Juneteenth is Hot

Summer's here, quite literally as New Jersey is enduring a 90 + heat wave all week. That's 32 + for subjects of the Crown. We're feeling it too and finally able to unwind a little bit. Last night we even sat outside with a book and a Molson, thank you, Canada. Go Oilers!

Happy Juneteenth to Stroock's Books readers across the United States. We like Juneteenth. It's actually a thing, unlike Kwanzaa which is faker than the fakest made up corporate awareness day.  On FB and Substack we posted links to the two articles we've written about the Civil War, or the War Between the States for Stroock's Books' Confederate Contingent. Here's our article on Sherman's March. And here's our article on the Grand Review. We'll never see a parade of its like again. 

We felt last night, slightly, the urge to perhaps write some more magazine articles. I dunno. It's times like this that we're reminded we made a terrible mistake earning an MA in American Revolutionary Studies and not the Civil War. We were a bit more than a year out of Northern Viriginia at the time, and tired of the Civil War being part of the fabric of everyday life.* Okay the American Revolution concentration wasn't a terrible mistake, but man every last one of those Civil War papers could have been a magazine article. 

In the Middle East the Rafah offensive is going just as the other offensives in Gaza have gone. The IDF is steamrolling Hamas forces. Okay, Bibi, where are the hostages? Up north the IDF has finalized plans for an invasion of Lebanon. Hezbollah flew a drone over Haifa. Hassan Nasrallah gave an extremely bellicose speech. The more bellicose the Arab's rhetoric the more impotent is the Arab. Israeli rhetoric is bellicose too. The next war will be a bloodbath for Lebanon and Israel. A lot of Israelis are going to die. A lot of infrastructure will be destroyed. Readers should have no illusions about that. 

Dune Part 2, Part Fem, Part 3. In response to the gynecological disaster of Star Wars: The Acolyte (may the menstrual cycle be with you), this blog continues its deep dive into the interesting characters in Dune. Today we look at Princess Irulan, played by Florence Pugh. Irulan begins Dune Part 2 with a diary entry describing the destruction of House Atreides on Arakis and recounts how the act hurt her father, for whom she clearly cares. At Shaddam's side Irulan learns statecraft. Irulan cautions her father against creating a martyr by assassinating Maudib. 'You bring peace,' she tells Shaddam. 'You will be a formidable empress,' he tells her.  Irulan is a young member of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, a touch naive, but always learning. Later Irulan perceives that the Bene Gessert breeding program created Maudib and the Jihad on Arakis and challenges her. The reverend mother informs Irulan that she has one way only to maintain her family's hold on the throne. Irulan understands perfectly. 

*Everyday we drove on the Lee Highway and the Jeff Davis Highway.