Trinity House Triumph
Thunderbolt Kid, Art & Jake’s and Koji, Barenaked Ladies, Aidan Hutchinson, Housebound and Hunkered Down
Welcome to my weekly newsletter. This week’s issue includes the first in a series of five favorite sandwiches, an amusing memoir, local meals with my brother, a favorite Canadian band, the Lions’ best defender, and a house that’s not going anywhere. I hope you like the picks and pics.
In last week’s issue I mentioned two Detroit teams that were doing well. The Tigers won on Wednesday to move within one win of advancing to the ALCS, but lost the next two games and were eliminated by Cleveland. The Lions pounded the Dallas Cowboys, 47-9 on Sunday, but lost their best defensive player to a serious injury.
My brother David flew in from LA for a Saturday show at the Trinity House Theatre in Livonia. He was joined by Walfredo Reyes Jr. (in from Cincinnati) on drums and our cousin Lily Dixon (in from East Lansing) on bass. The show was sold out, and the full house was very appreciative of the musical artistry of the performers. Many of our relatives were there to see Lily’s first professional gig, including her family from Marquette, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula. You can watch a recording of the entire event here:
If you enjoy Fave Five, please share it with your friends who also like books, food, music, sports, or humor. To do so, just click the button below.
Fave Five 106: Trinity House Triumph
Bill Bryson Book (Thunderbolt Kid), Dinners with David (Art & Jake’s and Koji), Canadian Combo (Barenaked Ladies), Wounded Warrior (Aidan Hutchinson), and Housebound and Hunkered Down.
Fave Five List: My Favorite Ethnic Sandwiches
In this issue I begin a five-part series on my favorite types of sandwiches, with a focus on the generic rather than those unique to a specific restaurant. This week I feature sandwiches from around the world that have become popular in the U.S.
Vietnamese: Banh Mi
Cuba: Cubano
Mexico: Torta
Greek: Gyro
Lebanon: Shawarma
Book Best Bet
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson
I have read several of Bill’s books and found most of them to be entertaining and often very funny. I found this one in a Little Library and enjoyed reading the story of his childhood. He was born two years before me and grew up not far from Omaha, where I lived from age 4 to age 10. I related to most of the anecdotes and cultural references. It’s a well-written memoir.
From Amazon: Bill Bryson was born in the middle of the American century—1951—in the middle of the United States—Des Moines, Iowa—in the middle of the largest generation in American history—the baby boomers. As one of the best and funniest writers alive, he is perfectly positioned to mine his memories of a totally all-American childhood for 24-carat memoir gold. Like millions of his generational peers, Bill Bryson grew up with a rich fantasy life as a superhero. In his case, he ran around his house and neighborhood with an old football jersey with a thunderbolt on it and a towel about his neck that served as his cape, leaping tall buildings in a single bound and vanquishing awful evildoers (and morons)—in his head—as "The Thunderbolt Kid."
Using this persona as a springboard, Bill Bryson re-creates the life of his family and his native city in the 1950s in all its transcendent normality—a life at once completely familiar to us all and as far away and unreachable as another galaxy. It was, he reminds us, a happy time, when automobiles and televisions and appliances (not to mention nuclear weapons) grew larger and more numerous with each passing year, and DDT, cigarettes, and the fallout from atmospheric testing were considered harmless or even good for you. He brings us into the life of his loving but eccentric family, including affectionate portraits of his father, a gifted sportswriter for the local paper and dedicated practitioner of isometric exercises, and OF his mother, whose job as the home furnishing editor for the same paper left her little time for practicing the domestic arts at home. The many readers of Bill Bryson’s earlier classic, A Walk in the Woods, will greet the reappearance in these pages of the immortal Stephen Katz, seen hijacking literally boxcar loads of beer. He is joined in the Bryson gallery of immortal characters by the demonically clever Willoughby brothers, who apply their scientific skills and can-do attitude to gleefully destructive ends.
Warm and laugh-out-loud funny, and full of his inimitable, pitch-perfect observations, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is as wondrous a book as Bill Bryson has ever written. It will enchant anyone who has ever been young.
Bill Bryson
From Wikipedia: William McGuire Bryson (born December 8, 1951) is an American-British journalist and author. Bryson has written a number of nonfiction books on topics including travel, the English language, and science. Born in the United States, he has been a resident of Britain for most of his adult life, returning to the U.S. between 1995 and 2003, and holds dual American and British citizenship. He served as the chancellor of Durham University from 2005 to 2011. In October 2020, he announced that he had retired from writing books. He has sold over 16 million books worldwide.
