Squiddies 2025

The Armchair Squid turns sixteen years old today.  It's time to hand out some hardware.  The Squiddy goes to...

Biggest Surprise: Casablanca

Morocco wasn't even the point of our late-February/early-March trip.  Royal Air Maroc had the best airfares for getting to Andalusia.  Why not extend what was already a long layover in Casablanca?  We could add another country - indeed, another continent - to our life lists.  Is Casablanca even that exciting a city?  According to the guidebooks and the websites, not really.  But if we're going to go at all, let's not spend half the time trying to get somewhere else.  Let's make the most of where the plane lands.

Well, wouldn't you know it.  Casablanca knocked our socks off.  No, it's not a tourist trap and that was perfectly fine after our more conventional adventures in Spain.  It's just a city where people go about their daily lives - people who let us walk in their midst for a while, mostly ignoring us, to be honest.  My friends, it was grand.  That's what real traveling is - not gawking but simply being.  Fly on the wall rather than sightseer.  No long lines.  No tour guides.  Just life.

I'd live there for years given the chance.  It's been a long time since I've felt that way about a place.

Biggest Disappointment: Trump's Second Term

Is disappointment even the right word?  Donald Trump's narcissistic lust for tyranny is not exactly a secret.  And yet, my country voted him back into the Presidency.  I guess that is my disappointment.  I'm still amazed and deeply discouraged that so many people aren't horrified by him.  They want this.  All of the bigotry, misogyny, contempt, incompetence, recklessness, dishonesty, crassness, arrogance, pettiness, the near-daily betrayals - they aren't dealbreakers.  Folks, that says a lot more about us than it does about him.  

And the feeble response of the Democrats in Congress has been appalling.

I fear for the present and the future.  Even if we can turn this around, the mess to clean up will be huge.  Plenty of the damage can never be entirely undone.

And that is what they want.

Best Read: Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

We're living in interesting times.  It can be difficult to know what to say to people.  The Right is so... programmed.  They all watch the same news shows, visit the same websites, watch the same TikTok videos, stick to the same talking points as if they are gospel.  Even imagine they are gospel.  Even when they're in clear defiance of gospel.  

I'm veering off point.

If you're looking to make solid progressive arguments, Reni Eddo-Lodge's book is a great reference.  More importantly, it's an essential read for white people to better understand the racially-framed experiences of people of color.  Systemic racism is real whether you believe in it or not.  So is privilege.  The question is what you do with truth once it's presented to you.  

Thanks to my ex-pat time in Japan, I still have several British friends.  A few of them believe racial injustice is an American problem and not a British one.  I really want them to read this book.

You should, too.

Best Comics Find: Love and Rockets by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez

via Wikipedia

I've been aggressively exploring the comic book medium for over a decade now and practically the instant my curiosity took me beyond Marvel and DC, I started hearing about Love and Rockets.  First launched in the early '80s, L&R is considered by many to be the most important and influential indy comic in the American industry.  I'd never read it until this summer.  Now I'm hooked.

Why is L&R so good?  The characters are so real you can practically smell them.  You experience their love, their pain, their shame, their thrills, their lusts, their losses because you are sitting next to them on the couch, feeling awkward as Maggie and Hopey start making out right in front of you, forgetting you're there.  It's the same reason Scorcese films are amazing.  These aren't strangers.  They're the young squatters in the house next door with sketchy friends stopping by all the time.  They occasionally ask you to buy beer for them because they're not old enough yet.  They're the rowdy group of young men talking too loudly in the street late at night outside your front door.  Or it's even closer.  You're in the street with them, annoyed by the stuffy old geezer who keeps telling you to shut up and go home.  

This intimacy is achieved so elegantly you don't notice until after you've been absorbed.  Every storytelling experience should be like this, yet it rarely is.  Without question, L&R is a masterpiece.

Athlete of the Year: Ichiro Suzuki

via Wikipedia

The Armchair Squid began life as a sports blog but I rarely return to the subject anymore.  Of the athletes I did mention over the past twelve months, no one had a better year than Ichiro Suzuki.

In late July, Ichiro became the first Japanese-born player to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.  Ichiro was simultaneously the greatest contact hitter, the greatest leadoff man, the greatest outfield arm and the most internationally beloved player of his generation.  Just one unbelievable stat of many: for ten consecutive seasons, Ichiro had at least 206 hits.  Ty Cobb can't claim that, nor Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs, Rod Carew nor any of the other great contact hitters.  In fact, no one else has even come close.  Pete Rose also had ten seasons with 200+ but never more than three in a row.  Sports fans are forever talking about "records that will never be broken," then Alex Ovechkin surpasses Gretzky's once-unassailable career goals total.  I feel 100% safe saying that Ichiro's ten consecutive years with 206 hits or more is untouchable. 

During his career, there was discussion of whether Ichiro could truly be considered one of the all-time greats, having spent so much of his early career in Japan.  In the end, the Major League numbers alone were plenty: 3,089 hits, .311 lifetime batting average, 509 stolen bases, 10 All-Star Games, 10 Gold Gloves.  The years in Japan only pad the already sterling resume.  Without a doubt, he was one of the greatest athletes in American sports for nearly two decades.

Best Family Adventure: The Alhambra

The Alhambra in Granada, Spain was the main target for our aforementioned February/March trip.  The Alhambra, a UNESCO heritage site considered by many to be the most beautiful man-made structure in the world, has been at or near the top of my travel wish list for as long as I have known it existed, over 30 years.  With such high expectations, a let down is practically inevitable.  Even while we were there, I worried I wasn't doing enough to appreciate what I was seeing.

