Book Review: Invisible Woman: Partners in Crime by M. Waid et al.

Invisible Woman: Partners in Crime written by Mark Waid and art by Mattia De Iulis

Susan Storm Richards is the Invisible Woman, one of the Fantastic Four. Her power is generating force fields that make her or other objects invisible. In this book she's given a solo story about working as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, though in the present day story S.H.I.E.L.D. is no longer functioning. One of her old partners, Aidan Tintreach, is involved in a foreign plot: Kidnapped students are held hostage by a hostile eastern European government. Susan has a certain comradely affection for Aidan and jumps at the chance to save him. The C.I.A. is only interested in any leads she can give. She finds her own clues and starts a globe-trotting adventure with the typical twists and turns of a spy adventure story.

The plot has a James-Bond feel to it. The story wanders all over and some of the science and action scenes are a bit preposterous. Sue has some typical superhero problems to deal with, the main being her principle of never killing anyone. That's tough for a spy to do but her superpowers give her a little more flexibility. She does some creative things with her powers and has enough charm to lead her own story. Black Widow, Nick Fury, and Maria Hill all have cameos that help to set up some contrasts and to move things along. It's an entertaining read without much depth or resonance.

Mildly recommended.

Movie Review: Don't Look Up (2021)

Don't Look Up (2021) written and directed by Adam McKay

Two astronomers, one a teacher (Leonardo DiCaprio) and one his grad student (Jennifer Lawrence), discover a comet that will hit the Earth is six months and fourteen days. After getting extremely stressed out, they take the information to the White House. They have to wait for over a day since the president (Meryl Streep) is dealing with other important issues. She's trying to get a Supreme Court nominee through the Senate even though the nominee is plagued by scandal after scandal (the most innocent being he was a nude model). Also, she needs to lead her party through mid-term elections. When they finally meet, she does not take it seriously nor does her chief advisor (who is also her son (Jonah Hill)). The astronomers go to the press to get the word out. The grad student's boyfriend works at a prestigious New York paper. Before the article comes out, the astronomers are booked on a popular morning talk show where the presenters always try to be upbeat. The teacher can barely talk on television and his student is angry and upset, making her a poor fit for the talk show or convincing the viewers of the gravity of the predicament. Their appearance goes badly and the story spirals out of control as various people try to capitalize on the situation, including a cell-phone company entrepreneur (Mark Rylance) who is part Steve Jobs and part Andy Warhol. 

The satire in the movie works well. They make fun of all sorts of extreme attitudes: the self-defeating anger of liberals, the self-promoting piety of conservatives, the self-unaware pseudo-profundity of creative corporate executives, and the self-centered vacuity of television presenters. The plot meanders a bit and the movie could use some trimming of its two hour, eighteen minute run time. DiCaprio's character goes through an unlikely narrative arc that seems more to serve the plot (and the jokes). Lawrence fares better as the semi-unlikeable Greta Thunberg character. The movie delivers on the comedy in fine fashion, skewering a good variety of people.

Recommended.

As I write (January 2022), this is only available streaming on Netflix.

Making Mochi

We received a mochi ice cream kit as a Christmas present. My daughter loves deserts and the dough-wrapped balls of ice cream are always ordered when we go out for Asian food (and it's on the menu). 

The first step was to soften some ice cream and put it in a a special silicon tray that came with the kit. It makes the ice cream just the right shape to be wrapped in mochi. We may not have done the best job filling the tray, but it was our first time. We used Dutch chocolate ice cream, just to get an international flavor. French vanilla was our other option!

This was later, when we were making the mochi, so some are already out

Mochi is a Japanese rice cake. Sweet rice flour came with the kit. We whisked it together with some sugar from our pantry and the cocoa packet from the kit (which also has a matcha packet for vanilla or green tea ice cream). Then some water is added to turn it into a paste.

Carefully measuring

Whisky business

The paste is covered loosely in plastic and microwaved to cook the mochi. It becomes stiff like a dense frosting when it is done.

Wrapped to keep in moisture (or protect the microwave?)

Sticky and thick

The kit also comes with potato starch. After spreading some on our clean, flat counter, we poured the dough out, flipping it several times for a coating that takes away the stickiness. We then rolled it flat and wide with a rolling pin.

