Has anyone seen my brain.
The neighbors thought that 6:30 am was the time to start demolition work this morning. I’d gone to bed at one. If my kid reads this, yes, I’m aware I’m supposed to be in bed by ten, but a chapter hit. Mistakes were made.
The result is that I’m walking into walls, bumping into cats, and Dan had to explain to me the very simple remote for my treadmill, because I was in tears, insisting it was broken. (Oh, yeah, bought a tiny treadmill that fits under the desk.)
There are things I want to write, but they are… confusing and difficult, mostly relating to the “no, we’re not in a civil war yet. We’re no worse than the sixties were” (and in many ways better because the left is repeating by rote what they did then, but the situation on the ground is completely different.) “Pray we don’t get to a civil war.” But as you can tell, it’s a difficult and fraught topic. And it won’t happen today, when I couldn’t figure out where the power button for the treadmill was.
There will likely be a nap later today. Likely.
Meanwhile consider this an Open Thread for discussion. I’m sorry this week is so scattered. It’s probably going to be a little glitchy till the end of October, when we come back from Portugal (no, we’re not there yet, but… it’s needed. The whole country makes me itch inside my head, but it’s needed. I want to see my dad once more on this side. And while he might last years, and I hope he does, that’s not the way to bet, and mom’s death proved it can all be too sudden to go over then.)
I realized yesterday I couldn’t give you the second chapter, because it TOO has spoilers, if you haven’t read part three.
I’ve been receiving…. best way to put it… snippets of things in Elly (the ever growing file is called It Came Through the Portal In Head)
I think this one inflicted itself on me because Nikre Lyto is one of the view point characters for book two.
This is a story about three years after his adoption. (In the second book, the character he’s stuck traveling with keeps calling him “sireling of a king” in a scathing tone. And is going to get himself shivved. Or worse. MUCH MUCH worse.
Anyway, this is narrated by Eerlen Troz, to use their term “Archmagician” which means he leads all those who can use “power” which…. let it rest. It’s part of the easter eggs in the book proper.
The ruby is the memory and power control for the whole thing, and is always worn by the Archmagician. It also has a personality and a logic of its own.
Oh, and though Ellyans are hermaphrodites, they have no breasts and therefore I chose “he” to translate their “people pronoun” which is genderless. (they have genders in the language but only use them for animals.) I didn’t want to use one of the neo-pronouns, because they were always a distraction, and these days they’re likely to be an annoyance, also.
For those who have no idea what I’m talking about: Ellyans are the bio-engineered human breed in the lost colony in No Man’s Land. I’m not going to do a hard sell, or any kind of sell on it. Just read the reviews.
And now, if you’re bored, here’s the snippet that came through the Portal In The Head.
I need to finish typesetting the third volume to put up. Which is what I’ll do after a nap. (The hammers have stopped. Maybe they’re at lunch.)
Child of The Ruby
Eerlen:
It was impossible to look at Nikre for any amount of time and not feel angry. Not at Nikre. Nikre was a beautiful child. Brinarian, and therefore smaller and darker than most children in the royal palace: his skin an even gold, his curly hair dark brown, and his eyes a deep, dark amber that seemed to change with the light and his mood.
But beyond all that, he was a quiet child, attentive and pliable. He never complained of anything, to the point that it was imperative to watch him at all times, in case he had any difficulties. Because he’d never tell you. In fact he’d endure any discomfort and pain in an attempt not to cause trouble. And he had archmagician level power, though he was nowhere near the stability where he would be ready to inherit, and at any rate archmagician was not just a matter of power but of learning. And on that, Nikre studied hard, and never complained or asked for a day of rest.
Which is why it was impossible to look at the child and not get angry. Not at the child but at the circumstances under which Nikre had come into Eerlen’s life.
Eerlen had heard rumors of a child with archmagician power in a small fishing village in Brinar, where no one else had magical power. If he’d known what was happening, he’d have gone the same day. As was, he had to go and investigate because non magicians and an archimagician child – whom reports said was variously two, three or four years old – could spell trouble. You never knew when the child would start using magic, and if he wasn’t linked to the ruby where he would find the power. Highly gifted children could kill by accident. And did.
As was he’d gotten there just in time. It wasn’t an unusual situation. Nikre’s body-parent had died when Nikre was two years old. His sire had almost immediately sworn a new lover. After which they seemed to have, between the two of them, decided to dispose of the toddler, so that Nikre’s sire could gift his new sworn a brand new fishing boat which Nikre had inherited from his parent by line right.
They’d tried starving and beating first, anything that would, quietly, cause the child not to thrive and die, in a way the small village wouldn’t blame on them. When that failed—
When Eerlen arrived he was told the child had been taken out to fish with his parents. But the neighbor who told him of it was suspicious and told Eerlen the family situation and they’d never before had spent any time with the child, willingly. In fact, the small, poor village had been feeding the child, quietly, behind his family’s back, and they all felt something was very wrong.
So the neighbor had taken Eerlen out in his own boat. They’d still been a long distance away when Nikre’s sire and his new sworn had thrown the three year old – as Eerlen had found later – overboard and into the sea. If Eerlen hadn’t been a magician – if he’d not been the archmagician – Nikre would have been dead. As it was, it had taken throwing his power, encircling Nikre, and pulling him – coughing and sputtering and streaming seawater – into the neighbor’s boat. Eerlen had sent Nikre with the neighbor, to dry and warm at a fire, and waited to meet the criminals.
“What did you do with them?” Myrrir had asked when he had time to speak to Eerlen, after Eerlen, covered in blood, had dragged the child in during a formal dinner. “Precisely? I take it not a mere magical killing? Judging by how your tunic looked…”
Eerlen had shaken his head. He had, as clan leader and as archmagician, killed before. Of course he had. But this was different.
They’d been sitting on the cushions in Myrrir’s room – their room, since Eerlen slept there, though for formality sake, he had a small room adjacent – and Myrrir had touched Eerlen’s tunic over his ankles. “Did your wicked little knives take action?”
