The Marvelous Hater

I was forced to read Dickens as a kid and, of course, I hated him. Today, I couldn’t possibly say whether that was because I couldn’t get past all the Victorian sentimentality, or because I couldn’t figure out what Dickens was all about, or even if I just hated him because they made us read him. Really, they had us reading the likes of David Copperfield and Silas Marner (yes, I know that wasn’t Dickens) when what we wanted to be reading was Lord of the Flies and The Catcher in the Rye.

But much later in life, with the assistance of Bloom, I came to appreciate the virtues of Dickens. How his books encompass more of humanity than almost anyone else; and how the characters tell us more truthfully about human nature than almost any other writer. Almost.

After starting again with Great Expectations, which I read along with the boys, and vicariously with Mrs. Barrett (we’ll overlook her secret identity for the time being), I have been proceeding chronologically through Dickens and am now in the later books, written in Dickens’ darker and more disquieting years. Most recently, I read Little Dorrit, whose title suggests another melodrama along the likes of the Old Curiosity Shop, but which is really a broad indictment of Victorian England. However, the England skewered by Dickens in Little Dorrit is not all that different from the world in which we now live: There is a huge and impenetrable government bureaucracy that stifles and eventually smothers innovation and creativity; there are the idle rich, self-important, pretentious, and ultimately vacuous; and there are the respected captains of industry, commerce and finance, who in the end turn out to be schemers, fraudsters and forgers on an enormous scale. The only real difference from Dickens’ world is that his England still had debtors’ prison, which features prominently in Little Dorrit, but which we somehow managed to do away with.

Most importantly, from the perspective of this blog, in reading about Dickens and this latest novel, I came to understand one reason why I find now find him so engrossing, and so true. Irving Howe writes that by this time in his life, Dickens’ humor had developed a “ferocious bite”; Howe then describes Dickens as a “marvelous hater” A hater! Imagine that. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with this blog knows that we’re not only enthusiastic haters in our own right, but also admirers of great haters.Famous haters like Buck Nasty, Silky Johnson and Charles Dickens. The pantheon of haters. Now if I had only known that as a kid, I might have been enjoying Dickens at a much earlier age.

Four Minutes Too Long

When Kendrick Perkins wrenched his knee under the boards early in Game Six, and crumbled to the floor – Perkins who is usually so durable, so strong, often immovable, now grimacing and pointing to his knee—how familiar was that to Orange fans? The Orange season fell short of expectation the moment that AO was injured in the Big East tournament. AO also came down awkwardly under the boards, banged around by Georgetown, our most hated rival. Three weeks later, when Butler took Duke to the wire in the championship game, the same Butler team that Cuse had led with under four minutes to play, but against whom, without AO in the paint, Cuse could not hold the lead, all Orange fans felt that, with AO we would have been as good as, perhaps better than, every other team in the tournament.

Now think about Game Seven in LA. The Cs were badly out rebounded by the Lakers; LA had 23 offensive boards. Would that have been possible with Perk in the paint that night? Would Boston’s defense have surrendered 30 points in the final period? Perk would not have helped Ray Allen or Paul Pierce sink any of those many open jumpers they missed (until the final two minutes, when they had staked LA to a six point lead, and suddenly found their range, but too late). But what Perk would have done was what he had done all year – anchor the defense- block a few shots- and push Pal Gasol out of position so that LA’s rebounding advantage would have been greatly diminished, perhaps even eliminated.

I know that other teams have risen to the occasion, and won big games without their big men. The 1970 Knicks won their Game Seven over the Lakers without Willis Reed, even though Willis made an emotional appearance, started, and even made the first two buckets of the game, but then disappeared. Clyde Frazier took over and single-handedly delivered New York a championship. Ten years later, when the Lakers were playing the Sixers for the title, Kareem went down, leaving LA with no real center to match up with Darryl Dawkins. But Magic stepped up, and not only played center for the Lakers, but played brilliantly, scoring 42, grabbing 15 rebounds, and bringing the Lakers another ring.

Although the Cs played well without Perk, and led for much of the game, and held the Lakers to only 83 points, all of which should have allowed them to bring home an eighteenth banner, it never happened. Allen and Pierce missed a ton of open jumpers; everyone seemed to go cold for the first ten minutes of the fourth quarter; and no one came off then bench to ignite the offense, as Nate Robinson had done in Game Six of the Eastern Finals, or as House and Posey had done in 2008.

And in the end, for the second time this spring, I was left feeling, what if? What if we’d only had a healthy Perk for those two games in LA? And what if we’d had AO in the paint against Butler, with no one guy able to stop him, and Butler’s D having to collapse into the lane, and Rautins and Johnson having a few open looks from the outside. Tell me the team in that tourney who looked like they could beat a healthy Cuse? What if Bill Russell had suited up for Game Seven? I’ll bet that white haired Russell, all 79 years of him or whatever, wouldn’t have let Gasol get all those easy boards.

Still, it was a great run, and one that was hardly expected. Who would have figured back in the dead of winter, when the Cs were regularly losing in the Garden, that they’d dispatch Bron and the Cavs, and then dominate Howard and the Magic, earning the right to play for another championship? Not many, and not even the author of this blog. I kept saying, wait until they’re all healthy, but did I really believe they could turn a mediocre season into a playoff run? It’s a bit like the 1987 NCAA tournament. The season, and Game Seven were just a bit too long. If they’d only play 44 minutes that night….Oh well.

A Better May

A month ago, after a dismal April, it began to look like the Celtics were Boston’s only hope this year. But while we are still watching the Cs as they pursue an 18th banner (very big game tonight in LA), the Sox have come to life, and have given the Nation something else to look forward to in the coming summer months.

