Lowers Trestles

blind justice

San Diego County taxpayers are on the hook for over four million bucks for jailers failing to dissuade a druggie who gouged her own eyes out in jail. She says she wants some accountability from the county. How about a little personal accountability, Tanya? Take responsibility for your own actions. I personally don't think she deserves a dime.

*

Jews and Israelis like to utter the phrase never again, a protest against a world that turned their collective head and allowed six million jews, gypsies and homosexuals to be exterminated and perish in the holocaust.

But how hollow a phrase is it when we now have Israel turning a blind eye of its own to the Russian provocations in the Ukraine and refusing to take a stand for a people facing calamity and destruction? A Russia that is arming itself, mind you, with weapons manufactured by Israel's principle protagonist, Iran. 

Is it only about protecting jewry or did Never again mean preventing genocide and stopping bullies wreaking havoc on innocent human beings of all creeds and stripes the world over? I certainly hope it is the latter. I don't care for Israeli politicians, haven't liked one since Shimon Peres and that was a very long time ago. Israel public opinion is 2 to 1 against helping Ukraine, a country with a Jewish President. 

Call me an anti semite or a self hater if you like, I don't care (I'm not.) The Trump loving Israelis, the Miriam Adelsons of the world, they can all kiss my tuchas for all I care. I like jews but Israelis, not so much anymore. And I am the Jewish son of a sabra. Let's get real Israel, what do you actually stand for? Besides yourself? Whatever happened to your Jewish heart? There are times in life when a line is drawn, you are either on one side or the other.

Of course, it looks like we will have at least a GOP house very soon and Kevin McCarthy is already telling the Ukraine that they are on their own, financially. Couple that with their serious admirers in Congress, the Rand Pauls and Thomas Massies, not to mention Kremlin bootlicker Tucker Carlson and I wouldn't bet on them surviving the incoming Russian barrage.

Never again is a catchy phrase, trite now and essentially meaningless. We humans tend to make the same stupid mistakes over and over again and unless NATO, France and Germany step in in a big way, Ukraine may be in for a heap of serious shit.

Steve Miller Band - My Dark Hour

Here's an interesting song for you. A collaboration between Paul McCartney and Steve Miller from May 9, 1969, it features Paul on background vocals, guitar, bass and drums, with Steve handling everything else. Note the early fly like an eagle lick. Purportedly, the fabs had had a big dustup this night over their manager, Allen Klein. Cool song.

Fall Show recap

I am back from the fall modernism show.

It was good for me, not great, but that is the nature of the fall show in Palm Springs. 

The snooty spring dealers won't do the fall show because they think they are too good for it. 

So you get a lot more contemporary vendors and fewer and fewer of those of us that do vintage. 

Might be better not to have a fall show but the Modernism Week people want to have an attendant fall vintage show so you dance with whoever is on the floor with you. It is too bad because I think both shows should be great. Not sure why it never had the imprimatur of the earlier event?

I am loyal to my promoters, as they are to me, and in through thick and thin. I sold at a lesser price point, to a decorative crowd without frankly a lot of knowledge of art, but did manage to sell some wonderful work, including a monumental Natzler bowl with a gun metal glaze, a Scheier wall plaque and a great Claude Buck painting. A lot of my regulars came through for me.

It was pretty much all business, didn't take any pictures of people this year. Steve came out and we celebrated a museum sale with a great sushi dinner at Sandfish.

Lots of meals at Rick's, I stayed next door at the Day's Inn and it was a fiasco that I might write about later. 

Wild cod at Elmers to torment Rick P., it is his favorite meal.

Went out with the gang for lox and eggs at Sherman's one morning.

Impetuously invited myself over to Mary and Dave's house for dinner another night. They were most gracious and we had a nice time.

Ate at Billy Reed's the last night, had the prime rib. I was so tired coming home that after about a half hour of screaming and slapping myself in the face, I pulled over into a strip mall and fell asleep in the parking lot. 

Not sure how long I was out but I managed to get home alive, thank god. I drive very slow when I am exhausted and I pissed a lot of people off. What else is new?

