Solon Economou

Book Review: "The Eagle Has Two Faces" by Alexander Billinis

Author Alexander Billinis's subtitle to his book is, "Journeys through Byzantine Europe," which he modestly describes as a "travelogue."  Billinis, an international banker, traveler, and writer-journalist, has essentially written a romance with the Balkans. His love of the diverse Balkan peoples and of their history is evident with every paragraph.

The "Eagle" of his title is the two-headed Byzantine eagle, reflecting an empire, with Constantinople as its capital, that  looked eastward to Asia Minor and westward to the Balkans and Europe. The Byzantine Empire was the most advanced in the world, spreading knowledge and culture and prosperity until 1453, when Constantinople was ravaged by the Ottoman Turks and the whole empire thrown into its own dark ages for 500 cruel years.

It was not until the early 20th Century that the last of these lands, including Northern Greece, where my own parents were born, was freed from Ottoman rule. This left what are now the Balkan states 500 years behind the progress of the rest of Europe. Billinis's travels take him and his wife through Greece and Bulgaria, Romania, Thrace, the region of Macedonia, to Serbia, the northern region of which fell under the Austro-Hungarian Empire rather than the Ottoman. Billinis's father is from Hydra, an island near Athens, and his wife from northern Serbia. Their combined knowledge and impressions of the region give the book its unique flavor.

The book is liberally sprinkled with photographs reflecting the rich, different architectures of the various cultures that live in and have passed through the region. I've occasionally referred to the Balkans as "the dark region" of Europe because that area has been so eclipsed by Ottoman oppression that very little is known about its history and its own Christian empires compared with the rest of Europe. Billinis's book sheds light on the darkness and brings the area and its people to life.

The book even addresses the Pontian Greeks of Russia and Greek-speaking enclaves that still exist in Italy.

For me, the book has been a Balkan primer and an enchanting read. It is essential reading if you want to round out your European history with 150 concise, but full, pages about Europe's least known region written by one who has actually traveled its paths and tipped a glass of tsipouro with its people.

Welcoming Home a Wounded Warrior--CORRECTION--MAY 14

On May 14 Cape Cod Veterans is welcoming home a wounded warrior by hosting "A Day for Vincent Mannion-Brodeur" from 1-5pm at the Cape Cod Irish Village, 822 Route 28, in South Yarmouth.

This is a star-studded music event with popular Irish music groups, "Live Irish Juke Box," and special guests. All funds raised will go for needed renovations for a severely wounded veteran. Donation is just $10.

He did his part. You can help do yours. You don't have to be Irish and you don't have to be military. Come have a Guinness or two. It'll be a great time for a great cause.

More more info, visit www.capecodveterans.org or call 508-240-7342. Donations may also be mailed to CCVO, PO Box 81, Dennisport MA 02639.

Help the kids! March 9 Ma Otis Pantry Foodraiser

March 9 is the day for the upcoming Ma Otis Pantry Foodraiser, Wednesday, 5 to 7 pm, at The Cape Codder Resort in Hyannis. This important organization helps provide food for children of our military here on the Cape. The effects of our economy coupled with multiple troop deployments are hurting the kids, and this is your opportunity to help..

Just show up, and bring a check or some items from the "favored items" list on the poster below. Drop by and have a libation with some one you like or even some one you don't like. It doesn't matter. Help out the kids. I hope to see you there. And the kids thank you.

If you are unable to attend, contributions are greatly appreciated and can be mailed to:

Ma Otis Pantry

PO Box 2288

Teaticket MA 02536

You can also go online at www.maotispantry.org.

The secret, sordid, sex lives of squid. Yes, squid!

So you think your neighbors are kinky? They've got nothing on squid. Cape Cod author Wendy Williams reveals this and more in her new book, KRAKEN: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid.

Here's lookin' at you, kid!

Wendy is well known to us as the co-author, along with Bob Whitcomb, editorial-page editor of The Providence Journal, of the critically acclaimed CAPE WIND: Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics, and the Battle for Our Energy Future on Nantucket Sound. 

When Wendy told me about a year ago that she was working on a book about squid, I wondered how much was there to know? The two things I knew about squid was that you eat the little ones, the calamari, and you avoid the big ones. The big ones are those you see in science-fiction movies, the ones that wrap their suckered tentacles around you and drag you screaming off the boat to be devoured alive. In fact, there are big ones which are quite dangerous and have been reported to have attacked sailors. And there are little ones, and all sizes in between, all with different life styles and, yes, weird and sometimes violent sex lives.