I needn't have worried.  The Alhambra is an experience that invades your soul.  Now, just a few months later, it feels like a dream.  Were we really there?  I remember our last day in Granada, already wistful over the fact that we had to leave.  Already thinking of how to make the most of the next visit, knowing full well it might never happen because life is like that.  

So, yeah.  I read all of that and it sure looks like I had a great year.

Apart from Trump.

Fuck Trump!

On the Coffee Table: Love and Rockets

Title: Love and Rockets

- Maggie the Mechanic

- Heartbreak Soup

- The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S.

Writers and Artists: Jaime Hernandez (for Maggie the Mechanic and The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S.) and Gilbert Hernandez (for Heartbreak Soup)

via Amazon

In 1981, the Hernandez brothers - Gilbert, Jaime and Mario - self-published the first issue of Love and Rockets (L&R).  Many consider L&R to be not merely an independent comic but the independent comic.  Even 40+ years later, the American comic book industry is still dominated by the superheroes of the Marvel and DC universes.  Stories about "real life" are the rare exception.  Throw in the fact that L&R showcased Latinx characters in a medium that has always been white-dominated and queer characters long before they were fashionable in any medium and you have the seeds for something genuinely different.  

But of course, L&R is more than merely novel.  The quality of the work and the sophistication of the storytelling are astonishing.  This was my introduction.

L&R lives in two separate story threads (sometimes more) created independently by two different brothers.  Locas is Jaime's world.  Maggie and Hopey are friends and occasionally lovers.  They're both late-teenagers (out of high school but can't drink legally yet) in LA's punk scene.  Narrative perspective shifts freely in both worlds though, at least so far, most Locas stories follow Maggie, the saner, more relatable of the two.  There are low-grade sci-fi elements.  Maggie works occasionally as a space rocket mechanic, particularly in the beginning.  A couple of female professional wrestlers play prominent roles in some of the stories.  No, seriously.

via Amazon

Gil's characters live in Palomar, a fictional village in Central America.  While Locas is very good, Palomar is the real treat.  We follow the residents as they grow up together.  They develop deep friendships, they quarrel, they get each other pregnant, they marry and divorce, they even occasionally kill each other.  It's like a soap opera but better because the characters are fully dimensional.  You fall in love with one of them, then learn about their past sins.  You come to loathe one of them, then learn about their pain.  There's always more to the story.

via Amazon

In both threads, characters age, lose and gain weight, change hairstyles, etc.  They have believable insecurities.  In short, they're allowed plenty of room to be human.  Historically, the Hernandezes have earned a lot of praise for exhibiting a wide range of (relatively) realistic body types, especially for their female characters.  I would argue their portrayal of women is not without its shortcomings but it's still far better than what you'd see from their mainstream contemporaries.  

There's loads of nudity, violence, substance abuse, sex and so on.  So, L&R is not for little kids.  Teens and up are probably best, especially if they have a trusted adult to talk to about some of the rougher material.  While there are otherworldly elements, the power comes with the realism.  I can hardly wait for more. 

On the Coffee Table: Yani Hu

Title: Udon Noodle Soup: Little Tales for Little Things

Writer and Artist: Yani Hu

via Amazon

Udon Noodle Soup is a graphic-novel collection of short stories by Chinese-born creator Yani Hu.  As clearly indicated by the subtitle, the subjects are the simple objects that connect people in a life: the flavor of a soup, the warmth of a hand-knit sweater, a used toothbrush, a thoughtful gift, a soccer jersey.  

I was born a sentimental old fool so stories like these tug at me.  I don't let go of anything or anyone easily.  Held onto tchotchkes for way too long because they remind me of people?  Yes, I've done that.  Remembered old friends decades past the point when they've likely and understandably forgotten all about me?  All the time.  There are morals in Hu's tales, too, reminders of how cruel we can be to those who are unexpectedly generous.  It's easy to feel sorry for oneself in life - put upon, even victimized.  It's important to remember the moments we've been on the receiving end of more kindness than we've deserved.

Udon Noodle Soup is a soothing, quick read with beautiful, manga-style artwork.  It's Hu's first work in English.  I'll keep an eye out for more.

Star Trek: Ex Post Facto

Episode: "Ex Post Facto"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 1, Episode 8

Original Air Date: February 27, 1995

via Memory Alpha

Tom Paris has committed murder, or so the Banea would have us all believe.  While visiting the Banean homeworld, Paris and Kim meet a physicist, Tolen Ren, and asks him for help in repairing Voyager's collimator.  The accommodating Dr. Ren invites his new friends to his home for dinner where they meet his beautiful wife, Lidell.  Playboy Tom instantly falls for her and naturally, that's where the trouble begins.  The doctor is killed and Tom stands accused on the strength of damning evidence.  The victim's own memories of the crime are replayed at the trial.  The punishment is cruel.  Those same memories are implanted in Tom's brain where he will experience them every 14 hours for the rest of his life.

Obviously, all of this eventually gets sorted out cleverly and Tom is absolved.  Tuvok plays the Holmes/Poirot sleuth role.  The final clue is derived directly from Arthur Conan Doyle's 1892 short story, "The Adventure of Silver Blaze," included in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.  

"Ex Post Facto" is, in many ways, a rehash of the NextGen Season 3 episode "A Matter of Perspective," in turn inspired by Rashomon, the Kurosawa masterpiece.  However, there are important differences.  There's no attempted rape element this time which significantly reduces the ickiness.  Also, while Riker is technically acquitted, Manua, who accused him of trying to rape her, genuinely believed she was attacked.  Even Counselor Troi acknowledges that.  So his "innocence" is not 100% clear.  While Tom certainly comes off as a cad in this week's story, no one accuses him of rape.