Making the dough useable

A small circular cutter came with the kit and made little circles in which we would wrap the ice cream. First, we had to refrigerate the dough, separating the circles with plastic wrap.

Dough ready!

After thirty minutes of chilling, we took the circles and the mini ice creams out. The dough was a little hard to wrap around the ice cream. Like any filled dough, we had to pinch the end shut, which worked less well as the dough warmed up. Maybe we should have chilled it in the freezer? Or only taken half the dough circles at a time?

Smothering the ice cream in dough

That's a wrap

The plastic wrap gets wrapped around the mochi ball to help it retain its shape as it goes in the freezer for another ninety minutes. 

We planned it so the mochi would be ready right after dinner. It made a good-looking dessert.

Finished product

We only found two problems with the process. First, the pinching method did not work too well as one side of the mochi wound up thicker than the other, making it more frozen and a little hard to bite through.

The other problem is the Make the Bread, Buy the Butter issue. That book recommends various recipes that can be made at home and will save money over buying a pre-made product or be healthier. Making a loaf of bread is cheaper and healthier than buying one at the store; making butter is a lot of effort for not a lot of savings in money or benefit health-wise. Putting together the mochi balls was a lot of effort for only eight balls. Each ball is fairly small, making two seem like the right serving size. Depending on the size of your family, that's not a lot of dessert. Making a second batch would take a whole other day, with cleaning the ice cream mold and freezing another set of ice cream balls. It is probably more worth your time to buy the mochi at an Asian supermarket (or maybe your lucky and it's in a regular supermarket by you). 

It was a fun experience but I wonder if we will make the second batch with the extra ingredients provided in the kit.

Book Review: Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

Father Jean Marie Latour travels to the American Southwest in the 1850s. He was ordained in his home country, France. He went on mission work to Ohio and from there was sent to the New Mexico territory to be bishop. His friend Father Joseph (a homely and humble priest) travels with him. They work hard to learn the language and the territory and the various cultures (Spanish, Mexican, Native American, and Southwest American). His first challenges are dividing up border parishes with Mexican dioceses and dealing with some rebellious priests who deny he's their superior, mostly because they want to continue their debauched and scandalous lifestyles. Father Latour is hardworking and gentle as he deals with traveling thousands of miles on foot and mule. He lives a life of great adventure as he ministers to the rancheros, the poor, the migrants, and the outlaws. His great dream is to build a cathedral in the proper French style, not like the more utilitarian German churches in Ohio. So many other concerns occupy his time.

The land is hard and sparse and meandering. The story follows the landscape as Father Latour encounters a variety of troubles and opportunities. The country is beautifully described. The people he encounters also have a richness about them. None are stereotypes or two-dimensional people. They have understandable viewpoints, sometimes sympathetic and sometimes not. The story does not really build to a climax for Father Latour's earthly life. Even the cathedral project is one of many threads that makes up his life. On his deathbed, he has a sense of the eternal destiny that his friends have gone on to. He looks forward to the afterlife following on a fulfilling life.

I like the book a lot though I struggle to put it into a category. It's a fictional biography and historically situated, though it's not based on some famous person or great event. The text is very poetic and the characters are well drawn. The travels and locales are interesting but aren't the main focus either. 

Highly recommended.

This book is discussed on A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast #274. Check it out!

Book Review: Sir Edward Grey Witchfinder Omnibus Vol. 1 by M. Mignola et al.

Sir Edward Grey Witchfinder Omnibus Volume 1 written by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, Kim Newman, Maura McHugh, and Scott Allie, art by Ben Stenbeck, John Severin, Tyler Crook, and Patric Reynolds

In an interesting expansion of his Hellboy universe, Mike Mignola creates a Victorian-era supernatural investigator named Sir Edward Grey. Grey deals with a lot of problems and monsters similar to what Hellboy faces over a hundred years later. Grey is much more scholarly and reserved than Hellboy, giving him a different approach. Six stories fill this volume...

Murderous Intent--Three English witches want to kill Queen Victoria in 1879. Edward Grey has been appointed by Her Majesty to investigate occult occurrences, so it's his job to stop them. The story is very short and explains why he's called "Witchfinder." The art by Mignola is his classic style which I enjoy a lot.

