Watching the 80s

Good morning, Stroock's Books professionals. 

We are sore, tired and grumpy after back-to-back days at the gym. We should probably be taking days off before workouts now, no? We are 53 after all. 

We were not mentally, emotionally, or spiritually prepared for the NFL last night. Nevertheless we watched some of the Seahawks/Patriots game. Who won? 

Political note, national: We caught a good chunk of the GOP midterm convention. Trump does ramble, doesn't he? After more than a decade since he rode the golden escalator, there's no getting the man to focus on the speech and the message. We were waiting for Hannity's interview with JD Vance, but Trump just wouldn't wrap things up. Trump did look tanned, rested and ready, though. We also enjoyed Scott Bessent's speech. We'll see if Trump can drag the GOP over the finish line one last time.

What Will's Watching: We started The Daily Wire's Pendragon Cycle yesterday. Here's director Jeremy Boreing's pitch. We're halfway through episode-1. It's a bit all over the place, but so far, so good. We are entertained. We'll say more tomorrow. 

Watching the 80s....ah 80s television. We miss it. Rather, we miss the feeling that there was something important airing at prime time and we'd enjoy it. In the New York metro area, viewers could choose from the three networks plus three local stations and PBS, which didn't really count. 

We'd watch Bugs Bunny after school, GI Joe, Transformers, Heathcliff (it was on) and Voltron - Lion Force. Later inte in the afternoon, the locals reran 70s era dramas like Little House and SWAT. 

Our father being an NBC News man, we were an NBC family. By the mid-80s, NBC positively dominated prime time TV. The Cosby Show was number-1. Mr. Cosby (as the cast called him in interviews) was his own cultural force. Mr. Cosby was America's dad. There followed Family Ties, billed as a show about 60s parents with 80s kids. These were still very much nuclear families, but in both shows mom had a white collar career. Cheers came on at 9. It was just a rejiggering of 70s stalwart Taxi, except at a bar. And at 9:30 came the zany and whacky Night Court. Night Court showed us post-70s New York. The city had already bottomed out in 1976 and remained there. This was a world of petty crime, public nuisances, prostitutes and transexuals. There was a lot of 80s angst in Night Court. This being the 80s, Night Court usually turned serious and ended with a moral to the story. 

NBC aired the gritty crime drama, Hill Street Blues from 1981 through 1987. Most other police dramas were about car chases and shoot-em ups. The procedural and moralistic Law and Order was a major break-through when it began in 1990, and a revelation. In 1987 NBC replaced Hill Street with the glitzy Los Angeles legal drama, LA Law. 

Other networks aired nighttime soap operas at 10 PM. Their actresses were sex symbols and fashion plates. Today no one under 40 knows who they are. Younger reader(s) have probably heard of Dallas. But Falcon Crest? Knots Landing? We don't think so. 

Back then cable meant HBO, Cinemax and the Movie Channel, ESPN, CNN - WGN Chicago and TBS Atlanta - for some reason. In the 80s we watched a lot of Cubs and Braves games. Our house got cable in 1982 and the first thing we watched was...MTV. 

We vividly remember the first videos we saw; Stray Cats, Spandau Ballet...For several years MTV was downright bad. It was like a radio show being simulcast, a VJs talking about and presenting videos. Eventually the record companies figured out music videos were a 4 minute advertisement for the album and spent money accordingly. Eventually MTV started the Top-20 Video Countdown and then 1800-Dial MTV. Wikipedia tells us that and we vividly recall Motley Crue's Home Sweet Home, and Def Leppard's Poor Some Sugar on Me, each held the top slot for months.

These were far more important to us than whatever was on the radio. Later MTV began Remote Control (do click over), an irreverent game show about....television. Stand up comedy was huge in the 80s (a golden age) so MTV launched The MTV Half Hour Comedy Hour.

The dramas were melodramatic. The comedies were at once light-hearted and serious. Women had big hair. Men had mustaches. Father had many mishaps. Mother ran the house. After two hours of sitcoms, dramas ran at 10. 

DOGE report.

We began the Heath House operation (needs a code name).

We also worked on the Soviet sub story. 

Vote the 80s

Good morning, Stroock's Books readers, and happy midweek. Rosh Hashanah looms, the Jewish new year. As we wrote the previous sentence we realized that Rosh Hashanah falls on....9/11. 

Do we have to do the 9/11 thing? We do? We sigh in resignation. But we'll remember our way...

We've always recalled 9/9 and 9/10, weirdly so we think. On Sunday, September 9th, Mrs. Stroock's Eagles played the Rams, and we were slightly annoyed at all her cheering and clapping. The Redskins got creamed and we went into a white-hot rage the next day because we weren't able to listen to Sports Talk 980's (Washington)* recounting of the loss. That night our own Giants opened their season in Denver. The next morning, after hitting baseballs in the field next door, we tuned the radio to 66 WFAN to hear the local sports guys talk about the game. The time was about ten after ten, and there was some news...

