Gonna be a Messy Week

Good morning, reader(s) of Stroock's Books, whoever you are, and happy Tuesday. 

Our sojourn across the Hudson River went fine yesterday. After lunch we stopped by the cemetery to commune with relatives. 

Afterwords we fixed our lawnmower (the push bar assembly needed four new screws) and mowed the lawn in the most patriotic and observant way possible. 

We're back to posting on Substack. Meh, it's a habit, and good place to vent.

The New York Knicks are in the NBA finals. We've never been much of an NBA fan. We yawn appropriately. 

War of the ants...not much activity, though we spotted some little ones on the windowsill last night. 

Health update...so we have a colonoscopy/endoscopy on Thursday. Prep begins tomorrow. We're that age, obviously. But this test was triggered by some blood work results. We're trying not to be pissed off about this [Why would you be pissed off about this?-Ed] Dunno. Wish us luck. 

Via Hotair (where else?) we should eschew doomerism. Recall that the Gaza deal turned out to be pretty good. And Trump 45 walked way from bad deals with North Korea and China. This blog remains cautious and circumspect. 

DOGE report. 

We haven't heard back on either of our Pershing article queries and classifying them as busts. 

We are not ready to pick up World War 1990: Thatcher's War. We'll tweak The Managua Campaign. One more week? 

We'll also be working on our British Army of the Rhine story this week. 

Memorial Day Monday

Good morning, Stroock's Books congregants and Happy Memorial Day. If you don't hear The Longest Day theme in your head and see that upturned helmet on the beach in your mind's eye right now, well, there's something wrong.  

We barbequed last night, most patriotically so. 

We'll be making a sojourn across the dread Hudson River today. 

We see no new headlines on Iran negotiations this morning. This from Trump is good. This is also good and here's a late summary. 

We're reminded of the Gaza negotiations, in which Israel got just about everything it wanted and the only bitter pill was prisoner release, which is Israel's own damn fault. 

We find the above terms acceptable and a far cry from the doomer gloom we were reading on Saturday. No, these terms are not perfect, but they are good enough. We're in 'are you such a loser that you don't know you've won?' territory.

Question for our fellow hawks? Does the proposed bridge and powerplant campaign make any sense? We don't think so. What's left to bomb, exactly?

It seems Iran pushed Trump for a maximalist deal and Trump said 'your fired'. Now Trump is pushing the Iranians. Bismarck said that in any negotiation there's a horse and a rider. Right now, Trump's the rider. We're paying an extra dollar and a half for gas. There economy is shutdown. See 'leverage' in your diplomacy handbook. We remain circumspect, cautious even. 

That's a lot more then we meant to write on that. 

DOGE report. 

We began work on the BAOR chapter in the 5th nuke novel. The grognard is hard at work, gathering much needed info as only he can. He's pestering us this very moment; FB messenger keeps dinging. 

We also wrote the rough draft of a short personal piece we pitched to a Substack guy. 

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 5/24/26

Good rainy morning, Stroock's Books Christian readers, except you C of E types [Hey!-Ed], and happy Sunday. 

We had lots of rain yesterday and will have lots of rain today. Which is fine. 

We ordered Thai food last night. 

We followed negotiations and saw terms that we thought amounted to signing away victory. We also saw terms we can live with.  We awoke this morning expecting to see an Iran deal had been done. An Iran deal has not been done. This blog awaits events. 

We hope for success. In truth, we're kinda sick of the whole the war. The war, by which we mean the war that began on 10/7, has taken up a lot of mental and emotional space, understandably. 

This seems meh either way. 

One final thought on all this diplomatic rigamarole, Trump does enjoy a big show, doesn't he? 

Moving on....

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 5/24/26...

Still no reply to our two Pershing article queries [You expected to hear back on the weekend? -Ed]. You never know. 

We're gonna stop posting on Substack for a while. We're not getting anything out of it. 

So far, we've not thought of a way to break the World War 1990: Thatcher's War deadlock. 

World War 1990: The Managua Campaign, has about run out of steam, for now. 

We've a pretty good idea of what goes on at one of those DEW Line stations. Ten or 12 guys, as many as 40 during the summer construction and maintenance months, watching radar consoles and maintaining equipment. Okay, so in our story at CAM-1 Aux Site on Jenny Lind Island, what actually happens? 

We also had an idea for a story in which someone [Who?-Ed] is waiting by the radio [Where?-Ed] to hear the president address the nation. The president finally does so, it changes everything this person thinks about what's happening [Why?-Ed].  

Saturday Updates

Good morning, Stroock's Books weekenders and Happy Saturday. 

We got in a Judaism last night. Mrs. Stroock + Middle and Youngest Daughter led services. Oldest Daughter had a very important social engagement. 

It's gonna rain today, all day. Which is fine. 

Sigh...Memorial Day Weekend. This is always an awkward time for us, as we've spent much of our life memorializing American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. We've written about them all, Continentals, Billy Yanks (and Johnny Rebs), Doughboys, GIs...

The things.

A long week, a week in which we worried ourselves over affairs we can't control [You've been doing that since October 7th-Ed].

Our Pershing and the AEF article queries have borne no fruit, so far. 

We spent all week improving the Battle of Choluteca Gap chapter. The chapter is much better. World War 1990: The Managua Campaign is 52,000 words. 

We did some research on the DEW Line and CAM-1 station for the 5th nuke novel. CAM-1 is on Jenny Lind Island way up in the Canadian arctic. We chose it because Dangerous Waters jet skied to the island and actually visited CAM-1's automated replacement. Authorities were not pleased. Anyway, we've got a feel for the site. It's a bunch of guys in trailers operating electronics, but what actually happens? 