Eerlen sighed. “It had to be done. In front of the village. It had to be known it would not be forgiven. I did mind-ask head of fourth for consent. I had after all witnessed attempted murder. As had the neighbor.”
“Very correct,” Myrrir said, his mouth quirking on the right side, and the kind of amusement in his voice he often showed about what Eerlen did, though Eerlen rarely understood what was so amusing. But then Myrrir’s expression clouded. “I would not have been, Eerlen. I’d have strangled them with my bare hands, and hang the fourth circle authority over attempted murder.”
Eerlen had laughed, because it was impossible not to, and leaned into Myrrir. “Not gory enough.”
That night they had decided that Nikre would not be put up for fostering in the brotherhood, that he would be adopted by the Archmagician and the king of Elly, themselves. Eerlen would be his adopted parent and Myrrir his foster sire.
Perhaps it hadn’t been the best for the child. Or perhaps it had. Perhaps what Nikre had endured as a very young child had already made him who he was. Though Myrrir threatening anyone with death who so much as looked at the child in a wrong way couldn’t have helped. It had taken a good two years for the children of the palace to approach Nikre or play with him.
But at six he did play with children now and then. Mostly he played with Brundar Mahar, Myrrir’s three year old child, and, that day, with Kahre Sarda, Myrrir’s sireling by the late governor of Karrash. Kahre was a year older than Nikre and was visiting that day. From Eerlen’s seat, on one of the stone benches, he watched the three children play near the Koi pond. Kahre and Nikre were trying to teach Brundar to play with dolls, but Brundar’s idea of playing with dolls was to undress them and then fling them at one of his play companions. Which was fairly normal. Little Brund viewed dolls as projectiles. Though the undressing was a new thing, and he’d have to tell it to Myrrir who doubtlessly would make it into a funny story to tell all visitors.
Other older children might have lost patience by now, but Nikre would pick up the doll, and Kahre would dress it, and they’d bring it back to Brund, and demonstrate how to hold the doll. He couldn’t hear what they said, but the older children must have been speaking of why dolls should be held and not thrown, because he caught the words “Baby, Brund. Baby. You don’t throw babies.”
Eerlen was fairly sure between now and his late teens or early twenties Brundar would work through to that idea. Hopefully. Otherwise the court would be very shocked indeed.
As he stretched his legs, he watched Brundar do what he did, lie down on the grass and go to sleep, thumb in his mouth, with the suddenness of very young children.
The older children settled down to play with the doll and Eerlen was lost in his own thoughts, until he felt someone sit next to him, and looked. Kahre was sitting on the grass rocking the doll and singing something that, from this distance, sounded like a lullaby.
Eerlen looked to his side, where Nikre had slipped to sit beside him on the stone bench. “Didn’t you want to play?”
Nikre shrugged. “It’s Kahre’s doll,” he said. Then hurriedly, “He’d share. But the doll has a name, and—” He shrugged. “He gets to be the line parent.”
“You could bring out your own doll,” Eerlen said. And realized immediately that he’d said something wrong, because Nikre gave him a quick look, then blushed and shrugged. And Eerlen realized they’d never given the child a doll. And of course, he wouldn’t ask. Most of the time he followed Eerlen around or pored over his studies of magical formulas. But– That quick longing look had said enough. Eerlen would have to figure out where the best dollmakers were. Long ago, Eerlen’s parents had made him cloth dolls, but Eerlen didn’t have the time.
Nikre had got off the seat, and leaned against Eerlen’s shoulder. He looked at the Archmagician’s ruby over Eerlen’s tunic. “He says I’m his.”
Eerlen blinked. “He?” He removed the ruby over his head and held it in his hand, his idea being to keep the child away from it. The ruby was… strange and impaired in ways Eerlen didn’t understand.
Nikre pointed at it. The ruby shone.
“Don’t,” Eerlen said. “Don’t touch it. What did it tell you? How did it tell you?”
Nikre looked up, his eyes amber and concerned. “He. He’s a person. No… not a person… but he talks.”
Eerlen nodded. “He does. What did you hear. Was it words?”
Nikre nodded, solemnly. “He… it said that I need to study hard because…” He looked up, and Eerlen realized there were tears over the amber. “It says if you die I will have to be the archmagician and … and wear the ruby. And… and be master over the brotherhood.” He sniffled. “But I don’t want you to die.”
Eerlen put the ruby on, and slipped it under his tunic, then gathered the child in his arms. “Nikre. Wearing the ruby and being the archmagician is a big responsibility, and it is not fun, but when the time comes I’m sure you’ll do a wonderful job.”
Nikre shook his head. “Not that. I mean, I’ll try.” He looked up and the amber was drowned in tears, “But I don’t want you to die.”
Eerlen thought of many things. Birthing was perilous. And war was perilous. And Eerlen needed to do both. He could die at any moment. But there were times to tell children the truth. And times not to. Or to tell it in a different way.
He pulled Nikre onto his lap. The child was small. Brundar was already almost his size. “I can’t promise not to die,” he said. “But I’m going to do my best not to.”
The little hand clutched at Eerlen’s tunic. “You promise?”
“I promise. Not for a good long time, not until you’re older than I am.”
Nikre sniffled again. “An Myrrir won’t die either?”
“Not for a good long time. Not until you’re all grown and don’t need us.”
Nikre said something in a whisper. Eerlen said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand that.”
“I’ll always need you,” Nikre said, and clutched desperately at Eerlen’s tunic. Eerlen rocked him until he was asleep. Kahre had fallen asleep next to Brundar, clutching his doll.
All was peaceful in the garden.
And Eerlen felt suddenly that though perhaps they weren’t the family that Nikre should have had, they were his family. And it was good.
According To Hoyt 
Hopefully, your brain will find my brain and send it back to me. [Wink]
LikeLike
What if they switch places (a la The Parent Trap)?