As for the Big Day, we recall going all sour grapes in 2021 after the Biden Regency's disastrous Afghanistan withdraw. Five years later we still have not taste for Toby Keith or Martina McBride. Ah, we said nothing on the 11th. Here we are on the 12th. And we did a piece for the Kremlin which we'll republish in a day or two. 

Vote the 80s....We now recall our perception of the 80s through nightly viewing of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokow (for which our father worked). Younger reader(s), the three network newscasts were a very big deal. So were their anchoes, our own Tom Brokow, CBS's Dan Rather, and ABC's Peter Jennings. CNN is around but it's just not that big a deal, and won't be until the Gulf War. 

It goes without saying that Ronald Reagan was the president. He probably defined the 80s more than any other public figure. The great issues of the day was tax cuts. Reagan got two massive tax cut/reform bills passed, one in 1981, another in 1986. Then as now illegal immigration was in the news. Congress passed amnesty in exchange for closing the border. Go ahead and laugh. AIDS grew in importance year on year. Crime was also a big issue, part of the nation's 70s hangover, though there was little the Feds could do. 

Of course there was the Cold War, the Soviets and nuclear arms reductions. Everyone wanted a arms reduction treaty. Reagan eventually delivered one in 1988. The nightly news would periodically air reports on the effect of a nuclear war.

What else? Apartheid in South Africa. Solidarity in Poland. Speaking of, his eminence Pope John Paul was a regular newsmaker. Homelessness was a big issue. So were failing farms. The Ethiopian famine was broadcast live into people's living rooms. 

Honestly, Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror video captures the spirt of the news at the time. But because it's the 80s, Man in the Mirror ends optimistically.

People can, and still do bash the 80s, but in 1988 Vice President Bush won 53.4 percent of the popular vote (one more point than Barry Soetoro in 2008) and 426 electoral votes. People took a look at the Reagan administration and said, 'We'll take more of that.'  

Political note, local: Tom Kean is running on 'protecting Medicare and Medicaid' and is bashing Rebecca Bennett for 'working with health insurers'. Whoa. 

DOGE report.

We made some tweaks to the Thatcher's War MS. We have a vision for the Heath House raid.

We worked on the Soviet sub nuke novel short story. 

*Back then one could listen to a radio broadcast on a dialup modem. But for some reason 980 wouldn't load on our desktop. 

Look Back the 80s

First day of school! Heh, the state mandated smartphone ban is in effect. 

Wow, what a summer. One trip to Indiana for Mrs. Stroock and the girls, a trip to LBI, and two trips to the Stroock Northern Strategic Direction. And the girls had a pretty full social calendar here at home. We did a lot of taxiing. 

This will probably be the last summer with all that travel. Next year await summer internships, jobs, etc etc. 

Well, we had forgotten about this, our latest article in Military Heritage Magazine: 'Nathanael Greene...General Nathanael Greene became a master of Southern Strategy during the American Revolution.' Seriously, we were paging through the latest issue of MH, which had arrived in the mail last week, and saw the article, 'What the what?' we asked. That article was originally a graduate term paper we wrote in 2004. Now there it is, in print. We urge reader(s) to click on over. Click it!

80's week...During the 80s, technology advanced in a lot of small incremental ways that added up to a big improvement in everyday life. Cable television arrived, as did VCRs. Video game systems were ubiquitous and became better as the decade progressed. The graphics and game play jump from Atari to Nintendo was enormous. Cars were built lighter, more fuel efficient, and safer. 

Overall, life progressed. 

But people in the 80s looked back too. A lot. Boomer nostalgia, by our recollection, began in 1983, with the 20th anniversary of JFK's assassination, and has never really stopped. Some of the biggest coming of age movies Gen-X remembers were about Boomer childhood. See for example Stand by Me, for the boys, Dirty Dancing for the girls. 

And the reruns...we watched a cornucopia of 70s TV in the 80s. Whare to start? Sitcoms like MASH, All in the Family, Good Times, What's Happening. We watched dramas like SWAT, Black Sheep Squadron, Eight is Enough, CHiPs. The elite soldiers in Megaforce wear tan uniforms. 

As the meme says, youngsters today may think of the 80's and see day-glo, pink and gray, and glitz, but we recall earthtones, wood paneling and shag carpet, especially during the decade's early years. Just watch Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). The kids still have one foot in the 70s, fashion wise. Those button-down shirts are in earth tones, and the hair is still floppy. Here's Def Leppard's Photograph (1983). The colors are subdued. The hair isn't big. Def Leppard's hair isn't big till Hysteria (1987). Here's Poor Some Sugar on Me (1988). Now there's some late stage 80's colors - and big hair. 