Restaurant Recommendations
My brother David arrived late Thursday night. He craved a Greek salad, so we went to a 24-hour Leo’s in Plymouth for his salad. We each had lemon rice soup and a Coney dog, and his visit was off to a good start. On Saturday a group of 11 family and friends dined at Buddy’s in Novi. The pizzas were great, but I had to suffer through watching the Tigers blow their slim 1-0 lead to the Guardians in the deciding Game 5. David and I subsequently enjoyed leftover Buddy’s pizza, which was even better when reheated in the oven.
Art & Jake’s Sports Bar 39715 Six Mile Road, Northville, MI 48168
On Saturday following the show, we needed a place that was open late for dinner. This was the obvious choice, as it was just down the street from Trinity House. David and I shared a steak and cheese sandwich which was ordinary, but the pork belly tacos were delicious. They were called “Burnt Ends Tacos” for some reason, and they are no longer on the menu as of today, so we were lucky to have them.
Burnt Ends Tacos: Crispy Flash-fried Pork Belly // Spicy Slaw // Queso Fresco // Pickled Red Onions // Chipotle Aioli
Koji Japanese Restaurant 146 Mary Alexander Court, Northville, MI 48167
On Friday after Lily rehearsed with David in my home in Northville, we went with her family to downtown Northville for dinner. All of the restaurants were super busy due to people coming to town to see Skeletons Are Alive! We had to wait for an hour, but when we finally were seated at Koji, we enjoyed a fine Japanese meal.
Deluxe Bento (Assorted tempura, gyoza, shumai, California roll, seaweed salad, and beef bulgogi) and miso soup
Marvelous Musicians
My friend John Bommarito recently hosted Steven Page on his podcast. Scroll down to view the video version.
Barenaked Ladies (BNL) is one of my favorite bands of the late 90s/early 2000s. Barb and I saw BNL at Pine Knob on August 16, 2019 and I saw Steven Page at City Winery in Washington DC on November 3, 2019. We were scheduled to see BNL in 2020 at Red Rocks in Colorado, but that show was postponed. Ed Robertson was on Cayamo 2009 but I made the mistake of not catching his set, which I later found out was great and included many BNL hits. My favorite BNL songs are "Shoebox," "Brian Wilson," and their cover of Bruce Cockburn's "Lovers in a Dangerous Time."
From Wikipedia: Barenaked Ladies is a Canadian rock band formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario. They began as the duo of Ed Robertson and Steven Page. The two went to school together since Robertson was in grade four (Page was a grade ahead) at Churchill Heights Public School but were not friends until they met each other at a Harvey's restaurant following a Peter Gabriel concert. Each was pleased to find that the other liked Gabriel; they began talking and found they had many of the same tastes. The two became friends and bonded further when they were both counsellors at Scarborough Music Camp located in McKellar, Ontario. They would play songs together, and Steve was impressed by Ed's ability to harmonize.
When Page had an extra ticket to a Bob Dylan concert at Exhibition Stadium, he asked Robertson to join him. Bored by the show, the two turned to amuse each other, pretending they were rock critics, inventing histories and comments about the Dylan band. They also made up various fictional band names, one of which was "Barenaked Ladies."
Brian Wilson
Shoebox
Lovers in a Dangerous Time
If I Had a Million Dollars
Jane
Steven Page - Live on Acoustic Alternatives 10-08-24
My Playlist
Sports Star
Aidan suffered a devastating injury on Sunday and will be out for the season. At the time, he was the front-runner for NFL Defensive Player of the Year. This could derail the Lions’ Super Bowl aspirations, but it might also inspire them to elevate their play to show their defensive leader what he means to the team. I wish for a full recovery for Aidan and for continued success for the Lions.
From Wikipedia: Aidan Joseph Bernardi Hutchinson (born August 9, 2000 in Plymouth, Michigan) is an American professional football defensive end for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). Hutchinson was a unanimous All-American for the Michigan Wolverines, and the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy in 2021. He was selected with the second overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft by the Detroit Lions, and named to the All-Rookie Team in 2022. Hutchinson was voted to his first Pro Bowl in 2023.
On October 13, 2024, against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 6, Hutchinson suffered a severe leg injury in the third quarter, fracturing his tibia and fibula. He underwent immediate surgery, with head coach Dan Campbell estimating a recovery timetable of "four to six months." Prior to the injury, Hutchinson had recorded a league-leading 7.5 sacks and 19 total tackles in five games.
Inspiration from Instagram
Hutch is much beloved by children and adults alike in Detroit, Ann Arbor, and all around the country and the NFL. I was deeply moved by these images from Instagram:
Aidan Hutchinson sets career-high with 4.5 sacks vs. Buccaneers
Picture Pun
After seeing what happened to Dorothy Gale, these folks are taking no chances.