Acting Notes

via Wikipedia

Ethan Phillips (Neelix) was born in Garden City, New York, February 8, 1955.  His father was the owner of Frankie & Johnnie's a Manhattan steakhouse, originally a speakeasy.  Phillips studied at Boston University and Cornell.

Phillips's stage resume is impressive, even by Star Trek standards.  During a revival of Eccentricities of a Nightingale, legendary playwright Tennessee Williams wrote a new monologue for Phillips.  He performed in Measure for Measure with Kevin Kline.  He was in the Broadway premier of My Favorite Year.  His stage work has continued post-Trek, appearing in the premier of David Mamut's November, Best Play Tony winner All the Way and the Broadway premier of Junk: The Golden Age of Debt.

Before Voyager, Phillips, like René Auberjonois, was in the principal cast of Benson, playing Pete Downey for five seasons.  He also made guest appearances on L.A. Law, JAG and Star Trek: The Next Generation as the Ferengi doctor Farek in "Ménage à Troi."  Films include Ragtime, Lean on Me and Green Card.  

On the Coffee Table: Lisa Moore Ramée

Title: A Good Kind of Trouble

Author: Lisa Moore Ramée

via Amazon

Shayla Willows is starting the seventh grade at Emerson Junior High in southern California.  She manages all of the usual struggles of adolescence: awkward physical changes, evolving friendships, family dynamics, academics (though that part seems to come easily to her), etc.  She also struggles to find her racial identity, some peers telling her she's not Black enough.  Meanwhile, in the broader world, Black people are getting shot by police officers.  As a result, the Black Lives Matter movement becomes an important part of Shayla's journey.

A Good Kind of Trouble is rated "middle grade."  While it deals with heavy subjects like racism, murder and injustice, the material isn't graphic enough to require a move to the YA shelves.  It's not an obvious book choice for a middle-aged man but I enjoyed it.  It's a quick read.  I breezed through all 358 pages in under 24 hours.  I'm grateful for the honest and challenging perspective of a young person of color.  As both educator and world citizen, I need more of that.  

It's a hopeful story.  Shayla's struggles are painful but there are plenty of successes along the way.  She makes new friends and manages to keep the old (one is silver and the other...).  She discovers unexpected talent and grit when she joins the track team.  She finds both a place in her new community and a voice for protest and social change.  

Ramée alludes to, but never directly addresses, homosexuality and homophobia.  It is strongly implied that both a favorite teacher and Shayla's older sister Hana are gay, though the text never says so explicitly.  In fact, it's pretty clear Shayla doesn't see it in either case - more of a wink and a nod to the reader.  It's a tricky topic in today's publishing world, especially in youth literature.

Overall, it's a strong book, both readable and relatable.

Star Trek: The Maquis, Part I

Episode: "The Maquis, Part I"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 2, Episode 20

Original Air Date: April 24, 1994

via Memory Alpha

A Cardassian freighter explodes immediately after leaving space dock.  Our heroes deduce that it was the result of a deliberate attack and what's more, Federation technology was used to do the job.  We soon learn there's a new player in the neighborhood.  Federation colonists in the Demilitarized Zone are initiating terrorist attacks against Cardassian targets and Lieutenant Commander Calvin Hudson, an old friend of Commander Sisko's, is one of their leaders.

The story introduces the Maquis, a group with a notable future in the franchise.  A new series was set to launch in January 1995 and the Maquis would have a role to play, especially in the early stages.  Otherwise, I feel this first part suffers from slow pacing.  I like Hudson (Bernie Casey) just fine and the basic premise is alright.  But the narrative drags.  

On the other hand, Gul Dukat gets excellent character development.  First, he breaks into the Sisko quarters, scaring the bejesus out of Ben when he arrives home, but still convinces the commander to join him in a deeper investigation of the freighter explosion.  Later, Ben softens when he learns Dukat is, himself, a father of seven.  Finally, as part of the double-pronged cliffhanger, Dukat is kidnapped by the Maquis and will obviously need to be rescued by Starfleet.  That's quite a lot of range granted to a secondary character in a single episode.

Dukat also gets the best line, an homage to George Orwell's 1984:  "Education is power.  Joy is vulnerability."

In the B plot, Quark makes a friend, a beautiful Vulcan named Sakonna who we eventually learn is a member of the Maquis.  Quark tries to seduce Sakonna as both lover and business partner, ultimately more successful in the latter than the former.  Quark serves her Vulcan port, the first mention or appearance of such a beverage.  It's a darker blue than Romulan ale, edging towards indigo.  Surprisingly (and a little disappointingly), the internet offers no recipes.

Acting Notes

via Wikipedia

Bernie Casey was born June 8, 1939 in Wyco, West Virginia.  He attended Bowling Green State University where he established himself as one of the premier college athletes in the country.  He was a small college All-American in football and a record-breaking high hurdler on the track, earning an invitation to the US Olympic Trials in 1960.  He played in the NFL for eight seasons - six years for the 49ers, two for the Rams - serving variously at flanker, halfback and tight end.  He made the Pro Bowl in 1967.

Casey made his acting debut in in Guns of the Magnificent Seven, a sequel to The Magnificent Seven.  Other films included Brian's Song, Never Say Never Again, Revenge of the Nerds and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.  He was a popular choice for mid-'90s sci-fi television.  In addition to Trek, he made guest appearances on both SeaQuest 2032 and Babylon 5.

 Casey passed away in 2017 after a stroke.

