Every global competition is a big deal for Taiwan, an island democracy forever facing existential crises. And so it was that Taiwan’s ability to put forward a national team for the 2026 World Baseball Classic meant more than just playing a game. The tournament was, for Taiwan, bigger than merely winning and losing. Each runner on Taiwan’s national team who made his way to homebase was playing against a global political order that would rather see the island democracy and its 23 million people vanish into irrelevance. Just being on the field is already a achievement, but making a good showing while up at bat is an astounding success. On such an uneven field it might seem easier to leave the game and let the ball fall where it will, accepting whatever the umpire of empire decides. But that’s not playing to win, and if the history of baseball says anything, Taiwan has always been in the game to win. Sure, some could scoff that this is “reading too much” into what is for all the nati...
The first and second rules of Fight Club ought to be applied to having knee replacement surgery: “You DO NOT talk about knee replacement surgery. With anybody .” Failure to follow the rules will result in confusion. Dangerous, tremendous confusion . That is especially true if you are an American expat living in Taiwan with contacts in both nations who have undergone the surgical procedure and are eager to talk about it. Add to that the ubiquity of YouTube videos from therapists and patients alike, and you have a child’s recipe for muddle pies. You see … The adventure that is a full knee replacement begins many years before the surgery itself. It starts with the grudging admission that a knee, or both knees, have completely lost their youthful vigor. I’m talking about that time when walking a mere 4,000 steps — what was once a friendly half-hour stroll — becomes a two-hour trudge through discomfort. The feet get blamed, and they step forward to point a finger — er, a toe — ...