Wednesday Aftermath

Good morning, Stroock's Books people, and happy Thursday. 

Arrrr, just a bad day yesterday, mostly self-inflicted. It happens. But we don't feel good about it. We don't feel good about it at all. How about turning off the fire hose of news, eh? Also, a post-surgery thing? This was a Thursday downer mini-post. 

Jews-n-News: Israel is still heading for a hung Knesset. Ch14's poll is the outlier showing the Netanyahu bloc with 66 seats. But...most polls show Eisenkot's party gaining on Bibi's party. One supposes President Herzog would have to give Eisenkot the first crack at forming a government. Exit question: what if Ch14 is right?

Political note, national: the 'While Trump builds his ballroom....' ads write themselves. 

This blog endorses, without hesitation, independence referendums for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. 

What Will's Watching: The Thomas Crown affair, 1999. So they left off the 'e'. Piers Brosnan plays Thomas Crown and Rene Russo plays his antagonist, insurance investigator Catherine Banning. Dennis Leary is the cop on the case. This time the film opens with a guns-free art heist. We like it better than the bank heist in the original TTCA. The 1999 version has more or less the same plot, beats and turns as the 1968 version. Crown and Banning meet, pursue, fall in love. There are some excellent plot twists to distinguish this from the 1968 version. 

While Dennis Leary is not as interesting as the police detective as Paul Blake was, he's not bad either. Leary's detective Mike McCann  hits on Banning, and misses. But he's a sympathetic character with a troubled past (cop problems). He ultimately a good cop with a redemption arc.

This time TTCA takes place in New York City. This is the late 90s New York, turned around, cleaned up, and whimsical. The score, interesting and mature modern jazz, lends itself to a city on the make. This is another film one watches for time and place, for style. The late 90's were quite the time, the nation had not a care in the world. And that comes through here. 

Is the Brosnan version better than the McQueen version? Is it worse? We don't know. We can say Brosnan is his own version of the self assured business tycoon. Oh, and Faye Dunaway returns, this time as Crown's shrink, a very 90s affectation. Were we not entertained? We were. 3/4.

DOGE Report.

We advanced the plot. We can see the end of World War 1990: Thatcher's War. It's there. 

We tidied up the sub story. The tidying up will continue until the story is tidied up. 

Despite everything we had a pretty good day. 

Our editors at REDACTED Magazine refuse to respond to our emails. 

Will Gets Crowned

The procedure went just fine yesterday. We'll have results in a few weeks.

We really need to figure out how to stop getting so worked up about things [Meh, it was their screw up-Ed].

What Will's Watching...As ordered we took it easy yesterday. So we watched The Thomas Crowne Affair (1968) and (1999). We'll review the original today. TTCA is a love story about two good looking people wrapped around a bank heist. The 1968 version is a time capsule, 1968 - as experienced by grownups. There's no hippies here. No rock. The score is modern jazz. People dress up to go out. Men wear fedoras. Smoking is still cool.

Steve McQueen plays Crowne as a successful, self-assured, and stylish businessman. When Crowne takes his stolen two million bucks to Switzerland, the bank president is at first reluctant. 'It's all there,' Crowne assures him. When the president balks Crowne says, 'But you will do it.' And finally, 'Enjoy my money.'

Crowne flies gliders, plays polo and drive's dune buggies for fun. He places thousand dollar bets on golf shots out of boredom. 

Faye Dunaway is Vicki Anderson, a brilliant insurance investigator. Anderson is beautiful, stylish, curious, playful and every bit Crowne's match. She's been sent by the insurance company to bust Crowne and tells him so. How does Dunaway do that with her eyes? My word. 

After they meet at an art auction (of course) Crowne and Anderson go about Massachusetts being cool fabulous together.  

There's lots of great supporting performances here. Jack Weston (readers will recognize him) is great as the driver and the fink. 'I'm in' he says when Crowne offers him the job in the movie's first scene in a darkened hotel room. Paul Blake is detective Eddie Malone, at once resentful and intrigued by Vicki Anderson. Anderson likes Malone and even respects him and spends several scenes on his arm. Why in another world the two might even be a couple. To Malone's credit he never hits on Anderson. 

