkai, as the Chinese patient. Rex Knowles, as the American patient. Gwen Farrell as the anaesthetist.

Plot: During a period of boredom, Hawkeye and BJ get engrossed in a crossword puzzle. They get every single answer except 38 across - a Yiddish word for a bedbug. Hawkeye phones an old friend, Tippy Brooks on the carrier Essex, for the answer, but when the connection goes out in the middle of the conversation, Dr. Brooks thinks it's an emergency and shows up at the camp - with an Admiral! Meanwhile, Klinger tries to eat a jeep to prove he's nuts enough to get sent home. It doesn't work, but he does get a pretty bad stomach ache. They try to find something to allay the Admiral's anger at being summoned for no reason and fail. The Admiral is about to leave and file charges when civilians arrive all burned. After a long session in OR, the Admiral decides not to press charges. The Yiddish bedbug is revealed by the Admiral to be vants, or something similar.

Glitches: I know it's meant to look like Klinger's eating a nut, but it's quite clearly a black olive that he swallows.

BIMOL: Other than having a go at Burns, Hot Lips doesn't do a lot.

Great Lines: Hawkeye to Klinger: ‘I told you, the food here should not be taken internally!'

The Klinger Collection: For his jeep picnic he wears his uniform, and then wears a lovely white nightie in post-op. And then a purple flowered hat with his uniform.

They All Look the Same to Me: No sign of Mo Mo Yashima at any other place, nor Bill Shinkai.

Je ne parle Korean...do I? Father Mulcahy knows how to say ‘give me the baby' or something similar.

Suction: 1

Notes: Frank was 122nd in a class of 200. The Essex was the same carrier where Father Mulcahy managed to find a Rabbi, in episode 56, Life With Father. Maybe the US only had one carrier in Korea, and it had all the useful people on it.

Comments: It was interesting to see that Hawkeye and BJ were for once at a total loss to work out how to explain things to the Admiral. A nice script, with Klinger's jeep-eating a good B-story.

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