In the Service of Angels--Investigating some truly bizarre deaths, Sir Edward comes in contact with some of the Mignolaverse mythology. An expedition in Egypt uncovered a subterranean passageway that might lead to Hyperborea, the ancient lost civilization that lived inside of the Earth. The members of the expedition have been dying off, the last few in London. They brought some strange bones back with them. The bones belonged to some demon-type being that has been hunting them on their return to England. The Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra (a weird pseudo-religious, pseudo-scientific cult) is also interested in the bones and wants Edward to hand them over. The plot is a slow-burn horror that reveals more of the bleak truth as it moves along. The art is gray and dismal, following the tone of the story and the environment of late 1800s England.

Lost and Gone Forever--Grey pursues a fellow Englishman to Utah in 1880. The trail disappears in a small town that's lost its Christian church and any sense of morals. Grey is pulled out of town by Morg, who has another bigger problem to deal with. A lot of local natives are following a young white woman who claims to be in touch with their gods and is using them for some unexplained purpose. Their investigation turns up some weird details. The sinister character of the story is well matched with a washed-out color palate. The art is more focused on the horror than the Old West, making the area more bleak and desolate, like the situation for the characters.

Beware the Ape--Back in London, Grey is called in to to confront Jerome Bagsby, a gentleman who, while at his club, beat another man for an archeological treasure. Bagsby denies responsibility and puts the blame on an ape in his home. Being weird fiction, this explanation turns out to be true as Grey confronts the beast. The story is very short but does the job.

The Mysteries of Unland--The town of Hallam has been reclaimed from English swamplands by industrialist Sir Horace Poole. He is trying to get approval for his health elixir made from the local waters. One of the queen's men has died mysteriously while inspecting the elixir-works to see if it meets royal approval (which would certainly boost sales). Grey is sent, though he thinks it is a common enough case. Poole is ill, so Grey is led around by underlings, including the local constable who does not seem very competent. Grey is ready to leave when his hotel room is attacked by giant eels who tell him to go back to London. Since the case does seem to have a supernatural element, Grey stays. The story moves methodically, building up the revelations and the horror as it goes. The art isn't as good as the other stories but the creepy eel people are very creepy.

The Burial of Katharine Baker--A short story about Henry Hood, a "witchfinder" from the 17th century. Katharine Baker was accused of witchcraft after ever other family's crops failed except hers. Also, she visits her boyfriend in a graveyard...the boyfriend who died several month ago! When Henry Hood hangs her, her family comes to give her a good burial. Another group shows up claiming to be her family, causing a lot of consternation and a chance for Hood to show off his skills. The story was interesting but very short.

Overall, I found the stories entertaining. Grey is an interesting character but sometimes he seems like he's more "along for the ride" than figuring things out on his own. The horror has a good variety and the different locations are used creatively.

Recommended--highly for Hellboy/Mignola fans.

Game Review: ROVE by Button Shy Games

ROVE: Results-Oriented Versatile Explorer created by Dustin Dobson and Milan Zivkovic and published by Button Shy Games

ROVE, the Results-Oriented Versatile Explorer, has crashed on an unfamiliar planet and needs to reconfigure itself several times in order to get out of trouble. The player (it's a solo game) guides the reconfiguring. The initial layout of its modules is a two by three grid of cards. 

These are randomly placed out, so your results may vary!

The modules have specific ways they move, maybe over other modules or pushing them. One module can move only diagonally, some only orthogonally. Each module has a special ability (the star box at the bottom) that may be used once during the game, like swapping modules or moving them to different places. Regular movement uses movement points on the mission/movement cards. The front of the card shows a mission for ROVE (more on that below), the back has movement points. Each card has a basic amount of points at the top. If the modules happen to match the pattern on the card, the player can use the extra points on the bottom of the card. Tick marks on the edge of the card help the player keep track of how many movement points have been used.

This card can use 4 points with the set-up above

The mission side of the card shows the configuration needed to advance. The modules have to be rearranged in a certain pattern, with one card in a specific spot within the pattern.

 

The bridge mission

Through the combination of movement points and card abilities, the player moves the cards around to match the mission pattern. When a movement card's points are used up, the card is discarded and the player has to use another card to keep working on the reconfiguration. 

