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. 

Midweek Patriot (movie)

Good morning, Stroock's Books people, and happy Earth Day. Stroock's books reader(s) are a smart bunch, so they don't need us to tell them that Earth Day and environmental gloom and doom is a bunch of crap. Over population worries should be buried with the late Paul Erlich. The man who wished so many to the grave has found his. 

Last night the Dems rammed through their gerrymandered Virginia congressional map designed to give them a 9-1 advantage. The referendum passed by three points, making the vote much closer than we thought it'd be. One bright spot, the referendum showed the right base could be turned out. But there are no silver medals in a two-way race. The usual group of conservative lawyers have vowed to challenge the new map in court. Yeah sure. Anyone else remember 2020?

The Dems are serious about power, as the great Mark Steyn says. The congressional GOP? Not so much. Not that the SAVE Act is a panacea for GOP problems. Reminder, if the GOP passes the SAVE Act, the Dems will tie it up in court for 2-3 years.

The piece about General Nathanael Greene we submitted to a military history magazine has been accepted. Bully for us. Should be published in 'an issue or two' we were told. Which is nice. The bastards running Strategy & Tactics could take years, decades even to publish a piece [But you're not bitter-Ed]. Anywho...Reader(s) could probably figure out which magazine accepted the Nathanael Greene piece if they really wanted to. We asked if they wanted a piece on the battle of Trenton for the Nov/Dec issue. 

So are we really going to spend the next five years writing about the American Revolution? We dunno. Longtime reader(s) will recall our basement was flooded in September of 2021. Our library remains boxed up. Were we to crank out some new articles on the American Revolution, our first step would be to unbox that library and dig out our hundred or so books about the American Revolution. And where the hell is our framed Master's degree?

Since we've already mentioned the George Washington miniseries, and April Morning, let's talk about The Patriot [Do we have to? -Ed] Yes.* The Patriot is a Roland Emerich film, meaning it's an over the top action/adventure flick set in Colonial times. The Patriot is too long. And in some places it's just bad. No, the Brits didn't lock people in churches and put them to the torch. Banastre Tarleton was not a Hamas commander. Incidentally, Jason Issacs plays Tarleton, fictionalized here as 'Tavington' with perfect panache. 

The Patriot is overwrought, overdone. Nevertheless, in broad strokes The Patriot is an introduction to the American Revolution in the South. One sees the British landing at Charleston and defeating the Continental Army under the execrable Horatio Gates at Camden. There follows a nasty little civil war between Patriot and Loyalist forces (see Adam Baldwin's character), and finally the Continental victory at Cowpens. Admittedly the battle portrayed in the Patriot is much bigger than the real-life Cowpens. But The Patriot accurately depicts American militia getting off a couple of volleys and then retreating behind the Continentals. 

Bottom line, when watching The Patriot is one not entertained? 

Tomorrow we'll reco some books on the Southern campaign of the American Revolution. 

DOGE report.

We've lots of ideas for World War 1990: The Managua Campaign. Lots of characters. Just a great day yesterday. We are pleased. 

*We should do a The Patriot week later in the year. 

The American Revolution, Another Watch

Good morning, Substack, and happy Tuesday. We had a frost warning last night and as we write this it's 28 degrees out there. 

We had a sudden gout attack yesterday evening. The left ankle just seized up. No idea why. 

War of the ants...yesterday we saw nary an ant, alive or dead. We did intercept their comms though, 'Is there anybody out there? Anybody at all?' 

On Substack we're muting and blocking the retards. Oh look, there's another one. 

Today is Yom Hazikaron. 

As it happens Sunday was the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington Concord. The battle happened the way reader(s) think it happened. The Lexington militia confronted the British column. The Brits opened fire and scattered them and then marched to the arms depot, which they torched. When the Brits encountered minor resistance at Concord, they figured 'Mission Accomplished' and turned around. And that's when the Minutemen marched to the sound of the guns and inflicted frightful losses upon the Redcoats. By evening thousands of Minutemen had assembled outside of Boston. 

We know of two good movies about the Battle of Lexington/Concord. 

The first is Johnny Tremain, an adaptation of Esther Forbes' book. Very 1950s, very Disney. 

The second is April Morning, a 1988 adaptation of Howard Fast's novel. Chad Lowe stars as Adam Cooper, a teenage boy from Lexington. The morning of the battle Adam wakes up a boy, immature and somewhat resentful of his strict father, Moses. Adam loses his father in the initial skirmish and joins the militia. By that evening he's a combat veteran, a reluctant killer, and man of the house. 

