[Sca-cooks] OT/OOP: and in honor of the mid-Pennsic "silly season"...
Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
adamantius1 at verizon.net
Wed Aug 8 08:37:55 PDT 2007
Apropos of not much other than being food-related, I was watching the
1950's film version of the musical "Guys and Dolls" last night, and
noted a deeply distressing error of continuity that spoiled my
ability to willfully suspend disbelief, and thereby compromising my
enjoyment of the entire production. Putting it simply, "Autocrat,
they're bring me down!" [This last being a famous Fine Whine popular
in the East Kingdom, and perhaps elsewhere, many years ago.]
I can't say if this is a socio-political/cultural statement being
made, or a simple case of extreme ignorance on the part of the
properties and research department of a major film studio based in
California, but there is a plot device involving a bet over the
amount of cheesecake sold at Mindy's Restaurant, and, of course, it's
a well-known fact that Damon's Runyon's fictional Mindy's is based on
the non-fictional Lindy's restaurant, contemporary to Runyon and in
the dead center of his little universe of Broadway between 42nd and
50th Streets.
Both Mindy's and Lindy's were, and remain, world-famous for their
cheesecake, each being the respective ne plus ultra of the commercial
Russian-Jewish-derived "New-York-Style" cheesecake-makers art in
fiction and in real life.
Imagine my distress when, at a key moment of the story, a piece of
alleged Mindy's cheesecake is placed in front of Frank Sinatra in the
role of Nathan Detroit, who proceeds to consume same with more gusto
than somewhat, as Runyon might have said. However, upon examining
said piece of alleged cheesecake, the most casual observer can see
that it is nothing but the phonus balonus, being no more than an inch
high and having a graham-cracker crust, at that.
It seems to me that some concerned citizen like Harry the Horse might
have put the arm on somebody under those circumstances, even though
such cheesecakes are considered quite acceptable for Brooklyn parties
such as himself, Little Isadore and Spanish John, but these parties
are considered to have questionable judgement as they are always
going around shooting people or maybe stabbing them, throwing
pineapples and carrying on generally. In fact, the odds are this is
Junior's cheesecake from Flatbush Avenue, which, while popular among
Brooklyn parties, is not the equal of Lindy's even by a dirty nose in
this man's town.
Naturally, if word of this outrage gets out among the citizens of
Broadway, the chances are Mindy's name will be mud, and he will be
out plenty of scratch when the day is done.
Adamantius
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