TTCA is a 'look at me!' film with lots of out of focus and split screen shots which some viewers may find annoying. We enjoyed them as a part of time and place. 

All these elements come together in a movie that shows us late-stage middle-brow cool. 4/4

Political note, general: we looked at RCP polls and we see a sea of blue. Here in NJ07, Rebecca Bennett has a five point lead on Tom Kean, which is unchanged from June.  We've seen this movie before, in 2018 when Dem challenger Tom Malinowski beat GOP incumbent Leonard Lance. The ingredients are mixed. Exit question, has the cake baked?  

Yes, we're feeling doomy. 

DOGE report.

We read over a few scenes. Nothing more. 

9/11 Week...Interrupted*

'Please stop yelling at me,' the schedular said.

'What the hell for?' we replied. 

Devotees will recall the battery of tests we've had this summer, colonoscopy, endoscopy, MRI, etc etc...We're supposed to get another test today. 

Honestly, yesterday did not start off well. The doctor's office called and asked a series of weird and increasingly annoying questions, many of which we felt were irrelevant.  'I don't know,' we often answered. They pressed. They pressed. 'Yes, I would say I could nap in the afternoon', we replied to one dumbass question. 

The call took ten minutes and left us in a foul mood. We were already cranky for, after all, we were getting ready for something we don't really want to do. 

An hour later, maybe, the scheduler called and said we had to reschedule. Would October 8th work? The anesthesiologist was worried about putting us under given all the blood pressure meds we take.

We explained that we have already been under anesthesia once this summer. 

Didn't matter, the anesthesiologist would need our last echocardiogram and visit notes from the cardiologist. 

This appointment had been scheduled for a couple of months now. Needless to say we let the schedular know our feelings on the matter, hence, 'Please stop yelling at me.' 

So we called the cardiologist, explained the situation, and they faxed over a note saying all was well. 

But that wasn't enough. 

The anesthesiologist needed the charts and visit notes. As it is the cardiologist's office is five minutes away so we drove over there, got the notes, and had them faxed over to the hospital. 

We waited.

It gets better. About an hour later billing called and wanted the copay before our appointment. We explained what had been happening the last few ours and told them, directly, that they would get no money from us until we had a time for our procedure. Billing hung up. 

At this point we were asking our Fellow North American to sign us up for MAID. 

An hour later scheduling called back. A different scheduler was on the line. We were not optimistic. But, we have an appointment for 9:30 this morning. Which we are leaving for now. 

Wish us luck. 

*By bureaucratic incompetence and mendacity. Fuckwits.   

Bright Blue on a Monday

Good morning, Stroock's Books, and happy Monday. 

Tonight, Dance Taxi begins in earnest. 

NFL notes.

What a football day in casa de Stroock! Mrs. Stroock's Eagles took care of business in a hard-fought game against the Redskins and...

How 'bout them Giants! The Giants haven't looks that good in years. They beat Dallas in prime time, two of the team's bugaboos. Their second biggest win since Tom Coughlin left. Ole Miss' Jackson Dart looked poised. The Giants rushed for 165 yards and dominated the second half. We haven't felt this good about the Giants in...a long time. We're actually getting...emotional.  There's a lot of work to do. But for now, enjoy the moment Giants. Enjoy the moment. God bless John Harbaugh.*

So far, we like Steeler ex-coach Mike Tomlin in his NFL analyst roll.  

9/11 Week....the next few days were weird. On Wednesday 9/12 the skies were just as clear and sunny as the day before. At 8:46 we were in a field hitting baseballs just as we were Tuesday morning. 

Most people were glued to the TV.  The internet was not yet a great way to get breaking news.  9/11 was the beginning of that news crawl across the bottom of your screen. Pundits at this point were still talking about tens of thousands of casualties. 

