Will is Prepatellar

Good morning, Stroock's Books associated people. 

We have returned from our sojourn in the Berkshires. 

Our knee is killing us this morning, after killing us yesterday. This puts us in an anti-human mood. Time for an NHS visit [Stop talking British-Ed]. If we hop the border and go to a Canadian doctor, what's the over/under they offer us MAID suicide service? Update! Prepatellar Bursitis, some minor inflammation of the air pockets. They still thought we should apply for MAID. 

What Will's watching: Untold, the Fall of Brett Favre. In a short, sharp, and enlightening hour, Untold tells us the story of Brett Favre. Yeah...Anyone who watched football during the 90s and 2000s recalls how the league and the press loved and fellated Brett Favre. The media forced fans to followed along with Favre's personal travails, the death of his father, his wife's cancer diagnoses etc etc. Every season Favre conducted a will he/won't he struggle session over retiring - which got annoying. The man could receive no bad press.

That is, until he sent unsolicited dick picks to Jets sideline reporter Jenn Sterger. Untold also tells Sterger's story, a pretty Florida Seminoles girl who parlayed camera time into a gig as a sports reporter. Which is fine. Sterger admits as much. We couldn't help but like her. Favre all but stalks Sterger and he comes off like such a creep.

In retirement, Favre, shall we say, helped steer Mississippi welfare funds to toward the construction of a volleyball stadium at his daughter's college. She was on the team. Favre claims he didn't know where the funds came from. We had Stroock's Books crack legal team review that description before publishing. That ought to keep Favre's lawyers at bay. Favre has threatened to sue other critics. 

Untold was good, not great. Michael Vick is offered as a kind of contrast to Favre and the idea of accountability in the NFL. Really. Reader(s) should look up what Vick did.  And Untold uses sports racist Jemelle Hill to criticize Favre. There was too much bio and Favre fluff. 

So, we learned Farve cheated on his wife. He sent dick picks to Jenn Sterger (probably not the first time he sent dick picks to a woman we think). He was involved in questionable financial dealings.  He's litigious. Still we couldn't help but feel Untold was holding back. What else does Untold know about Brett Favre?

Research Read: Bandit Country, by Toby Harnden. The author is a journalist who covered Ireland in the late 90s for The Telegraph. Bandit Country is a detailed look at the inner workings of the IRA in South Armagh, nicknamed Bandit Country by British authorities. British and local forces travelled by helicopter in South Armagh as traveling by car was too dangerous. 

Harnden tells us of the history of the IRA and Irish revolution in South Armagh going back to the 17th century. The author recounts in great detail various IRA operations during The Troubles and introduces the reader to one Thomas 'Slab' Murphy, who ran South Armagh like his own personal fiefdom. Murphy was/is part Tony Soprano and part Afghan warlord. He was also the third most important man in the IRA after Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness, financing much of the organization through his impressive smuggling operation.

Bandit Country is a big book, over 500 pages, but it reads well and quickly. We learned a lot. 

DOGE report: On the drive home yesterday we kinda/sorta figured out what would happen in the opening chapter of World War 1990: The Managua Campaign. TMC should have some Soviet developments. The first scene may well be Dan Quayle's swearing in as defense secretary with James Baker (who hates Quayle) looking on forlornly. Exit question: does the Thatcher Ministry survive World War 1990: Thatcher's War?