LikeLike
More likely they will pair up like Thelma and Louise, have an epic adventure, and refuse to tell you about it after they slink home from the bottom of the canyon.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Or they’ll run off together and never be seen again… 😛
LikeLike
It certainly wasn’t around here – I would have grabbed it as a loaner for mine, that also wandered away. I did go to bed at ten, but had to be up at four to self-medicate before taking the wife’s car into the shop.
(Yes, definitely gone, and Sarah’s is not in its place. Had a half dozen typos up there, and they weren’t amusing ones.)
LikeLike
LikeLike
is newer version
LikeLike
We do this and Here Comes Your Man in the band I’m in. Very fun songs to play.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m -sloooooowly- learning Here Comes Your Man. Fun!
LikeLike
Noice! What’s your instrument? (I’m on the bass)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Guitar. I play a Strat. Still at the “practicing chords and puzzling through the riffs” stage. Plink plink, strum strum. ~:D
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aha… I didn’t pay much attention to the guitar part. I tend not to, other than “guitar riff is based on this chord or that one.” And our guitar player already knew it, so I have no idea what he might’ve gone through to get there. (I do know that he forgot the exact notes in that weird jangly chord at the beginning and had to puzzle over it for a few minutes in rehearsal.) :)
I had to learn the song super fast, so as to play it with him at an open mic with another guy who also already knew it. Fortunately, the bass part is very straightforward; kind of a textbook bass pattern, actually. But it’s got some variations for flavor and a lot of movement in it, so it’s really satisfying to play — it’s always fun when a song does the basics *really* well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m reminded that a local builder/carpenter complained that a local city had an ordinance against construction (perhaps in residential areas) before 7:00AM.
LikeLiked by 2 people
For some reason, construction tradionally begins before 07:30. A lot of young men who could have promising careers in the industry are kept out by this. You need to be a deep Morning Person. No wonder Tim Finnegan took a drop of th’ crayture every morn!
Years ago I would have said it allowed workers, trucks, and machines on the road to avoid the traffic rush, but now the afternoon rush begins around 14:30, at least in heavily populated areas.
LikeLiked by 1 person
‘Round these parts ‘rush hour’ seems to last most of the day. ☹️
Even though there are places with much worse traffic.
LikeLike
“For some reason, construction tradionally begins before 07:30.”
Lots of things are set to appeal to the Morning (ptui!) People.
I get that folks want to get things done. But I really hate gun classes that start that early; I’m not safe to drive at that hour and I’m darn sure I’m not safe to handle a loaded gun at such an hour. Give me a class that starts at noon and runs until dark!
My wife’s family were all morning people; her sister still is. My dad was – he wanted me to come fishing with him and was not receptive to the idea that fish are hungry all day.
The only time I see a live sunrise is if I have not yet been to bed.
LikeLike
From Professor Grabel (of Grabel’s Law): “A night person is someone who thonks a sunrise is the most beautiful thing in the world and an absolutely perfect way to end a day.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Starting construction early allows you to get some work done before the day heats up. Best to get any crawling in the attic done then, too, before it turns into an oven.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I nearly killed myself working in a hot attic.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There is that.
LikeLike
This. Especially in the South, especially in the summer.
LikeLike
For some reason, construction tradionally begins before 07:30.
Well, in the summer, that’s when your work-site is coolest.
And it’s always more pleasant to do heavy physical labor when the outdoor conditions are slightly cool.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I seem to recall hearing that the optimum temp for physical work is 65 F; for mental 75 F…. but it’s been a lot of years since I remember hearing it.
LikeLike
It’s different in $TINY_TOWN, especially when the crew is departing from Flyover Falls (it takes 45-60 minutes to get here). So barring something critical, they’ll show up at 8:00 or a hair later. It’s a pain when there’s a heatwave, but the contractors can’t expect the crew to gather before 7.
It was 7AM in San Jose, and the neighbors got cranky if noisy work happened after 9PM. One had a rooster, and we made a deal; the rooster got silenced and I knocked off before 9 or earlier if practical.
I’m now a morning person; getting up at 4 is sleeping in. Lights out before 9:15. With luck, I’ll get 6 hours, but the trend is two or three days at 5ish, then a longer sleep. Pain determines some of that. Sigh. If I sleep over 7 hours, I really need it. (The gotta do list is progressing, but it’s strenuous. Whee.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
So my driveway was laid out at the time the house was built (1986_ and was starting to have issues. Last Saturday the company arrived to do the fix up at 8 am. The noisiest thing is in certain broken down areas they cut the old pavement out with giant saws and then scoop it up with shovels and a little bobcat. And of course the screeching sound of asphalt at 8:15 was impressive on a quiet Saturday.
And yes 6:30 to 7 am is standard starting time even in New England. Father in Law was a brick Mason and he always started early. Uncle was a framing carpenter/Prime Contractor and he always had folks on site by 7am. A lot of this is for the high heat later in the day, but also because if our weather is going to turn ugly (especially in the summer) it does it starting 3-4 pm in summer/early autumn so you’re mostly done and you can cover things up (or the mortar has at least an outer coat so your hard days work dosesn’t slump over and break things).
LikeLike
Feel better.
If you do write about the sixties versus today, and you should since they’re very similar, have a look at the demographics. In the 60’s into the 70’s you had a bubble of young “adults” coming through. Caused inflation in addition to all the other BS. Same today. Once that bubble works through things will settle down and we’ll have to face a population shortfall, which will be …. Interesting.
I coach a rugby club and come into regular contact with the most diverse set of young men, and their wives and girlfriends, that you can imagine. they’re OK. It’ll be fine.
again, feel better.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The story has changed. In No Man’s Land, Troz went that afternoon, because he had time, and always had nightmares about what would have happened if he didn’t.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right. This actually came first. Got refined in NML
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sometimes the transmission is from the universe next door.
LikeLiked by 2 people
“Whoops, wrong brain! ‘Scuse me…”
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Lost and Found, can I help you?”
“…Yes. Have you found any marbles? …. I seem to have lost mine.”
