Will's Good Idea for the Week of 2/4/24

We don't really get the post-holiday winter doldrums till there's no football on Sunday. We are depressed by deep winter basketball and hockey. 

We had excellent back-to-back days at the gym and will go back today since we'll be busy with Dad-taxi duty on Monday and Tuesday. Dad taxi score 4.5/5. Actually on Friday we decided, WTF, let's start lifting again. We were sore afterwords but felt great anyway. One day lifting. One day cardio. Rest and repeat. 

Every once in a while, a friend from a European country which has an NFL team named after its ancestors sends us an article about how awful Putin is in the hopes of turning us into a pro-Ukraine war Neolib/con. The site to which our friend sent us is run by an account out of Langley, Virginia. Normally we only laugh that hard when we read something funny over at Ace of Spades. Anyway, this account has a list of Russia-files and Putin-symps. We were greatly disappointed to see we weren't on the list. What's a guy gotta do to get his Russia (said in Tucker Carlson voice) credit? JFC, how much do we have to collude? Do we not also work for the Kremlin?*

TBN Israel** says the IDF is scaling back operations in Gaza. The campaign enters a third phase which will feature smaller operations, raids, targeted airstrikes. The Gaza campaign is expected to continue for several more months. Israel Radar reports that the IDF has three divisions on the Lebanese border. We seem to recall ten brigades fighting in Lebanon in 2006. So there it is. Hezbollah, Bibi. Negotiations with Hamas continue. This blog maintains Netanyahu is running diplomatic circles around Hamas. But we shall see. 

We spent some time yesterday afternoon at Barnes and Noble working on the Alberta Farmer Story in War Night. Henry (who Anglified his French name) is a middle aged farmer, living alone, who see's WWIII start. This is a character study about a man who hates his late father and loathes his mother. He at once rejects his Quebecois roots but is fascinated by them. He wears a Canadiens baseball cap, for example. Henry is a man of many contradictions. Oh, there is no dialogue in this story. Everything about this story is fine. We just don't know where it goes. 

Related: a local author was doing a book signing when we were at Barnes and Noble. When we see these people we avoid eye contact. For years we've said a book signing is a great way to spend some time alone and do some thinking, but this guy got interactions and moved a few copies. No, don't even think it. We'd have to do a tour to make a book signing effort worthwhile and we ain't got the time. Exit thought, we had a great sales day, yesterday. 

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 2/4/24: we've been toying with ideas for the alternate history anthologies to which we've been asked to submit. The submissions must involve cavalry, armor etc etc. For want of an Arrow: Harold wins at Hastings. Maybe a short story where John Frederick Charles is embedded with British cavalry during the Washington Campaign. We can feel the buzz...the Juju...

*Note to the anon pussies at Nightengale Russia, the above mentioned guy at Langley who might be reading this, and anyone else without a sense of humor. This is irony. This is satire. This is over the top farce. Because if there's anyone who loves Russia, Moscow, and the Russian state, it's the Jew. See for example how well Russia and the Jew get along in Fiddler on the Roof. And while we have pointed out that Putin is a friend to the Jew, the rest of Russia is not. Fuck it, we think it's going to be Why we don't hate Russia Week here at Stroock's Books. 

**Trinity Broadcasting Network, which has some kind of relationship with the IDF.