Muck on a Monday

Good afternoon, patrons of Stroock's Books and happy Monday.

The temp here has reached a downright balmy 32 degrees. Beach Boys music feels entirely appropriate. 

Israel-Iran-Trump: Trump has gathered a mighty armada. Trump is sending Witkoff to negotiate. Nobody knows nuthin'. If someone cares to explain to us how striking Iran will topple the regime...Also, we don't necessarily believe all these casualty figures from the Iranian protests. How can they even count the dead? We remain, cautious, skeptical, wary even. 

Pointless nostalgia: thirty years ago we began the spring semester at a non-Jesuit university in Washington D.C. We lived across the river in Arlington with a roommate whom we would soon discover was wracking up hundreds of dollars a month in phone sex charges, constantly bouncing checks, and stealing from us. He is now a Washington DC lobbyist. 

We took five classes and earned three Bs, a B- and B+.  Those classes were: Rome, 20th Century Europe, Political and Organizational Leadership, Lab in Leadership, New World Order.

We recall a vague sense of satisfaction at the end of the semester. Spring 1996 was our last successful college semester.  

There followed a disastrous summer session in which we tried twice to fulfil the universities' math requirement. 

Okay, autumn '96 wasn't a total disaster, but having failed math twice we understood our university days were numbered, even if no one else understood.

DOGE Report: we began a new planning scene in World War 1990: The Managua Campaign. 

We finally figured out a way to begin the Soviet Salyut story in the 5th nuke novel. 

So far, so good.