Will Saves the King

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

So we rang the Australian Hellenic Choir (Sydney, Australia) last night. Not kidding.* 

We were in a bad mood last night and ain't in so great a mood this morning. 

Oh look, gout this morning. Just great [Yes because the greatest driver for gout is stress and annoyance and you worked yourself up over some stupid choir on the other side of the planet-Ed].

War of the ants...lots of live ants spotted. As we write this one is crawling across the living room floor. Lots of dead ants too. We remain convinced out campaign is hurting the ants badly and that their presence indicates the nest is poisoned. 

'Mr. Speaker! Their Majesties' King Charles the Third and Queen Camilla!' We admit we never expected the House Sergeant at Arms to say that. Seeing King Charles address congress was neat. Sorry, it just was. HRH charmed us [Oh my -Ed] we couldn't help but like the man. And he spoke eloquently about our nation's shared heritage, culture, and sacrifice. 

For us, the King's speech felt like the last hurrah of the old Anglo-American alliance, the special relationship. HRH told some good jokes, too, do click over. 

We've always been less hostile to HRH then a lot of people. We never bought into the Diana crap. The king rose through the ranks of the Royal Navy to skipper a minesweeper. And Charles has spent his life doing charitable work. Why we almost regret that bit of unpleasantness 250 years ago. 

The Crossing....At first, Jeff Daniels seems an odd choice to play George Washington. And at first, we didn't quite buy into his performance. But as the movie went on, Daniels grew into the role. By the end of the film, Daniels looked and felt like the character in Washington's portraits. What we mean to say, is that by the end of The Crossing, we looked at Jeff Daniels and saw George Washington. 

Daniel's plays Washington as a man who is weary, tired, and facing defeat. Washington is bearing a terrible burden as he knows the fate of the Revolution lies with him. Daniels also plays Washington with just a bit of whimsy. 'Move your fat ass, Henry' Washington says to Henry Knox as he boards a boat to cross the Delaware. This actually, happened, by the way.  

After the victory Washington is relieved when his surgeon and friend Hugh Mercer tells him the army suffered no casualties during the battle. For the first time in the movie, Washington breaths easy. But Washington does not rest until he gets the army back across the Delaware. 'What can you be thinking? That we have won the war?' Washington asks his ebullient generals. 

*Related. So this happened 12 years ago:

Earlier at Veterans for Peace forum-
Peacenik: 'Israel is an apartheid state.'
Professor Stroock: 'That's a lie! If you think Israel is an Apartheid State, you don't know what Apartheid is!'
And then I buried him under an avalanche of facts.

[You've been acting like a knobhead for a long time-Ed].

Will is Torqued off

Good morning, afficionados of Stroock's Books. We need to get some bloodwork this morning. That means fasting. That means no coffee. We are persevering. 

And we're back! Two vials of blood and a paper cup. They're testing for...diabetes. We'd rather go into a diabetic coma then prick our finger the rest of our life. Nurse wasn't even pretty !@#$.

We remain annoyed and pissed off. We are sorely tempted to light an Arturo Fuente and crack open a bottle after lunch [Oh that'll fix everything-Ed]. Hey, it's been two weeks [That's not bad actually-Ed]. 

Israeli polls...since the Bennett/Lapid merger polls show...the Netanyahu block taking the lead? Don't take our word for it. Click here and here. The nation doesn't really like Bibi. So in a race between Netanyahu and a not-Netanyahu abstraction, the latter wins. But the merged parties (now called Together) are not an abstraction. They're flesh and blood and flawed. And in a race between Netanyahu vs Bennett, the public favors Netanyahu.

The Crossing...the setting in December 1776 is, as mentioned before, grim. The Continental Army has been fighting and losing for months. What's left of the army has retreated to Pennsylvania, safe until the British decide to follow them across the Delaware. The Pennsylvania shore is cold and barren with little sustenance to be found. The Yankee winter has only just begun and it's already brutal. These are indeed 'the times that try men's souls' as Thomas Paine wrote.

What's left of Washington's army is tired, cold, hungry, and about to disintegrate as the men's enlistments end on December-31st. The Crossing had a limited budget. And if one looks closely, one can tell Washington's encampment is just a half dozen tents, and a farmhouse with some wagons strewn about. For the most part the film relies on a few hundred reenactors. Still, what's on the screen looks good, and director Robert Harmon makes the viewer feel the Continentals' cold and misery. 

One thing, beyond Harmon's control obviously, was the weather. The snow here is represented by a few handfuls of flakes drifting across the camera. In fact a major snow storm hit New Jersey the night of the crossing. 

DOGE report.

Good day yesterday with World War 1990: The Managua Campaign. A very good day.

In Which Will Quotes Steel Panther

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

The temp is 38 degrees. Enjoy Yankee spring. 

