Getting off the Planet

Week before last, it was Starship Troopers, and last week (Saturday) it was Destination Moon.  Both are based on Robert A. Heinlein stories, but Destination Moon's screenplay was also written by RAH, and the film itself was obviously made in the 50's.  
Where to start?  Everyone in the film smoked.  Cigarettes.  Even the spaceship crew, while on the ship. I'm surprised they didn't figure out a way to smoke inside their pressure suits!  Also, everyone was male, except the rocketship's inventor's wife.  She had one line:  "Come back to me, darling.  Come back." Then they embrace before he runs over to the rocketship and blasts off.  That's not really typical for RAH's women.  Usually they're brainy barbie dolls and just as likely to be in command or combat as the men (yeah, he had his issues).  But this was set in a contemporary time period, so I guess he was going for the realism.
The science was fairly sound, but there were some glaring things.  Using the oxygen tank as a jet pack to do a rescue was a brilliant bit of problem-solving. but wouldn't that mean they'd run out of oxygen early?  I mean, if they didn't bring enough fuel to handle a couple of course corrections, why would they have excess oxygen?  What about that radio operator?  He was a n00b if I ever saw one.  And man, did he whipsaw me to death with his attitude toward the whole adventure.  First it's "this can't happen, it'll never work," then it's "this is the most wonderful thing ever," then it's "why do I have to die this way, when I could have gone over Niagra Falls in a barrel," (and WTF?! to that) and finally, "Leave me here, I want to do this for you."  Jeez, I would have left him just to get relief from the whining.
All the analog technology really cracked me up.  I loved seeing the computer crunching away on problems.  And how they had to wait 15 minutes to get the answers from the computer.  But even though they mentioned a time delay in communication, they didn't actually portray it.  They were chatting on the radio as if they were calling on the phone.
The one thing that really bugged me though was the way they dropped the discovery of the radioactive rocks.  When the astronauts discover them, they act like this is manna from heaven, and then as soon as they realize they might not have enough fuel to go home, they completely drop the subject.  WTF?  I kept expecting the rocks to play a role in getting them home.
And finally, while it may have been quite exciting in it's day, I have a feeling it was actually just as boring when first made as I found it.  I actually nodded off in the middle for a bit.  Not the part with Woody Woodpecker of course, he's much too obnoxious to sleep through, but yeah.  And while it was filmed in technicolor, no one has "digitally remastered" it yet, so it's pretty washed out.  Most of the scenes reminded me of the ashcan era.  Wait, that's kind of appropriate given the smoking.  Maybe it was all grayed out because of the layer of smoke over everything.

I thought it was pretty funny that on Sunday night, we watched the episode of West Wing called "Mars or Bust."  The pretty astronomer explained to Josh how a manned mission to Mars would work, and let him look through her telescope (that's what they're calling it these days ::smirk::).  But it got Josh fired up for something esoteric and altruistic, which is a good thing.  Without Sam around, they kind of forget the bigger picture stuff.

Next up, Hidalgo.

Eno Vino Again

Labor Day seemed like a good day to go out to dinner, but for some reason, it seems all the nice restaurants downtown were closed. I was pretty surprised by that, so no Cocoliquot for us again. We had tried going there on a Sunday, and no dice, so I thought Monday would work. Silly me. After determining that nothing we were interested in was open downtown, we decided to try Eno Vino. The down side was driving all the way to the west side, but the up side was Biaggi’s is in the same shopping center, so hopefully one of them would be open. Turned out both were open, but we went with our favorite.

 

Eno Vino has added some outdoor seating, but we decided to go inside anyway. There were only a handful of occupied tables, so we ended up with a nice spot that had a view of the end of the open kitchen, not that we were actually looking that way. We were far too interested in our menus and our plates!

 

First up, Serenity, an “unoaked” Chardonnay from Santa Barbara for me, and a French Chardonnay for barley52. We both enjoyed our choices. I could actually taste where the oak would have been, and the wine was crisp, tart and bright without it. We paired these glasses first with Crab and Cabbage Spring Rolls in a sweet chili sauce, plus a soy-ginger dipping sauce. Then we had Chilean Sea Bass and Seared Dive Scallops which were dressed with a basil butter and tomato jam. YUM. We’ve had this dish before, and it’s still amazing.  The thing to remember with Eno Vino is that the plates are smallish for an entree, but just right for sharing with one or two others, when ordering multiple plates.

 

Moving onto the red portion of the wine menu, I chose a Malbec from Argentina. It was bright, deep and layered with stone fruits. It had a huge nose. Very lovely. barley52 chose another French wine, a Cotes du Rhone which also had a big nose, but was more of apiece. The funny thing was, I thought these two wines represented opposite sides of the same coin. B thought his was akin to a lager – all smooth flavor, the layers blended and aged into one taste, while mine was more like an ale with the complex layers being preserved. We each liked our choice so much we ordered a second glass.  And of course neither of us can remember the actual winery!  We paired the first glasses with the Roast Pheasant and Truffled Risotto. There was a sauce there too, and the plate was drizzled with truffle oil. Scrumptious! The second glasses accompanied the Petite Filet with Goat Cheese Potato Pancakes (silver dollar-sized) and Beurre Rouge (Butter sauce made with red wine). MMMMMM. We’ve had this dish before also, and it was still quite excellent.

 

We decided to forego the dessert tray, and opted to finish up with Sandeman’s 20 yr Tawny Port. Delightful.

 

( Fantasy Menu )

We were done fairly early, so we stopped in next door to speak to the baker at Panera. He’s an old work-buddy of B’s and they hadn’t seen each other in months. It was a nice long chat and we still were home well before 10. I think I would have slept like the dead if it weren’t for the big black dog having his own insomnia. His trips up and down the stairs, plus his jangling dog tags woke me up at 2:45 and that was pretty much it for me. I think I managed a 30 minute stretch just before 0500, but then I got up and showered because the kids were going to start stirring at 0530 for the first day of school. Can you believe their bus comes at 6:35, when their school is only a 10 minute drive from the house?!