Plant talk

 

My dasylirion longissimum is sporting a flower spike for the first time ever. I think the plant is six or seven years old.

This is an early morning shot. The flower is growing about three inches a day, right before my eyes.

I can't wait for the bloom.

The beautiful plant, which resembles an exploding pincushion or roman candle, is a lovely member of my front garden.

It is also known as the Mexican grass tree and is native to Chihuahua. You see a lot of these specimens in the Fallbrook landscape.

They don't like a lot of water.

The spiky fronds are four to five feet long and the plant can grow to 12 feet tall. 

Mine is about ten feet tall at the apex right now, maybe equally wide.

I have two of these plants and a smaller wider leafed cousin, the wheeleri.

Unfortunately, this one stays mostly hidden behind a large pride of madeira or echium fastuosum shrub.

I may remove this echium to make some space one day, as I have several others in the yard and they tend to do themselves in after so many years anyway.

I see a tiny white spot on the top of the inchoate flower and know that it will soon unfurl itself into its fall beauty and magnificence.

I will share a picture when it goes off.

Behind my echium you can see my favorite jubea chilensis, or chilean wine palm.

It is one of the slowest growing palms in the world and has the widest trunk. It gets wide before it gets tall. Mine is about ten feet tall now. It is competing with the orange, the avocado and the silk floss tree for certain sunlight but is still really happy and healthy.

When you plant you think you have so much space but it really disappears! The recent rains have really helped the landscape get very happy and I can see the lighter new growth in the center of the palms. I hope that I live long enough to see my jubea at its most beautiful but it might take a decade or two.

5k new babies in Mississippi, what to do?

I thought this article was interesting, post dobbs, five thousand new kids expected in the state with the worst maternal statistics in the nation, Mississippi and the folks there don't know what they will do with them? Keep in mind that these are republicans talking to each other here, this is not a bi partisan discussion.

At least 5,000 more babies will be born in Mississippi each year than in the past now that abortion is almost completely outlawed. But the Magnolia State is not prepared to handle it, officials say. Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Edney shared the estimate with members of the Mississippi Senate last week.

During the Sept. 28 hearing, Wiggins told Mississippi Department of Child Protective Services Commissioner Andrea Sanders that Edney’s testimony indicated that most of the additional 5,000 children born will be “unwanted or unplanned.” He said that about 60% of children in those circumstances “are on Medicaid” and “end up in the system.”

“So are y’all prepared for 5,000 additional kids across the state?” Wiggins asked Sanders.

“No sir. Not by myself, I’m not,” replied the MDCPS commissioner, whose agency oversees child welfare issues including foster care, child abuse and neglect. MDCPS estimates that there are currently about 4,000 Mississippi children currently in foster care.

“So that’s something we should be concerned about,” Wiggins said.

Guess they should have thought about that.

CDC data also shows that Mississippi leads the nation in births to unmarried mothers, preterm births, miscarriages and low birthweight rates. Mississippi has one of the nation’s highest maternal mortality rates. In each instance, Black and other non-white infants and mothers fared significantly worse than white ones.

From 2013 to 2016, Mississippi’s pregnancy-related maternal mortality rate was 1.9 times higher than the U.S. as a whole, with Black women at three times the risk of white women.

More than half of Mississippi’s 82 counties do not have an OB-GYN, and many do not have hospitals. Less than a month before the Dobbs decision, a Hancock County hospital closed its labor and delivery department.

During the last legislative term alone, Speaker Gunn killed or declined to support efforts to provide health care options for new mothers. This spring, Republican Mississippi Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, sponsored a bill that would have ensured that low-income new mothers in Mississippi have access to postpartum Medicaid coverage for 12 months after giving birth. Currently, that coverage is only available for two months.

The Republican-led Mississippi Senate voted 46-5 for the postpartum Medicaid extension. On the Senate floor, Blackwell referenced the state’s history of passing anti-abortion laws.

“I think we’ve done an excellent job of protecting the baby in the womb. But once it’s out of the womb it’s like, ‘Whoop!’ You’re on your own,” he said.