LikeLike
In Orlando Furioso the titular character has lost his wits. Lost things appear on the moon, so Astolfo journeys there. (The trip involves a hippogrif and, according to WikiP, Elijah’s flaming chariot.) Astolfo finds the wits, which apparently look like grapes, and brings them back.
But if they look like grapes, maybe they’re … marbles?
So Sarah, check to see if they’re on the moon. If not, you haven’t lost them, merely mislaid them.
LikeLike
“Bam! Zoom! To the Moon!”
LikeLike
Gruesom has signed the Kalifornia law that prohibits I.C.E. agents wearing masks. I’d like to have a few words:
“Are you aware that state governments have no authority over federal law enforcement officers? Your stupid law is almost useless. All it’s good for is entertainment. ‘Cause I want to see your face when you try to enforce it and the feds tell you to go fuck yourself.”
LikeLiked by 3 people
If any stupid California police tried to arrest a fed, they would be the ones charged with the actual federal crime of interfering with a fed office in performance of their duty.
So virtue signaling will only result in getting a woke cop facing fed charges. Can we have more of this? Kind of like the crats threatening to shut down the gov, only to realize they are getting their allies fired.
Something Napoleon said, on the subject when your enemy does something stupid. “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
LikeLike
“Or better yet, arrest you for obstruction of justice”
LikeLike
The Reader believes that Newsom signing that law officially puts California in a state of Insurrection. Popcorn, anyone?
LikeLike
He’s pandering to a subset of the 41% of registered voters in The Formerly Golden Now Singed And Still Unpermitted For Reconstruction State who cast their votes for Kammy.
He’s apparently hired all the self-described big brain consultants from the Hillary and Sotoero campaigns past. It’s a bold move, Cotton…
LikeLike
I’d heard Clinton and Harris campaigns. Obama campaign folk are getting long in the tooth (as are some of Hilary’s who are leftovers from Bill’s campaign) though I’m certain they’ll be willing to graft as best they can from Newsom’s campaign. It is absolutely clear Newsom sees himself as the man to take on the Trump replacement. He is projecting for the Dem audience as hard as he can to get the nomination in 2028. Problem is being Governor of California is the path to the presidency it once was. Jerry Brown broke that hard in the ’80s and early ’90s. California hasn’t been viewed as a model, but as the land of “Fruits and Nuts” since then. A Cali Governor can get the nod, but will have an almost insurmountable hill to climb to get the Electoral votes. I really think the Dems need a Mcgovern level loss to get a hint, and maybe even that mjollnir like cluebat might not get them to walk away from the current stupid.
In a (representative) Democracy with first past the post you tend to get a two party system due to a lot of games theory. Having one of your parties be so ineffective that it is effectively irrelevant is not healthy for the system. We had that for a bit with the Republicans and we got the mess that was Obama. We’re not there yet for the Dems, the Dems still have lots of power. But between Electoral college woes and re re districting they may find themselves in a world of declining control, ultimately holding just the Blue enclaves of the large cities which will inevitably mismanage themselves into bankruptcy. Like Ford of yore I do not think this or any successor administration would be willing to bail them out without direct control of the city which itself has severe constitutional issues without some emergency declaration.
LikeLiked by 1 person
isn’t the path (sorry my brain seems AWOL like our gracious Hostess’)
LikeLike
“mjollnir like cluebat” – I hope I can remember that in order to steal it.
LikeLike
Covid masking was arguably against some fo the state anti-terrorism laws.
Those are inconsistently enforced enough that treating them as vacated might have been fairly justified, except for the coincidental terrorism campagn that sumemr.
To convict Newsome et al of anything, one would probably need to be able to persuasively demonstrate enough mental function to have a guilty or evil mind. They may have a solid enough mental incompetence defense that they would have been removed from office if those laws were more justly administered.
We shall see.
LikeLike
Whose job was it to fumigate for the Onion Ninjas? They did a poor job of it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The blue mice and pink elephants opened some bolt holes. As usual.
LikeLike
Sarah’s done a great job making the culture alien, but not impossibly so (since they are humans, at least somewhat).
BTW: Name the cat Mrs. Izer. For those who haven’t followed or noticed the unexpected name changes (I didn’t do it on purpose), I was “mrsizer” for years. That would be either Mr. Sizer or Mark R Sizer, not Mrs. Izer, which I was asked about. I have no idea why I have turned into just “Mark”.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Weird changes and WordPress? Who could possibly think they’d go together? (Barring any days ending in ‘y’.)
I’m still trying to figure out how/why another WP blog (softsolder dot com) grabs Pale Moon by the bits and triggers a segfault.
All together now: “WordPress Delenda Est.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Brain and brain! What is brain? :-o
LikeLike
This is Brain!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBkT19uH2RQ
LikeLike
Yep – the one on the left:
Pinky:
Gee, Brain. What are we going to do tonight?
The Brain:
The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mentioned william Blackfox earlier, who did great animal caricatures and had a comic which appeared in Tournaments Illuminated. (He drew me as a horse, to my mild dismay).
He did a strip where the Brain tired to take over the SCA so he could use them to Conquer the World! Namely by trying to enter Crown Tourney, with “Lady Pynque” as his consort.
His plans were foiled when Blackfox tipped a helmet onto him. At which point he began singing, “Pynque and the Pain, Pain Pain.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?”
“I think so, Brain, but… me and Pippi Longstocking? What would the children look like?”
“No, Pinky! ”
“But whatever they looked like, they’d be loved!“
LikeLike
LikeLike
“…but if they called them Sad Meals no one would buy them.”
LikeLike
“…but this time, you wear the rubber pants.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Narf!”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Somehow I never noticed it before but Brain’s voice actor is throwing in a smidge of Peter Lorre into the accent. Voice actors are truly amazing folks in what they do.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love these snippets (and the books themselves!) More stories please!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dial up your personal alert level anywhere near LEO, especially Fed. Apparently the Fools From Auntie are calling for more …. kinetic…. action.
Sure, it’s one or maybe a handful of Dingleberries with a web site. And the mass of normal/chickensquirt Aunties are unlikely to risk their precious hides answering such calls.