A solution to the bridge mission!

Once completed, any leftover movement points are lost (i.e. the card is discarded). A new challenge is drawn and an additional movement card is drawn (as long as the player has fewer than five movement cards). If the draw deck is empty, the discard pile is flipped over (no shuffling!) and used. If the player can solve seven missions, ROVE is saved!

Victory (with only one movement point left!)

The minimalist art works well with this game. The graphic design is easy to understand and the mission cards' depiction of the challenges and the robot are charming. Big eyes are almost always cute. The expanding landscape as the mission cards are put down is also enjoyable.

The game play is even better. Each mission is a spatial puzzle with the player figuring out the smallest number of moves to create the mission solution. Sometimes the solution is easy and low-cost, other times it takes a bit of concentration, imagination, and a lot of movement points to solve. The grid does not reset between missions, meaning the next solution may be more or less difficult depending on the prior layout. The diminishing hand of movement cards also provides a challenge, especially when you try to configure a solution to get extra movement points. If the player is lucky, the initial grid has extra movement points already there. I found the variety of challenges fun and engaging. The game plays easily under twenty minutes and any failures made me want to try again, usually right away. 

Highly recommended as a solo challenge with lots of replayability and mental engagement.

ROVE is available for order directly from Button Shy Games.

Movie Review: Old (2021)

Old (2021) written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan

Several small families visit a tropical island resort where the staff cater to their every need. Select visitors are invited to a secluded beach on "the other side of the nature preserve" where they can spend a magical day of surf, sun, and happy memories that will last their lifetime. A bickering couple on the verge of separation takes their son and daughter. Another couple brings his mom and their daughter. The third couple don't have children, probably because the wife has seizures. They all look forward to a relaxing day at the resort's exclusive little treasure.

A fourth couple had an early ride to the beach and the guy has been sitting in the shade, waiting for his woman to come back from a swim out into the ocean. Her body drifts back to an inlet where the kids are playing. The kids freak out and the adults have a hard time dealing with the dead body. The beach has no cell coverage and anyone who walks back to the road through the slot canyon path quickly blacks out and is back on the beach. There seems to be no escape. And the three kids are rapidly growing older. One of the kids sees some lights on a faraway ridge but they can't tell if the flashes are just reflections or people watching them. Things get tough from there.

The movie does a good job establishing the characters as people with real-world problem. They've come to the resort to get a break but the stress of the beach forces several of them to the breaking point. They have to deal with the mystery of what's going on as well as their own insecurities and conflicts. Viewers have a hard time figuring out what's going on until the end. The explanation of what is happening and why is less satisfying in this film than in other Shyamalan movies. The purpose is morally dubious (which the film acknowledges) and not entirely credible. Even so, I found the movie diverting. I've watched it once, enjoyed it, and probably won't watch it again.

Mildly recommended.

Book Review: Mary: The Virgin Mary in the Life and Writings of John Henry Newman

Mary: The Virgin Mary in the Life and Writings of John Henry Newman edited with an introduction and notes by Philip Boyce

John Henry Newman was an Anglican priest who was part of the Oxford Movement, a group of High Church ministers who wanted to reinstate more ancient Christian traditions within the Church of England. Newman studied the Church Fathers (theological writers from the first five centuries A.D.), which was a factor in his conversion to Catholicism in 1845. He had a devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, even before his conversion. The mid-1800s saw the declaration of the Immaculate Conception as dogma of the Catholic Church, so there was plenty of debate inside and outside of the Roman Catholic Church about whether Mary was born without sin, among other issues around Mary. Protestants thought Catholics give too much credit and honor to Mary. Newman entered into such debates in his writings.

This book has two parts. The first part is an extended introduction where Philip Boyce gives a brief biography of Newman and a more in-depth survey of Newman's thoughts on the Blessed Virgin Mary. Boyce discusses the growth from Newman's Anglican period through his Catholic times. Newman does not change his mind or repudiate what he said earlier. He develops deeper devotion to God and thereby to Mary as the Mother of God. He discusses her as the New Eve (a topic popular with the Church Fathers), her motherhood to Jesus, her Immaculate Conception and her Assumption, and her role interceding with Jesus on our behalf.

