Squiddies 2015

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

Biggest Surprise: Live-Tweeting Star Trek

via Twitter

It was exciting enough to have Spacerguy and Maurice Mitchell join me for an episode-by-episode exploration of Star Trek's animated series.  The real surprise came when Maurice suggested we watch an episode together over Twitter.  Schedules and technology often got in the way of perfect synchronization but it was loads of fun when we managed to make it work.


Biggest Disappointment: Five-Day Power Outage

Due to a nasty winter storm, we lost power at our house for five days in December.  No power also means no heat and - worst of all - no water for us so it's far from a minor inconvenience even in the short term.  It was a long five days, indeed.


Best Read, First-Time Category: The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

It's been a good year for books, especially this summer.  I've read quite a few that have made me reexamine my very existence, but none more so than The Omnivore's Dilemma.  All humans are faced with the dilemma.  Since we can technically eat anything, we must find what is nutritious and avoid what is poisonous.  In the post-industrial world, the options are more dizzying than ever.  Pollan's book takes us on an exploration of the various paths food takes en route to our plates.  Awareness of those paths, more than the choice of any one over the other, is our responsibility as stewards of the Earth.


Best Read, Re-Read Category: The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

This book, a favorite from my youth, seems largely forgotten among children's classics.  Back in the day, I learned words like occult, familiar and seance from Snyder's novel.  At its heart, though, it's the tale of a family adjusting to new circumstances, in many ways easier to appreciate as an adult reader.  I'm hoping I can convince my daughter to give it a try sometime soon.


Best Comics Find: Best of Enemies by Jean-Pierre Filiu and David B.

This two-part (so far) graphic novel series provides a 200-year history of U.S./Middle East relations.  Originally in French, the books maintain a remarkable neutrality in examining the issues.  Basically, everyone involved is at fault.


Athlete of the Year: Bobby Moch

via Pinterest

Robert Moch (1914-2005) was the coxswain for the University of Washington's varsity crew that won the gold medal for the United States at the 1936 Olympics.  I got to know Moch and his pals in The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown.  A coxswain sits at the front of the boat, steering the vessel and calling out the stroke rate for the oarsmen.  Whereas most rowers are long-limbed leviathans, the coxswains are petit.  Moch is a particularly likeable specimen: a strategic genius and a smart ass to boot.


Post with Most Unexpected Consequences: Star Trek: Turnabout Intruder

"Turnabout Intruder" was the final episode of Star Trek's original series, capping a two-year long exploration for me.  In my post for that episode, Maurice dropped a hint that if I were to take on the animated series in similar fashion, he might be willing to join me.  I could hardly resist an offer like that.  The TAS project, in turn, inspired a similar project with Andrew Leon, exploring Star Wars: The Clone Wars. 


Best Family Adventure: The Green Mountain Film Festival

For the second year in a row, we made an overnight trip to Montpelier, Vermont to cram in as many festival movies as possible over two days.  Over dinner, My Wife claimed the modest adventure as her ideal vacation.  We get to do something we can't at home, in this case watch independent films on the big screen.  We eat well.  Everything is within easy walking distance of the hotel.  I think she's still keen on a trip to Europe someday but it's nice that we can find such a gratifying getaway close to home.


Best Unexpected Benefit of Blogging: A New Purpose for Twitter

I like Twitter.  Though I don't use it as much as Facebook, it feels less manipulative to me.  That said, I haven't always been quite sure what to do with it.  It's great for creating my own news feed and for minimal effort networking but I've never been especially enthused beyond that.  Maurice's suggestion to use it for our Star Trek TAS project, though (see above), opened my eyes to the possibilities of coupling blogging with Tweeting.  I'm not sure where that will lead in the coming year, if anywhere, but it's another tool to keep in the box.

As you may have gathered, Maurice Mitchell has had a considerable influence on my blogging over the past year.  Maurice, in case you haven't heard, is moving onto a very exciting project indeed as editor of the soon to be launched Superman page at About.com.  I, for one, certainly hope he will continue to be a presence in the blogosphere.

On the Coffee Table: Best of Enemies, Part Two

Title: Best of Enemies: A History of US and Middle East Relations, Part Two: 1953-1984
Writers: Jean-Pierre Filiu and David B.
Artist: David B.

via Amazon

This is the second book in a two-part (so far) series.  My review of Part One is here.

We all know the contentious issues in US/Middle East relations these days: oil, Israel/Palestine, Sunni/Shia, economic disparity, radical Islam, despotism, human rights, etc.  It's easy to forget, however, that a lot of the battle lines were drawn during the global dynamics of the Cold War era.  For most of the time period covered in the book, Israel, Saudi Arabia and, interestingly, Iran were allied with the United States. Meanwhile, the other major powers of the region - most importantly, Egypt - were under the influence/protection of the USSR, though not technically Communist per se. 

Part Two covers a lot of ground: two wars between Israel and Egypt (plus Arab allies), the formation of the PLO, the Camp David Accords, the Iranian Revolution (which abruptly slammed the door on the alliance with the US), the Soviet-Afghan War and the Lebanese Civil War among other conflicts and maneuvers.  Just as in Part One, the authors maintain an impressive neutrality.  None of the parties involved is portrayed as virtuous.  They're all bad guys with lots of blood on every hand.  The lasting impression is the overwhelming complexity of the issues and the astonishing web that connects them. 

One event I remember from the time which is left out is the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981.  Maybe they're planning to include that in another book.  Speaking of another book, I certainly hope they write one.  At the moment, this is all there is, even in the original French.  Obviously, there's plenty of material to explore post-1984 so I hope they'll continue.

On the Coffee Table: Best of Enemies

Title: Best of Enemies: A History of US and Middle East Relations, Part One: 1783-1953
Writer: Jean-Pierre Filiu
Artist: David B.

via Amazon

The lesson has become clear.  Want to learn about the world?  Read comic books.  It's a great place to start, anyway.  Over the past few years, I've explored ancient India, pre-war Berlin, 20th century Japan, the Holocaust, Israel, Palestine, Iran and West Africa through the dynamic medium of sequential art.  Most of the work has only recently been translated from either Japanese or French, two literary traditions that embrace comic books as mainstream reading material to a far greater extent than does the English language tradition.

Such is the case with Best of Enemies, a series originally published in French, outlining the history of US relations with the Arab/Muslim world from American Independence to the present day.  This first book begins with the Barbary pirates of the late 18th century and ends with a CIA-orchestrated coup in Iran, 1953.  I'll admit upfront, I knew very little of this history before.  I knew the ancient and medieval history through the Crusades.  I knew a little about the Ottomans in World War I and the carving up of their empire afterwards.  I knew the history of the Israeli conflict from 1948 onward.  But the rest was all new.  I'd heard of the Barbary pirates, sure, but never really gave much thought to who they were.  The lesson is clear: learn about the world through comic books.

There is plenty of debate over how much of the world is actually encompassed by the term Middle East.  Is it just the Arabian peninsula?  Just the Arab-speaking countries?  Plus Israel?  Does Turkey count?  Iran?  Egypt?  North Africa?  For its purposes, Best of Enemies includes all of the above under the umbrella.

Impressively, the book manages to stay reasonably neutral.  There are no heroes, exactly.  Plenty of mud is flung in both directions.  The history of relations between the two entities is one of compromise, corruption and manipulation.  For both sides, money has always been king.  American and Middle Eastern regimes have been willing to compromise myriad principles for the sake of cash.  The discovery of oil only made things worse.  The black-and-white artwork is somewhat satirical though again, evenhanded.  I'm definitely keeping an eye out for Part Two: 1953-1984.