True to her book subtitle, Wendy's disclosures are curious, exciting, and slightly disturbing.

Sex lives. One species of squid actually rips the body of the female with his beak to deposit his spermataphores. And she doesn't seem to mind. Another one actually breaks off one of its own tentacles, the tip of which holds a "handful" of spermataphores, which then swims though the water to impregnate the female. I don't think this "macro" version of the "micro" sperm event in humans is lost on scientists. Especially since, evolutionarily, humans and squid seem to share a common ancestor. Now that's scary. Another species is theorized, but not yet observed, to swim around with a giant--well, I won't get into that. But I think that I'd prefer to run into the one with the huge suckered tentacles.

Underwater TV sets. Squid, like many other creatures which get into the deeper, dark waters, are able to bioluminesce--to generate light with their bodies. They are veritable underwater color TV sets. Different layers of the squid's body and different molecules within those layers create different colors. This amazing color display may be used to attract other squid, to frighten or confuse predators, or for some other reason known only to the squid's nervous system. The variety of colors and patterns generated is mind-boggling and is an area of intense study, since the secrets of the squid may help camouflage our soldiers on the battlefield.

Brains. The squid brain structure is unlike ours or that of most creatures. It is analogous to our newly appreciated distributed, or shared, computing. Squid have been doing it for millions of years. Only about 40 percent of the squid's brains resides in its central nervous system. The other 60 percent is distributed throughout its arms and tentacles. This gives the tentacles, when severed, the ability to "think" and operate on their own, at least for a limited time. They will continue to do what they were doing. Therefore, when you get wrapped in those giant suckered tentacles and you, like your favorite squid-fighting movie hero, manage to chop off the tentacle with your machete, don't plan to go anywhere real soon. That tentacle could continue to kill you. It has its own brain.

Wendy did not get her research material just from "book-larnin.'" She spent time with research scientists and went out on research vessels, including one in Monterey Bay that was pulling up squid by the dozens and depositing them on a Medusa-like writhing deck, someplace I probably wouldn't have gone without a Tommy gun and a machete. The book contains a series of interesting photos that show the difference between a squid, octopus, and a cuttlefish, the latter with which most of us are unfamiliar.

This is a brilliantly written book, easy to read, sprinkled throughout with humor and wit. You won't be able to put it down.

Where have all the SIDEMEN gone?

SIDEMEN: Members of a band or orchestra, especially of a jazz or swing orchestra.

They're still here; we just don't see as much of them as we did before low-priced DJs came on the scene.

Many of us on Cape Cod have danced to our own well-known group of sidemen, the John Salerno Big Band, the Cape's famous seventeen-piece swing orchestra (www.johnsalernomusic.com). It was featured for years at the Coonamesset Inn and was often heard at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport at special occasions and national fundraisers.

John's orchestra, which has played from New York to New Hampshire, performed at many star venues, including opening night at the Wang Center in Boston for the first ever collaboration of the Bolshoi, Kirov and Boston Ballet production of Swan Lake.

John started his orchestra around 1980, as swing enjoyed a resurgence. Young Americans discovered this "new" music for the first time, and older Americans rediscovered it. John's was the premiere regional swing band on the Cape through the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. Gigs began to wane around 2005 as inexpensive DJs came on the scene. Some people were willing to settle for canned rather than live music actually played by real musicians.

This story is being repeated across the country and has been reflected beautifully in Michael Hassell's "SIDEMEN: Chronicle of a Never-Ending Dance Band." Michael (www.michaelhassellmusic.com) is the pianist and arranger for the Sound Of Swing, the premiere regional swing band in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, where I lived for 25 years before returning to New England. Michael himself is a musical product of our region, as he graduated from and taught at the world-famous Berklee College of Music in Boston.

The Sound Of Swing was started in the late 70s and has endured for 33 years. The band has played from Washington, D.C. to Cape Hatteras, in many of the same venues as the resurgent Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Jimmy Dorsey "ghost" bands. At one time the Sound Of Swing featured four dance bands playing gigs at the same time, in addition to a number of small combos. Over 150 sidemen have played with the band through the years. Mike Hassell has been pianist and arranger from its inception.

Now the gigs are winding down there as they are here, but Michael has captured the regional big band experience in his book filled with anecdotes about the sidemen and jazz and swing greats, humor, conflict, elation and photographs (even Bill Clinton is shown blowing his sax). But especially it is filled with love for swing music. Written as a regional chronicle, the book has taken off in sales in over 15 states and still climbing, as it is the story of all regional swing bands in America, with different names and different places.