On the Coffee Table: The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

Title: The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

via Wikipedia

The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes collects twelve short stories about the world's most famous detective.  It is the final Holmes book by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1927, three years before the author's death.  Critics often rate this final volume as the weakest of the short story collections, though I feel a few of the tales are worthy of note.  "The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier" and "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane" are unusual for the fact they are told from Holmes's perspective whereas the vast majority of stories are told from Watson's.  I appreciate "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs" for the rare glimpse of Holmes's deep, genuine affection for Watson.  Some of the stories veer toward other genres.  In "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire," for instance, a former rugby star hires Holmes to figure out what is going on with his wife, whom he caught sucking their baby's blood at the neck.  

And so, I have reached the end of my Holmes exploration, unlikely to seek out the few uncollected stories.  I thoroughly enjoyed my romp.  I was never able to get past seeing Sherlock as Benedict Cumberbatch in 21st century garb, though Watson has a more Victorian image in my mind's eye, complete with mustache and bowler hat.  I generally preferred the short stories to the novels.  While Holmes nearly always arrives at the truth, my favorite stories are the ones in which he fails, best of all when he is out-maneuvered by a woman.

As such, my favorite story of all is one of the earliest:  "A Scandal in Bohemia," featuring Irene Adler.  Adler is one of several characters who feature more prominently in adaptations than in the original Doyle texts.  Nemesis Moriarty and brother Mycroft fall into the same category.  "Bohemia" is, in fact, Adler's only appearance in the originals.  

I am curious now about the numerous adaptations and will keep my eye out for them, especially the various earlier British television series.  

Squiddies 2022

The Armchair Squid turns thirteen years old today.  It's time to hand out some hardware.  The Squiddy goes to...

Biggest Surprise: Baltimore Orioles

In February, in my post about The MVP Machine by Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchik, I wondered who on my beloved baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles, would be this year's big surprise.  It turned out to be the whole darn squad.  Projected to lose 100 games this season, they're in the thick of the playoff race in late August.  Previously undistinguished players like outfielder Austin Hays and shortstop Jorge Mateo are making significant contributions.  Rookie Adley Rutschman has quickly established himself as the best catcher in the Major Leagues.  Most amazing of all, the Orioles took a bunch of cast-off relief pitchers and somehow combined them into one of the strongest bullpens in baseball.  And the team is fun to watch.  They believe in themselves and their enthusiasm is highly infectious.

It's possible the team's surge came too late for them to make the playoffs this year.  But with even more prospects yet to emerge from the still highest-ranked farm system, it feels like perennial contention is not far off.  It's been a long time since Baltimore has been this excited about baseball.

Go, Birds!

Biggest Disappointment: Nichelle Nichols's Passing

Actress Nichelle Nichols, Uhura of Star Trek's original series, passed away from heart failure on July 30th.  She was the first Black woman to have a regular role on an American television show as anything other than a servant.  Her on-screen kiss with William Shatner was a revolution all its own.  But if you know Star Trek, you know that Uhura was so much more.  She was the emotional heart of the Enterprise bridge crew - in many ways, the most human character of all.

And Nichelle Nichols was more than just Uhura.  A triple threat, she was an accomplished dancer and singer who toured with both Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton.  Beyond the performing arts, she worked with NASA to recruit both minority and female personnel.  

89 years is a long life.  Even so, Star Trek's light noticeably dimmed with Nichols's passing.  Her legacy is secure.

Best Read, First Time Category: I Came As a Shadow by John Thompson

via Wikipedia

This wasn't an easy choice.  I had three five-star reads over the past twelve months.  I'll discuss the other two with the next award.  The autobiography of longtime Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson gave me a peak behind the curtain of my childhood, offering insights into a team I love and also the community where I grew up.  It's hard to compete with that.  Given the choice, I'd rather read more books like I Came As a Shadow than either of the other two.  The big guy wins again.

Best Comics Find: Daredevil: Born Again

via Wikipedia

My other two top reads were both comics: Sonny Liew's The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye and the Born Again story arc from Marvel's Daredevil series.  Liew's faux-biographical history of Singapore is extraordinary but Born Again goes on a short list of the best English-language comics I've ever read.   The arc, originally published in issues 227-233 in 1986, was written by Frank Miller and drawn by David Mazzuchelli.

The Kingpin learns of Daredevil's secret identity and sets about ruining Matt Murdock's life.  Murdock/Daredevil exacts his revenge.  Simple premise.  The magic is in the telling.  The world-building is exemplary.  We hear, feel and smell Hell's Kitchen as well as we see it.  We share in Murdock's all-too-real life pain.  We delight in his relief when all comes right.

It's hard to top a simple story beautifully told.

That's two years in a row for both Miller and Daredevil in this spot.

Athlete of the Year: Buck O'Neil (1911-2006)

In 2006, mere months before his death, Buck O'Neil was passed over for induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  This year, he finally made it.

On the merits of his career as player and manager in the Negro Leagues, O'Neil was an understandably marginal candidate for the honor.  But his broader contributions as a goodwill ambassador for the sport were exceptional.  Anyone who has watched Ken Burns's Baseball series knows that Buck O'Neil was a master storyteller in a sport that values the skill.  Written records of the Negro Leagues are relatively scarce so the oral history provided by O'Neil and others are essential.  If you wish to know more about this extraordinary man, I can't recommend Joe Posnanski's The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America highly enough.  No joke, you'll feel better about humanity after you've read it.

Even before his official induction, Buck O'Neil had a larger presence in the Hall than most.  After he died, the museum gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award.  Today, a life-sized statue of O'Neil greets visitors as they enter the museum's exhibit halls.