In March, though, the bill died for the second year in a row after Mississippi House leaders refused to put it to a vote. Gunn acknowledged to AP’s Emily Wagster Pettus that his decision to spike the bill came from a fear of the appearance of “Medicaid expansion.”

Tuesday tidbits

I'm tired, been packing the truck for Palm Springs but before I go home to take a nap I want to shpiel, real quick like. * I disagree with the Biden Administration, who are siding with pork producers against California. A couple years back here in California we passed Proposition 12, otherwise known as the “Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act,” which is considered the United States’ strongest law that improves living conditions for farmed animals. It establishes minimum requirements for farmers to provide adequate space for hens, pigs used for breeding, and calves used for veal. It also prevents California businesses from selling animal products that come from farms outside of the state that do not meet the minimum requirements. The pork industry says that it runs afoul of the commerce clause and isn't fair to the rest of the country. Tough. This measure was presented to California voters on their ballots in 2018 and passed with 63% of voters' support. You don't like it, sell your pork chops someplace else. I believe in democracy and majoritarianism. The people have spoken. Respect them. Same goes for our car rules. You don't like them, pollute your own state. * Tulsi Gabbard is leaving the Democrat party. Great. Tulsi, we won't miss you a bit. Read this.* Friends like the Saudis, who needs enemies? * Good luck finding an OB-GYN in a red state and trying to have a baby. I predict post dobbs, doctors will be leaving in droves, leaving women's medical care in a very sorry state. Can you blame a doctor for not wanting to be second guessed and having to go to court and risk being jailed ?* Time for Germany and France to stand up and deliver for Ukraine, empty promises on missile systems so far. * Ron De Santis treats migrants like animals and ships them to the northeast. Ain't it funny, now he needs them to clear hurricane debris in his state. Karma. *Lets hear it for the Padres and the Aztec football team. New quarterback is a winner. Beat the Dodgers, Pads!

Weekend wandering

I helped a friend set up at the Los Angeles Pottery Show in Glendale this weekend. I owed him a favor and had actually never visited the show before. Had a lot of friends there.

It was interesting to be a spectator at a show instead of having my own skin in the game. And it gave me an opportunity to go out with my pals to my favorite Mexican restaurant in Montrose, La Cabanita.

I had the chuletas, pork chops and sour cream in a spicy pasilla chile sauce. delicious as always.

As I have said before, La Cabanita features the fine food of Mexico City, things you never see normally. My friend Chris had the chile nogada, with pine nuts, raisins and sprinkled with fresh pomegranate.  

Thought I took a picture but I guess I didn't. It was beautiful, a great meal with lots of laughs.

Stayed at the Astro Hotel in Pasadena. Pretty mod, pretty cool.

Ran into a rainstorm in Wildomar on my way home on Sunday. Unfortunately, Fallbrook never got  it.

Yesterday we visited the Gem and Mineral Faire in Fallbrook. Leslie loves minerals. 

They have a black light room at the museum where you can see the rocks fluoresce under ultra violet light.

Pharoah Sanders - The Creator Has A Master Plan

Dream #74

I haven't been sleeping all that well, waking up tired. I didn't get up until 8:45 this morning, about three and a half hours later than normal. I had this strange dream.

I was in an old run down stone manor, the brown facade starting to crumble. New England somewhere. I knocked on the door and asked if I could rest, if there was a place a man could find a bed, and the patriarch lord of the manor grudgingly assented. A black man, long used to subjugation, led me to my run down and dreary quarters.

I fell fast asleep on an old couch in the dark room. The next thing I knew, a large passel of folks came off a bus to take a tour of the estate. I was naked but there were no clothes in sight and covered myself in old indian blankets as best as I could in order to hide my naked body. I looked out the window and the owner and his wife were laying down on low couches at the end of a long plastered pool. 

I woke up.

Liar

Herschel

The Herschel Walker story is pretty amazing. How the GOP could support a candidate with a history of abusing his wives and kids, as well as having serious mental health issues is frankly beyond me. 

