My Right Foot

So we dragged ourselves to the podiatrist yesterday and got a cortisone shot. The foot feels marginally better this morning. We are attempting to remain patient. But we are looking into immigrating to Canada so we can take advantage of MAID. Any Canucks out there want to sponsor us? No Newfies, please.* 

We admit to not necessarily having the best 10 days or two weeks. 

We've got a follow up scheduled Friday. Wish us luck. 

Time likes this one's thoughts turn dark. Why are we bothering with being healthy? We haven't had an Arturo Fuente in two weeks now. Why deny ourselves this treat if we're hobbling around anyway? 

We sigh forlornly. More coffee, yes, that's it. 

Good morning, Stroock's Books reader(s) and happy Veterans Day. Like lots of Gen Xers, we've got photos of both of our grandfathers in uniform. Oh, and here' is our great grandfather, for whom we are named:

Recognize the uniform? William Eisman, later of Waterproof Louisianna, flew airplanes in the Great War, for the Kaiser. 

The GOP squashed the Massie/DEM Hegseth impeachment gambit. We're surprised, actually. We expected the caucus to be spineless. As for leadership...Jordan in the house, Thune in the senate...this blog doesn't think it matters much. And we see Alan Dershowitz has offered to defend Hegseth when the Dems try to impeach him again next year. Sorry, counselor, this isn't about the law and nothing you say will change Dem minds. 

The New York Post tells us an Irish mob chanting 'Blood! Blood! Blood on your hands!' assails Joe Biden about Gaza, of course. You'd have to be an inhuman monster not think the irony was both delicious and funny. Joe, you deserve it. 

So we asked the internet about this blog. Here's what the internet said:

William Stroock’s main blog is “William Stroock (as in Books)” on Blogger, where he posts personal updates, historical reflections, and creative writing notes, alongside other platforms like Substack for political commentary.

Main Blog — William Stroock (as in Books)

The primary site is williamstroock.blogspot.com, a Blogger profile active since 2015 Blogger. It features a mix of:

• Personal life updates — e.g., foot pain, gym workouts, and daily observations williamstroock.blogspot.com.

• Historical and academic interests — such as re‑reading chapters of The Battle of Los Banos, studying the Bayeux Tapestry, and discussing the Battle of Hastings williamstroock.blogspot.com.

• Creative writing — notes on editing and drafting chapters for works like World War 1990: The Managua Campaign and The Fourth Day Goodreads.

• Light humor and cultural commentary — from NFL fatigue to political cycles and local wildlife sightings williamstroock.blogspot.com+1.

LOL, NFL fatigue and wildlife sightings. 

DOGE report.

We did some good work on the 1066 story. Things are coming along.

We read the Soviet sub story yesterday morning. And then we read again yesterday afternoon. And you know what? We probably need to read it one more time. Just to be sure. Sometimes we wish we'd taken the vacuum cleaner salesman job we were offered lo those many years ago in 1998. 

We are bored with Substack and shrug indifferently. 

*Bet you thought we were going to say Quebecois.  

Footed

Baah, dam foot again. We're in a mood congruent with the foot. 

It's gonna be an impeachment-o-rama as Dems try to impeach Hegseth, Kennedy, Patel, laying the groundwork for getting Trump. This is what they want. This is where the Dems are taking the country.  And nothing good will come from it. 

Two points on Iran. First, it's not immediately clear to this blog what more bombing will do to Iran. Second, the economic blockade is far more devastating. And D, (okay make it three things), the smart set thinks Iran is leading Trump. But why can't the opposite be true? Three (okay four things) Trump is flooding the zone with all kinds of contradictory statements, keeping the Iranians off balance. 

DOGE report.

We read through the battle of Nueva Segovia chapter. It's much better now. One more chapter remains. 

We won't get to it for a couple of days because we got the Last Bomb manuscript back yesterday. We've read one short story already. 

We did more work on the 1066 story, completing the first phase of the Battle of Hastings. Here William's army attacked. The English shield wall held. Led by King Harold's brothers, the right wing counterattacked and pushed William's army back down the ridge. William then wheeled around and made a great slaughter of the English, killing Harold's brothers. 

Big Blue Didn't Blow

Good morning, Stroock's Books reader(s). Baaaah...the foot is better than yesterday but still tight and sore with a sharp pain or two. We remain annoyed. 

