New York States of Mind + Will's Good Idea for the week of 8/22/21

We took the family up to see our dad yesterday. That's an hour and a half across northern New Jersey and the Tappan Zee Bridge to New York State. Our dad is slowly cleaning out the house in which we grew up; December 1979. We lay dibs to some of the furniture before our dingbat sister could get her hands on it. 

The Tappan Zee Bridge crosses the mighty Hudson River, New Jersey's natural defensive barrier against New York. The bridge is officially names for Governor Mario M. Cuomo, a man for whom we voted, a man who was nothing like his granny killing son. There's already a movement to change the bridge back to the Tappan Zee, zee being a Dutch term and a nod to the region's Dutch heritage. We grew up outside of Peekskill, named for Jan van Peek, kill being Dutch for stream.  Dutch names are all over the Hudson River Valley: Yonkers, Haarlem, Bronx, Fishkill, Orange (hence the Knicks and Mets colours).

The American Conservative has a good article on the decline of politics in New York. The state gave us giants of American history, TR, FDR. Now, not so much.  For 50 years New York has produced mediocrities (save for Daniel Patrick Moynihan, for whom we voted in 1994). Reader(s) will know Amy Schumer's cousin. Quick, who's New York's other senator? Who cares? Schumer, Cuomo, de Blasio....We shake our head in sadness. This blog agrees with everything the author says.

In World War 1990: Operation Tet the CIA coordinates a grand offensive in Afghanistan. The Muj hits Kabul, Kandahar and Bagram. The Soviet contingent in Afghanistan is drained of men and resources. Imagine multiple crises. A duel fight for Kabul airport and the Soviet embassy. A mass assault on Bagram, little or no air support, etc etc. The Soviets are more or less the good guys. I think the blockbuster opener is a Soviet Spetznaz raid on a guerilla leader from Saudi Arabia, partly to intro a few characters, mostly to get that out of the way. You know what we mean? Otherwise readers will spend the entire book wondering, 'When is OBL gonna show up?'

Operation Tet is a good idea. But just because we can do a thing does not mean we must do a thing. There's plenty of time between now and next summer.