The Wait and Weight of Time

Baaah! An odd night following and odd day. Summer ennui? 

In our brief summation of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, we were remiss in not mentioning his defense of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. His was the moment of the Kavanaugh hearings farce. Enjoy. Our post on the matter was titled Right, Fierce and Terrible, but it should have been titled Right, Fierce and Lindsey.

Ed Driscoll talks about 90s nostalgia. This was the decade between the Cold War and 9/11. We 'watched the world wake up from history' Jesus Jones sang. Honestly, not much happened in the 90s. Heck the nation spent 1998 tearing itself apart over the Lewinsky affair. 

But the 90s had plenty of worries: AIDS, environmental doom and gloom. 

The 90's saw horrible humanitarian crises: Somalia, Rwanda, the Yugoslav Wars. The 90s had moral panics: Trash talk TV (Springer) and violent videogames. 

Older people can be forgiven for looking back at their youth and thinking things were great. We do (ahh, the carefree summer of 1990). And Generation X used to look back at the 50s the same way the Zoomers look back at the 90's now. 

Speaking of we watched American Beauty (1999) the other night, in which Kevin Spacey plays Lester Burnham, a middle-aged man fed up with his boring life. He quits his stifling office job and chases his daughter's pretty best friend. Les tells his young neighbor that he had to flip burgers all summer to pay for a stereo. When the young neighbor tells him that sucks Les replies, 'All I did was party and get laid'. Sure enough Les gets a job at the local fast-food joint trying to recapture the glory of 1973, to American Woman and All Right Now. Just perfect.  And sad. Because there's no going back. 

We ourselves find ourselves [Nice, genius -Ed] thinking back lo these 20 years to the summer of 2006. We were coming off a very successful year substitute teaching. We had a rough draft of A Line through the Desert. We are waiting with baited breath for Strategy & Tactics to publish our first big feature, Marlborough's Art of War. We awaited the arrival of our first child. We could play some guitar. This is also the summer we began putting on weight. We were 33. 

Whoa. Breitbart tells us the in France, Marine Le Pen beats all opposition, 'According to the survey, the RN leader would defeat Philippe by 54 to 46 per cent, Attal by 55 to 45 per cent, and against far-left La France Insoumise (France in Rebellion/LFI) leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon by 70 per cent to 30 per cent.' The French Deep State (le stat d'deep?) will do whatever it has to do to stop Le Pen. Within a year she will be imprisoned or dead. 

DOGE report.

The rough draft of the hippie commune nuclear war story is more or less done. More or less.  We've still no idea what happens up at the DEW Line. Those interested can Google and Google Earth the CAM-1 DEW Line site on Jenny Lind Island. Maybe it's just a plane landing. We dunno. 

We'll be working on the Dublin attack chapter all week in World War 1990: Thatcher's War. We'll show the attack on Dublin airport through the POV of the FCA battalion commander there. We're not sure what else.

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 7/12/26

Good Sunday morn, you brave reader(s) of Stroock's Books. We awake meandering and listless with just a soupcon* of angst. 

More blessed rain yesterday. 

Last night was England's biggest win over Norway since King Alfred the Great defeated the Vikings' King Guthrum in the 890s. Hmmm...Argentina vs England. The jokes write themselves. We don't know for whom we will cheer [Hey!-Ed]. Shut up, Ed. 

Whoa, Senator Lindsey Graham, dead at 71.  We've always been less hostile to Graham than a lot of other MAGA hats. We admired his work when he was a house impeachment manager back in 98/99. And of course Senator Graham was a friend of the Jew.

In his long career there was a certain respectable consistency to Graham. He remained true (if sometimes very wrong) even as the GOP and the right changed. 

This blog had disagreements with the man too (Ukraine), but now’s not the time. Mensch.

Will's Good Idea (or ideas) for the week of 7/12/19.

Our magazine article query campaign has busted or ghosted. 

Maybe we should write another history book. Pershing in Command never caught fire. Buuuuut we never really thought it would. We've maybe 8 articles, or chapters about various AEF divisions sitting around. Should we gather those into a history? Which is what we planned way back in the teens.

Also...okay, next year, by which we mean 2027, we gotta write something other than World War 1990 and The Great Nuclear War of 1975. Don't know what. Maybe we finally do another To Defend the Earth novel. Maybe something new and radical [You always had a 1066 novel idea-Ed]. More Jake and Patricia? [Na-Ed]. Upon this problem, we shall dwell. 

Okay...looks like our services will be required for some short story compilations next year. It's a start. 

*That's French. Here's where we learned the word, lo those 20 + years ago. 

Saturday Updates

Relax, doomers. We're going back to war. 

We had an excellent week at the gym, but our body is sore, tired. We feel bursitis coming back in our right knee and had better take it easy this weekend. 

What to do in the afternoon, though? 

The things.

No hits on article queries. We think we're being ghosted, actually [You? Never, love. Never -Ed]. 

We had a fine week with World War 1990: Thatcher's War. We began the Dublin assault chapter and like where things are going. World War 1990: Thatcher's War is 59,000 words. 

We began the hippie commune chapter in the 5th nuke novel. Really, it's more of a farm where the young people there have some hippie leanings, but commune is good shorthand. We're sticking with the bikers. The 5th nuke novel is 43,000 words. 