American airspace was closed for next 48 hours or so. The FAA reopened the airspace despite fears other hijackers might be waiting to strike. The first night ABC News thought the FAA new about a potential high jacking in progress or intel that a high jacking was in the offing. Nothing came of it, obviously. The airlines took it on the chin financially, congress bailed them out that fall. 

Powerline reports on the Fed's investigation of Somalia's finest, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Hey remember all those investigations, impeachments, state and federal prosecutions of Trump? Yeah, good times. The GOP has finally learned to fight back and play dirty. 

Political note, local: Rebbecca Bennett (Gabby Giffords' PAC, really) is still hammering Tom Kean on the gun issue. They're using imagery from Kean's own ads too. Clever. For a guy who checked himself into the nuthouse and disappeared for a couple of months, Kean's doing well. 

DOGE report.

The epilogue chapter will begin with Murphy in his cell reading newspaper headlines describing what's happened. 

*As we joked last February, 'Mr. Harbaugh, a John Mara is on the phone he says he sent you a signed check and you should just fill in whatever amount you think is fair.  

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 9/13/26

Good morning, Stroock's Book's reader(s), such as you are, and happy Sunday. 

We got in another Judaism yesterday. Fun fact: when Rosh Hoshana falls on shabbat, one does not blow the shofar. Why? Dunno. Our new synagogue had police, and cards on all chairs showing evacuation routs in case of an 'emergency', meaning Stabby shows up. We like the rabbi very much. Good sermon with which we agreed. The violence committed by Israelis in Judea and Samaria is unacceptable. The sooner Smotrich and Ben Gvir are out of government, the better. 

After services, we got bagels. You don't get more Jewy than that. 

It's 9/11 week here at Stroock's Books, so lets get to it. But first, we need to talk about the 90s, which ended that morning. 

During the 90s, not much happened. The greatest show of the 90s was Seinfeld, the post-modern show about nothing. See also Friends, about six young people in Manhattan who don't have to worry about war, depression, lock downs, etc etc. Which was apropos. 

Rock fragmented and began to die. Country music crossed over. By the mid 90s, 1970s retro fashion was all the rage and Disco suddenly didn't suck. Daytime talks shows became trash where people aired their family arguments on TV. The gays were out and about. Movies were shot in this weird gray/green/yellow color template.

The Cold War was over. The USSR was gone. No more nuclear angst. It was the end of history, they said. The stock market rose and rose and everyone knew who Alan Greenspan was, the Maestro, in Bob Woodward's parlance. In 1998 the country tore itself apart over the Clinton/Lewinsky affair. The 2000 election was between two Southern Baby Boomers who agreed the Feds should start a prescription drug program and argued over whose was better. 

Actually there'd been a lot of talk about Y2K and all the world's computer's melting when the clock turned from 1999 to 2000. True to the decade, nothing happened. 

People forget now, but there'd been a lot of worry about  end-of-the-world millennium doomsday terrorism throughout 1999. See the FBI's Project Megiddo.  When 2000 came and went without an attack, we figured terrorism was a thing of the past. Bin Laden had been trying to get our attention all decade, Khobar Towers, USS Cole, but the US just wasn't interested. 

America was fat, dumb, and happy. Our point is there wasn't a lot going on. 

Here's a clip from the Regis and Kelly Ripa show broadcast on 9/11. It's so appropriate to the age and moment. Regis and Kelly were a popular morning show. This was a light, airy and fun show mostly for moms who've gotten the kids off to school. Kelly Ripa was your standard pretty enough in a normal way host that women could relate too. Regis was actually a huge deal at the time. He hosted Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, which was a huge success when it started in 1999. After years of trash and smut on TV, Millionaire was a family friendly breath of fresh air, and Regis came across as a warm and outgoing host who wanted contestants to win. 

Remember, when the first plane hit most people figured it was an accident. Not until the second plane hit, did we know.  That's certainly the case here with Regis and Kelly.  In fact, when they saw live footage of the second building aflame, Regis speculated that the plane fuselage exploded in the first building and 'jumped' over to the second. Then one of the producers comes on screen. 'I guess it's being reported that a second plane hit the other tower.' The TV audience gasped, and the 90s ended. 

