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. 

Jewy on a Friday (Which makes sense)

Good morning (or afternoon, anyway), people of Stroock's Books, and shabbat shalom. We awake tired, sore, and groggy. 

At the gym yesterday we just could not get lose and cut off our workout. Also we're having a minor and home treatable medical issue which we don't want to exacerbate. Why risk injury just before the beach? Everything is sore. It's definitely time for a gym break, which we've known for a while. 

So we watched Trump's election fraud speech last night. Okay. We're not sure what the point of all this is. Why drag this out again? That being said, Trump won. We saw them steal the election in real time. 

In Israel, The Jerusalem Post has yet another poll with bad news for Netanyahu and the coalition. This is interesting, 'The poll found that 83% of voters oppose the inclusion of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties in the coalition...' Please. The poll shows Likud is down to 22 seats. This is not surprising. We ourselves could vote for Gadi Eisenkot, had we a vote. This blog awaits events. 

Oh look, Ehud effing Barak has something to say, so says the AP. Do click over, reader(s). The piece is amazing. Ehud, you see, has opinions about what the Israelis should do in south Lebanon. And the man who cut and run from south Lebanon overnight in 2000 worries that Israel is repeating the mistakes of the past.  The man who tried to turn the country over to Yasser Arafat* is the worst PM in Israeli history. There is no close second; Olmert probably. 

More on the Jews. Another interesting article on Gadi Eisenkot. So far, he's keeping the Haredi at arm's length. Reminder, a Haredi draft law is this blog's top domestic priority. 

There's some interesting questions about with whom Eisenkot would form a government, Haredi or Arabs. He says neither, more or less. We'd be open to forming a government with the Arabs, as it's an opportunity to address their concerns and improve their lot - and thereby strengthen the state. Reminder, Hamas thought they could spark an Arab-Israeli revolt. 

DOGE report. 

The Dublin airport assault and the battle for Dublin is really coming together. Right now it's big and messy. 2 Para hits Dublin airport, Operation Sunday; IYKYK. 

*'Just how many of our daughters do you want, Yasser?' Ehud Barak asked. Just kidding. Everyone knows Arafat didn't like girls. 

Dimmed by Canada

Baah! Even when we sleep well we sleep oddly with random intense dreams of people past. We shrug and drink our coffee. 

Effluvia from the Canadian wildfires has reached New Jersey. The air is smoky, like sitting around a campfire, and there's a vague haze coloring the sky. The sun is orange/brown.[You mean pink?-Ed] Yes, that's it. Screw you, Canada. 

England went up 1 nil against the Argies yesterday and played defense the rest of the game. NFL fans recognized this strategy, the prevent defense. Every NFL fan knows the prevent defense prevents you from winning. As so it did here. 

Also, reader(s) may have seen stories about the Norway's Erling Haaland bringing home a stuffed raccoon from his FIFA World Cup foray in America. We thought this curious. Our man on the ground in Norway informs us that they don't have racoons in Norway, little bastards [The racoons or the Norwegians?-Ed]. Every American knows racoons are a public menace. 

Don't be fooled by that cute little bugger. That is the face of the enemy. He'd kill you and everyone in your family if he had the chance. 

At The Times of Israel, a good article on the Israeli's efforts to hunt down and eliminate anyone and everyone remotely involved in October 7th. Defense Minister Israel Katz said, 'They are marked for death wherever they are.' Good. From Pharoh to the Ayatollah, one fate awaits all enemies of the Jews. 

Related, also via TOI, the oppo block led by Gedi Eisenkot would win 61/120 Knesset seats, right now. We won't go into the ugly details, but the Knesset has been passing a flurry of Haredi friendly legislation lately. We don't like it one bit. That's Netanyahu trying to secure his right flank. 

We've noted this date before, five years ago to be exact. But 25 years ago today we moved from Arlington Virginia to our rustic farmhouse in bucolic Peapack, New Jersey. We knew we'd been living in Northern Virginia too long when on the day of the move, people were complaining about a heat wave, and we didn't think it was that bad.

We've lived in the same house for 21 of those years. We're a New Jerseyan now, there's no getting around it. A Jersey guy, if you will. We've disavowed our New York heritage and take a weird pride in New Jersey.  

A lot's happened.