My Labrador Home Body

It has been an effort to be seasonal that I have not appreciated but skies have been cloudy. No snow or anything serious, but clearly with nearly a million people out of electricity Up North my irritation at the lack of sunshine seems rather narrow minded.

Cheyenne always perks up massively when cold fronts ride into town. I start getting morose in September in the middle of the hot season worrying my immobile dog is finally accepting her age and all it's limitations and her end is nigh. Then it gets cool, relatively speaking, and the inner puppy is released.

Her morning walks end up being as long as she wants which can be as long as two hours, and when she is a good girl she gets to go into Old Town for her favorite walks.

Old Town is full of smells and food, all the effluvia of last night's revelers who abandon all manner of clothing and food and bodily fluids as they straggle back to their hotels. Cheyenne loves them for it, and I get to take pictures while she snuffles around looking for unconsidered trifles.

Christmas is gone for another year, Thank Festivus, and now we can listen to proper music once again on the radio.

I got Cheyenne four years ago in December when she was walking in the holiday parade with an "Adopt Me" jacket in the SPCA contingent stumping along between floats. Next Monday I walked into the office on college road and told them I wanted Cheyenne. They laughed and said okay.

KeyWest pop quiz. Is this:

A) a not very colorful Christmas gift?

B) a snowbird's car left on the street all summer?

C) something else?

Cheyenne meanwhile is frequently described to me as a big dog. It's all a matter of proportion, really.

When I took her home from the pound I was worried that we didn't have a fence to keep her off the street. I even got a long wire leash to tie her up while I was working in the yard or under the house. She didn't like that at all, as I rather think she had a long history of being confined and tied up. In the end I trusted she was happy and I put a dog door in so she can come and go as she pleases, inside, on the shaded deck or out in the sun.

I tried for a while to put a gate at the top of the stairs to preventer leaving the deck it that was such a pain I took it down. Silly me she never goes. Out. Into the street, she has no desire to leave home because if she did she might miss a really good road trip or a chance for a couple more minutes napping on the couch.

 

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Incas Restaurant

If I asked you: "What's the first thing you think of when I say Peru?" Some might think of Paddington Bear, some like Jeffrey might think of guinea pigs though we will draw a veil over that, but most people would think of this:

That Macchu Picchu poster was livening up one wall of the rather inviting and cozy interior of Key West's only Peruvian restaurant, Incas on White Street, where as far as I could tell no guinea pigs are on the Menu but other classic Peruvian dishes are.

This used to be Jose's Cantina for the longest time, one more Cuban restaurant in this half Cuban town, so the arrival of Peruvian food is a welcome change, and the place was packed as we settled in and checked the menu.

It's a husband and wife operation and Mrs Peru was running sound handing out menus drinks and dishes. We were in no hurry which was as well. My wife ordered a glass of sangria and I had beer, which came soon enough to stave off dehydration and impatience. Mr Peru came by before the of the meal to say hello and we assured him we were glad we came.

We decided to order an appetizer and a main dish. Our first choice of appetizer called causa was off so we missed the chance to try what appears to be some sort of potato cake. We selected fried yuca with a creamy yellow Peruvian sauce. One main dish that intrigued me was French fries and slices of wiener sausage mixed in. Italians love hot dog pizza so I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised by that culinary creation. If I ever get here by without my wife that will be one to try...

The beer was slightly dark and malted, not more than 4.2% alcohol so it was not at all hoppy. I liked it. Our main course (pictured above) was beef tacu tacu a dish where the rice was mushed with white beans giving it a curiously starchy particular flavor. I liked it a lot. For dessert we had a cake brought we are told to the Americas by the Spanish who used almonds and honey which are not apparently found in Peru, land of the potato...It's called alfahores and my wife liked it because the crisp sugar cookies aren't too sweet and the filling is made of dulce de leche, a flavor described as Latin American caramel, and much favored by her.

Promising ourselves a return visit before too long, we took off for the Tropic where to my suprise we found ourselves in a theater that slowly filled to capacity with a mostly gay crowd. The film was Dallas Buyer's Club a story that crossed boundaries telling the very compelling story of a straight man with Aids early in the epidemic who fought to get alternative treatments recognized by the government.

This is a film that will reappear as Oscar material no doubt in the fullness of time. Mathew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner are stand outs but the show is stolen entirely by the most convincing transgendered character to play a serious heart wrenching role. The film is worth a view just to see the astonishing Jared Leto in the role of a lifetime.

A great evening out in Key West with a new worthwhile place to eat, and our Arts house theater still bringing the world of cinema to the end of the road.

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The Heisenberg Principle

The television series Breaking Bad has gained popularity beyond what one might have expected, if like me you stumbled across it on Netflix and had no idea anyone else was watching the story of the physics teacher providing for his family by cooking....methamphetamines! The principal actor's costume of trilby hat, sunglasses and lantern jaw has become an equally popular image, seen here on a power pole.