That's enough of that, for now. 

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 9/13/26.

It's time to write World War 1990: Thatcher's War's epilogue chapter. Anyone got any characters from Ireland they need to know about?

Saturday Updates

Good morning, Stroock's Books weekenders and Shonna Tova.

We got in a Judaism last night at our new synagogue and will get in another this morning for the new year. 

This being 5787 our synagogue needed armed police officers for security. We made sure to thank them. Thank you, they replied, as we're pretty sure they're making overtime on the gig. 

We managed not to lose a lot of the day watching 9/11 footage. This year the internet had a lot of videos of people jumping from the towers. Maybe it's just the algorithm. We dunno. We'd seen most of the videos before. Some we'd seen in the days after 9/11. Some we'd forgotten about. 

Those of you who know us know we mostly post nice things on FB and vent on Substack. Yesterday we vented on Substack, a bit. 

Let's get to it.

The things.

We've been posting a book every day on Substack, with no noticeable result. 

We worked all week on World War 1990: Thatcher's War, editing what we had and writing the final chapter. All that remains is the epilogue. World War 1990: Thatcher's War is 75,000 words. 

We worked a great deal on the Soviet Sub story. Something just doesn't feel right about armed townspeople climbing the conning tower onto the deck. We may change the sub to a 'fishing trawler'. We'll see. We still need one last story. No idea. Ideas welcome. 

The 5th nuke novel is 52,000 words. 

We opened World War 1990: The Managua Campaign for the first time since 27 May. Whoa. 

These novels are all coming together slowly and will continue to do so, until they come together all at once - in 2027.

That Day Again

It's always good to wake up the morning of 9/11 and see there's been no terrorist attack - yet. Give stabby time. 

Shonna Tova, Stroock's Books reader(s) and happy 5786. The Israelis rang in the new year with a bang. 

We're not doing this today. We're not gonna do it. We will probably make next week 9/11 week. 

In the meantime, let's wrap up 80s Week...for now. The 80s were a light decade, a fun decade. The 80s were also big. Big hair. Big clothes. Big bright colors. Big sounds too, like heavy metal and synth pop. The 80s were also a confident decade. An American decade. The 80s were a decade of Ronald Reagan telling us how great are, building up the military, and using it to pressure the Soviets. 'We win. They lose,' Reagan said of his plans for the Cold War. During the 1980s, America believed in itself again. 

What Will's Watching, The Pendragon Cycle. Okay, we finished episode-1. TPC is about Arthurian legend, steeped in the mists of late Roman Britain as the empire retreats and the barbarians advance. If there was an Arthur, and there probably wasn't, 5th century Britain is when he lived. TPC feels like an early medieval epic. The land is green and foggy. The musical score sounds like a cross between Braveheart and Dune - lutes, lyres and the like. The characters feel Anglo-Celtish. What we're saying is TPC is immersive. 

We like the characters but we're running into the Game of Thrones problem in which we can't keep the name's straight, 'Sir who, now?'  Also, the plot is moving slowly. 

Be that as it may, episode 1 was pretty good, 3/4.

Midterm convention notes: JD Vance is going to be president some day. Maybe 2028. We also liked RFK Jr's speech. It was tragic really, as he lambasted the Dems for turning their backs on the parties' roots; the party of FDR, JFK, Harry Truman, even Bill Clinton. Those guys liked America. 'We can do even better' the late Rush Limbaugh used to say of JFK's message. He was right. 

Political note, local: Gabby Gifford's PAC is slamming Tom Kean for votes against gun control laws and saying he's weak on crime.

DOGE report.

The Soviet sub story in the 5th nuke novel is advancing.

We have begun the Irish Ranger Wing's assault on Heath House. No it's not a smaller Irish version of the SAS's raid on Moscow. 

Alright, we gotta get out of here or we're going to lose the morning watching 9/11 clips.