On the Coffee Table: William Shakespeare

Title: The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Author: William Shakespeare

It's Hamlet, arguably the most important literary work in the English language.  It's been in print and in performance for four centuries plus.  Do we really need a plot synopsis?  Surely, you read it in high school or you've watched one of the numerous film adaptations or even been lucky enough to see it on stage, right?  No?  Well, alright...

A ghost appears at Castle Elsinor.  Denmark's most recently deceased king has returned as specter to tell his son, college boy Hamlet, the true tale of his passing.  He was murdered by his own brother!  The brother, Claudius, then married Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, and claimed the throne.  Hamlet was already put off by Mom's too-quick wedding - less so by his own political usurping, interestingly - so this new info only fuels his angst.  He considers murder.  He considers suicide.  He decides on feigning madness in order to mess with everyone (typical teenager...), then schemes with a theatre troupe to trick Claudius into confessing.  Gertrude tries to talk some sense into him but, still enraged, Hamlet "mistakenly" kills Polonius, Claudius's top advisor.  The killing wasn't the mistake.  The target was.  In an effort to cover his own crimes, Claudius ships his nephew off to England with instructions to behead him.  It doesn't work out.  Hamlet returns and now also has to confront Polonius's understandably angry son, Laertes.  Everyone is also upset because Ophelia, Hamlet's "girlfriend" and Laertes's sister, has killed herself.  Hamlet and Laertes duel and everyone in the room dies - only a slight exaggeration.  Rufus Sewell... er, Fortinbras, King of Norway... arrives upon the final, gory scene and restores order.

Oh, so you do know the story.

I don't really mean to be so irreverent.  In my opinion, plot isn't The Bard's strength.  Romeo and Juliet?  Two stupid teenagers fall in love and are dead by their own hands two weeks later.  Macbeth?  Just kidding.  I adore that one.  Hamlet?  The character has been portrayed as both wimp and goon over the centuries but seriously, in the final analysis, the guy is such an asshole!  Poor Ophelia.  If her suicide is over heartbreak, what a waste.

I guess I do mean to be irreverent.

But yes, obviously, the play is amazing, entirely deserving of its stature in world culture.  What is The Bard's genius?  Ask a thespian and s/he will speak of the rich, dynamic characters and the performance instruction subtly embedded throughout.  Ask a literature professor and s/he will speak of the life-altering language.  One can hardly read Hamlet without noting the lines that will live on in reference forever: "Good night, sweet prince," "What dreams may come," "to thine own self be true," etc.  The correct answer is both, of course, and undoubtedly more. 

I hadn't read Hamlet since high school, myself.  Since then, I've seen both the Mel Gibson and Kenneth Branagh films.  I've seen The Lion King as well as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, the latter on both stage and screen.  Hamlet is everywhere if you're looking and, again, deservedly so.  However, I've never seen the play performed live on stage.  I would like to, naturally.  Reading Shakespeare silently on the couch doesn't quite get to the heart of the matter.  At the very least, his work should be read aloud.  We're not that family - yet.

One final note, only a slight tangent, in case you have any doubt of my deep love for Shakespeare.  We recently watched Shakespeare in Love for family movie night, our daughter's choice and her first time seeing it.  For my wife and I, though, it holds a special place in our history.  We went to see it on our first date 20 years ago.  In the years since, much has been made of the controversy over that film winning the the Best Picture Oscar over Saving Private Ryan.  Apparently, Harvey Weinstein worked his sleazy magic in staging that coup. 

Overall, I would mostly agree with those who say Ryan should have won.  It is an unforgettable and undeniably powerful movie.  Its champions rightly point to the hyper-realistic opening 20-minute rendering of the D-Day invasion as one of the greatest film segments in cinematic history.  However, I assert that Shakespeare in Love contains a segment of comparable, if qualitatively different, magnitude.  Hugh Fennyman (played by Tom Wilkinson), Shakespeare's financial backer, is witness to the very first rehearsal of Romeo and Juliet's famous balcony scene.  The look of astonishment and wonder on Fennyman's face is every bit as potent as the hellfire on the beach of Normandy.  The horror of the one doesn't exceed the magic of the other.  The overwhelming death in the one is not inherently more relevant than the celebration of life in the other.  War is not greater than art.  Ryan may still be the better movie - and I think it is - but the D-Day scene is not the reason why.

