OK, I watched “Six Feet Under” again, and I decided I was wrong. (Good thing for that last 15 minutes, though, or I would have been right.)

The last montage, I’m now convinced, takes place in Claire’s imagination — hence her starring role in much of it. Not that it matters. Whether the characters end up the way Claire thought they did or some other way, Alan Ball made his big points and drove them home with a sledgehammer: Everything ends. Life surprises. Things never work out the way you think they will, but the way they work out usually works. Best to stay nimble.

Also: Gay men can make wonderful parents.

And did you see the obits? Brenda’s was my favorite: “She developed research methodologies to conclusively prove the link between deviant human behavior and fetal alcohol exposure.” For those who don’t know, Brenda spent several seasons struggling with urges toward promiscuity that were well-nigh pathological. About three episodes ago, her mother had a throwaway line in a scene where she offers Brenda a shot of vodka to “take the edge off” after Nate’s death. Brenda is pregnant and refuses, and her mother says something like, “Oh, one drink won’t hurt anything. Back when I was pregnant all we did was sit around drinking martinis and smoking Parliaments for nine months.”

Layers of inside jokes there.

And nice synchonicity there, HBO. I have to give them credit for the way their shows are supported on the web, particularly the dramas; a day-after visit is almost always worth your while. “Six Feet Under” has/had a great “Inside the Script” feature I liked. “Deadwood” has an interesting feature on costume design. And for “The Wire,” that Russian-novel-of-a-TV-show, has a very useful organizational chart.

While we’re on the arts-and-culture beat, here’s more DetNews blogging from yours truly. The subject: the Stones bring their jillion-dollar road show to town.

Remember the story of a few weeks back, about the memorial to the local soldier who died in Iraq, and the wrangle over how to word it? Ahem:

Unlike earlier wars, nearly all Arlington National Cemetery gravestones for troops killed in Iraq or Afghanistan are inscribed with the slogan-like operation names the Pentagon selected to promote public support for the conflicts. Families of fallen soldiers and Marines are being told they have the option to have the government-furnished headstones engraved with “Operation Enduring Freedom” or “Operation Iraqi Freedom” at no extra charge, whether they are buried in Arlington or elsewhere. A mock-up shown to many families includes the operation names.

Well, I’m glad it’s not just me who thinks “Operation Enduring Freedom” is a stupid way to say “military operations in Afghanistan,” and that it was coined basically to give the war a shiny, Hollywood-ready name. More than that, I’ll just keep my mouth shut, other than to note that in my brief stint as a copy editor, I routinely changed the marketing names to more generic descriptions. In nothing else, I bet most people have forgotten which one Operation Enduring Freedom is.

Lordy, but summer is slipping away. Kate goes back to school in two weeks (muffled huzzahs from her mother), and we’re eagerly awaiting the mailing from the school that will reveal all — who her teacher will be, how many spiral-bound notebooks and boxes of Kleenex she needs to buy. In the meantime, we’re thinking we might make one more trip before it all starts. Details, as they say in the news biz, t.k.

(“t.k.” is AP-speak for “to come.” Makes sense, don’t it?)