Argot – A specialized vocabulary or set of idioms used by a particular group: thieves’ argot.

Don’t start watching the Wire if you haven’t already begun. It will take a few weeks off of your life as you have to go back and watch all the preceding episodes—you’ll want to. If you do though, go back and start watching all the episodes, it will be worth it. Actually, if you are going to watch the show, you have to go back and watch all the preceding episodes, otherwise, you’re doing the show a disservice and more so yourself. But be aware, it will stop you in the midst of what you’re doing and you’ll forget the next hour or so. You’ll be late to whatever you’re headed to.

I’ve always counted myself as someone who empathizes with other people’s situations, or tired to. I think I now, as I’ve gotten older, realized that it’s very hard to understand someone’s situation unless you’ve gone through something very similar, and even then you don’t know what it’s like, but you learn to try to understand and listen.

But the Wire, I don’t know, it gives you a feeling for what’s going on around you in a different manner. And it doesn’t disrespect you by dumbing things down, it let’s you figure things out—a conversation might be entirely in Spanish, and even if you don’t understand everything, you can look at the body language of the characters or piece things together based on the events before it—and your brain likes doing that little bit of work. Then there’s the language of the characters–their individual communities they inhabit, whether that’s the cops, the kids on the street, the politicians, the news room, it’s all their own and you’re not served a new version. You come to understand their speak and that makes you embrace them and their worlds more–they’re real, and it’s more fun and interesting.

What I wanted to write about though is how it puts a feeling into what’s going on around you. I was walking by a homeless man pushing a character the other day and I thought of Bubs. I picked up the newspaper this morning, yeah I bought the paper version, and thought of the news people behind it, competing for front page stories. These kind of putting yourself into the places or characters is not new of course, but the Wire does it better than all that’s come before it—that I’ve seen. No doubt.

Here’s a blog that does a genius job of giving you updates and insight. “Back to bidness, I see.” — Snoop