That Thanksgiving Twitch

Good morning, assembled reader(s) of Stroock's Books. We prepare to sojourn across the Hudson this afternoon, or do we?

Twitcheth the eye....Remember Sunday's query about our minivan's left front wheel making a grinding sound on hard right turns. Turns out the minivan needs new brakes. It only has 22,000 miles...22,000 miles. The mechanic was as exasperated as we. He said the new brakes would be in this morning. So we googled it (big mistake, we know) and this minivan does have a problem with early brake wear down. Fab.

Twitcheth the man...our fancy less than 6 months old thermostat just loaded up with all kinds of nuisance technology we don't even want is glitching. This is a good one, comedic even. Throw on the heat, and the AC activates. Fortunately it didn't get too cold last night. As we write this the temp inside casa-de-Stroock is 67 degrees. 

We are assured by the dispatch guy that the glitch is due to a simple wiring problem. Devotees will recall our summer AC travails. Needless to say we didn't call that company again. We're on the list. Fingers crossed. Nevertheless, the eye doth twitch. Twitch it doth. 

At least the sump pump kept activating during Tuesday's rain. Small victories. 

Last night we watched Seinfeld and Arrested Development looking for comfort. Comfort we found. 

The New York Post reports that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wants us to dress better on airplanes.* The above linked editorial says we're all dressing like slobs for air travel. Quite right, actually. But can you blame us? To get on a plane means subjecting oneself to shoe inspection, body scan, possibly a pat down, all while big union TSA agents shout instructions**. This is no time to dress up. 

DOGE Report: Just cleaning up some odds and ends yesterday. Fleshing out the Irish Army Ranger Wing GOC. Clarifying a few things. We haven't quite figured out if we're dealing with the Ulster Volunteer Force or the Ulster Defense Association. The distinction matters. We should probably stick with the UDA as we mention the Ulster Freedom Fighters, a sub group of the UDA. That's right, the Protestant paramilitary group has a paramilitary group. Say it with us: for every solution, the Irish will find a problem. We just thought of an RUC policeman's thought we can write to delineate and clarify matters [That sentence does the exact opposite-Ed]. There we go...

Now excuse us as well call the mechanic. 

*In 1982 our grandfather flew the family to Sanibel Island in Florida for his 60th birthday. At 9 years old we wore a coat and tie. Times, as they say, have changed.  

**The stent in our artery usually alerts the body scanner. That's always an awkward wanding. Awkward, and annoying. We always give them a hard time.