Squid Cooks: Sausage and Peppers

Another recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything: The Basics and an easy one.  The rolls my wife bought were enormous, a good 10.5 inches long - cut in half, still easily long enough for two sausages.  The only real "work" was chopping and waiting for everything to cook. 

On the Coffee Table: Julia Child

Title: My Life in France
Author: Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme

Julia Child is a hero at our house and frankly, she should be at yours, too.

My wife has been the primary cook in her family since she was 14 and food is her lifelong art and passion.  Using the word "foodie" to describe her always feels trite.  Her love runs much deeper than a hobbyist's enthusiasm.  The only reason I know anything substantive about food and drink myself is that I have lived with her for the past 20 years.  When we went to the Julia Child exhibit at the Smithsonian some years ago, there were honest tears.  No one in our culture did more to bring Old Country reverence for food into the American home than Julia Child.  It's not close.  One of a kind.

Julia Child's memoir My Life in France was half of the basis for the 2009 film Julie and Julia so anyone who has seen it is already familiar with the basics.  Julia and her husband Paul Child moved to France in 1948.  Paul served as exhibits officer at the US Embassy in Paris.  In need of her own interests to pursue, Julia went to cooking school.  Studying led to teaching which led to an ambitious and unprecedented cookbook project: translating French traditional cooking to the needs and capacities of the American home kitchen.  The book led to the public television show which made her a national household name.

The Childs loved France.  Their adventures took them to other, less exciting (for them) spots - DC, Boston, Bonn, Oslo - but love always brought them back to France.  After Paris, Paul had a posting in Marseilles, then later they built a house in Provence.  The story of their marriage is an inspiring one of mutual support and admiration and their time in France always seemed to bring out the best in them.

As one might expect, the atmosphere of the book is light, fresh and humorous.  It's easy to understand why people enjoyed being around Julia so much. However, Julia is not shy about sharing the lonelier side of diplomatic life - relevant to my own family history.  Interestingly, Paul Child worked for the same agency my father did, though earlier and in a different part of the world.  My dad's postings were in Asia.  The rich and fulfilling expat life Julia Child describes in Paris is not unlike what my parents share about their time in Tokyo.  But the times of loneliness are also part of both stories.  Not every post is glamorous.  I have often asked my parents why they left the foreign service and the emotional stress on the entire family of moving all the time is always part of the discussion.

While Julia Child's television appeal is largely due to an exuberant, larger-than-life personality, her overall success was about commitment.  The woman worked her ass off.  She had help from collaborators along the way - her co-authors, her husband, a good editor - but none of it would have happened without her own boundless energy.  Julia Child is often touted as a late-middle-age success story. The first book was published when she was 49.  But the lesson is clear: be ready to work hard!

A Window Above: Help!

Song: "Help!"
Writers: John Lennon and Paul McCartney
Original Release: July 19, 1965
Band: The Beatles



The Beatles story is one of a meteoric rise to unprecedented teen idol fame followed by a gradual transformation into something far more meaningful and enduring.  It's astonishing to ponder the fact that "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" were spawned by the same four young men, just three years apart.  1965 was their cusp year when they shifted from straight up rock 'n' roll to world-changing art rock.  Interestingly, many of the best songs from their entire opus emerged during this time: "Yesterday," "In My Life," "Norwegian Wood," "We Can Work It Out," etc.  The first signs of teeter-totter over that edge could be seen in the lead single from their second feature film.

