Optimal Manhattan

This image has always amused me and I'm not exactly sure why. It could be Mr. Peanut who, I can well imagine, would not be averse to tipping a Manhattan (or two!) were he an actual being and not the cartoon image of a peanut. With his top hat, tails and monocle he appears as though he might be quite a fine drinking campanion. Also of interest is the fact that the jar of peanuts has been consumed possibly to the bottom of the label, whereas the Manhattan has not been touched and exhibits the surface tension phenomenon common to most of the images in this series. The apples in the bowl suggest ... what? A nod to good health, I suppose. (I admit that, on occasion, I have had a Manhattan (or two!) and then "chased" it with a fresh apple or some other type of fresh fruit in the hopes that that would somehow offset what the sober man recognizes as the potently poisonous effects of the alcohol that suffuses the refreshment. ) Perhaps that is the deep meaning that lurks behind the surface whimsy of the shot: the cartoon that is the true nature of the debonair mask of the fop (whose essence is ultimately reduceable to the salt, oil and largely indigestible protein of the peanut in the jar), set next to the illusion of a healthy life contained in the bowl of richly blushed but essentially toxic fruit (note the product ID tag barely visible on the surface of the pomme, marking it as the pesticide laced commodity product of world agribusiness), all held together in tenuous balance by the illusion producing intoxicant in the frosted glass. So, potential meaning galore but, in the end, still an amusing, engaging image that may well be not worthy of even this level of exegesis. As a final note I should add that this image has been "optimized" by the basic Windows photo editor software. This has the advantage of making it more easily viewable for a general audience. The tradeoff is that the original "unoptimized" file is much darker and more sinister. I wouldn't go so far as to say it is disturbing, but it does elicit something that this version does not. No matter, this is what I have chosen to post.