Best Family Adventure: High School Graduation

Our child graduated from high school in June.  For the second time in my life, I felt my place in the universe shift.  The first time was the day she was born.  Looking into her eyes for the first time, I realized I was no longer the central character of my own story.  Her high school graduation (even more than my own) felt like an arrival point - a brief one, to be sure, but certainly the most significant moment of transition since the birth itself.  We'll always be her parents, of course, but the job has qualitatively changed forever.

We've got another big transition coming right soon.  It's been wonderful to savor this particular life moment between the two this summer.

On the Coffee Table: John Thompson

Title: I Came As a Shadow: An Autobiography

Author: John Thompson (with Jesse Washington)

via Amazon

John Thompson, Jr. (1941-2020) was the head men's basketball coach at Georgetown University, 1972-99.  He was the first Black coach to win a national championship.  Those are the basics of one of the most extraordinary stories in American sports.

The Georgetown Hoyas have been my team since their glory days in the 1980s.  I have written about my love for the program many times, most comprehensively in one of my earliest posts.  When I say that John Thompson shaped my concept of what college basketball is supposed to be, I'm not exaggerating.  I learned much of what I know about the sport from watching his games.  So, I was always going to read his autobiography and I was always going to love it.

Thompson was more than just a coach.  He became a symbol in the Black community, especially in Washington, DC, a city that was still 70% Black in the '80s.  (Sadly, because of gentrification, Blacks no longer make up the majority of the population in our nation's capital.) John Thompson was an enormous Black man - 6'10", nearly 270 pounds - and unapologetic for expressing himself emotionally.  Thompson didn't yell at the refs any more passionately than his shorter white contemporaries did but he was fully aware that the world, even the basketball world, sees you differently when you're a large Black man.  What's more, he used his public position to advocate effectively for Black coaches and players, within his own program and beyond.  

I learned a lot from I Came As a Shadow.  I loved all of the basketball material, of course, but even more meaningful were Thompson's insights about growing up as a Black man in the Washington area.  Part of what set Thompson apart as an icon in the city - one different from the also enormously popular Barack Obama, for instance - was the fact that he was born and raised in DC.  Obviously, his life was different - in ways both better and worse - than I might have expected as a white kid in the suburbs a generation later.  He also had some not so flattering insights to share about Chevy Chase, an affluent town on the Maryland/DC border that I know quite well indeed.  I grew up believing my community was a lot more progressive than it actually was and I've really only come to terms with the darker reality in the past few years.  Unfortunately, Thompson's experiences confirmed my suspicions.

Still, most of the book is basketball.  The behind the curtain perspective on Thompson's teams - both the great and the not so great - is wonderful.  Coach Thompson shared a lot about how the Hoyas, as the first high profile college team with a Black coach and all Black players, became the team everyone loved to hate.  He grew to resent the word intimidating consistently used to describe him and his team, rather than giving them credit for being intelligent and well-prepared.  I would never have seen it that way at the time but now, one has to concede that he was right to be bothered.  The Hoyas certainly were a physically aggressive team but so was everybody else in the Big East conference.  Georgetown wouldn't have won as many games as they did if they couldn't dish it out as good as they got.  But they were unfairly characterized as goons and race definitely played a role in that.

Through it all, his program, at its best, was amazing.  I would happily watch those teams play in that league for the rest of my life.  Thompson writes warmly and extensively about each of his future Hall of Famers: Patrick Ewing, Dikembe Mutombo, Alonzo Mourning and Allen Iverson.  He also expresses tremendous pride for some of the players who excelled in life pursuits other than basketball.  Not all of the stories had happy endings but overall, it's impossible not to be impressed by all of the good his program came to represent.  

One note, because my high school Russian history teacher (Long live, the Tsar!) would scold me if I didn't point this out: Thompson, head coach of the Olympic team in 1988, repeatedly referred to the Soviet Union's team as "the Russians" when in fact the biggest stars of that team were Lithuanian, not Russian at all.

Again, I was an easy sell for this book.  It's impossible for me to be objective given my love for the subject.  That said, Thompson and his ghost writer Jesse Washington did a great job.  I Came As a Shadow is a tremendously enjoyable read.  Any autobiography can come off as narcissistic but while he certainly wasn't reluctant to toot his own horn, Thompson was vulnerable enough to share his shortcomings.  He's also honest about his more self-interested motivations.  My admiration for John Thompson, already considerable, has only increased.

On the Coffee Table: Copper

Title: Copper

Writer and Artist: Kazu Kibuishi

via Goodreads

Copper is a web comic by Kazu Kibuishi, the creator of the Amulet series and other projects.  Each story is a Sunday newspaper-style comic strip.  Homages to the classics are clearly evident.  Copper's relationship with his dog Fred is highly reminiscent of that between Calvin and Hobbes, though Copper's older and mellower than Calvin and Fred's more pessimistic than Hobbes.  The jagged black strip against yellow of Charlie Brown's traditional garb is a frequent visual motif.  Fred is sort of the anti-Snoopy.  

Some of the strips are set in the "real world" but many inhabit trippy dreamscapes: a first-person shooter game (where Copper gets too caught up in admiring the scenery), a world of mushrooms, surreal abstraction.  In a couple of stories, they go surfing.  My two favorite strips are "Waterfall" and "Good Life," both CalvinHobbesesque tramps through the woods.  Kizuishi shares a love of funky flying contraptions with Hayao Miyazaki and I sense some artistic influence as well.

