Will's Good Idea for the Week of 12/7/25

Baaah! We wake up with a sore right knee. 

The Stroock family ordered sushi last night, on the eve of Pearl Harbor Day. We hang our head in shame. The restaurant was late with the order, but thanked us for our patience. Sure, Tojo. 

On this night, 84 years ago our grandfather and his Bard College chums drove down to New York City and heckled the Japanese consulate. Our grandmother never forgave the Japanese. Actually, Because of where we live, we know at least a couple of families who won't own Japanese cars. 

New York sports suck hole...

Mercifully the New York Giants have the bye this week. But the Jets play at 1 PM. Yikes.

The New York Post reports that the Baseball Hall of Fame Contemporary Era Committee, is voting today, and Don Mattingly is on the ballot. No, the former Yankee great is not a hall of famer. Sorry folks. Mattingly had a great first 6 seasons. After his back went out, Mattingly was a .300 singles hitter with gap power and a great glove. 'The seven other players on the ballot are Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela,' says The Post. It's time to stop worrying and learn to love the steroids era. So yes on Clemens and Bonds, also Delgado. No on everyone else. 

Apropos of nothing we went through our liquor cabinet last night. We really don't drink enough whisky as evidenced by the fact that we have lots of bottles of whisky, including a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue we didn't even know we had. We've both Catholic and Protestant whiskeys. The late father of our Man in Ireland made us a Tullamore Dew man. We have opened bottles of off-brand whiskeys like Tyrconnell and Paddy, the later of which we bought in Bermuda on our honeymoon. In the back we found unopened bottles of J&B and Cutty. We think we bought these waaaay back in 1999 as part of a whisky buying binge after we got our tax return.  Maybe we'll have a glass tonight. 

We had an excellent day yesterday reading through the Battle of Derry chapter of World War 1990: Whatever it's Called. We also read a lot about Derry and the IRA Derry brigade. We've picked up a lot of nice little details. Derry was more UDR than UVF territory. The IRA had been on the backfoot for several years. 

Overall, we're quite pleased. 

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 12/7/25. We always say that we want the novels in the World War 1990 series to have some differentiation. For one novel to be a bit different than the other. We've written a novel about paramilitary violence in Ireland spiraling out of control as a result of World War Three. And that's just the first half. We did not intend to do so. But do so we have. So we should stop worrying. There's your differentiation.