But it’s meant for the handful of lunatic hang-arounds they cultivate.
Which means you don’t want to be standing too close to a badge with your head up your posterior. Be scrutinizing the strangers you pass, (relaxed alert yellow, don’t stress). If you plan ahead what you woukd do if mayhem brews up, you might just succeed in evading it.
put air in your tires to proper pressure. Do the maintenance.
carry your usual sidearm.
stay in touch.
enjoy the day. (The oppo really hate it when you enjoy life)
And stay alert.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m bored now, and have enough energy to be prone to overhyping stuff that will probably not be very interesting.
Redstate/Strieff
‘guys its happening’ watch
https://redstate.com/streiff/2025/09/25/panic-seizes-pentagon-as-hegseth-calls-no-notice-no-agenda-meeting-of-all-generals-in-command-billets-n2194381
https://redstate.com/streiff/2025/09/25/trump-cancels-meeting-with-schumer-and-jeffries-orders-mass-firings-in-case-of-shutdown-n2194368
The first option has a lot of reasonable explanations, like Trump has decided that there needs to be a Come To Jesus talk with the general officers on Russia, or something.
Trump seems to have realized that he cannot negotiate with Putin, and once that was confirmed, there are a lot of basic questions about readiness. If there is a tight deadline to change, and if our adversaries cannot react immediately, then this might be the most expedient way to negotiate with and to shuffle officers. Flag officers should have subordinates equipped for routine defensive acts, or they have not been developing and managing their subordinates.
Second item is probably a not unusual for Trump negotiating situation. Basically, it is extremely likely to be boring, and disappoint any hopes I allow myself to have.
LikeLike
I laughed at Ryan McBeth’s jest—urinalysis observed by the SecDef himself!
LikeLike
Ah, that’s SecWar now. Don’t forget! 😛
LikeLiked by 1 person
Speaking about “Writer’s Brain” makes this n00b realize my catalogue is just the gateway to wonder and horror… I half-started a bunch of stuff since 1978 and it’s starting to leak out…
Thank God for my wife who reminds me I have a real job. I might be this guy, otherwise:
https://chatgpt.com/s/m_68d5c2fb1f2481918d430338ac6b7611
LikeLiked by 1 person
Of course, my workspace and haircut are worse and I’m far more grey…
LikeLike
At least President Trump knows how to play this game:
https://redstate.com/streiff/2025/09/25/trump-cancels-meeting-with-schumer-and-jeffries-orders-mass-firings-in-case-of-shutdown-n2194368
And because he’s dropping positions, not individual staff, an awful lot of civil service nonsense doesn’t apply.
LikeLike
Puhleeease don’t throw me in that there briar patch, Bre’r Bear! 😁
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is of course, Bre’er Fox. If you’re going to quote “forbidden” children’s literature might as well get it right :-) . Better to be hung for a sheep than a lamb.
LikeLike
Oops. 😳
Hey, it has been a while since I was a sub-teen in the 60s…
LikeLike
oh happy day!
LikeLike
When I read that I imagined President Trump telling Musk he was doing this. Pointing out he could get rid of a lot of waste spending ultimately blaming it all on the democratic caucus. No wonder Trump and Musk were so tight at the CK memorial. Shared goals and grief will bring people together.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haven’t read No Man’s Land yet since I’ve been very busy the past week or so (family visiting from out of town — way out of town, as in “flew halfway around the world to get here” — so I’ve been spending my time with them rather than reading), so perhaps this is answered in the book. But if they don’t have breasts, how do they feed newborns? Formula? Or do they produce milk even though they don’t have visible breasts? (I have been told by lactation consultants that the size of a woman’s breasts has no correlation to the amount of milk she can produce, so even women who wear an A-cup can breastfeed their babies. I have no personal knowledge whether that’s correct.)
If that’s answered in the book, then please don’t answer it for me here, because I’d like to discover it in the course of reading, as you intended when you wrote the book. But if that’s not addressed in the book, then I’m curious.
LikeLike
To my knowledge, that is a question that someone who has not read it might ask.
Because I kinda doubt that anyone who has read the book would have missed having that information presented.
Formula would be a very significant improvement for this culture.
Most of breast size in humans is not strictly necessary, adn appears to have been a result of sexual selection, like male deer with a large set of antlers.
It might be overstating things to say that Sarah thought of everything, but what I know so far is fairly comprehensive. (There is zero surprise in hindsight that this was so very straining a novel for her to produce.)
LikeLike
Indeed I suspect human breast size is totally a show off to say “Look how healthy I am, I can waste precious calories on building large stores of fat”. That and fat padding on other places we males of the species appreciate is exactly like giant antlers of a stag or a huge display of colorful feathers on a male peacock. It is to attract our (male gaze) attention and compete with other females for males. Those fat stores are also VERY useful in case of hard times and as any woman who has tried to lose weight knows, guess where your body removes fat first?
LikeLiked by 1 person
breasts have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with milk production. Great apes don’t have breasts. it’s like the blue splash on the chest of some monkeys, there for aesthetics.
“large nipples” basically.
<one of my friends had breasts the size of half a boiled egg (I swear I’m not exaggerating.) She nursed three children. They didn’t get bigger, either.
LikeLiked by 3 people
This. It’s a guy selection thing.
Personally I wish it weren’t a thing, but ape brains, oy….
LikeLiked by 2 people
It seems unusual, though, for sexual selection to operate on a female trait. If a peacock has a big flashy tail he can mate with a whole lot of peahens, and shut the other peacocks out, and so it’s worth pushing that trait to the limit where it actually imperils survival. But if a woman has enormous tracts of land, she can’t get any more pregnant by any more guys; and it’s still worthwhile for the guy with a big harem to add another wife, even a flat-chested one, in a polygynous species, or for the lower ranked guy to take a first wife, even ditto, in a monogamous one. The payoff seems to be purely from having first choice of guys, which is less intense. Unless you suppose an attraction to bazongas is necessary to keep guys from mating with smaller, younger guys. . . .
