MATTERS ARISING

First, thumbing through the ads at the back of my copy of Eatomic Secrets - which include Prosser’s Ice Cream, Lobo Joe’s catering service and TWA: “”The Best bill of fair in the air” - I came across this fine, hand-crafted ad: 

 This is so refreshing. Compare and contrast with “Fancy Feast Elegant Medley” which offers, “White meat chicken Tuscany with long grain rice and garden greens in a savory sauce.” 

Archer’s say loud and clear that horsemeat is good enough for pets – and too good some would say.  Britain currently has an attack of the vapors because they’ve found that Irish horsemeat has been furtively slipped into some hamburgers.  Personally I would go out of my way for a horse burger, though admittedly I think people have a right to know what they’re eating, just as I wouldn’t want my horse burger to turn out to be buffalo.

And then, the other other matter, speaking of cocktails of the past, I happened to watch the 1955 movie The Big Knife, starring Jack Palance, based on a play by Clifford Odets, about the many evils of Hollywood, and a stage bound period piece if ever there was one, with everybody doing a whole lot (really a WHOLE lot) of acting.  Rod Steiger in particular leaves no piece of scenery unchewed.

Briefly, but crucially, it features the divine Shelley Winters, as the careworn actress, going by the name of Dixie Evans, who’s clearly never going make it in Hollywood.  Early in the movie she says, “I don't care if I do see a snake. I'm sure I'd much rather see a snake than a Hollywood producer.”

And toward the end as things start to unravel and everyone is threatened with doom and exposure (a hit and run accident is involved), it’s discovered that Dixie is sitting in a “bar across from Schwab’s” ready to spill the beans that will destroy everything for everyone.  One of the hideous Hollywood flunkies delivers the unimprovable line, “A woman with six martinis can ruin a city.”  I’ll drink to that.