As Big Band trumpeter "Bubber" Miley reportedly said, "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing."

SIDEMEN is available from www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com.

Good neighbor is there for veterans

   In this photo taken at the AMVETS Veterans Day fundraiser concert at O'Shea's Olde Inn in West Dennis, Adjutant Richie Riehle poses with Nauset Disposal's Jenn Bayuk and members of the "Curb Hunger" team.  

This good neighbor is Nauset Disposal of Orleans, which organized a hugely successful food collection effort for the Ma Otis Pantry to help local veterans and their families in the annual "Curb Hunger" drive.  Working with Cape Cod AMVETS Post 333 Adjutant Richie Riehle and Past Post Commander Richie Sayers, Jenn Bayuk and Shawn DeLude of Nauset Disposal spearheaded a unique drive to collect food--at curbside. 

In their first drive in October and the second one ending today, they asked their 3,000 customers from Wellfleet to Hyannis to put non-perishable food items curbside on their regular day of pick-up.  In addition, food delivery drop-off points were designated at numerous Cape Cod businesses that volunteered their services  The October drive collected over 300 pounds of food, and the current drive has topped 1,000 pounds.  Nauset Disposal also added $450 in cash to help the AMVETS buy turkeys for delivery for Thanksgiving to families of deployed troops and to Coast Guard families. 

The AMVETS, in addition to their annual Veterans Day memorial service at Merrill Park in West Dennis, this year dedicated the American Veterans Memorial Park at Packet Landing in South Yarmouth.  The wreath-laying honor was given to Sergeant Kevin Doherty, an Army Ranger just back from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to a Gold Star family member.

The AMVETS credo is "veterans helping veterans."  The AMVETS received valuable help from VFW Post 10274 and a host of Cape Cod businesses, from mom-and-pop organizations to huge nation-wide chain stores, all too numerous to list.  When it comes to its veterans, Cape Cod cares.

Fifty-nine in '84: The greatest pitcher of all time

As the current professional baseball season is about to start, as the players for the famous Cape Cod League are finishing their school year, and as the old geezers of the Cape Old-Timers Softball League (of which I was one) shake off their winter arthritic aches and pains, a fascinating baseball book has just hit the bookstores.

Ed Achorn's Fifty-nine in '84 tells the story of the greatest pitcher of all time, Charlie "Old Hoss" Radbourn of the Providence Grays, who won a phenomenal 59 games in 1884, when baseball was a grueling sport, much different from what it is today.

The Providence Grays were one of the top two teams in the National League, the other being the Boston Red Stockings, the teams engaging in a serious rivalry much like the Red Sox and Yankees rivalry of today. There were no relief pitchers in those days, and each team may have had two pitchers on whom they could rely, sometimes using them in two, three, or four consecutive games. They played in the cold, in the rain (unless the ballpark surface got flooded out), and through injury. And without gloves or protective headgear.

"Old Hoss" Radbourn's personal goal that year was to pitch and win enough games to give Providence the National League pennant. And he succeeded, winning 59 games in one season, a record that hasn't been broken since and never will be.

Split fingers and torn rotator cuffs were just the cost of playing ball. There were no team doctors, whirlpools, or sympathy from the management. If a player couldn't play anymore, he was released with no benefits and no pension.  Additionally, the players and umpires were in real, constant danger of being physically beaten by fans.

Radbourn played hard, drank hard (a quart a day), took up with a beautiful woman of dubious virtue, and died young with a good-looking corpse at age 43. Sort of the American Dream. Except that he died of syphilis.

Achorn, a lifelong baseball aficionado and deputy editorial pages editor of the  Providence Journal, evokes the Providence of the 1880s perfectly, from the rough and tumble hard-drinking baseball players to the easy women who idolized them.  His research is meticulous, and he brings early baseball to life in the pages of his book.  In fact, my rotator cuff was aching every time I turned a page.

Fifty-nine in '84 is a stirring, enjoyable read that I couldn't put down. If you like baseball, you'll love this book. It's available at all bookstores and from Amazon.com.

AMVETS raise the roof for Veterans Day

"Veterans Helping Veterans"

The crew from Healy Brothers Construction donated labor and expertise.

Cape Cod AMVETS Post 333 has literally raised the roof for Veterans Day.  And added one more chapter to the AMVETS motto, "Veterans Helping Veterans."