I was ambling down Southard Street when Cheyenne and I came across a place to sit for a while on a hot December morning. Cheyenne was ready and the bicyclists were vacating a good place to sit, so we sat.

The overhang at Mangia Mangia, an Italian restaurant has benches for waiting patrons but in the early hours of the morning, relatively speaking it was a spot to pause.

The corner of Southard and Margaret Streets is a busy intersection it turns out and I turned my camera on them, as they flashed by. What occurred to me when I spotted the Breaking Bad face was there was an uncertainty principle at work here. Maybe.

" Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle states that there is inherent uncertainty in the act of measuring a variable of a particle. Commonly applied to the position and momentum of a particle, the principle states that the more precisely the position is known the more uncertain the momentum is and vice versa. This is contrary to classical Newtonian physics which holds all variables of particles to be measurable to an arbitrary uncertainty given good enough equipment. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is a fundamental theory in quantum mechanics that defines why a scientist cannot measure multiple quantum variables simultaneously. Until the dawn of quantum mechanics, it was held as a fact that all variables of an object could be known to exact precision simultaneously for a given moment. Newtonian physics placed no limits on how better procedures and techniques could reduce measurement uncertainty so that it was conceivable that with proper care and accuracy all information could be defined. Heisenberg made the bold proposition that there is a lower limit to this precision making our knowledge of a particle inherently uncertain."

So, if we accept that the individual cyclists are not in fact human but actually represent packets (quanta) of light then we can observe their motion but not be exactly certain where they are.

Inversely the picture of the quantum in motion can show where it was when the picture was taken but not where it was going to be.

On the other hand because this is the real world and cyclists cycling are generally speaking adequately provided for by Isaac Newton's pre-quantum rules we can accept that we see the cyclists come and go and we also known where they are as they move past us and probably where they will also go after they slide out of the frame.

The fact is its a great fantasy to make more money than you could ever spend and to do it in short order. The reality is that mechs is awful and rots people inside out and you can't think of that while you watch the crazy antics of the New Mexico teacher turned drug baron.

Like quantum mechanics, good for physicists versus Newtonian laws which work for ordinary people every day, television spins a nice yarn when written well but real life frequently doesn't.

All this powerful cogitation took place on a street corner one sunny morning and no one noticed. The planet continued in its orbit and people came and went about their business and eventually my dog got her breath back and off we ambled one more time. I can honestly say I was stone cold sober as I sat there and in my defense I can only say I was taking pictures with my phone and my mind wandered. All because of a face painted on a power pole.

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Gun Running In Key West

Happy Christmas! I prefer Festivus myself with the airing of grievances but anyway, now we are past the holly and the ivy thing lets get on to today's essay. I think a movie is the thing for the cold dark midwinter that hovers outside your door. Hemingway, gun running and Audie Murphy, perfect company on Netflix streaming for Christmas/Festivus.

Howsoever that may be this is light entertainment not high art, so you can afford to not be completely attentive during the show. Better in fact you do not always pay close attention, as we shall see.

Hemingway's 1937 story has inspired lots of movie spin offs. Bogart met Bacall on the set of To Have And To Have Not, a movie made in 1944 patriotically set in Martinique a French island run by Nazi collaborators. Nowadays the star power of the movie makes it the most popular version of the original story. This one stars Audie Murphy the World War Two hero turned actor.

It most emphatically does not star Key West. The movie is mostly interiors and scenes at sea, which is your first clue the producers cheaped out. California is a versatile movie background, the Mojave desert for Afghanistan, Long Beach for Miami, Carmel for Cornwall and so on, but unfortunately because I know the state well I tend to get annoyed by movie makers' short cuts. This is not, nor ever was Key West:

Photographing the TV screen is not easy or effective so bear with me, but anyone who has been to Key West knows there are no hills anywhere. Certainly not as an inadvertent background to the harbor. I think you can see the slope in this grainy close up, between the boat in the foreground and the white forms in the middle ground:

I suppose this could double as a Key West street, but it's a shame when they short change us.

Don Siegel directs a solid cast of unknowns these days. Patricia Owens is Murphy's loving much younger wife and they sparkle together on the screen.

Everett Sloan plays Murphy's drunken deck hand, to much less comedic effect than Walter Brennan did in the Humphrey Bogart film ("Was you ever stung by a dead bee..?").

The happy couple, broke as one should be in Key West. After all eighty percent of the people were in the (first) Great Depression which was when the story was set by Hemingway.

It's a cute movie, plenty of humor and in atmosphere close enough to the original story.

Oops, excuse me, there they go again.

Until Gita Hall steps in and wants to tempt baby face Audie off the straight and narrow.

No one is what they seem...and strange blondes who offer you lunch, or something, are trouble.

But our hero is a man of steel...

...lacking authenticity a billboard will do. Am I a spoil sport?

On the other hand this set doesn't do a bad job of recreating depression era Key West.

And slowly the plot unravels.

A movie of which you have never heard. My gift to you. Cancel your cable and save a bundle by subscribing to Netflix. Oh, and it's advertising free.

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