We spent most of yesterday miffed, annoyed, and downright angry about a host of small things. Mostly we stewed in our basement where we wrote a little. Then we went to the gym - which helped marginally. If we may quote the great Steel Panther, 'Fuck those fucking fuckheads. They can suck my balls.'

We remain a bit touchy. 

Sometimes we think we should drink and smoke more. 

Good back-to-back workouts over the weekend though.

In Israel Naftali Bennett and Yaer Lapid have merged their parties to form a united front against Netanyahu and his bloc. We saw one poll that showed 61 percent of Israelis would vote against Bibi and the right blog. But we saw another poll that showed the merge actually cost the opposition seats. As usual, Israeli polls are all over the place (just keep scrolling). 

Hmmm....on the one hand the merger presents a united front against Bibi. On the other the merger allows Bibi to focus on Bennett. He's already saying the Bennett/Lapid alliance will form another government with the Arabs. 

Our own preference is for a Likud led government that includes Naftali Bennett to whom Bibi will eventually pass the baton. 

For the record, this blog believes a Netanyahu v Bennett race would be good for Israel. Two leaders. Two visions. Two choices.**

Yeah...those of you who know us on FB know we're pretty pessimistic about the state of things after the latest assassination attempt on President Trump and the Dems/libs/left reaction to it. Reader(s) of this blog and FB friends know we've grappled with the matter of what to do if we're confronted with Juden-hass. That is, what's it take for us to throw a punch? What do we do with the Dem's fourth assassination attempt on the president succeeds?* You're goddamn right we wore our Trump T-shirt to the gym. 

American Revolution...so we watched The Crossing (2000) last week, starring Jeff Daniels as General Washington. The film presents the Continental's situation as urgent and grim, depressing even. This is 100 percent accurate. We needed a while to get into the movie, partly because we kept comparing it to the Trenton part of the 1984 George Washington miniseries which was able to film the Battle of Trenton in the snow. But the more we watched The Crossing, the more we liked it, and the more we liked Jeff Daniels George Washington 3/4. It's The Crossing week here at Stroock's Books. Enjoy.

DOGE report.

More working on World War 1990: The Managua Campaign yesterday. Those FDN task forces are going to take matters into their own hands and drive south, supported by their American air liaison who's organizing fuel drops for them.  

*Don't kid yourselves. The Dems will make another attempt on Trump's life. 

**Also getting Ben Gvir and Smotrich out of government is a good, very good, thing. Assholes. 

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 4/26/26

So that's three times the Dems/libs/left have tried to assassinate President Trump. Have they thought this through? What do they suppose happens if they get the president on their fourth try?* 

Here on out we expect a more circumspect Democrat party to think things over and turn down the rhetorical temperature. We kid, we kid. 

Baaaaah! We swipe at the air and drink our coffee.

Good morning Stroock's Books reader(s) and happy Sunday. 

We had quite the rain deluge yesterday. Good. We needed the rain. For a while we sat in the family room wondering why we didn't hear the sump-pump go off, as is our wont [Jesus Christ. The crap you come up with to worry about-Ed]. It went off. [Yeah. You know those things are designed to go off without anybody checking in, worrying or ever thinking about them by engineers who are a lot smarter than you-Ed]. We know. [In fact, in 21 years you are on you fourth sump pump and in all that time they've never just failed to activate-Ed]. Well there was the one before this one...[The first float switch got stuck and eventually the second float switch would have kicked on....knobhead-Ed].

Let's move on to Will's Good Idea for the Week of 4/26/26...[Lets-Ed]

Well, we need nuclear war short story ideas.

Also, we feel a lot of American Revolution magazine article percolation. And why not? [Because those magazines don't pay very much-Ed] Indeed. Still [Still what?-Ed] Nothing. Just still. 

*[Armed revolution from the right? President Vance orders the arrest of Democrat Party leadership? -Ed] I'm listening. 

Saturday Updates

A good rainy morn to Stroock's Books weekenders across the globe, especially those in Australia and New Zealand. Happy ANZAC Day.

We finished watching The Crossing yesterday. We'll review it next week. 

We actually went to our local Barnes and Noble and kinda/sorta found a Revolutionary War book we might be interested in reading. We remain meh.

War of the ants...we saw plenty of dead ants yesterday. We saw plenty of lives ones too, though. We are convinced we are on the road to victory over the ant menace. But it's a long road. 

The Things.

We had an excellent week editing one chapter and writing another chapter of World War 1990: The Managua Campaign. We are pleased. Managua is 42,000 words. 

We finished the Soviet cosmonaut story in The Fourth Day. The Fourth Day is 27,000 words. 

The American Revolution, a Read

Good morning Stroock's Books kibbutzim and shabbat shalom. And happy Friday. 

Yesterday we saw a racoon crawl out of our garbage can and meander away like it had every right to be there. Dang varmints. 