DOGE report.

We awoke knowing what we want to write today. Always a good thing. We're writing a plot point that helps establish the massive riots breaking out in Belfast and wraps up a plot arc. Huh, we've no idea what supposed to happen to Finn Fahey and his news crew. We wrote a scene where they come to a roadblock...but never finished it. 

Wither the 80s?

A rare miss for this blog yesterday. We had lots to do before leaving the Stroock Northern Strategic Direction, and is now normal, the drive home left us exhausted. 

And a late post today.

Happy Labor Day, Stroock's Books reader(s), you union lay-abouts, time servers and goldbricks. 

The womenfolk are going shopping. We'll be mowing the lawn. 

So it seems the Alliance for Deutschland has won a major victory in Saxony. After getting 44.6 percent of the vote, the AfD isn't far right. The AfD is the center. Don't get too excited. The establishment will never let them form a government. 

It's 80s week all week here at Stroock's Books in response to Ryan Reynolds horribly ignorant and Canadian take on the decade. We bet he pours syrup on his moose rips, eh? 

First let's define the decade's parameters. This blog believes the 80s begin on election night 1980. The 80's end in the summer of 1991. The end date is staked to music. Most people will say, ah, of course, Nirvana's Nevermind. But we're thinking of one-hit-wonder Jesus Jones' Right Here, Right Now. Listen to the lyrics, RHRN is the perfect capstone to the decade.  

We've asked online if those of us who remember the 80s are looking back at the decade through rose colored glasses. Everyone who responded said, 'No. Of course not. What kind of ridiculous question is that?' or some such. Still, we recall a lot of angst. 

Here's Billy Joel's 80's stanza from We Didn't Start the Fire (1989):  'Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal suicide, Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz, hypodermics on the shore [Yay, New Jersey!], China's under martial law, rock-and-roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore,' Which is spot-on. The man does not present a happy-go-lucky decade.

Everyone our age starts with the same worry, nuclear war, stoked by movies like War Games and The Day After. Nuclear war was a very common childhood fear, referenced in at least one Simpson's episode. A kid could reasonably look up at the night sky and wonder, are they going to push the button? But a kid could also worry about environmental gloom and doom; global warming, rainforest and ozone layer depletion, overpopulation. The Ethiopian Famine was the biggest international news story of 1984. AIDS was the covid of the time. 

The 80s saw plenty of moral panics, Heavy Metal being the most prominent and hilarious issue. Then as now plenty of people and organizations (see for example the Moral Majority) called for censorship. Televangelists (Jimmy Swaggert, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker) were all the rage. 

The over make-upped Tammy Faye is an extreme example of the 80's innate tackiness with big hair, shoulder pads and too much makeup for women. Girls used a lot of hair spray. A lot. We dated a few of them in the 80s. Don't touch the hair.  Men wore three-piece suits with white collars and slicked back their hair (Gorgon Gekko style). By 1985 the colors turned bright. We complained about 70s fashion in the 80s, but weren't we just as bad in our Hawaiian shirts and jams? Let's not talk about two-toned jeans.  By 1988 dayglo was everywhere -pinks and yellows and greens - uck.  Every high school was marred by black heavy metal T-shirts; Iron Maiden, Ozzie, Dio, Slayer, etc etc. 

And everything had to be cool. In The Wedding Singer, Adam Sandler captured the 80's zeitgeist with his rapping granny bit. Grannys rapped. Kids rapped. Dogs rapped. 

DOGE report. The Battle of Dublin-Howth aftermath chapter seems to have come together. The things are where and what they need to be, if a bit abrupt. It's September, World War 1990: Thatcher's War is 73,000 words, and this thing needs to be completed.

This week we'll write the raid on Heath House. We'll need some sort of concluding chapter after that. 

Saturday Updates

Aye, a faire Saturday morn to all Stroock's Books people. The sky is clear and sunny. The fog is lifted off the lake. We are tired after a day of hiking and boating. Fireworks tonight.

As we write this we're indulging in an late AM beer and Arturo Fuente while the womenfolk hit the outlets. Why not?

Mrs. Stroock and the girls spotted a huge porcupine last night. 

The actor Ryan Renolds (a Canadian FFS) said some very dumb, ill-informed things about the 80's. The great Mark Judge rises to the defense of the decade. Next week will be 80's week here at Stroock's Books. We recall a lot of angst. Exit question: are we looking at the 80's through rose colored glasses? Discuss in comments. 

