Wednesday: the Second Week

Hello stalwart Stroock's Books reader(s), and happy midweek. We're enjoying another fine morn here on Lake Buel. The sun is out. The fog is coming off the lake. The air is cool and dewy. The weed cutter is out and making a hell of a racket. 

We did some light yard work yesterday as we found a vine growing up the side of the house and attaching itself to the sat TV wires, which need to be reset. We ain't gettin' up there. Sorry, but we don't do roofs [He said 'roofs' in his dear neighbor's Minnesota accent-Ed]. 

Speaking of the Upper Midwest, DSA loon Francesca Hong narrowly lost the state's Democrat Gubernatorial primary last night, despite polling way ahead. That's the second big DSA polling miss (after El Sayed in Michigan). Pollsters don't know how to poll for the DSA, and the commie bastards aren't as strong as they think they are. 

Huh we saw on the lake FB group this note from the Israeli camp, 'Anyone planning fireworks this weekend? Would love to be prepared for worried campers...' That is, all those Israeli kids have the yips from 3 years of war and are jumpy around explosions. 

This blog is getting a metric-fuck-ton of traffic lately. Any of you newbies wanna buy an alternate history, science fiction, or military fiction novel? Start with something small and self-contained, like The Austrian Painter: What if Germany won the Great War?

Our childhood best friend, from like - the 80s, turned 50 yesterday. Those to lads are both fifty now. Remarkable.

DOGE report. We read through another couple of Thatcher's War chapters yesterday. One seemed rambling and disjointed. Which may not be a problem. We're making progress thought. Shoring up those chapters is the big task of the day. September 1...1 September...

Tuesday: the Second Week

Morning glory, as the great Hugh Hewitt likes to say. The air is cool with a slight breeze. The lake like glass. As we write this a wake border is passing across the water. The weed cutter is humming and droning down at the southeast section of the lake. The Israelis up the shore a making quite a racket this morning. They were having a great time last night, too. 

So yesterday afternoon we were sitting here on our deck, reading through World War 1990: Ireland's Armagh chapter, when we heard some stirring and rustling across the canal. We looked, stood up, and then knocked on the family room window. 'Look. Out. Side,' we said. 

For on the far bank of the canal was a large black bear, and two cubs following her. They walked along the bank to the beaver lodge, where mama-bear growled and poked around for a bit. The beaver was pissed and spent the next hour cruising the canal until he was satisfied the bears had moved on.

Look, like 99.56 percent of America, we don't care about the WNBA. We've watched part of one Indiana Fever game and admitted we were entertained. We'd watch another Indiana Fever game. But we remain in awe of the league's inability to get out of its own way. Two NBA vets are declaring for the WNBA draft. Good. More will follow, this blog predicts. The league is convening a meeting to determine what a woman is, we guess.

WNBA, you deserve this.

The racists and heterophobes in the WNBA resent Caitlin Clark because she's the most popular player in the league despite never winning a championship and, you know, being white and straight. Listen, butch, we got news for you. In the late 80s Michael Jordan was the most popular player in the NBA despite not having won a championship. In the early 2000s the NBA's most popular player was Alan Iverson despite same. Don Mattingly holds a mythic place in the hearts of Yankees fans despite...readers will get the point.

Imagine the late David Stern needing to hold a meeting to determine what a woman is or letting butch brutalize Caitlin Clark. Reminder, Stern dragged the NBA out of its moribund 70s and made Bird vs Magic the best sports rivalry of the decade. Mister we could use a man like David Stern again. We can't decide whether to end this post with 'Feminism is always bad for women' or 'WNB dalenda est'.

Monday: the Second Week

A fine morning here in the Berkshires where we begin our second week at the Stroock Northern Strategic Direction. We're not sure when we're returning to the New Jersey hinterland. Wednesday? Saturday?

The reinforcements have withdrawn. We've made a tentative agreement to gather once again here in mid-October and clean out the garage. We will also sit in session and make some decisions.

This being the Berkshires we've only heard back from 33 percent of the contractors we've contacted about doing some work on the house. A few plumbing matters need attention. Trees must needs be felled. We ourselves have done a fair amount of work around the yard and house, but only a fair amount.

The air is cool and still. So is the lake. The Israelis down the lake are making quite a racket. Sup with that? So's a truck down the road which seems to be perpetually backing up.

We got out twice for some boating yesterday. You know, put a couple of torpedo tubes on her, a quad-50, a 20mm, and you'd really have something there.

Glenn Reynolds marks the 25th (25th!) anniversary of Instapundit. From time to time herr professor has linked to our books, causing an 'instalanch", that is, a sales spike. Instapundit is still part of our daily read, and will be so long as the blog exists.