The second part of the book contains various excerpts from Newman's writings organized according to categories. First are formal sermons Newman gave throughout his life, many from Marian feasts like the Annunciation on March 25. The second category is theological reflections, taken from sermons, books, and letters. The final category is poems and meditations. The final bit is a set of thirty-one reflections for the month of May. 

Newman is a fine author. His texts are very clear and very literary. He persuades with an ease and certainty born of his scholarship and his spiritual life. The book works both as an introduction to Newman and a collection of spiritual insights on the Blessed Virgin Mary. I found a lot to treasure here.

Highly recommended.

Sample text, on the relationship of the Assumption to the Immaculate Conception:

All the works of God are in beautiful harmony; they are carried on to the end as they begin. Tis the the difficulty which men of the world find in believing miracles at all; they think these break the order and consistency of God's visible word, not knowing that they do but subserve a higher order of things, and introduce a supernatural perfection. But at least, my brethren, when one miracle is wrought, it may be expected to draw others after it for the completion of what is begun. [pp. 160-161]

Book Review: Shang-Chi Vol. 1 by G. L. Yang et al.

Shang-Chi Volume 1: Brothers & Sisters written by Gene Luen Yang and art by Dike Ruan, Philip Tan, and Sebastian Cheng

Hero Shang-Chi is laying low in New York City, working a job at a Chinese bakery during the Lunar New Year rush. Since he's a Marvel superhero, trouble finds him pretty quickly. His dad (in this version of the story) established a secret group of warriors called the Five Weapons Society. The dad set up five different houses across the world, each with a champion. The House of the Deadly Staff (outside of London) is attacked by Sister Hammer (from the House of the Deadly Hammer, naturally). Sister Hammer kills the Staff Champion who is leader of the Five Weapons Society. She assumes she will now be in charge, but the mystical wheel of the Five Weapons Society indicates the next leader is from the House of the Deadly Hand. The Hand champion is Shang-Chi, who has disavowed the whole Society as his dad's psychotic cult (which it kinda is). Sister Hammer comes to New York to challenge him for rulership, which he is reluctant to get involved in. Even so, he's pulled in to a huge, globe-travelling adventure. He teams up with Brother Sabre and Sister Dagger to put things right.

The story is exciting and moves along at a good pace. Yang skillfully blends the ancient, semi-mythic quality of the houses with very modern sensibilities (Sister Dagger is the quintessential wisecracking, no nonsense teenager). The family issues suggested by the title are also dealt with, giving a little more substance to what could have been a run-of-the-mill comic book story.

Recommended, though don't get hung up about continuity with the recent movie, because there basically is none.

Geocaching December 2021

Another round of geocaching successes and failures!

My son and I tried to find Eagle's Nest in High Ridge Park near our home. The hike down to the Little Patuxent River was fun and challenging. 

Off the paved trail fairly quickly

Climbing down the ridge

A holy tree!

Close to the river

By the time we made it down to the river, the GPS was pointing back uphill, which was up a lot of rocks. We tried a couple of different ways to climb, eventually getting to an area that seemed like a spot for eagles to nest. We looked all over but did not make the find. It was fun to hike there anyway.

On the wrong side of the boulder

On another day, after delivering some Christmas packages, I found a couple of caches in the Clemens Crossing neighborhood of Columbia, Maryland. The first was Clemens Crossing Navidad #2-Oblong Cul-de-sacs. The cache owner has made a series of caches themed on the neighborhood and the fact that they are hosting Christmas for their out-of-country family. The other half of the name refers to the Clemens Crossing cul-de-sacs that have little islands in the middle. This cache is hidden on one such island!

Talk about an exposed hiding spot!

The next cache was Walk to Clemens #1. Unfortunately, #2 had a ton of "did not find" logs, so I did not even try. This one was easy to find once I looked at the logs and discovered others had been misdirected by the coordinates. One of the other cachers left a photo which was a dead giveaway for the location. 

Somewhere in there

Another Navidad cache was nearby, Clemens Crossing Navidad #5-Bridges. Unfortunately, the parks service was washing the bridges right where the cache is! I planned to come back to the neighborhood to find some more of the Navidad caches.