Saw this on Substack, 'Most self-published authors sell fewer than 100 copies of their book, mainly because they started marketing it after they published it.' This sounds smart, at first. Clever even. That's the problem. What difference does it make if one markets a big before it's on the market or after? A Line Through the Desert sold a hundred copies - the first year. And we spent thousands marketing it. We could (and have) go on and on. 

The Things.

We slogged, my how we slogged, through World War 1990 Thatcher's War. The Howth chapter is better. Much better. Is it finished? Don't make us laugh. What's that principle where one gets 50% closer to a goal and then 50% closer and 50% closer yet again? We dunno. But there we are. [It's frustrating but you are making progress-Ed]. We are Ed. We are. 

Woman Are Crazy Week: Last Xanax

Good morning from the pastoral splendor of Great Barrington, Massachusetts. As we write this the lake is shrouded in fog. Temps should reach into the mid 80s today. The sky is clear. There will be boating. 

FB tells us that ten years ago we were here with friends, two neighborhood families. All the kids were BFFs. Ah....we named that motorboat after our grandmother's hometown, Waterproof. The naming didn't appease her spirit. She haunted Waterproof...from beyond the grave. Reminder: do not mess with southern women. Ever. Even though we're a blue belly, the blood of the South pulses through our veins. We should have known better. She seems okay with the pontoon boat, though. 

Driving outside of town, we saw a bear just lounging on the side of the road like he owned the place. We slowed down and rubbernecked. The girls snapped some pics. 

Political note, local: One cannot go on YouTube without seeing an ad for Congressman Tom Kean. And he talks about...healthcare. Kean has the advantage of incumbency, massive name recognition*, and more cash. His campaign strikes us as motivated and aggressive. We saw a poll that has Kean and challenger Rebecca Bennett tied at 45.** If they really are tied after Kean checked himself into the nuthouse and disappeared for a couple of months.... NJ07 should be a bellwether. This blog awaits events. 

One juror is holding out in the Lindsay Clancy case, they say. One lone man, we imagine. But who knows? It takes a strong man to resistance the persistent demands of a class of women unused to be told, 'No, you can't do that'. We shouldn't speculate [Yet you are -Ed]. We are, Ed. We are. 

World War 1990: Korea: This is one book. One. Ya hear me? [Oh please, Korea could easily be a trilogy Ed]. That's what we're afraid of.

DOGE report.

Before we hit the road yesterday, we continued our slog through the Battle of Howth. We are slogging well. 

We also read through our DEW Line story. The half we've written looked good. Plenty of setup, atmosphere, and character. But what happens?! We've no idea. A problem. 

*This website is using a picture of his dad, former governor Tom Kean.

**Okay, looks like they're normalizing a poll from last spring. That being said, Kean and the RNC and third-party groups are spending a lot of money in NJ07. They wouldn't being doing that unless they thought they could win. 

Women are Crazy Week: Fourth Xanax

A cloudy and wet morning here in New Jersey.  We awake tired and sore.

Today we decamp to the Berkshires for Labor Day. Saturday night there will be fireworks on the lake. We're all packed but there's some cleaning that must needs be done before we leave.

A date looms. We are in no way physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually prepared. Yes, we're speaking of 9 September, the first game of the 2026 NFL season. 

Speaking of not being prepared, Middle and Youngest Daughter return to school next week. They're fine. We're not. Dunno. 

Women are Crazy Week, 4th Xanax. We see Gloria Steinem has died. We'll say nothing about the woman or her legacy, and keep our quips to ourselves, because we ain't the left. Then we remembered the crazy succubi rallying for Lindsey and the hung jury of nine women and three men. Does one of the poor men on the jury get a 'just one of those days' pass were he to strangle his children? This blog suggests that we reach back, to the purer time of our forefathers and have them all burned at the stake, metaphorically. Also, reference. Reminder: feminism is ALWAYS bad for women. 

Israel Hayom, runs a story on security procedures and spending at American synagogues. Yep. Our own synagogue has armed security during the High Holy Days. Larger congregations have permanent armed security. The next great terrorist pogrom will be against the Diaspora. Stabby is persistent.

World War 1990: Korea: the end point of this war will be a massive US/Allied aerial and sea bombardment of China. At least three carrier battlegroups will be off the Chinese coast. 

Campaign notes, national: on the one hand Rasmussen (the gold standard) has the Dems up 5. On the other, Harvard/Harris has the GOP up 2. Bottom line, the race is anyone's. 

DOGE report. 

We worked on the Howth battle and some aftermath scenes all day yesterday. We'll work on it more today. 

It may be time for Ireland to enter the rest period. 

We've two short stories to finish in the 5th nuke novel, and one more, probably, to write. We shall ponder this on the trip up to the Stroock Northern Strategic Direction.