LikeLike
Or maybe there’s something to that old theory that adopting missionary position meant that the frontal approach needed a matching pair of attractions….. 🤔😏
Yes, I actually saw that in a biology text.
LikeLike
Yes. They’re um…. It matches the buttocks, which are more rounded than in other apes. Like the blue butt monkeys have blue-fronted females.
This probably started before we were humans. It was so guys would be reminded “good for mounting” (WHY ARE YOU MAKING ME WRITE THESE THINGS?) when they saw a female from the front. So, those monkeys/humans got more action.
…. look, for reals I always think that these things are just so stories by biologists, but it’s possible, given other butt-chest correspondences in apes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Counter the desires of generations of scientists, humans polygyny isn’t a very good survival characteristic.
That’s why the study that came out showing significantly more female ancestors than male ones got attention except for the part where the folks doing the study pointed out that the pattern matched “women die in childbirth, men die before reproducing.” As opposed to the pattern of a harem.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I may have sometimes snarled that these big-talking guys really needed to get off their fat rumps and be involved in actually raising children at some point, that they think “oh, cool, I’ll have a half-dozen women all of whom have small children, this is totally manageable and not at all a situation where it’s more likely we’ll all die.”
Humans take a very long time to grow up to the level needed to support themselves hand-to-mouth.
LikeLiked by 2 people
This. So much.
LikeLike
I don’t have the snarl reaction, but I have very definitely found myself having a hard time believing that the harem stuff in the light novels would at all work out well.
Leave aside the stuff we seem to know as historical fact about the psychology of the harems.
As you say, the nutritional economics is a little bit relevant.
But I also wonder about the relationship the kids would have with their male parent, and go ‘nope, nope, nope, it is not just to short change them that way’.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Then you get into the so-called “Reverse-Harem” books.
While I haven’t read many of them, I’m aware of the historical “more than one male to only one female” marriages.
While rare, they work when the males are brothers (or have a brother-like relationship) and they decide to share a wife.
IE It isn’t a case where the woman decides to bring “men she likes” into the “marriage”.
LikeLiked by 3 people
“Unlikely to be healthy with humans involved” is still a better bet than “barring a great deal of support and power, offspring do not survive.”
Which is still an insanely stupid low bar, especially since once sexual competition comes into play, spare guys get killed.
(Which the “why choose?” stories do tend to at least recognize, especially as they are almost uniformly in situations where there simply aren’t many women, while the Harem Romances kinda skip over why there aren’t a dozen other guys in competition.)
The way to avoid this is to kill off a lot of your young men, generally by sending them out on raids.
Which has a good chance of making the neighbors figure that your entire culture needs to die.
Somehow, this managed to escape a great many generations of experts, possibly because their bias against it as a Christian teaching overruled reality testing the theory.
(Trivia! Judaism didn’t forbid multiple wives. It just has a rule that you must give exactly the same to each wife. Which destroyed both the “younger wife is a slave” and the “replace with a newer model” failure modes. Which, in a phrase I adore, had the result of “by the time of Christ, Judaism was functionally monogamous.”)
The route to maximum offspring survival and reproduction as well as ability to resist external threats is monogamy, especially when there’s survival past reproductive years so that the grandparents can pitch in.
LikeLiked by 2 people
In my readings (light) on “Multiple Husbands with One Wife”, it was commented that it happened where the number of marriable women were lower than the number of marriable men.
And of course, Harems were kept by Powerful Men not by the “average” Male. Of course, it was common for the harem guards to be eunuchs.
LikeLike
I’ve been researching romance novels, sometimes with what was probably a rictus of fascinated horror… especially when I realized that the “why choose” setups for the scifi and fantasy were actually better world-built than the zero drama harems.
IIRC, having guards was a very late, niche effect of both massive wealth and it showing up fast enough to not short circuit the removal of younger, healthier males.
The low survival rate of becoming an eunuch contributed to the horror of the matter, so that ups how much we read about it.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I’ve already mentioned (on Crossover Creative Chaos’s blog) my feelings about most harem stories I’ve seen* (and in fact, I know you read my comment over there since you gave it a like), so I don’t need to repeat it. (Anyone who cares to know what I said and hasn’t seen it yet can just follow that link). But I just wanted to mention that I hadn’t really noticed that until you said it, but now that you mentioned that, I’m starting to see the pattern. Authors who care about worldbuilding will make the harem setup make sense, e.g. when David Weber wanted “Mormons In Space” for his Honorverse setting, he set up the planet Grayson to have high concentrations of heavy metals that, for some reason, tended to kill about 2/3rds to 3/4ths of male babies in the womb, so that female births outnumbered male births by about 3-4 to 1, resulting in most men in Grayson society taking 3 or 4 wives so that the next generation would be as large as possible. Result: Mormons (Weber variant, not to be confused with original variety) In Space.
* KU seems full of them, so much so that I’ve started hitting reviews before starting ANY new KU series, and doing a Ctrl+F through the top 5-6 pages of reviews for the word “harem”. And if it shows up in any context other than “Thankfully this isn’t a harem romance” or the like, I just skip the book. Except for one, where the review was “I hate harem romances but this one actually made sense for why the protoganist would end up with four different women, so I have to begrudgingly admit that the author did a decent job of worldbuilding”. (Not a direct quote, paraphrase from memory). That one I checked out just to see what the concept was. And it was okay, but from what I can tell, later books abandoned the premise once the author wanted to introduce a fifth or sixth woman to the harem, which actually ran counter to the worldbuilding and lowered my opinion of the author. (I suspect that nobody except people who’ve read the book in question would care about the reasons why it was counter to the worldbuilding, so I’ll hold off on explanations unless someone specifically asks for them).
LikeLiked by 1 person
They can be interesting BECAUSE of the “and then what?” parts.
Which… most of the stuff doesn’t get into, because that’s not the dream.
So it’s very limited appeal to those who do NOT have said dream.
