Operation AXIOM
Happy Groundhog Day, treasured readers! Punxsutawney Phil prognosticated six more weeks of winter this morn, though the "more" part is risible in the midst of this, the worst winter ever. Temperatures have been in the forties more often than they've been in the twenties, & in the fifties at least twice every fortnight. This winter is a disgrace. Let us hope that the Inner Circle aren't just blow smoke, because these next six weeks are the last chance we have for the ill-fated Winter of 2011-12.

All I ask is everything in its season. I don't ask for cool summers, I ask only that Summer's heat be confined to the period of May through September. I ask not for winter is July, I ask only for winter in its season. Come on, Aeolus, let's not make a liar out of Phil!

Also on the theme of better late than never...

The Victors: 2012 Sugar Bowl Champions
(№ 13) Michigan 23-20 Virginia Tech. (№ 11) (O.T.)
11-2, Big Ten 6-2

My father & I watched the Sugar Bowl at a family friend's house, because that evening(3 January 2012) my mother was hosting her monthly bunco game at our home. Our host, Bob, a casual football fan, was unfamiliar with the, shall we say, unconventional play of the valiant Wolverines. I do not deny that watching the valiant Wolverines under the leadership of junior quarterback Denard "Shoelace" Robinson is often frustrating, sometimes infuriating, & very much unlike watching almost any other football squad. My father in particular railed against Shoelace's "fundamentally unsound" play, continuing at such length & with such venom that at last I had had enough & struck back viciously, reminding him of the habitual futility in which his alma mater, Purdue, labors on the gridiron, & pointing out the utter unfairness of his comparing the valiant Wolverines to the New England Patriots, an elite squad even amongst the other teams at the pinnacle of American football, the N.F.L. But as I reminded my father & instructed Bob, the paramount thing to keep in mind is that Shoelace & the boys get the job done far more often than not. The valiant Wolverines might not be pretty, but they are winners, this year prevailing in eleven out of thirteen contests (a feat unequaled anywhere in the annals of ill-starred Boilermaker football). If fans can never be sure what to expect from Michigan, neither can the Maize & Blue's opponents. There is much to be said for aesthetics, much to be said for conforming to the traditional view of fundamentally sound football, but at the end of the day we are Americans, & as Americans we embrace General MacArthur's words about war, applying them to virtually all circumstances: "there is no substitute for victory." The valiant Wolverines played inconsistently, & downright poorly for long stretches of the game against the epithetless Hokies, but well enough to thwart Virginia Tech. time & again. Shoelace was at his improvisational best when the valiant Wolverines needed points, showing the signature flair of making something from nothing that has endeared him to every Michigan man. In the end, special teams play was the margin of victory, something that would have been unimaginable under Coach Rodriguez, who neglected the specials teams as severely as he did the defense. The Sugar Bowl might have been disappointing to anyone who thought Brady Hoke's arrival would mark an immediately return to the days of yore, to "three yards & a cloud of dust," but it was the perfect send-off for the 2011 squad of the valiant Wolverines. Well done, men! "The team, the team, the team."

In the final poll, released after the appallingly dull "B.C.S. Bowl," Michigan was № 12, Virginia Tech № 21. (As always, we here at The Secret Base adhere to the Associated Press poll, even if the Coaches' Poll rates the valiant Wolverines more highly.) Eleven wins, a B.C.S. bowl, a bowl victory, &, best of all, a reunified Maize & Blue faithful. "This is Michigan," indeed.

Go Blue!

The Queue
Recently
Hergé, The Adventures of Tintin In the Land of the Soviets & Cigars of the Pharaoh
Stephen Weiner, Jason Hall, & Victoria Blake, illustrated by Mike Mignola, et al., Hellboy: The Companion
Hergé, The Adventures of Tintin: The Calculus Affair, The Red Sea Sharks, & Tintin in Tibet

Currently
Henry Mazzeo, ed., & Edward Gorey, illustrator, Hauntings: Tales of the Supernatural
Hergé, The Adventures of Tintin: The Castafiore Emerald, Flight 714, & Tintin and the Picaros

Presently
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes
H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines
David Ignatius, Body of Lies
Len Deighton, City of Gold

The Rebel Black Dot Song of Groundhog Day
Reel Big Fish, "'Til I Hit the Ground" from Monkeys For Nothin' and the Chimps For Free (T.L.A.M.)