Saturday Updates

We had a great week at the gym. Another hour on the treadmill yesterday, we felt like a gazelle bounding across the savannah, albeit a slow one. Our policy of training, whereby we run for 20-25 minutes at 4 rather than 3.5 is really paying dividends. We're doing great with the ropes, stairs and rowing machine too. We feel like Patton watching the troops march past in the snow. 

For six weeks now we've been taking a cherry extract supplement designed specifically for joint health and eating meat.  We also prep with a liquid cherry extract in 12 ounces of water before and after a burger. No gout. Nothing, nada. Not even a twinge. We think we've found salvation.

In case reader(s) haven't figured it out, we think the 1969-1975 period is the interesting part of the Vietnam War. We've moved onto Lewis Sorely's A Better War. From there we'll read books about the Easter Offensive and finally Black April about the fall of South Vietnam. Question, do we need to read Mark Bowden's Hue book? We guess it just depends if, after this initial survey, we want to get down in the weeds.  The idea has merit. We have a book about Laos we'd like to get into, and we'd like to read a book about the ARVN. As always, we'll keep reading about the war till tired of it. 

Our mastery of the Spanish language continues apace. We'll begin lesson nueve [Oh just look at you, good boy - Ed.] today. Mrs. Stroock has suggested that speaking Spanish in our fake bandito accent is not culturally sensitive and has told us to knock it off, 'You are not El Guapo.' 

So we've really gotten into the travel Vloggers Kara and Nate. Ironically YouTube threw their tour of Southeast Asia at us. Jesus Christ, there's the young Millennial couple walking around Phnom Pehn, la-di-da. They go to Angkor Wat and find it's overrun with tourists, like the rest of Cambodia. JFC, we'll never watch The Killing Fields the same way again. 

For three weeks now we've put the novels down  on the weekend. In doing so, or not doing so, we approach Monday fresh and Friday with a sense of urgency. 

We got the idea after hearing a baseball story. The New York Mets' Tom Seaver is the greatest pitcher since World War Two. He was a Marine and so was his manager, Gil Hodges. Seaver related how after a few bad days at the plate  and in the field Hodges would tell the team,  'Nope, no batting practice. No infield warmups. It's not doing any good anyway.' The team would go out there energetic and annoyed.

Instead of working on novels we've written side pieces for various publications (see below). We'll be revisiting Herr Professor Doctor Kagan this weekend. 

Our very latest at Substack: 'The armored actions of the 1965 and 1971 India-Pakistan Wars have been overshadowed by more spectacular battles in the Middle East. However, those interested in studying and gaming armored warfare can learn much from the armored battles fought by India and Pakistan in their 1965 and 1971 Wars, specifically the battles of Chawinda, Kehm Karan, and the Shakargarh Bulge. These battles are fine illustrations of how both recklessness and over-caution can lead to defeat.' We'll be posting another piece on Substack this weekend.

We didn't look at The Great Nuclear War of 1975, but did plenty of work on The Great Salvation of 1976. Another chapter read, cleaned up, re-read, and ready except  for one scene that needs a little work. The novel is 60,000 words. Looks like our Soviet side city idea of Ulan Ude is a go. As we've said before, people are going to want to know what's happening in the USSR and in '75 it's largely shrouded in mystery. Mostly no one is picking up the phone, anywhere. 

On Monday we'll begin reading the last chapter. After that it's back to '75 to wrap up the Falkland's stuff. At the end of the month we'll have some decisions to make.