So we had our annual Diwali block party last night. Diwali is basically Chanukah and the 4th of July rolled into one. It is literally the festival of lights. Midway through, after the fireworks got going, the cops showed up. Actually, the police cruiser rolled up on us. The cop rolled down his window, pointed a finger at us and asked, 'Do you have a permit for those fireworks?'

'It's Diwali,' we said.

'I don't care,' the cop replied.

At this point we we're thinking of going all Arlo Guthrie on Officer Obie there, but we played it cool. So did the officer, who said just lay off the big rockets that had gotten his attention. And so we did. 

Overall the Diwali party was fun. Huh, no one brought samosas. Anyway, we had a couple of drinks at the party and ate way too much.

The planned Kristallnacht in Philadelphia yesterday was a bust, with the dozens of bike riding Nazis met by hundreds of patriotic counterprotesters and customers. Reggie Jackson, a north Philly man himself, entered the fray. Reggie! Reggie! Reggie! Once again, Reggie answered the whole world. 

More Kristallnachts are coming through. Can the patriots rally again? 

We've no idea what to do about it. 

Today is the anniversary of the actual Kristallnacht. 

Sports wrap...an ugly win for the New York Giants in Philadelphia. Ugly win. But the Giants are 5-2-1 and lead the division. That's the first time the Giants have won in Philadelphia in 13 years. This game was a test and the Giants passed it.  Are the Giants great? No, of course not. What kind of ridiculous question is that. Are they good? Maybe.

DOGE report. We read through most of the Battle of Nueva Segovia chapter yesterday. It's fine but needs more explanation. Basically we need a scene with Enrique Bermudez looking at map, describing the Department of Nueva Segovia and saying, 'This task force is here. This task force is there. There's Santa Clara. There's Ocotal.' etc etc....Also, the chapter was too wordy. 

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 11/8/26

Baaaaaah! Fun day yesterday. Lots of fun. The foot is somewhat better this morning.  But we are still disabled. We remain annoyed and frustrated. We probably need to see the doctor again Monday. Bastards. 

TBH, between our foot and current events we ain't exactly in a good headspace right now. [Why don't you stop letting current events get to you?-Ed] We're trying. We consume much less news. We nuked our twitter account long ago. And about the only blogs we read anymore are Hot Air and Instapundit. Wait...we have a Daily Wire account? Huh. Not anymore.  

DOGE Report.

We worked on a piece we promised to a friend of ours who runs The Brazen Head. Devotees will recall we published a piece there some time ago. 

Alert reader(s) will have noticed we updated that Future Projects Page.

Will's Good Idea for the week of 11/8/26.

We sigh, forlornly. We've two more post war novels to write, Saddam's War and the Italian thingy, but GIUK GAP calls. 

We'll finish the Managua Campaign read through this week. 

Saturday Updates

Baaah! We had a great day with our foot yesterday. Dug our cane out of the closet, we did. And today is going to be another great day. Just a fab day. Here comes the sun and everything. Fuckers. 

In Israel it looks like Gadi Eisenkot is going to get first crack at forming a government. Which is not unexpected. On paper he has 67 MKs. We shall see. Should Eisenkot succeed, we won't worry. You know, Bibi, we can't miss you if you won't go away.

The things.

We spent all week working on the 1066 story, For Want of an Arrow. We've written through the first Norman attack on the English army. So far, so good. For Want of an Arrow is 3,000 words. 

We've read through two thirds of World War 1990: The Managua Campaign. We are generally pleased, but we are nagged by a few things. The plot jumps from 'disaster in Cuba' to 'we've gathered a Pan American coalition' rather quickly. World War 1990: The Managua Campaign is 52,000 words. 

After the Last Bomb: Stories of the Great Nuclear War of 1975 is being edited. We'll get the MS next week. 

We think an alien invasion novel is a dead end. 

Friday at Hastings

Baaaah! Our foot is killing us. We're not sure exactly what it is. But we suspect it's all the stretching exercises we were told to try. The boot don't help at all. Hell of a job all those doctor visits have done. Hell of a job. We are not necessarily in the best mood.

Once again a Thursday night football game was on, and we just weren't that interested. Over saturation? Are we just getting bored with the NFL? We find this alarming. 

In shabbat news Kristallnacht is coming to Philadelphia. Dark times for Jews in America. Dark times. 