I would describe the driving philosophy as happy fatalism which I learned of years ago from John Irving's Hotel New Hampshire.  According to Irving: "The way the world worked was not cause for some sort of blanket cynicism or sophomoric despair... the way the world worked – which was badly – was just a strong incentive to live purposefully, and to be determined about living well."

Kibuishi closes with an artistic process section, material I always enjoy.  

Overall, Copper is a fun, quick, rewarding read.

On the Coffee Table: The Return of Sherlock Holmes

Title: The Return of Sherlock Holmes

Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

via Wikipedia

The Return of Sherlock Holmes is a 1905 collection of short stories originally published in Strand Magazine between 1903 and 1904.  Of course, there was the small matter that Doyle had killed off his outrageously popular hero in "The Final Problem," in 1893.  While the author was able to circumvent the issue with The Hound of the Baskervilles by setting the story earlier in the fictional timeline, Doyle's new stories required a resurrection in the initial offering of the new collection, "The Adventure of the Empty House."  At the end of this book, in "The Adventure of the Second Stain," Doyle tried to give himself another out by claiming Holmes had retired.  

But there are still three more books after this one.

My favorites in The Return of Sherlock Holmes include the aforementioned "Second Stain," "The Adventure of the Missing Three Quarter" about a missing rugby player and "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" which involves codebreaking, always fun.  We get a strong sense of Morality According to Holmes in this volume.  Not infrequently, he lets the "guilty" party get away when he believes their cause just.

On the Coffee Table: Charles Duhigg

Title: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

Author: Charles Duhigg

via Amazon

Habits rule our lives in ways we don't even notice.  That's the point, after all.  Habits are the things we do without thinking.  It's the simple routines: you floss before you brush, you put on the right sock before the left, you always leave your keys in the same place so you can find them easily, etc.  It's the more complex operations, too: you always follow the same route when you walk your dog.  Some of them, like smoking after a meal or always having dessert even if you're not exactly hungry for it, are deeply unhealthy.  Others, like eating fruits and vegetables every day, can prolong your life.  Charles Duhigg explores all of this and more.  Most importantly, and optimistically, he demonstrates how bad habits can be transformed into good ones.

Duhigg devotes a lot of the book to self-destructive personal habits: alcoholism, gambling addiction, overeating, etc.  However, he also explores how the manipulation of habits - on both the individual and interpersonal levels - can transform organizations like Starbucks, Alcoa or the Indianapolis Colts.  Further, he chronicles how all-time champion swimmer Michael Phelps used the power of habit to excel.  On the Big Brother end of things, he exposes how companies, particularly Target, are able to monitor customers' habits in order to successfully predict who is likely to buy what and when.  

A couple of principles were particularly interesting to me.  The first is the idea of "keystone" habits.  Exercise is a good example.  When someone successfully establishes a habit of regular exercise, they start to form other good habits along with it.  They sleep better.  They eat better.  I can confirm: my life definitely feels better balanced when I am exercising regularly.  Other keystone habits are less appealing to me: bed making, for instance.  I don't believe in it.

"Inflection points" are moments when an individual is confronted with a choice.  For instance, a Starbucks barista is chewed out by an angry customer.  The employee can react in a variety of ways, many of them reflexive and counterproductive.  But if such an employee plans a different, healthier reaction ahead of time, the likelihood of a positive outcome increases significantly.  The possible applications to public education, my own profession, are obvious.

I'll definitely be keeping The Power of Habit around.  I didn't read the book's appendix (I usually skip that, along with any Roman numeral pages in the beginning) but I expect I will at some point as it's all about how to use Duhigg's principals in one's own life.  

But I'm still not going to make my bed.

On the Coffee Table: The MVP Machine

Title: The MVP Machine: How Baseball's New Noncoformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players

Authors: Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchik

via Amazon

Baseball's Moneyball era is over.  Billy Beane's revolutionary concepts for evaluating player talent and how various individual strengths contribute to runs and ultimately wins on the field are no longer the exclusive purview of a select few.  Every team is using data these days and in fact, quite a lot of them are using the information a lot more effectively than Beane's Oakland A's ever have.  The Tampa Bay Rays are probably setting the standard these days.

A new revolution is underway.  Technology allows for the minute examination of player performance - pitch spin, launch angle, etc. - in more exacting detail than ever before.  Pair this newly available data with a far more prevalent growth mindset and player development becomes the new frontier.  A player's capacities are no longer a fixed point, nor do the growth or degradation of such skills follow predictable patterns.  Teams and players who are open to new approaches have gained significant advantages.  Minor leaguers who were never even considered prospects are being elected to All-Star teams.  Seasoned veterans are finding new life late in their careers.  Teams like the Astros have transformed from eternal doormats into perennial powers.  Coaching, scouting and administrative staffs are being overhauled at all levels of the game - out with the old guard, in with the new, many of the new folks having never played even high school baseball.  Shocker: even a few women have made their way into the coaching ranks.  It's a new day and anyone stuck in the ways of the past is quickly being left in the dust.

In their book The MVP Machine, Lindbergh and Sawchik document the sport's new wave, offering anecdotal evidence from all over the baseball world.  In particular, they focus on the journeys of Trevor Bauer, a data-obsessed Cy Young-caliber pitcher, and Kyle Boddy, one of many independent coach-consultants from outside the professional ranks who have revolutionized player development.  Major League franchises are quickly finding that investing in player development is the most cost effective way to improve their teams.  In the more progressive systems, every player, even those not believed destined for The Show, is considered worthy of data-driven training.  And the philosophy goes beyond the physical athletic processes.  For the first time, teams are feeding their minor leaguers on a nutritious diet rather than expecting them to survive on a minimal salary and per diem.  My personal hero in the book is Doris Gonzalez who works with the Astros' many Spanish-speaking players to help them assimilate, learn the language and quite often, stick with baseball when the going gets tough.  Many of her former charges, now Major League superstars, call her "Mom."  In short, learning to play professional baseball has become a more thoughtful, methodical, healthy and humane process.