Something like Count Taka and the Vampire Brides does a GREAT job of both the harem and the “then what,” with the “marriage” being a clearly political/practical thing– and several of those involved being nervous as heck about that not being accepted by some members of said harem.
And it’s basically a side-plot/justified trope!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Since the most common hack, historically, is “kill the useless eaters”?
Yeah, it… doesn’t sound healthy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
…and some never do. Supporting them, enabling them, getting them to feel entitled to lifelong dependency, is detrimental to society. Since they have nothing better to do, they riot in the streets over the latest manufactured outrage. Oh, sorry, ‘mostly peaceful protests’. Pay no attention to the looting and arson. 😡
LikeLike
Sometimes dealing with one beloved spouse is like mine clearance ops while under area suppressive fire. I cannot image dealing with multiple spouses could possibly be less so, even with the help of a harem manager like Oh-John-Ringo-No gave Ghost.
LikeLiked by 2 people
When thinking about “multiple wives”, I’m reminded by the idea that the Chinese “symbol” for trouble is based on “two women under one roof”.
Note, I also read that the “two women under one roof” idea is a myth. [Twisted Grin]
LikeLiked by 2 people
That one is a Rorschach Ideagram.
LikeLiked by 1 person
As long as it’s Rorschach from Watchmen. 😁
LikeLike
no way. My dad swore it was true when I was a young woman sharing a house with my mom.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The myth is about the Chinese symbol for “Trouble” not about the “interesting” relationship between multiple women living in one house.
LikeLike
I know. My dad kept drawing a Chinese symbol when mom and I were going at it like mad women, screaming at each other.
We were like each other in all the wrong ways. And unlike each other in all the rest. It doesn’t seem fair, but that’s life.
And I’m afraid we drove dad nuts.
LikeLike
From some anonymous rando on the internet, so it must be correct:
LikeLiked by 1 person
:sorrow: That’s just it…they didn’t generally have any beloved spouse. Period.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Indeed as I posited it is a way for the body to say “I’m more healthy than that skinny little thing over there, I can survive the rigors of privation, childbirth and nursing, that skinny thing won’t survive the next food shortage and if she does she won’t keep the pregnancy”. We males show of in other ways, Height for example (please keep your minds out of the gutter please :-) ). There is a reason women like tall muscular men. Although somehow the other features of we shorter rotund fellows seem to be appealing. Luckily for folks like me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There is a reason women like tall muscular men.
They are much easier for a tall woman to hide behind.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh and of course in human relationships it is critical that the male hang around. Human infants are helpless for far longer. This essentially is because humans are effectively born somewhat premature in comparison to our ape ancestors to avoid issues of pubic/cranial size mismatch (a potentially lethal combination for mother and child before c sections). Thus, having the father around to protect and help is critical to survival. Those assorted fatty decorations keep dad around (among other things).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Women are palest when they are fertile. As a consequence, in every human population that has been isolated enough to be stable, the average female is paler than the average male, because the men prefer the paler-skinned woman.
LikeLike
Just wanted to say about vol. 2….
“Oh! It’s about sex!”
*Cackles*
…Anybody can be slow, Skip, you probably were drunk not to catch it earlier….
LikeLiked by 4 people
Oh, I loved that one.
It surprised me that it dropped so late.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Yes, I’ve heard baudy medieval songs that were less blatant than that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Completely Brainless? As long as you don’t become a leftist it’s fine.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A paper I’m copy editing now quotes a mid-twentieth-century writer as saying, “All education is indoctrination. The real question is whether indoctrination shall be confined to the mores and taboos of the past, or whether it shall be directed toward solving the problems of the future. In time, parents will recognize that the hope of a better world lies in such a new curriculum.” On one hand, that’s chilling; on the other, it shows how far back certain attitudes go—especially the arrogance of “education” professors. Apparently it’s not just today’s teachers who think children are theirs to mold.
Of course, according to Voltaire, the founder of the Society of Jesus wrote, “Give me the child for the first seven years and I will give you the man.” And that sounds like a similar aspiration. . . .
LikeLiked by 2 people
Given how fond Voltaire was of the organized church, I’d give that one a 50/50 on actually being what Ignatius of Loyola said. Given the dire need for better education for some clergy and laity during Loyola’s life? I might bump it to 60/40 “probably said something like that, in the context of religious training.” *Channels 1540s Catholic reformer* After all, those icky Protestants weren’t all wrong, just 90%. *end 1540s reformer*
LikeLiked by 2 people
The late Francis was the first Jesuit Pope, and had folks wondering if bears then might be patronizing outhouses or other indoor sanitary facilities.
Leo of Chicago seems to have diverted bears back to the woods.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They were pooping on my LAWN in Colorado. That was fun. Front lawn too.
LikeLike
Note that Deuteronomy 23 has relevant sanitary instructions about setting up a place to go outside the camp, and about burying your wastes, “For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp.” I always envision an old guy with a beard looking at what he’s stepped in with a thunderhead of judgment gathering in his gaze (as Joni Mitchell says).
“Is a bear a Catholic? Does the Pope shit in the woods?” Well, if he’s Francis, . . . ?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Rue the Day the First Sergeant steps in it….
…
On the other hand, as a PFC, expecting to stay that way because Odd, I was part of a big field exercise out in the Mojave Desert (Fort Irwin, NTC). Having discovered our “water buffalo” 600 gallon trailer was empty (yikes!) I went to check the other five in the Field Trains. One by one, I discovered “empty”. This is not good. As I approached #6, I see it tipped up with the hitch high, and some dumbass showering his well soaped torso and head under the main drainpipe.
I kicked him in the ass. Very hard. He went flying and squawking.
I closed the valve and started to right the trailer. Meanwhile he got back to me and tried to push me aside. “I aint -done- priv” BAM! BONK! POW! I hit him I don’t know how many times, kicked him back away a bit, then powered up and kicked him ass over tincups flying away.
I then proceeded to “verbally admonish” the fool in my top of the pipes “Up to 11” parade ground voice. I tore him a new orifice and about flayed half his skin.