We have a follow up appointment after our doctor's visit last week over some (ahem) stomach issues. Let's see what those four vials of blood told them. Ironically we have not had this stomach problem since last Friday.

War of the ants....we spotted many live, dead, and dying ants yesterday. We also spotted a line of small ants on a windowsill. This is a new development. We shall deploy ant traps on that side of the house. 

Lebanon ceasefire...no the three week ceasefire doesn't worry or bother us in any way. Israel can use the respite to comb for Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon. And no, Hezbollah isn't 'rearming' during the ceasefire, idiots. That takes years of effort. Oh, and Trump said Iran has to stop funding Hezbollah in any deal with the US. 

The Hezbos did fire some rockets at Israel yesterday. We saw some clips of the IAF destroying those rockets. Maybe we're misinterpreting, but we didn't see any counterbattery rockets. Are the Israelis using Iron Beam?

The Daily Caller reports, 'Republican New Jersey Rep. Tom Kean Jr., who represents a highly competitive district Democrats are targeting in the midterms, has reportedly not been seen by colleagues for over a month and has missed dozens of votes.' Kean's office says he's dealing with some health issues. Our 7th Congressional District is highly competitive. We've been getting anti-Kean mailers focused on affordability about once a week. Kean is inoffensive, mid even, but with high name recognition as his dad was a popular governor back in the 80s. 

Reading the American Revolution... For the story of the Revolution in the Carolina Back Country, this blog recommends Walter Edgar’s Partisans & Redcoats: The Southern Conflict That Turned the Tide of the American Revolution. This is a short, sharp book about the people of the Backcountry and the bloody partisan war they fought against one another. That war was essentially a civil war between Patriots and Loyalists, and just as vicious as Lebanon or Ireland in the 1980s.* 

What Will's Watching: the NFL draft. We admit to enjoying the spectacle. Why not? There's something endearing about these young men thanking their mama, their high school football coach, Jesus Christ, etc. One young man broke down and had to take a knee to compose himself before taking the stage. The Giants drafted a linebacker and an offensive lineman. As to whether these were good picks, we've no idea. We always like drafting linemen. Of course in 2004 we would have taken Robert Gallery (who?) over Eli Manning, so... 

DOGE report. 

Meet Oberst Wolf Baur, Nationale Volks Armee...former panzer officer and military attaché at the shuttered East German embassy in Managua. He may be a man without a country but he still has a profession; panzers. 

*While sensationalized, Mel Gibson's The Patriot captured the feel and viciousness of the war in the Carolinas. We need to watch this with fresh eyes, don't we? The Patriot really isn't a bad introduction to the war down there. Related...we've been watching The Crossing. Haven't seen it for 25 years. 

The American Revolution, Southern Campaign Reads

Good morning, Stroock's Books people, such as you are. 

Ooooo...temps hitting 77 degrees today. A heatwave, we tell you. A heatwave. 

War of the ants...we spotted one ant in the kitchen last night. 

Our dishwasher, which is usually a beeping, malfunctioning mess, has been running smooth lately. Infernal machine. 

Classic post: Rome! Oh look, it's 2015 and we're still a prof. Wow. 

We can't recall the last time we read a book on the American revolution. We earned our MA in 2005 and promptly moved on. By the end of that year we were doing a lot of Roman History stuff for Strategy & Tactics Magazine. Heh, those bastards are still sitting on a piece we sent them in 2006. Our guess is they've just forgotten about the article, but whatever. By 2007 we were writing a lot about ops in Iraq and the GWOT while Oldest Daughter napped.* 

Anyway, here are some of the required books for our class on the American Revolution in the south. 

John Buchanan's The Road to Guilford Courthouse is an exhaustive study of the Southern Campaign and the personalities that fought it. This is easily our favorite book on the subject. A long read, but very worthwhile.  See also David Lee Russell's The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies. Walter Babits dissects the Battle of Cowpens in A Devil of a Whipping. Burke Davis shows us how Nathanael Greene and some Continental partisan commanders defeated the British in The Cowpens/Guilford Courthouse Campaign. 

We'll reco some books on the partisan warfare aspect of the campaign tomorrow.

DOGE Report.

So Pan-American forces out of the Choluteca Gap have crossed the Nicaraguan border and are advancing east and south to clear the Chinandega Province. A pair of Sandinista armor companies are counterattacking.  

We haven't thought about Ireland or the Irish in three weeks, and we're totally okay with that. 

*Pointless nostalgia...20 years ago we are in the midst of our best year of substitute teaching at Bernards High and working on a magazine article for S&T about the Roman general Mettellus. We'd already done a piece on Marius and another on Crassus. We were carrying a hard bound copy of Plutarch's Lives around school. S&T was inspired to publish a bunch of Roman history articles by HBO's Rome.