Baaaah....on a Friday

Good morning, Stroock's Books Kibbutzim and shabbat shalom. Also, Happy Shavuot, Chaig Semeach.

We hit the gym yesterday after having spent two days moving books around. This morning we are tired, sore and fatigued.

Memorial Day Weekend is here. Because the weather will be bad, we won't be taking the customary trip to the Stroock Northern Strategic Direction.

Middle Daughter's Civil War test is today. Last night we were not allowed to ask questions or help in any way.  

Substack is really starting to suck and we're very bored with it.

Huh, we've been talking up Pershing in Command a lot lately, and we actually moved...a copy. We've been toying with the idea of making a new cover. 

We sent out another AEF article query yesterday, this one across the pond. We've yet to hear back. That's two queries outstanding. We don't like it. We don't like it one bit. 

If these terms are true, then Trump is capitulating to Iran, that's just all there is to it. Those terms leaked last night and are being reported now by the Israeli press. Most other headlines this morning are of the 'negotiations continue' variety, some even talk of deadlock. We've no idea, but we approach the news with great fear and trepidation.

DOGE report.

Lots of slugging and slogging through the Battle of Somotillo. We've almost slugged and slogged just about as much as we can. The sit phase for World War 1990: the Managua Campaign is nearing. 

War...Lunch and Civil and Boxed

Good morning, reader(s) of Stroock's Books, and happy Thursday. 

We got some needed rain yesterday, a summer storm with plenty of wind and thunder. The storm broke the heatwave, and temps today will be in the 60s. 

Our library is reorganized, reboxed, and restocked. Two days lifting and carrying 30 + boxes of books was a heck of a workout. Related...This post from 2018 got some traffic yesterday, the beginning of our gym saga. 'Wish us luck, indeed'.

Related...Middle Daughter's Civil War test is tomorrow. We are not allowed to help or even mention the war in any way. We've offered Middle daughter $20 to make reference to 'The War Between the States' on the written part of test. Of course, our late grandmother, whom reader(s) of this blog will know well, often made reference to 'The War of Northern Aggression'.

So Itamar Ben Gvir, one of Netanyahu's coalition ministers, mocked and taunted the latest Gaza flotilla detainees. We actually don't care that he did so. But Ben Gvir's actions have caused a diplomatic kerfuffle with lots of Euros expressing outrage, yada-yada-yada. Honestly, the man's a cancer (as is Smotrich) and the sooner he's out of government, the better. We may endorse the Opposition Bloc for that reason alone. 

To that end, the Israeli Knesset is about to dissolve. The latest polls show a hung parliament with neither bloc gaining a majority and as usual, Netanyahu's Likud winning the most seats. Honestly, the best outcome would be a Netanyahu/Bennett coalition. This would push the government toward the center a bit and force Ben Gvir and Smotrich out. But would Bennett agree?*

As far as Iran goes, this blog believes Trump is negotiating like a patient man who knows he has all the advantages.  

Twitchy reports on a generational war, triggered by Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary laments $28 lunches. Quite right Click on over to be amused by the kid's bewilderment. Seriously, kids. You shouldn't be ordering out lunch every day, anyway.  When we were a senate intern in the summer of '95, we'd get a bagel and cream cheese, chips, and a Diet Coke - $2.25. That's still less than ten bucks or quid in today's money. Back in our Northern Virginia office days, dining out for lunch was a Friday treat. Usually we'd hit a chicken joint called Ranch-1, about which no more will be said. 

DOGE report.

We slug on, writing things and making improvements. 

*Only a fool enters into a coalition agreement with Bibi. 

Will is Boxed

Another balmy morning, another scorcher here in New Jersey. 

We remain bored with Substack and indeed, posting is down. Our Substack don't seem to be growing or selling books. We are miffed. 

So...those five Indiana state senators last week, Senator Bill Cassidy Saturday, Representative Thomas Massie (so much for the GOP turning against Israel) last night, enemies of Trump within the GOP have gone down in flames. Senator John Cornyn is going down next. Good. The GOP is a Trump party. It's a MAGA Party. As we wrote a few years ago. 

This from Powerline about possible GOP presidential matchups in two years is interesting. Vance has faded some while Rubio has risen some. This blog supports Ron Desantis (rumored to be Trump's next AG). Desantis for us. But taking stock - Vance, Rubio, Desantis - is an embarrassment of riches, no?

Devotees will recall our basement was flooded during Hurricane Irene in 2021. Our library has been boxed up ever since. Yesterday we began the process of unboxing the books, organizing the books, and reboxing them. This is preparatory to our anticipated writing of magazine articles about the AEF and the American Revolution. 

Now we've got boxes with labels like 'WWII-Pacific' and 'Saddam + Arabs'. We did not realize we had so many Civil War books, and what's with all the books about the Wehrmacht? The job is about 3/4 done. We'll finish today. Boy, are we sore. [Why not get some new book cases? When we put together this glorious library...

Those book cases were forty bucks (or quid if that helps you) a pop.  Now they're like, a hundred and we'd need, by our calculations, nine of them. 

We've yet to hear back about our AEF overview article query. We should send out another query today. 

Huh, we forgot about this quickie list article we wrote about the AEF. That's eight articles. Note we are sitting on, like, half a dozen unpublished pieces.

Related...Hmmmm should we have our design people do a new cover for Pershing in Command? We did that one ourselves.

DOGE report.

More slogging through the Battle of Choluteca Gap. Each day we make the chapter better.