And on Yom HaShoah too...

Good morning, Stroock's Books faithful and a happy belated Orthodox Easter to all those who celebrate.

So our car died at 8:30 PM last night. We think it's the starter or alternator. One is tempted to feel put upon, given our downstairs bathroom demo. But the car died in a parking lot, not on the road (in rural Pennsylvania Saturday, for example), and was at a garage by 10:00 PM. So it could have been so much worse. Besides....

Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day. The difference between the World War Two Holocaust and the 10/7 Holocaust is that now the Jews have guns, tanks, jets, and nuclear weapons. Some moron remarked to us that Hamas attacked anyway. Jews will always be attacked. Now the Jews can fight back, we replied. Which is the goddamn point.* 

We've never been a big 'Holocaust guy' for lack of a better term. We've seen Schindler's List exactly once. We've always thought Holocaust studies and the like teach Jews to be compliant victims. We'd much rather celebrate Ariel Sharon, the raid on Entebbe, the air strikes against Iraqi and Syrian nuclear reactors, etc. We stand by that sentiment. But let us just say out attitude on the topic has changed a bit since 10/7.

We'd like to get out of the habit of delivering daily, blow by blow updates on events in the Middle East...But we see Hamas and an anonymous Israeli source accuse Netanyahu of scuppering talks. Whatever, man. More importantly, the IDF has ordered the evacuation of East Rafah. The Israelis have really turned the diplomatic screws on Hamas the last week or ten days, and it's worked. We're calling it. Israel had a good week last week. That's four in a row.** Let's see what this week brings. 

Facebook tells us that 8 years ago today we asked this question, 'All right WW1990 fans, you tell me. Do you want to see a couple of novels about other theatres of the war?' And here we are, about to go through the World War 1990: Norway MS one last time. Yes, it's delayed. Why do you ask?

So this week we'll finish the Lexington rough draft story. [Why do you keep promising that?-Ed] Honestly, this could be the War Night story in War Night, and Other Stories of the Great Nuclear War of 1975. We've covered a lot of ground and have plenty of ground left to cover. But that story was supposed to be epic. This story is about a mid-sized city mayor. 

Monday Metal...there's nothing more Metal than Israeli Air Force Eagles overflying Auschwitz:

*We really wonder sometimes if it's our duty to throw a punch should we encounter real, honest to god Juden hass. We don't think so. Instead, we'll content ourselves with, 'I bet the last man your mom brought home from the bar was a Jew.'

**We grade on a strict P/F scale.