Jane Austen is Terrible, and other Observations

The temperature was 'only' 90 degrees yesterday. It felt pleasant. We mock the Euros for their overreaction to their little 'heat wave' but in truth, we crank on the AC as soon as the mercury pokes its head above 76 degrees or so. 

[Is that so, then?-Ed]

We can't quite shake this bug and are highly annoyed by it. We're cooped up at home, can't go out, can't go to the gym. Summer colds are the worst. Hey man, we took the tests, they were negative for the Biden Virus. 

Speaking of, Joe's people are trying to change the definition of 'recession'.  Are they serious? Do they really think changing a technical point to 'win' Twitter arguments is a good idea?...What?...They do?...Okay...That just means we're in a recession. I knew we were effed when the price of gas dropped.

Over at Hot Air, Allah Pundit has a long post about GOP prospects this fall. He notes that New Gingrich, who knows a thing or two about flipping the House of Representatives, thinks the GOP could win 70 seats. That's the Red Wedding scenario, and we don't see it. 

We agree with this, from Allah Pundit: 'The nearly unanimous sense that the country is on the wrong track under unified Democratic rule is the irresistible force. But there’s an immovable object too — gerrymandering and increased self-sorting by the population along political lines geographically since the last Republican tsunami in 2010. Most of the low-hanging electoral fruit in the House was already picked in 2020; what’s left is more of a reach. Which is why pros like Dave Wasserman are setting an *upper* bound on Republican gains that’s lower than Gingrich’s *lower* bound.'

This blog does not 100 percent trust Wasserman and the pros. Polls always underestimate GOP support. Heck, we remember in the runup to the 1994 election, that really was a Red Wedding, pundits predicted the GOP would win 20-30 House seats. The final tally was + 54. Stroock's Books thinks the GOP will pick up 30-35 seats in the House. GOP polling in senate races will improve in the fall and they'll flip the senate as well. 

What Will's Watching: In the Spectator, a review of Netflix's adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion. We watched this. We kind of like the modern antics the reviewer pans. But overall, we agree. Persuasion is boring. It's not boring because of a bad script, or bad acting or bad direction. No, Persuasion is boring because Jane Austen is boring. We vividly remember not reading Jane Austen in high school, and we plan on vividly remembering not watching any more Jane Austen adaptations. Who decided this crap was good?

Sales of World War 1990: The Weser are promising. When e-book sales drop off, we'll make The Weser available via KU. Until then, you people are forking over $4.99 to read it.