There are downsides.  The emphasis on technology has made baseball a more expensive sport to play, even at the youngest levels.  With the increased importance of travel teams, more economically challenged families have been gradually priced out of youth sports over the past few decades.  The expensive tech has only widened the gap.

A surprise gift for me: eleven pages of the afterword are devoted to my team, the Baltimore Orioles.  The Orioles now are where the Astros were ten years ago, scraping the bottom of the standings barrel, minimizing payrolls while stockpiling high draft picks in hopes of a brighter future.  Fortunately, they have former Astro executives leading the way: general manager Mike Elias and assistant general manager for analytics, Sig Mejdal.  Both men are quoted extensively earlier in the book, in fact, as pioneers in player development while they were in Houston.  

So far, despite the terrible win-loss records for the varsity team, the O's are headed in the right direction.  The Birds now have the top-ranked farm system in baseball, including both the highest-rated position player prospect - catcher Adley Rutschman, future face of the franchise - AND the highest-rated pitching prospect, righty Grayson Rodriguez.  Meanwhile, a couple of previously undervalued players have reinvented themselves.  Lindbergh and Sawchik write extensively about John Means, a lefty pitcher who learned to use his best pitch, a change-up, more often and more effectively.  Pitchers using their best pitches more often is a major theme of the book.  This past July, Means pitched a complete game no-hitter, the first for Baltimore since Jim Palmer did it in 1969.  2021's biggest surprise, too late to be included in the book, was Cedric Mullins, the Orioles' center fielder and lead off man.  Long a switch hitter, Mullins converted to batting left-handed exclusively and made adjustments to his swing.  The result: a journeyman struggling to stay at the major league level became a 30/30 man, hitting 30 homers and stealing 30 bases.  

Baseball season is drawing near.  I must decide whether or not I want to subscribe to MLB.tv this season which would allow me to watch all (or nearly all) of the Orioles' games.  I did it in 2020, the COVID-shortened season, and thoroughly enjoyed it.   I didn't in 2021 and didn't miss it too much.  But the next stage of the Orioles rebuild is set to begin this year.  Both Rutschman and Rodriguez should debut for the top flight this season.  It may still be a while before Baltimore is genuinely good but the seeds are being planted.  And who knows who this year's surprise might be?  The MVP Machine has provided new perspectives for watching baseball, from the best teams and players to the weakest.  I think I'm in.

Now we just need to get this lockout resolved.

On the Coffee Table: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

Title: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

Author: Arthur Conan Doyle

via Wikipedia

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes collects short stories originally published in The Strand Magazine, 1892-93.  Some but not all editions include "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box."  Mine did not.

Mycroft Holmes (Mark Gatiss) via Baker Street Wiki

There's some decent character development for Holmes in this run.  We learn he is a master of both boxing and fencing.  We learn he has a brother, Mycroft, every bit as brilliant as he is, though not as keen for the fieldwork required of an expert detective.  So he's an accountant instead.  My favorites of the collection are "The Adventure of the Silver Blaze," in which a race horse figures prominently, and "The Adventure of the Yellow Face," in which we see a rare attempt at Victorian Era social commentary.

Moriarty (Jared Harris) via Baker Street Wiki

Most important for the overall franchise is the book's last tale, "The Final Problem."  Holmes's greatest nemesis, Professor Moriarty, is introduced - an arch-criminal whose legacy includes Kingpin, Jabba the Hutt and Keyser Soze.  I like Moriarty and I appreciate his importance but at least in this initial appearance, I don't think he gets enough development.  In fact, to this point, I prefer the Star Trek character.  Worth noting: neither Holmes nor Data could best Moriarty.  But Captain Picard could...

Squiddies 2021

The Armchair Squid turns twelve years old today.  It's time to hand out some hardware.  The Squiddy goes to...

Biggest Surprise: Chartreuse

Chartreuse is a liqueur which has been produced by French monks for at least four centuries.  There are two varieties: a sweeter yellow and a more intensely alcoholic green.  The flavor is wild, like psychedelia in a glass.  Different hints are emphasized depending on what it's combined with.  Sometimes anise prevails, other times mint, other times cinnamon, other times... I don't even know what.  It ain't cheap but on the bright side, a little goes a long way.  Without question, it was our most rewarding mixological discovery this year.

Biggest Disappointment: Chadwick Boseman's Passing

Actor Chadwick Boseman passed away last August of complications from colon cancer.  Only 43 years old, he'd already compiled an impressive film resume, having portrayed T'Challa/Black Panther, Jackie Robinson, James Brown and Thurgood Marshall among others.  May he rest in peace.

Best Read, First Time Category: Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

via Amazon

Yu's novel about the life of "Generic Asian Man" Willis Wu is written in screenplay format.  Willis is an actor - or is he a character? - on a cop show called Black and White.  The leads are a Black man and a White woman.  Willis and all of the other Asians are background characters.  Of course, it's all an elaborate metaphor for the ways race plays out in American society, especially for those of East Asian descent.  While the weaving in and out of "reality" can be a little confusing, that's sort of the point.  Even Chinatown itself is simultaneously the reality and the metaphor for the compartmentalization of Asian culture in the United States.

The time to educate ourselves about race is now.  I can't recommend Interior Chinatown highly enough.