At Spiked, Brandon O'Neill says, 'There’s nothing the digital left loves more than an untimely death.' He goes on to list the left's depraved joy in the death and murder of various people with whom the left disagrees. We've seen it first hand from people we know. From people we like. We will probably see some prominent Dem deaths in the coming months. Hold your tongue, fellow MAGA hats. 'They do it to us' is no excuse. They are not our teachers.*

What Will's Watching: PBS's Billy Joel 100th concert at MSG. This blog is a huge fan of Billy Joel, of course. The man's music has been with us our entire life. We've seen him in concert a few times ourselves. We often complain about aging (and aged) rockers who can't do it anymore. But aside from missing a few high notes he wrote while in his 20's, Billy Joel can still do it. In fact, he brings it. We were thoroughly entertained. Fun aside, the girls learned about telethons, this being a PBS broadcast, 'And viewers like you.'

We've checked and it seems we've never had a Billy Joel Week here at Stroock's Books. We did write this. Also this Monday (not) Metal. We should have a Billy Joel Week. Alas, this week is not that week.

*Reference. Verbatim from Lion of the Desert. Had we knot sited, would that have been plagiarism? We don't think so.

Will's Good Idea for the Week if 8/10/26

Another glorious Berkshire morning to Stroock's Books reader(s) out there from Cambridge Bay to Tierra del Fuego [Wow-Ed]. We know, right?

We got out on the boat for some swimming and sun time. The skies finally opened up last night. 

The Stroock family + reinforcements and one very special guest ordered Chinese. Later the girls and their cousin + very special guest went for ice cream. 

So we've been reading about World War II in the Med, thank you Brian E Walter, and we had a thought about the Chinese navy vis a vis the USN. In WWII the Italian navy had plenty of good, well designed ships and seagoing know-how. But they lacked the Brit's 300 + years of operational history and doctrine. China is in a similar position, no? There is no substitute for the USN's 80 + years of operational history and domination of the Pacific. 

Oh, and Happy Nagasaki Day. They started. We finished it. 

Will's Good Idea for the week of 8/9/26.

New indy projects? Who can say. We can't. that is, we can't say what we'd want to write. A one off novel. More character driven. We have three start dates. 1 January, 21 June, 21 September 2027.

Saturday Updates

A faire Berkshire Saturday morning, Stroock's Books people. The sky is cloudy and a nice breeze is coming off the lake. 

As usual the weather babe promised lots of rain last night, but very little fell. The Berkshire Mountains break up cloud formations, and Lake Buel resides in a bowl braced by a ridge on the southwest side. 

Reinforcements arrived last night in the form of various sundry relatives, adding to the familial ambience of the house. We have plenty of room. 

No interesting wildlife sightings yesterday. 

The Thing(s).

Alright...alright now. We know where things are headed with Ireland. And we began another read through. The first two chapters, Intro and Protestant Violence are fine. The latter doesn't have a concluding scene. This is where we can insert a Heath House set up.  Boom. World War 1990: Ireland is...70,000 words. 1 September....1 September. 

No luck on any other fronts. We shall try again today. If we were to write To Liberate Mars, what would it look like? As we recall the initial assault lead by Admiral Maha Ganesan didn't go well. The Jai have bases on Mars and both moons...hmmm.

Berkshire Shabbat - The Bobcat

Another glorious Berkshire morning to all you Stroock's Books reader(s) out there.  

Reinforcements are arriving this afternoon. 

Waking up here, the air is usually still and cool, though we're in something of a heat wave right now, for the Berkshires. Temps are in the low 70s this morning and will hit the mid 80s today. 

Early morn, one hears birds. Maybe a fish flopping in the water. We are always reminded of our grandmother's feet shuffling along the floor in the morning stillness. We do the same now when we wake up. 

Yesterday we spotted a bobcat in the yard. We've heard the coyotes. About the only wildlife we haven't interacted with up here are the bears. Keep your fingers crossed [For interacting with them or not interacting with them? -Ed]. We don't know. 

We got out on the boat yesterday for some swimming. No sunset cruise. We did a fair amount of yardwork. Since we can't get up here as much as we like, there's always yard tasks waiting, which is nice [Is it?-Ed].

DOGE report. Sitting on our deck overlooking Lake Buel, we went over the post battle of Dublin scenes and started a few more scenes. Looks like World War 1990: Thatcher's War is going to culminate in the Irish Ranger Wing raiding Heath House, County Kildare, where Gerry Adams is holed up.  God bless Captain Liam Cox. 