And now this.

After denying that he knew a woman who said that he fathered her child and then offered conclusive proof that he paid for her abortion, word comes out that he also fathered a different child with her. His own son calls him a liar and a hypocrite.

But hey, no worries. You knew it was coming. Straight from the teary eyes of Jimmy Swaggart, here comes the Jesus, get out of jail free card.

From TPM:

It’s clear that Walker has been milking this whole born-again Christian thing for all it’s worth because there’s nothing evangelical voters and donors love more than a redemption story (I used to be one). But they also hate abortion about as much as they love Christ’s forgiveness, so Walker has been having to walk a pretty narrow line since these allegations surfaced.

While outright denying the claims that he paid for an ex-girlfriend to have an abortion, Walker has also jumped at every opportunity to talk about his past mental health struggles and push the message that he’s been “saved by grace” and redeemed from past mistakes. 

Is it really that easy? His supposedly anti-abortion defenders in the party don't really even care about his lies, hypocrisy and shoddy behavior. They are only interested in power. One even referred to the mother of his child as a skank.

Dana Loesch, a former spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association, completely blew off allegations about Georgia Senate GOP hopeful Herschel Walker paying for an abortion.

In a clip flagged by @PatriotTakes, Loesch told her followers that winning back control of the Senate is the only thing that matters and that other moral considerations can be cast aside.

"I don't care if Herschel Walker paid to abort endangered baby eagles," she said. "I want control of the Senate!"

Loesch went on to dismiss the significance of the Walker abortion claims in even starker terms.

"If the Daily Beast story is true, you're telling me Walker used his money to reportedly pay some skank for an abortion, and [Sen. Raphael Warnock] wants to use all of our moneys to pay a whole bunch of skanks for abortions," she said. "So, it doesn't change anything for me!"

Wonderful Christian values. Shut up, the man has been saved and we need the win. Isn't there supposed to be genuine contrition before you get to the redemption part?

Palm Springs Modernism Fall Show

 

All you kool kats and hip modernists out there, the fall Palm Springs Modernist shows are upon us. I have some very exciting material coming in, including multiple non objective abstract works from the estate of the recently deceased artist Richard Wengenroth (1928-2022.)

Like this very strong piece from 1965, Bridge Study with yellow.

Or Roundup.

I have sold his work before and feel privileged to be working with his estate. I also have a small but excellent collection of paintings by the late Andrew DeShong (1941-2014.)

It should be a good show.

It certainly was last year. I know there will be some very affordable pieces for every budget and that they will surely please a wide variety of aesthetic tastes. A veritable panoply of visual pleasure.

I will be bringing work from the ultra modern back to the twenties and thirties regionalist ouvre, my personal favorite period. I am bringing a large collection of early California prints including five prints by Roi Partridge. 

art deco archer bronze - Otto Schmidt Hofer (1873-1925)

I am bringing some great decorative objects, including two pottery pieces by Harrison McIntosh and not one but two classic sterling silver flatware services by the late, great Alan Adler, in Starlit and Swedish Modern.

I love this Thomas Hart Benton lithograph depicted above, Prayer Meeting, 1949, a black family on their way to church.

I hope to see you at the show. Modernism Week in Palm Springs is always a ball, lots of energy, modern tours, great clothing, people go absolutely all out.

For more information about the show, here is a link. I hope to see you there.

Wild Wednesday Mailbag

*

Bruce H. sent this internet meme over, which I thought was rather funny.

I sent it to my friend Michael H., who was out fly fishing in Western Colorado somewhere, I think and he sent back this picture and note:

"I honestly may have made a different decision but I like the idea!"

Rosemary knows where my heart lies, she sent this pic over of a Manny's pastrami sandwich.

*

Barry sends a sordid link over from France. Pilgrimage to the bronze schlong.

*

Tony Campbell encloses a selfie.

*

I am going to help a friend setup at the Los Angeles Pottery Show in Glendale this weekend. If you are around please come say hello. I have never attended before but I hear that it is great.\

*

LSD seems to help mice with anxiety and depression. Who knew we had so many depressed mice?