I hope the cache isn't power-washed away!

A couple of trees were recently cut down, the stumps were interesting.

A hollow trunk?

My last cache for this excursion was YES Outlet #3 (Bradley Lane). I parked near some fake dear that fooled me at first glance.

So still!

This cache is part of a series about "No Outlet" signs that are misinformation. Presumably the roads changed since the sign was put up. The cacher suspects an overly-agressive (or maybe overly-shy) home owners association trying to keep traffic out of their neighborhood. It seems like a fun series, I will have to research where #1 and #2 are.

Take the top sign off!

While shopping one day, I finally found Bread Basket 2 which is in the middle of a small, busy parking lot. The cache is named after the restaurant in the picture below.

The hiding spot is in here some where, but not inside the store

I went back to the Clemons Crossing neighborhood with my son and my father-in-law to find more of the Navidad caches. The first one was Clemons Crossing Navidad #1 - Tot Lots. The cache commemorates all the playground in the area. The cache was a little challenging to find. I used the hint since regular searching was not working.

One of many local public playgrounds

The next cache, Clemons Crossing Navidad #7 - Recreation, was another tricky find. The coordinates pointed us toward to a small hole in the wall that looked like it had a plastic container. The hint for the cache mentioned magnetics, which did not fit with our find. With a little more looking, we found the cache in an entirely other location!

A recreation park!

The next navidad, Clemons Crossing Navidad #6 - Schools, is near the Atholton High School. The cache is located in the woods just behind the baseball field. Grandpa found a bunch of foul balls while my son and I found the cache.

Neighborhood trails behind the school

Our next stop was my nemesis from the week before, Clemons Crossing Navidad #5 - Bridges, which is by a patch of bridges along the trail. The bridge was easy to find, the cache not so much. We wound up talking to a couple of muggles about what we were doing. This cache also required checking the hint. We had to get closer to the water to make the find.

One of the many bridges in Clemons Crossing

I ended the year with a total find count of 526 finds. It was a good year of geocaching and maybe I'll make it to 600 in the next year. My ambition is to find five caches a month, which is not enough to make it to 600. Maybe I will be an overachiever? 

Visit to the National Arboretum 2021

We went to the National Arboretum over the Christmas holiday, mistaking it for the Botanical Gardens where they set up an outdoor train display. That's what we really intended to see. Since we were already at the Arboretum, we decided to stay.

Our first stop was the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum, a display of plants from China and Japan.

A nice sign

Bonsai trees are typically highly sculpted and some live for hundreds of years. The first one we saw was a Japanese White Pine (pinus parviflora 'Miyajima').

A good size tree

Other plants in the garden are more modest, like this Himalayan Mayapple (podophyllum hexandrum).

Has some cover

A nearby plaque shows various ways to cut a bonsai tree.

Styles, like at the barber shop!

A lot of the trees were much larger than I anticipated based on my pop-culture understanding of bonsai.

Very tall tree

Bigger than bushes

Not pine trees

The most interesting tree was one that dates back to 1625. It was handed down in the family for generations. A disaster almost befell it--the family lived in Hiroshima when the Americans bombed the city during World War II. The garden was protected by a concrete wall, so the plants (and family) survived. The tree is styled as a mushroom cloud in commemoration of the event. The family donated the tree in 1976 as part of the American bicentennial celebration.

Looking good at almost 400 years old

One striking display in the Arboretum is not a plant. Twenty-two columns are set up in the middle of a field. They are from the U. S. Capitol. The columns were installed in 1826 on the building's east central portico. Many presidents were inaugurated in front of them. A 1958 extension of the east wing caused the columns to be removed and replaced. The columns were eventually set up in the Arboretum, in 1990! The location even has a little reflecting pool, which was not full since it could freeze over in the winter months.

Capitol columns

The dry pool

Dedication of the pool

The column tops

Across the field is a base and a capital from one of the columns.

Easier to see close up

Across the driveway is a hill full of azalea bushes. It's amazing to find such a quiet and peaceful spot in the chaos of Washington, D. C.

Azalea bush

Holly with berries!

We should probably come back in nicer weather when the plants are in bloom. The location is not hard to get to and parking is plentiful.