Stars and Bars and...Rutgers?

Good Friday Morning, Stroock's Books Kibbutzim. It's Shabot so we're feeling particularly Jewy this morning. We'll be attending services tonight. We've attended a lot of Friday services lately. What's up with that? Today is the yahrzeit or anniversary of the death of our father-in-law, two years ago now and he'll be mentioned in the mourner's kaddish. 

We're at our new old favorite coffee shop where the coffee is pretty good, probably because we've spent this week drinking Starbucks. The vibe here is different. People drop in, get a coffee and a bagel and head off to work. The staff behind the counter is decidedly normal. 

Negotiations between Israel and Hamas continue. As does the fighting. Israel is winning the war, and we sense, the negotiations too. The Israelis say they've taken Khan Younis. Okay, where are the hostages then? Tomorrow will mark the end of the second week of the three weeks the Israelis said they needed to take Khan Younis. The Israelis hold the streets, but have many tunnels to clear. 

The leader of this blog's Confederate Contingent really should get on social media so we can jawbone about 'the war' and college football. We've probably told this story before, but you know what led to the desegregation of southern colleges? Football. By the late 60s the integrated northern schools we're beating the southern schools, so....When we say folks down south love their college football, we ain't kidding. Imagine the college boardroom conversations, 'Now our way of life is one thing, but don't you think Bobby Lee would want us to beat Ohio State and Michigan? Loosing to Yankees...[shakes head bitterly]' Again! Ha!

Tying the subjects of this post together, Mrs. Stroock's dear parents went to Big 10 Conference powerhouse Penn State. She grew up with a cat named Nittany (For the Penn State Nittany Lions). College football isn't very big in the Northeast (outside of Pennsylvania), probably because of the concentration of pro sports in the region. So we never had a college football team. Though our father kind of followed LSU because that's where his mother went, with Giant's QB Y.A. Tittle, we might ad.

Ironically the biggest college football program in the Northeast is...Rutgers just 20 minutes from here. Okay SEC fans you can stop laughing. No seriously, stop. There's a fan base in New Jersey, and one does see Rutgers gear. They play Penn State every year, and Mrs. Stroock has been to games. 'Kick Rutgers out of the Big 10!' Read one fan's sign. One football program does have a foothold in the northeast, but it's more of an ethnic thing. Think about it, reader(s)...That's right, Notre Dame. 

This story of a Ukrainian sea drone attack on a Soviet, sorry, Russian corvette has us thinking that we should talk more about Norwegian fast attack craft in World War 1990 Norway. FACs do show up in the battle of Lyngen Fjord, but there's no character POV. We could write several scenes featuring a Norwegian Strom or Hauk. We could at least have Northern Fleet's commanding admiral receive reports about Norwegian FACs in the fjords. Some of you people will love that. But as the Federation president in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country said, 'Just because you can do a thing does not mean you must so that thing.' We've only the epilogue left to read through.