Suggestion, try to not think about the cat...

From the New Yorker

 

Fugly Flight

The two heavy set women sat right behind us on the plane to Denver. They both had straight shoulder length hair, with no discernible style and honest to god, they would not shut up for two and a half hours. 

They talked about their children, their ministry, the adopted kids from Africa and their ultra right wing politics. Anti mask, anti vax. Lot's of digs at Sleepy Joe.

Stupidity hung in the air and wafted heavily above the seats like the pallid smell of formaldehyde in a dingy morgue. Dumb was a badge of honor.

We are all entitled to our opinion of course, god knows I have mine but these two were talking so loud and obnoxiously that the whole plane was soon privy to their mental deficiency. 

They were impossible to tune out and I think they took great joy at irritating everyone within listening distance, which was pretty much the whole cabin.

"Did you bring a mask?" "No, did you?" "I walked into the grocery the other day and they asked me for one and I just said, I'll shop somewhere else, thank you! Showed them!"

I'm, like, please, you did them a favor, somebody give me ear plugs and a sedative, stat. But it only got worse.

"Everybody knows you get covid through your eyes anyway. Might as well be wearing goggles," she exclaimed. "No kidding, like we're all not going to get it eventually..." "Hahahahahahahaha."

It went on and on... I was tempted to politely ask them to stfu and tell them that no, not all of us got it, some of used sensible precautions and watched out for ourselves and our neighbors but thought, do not engage, Robert, you will only make it worse... I heard about their kids, who had evidently come back to Jesus and stopped smoking weed, their pastor, the metal cargo containers they were turning into prepper shelters for the coming end times, just way more about their lives than I ever wanted to, in the loudest of all possible voices.

I hate how religion and politics is so inextricably mixed these days, like the blessed savior has his own favorite party now and the religious war is just about to start for real but that is pretty much where we are. Later I saw them at the baggage check and noticed the in your face Let's go Brandon t-shirt one of them was wearing. Figured. 

We were on the shuttle to baggage claim sitting next to a young man with his mom on his way to Hillsdale College in Michigan, which is at the forefront of the new right wing evangelical vanguard. His pretty mother incongruently had a nose stud. I wanted to say something to him about keeping an open mind but he was such a sweet kid. We all learn what we learn in time. I shut up.

We live in two different worlds, never the twain shall meet...

Remain in light

Sunshine State Hypocrisy

I have twelve minutes before I drive home, might as well wade into politics. Let's give our big fat piece of crap hypocrite awards to Senator Rick Scott, Senator Marco Rubio and then Congressman, now Governor, Ron De Santis, for once voting against Hurricane Sandy relief and now having their porcine little cloven hands out looking for some federal grease. 

Now that a hurricane affects them, Ian, the shoe is on the other foot, they are pigs at the trough and there is no time for politics. Very convenient. Always easier to be an asshole and a tight assed but oh so fiscally responsible virtue signaler when it affects the other guy. DeSantis Spokesperson Bryan Griffin said, “We are completely focused on hurricane response. As the governor said earlier, we have no time for politics or pettiness.” Right. Since when?

Hurricane Sandy made landfall Oct. 29, 2012, and devastated portions of the East Coast, including New York and New Jersey. On Dec. 7, 2012, Obama requested $60.4 billion in emergency appropriations. Three weeks later, the Democratic-led Senate voted 62-32 to approve it, with Rubio voting against. Twelve Republicans joined the Democrats in voting for the bill. Republicans then countered with a stripped-down alternative of $24 billion, which Rubio supported but which failed on a party-line vote. The second part of the disaster relief, a bill for $50.5 billion, passed the Senate on Jan. 28, 2013, 62-36 largely along party lines. Rubio voted against the bill and DeSantis voted against the measure that passed in the House. Obama signed it into law.

Rubio said he voted against the larger bill because it contained “unrelated pork.” He specifically mentioned fixing a roof on a museum in Washington D.C.. What he failed to mention was that the roof was heavily damaged in the hurricane. Bill seemed pretty darn clean when you look at it. It fixed weather related disasters across the country.