Gloom and doom, doom and gloom. Ya'll know politics is cyclical, right? Ben Shapiro the other day said that when W and the GOP won in 2004 he thought they'd never lose again. He was young. We didn't think that, but we believed the GOP had turned a corner and rewritten the rules. Heck, Dems were posting forlorn pics of themselves holding 'I'm sorry' signs on the internet. Two years later the GOP got shellacked in the midterms. Two years after that Barry Soetoro won easily. Guess who got shellacked in 2010? Eschew gloom. We'll stand for no doomerism at Stroock's Books. 

DOGE report.

Just an excellent day, really. We read through the Battle of Los Banos chapter again. The chapter is probably as good as we can make it. This chapter shows the army and marines (both American and Mexican) and the various insurgent groups in 27 individual scenes. There's a lot of bouncing back and forth.

We spent the afternoon interpreting the first act of the Battle of Hastings. we read some primary sources, read some secondary sources (David Horvath and Marc Morris) and examined the Bayeux Tapestry. Click here to look at the tapestry, reader(s). It's really a fascinating document. Our medieval warfare prof, Professor Brian Todd Carey, taught us that the Tapestry was an excellent source for the battle. Of course we've walked Hastings. There really ain't that much to it. Hastings is just a field, a hill, and an abbey built by William the Bastard to commemorate his victory over the rightful King. 

Here's the problem we're having. We know William opened the battle with an archery barrage. Then he sent in the infantry. When they stalled on the English shield wall, William sent in the cavalry. But (!) did the infantry withdraw first? Sources don't say. If not, then the cavalry waded into the mele, into the press of men and shields and spears and swords. What good is cavalry in a situation like that? 

Doom This

Sigh...the foot still bothers and the doctor wants us to wear the boot as needed. And so we shall. 

We got to the gym yesterday, at least, and did ten or so seated weight exercises. We persist. 

For those of you not on FB, FB Memories shows users all previous posts on that day. FB is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of our life:

-In this year Will joked about sitting on his deck in a bathing suit smoking cigars and drinking a box of wine...

-In this year Will told a bad joke. Mrs. Stroock not pleased... 

-In this year Will spoke at his grandfather's 90th birthday party...*

FB memories is loaded with old posts for November 5th. We see proof that our teenage daughters were once little girls. In 2019 we wrote, 'The Giants suck'. They sure did. 

And over the course of two decades, we've made many a political post on November 5th. Eighteen years ago we wrote, 'Didn't vote for Obama but he will be my president'. Hah! Now we believe Obama was ineligible to hold office. A year later we commented, 'Just voted for the fat man,' referring to future governor Chris Christie. Three years later we lamented Barry's reelection. Two years after that we gloated about the 2014 midterms, 'What is best in life?'

Which brings us to a few thoughts on Tuesday. We'll tolerate no doomerism. 

As Athena Thorne wrote at PJM, 'Meh. 2008 was worse'. Yep. And yep again. After Barry's election, pundits were warning that the GOP best 'moderate' on economic and social issues. Be more like the Dems! At the CPAC conference of 2009, Rush Limbaugh warned against turning away from conservative principles and asked, 'When was the last time Dems moderated?'  Two years later a Red wave washed over Washington. Rush was right. He usually was. 

You know why Barry Soetoro won in 2008? An unpopular war, an economic crisis, and eight years of the GOP in the White House. That's all. Guess what? Hillary would have won too. The moment the markets crashed that September, John McCain's odds of winning the election dropped to zero point zero. Oh, and Barry got a smaller percentage of the vote in 2008 than George Bush did in 1988. Look it up. 

This year Americans looked at inflation, gas prices, and the long Iran war, and voted blue. And we got some bad news for the doomers out there. The party in the white house getting shellacked on the president's second term is a dog bites man story. We'll explore that more tomorrow. 

Moving on...

We contemplated more alien invasion novels. A friend from a European country known for its art and cuisine suggested writing a novel that takes place in the 60s. Two words: century series (F-100s and the like). Which is kinda cool. When did they retire the B-58 Hustler? In truth, the more we think about aliens invading Earth, the less we want to do the story. 

We still don't know what we're writing in January. 

DOGE report.

We read through the Battle of Los Banos chapter in World War 1990: The Managua Campaign. It seems...fine. Exit question: do we want to read it again today or move on? 

Work on 1066 continues apace. The work is slow, but it's apace. 

*He rented out a room at the Algonquin in NYC. Must have been a hundred guests. Good fun. Wonder what that costs? Yikes.  And when some old geezer complained about our girls we asked, 'Do you know who I am? Did you not see me before, speaking lovingly to the man paying for this thing?'