We still need nuke short story ideas.

We had planned a tentpole story for War Night, never happened. Maybe we should think up a tentpole story here? Something that's 15,000 words? But we run into the same problem. Of what and who would we write?

Friday Post Wrap

We got some much needed rain yesterday. At one point there was a real down poor and authorities warned against travel. We took Youngest Daughter and friend to the Donut. Seriously, it was just a lot of rain. 

We being we, we worried about the sump pump not going off when we thought it should. The sump pump was fine. [You ever think of, I dunno, maybe seeing a doctor about the worrying and fretting?-Ed]. Why? It'd just be us talking about our feelings and a prescription. Hard no. No with extreme prejudice. 

We took in a Somerset Patriots game last night. The oppo had scored 10 runs by the 6th inning. Mrs. Stroock was pleased as the oppo was her Reading Phillies. We counted at least five Patriots errors though the official scorer charged them with only two. At times we felt we were watching a little league game. Still, it was nice to get out to the ballpark. 

'Dad! Dad!' Youngest Daughter said. 'I was looking at your books on Amazon and there's this one reviewer who says how much you suck. He goes on for like nine paragraphs.' 

'I know who that is,' we replied. 'You know when I say I have enemies? This would be what I'm referring too.' Usually we would have resorted to immature name calling with comparisons to Yasser Arafat.  But Mrs. Stroock doesn't like that kind of talk around the house, and it is the wise man indeed who does not unnecessarily antagonize his wife, hell hathing no fury and all...' ['Hathing' is not a word-Ed]. Whatever. We recall the facts of the case and move on. That review is 11 years old and 20[?] novels ago. 

DOGE report. 

Same. 

Right now we have a biker gang showing up at our Berkshire hippie commune, which seems a little trite, tropey even. But the bikers showing up does work. Honestly we can change the bikers to whomever we want. The point of the story is how the hippie commune reacts. Meh, the commune is more of a working farm. 

We're working on the Dublin Airport scene in World War 1990: Thacher's War. We think we'll show the Brit assault from one POV character. FCA battalion commander? We don't know. 

Thursday late Post

Good afternoon, people of Stroock's Books. Thursday is upon us. 

Is the war with Iran back on? We feel like the war with Iran is back on. Okay. We have questions. What is victory and how is victory achieved? Did Trump agree to the original ceasefire to empty the Persian Gulf of bottled up traffic? Do the Israelis join in?

Oyster Fuhrer Graham Platner has dropped out of the Maine senate race. Sorry GOP enthusiasts and optimists. Graham Platner is only an issue if he's in the race. The good news is there are lots of DSA freaks and weirdos running for office. It's like the Mos Eisley cantina up there, yo. 

DOGE report.

We wrote one scene in World War 1990: Thatcher's War.

We began a short story about a hippie farm in the Berkshires. We've lots of good characters and have a good idea of where things are going. 

Midweek and (trying) to Mellow

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

Biopsy appointment made. No one seems to be in any rush. In fact, during our consultation the doctor said if we wanted, we could hold  off the biopsy and just get another PSA in three months. So chill. 

The appointment is made. The lawn is mowed. The rain has come. The new AC passed inspection. The car is lubed and the AC fixed for under $300. Writing is going pretty good. The girls seem to be enjoying themselves this summer. Yet we remain uneasy. We don't know why.

Well this is annoying. from The Jerusalem Post: 'This is a sign of what's to come:' Ehud Barak warns of Netanyahu's next move. The former prime minister told 103FM that the government’s decision not to comply with High Court rulings is a sign of worse to come, and called on the opposition to lead a public campaign.' Ehud Barak tried to give the country away to Yasser Arafat in 2000 and only failed because he couldn't find a way to give him enough territory. Camp David negotiation (2000) transcript follows -

Barak, ‘How many of our daughters would you like, Yasser?’

Arafat: ‘I don’t like girls.’*

It's possible that transcript excerpt may be altered, slightly - or may not even exist at all. 

DOGE report.

We've been saying that we need another foreign story in the 5th nuke novel, but do we? Right now, we've stories taking place in: Ireland, Soviet Salyut station, the BAOR, the Canadian DEW line, the Suez. Still, we'd like a story from a foreign leader(s) perspective. 

We did have another good story idea late yesterday, a hippie commune. We may place the commune in the Berkshires. Write what you know, they say. We're working on it now. 

*Homosexual. Died of AIDS.

Damn the Flemings, damn the Walloons

Good morning, Stroock's Books people, and Happy Tuesday.

Temps will climb into...the low 70s today. Wow. We're enjoying the cold snap. 

The girls are home. In their absence We got used to the house being clean and organized. Everything is back to normal. 

Sports wrap: Not even presidential intervention could save the American soccer team. Belgium dominated throughout. The US looked like it was on the backfoot the moment the match began. Losing to a fake country like Belgium...We're sure the Americans will do the honorable thing. 

We saw the matched at a neighbor's house. Our Chindian immigrant neighbors cheered on their adopted home team. One friend from Ghana explained stoppage time rules to us. We had Indian rose flavored ice cream. 

DOGE report.

Just an excellent all-around day. After vowing to focus on the nuke novel we cranked out two scenes in World War 1990: Thatcher's War and finally have a good idea of where things are headed. Exit question: how to handle the Brit assault on Dublin airport?