DeSantis, a newly sworn-in congressman, was one of 67 House Republicans who voted against the bill. DeSantis said he sympathized with victims and that those with flood insurance should have their claims paid. But he said that “allowing the program to increase its debt by another $9.7 billion with no plan to offset the spending with cuts elsewhere is not fiscally responsible.”

Florida's senators, Rubio and Rick Scott, didn't vote in favor of a stopgap spending bill on Thursday that included an additional $18.8 billion allocated to FEMA spending for Hurricane Ian and other natural disasters, HuffPost reported. The bill passed, without the help of 25 Republican 'No' votes. 

CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday brought up how Rubio voted against Hurricane Sandy relief: "Why should other senators vote for relief for your state when you didn't vote for a package for theirs?" 

"Well Dana, it goes like this. Sandy helped the blue states of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. Ian is a red state hurricane. That makes everything different. Because as you well know, I am an unethical, hypocritical swine. Of course I am lying, my lips are moving."

Was Hurricane Sandy aid really full of pork? Read this archived article, you be the judge.

So now we have the spectacle of the Florida bozos asking for federal aid that they just voted against. The hubris and stench is hard to miss. A part of me wants to say karma is a real bitch, as you sow, so shall you reap but there are too many good people in Florida that don't deserve to suffer because of the craven ineptitude of their leaders. But please tell me, why do they elect such incredible assholes? And why should we bail them out when they showed the rest of the country the back of their hand, repeatedly? You want to deny climate change and then build in the swamp and the rest of the country is supposed to bail you out repeatedly? Bite me, Florida.

The Fat Man

Pamplemousse

We love good food but really can't afford to eat at the great local restaurants very often. So we wait with lustful anticipation every year for San Diego Restaurant Week. 

During this week, the better dining establishments of our county offer a prix fixe menu that is much more affordable, gives us commoners a chance to eat like the royals. 

We like to dine on these excursions with our great friend Renée. Somehow we always go back to the same place every year, Pamplemousse Grille in Del Mar. 

It is my longtime favorite restaurant in San Diego County. Due to Covid and scheduling problems we have not celebrated this tradition for a few years.

Last night was the last night for restaurant week. We picked our friend up and drove down from Fallbrook for our 6:30 reservation, which I had booked on Open Table several weeks ago.

The special menu offered us a lot of hard to make choices. Everything looked great!

In order to clear our palette and heads and make the absolute right choices, a bottle of Veuve Cliqcuot champagne was ordered.

We quickly powered through a tray of delicious bread and muffins.

After a few minutes of weighing our options we ordered our three course dinner.

Renée started with escargot, off menu. Leslie ordered the kimchee seafood martini and I had the melon prosciutto salad with the delicious toasted goat cheese. 

I almost ordered the special lobster mac and cheese with truffles but thought my dinner was probably already rich enough.

We all shared, as is customary for our group and all of the first course items were absolutely delightful.

I am sorry that I have to show you plates of half eaten food, I left the phone in the car and the girls were a bit slow on the trigger.  Rookie amateurs...

Renée and I both had the duck confit and quail dish, Leslie the filet with the braised short rib stuffed ravioli. 

The dishes were all wonderful and prepared perfectly but I must confess that I liked the crispier finish on the duck better than the quail, which I prefer crisp, La Fonda or Vietnamese style.

I understand why they prepared it this way, wanting a textural difference to the two fowl offerings but the duck just kicked ass on the quail, which was juicy and succulent but a bit squishy, in my opinion anyway. Of course I am quibbling now, still great and full of flavor.

Leslie's beef was exceptional. All was fabulous, in any case, as were the excellent vegetables accompanying our proteins.

Dessert was also delightful, an apple tarte tatin, chocolate truffle cake and a key lime tarte. I had the last one and it was the prettiest with its perfect meringue but the taste was a bit sharp. The other dishes were fab.

