Tag Mystery

Who’s Calling?

Michael 2 Comments
It’s no secret mobile phones have reshaped the very notion of communication in today’s society. From the electronic equivalent of 2 cans and a string to commonplace video calls in a little over 100 years is remarkable. But with progress so comes loss. A not often recognized victim of telephone’s technological advances is film noir. The character in noir, and in its print cousin the hardboiled detective novel, is the phone itself. Aficionados of the genre easily recognize the pivotal shifts in plots telephones make in the telling of the dark tale.
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It’s not by accident the protagonist spends so much time on the phone. The telephone is as important to the story as he is (always a he) (hey, it was mostly the 30s and 40s) (and these guys weren’t known for their “sensitivity” you know). When the good guy needs to determine if the bad guy (also almost always a guy) (they weren’t so sensitive either) is home (which is always a two-bit hotel room), he (the good guy) looks up the number and calls him (the bad guy). If he (the bad guy) isn’t in, he (the good guy) rips the page out of the phone book and heads over to lie in wait. If the bad guy wants to make a quick escape from the good guy, he (the bad guy) ducks into a phone booth, breaks the overhead light, then slinks back into the shadows. Fast forward to the 21st century and none of those scenes gets played out.
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In a classic example of “none of the above” where nobody seems to be the good guy, the phone in “Double Indemnity” is the only point of contact between Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck after they do what they do. (I’d be more specific but I won’t spoil even a 75 year old movie by giving details. Know that’s it’s frightening even for 2019.) Today the authorities would just subpoena their cell phone records and the last 40 minutes of the movie would be anticlimactic. Heck, they be unnecessary!
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In some case entire movies would be jeopardized. In the absence of an good old fashioned phone, how could you “Dial M for Murder” with a keypad that just beeps and boops. Nobody even answers “A Phone Call From a Stranger” not recognizing the caller ID. With everybody not reaching everybody else “This Gun For Hire” would never have been since that’s not the sort of message one leaves in voicemail.
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Of course in the 1946 classic “The Big Sleep,” Bogart and Bacall could have been using smoke signals and you would still need to sharpen your knife between scenes to cut through the tension. But then every good rule needs an exception and those two were particularly exceptional.
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Bigsleep2
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Mystery Foods of the U.S.

Michael Leave a comment

You probably heard.  The McRib is back. Since 1981 with a couple years off for good behavior, the mysterious McRib has been a cult hero of fast food sandwiches. The real mystery isn’t the meat, it’s the reason. Why do this and other foods intrigue us so?

In our home town as in everybody else’s home town that has a home town bar, we had a home town bar that actually had on the menu, The Mystery Sandwich. The great difference between our mystery sandwich and others are the UPPER CASE LETTERS. Where so many sandwich makers might put up “Daily Special,” “Chef’s Choice,” or “Joe’s Favorite,” our bar cut through the nonsense and called it what it is. So many leftovers of whatever happened to be at the bottom of the meat tray piled high with various cheeses, lettuce, and mayonnaise, on a toasted roll. Or bread. Or bun. Who knew what was in there. Who cared. It is a mystery. Or was. The famous Mystery Sandwich disappeared when the iconic bar went down and a drug store took its place. Intriguing.

Philadelphia calls itself the home of the cheesesteak. To anybody who ever had a true, original, bona fide, Philly cheesesteak there are mysteries galore. First, there’s the cheese. A true Philadelphian will argue the only true cheese for a true cheesesteak is Cheese Wiz. Melted. We no surer that Wiz is cheese than we are that McRib is rib. The other mystery is who runs those shops, the Soup Nazi? If you find yourself in South Philadelphia around the Italian Market you’ll find yourself around the two super steak shops each claiming to be the best, the original, the top dog if they were selling hot dogs. And at each you’d find a sign outside with instructions on how to order your sandwich. And if you break the rules? No steak for you! Very intriguing.

Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper. All “invented” in drug stores by pharmacists. Really. We knew that. Actually, really not. Oh they all grew from drug stores and pharmacists were the recipes’ creators. But they weren’t coming up with refreshing summer afternoon soft drinks. These were die hard health drinks. Spring water was the root of all that was healthy. Mineral spring water an even deeper root. Bubbling mineral spring water was the cure all without the wink! And all available to you at the pull of a handle at a soda stand. How to get you into Danny’s Drug Store when Freddie’s Pharmacy was so much closer? Add flavor to the life saving water. And while we’re at it, add just a touch of tobacco, caffeine, or even cocaine. They were the original energy drinks. And a mystery that when the Harrison Act of 1914 prohibited the sale of opiates without a prescription is these drinks kept their energy. Most intriguing.

A century and then some ago, Americans mining iron in Cuba searched for a way to quench their thirst. They turned to what was plentiful. Sugar, limes, and rum. And the daiquiri was born. A teaspoon of sugar, the juice of one lime, and an ounce or two or rum, poured over ice equals instant refreshment. And not at all similar to the frozen fruit flavored concoctions one finds in American bars today. How did the one lead to the other. It might be Ernest Hemingway’s fault. Hemingway was a daiquiri connoisseur and his regular purveyor of the cocktail was the Floridita bar in Havana. There many variations of the drink were begun. One involved blending the original ingredients with ice then straining it through a sieve into a frosted glass. Some postulate that because it took so long to strain the icy concoction many yeilded to temptation to just pour the slushy mix into a glass and go at it before the ice melted and you were left with a warm, watered down lime-aid. Intriguingly intriguing.

So there are just a few of the food mysteries that we quite literally relish. In just a few weeks the McRib will be gone, but we’re ready to guess that by then you’ll have thought of an intriguing mystery sandwich, drink, or combination of your own!

Now, that’s what we think. Really. How ‘bout you?