It was epic.
Soapy: “Im a GD staff sergeant!”
PFC Angryman: “You are F(HONK!)ing -dead, if you touch that last of our water. The other trailers are dry.”
“I know! I wasnt done! You cant hit” BAM! and down….
“I will F(HONK!)ing -kill- you if you touch a buffalo before they all get filled. Mark my words I will kill you. You may have killed us all you idiot. WE ARE OUT OF WATER IN THE F(HONK!)ING DESERT!” (rabid PFC loses what’s left of temper, SSG Soapy flees, leaving shirt on trailer. Which I tossed in the trash truck on my way back to my tent. I had thought he was bluffing. Nope. I beat the snot out of an SSG. heh. I literally kicked his ass.
More than once.
No repercussion. Not a peep from anyone. Guess either Soapy shut up or someone agreed with my handling of the matter. We got refilled about 4 hours later.
LikeLiked by 2 people
As someone who’s read so many RL stories of people dying before they can get to water, go you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
As I read this my thought was “setup”. Translation. “Will anyone notice? If noticed will someone take initiative? Continue despite the consequences of discovering rank?” That incident never to be acknowledge but “keep an eye on this person”?
LikeLiked by 1 person
If that was a setup, they let me pound on him pretty good. I was going for pain, not cripple, but could easily have kicked through a knee or his head.
Funny. I hadn’t thought of that “setup” angle. Thanks.
LikeLike
IIRC, one of Heinlein’s early juveniles (maybe Space Cadet) included a test where the applicant for cadet academy was supposed to follow instructions to do something, and the protagonist realized that they were all contradictory and so the desired action was not possible. He turned in that answer, and assumed he was going to be rejected, but of course that was exactly what the examiners were looking for.
And then there is the Kobayashi Maru scenario, although not quite the same. Still it demonstrated the premium placed on creative original thought in a correctly run space force.
Unlike the clowns who have been running our military.
Looking forward to what happens at Defense Secretary Hegseth’s little party next week.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Also the test where closed eye to drop cloth pins into bottle. Our protagonist notices his little one single success was less than others. Asked the proctor when turning it in “what is to prevent someone from cheating” (multiple methods). Answer: Was asked – “What was being tested?”
LikeLike
Space Cadet had a scene where the test was to drop beans in a bottle with your eyes closed, and the viewpoint character mournfully turned in his with one, seeing others with many, and the narrator commented that it didn’t occur to him what was being tested.
LikeLike
–
Welcome. I think (not sure if the “thanks” is really “Thanks” or “O* S* hadn’t thought of it that way, not sure that is good.” – Sorry.)
LikeLike
Yep.
LikeLike
c4c
LikeLike
I left my brain in the botton drawer of my desk when I quit my last “real” job. I figured whoever took my job would need the information in it.
Can’t say I’ve noticed the lack. Maybe they grow back?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Speaking of brainless, they’s just some orders you shouldn’t DoorDash:
LikeLiked by 2 people
Did you paste the wrong link? because -epic- funny intentional or not.
LikeLiked by 2 people
(screenshot references the Hegseth “generals meeting. ” Which would be ominous indeed with zip ties, trash bags, bleach and a hatchet.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That was the link the Texas Flyover newsletter provided. The quote is the text just before it.
And I wouldn’t mind if they walked in to see SoW Hegseth standing behind the podium with a hatchet in each hand….. I suspect it would “concentrate the mind wonderfully.” 😁
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hegseth’s meeting is in Quantico.
Some sort of USMC location.
Not a hotel, and not in Dallas.
He also literally invited 800 general officers, and 800 NCOs, plus who ever he invited or arranged to be there in ways that have not publicly been distributed or leaked yet.
I know this, you know this, and maybe everyone knows this, but Door Dash is likely to have difficultly scaling to the logistics of removing more than a few dozen officers in such a way.
Still funny.
But, in theory he might not be firing or shuffling anyone, it might just be some sort of really important briefing that could not be carried out routinely over normal communications channels. Like if there is a problem with normal communications channels, or something. Like, too many cloud services contracted out to people who use PRC resident contract employees.
Especially if Musk and Ellison show up, if Hegseth is trying to get the military to drop Power Point, it is possible that he could go down in history as a second McNamara.
(Though, I think LaTeX Beamer is an adequate to superior substitute for conventional presentation software, and I am almost crazy and stupid enough to think that the DoD/DoW could just ask the officers to change over.)
LikeLike
”Some sort of USMC location.”
Heh. Yeah, you could say that.
LikeLike
Though notably the FBI does stuff there too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
BUT HILARIOUS
LikeLiked by 1 person
I searched and turned up a number of articles.
To add to the insanity, both the hostage and the hostage-taker were arrested — the first for an outstanding warrant.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And here’s the practice warm-up memes from New Hampshire.
Friday Meme Thing – Granite Grok
Midweek Memes – Granite Grok
Monday Memes – Granite Grok
You ever notice that in every batch of memes there seems to be one that you just can’t seem to wrap your head around?
LikeLike
RLF cell going active in the SF Bay Area:
https://redstate.com/wardclark/2025/09/24/terror-in-the-bay-area-residents-attacked-by-vicious-aggressive-squirrel-n2194331
LikeLiked by 1 person
Had to laugh. Right below the first paragraph, which ends with “their intent is this:” was an ad for ‘10.8% Growth Annuities!‘
Somehow I doubt that’s what the squirrels are after.
My other question: “Who’s been giving the squirrels caffeine?” 😄
LikeLiked by 1 person
Clearly the squirrels in this area had been bitten by the annuity scam perpetrated by humans and were going nuts at any human in response.
LikeLike
Honestly? Brain shutdown after major project is pretty normal. And you just finished what was probably one of the biggest projects of your life. So yeah, sleep a bit.
LikeLiked by 1 person
well, that plus uncle Lar’s death, then mom’s. I am doing amazingly well, considering….
LikeLiked by 1 person