Sopranos and Quantum Mechanics from Planck's Constant

The first two episodes (66, 67) of the new Sopranos Season 6 were watered down soup.

Episode 68 was a little more meaty with Machiavellian jockeying for power in case Tony kicks the bucket.

Now comes Episode 69, "The Fleshy Part of the Thigh" and it is so rich a meal it's almost impossible to enjoy all of it in one sitting.

Here's a brief recap:

A religious whacko asks Tony for support in helping a pharmacist get his job back after refusing to dispense a prescription for birth control pills. Tony shows a Libertarian streak when he questions him about someone denying him Viagra on moral grounds.

Later the same idiot tells Tony that dinosaurs were coexistent with mankind and that evolution is a satanic plot. Tony tells him that a scientist in the next hospital room would disagree with him.

Earlier that scientist told Tony that two fighters they were watching on TV were not separate entities but an illusion. That all things in the Universe were connected, and mentioned Schrodinger's equations.

Although not mentioned specifically, what is being referred to here is quantum entanglement; a phenomenon in which the quantum states of two or more objects have to be described with reference to each other, even though the individual objects may be spatially separated. What happens to one particle happens to its entangled partner even if they are in opposite sides of the universe.

Evangelicals and Jews, nuns and a mother's revelations, and the classic definition of what it means to be between a rock and a hard place when Dick Barone's son thinks of selling his carting business.

Interestingly, a quote by the whacko that prayer helps by 11% after surgery is not at all true according to BigDumbChimp

So who in the Sopranos' cast might have suggested quantum mechanics? In 'Sopranos' Star Silvio Dante's Poker Etiquette:

I am a big stickler when it comes to proper card game etiquette. The slightest breach, as it were, can destroy my concentration and create dissent among the players. Just follow these don'ts, okay?

1. DON'T PLAY SLOWLY. Nothing ruins a game faster than one moron who thinks this is quantum physics and needs 20 minutes to do the math. It's not quantum anything. Make a decision and get on with it.

I'll have to watch it again; I'm sure I missed other things. What an episode!

My previous post on the Sopranos: Sopranos and Modern Islam

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