Saturday Updates

Good morning, Stroock's Books weekenders. We are back from the beach and boy are we tired. It's good to be home. We slept in this morning.

We'll be home for a week and a day, and then it's up to the Stroock Northern Strategic Direction for a couple of weeks, where we will sojourn in the pastoral splendor of the Berkshires. 

LBI 2026, a review...We liked our beach front condo very much. Second floor, with floor to ceiling windows. We had a heck of a view. The baths were fine, as were the beds and furniture. We were quite comfortable. The complex pool was more than adequate. The sound of the waves was a constant companion. 

As usual the Stroock family hit the beach during the 9:30-10:00 interval. We'd spend about three hours there before returning to the condo for lunch. For most of the week the water was cold. The waves were nice. The air was warm but not hot. Temperatures never exceeded the low 80s.

We dined out once but ordered in every other night.

After dinner most nights we'd drive over to bayside and watch the boats pass (see for example The Black Pearl) and the sunset. The girls took numerous pictures for their various social media accounts. 

Before times we'd spend a few hours at the pool. But not anymore. The girls have outgrown it. Which leads us to our next point. As previously mentioned, the Stroock family is seemingly outgrowing LBI. We've been there 8 times since 2020. And devotees will recall the Stroock family's been going to LBI since the late 70s. Maybe it's time to do something else for a few years?*

Overall, we'd rate this beach trip a success. 

On a personal note we got a few pics of ourselves in a bathing suit. In truth, we were a bit disappointed. Look, we're 53. Age and gravity are taking their toll. Our midsection looks like a parenthesis (. But the upper body and biceps are looking real good. We were a lot chunkier a decade ago, with the build of an offensive lineman - a lot of gut. 25 years ago we thought we'd be big and fat and weigh 300 pounds by now. We are not big and fat and are displacing about 245 these days. To put it another way, we look damn good for 53.  

So begins the 3rd quarter of the Stroock summer. 

The Things.

There's not much. 

But we are slated to write another short story for a compellation. Hastings: But King Harold takes one step to the right and the arrow misses him. 

*In 2018 and 2019 we skipped LBI entirely and went to Europe instead. There's talk...

LBI, the Last Day

Happy Friday, people of Stroock's Books, shabbat shalom. And happy Pine Tar Day to those that celebrate. 

We'll be heading home this evening, a Stroock tradition dating back three or four summers. Some years ago, Mrs. Stroock asked, 'Do we want to leave Friday night?' No, of course not, what kind of ridiculous question is that?' we replied. But check out being 10 AM, rather than 11 AM or 12 PM, we concluded that getting home Friday night and waking up Saturday morning already home with the whole weekend ahead of one makes a lot of sense. Mrs. Stroock was right on this matter, as is her wont. 

We admit to having our fill of the beach and the pool and sun. 

In Israel, Eisenkot and Bennett are surging. For the first time we're seeing both ahead of Netanyahu on the 'Who would you prefer for PM?' question. Netanyahu's rein has to end sometime. If the public doesn't recall Bibi, then god will. Netanayhu would leave office having been Israel's greatest PM. 

DOGE Report.

Not much, really. 

Imagine though, in The Great Nuclear War of 1975, a Soviet sub shows up off a small town, a couple of men go ashore to get, say, medical supplies (and booze!). Later the sub docks. The townspeople don't like it one bit and they activate the 2nd Amendment with great zeal. Hmmm....maybe. 

The 2nd to Last Day at the Beach

Good morning or afternoon, anyway, Stroock's Books people. 

What can we say? Beach, pool, sun, sunset. We're getting too much sun and probably very minor heat stroke in the afternoon. We used to get that at Rehoboth Beach, lo back in the 2010s. Hydrate and jump in that pool. 

What else can we say? We have the kind of view, sun, and breeze from the condo where one feels like one is enjoying all three just sitting in the living room, as we are right now.

We've three teenage girls who, in truth, are outgrowing the family beach vacation. We've come to LBI, sometimes twice a summer, every year since 2020, when in late July, during the Covid nonsense, we asked, 'I wonder if any condos are available at Sea Place.' There were, on two weeks' notice too, this being the Covid nonsense. 

Today is Tisha b'av, in which Jews commemorate the destruction of the 1st and 2nd Temples, and just about everything else bad that's ever happened to Jews. Note, now the Jews have guns, tanks, fighter jets, nuclear weapons and the will to use them. [You keep saying that -Ed]. It keeps needing to be said.

DOGE report.

Such as it is. A little work on the Howth landing yesterday, making things make sense. 

Powerline notes that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has made himself el Presidente for live. This reminds us that World War 1990: The Managua Campaign is 52,000 words and awaits. 

Midweek Beach

Good midweek morning (and afternoon) from the beach. The sun is up. The sky is clear. The air is fresh. The day looks good. I can see clearly now the rain is gone....as they say. 

We had a better day weather wise than we had a right to expect, yesterday. The morning was cloudy but dry and we spent a few hours at the beach. The water was choppy but warm. The sun came out in the afternoon so we got in some pool time. Not till evening did the rain come. And then there was a deluge. 

