What's the Futball word for Monday Morning Quarterback?

Good, no, great back-to-back gym sessions this weekend. We can't say we'll get to our goal of 243 pounds by 31 December. But we can say we're not packing on the pounds. No mean feat this time of year, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. We have, these last few gym sessions, felt a mild urge to run our hour long four miler. We just like that feeling of accomplishment at the end. 

Suck it, Redskins. The Giants win their first big game in a decade 20-12. Mrs. Stroock's man, Penn State alumni Saquon Barkley, had a great game. Especially at the end when he gobbled up 10 + yards on several plays. Quarterback Daniel Jones was solid too. Yes, the Giants committed pass interference on the last play. And that line of scrimmage call was ticky-tacky too. Oh well. It's sweet when the Giants win. It's even sweeter when the Giants beat the Redskins. Have we ever mentioned that we hate the Redskins, or whatever they're calling themselves?

Our very latest in 19FortyFive: 'In my last piece for 19FortyFive, this observer outed himself as a Trump fan. There followed a respectable number of comments (14 as of this writing, one of them my own), all of them negative. Most commenters were left/liberal, or at least anti-Trump and they have strong opinions about the article and the author. Thank you, left/liberal commenters, for not letting me down. A few Trump fans had things to say too.' Click on through.

What Will's Watching: World Cup Final. The French were completely overmatched by the Argentines till about the 80th minute. Here the French scored a goal on a penalty kick and a second goal in regular play about a minute later to tie the game (match?). There followed extra time and finally penalty kicks, making for high drama. We ooood and ahhhed and wowed several times during the game's second half. Were you not entertained? We were. 4/4

All week we'll discuss our 20 yearlong magazine writing career. Let's start at the beginning. Let's start twenty years ago. We are 29 years old. We're wrapping up our first semester substitute teaching in the Somerset Hills School District. We finished our BA that summer and took a pair of MA courses during the autumn. We're jogging for the first time in our life. Two miles through Peapack. As the year closes we've come a long way from January through to December. We're, about to spend our last Christmas in Kentucky.

In December 2002 we're formatting and rewriting our undergrad term papers for publication at the suggestion of one of our professors, Brian Todd Carey. We've already made submissions to several magazine, but these have been rejected. We're about three months away from our first piece accepted by Strategy & Tactics Magazine. Our first article will be an 800 word or so short piece on Sparta and Athens. As will our second article on Frederick the (not so) Great, and our third about Athenian naval superiority, all with S&T. In December of 2004, S&T will publish a 4,000 word article of ours about the 16th century Dutch General, Maurice of Nassau. 'He sounds like a gay interior designer from Long Island,' quipped our grandfather. At the same time Medieval History published our article about Alfred the Great (see sidebar) which began life as an undergrad term paper, as did the Maurice article. 

Over the weekend we got in some good research for World War 1990: Norway. We learned a lot about Soviet paratroopers, the VDV, organization, planning, general attitude, etc etc. Lots of good details. We already see some character opportunities. Example, a young officer who joined the VDV after several years of service wants to prove himself to the long-term VDV types. Also, we had thought we'd have the Soviets attack Oslo, but fortunately we looked at a map. An Oslo attack is very impractical, unless the Soviets want to violate Swedish airspace, which we doubt. A subplot about Swedish Viggin drivers on CAP might be worthwhile.

An interesting discussion about writing and writing alternate history over at Sea Lion Press. We urge reader(s) to click on over. We agree with the author's note about the nitpickers and rivet counters that like to brag about picking up mistakes, inaccuracies, etc etc. They show up in Amazon reviews, sometimes they email me. Sometimes they leave comments here. 'Why everyone knows the Australian F-18 couldn't...' Get bent. I don't care. This of course excludes the people we pay to do just that.

Yeah....we saw this. We saw it right away without anyone pointing it out. It's so there, so obvious. The Jerusalem Post reports: 'The New York Times on released its daily crossword puzzle in the shape of swastika on Sunday, Democratic Strategist Keith Edwards pointed out on Twitter.' Don't be fooled. Nothing is ever an accident. The modern New York Times has a well-documented history of Anti-Zionism and Juden-Hass. 

Speaking of Jewish enemies...last night was the first night of Chanukah, in which we light a menorah to commemorate the Jews' victory over Hellenist King Antiochus and the recovery and restoration of the temple. As we've no doubt done before, we remind reader(s) that Chanukah is a minor holiday and only became big in America because it falls around Christmas. Israelis wonder what all the fuss is about. Antiochus and the Hellenists are gone, but we're still here. Remember the eventual fate that awaits all enemies of the Jews. All of them.