Three weeks ago Post 333 was contacted by the VA center in Hyannis regarding a Gulf War disabled vet in need of assistance.  The Air Force vet had lost her husband and has a teenage girl.  She was diagnosed with cancer, lost her jobs, and almost lost her house.  After long and painful treatment, the cancer is in remission.

But her roof and kitchen ceiling were another story.  A group from AMVETS went over to inspect the "leak" and discovered the entire roof needed replacement, and fast.  Water was pouring in, and heat was pouring out.  The AMVETS temporarily covered the roof with a tarp and put the call out to get the job done by Veterans Day.  The new roof was installed on Monday, November 9, two days ahead of time.

This was a true community effort involving AMVETS, local businesses and organizations, and individual Cape Codders.  The labor and expertise were donated by Healy Brothers Construction, the roof shingles by Mid-Cape Home Centers, and the disposal container by Nauset Disposal.  Volunteers too numerous to mention will do the ceiling, the floors, and related work.

The vet is now attending Nursing School at Cape Cod Community College hoping to give back to those in need.  And living in a dry, warm house.

Veterans Day services:

• Cape Cod AMVETS Post 333 will hold a Veterans Day service at 11am on Wednesday, November 11, at Merrill Park on Route 28 in West Dennis. 
• A Veterans Day service will be held at 10am on Wednesday, November 11, at Saint Mary's Episcopal Church on Route 6A in Barnstable. It will include a color guard and patriotic music.  Featured speaker will be Yarmouth Police LT Steve Xiarhos, father of our fallen AMVET brother, Marine CPL Nick Xiarhos.

All are invited to attend these services or any of the other Veterans Day services being held on Cape Cod to honor our vets.  Remember, all gave some, some gave all.

Cape's Tanionos presents Agganis Award to Orioles' Markakis

John Tanionos of East Sandwich recenty traveled to Baltimore to present the prestigious  2009 Harry Agganis Award to Baltimore Orioles star outfielder Nick Markakis.  Markakis has been called the face of the Orioles franchise and was honored with his very own shirt this season called, "Nick the Stick, Camden's Finest."

Tanionos, National Athletic Awards Chairman for the American Hellenic National Progressive Association (AHEPA) and past president of the Cape Cod AHEPA chapter, presented the plaque at Camden Yards.

Left: The Cape's John Tanionos presents the Agganis Award to Orioles slugger Nick Markakis. Right: Nick "The Stick" Markakis in action.

Agganis, one of the greatest athletes of his generation, is remembered as an All-American quarterback for Boston University and a slugging first baseman for the Red Sox, batting cleanup after baseball's greatest hitter, Ted Williams.  Agganis was also scheduled to sign on as quarterback with the Cleveland Browns or Baltimore Colts for the fall of 1955.  He was batting .313 for the Sox when he suddenly died of a pulmonary embolism while being treated for pneumonia.  The Harry Agganis Hellenic Athlete Award was established in his honor.

Tanionos himself, as a teenager, played in several Harry Agganis Basketball Tournaments and said,  "Never beyond my wildest dreams did I ever think I would one day present the Harry Agganis Hellenic Athlete Award to a professional athlete."

Markakis, now in his fourth year with the Orioles, has a career batting average of .299.  A right fielder, he has recently established the Right Side Foundation to help improve the lives of distressed children, whether they are abused, hungry, abandoned, grieving or lonely.

Sheriff keeps it clean for Shining Sea Bikeway

   Joe Doud pauses on the path as an inmate works at cleaning filth off the wall.

As Cape Cod citizens and dignitaries gather on July 2 for the Shining Sea Bikeway extension dedication ceremonies in Falmouth, it won't be evident what the Sheriff's department has been doing to prepare for the celebration.  And that's the way Sheriff Jim Cummings wants it. 

Political speeches at the event notwithstanding, Cummings is making sure attendees have a "clean" forum by cleaning up graffiti and other offensive or distracting sights.

Joe Doud, 74, an East Falmouth resident and frequent user of the town's Shining Sea Bikeway, pauses for a moment (above) near the conclusion of his three-mile walk.  Doud strolls the popular trail three or four times a week. 

Behind him a Barnstable County inmate, assigned to a supervised labor crew and dispatched by Cummings, is hard at work removing graffiti that was scrawled on a bikeway wall.  Unremoved, the graffiti would have surely put a damper on the upcoming dedication ceremonies.