The first sign of life was Papi’s return to the lineup. He had a terrible April, almost as if he hadn’t shown up for spring training. But in May he batted .363 with ten homers and 27 RBIs. Good enough to earns player of the month plaudits from someone. More importantly, good enough to resume knocking in runs when Pedroia or Youk got on base ahead of him. Other bats who had started slowly, Beltre for example, also came to life in May. Baseball more than any other sport lends itself to peaks and valleys of performance. Even Albert Pujols is slumping this year. But Papi’s slump was particularly troubling as it lent itself to speculation about his age, and the possible decline of his skills, or even worries that his prowess in Boston had somehow been linked with Manny and PEDs. It’s fair to say that no one ever knows for sure anymore, but I think Papi’s May gave the entire team a psychological lift.

The other key to Boston’s turnaround was the young starters. Lester was expected to assume the mantel of team ace, but began slowly this year. He too needed a couple weeks more in spring training. But over the past nine starts, he is 7-0. His ERA is around 2.7, and opposing batters are hitting under .200. That’s the best in the league among regular starters. And Lester is not alone this year, as Clay Buckholz has finally shed his sophomore slump, and has begun to live up to the promise he showed when he first came up in 2007. Buckholz actually has the lowest ERA of any of the starters, in fact second in the AL, under 2.4. Of late, these two guys have made it easy for the team to win, because they’ve gone late into games surrendering very few runs, giving the bats time to put some numbers up, and giving the bullpen some much needed rest. Now all we need is for Dice-K to pitch consistently. He has had a couple great outings this year. He no-hit the Phillies for eight innings; and he went seven against the Blue Jays with nine Ks and no walks. That’s the key for him. If he could just cut out the walks, he’d go much deeper into games, and cut down on the earned runs significantly. Lastly, we need Beckett to get healthy. If those two things happened, our starters could match up with any staff in the league. I know - wishful thinking. But at the same time, not impossible.

That leaves the bullpen, which remains a big question mark. Pap is having his worst year, and that’s weird, because he is soon to become a free agent, and one would expect the opposite as the chance for big contracts becomes more imminent. Oki is no longer as effective; it seems like the rest of the league is finally figuring him out. His stuff was never overpowering, just very different. Bard has looked good with the exception of a couple outings; some think he may be the closer in waiting, if Pap sells himself on the open market. And Delcarmen, although inconsistent, may become the new Mike Timlin. A fastball throwing righty, dependable, reliable, even if not spectacular.

The upshot of all this is that the Sox have gone 22-10 since early May, playing tough teams, including everyone in the AL East over that stretch. They closed what looked like an unbridgeable chasm between them and the Division leading Rays and Yankees. They’re still in third place, and I’d rather see them in any other division in all of baseball. But if they continue to play well; if the big bats keep knocking in runs; if Lester and Buckholz and even one more starter keep shutting down the opposition; they won’t have to worry about anyone other than themselves. So let’s hope June looks more like May, and that April fades into the distant past.

Back to Basics on the Bullet

We fired up the bullet for Memorial Day; opening day for the smoking season, so to speak. And I wanted to do something new. I’ve done brisket, but it takes forever. Same for ribs. I find that ribs take maybe ten hours start to finish, what with shopping, prepping -- tearing off that membrane on the back-- making the rub, and then smoking for around six hours. So after all that time, when the ribs are served, everyone rips into them, and they’re gone in ten minutes. Ten hours of work for ten minutes of feasting. And because of that, lately, when we want ribs, I stop at the Dinosaur and get a couple racks to go. That way the prep time and the eating time are about the same.

My favorite stuff on the smoker is all the fish, but the thing is that Susan is allergic to most fish. And what fun is it to smoke stuff but not have anyone to share it with? So I wanted to try some new stuff -- things we both could enjoy, and maybe things that one doesn’t ordinarily associate with smoking. Here’s what we tried -- sausage, chicken, duck breast and pork chops.

The sausage was very good; we used John’s technique of making big fat logs of sausage meat with no casing. He calls that a fatty. The meat didn’t dry out and instead remained tender and moist. I used Italian sausage and a garlic and herb poultry sausage -- the latter tasting better with the smoky flavor. For the chicken, Susan filled the cavity with orange wedges, and she put a sweet glaze on the outside. It cooked up crispy on the outside, but tender and juicy inside. But the thing was that, even with a smoky flavor, it really wasn’t all that much better than barbequed chicken.

The duck breast was marinated overnight in apple juice and spices, and then cooked around 90 minutes to medium. Not quite as rare as one would serve it off the stovetop. I expected it to hold more of the smoky flavor. Once again, although the duck was good, it wasn’t appreciably better, or even more distinctive than usual. And considering that it seems best when medium rare, I think my preference would be for grilling, not smoking.

So that takes us to the big surprise of this recent effort: by far the best meat off the smoker was the easiest thing to prepare -- the pork chops. I did them two ways: we marinated one overnight using the same apple juice recipe as the duck breast; and I did one with red rub and a touch of sugar. Both were fabulous. I guess I should have expected the chops to be delicious, because it’s the same meat as ribs. But I was surprised how much smokier they were than the chicken. And we used a kosher chicken, figuring that all the fat would be good for retaining the flavors. (Yes, I know. Pork chops and kosher chicken. It’s an incongruent combination.) Anyway, while it didn’t happen for the chicken, the chops were great. Plus, they were easy. Either recipe, the rub or the marinade, requires a minimum of prep time, and little or no worry on the bullet. In fact, I never checked temp or anything. When they looked good, I pulled them out. And with the bone, you get the full barbeque experience.

One more thing. We also slow cooked a small pot of Susan’s famous baked beans in the bullet. They were the perfect compliment to the chicken and chops. So there you have it -- pork chops and baked beans. Back to basics.