It's hard to call "Help!" under-appreciated.  Rolling Stone ranked it as the 29th greatest rock song ever in 2011.  Only six Beatles songs ranked above it, plus John Lennon's "Imagine."  (That's right: eight of the 30 best ever were penned by Beatles.  Not exactly surprising but certainly impressive.)  But it's still not usually a song that comes up when people discuss the band's masterpieces.  To me, there are few if any more perfect pop songs in existence: a beautiful melange of the frenetic energy of the early '60s with the Dylan-esque mellow of the decade's latter half.  Have you ever heard the Beatles' Love album, a wonderful collection of remixes created for Cirque de Soleil?  Did you notice that "Help!" is the one song that's virtually untouched?  They may have messed with some of the levels but there's little doctoring compared to the other tracks.  Why?  They got that one right the first time.

Lennon described "Help!" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" as his two most honest Beatles songs.  His one regret with the former was the tempo.  He envisioned it as a slower song.  The studio executives wanted it faster.  Far be it from me to question the master but I think the marketing types were right in this case.

As with nearly all Beatles songs, there have been numerous covers by top acts.  Many seem to think Lennon was right as they have generally employed slower tempos.


Roy Orbison - If you only have time for one of these, don't miss this. It's lovely:


Deep Purple:



Tina Turner:



Back up to tempo... Bananarama:



Vitamin String Quartet:



Want to hear all of the songs I have featured in a convenient playlist?

Enjoy: A Window Above

What are you listening to these days?

Squid Cooks: Roasted Chicken Cutlets

Not much to this one, another recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything: The Basics.  I guess the new skill developed here is the breaded crust.  Easy enough.  One suggested variation I might try sometime: using miso instead of egg as the glue for the bread crumbs.  More seasoning might be nice.  Bittman suggests the typical herbs: tarragon, oregano, rosemary, cilantro or mint in place of the parsley in the basic recipe.  I'm thinking something with a bit of heat would be nice: paprika or old bay, perhaps.

A Window Above: T-Shirts

Song: "T-Shirts"
Writer and Performer: James Smith
Original Release: July 20, 2018



James Smith, now all of 19 years old, made his breakthrough on Britain's Got Talent four series (seasons) ago.  "T-Shirts" was another Spotify find for me.  The far superior acoustic version above was released in August.  The kid can play.  I love the "Blackbird" guitar riffs heard throughout.  Clever.

Below is the original, also quite good:



Want to hear all of the songs I have featured in a convenient playlist?

Enjoy: A Window Above

What are you listening to these days?

Squid Mixes: Cinderella

As noted in my State of the Blog 2018 post, mixing mocktails is one of my major goals in the drinks hobby.  During our Europe last summer, our daughter found many delicious beverages, especially in Paris.  It seemed only logical to learn to make them myself.  Christmas brought with it not one, not two but three recipe books to explore.

My Cinderella recipe came from Mocktails: The Complete Bartender's Guide by Kester Thompson: orange juice, pineapple juice, lemon juice, grenadine and soda water or ginger ale with orange and pineapple garnish.  It's our house so obviously, we picked ginger ale.  All three of the books emphasize the importance of fresh juice.  In truth, so do most books for alcoholic cocktails.  Of course, therein lies most of work.

The resulting beverage was, frankly, fantastic.  There's enough sour from the lemon to keep the sweet from overpowering.  Is it worth the work, though?  We have a wonderful lemon squeezer so that's easy.  There's a lot of knife work with the pineapple but then the blender does the hard part.  The labor is in the oranges.  They're too big for the squeezer so I've got to do those by hand.  I needed six in total.  In answer to the question, it is a lot of work for one drink but not bad for three.  A pitcher for a party would be manageable.  Maybe I just need to sort out the orange issue.

A note for the curious: one pineapple yielded about 14 ounces of juice.

I will concede the fresh juice in itself is worth the effort.  Could one make the drink with store bought juices from concentrate?  In a pinch, sure.  But it's the difference between a drink that is good and one that is potentially amazing.  Amazing is worth the work.