We burned though, as we usually do at the beach. We just like sitting out in the sun. Must be all that Mediterranean (ha spelled it right on the first try!) heritage. Afterall, we are descendent from desert warriors, the people of Johsua. 

DOGE report.

Between the beach and the pool and enjoying the evening breeze we've gotten a little work in. 

We are painstakingly describing 3 Commandos landing at Hawth, with one line of boats landing at the bay, another line of boats landing at the East Pier, and a third trying to enter the harbor. 

We might have thought up a nuke novel story idea. Maybe.

At the Beach on a Tuesday

Good morning from the beach, people of Stroock's Books. We write this in view of the sea and within the sound of the ocean. The water is gray at the moment. Looks like we're in for a cloudy, but dry morning, with rain holding off till late afternoon. 

We had not one but two beers yesterday at lunch and later at dinner. Amstel Light. We're not sure what to think about that. Time was down the shore we'd spend all afternoon and evening with a drink on standby. 

We should be able to do a little on World War 1990: Thatcher's War today. Watch out Howth. 

What else we got? 

We are making our way through Brian E. Walter's The Longest Campaign. A good narrative about naval actions, tonnages, etc, etc without much personality. Do we really need another discourse on Winston and the Battle of the Atlantic? We will be reading the next book in the series, The Blue Water War. We love it when a reading project comes together. 

Britain has a new PM, we understand. Kier Starmer was the worst PM since Rishi Sunak. He should be shipped to the Hague and stand trial for crimes against humanity. What a tosser. TBH we really don't have much faith in Herr Farage. Britain, we feel, is falling. 

Plenty of doings in the Middle East. We're still bomb-bombing Iran. The Lebanese army is moving into southern Lebanon. The Houthis have closed the Red Sea to Saudi traffic (they seem to have a weird fetish about getting their asses kicked; bad jihadi- WHACK!). Stories about what's inside Pick-Axe Mountain are mysteriously finding their way to the press. So watch out. 

We're off to get ready for the beach. Wish us luck. 

That Whisky Was $14...

...Your goddamn right we finished it. Dinner at The Black Whale last night for, well, you know. We ordered the muscles as is our uzhe, so the kids are saying. We followed this with the seafood combo and didn't over do it. 

Good afternoon, People of Stroock's Books, from sunny Long Beach Island. Everyone but us is asleep. 

We've a comfortable condo with an excellent beach view and close access to both said beach and bayside for enjoying LBI's exquisite sunsets. 

After two days at the beach we are tanned, but so far not burnt. The sun loves us. We are, after all, Mediterranean descended, being a person of the book, a pedestrian of the Red Sea, and all. 

We've been sitting beachside thinking things over and not coming up with much. 

But we are working well through the history book we brought. We'll have to crack open the other book by Wednesday. 

We've gotten in a full day now at 53 and so far, we're okay with it. 

Off to the pool for a late afternoon dip.

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 7/19(!)73

Greetings from the beach. 

It's 7:03 in the morning. We're sitting in front of a big picture window overlooking the beach. The sun is shining down. We hear the waves. No one else is awake. Never mind, they're awake and complaining. 

For the second summer in a row, we are staying someplace other than the ancestral Stroock Long Beach Island vacation haunt at Sea Place Condominiums just a few blocks north of us on Amber Street. If one Google Street Views Sea Place, one sees us sitting on the porch of condo C1.

We drove through a torrential downpour to get here yesterday. We left home thinking there'd be a gap in the rain coming in from Pennsylvania. There was no gap. Instead, there was an hour of heavy rain seemingly following us down the Garden State Parkway. The sky was an odd gray/blue color, probably from the Canadian smoke, bastards. Nevertheless, we got here. 

We watched Jaws last night, you know, to get in the mood. 

On a side note, we turn 53 today. 

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 7/19/26.

We got nuthin' folks. 

When we weren't concentrating on not running off the road in yesterday's downpour, we tried to come up with an ending to the DEW Line story. We also tried coming up with another nuke story. We did not come up with another nuke story. 

We approach this problem in two ways. First, what is a situation, what is a place...? To put it another way, what would happen if one were in, say, Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Second, what would a particular character do in this story. We can think of neither people nor places....but maybe a story in the deep south is a good idea. 

On the bright side the battle for Howth is coming along fine, in our head. Those interested should check out Howth on Google Earth. This is going to be a fun chapter. Kind of like the French scene at Ouistreham in The Longest Day. Kind of. 

Saturday Updates

Good morning, Stroock's Books weekenders. Our foot is bothering us. Our knee is bothering us. We have a rash. And we're heading down the shore this afternoon. Wish us luck. 

The things.

We tidied up the 5th nuke novel a bit and finished (more or less) the hippie commune story. The 5th nuke novel is 44,000 words. 

We worked on World War 1990: Thatcher's War all week. We have written Operation Sunday, 2 Para's (heh) assault on Dublin Airport and started Operation Monday, the landing at Howth. 

We had fretted for some time about how we were going to present these battles. We didn't want to repeat the Battle of Derry in which we jumped from A to B to C and back again. So we're describing the battle from the POV of the FCA commander and a bird's eye narrator. We're finding the latter quite challenging, actually. We shrug.  

World War 1990: Thatcher's War is 62,000 words.