Had such a nice night. I noticed that they took my favorite videos out of the men's room last time I was there but there is a cute painting on the wall of women peeping toms! 

Strauss has a great sense of humor, place doesn't take itself too seriously, staff is great, keeps us coming back time after time.

Great meal, didn't break the bank, can't wait to go back next year!

Pamplemousse Grille
514 Via De La Valle Ste 100
Solana Beach, CA 92075
(858) 792-9090

Andor

 

I mostly hated the entire Star Wars series. Awful acting, sappy, plodding script.

Funny thing, with the advent of the Mandalorian and Obi Wan, it got better and more interesting. Bobba Fett tried but was not quite at the same level.

Now Disney+ gives us Andor. It is wonderful, probably better than anything else ever produced before in the franchise. Taut, riveting.

If you like sci-fi and Blade Runner, and mix in a little Emerald Forest, you will love Andor. Grit and verité.

Philip Dick would be proud.

I am only four in but am really enjoying everything about it, looking forward to savoring the rest of the series.

The rebellion awaits!

Xiaoma

Xiaoma, an incredible polyglot, is my favorite Youtuber, along with Eric Rosen. This is a pilot for his new television show. Amazing guy!

Uncertainty Soup

 

One of the more unusual dishes I have eaten of late was the bone marrow dish at the Cheyenne Restaurant at Brush Creek Ranch. 

Definitely the most interesting contraption I have ever seen on a dinner table.

I was served a low bowl with a dollop of butter infused marrow in the middle of the dish and a parcel of farro placed to the side. 

The machine you see pictured they called a Heisenberg. It is actually a gravity siphon.

A gas burner was placed under the broth. At a certain point the heated mixture rises up the tube into the top portion, which was filled with green herbs when I dined. 

These herbs are then infused into the consommé. I believe that there are several coffee makers now being sold that work with this general principle, honestly, to mixed reviews.

Anyway, or so it was supposed to go conceptually. It took a manager, three different waiters and an equal number of propane units before our unit actually worked.

But hey, we are walking on the edge of new technology here, why should I get snitty? 

They eventually poured the finished mixture over the marrow bowl.

It delivered a delicious marrow soup and I was absolutely delighted as I was with the rest of the meal. A lot of work, but the most concentrated and flavorful beef broth one could ever enjoy.

The Heisenberg contraption, which honestly resembled an old water pipe I built in chemistry class at boarding school, the one that got me expelled for a week, was cool but led to a new avenue of conversation. 

I explained that the Heisenberg uncertainty principle stated that one could not know the exact speed and location of an object at the same time. Doug, A Phd. scientist, countered that to the contrary, it meant that to perceive an object was to infinitesimally change it, or something on that order. I had heard a similar description before and did not challenge the point.

There is nothing in this world I hate so much as being right but according to this definition, my friend was confusing the Heisenberg with the closely related Observer effect. Great friend bought me dinner, quite rude to argue with him.

The whole field of inquiry is interesting, although I can not think of much of a tangency with soup. This is from a letter from Wolfgang Pauli to Neils Bohr: 

"Like the moon has a definite position" Einstein said to me last winter, "whether or not we look at the moon, the same must also hold for the atomic objects, as there is no sharp distinction possible between these and macroscopic objects. Observation cannot create an element of reality like a position, there must be something contained in the complete description of physical reality which corresponds to the possibility of observing a position, already before the observation has been actually made." I hope, that I quoted Einstein correctly; it is always difficult to quote somebody out of memory with whom one does not agree. It is precisely this kind of postulate which I call the ideal of the detached observer.

Letter from Pauli to Niels Bohr, February 15, 1955

Anyway, Heisenberg be damned, maybe the reference came from a more mundane direction and not out of the quantum realm? 

Well bingo, wouldn't you know it. 

Heisenberg bongs, not named after the famous theoretical physicist at all, but instead for the main character in breaking bad, the so named chemistry teacher, well played by Bryan Cranston. Which happen to work with a gravity siphon.

Well, shoot. Life follows art, once again.

Granite and manzanita

 

Jimmy McGriff

Off to the races