Best Read, Re-Read Category: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling 

via Amazon

The penultimate volume of the Harry Potter series is an intensely emotional experience.  Our young hero confronts both loss and love with greater intensity and immediacy than ever before.  The stage is set for the amazing ending.  Good as it is, the final book suffers a little from pacing issues.  So, Year 6 gets my nod in this category.

Best Comics Find: Frank Miller's Daredevil

Daredevil is a fascinating character, one of Marvel's best.  Industry titan Frank Miller started drawing for the series in May 1979.  Eventually, he would take over writing duties as well.  It was his breakthrough gig.  Miller brought darker sensibilities to the medium, both literally and figuratively.  His style was a fine match for an emotionally remote protagonist and his gritty Hell's Kitchen world.

Athlete of the Year: Willie Mays

via Wikipedia

This summer, I read Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend by James S. Hirsch.  If I'd previously had any doubts about Mays's superiority over all other baseball players in history, Hirsch's book erased them.  Mays turned 90 years old in May.  He's a living national treasure.

Best Family Adventure: Zooming Christmas

This year, COVID circumstances forced (sensible) people to be creative during the holidays.  Thanks to the ingenuity of family and friends, we enjoyed several of what I hope will become new annual traditions.  English Prof hosted a reading of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens for over 30 people from her home in Massachusetts.  My sister and niece organized Jolabokaflod (explained here) for Christmas Eve including 15 people over six households, three US states (plus DC) and two countries.  My wife inspired an Æbleskiver Breakfast for three of those same households Christmas morning.  We connected with her family later Christmas day - five people, three states in that case.  Even under normal circumstances, coordinating any of those gatherings would have been challenging.  Zoom, for all of the headaches it brings, made it all possible.

On the Coffee Table: James S. Hirsch

Title: Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend

Author: James S. Hirsch

Authorized by Willie Mays

via Amazon

Okay, so let's get one point out of the way right off the bat. Willie Mays is the greatest baseball player who ever lived.  Some have been better hitters: Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds (Mays's godson) certainly.  Perhaps some have been better baserunners.  Rickey Henderson and Lou Brock have the best arguments there.  Some may have been better center f...  Nope, I can't even complete the sentence in good faith.  That one's easy.  There has never been a better center fielder.  His 12 Gold Gloves are tied for most all-time for an outfielder with Roberto Clemente and the only reason Mays didn't win more is that the award wasn't introduced until 1957, six years into his career.  Whether there's ever been a better fielder at any position is a more reasonable question.  Maybe Brooks Robinson at third base.  Maybe one should argue that the best fielding catcher ever is the best fielder ever because it's by far the most difficult position so maybe Ivan Rodriguez.  But probably not.

The complete package?  Willie Mays.  Every time.  The term 5-tool player (hit for average, hit for power, run, catch, throw) was essentially invented to describe him.

The numbers tell part of the story.  The traditional stats...

• 3,005 games played (8th all-time)
• 10,924 at bats (14th)
• 3,293 hits (12th)
• 660 home runs (6th)
• .301 lifetime batting average
• 2,068 runs scored (7th)
• 1,909 RBI (runs batted in) (12th)
• 338 stolen bases
• .384 on-base percentage
• .557 slugging percentage
• 2,989 games played at center field (CF) (1st)
• 7,024 putouts at CF (1st)
• 188 assists at CF (7th)

Then there's Wins Above Replacement (WAR), the most universally accepted sabermetric measure of a player's overall value to a team.  Willie Mays's career WAR is 156.1 which puts him at #5 on the all-time list behind Ruth and Bonds plus pitchers Walter Johnson and Cy Young.  No matter how you slice it, that's elite company.  But how you slice it matters.  Ruth, Johnson and Young all played in the age of segregation and therefore it cannot be said they were always playing against the best available competition.  That's not their fault but it deserves an asterisk.  Meanwhile, Bonds's late-career statistics were almost certainly inflated due to steroid use.  One also must consider the fact that Mays played nearly his entire career in home stadiums - the Polo Grounds and Candlestick Park - that were unfriendly to right-handed hitters with gap power.  His career totals might have been a lot higher in a more hitter-friendly stadium.

But like I said, the numbers are only part of the story.  Willie Mays was the most exciting player in baseball for 20 years.  Even his elite contemporaries - Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial - were in awe of him.  He hit the Majors in 1951 just as television brought top flight baseball into people's homes for the first time.  At the plate, on the bases and especially in the field, he was practically guaranteed to do something memorable a couple times per game.  He was just as big a draw on the road as he was at home.  He was the face of baseball's western migration.  He was the biggest star on what became baseball's most integrated team, the San Francisco Giants.  He was the best.  Period.

Hirsch's book covers all of that and more.  Indeed, he makes the "best ever" argument better than I have.  It's worth noting that it's an authorized biography so one could hardly expect an even-handed expose.  That said, Mays, who just turned 90 this year, has stayed pretty well clear of serious scandal all along - not easy for such a public figure.

Baseball books always leave me wanting to learn more.  In particular, I want to know more about the Negro Leagues.  Mays was playing for the Birmingham Black Barons when the big league scouts first got wind of him in the late 1940s.  I have read about pre-integration baseball before but learning about Willie Mays has renewed my curiosity.  Names new to me that have reignited my interest include Ray Dandridge and Piper Davis.

If you're looking for a more colorful, even-handed read, I would suggest Leigh Montville's Ted Williams instead.  But if you want to read a loving ode to an American hero who is thoroughly deserving of the adulation, you could hardly do better than Willie Mays.

A few treats for the road:

• Jon Stewart's interview of Mays during the promotional tour for Hirsch's book.
• The Catch
• Career Highlights