April Morning has a heck of a supporting cast. Tommy Lee Jones  plays Adam's father. This was Jones under appreciated character actor era. Robert Urich plays a mentor and Minuteman. Rip Torn plays a grizzled veteran of the French and Indian War and militia commander Solomon Chandler. The lovely Meredith Salenger is Ruth, Adam's love interest. 

Doge Report.

We're editing the set-up chapter and battle of Nueva Segovia chapters of World War 1990: the Managua Campaign. We began work on the follow on chapter, in which Pan American forces advance out of the Choluteca Gap into Nicaragua.  

The American Revolution: a few Reads and Watches

Good Monday morning, Stroock's Books reader(s). We've a frigid morning here in New Jersey as temps are in the mid-30s. 

We've no insights into the Giants. Hmmm two number one picks now. That is interesting. 

So we bought a new laptop yesterday and had all programs, websites, etc... up and running just the way we like them within an hour. Remarkable. We never thought we'd say this, but God bless Microsoft*. Last night we dreamt our new laptop was already falling apart. 

Even after buying a new laptop, we were a bit demoralized. It's annoying really. We've been working off of a laptop since 2002. For reasons we've never understood, we can't seem to keep a laptop functioning for more than two years. And our last laptop physically broke. 'Sup with that?

War of the ants...we bought new liquid ant traps and deployed them in the kitchen and basement. A neighbor thinks we may have a nest down there, as he found the same in his house. We'll take a look. Otherwise, we shall press home our advantage. 

We are working on how we're going to blog and present the American Revolution. Actually, we're thinking we may do it in separate short posts. We should replicate our efforts here on Substack. We'll see.** 

In the meantime, if you want to start the American Revolution, we suggest Benson Bobrick's Angel in the Whirlwind. This edition is 500+ pages, but that includes intro, end notes, index etc. Bobrick's a Canadian author, actually, but don't hold that against him. See also George Middlekauff's The Glorious Cause. This is a classic and was the book we read for our first grad course, Intro to the American Revolution.  

We've lamented before that there aren't a lot of great movies about the American Revolution. However, we strongly recommend George Washington, the 1984 television miniseries starring Barry Bostwick. Go ahead and laugh, but Bostwick pulls it off. For younger reader(s), miniseries used to be a very big deal. George Washington was. Just check out that cast. George Washington can be found on YouTube.

DOGE report.

We worked on a scene in World War 1990: The Managua Campaign and edited another. 

*Wow, the MS read aloud function has a different default voice. Thank the Gods. The old default voice was a wine drinking, menopausal assistant HR rep or the library lady. The new default voice sounds like, we dunno, Microsoft.   

**Ed's pouting. She said something about 'bloody ungrateful colonists' and stormed off. Last we saw she was eating chocolate bon bons and binging Bridgerton. 

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 4/19/26

Good morning Christian friends of the Jew, except the C of E types [Again with this?-Ed]. A cloudy and chilly Sunday morn here in New Jersey and the heat is on. We call this Yankee spring [Really? Who? Other than you?-Ed].

Our computer continues to fall apart, with the lefthand hinge coming completely undone. This we've never seen. We are miffed. Annoyed even. 

War of the Ants: we're finding ant carcasses in the basement. The internet seems to think that this means the poison has gotten to the colony. Ant ambushes ineffective though and ant activity continues in the basement which is now the  main front of teh war. We remain vigilant. 

A lovely article from Ynet about Israel's population boom on the eve of Independence Day. From the subheading, 'Population grew by 146,000 in a year, with 177,000 births and 21,000 new immigrants; Jews make up 76% of residents, Arabs 21%, while Israel remains relatively young and ranks among the world’s top 10 happiest countries.' And after two and a half years of war, too. A remarkable country. 

Related...the Israel public overwhelmingly wants the IDF get on with things in Lebanon and finish off Hezbollah once and for all. Which is exactly why this blog believes Netanyahu will do it. An election looms....

Classic Post, Will graduates from college: It was 20 Years Ago Today. 

Let's move on to Will's Good Idea for the Week of 4/19/26...Things are going well with World War 1990: The Managua Campaign. We're prepped to have a good week this week. We should probably keep working on Managua through May. 

We finished the Kenny and Aoife sequel in The Fourth Day. We'll finish the cosmonaut story this week, we swear.

And that should clear the deck to at least restart World War 1990: Thatcher's War and lay the groundwork for a great June. 

Also, why not just start blogging the American Revolution? Afterall, we have an MA in the American Revolution [Bla-bla your MA, bla-bla 13 Colonies-Ed]. Shut up Ed. You're just bitter you lost.