How I Met Your Mother: Canning Randy

     Canning Randy was another strong episode from the HIMYM people.  They seem to be swaying back and forth from good to bad at this point in the season, which only begs the question, is the broadcast station season of 24 episodes just too much?  Throw out every other show so far this season and you have a super strong season.  The big three would be much better off if the modeled there seasons like cable, but the almighty dollar will prevent that from ever happening.  So, we will all just have to continue watching the mediocre with the good and enjoy it as much as possible.
     The big question as far as the show's plot is concerned is, what does the future hold for Ted and Zoey?    I'm sure we haven't seen the end of her, but I'm also fairly certain that she isn't the mother.  The feeling one is left with is that there is more to her story, but what is that story?  Are they going to get together at some point?  Or is just going to remain an adversary relationship?  With the creators promise that we are moving closer to finding out who the mother is this season, one would think that Zoey is playing some role in getting to that revelation, but it's still unclear what that role is.  There has to be more to her relationship to Ted then making his life difficult.
     This episode made me feel old.  Ted jokes about playing Pixies B-Sides for his students and says they didn't know who the Pixies were or a b-side.  My first reaction was, of course they know what a b-side is.  Then I thought, why would they know what a b-side is?  Am I really that old or is technology just started changing popular culture that much faster.  I mean, my dad grew up with b-sides and so did I.  My dad grew up with records and so did I, but these kids have no reason to know what cassette tapes are forget about records.
     I love that they are also focusing on the hardships of teaching this season, little things that people who haven't spent time in a classroom most likely wouldn't get.  Like last weeks jokes about Lilly's struggles give her child the same name as any of her problem students and this weeks take on Ted wanting to be the "cool" teacher.  Everyone goes into teaching wanting to be the "cool" teacher, but the hard fact is that if you want to be a "good" teacher most students are not going to like you.  It's not the easiest lesson to learn and the show handled it in a convincing manner this episode.  We will have to see if Ted carries the lesson into future episodes.