Your Monday Entertainment Wrap

Good morning, Stroock's Books fellow travelers and happy Monday. 

Andor, first thought of the week. Andor was good, not great, which makes it better than anything else Disney Star Wars has churned out. Andor is a drama, Star Wars for grownups. The Mandalorian (a show which we believe will age very badly) Andor ain't. There's a tonne of filler in this show with what we believe to be intentionally slow pacing. There's a lot of talking, a lot. Was this show written by chicks? In truth, Disney could have gotten away with compressing Andor into one, slightly longer season.

Related...it was 26 years ago today:

We bought that the morning The Phantom Meance came out at Union Station, Washington DC, on our way to work at CNN. We've confessed before that we loved The Phantom Menace. We were enchanted.* Shows the reader what we knew at 26 years old. Interestingly, or strangely, Revenge of the Sith is enjoying something of a renaissance. The movie's reputation baffles us. RotS is overwrought, bloated, and ultimately stupid. The Phantom Menace is much tighter and as a result, much more watchable on its own terms. We haven't seen either in at least a decade. 

World War 1990: The Managua Campaign. This novel will come in three acts, the intro...something happening in Cuba...which will trigger the campaign to oust the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. We may or may not do an opening blockbuster chapter. Maybe something with the Cubans in Angola? We think the opening scene is Dan Quayle's swearing in as Secretary of Defense. The novel ought to move the WW1990 timeline well into 1991. 

DOGE report: we wrapped up our South Armagh reading and have what we need on this Thomas 'Slab' Murphy fellow. He was unofficially the #3 man in the IRA and its chief financier via smuggling. Murphy was/is (he's still alive) sort of an IRA institution unto himself, a kind of Irish Tony Soprano. Or maybe Murphy was/is an Afghan warlord with his very own stronghold.  Murphy ran/runs South Armagh. Anywho...we're still not quite sure how to tackle this South Armagh chapter. Maybe this idea should be part of the overall invasion? 

Monday (not) metal. Click here (warning: Sharon Osborne!) for Yuval Raphael's Eurovision finale. Hamas literally tried to kill her. Am Israeli Chai indeed. 

*We liked Jar-Jar. We're sorry.