We are on track [For what?-Ed]. To have the rough draft finished by 1 September [Big talker-Ed]. 

Writing a third To Defend the Earth novel and redoing the covers for same and To Survive the Earth is not a bad idea. Today we shall dwell upon some ideas for To Liberate Mars. In theory, if TLM did well that would open the door for future novels in the series. 

But our original thought was to write a standalone novel and publish it on a platform other than kindle. Upon this idea we shall dwell also. 

Berkshire Thursday - the Snake

A good Berkshire morning to Stroock's Books reader(s) across the United States, Commonwealth, and Empire. And Happy Hiroshima Day. They started it. We finished it. 

Sitting in the house our grandmother lovingly decorated and maintained, opposite the canal she used to clean out so her two grandchildren could play in the water, we can't help but recall that that woman never forgave the Japanese. Wouldn't by Japanese cars. Related, we have Chinese neighbors who won't buy Japanese either.  

Anyway...An overcast morn here in the Berkshires. The weed cutter is out. That thing takes up half the Lake Buel Association's budget. The Labor Day fireworks take up the other half. Someone is swimming the middle of the lake. There's an....who the fuck set their car alarm here in the woods? 

A simple day, yesterday. We didn't go out on the boat till evening, the girls 'weren't feeling it' they said. 

We spoke to the wastewater treatment people about a long needed repair to the system, and have contacted a few tree companies about taking down some trees which if we don't drop them, mother nature will. 

The deck is getting some repairs next week.

Have we ever mentioned that second homes can be time consuming and expensive?

Last night we were coming in from the deck when the family heard us exclaim, 'Ahhhh! Shoo! Shoo!' A snake was lounging on the front stoop. He was a harmless water snake. Nevertheless, we asked, 'Snakes. Why does it have to be snakes?'*

Reader(s) have no doubt heard that scandal plagued Cambridge Professor Jason Arday has resigned. Among other things he's accused of plagiarism. Is not plagiarizing really that hard? Especially for an academic? Back in our professorial days we'd bust a student every once and a while for cutting and pasting an essay from the internet. Sorry, kid. 18 year olds don't write that good. 

Anyway, plagiarism scandals happen so often now we've questioned our own work. Everyone's doin it, right? We got the idea of writing 'we' from the great James Taranto. 'Alert readers' comes from the old Kausfiles blog. The 'outside of laboratory conditions' thing comes from AoSHQ. Some scenes in our novels are inspired by book and movie scenes.**

John Sexton at Hot Air has an interesting story about the growing Exodus (heh) of Jews from blue states. Jewish parents are now choosing southern schools for their kids. Ole Miss and Auburn over Harvard and Yale! Remarkable. Heh, our own grandmother went to LSU, where she knew Giants great Y.A. Title, a little bit, or so she said. Sexton dives into why Jews are traditionally progressive and we think his explanation is at least partially right (Exodus again). 

We ourselves fantasize about returning to our mother's ancestral homeland in Western Kentucky, should we need to. Slap a John Deere hat on our head we'd blend right in. And our girls could walk the streets of Livermore and everyone would just assume they'd belong. Heck when we were a boy we'd play on our Aunt Elsie's sidewalk and people would stop and ask, 'You're Mar-Bess's boy, aren't you?'

The South ain't called the Bible Belt for nuthin'. Prejudice dies hard and some of our fellow Hebrews don't understand that Christ is King is better than Allah Akbar. Stabby lives in our neighborhood and he's starting to give us the yips. We ain't flown our Israeli flag since 10/7. [You see the self-contradiction you just did there?-Ed]. We do Ed, we do. Now get us another cup of coffee, love, and take your time about walking away. 

Will's Good Idea for the Week, Supplemental.

The leader of this blog's Confederate contingent replied, 'It was the one you talked about doing about mars with carriers in space...' Ah, the space-carrier thingy. It'd basically be Wing Commander, good books, BTW.  Meh. Good story idea. Force-K of six escort carriers raids the Naralgian sector base, destroys it, only to detect the newest Naralgian*** Dreadnaught returning from its first shake down. Sort of Operation Hailstone meets Sink the Bismarck.  

Here us out...We commission new covers for To Defend the Earth and To Survive the Earth  and finally write To Liberate Mars. 

*Reference. 

**A name we've banked since high school. Somehow we got Naralgian from Harpoon Scenaraio Editor. We dunno.

*** George Lucas white courtesy phone. George Lucas, white courtesy phone...no, the white phone.  Let's see, George Lucas saw The Dam Busters when he was 9 or 10. So yeah, that movie embedded itself right in his brain. Exit question: anyone know why they can't broadcast The Dam Busters anymore?