"Alexa, play baby making music" is not what i ever ever ever ever ever ever want to hear through the wall from my neighbor's apartment
Ever
I rapidly changed and exited my apartment, headed to the gym. As I was getting in my car, my neighbor's boyfriend arrives home
I pause
Because there were definitely two sets of feet I heard going up the stairs
Male neighbor goes in the door. I pause from backing out of the driveway. I mean, I'm human, after all. Great drama calls to us.
And I want to know if I'm gonna come home to a burnt down house.
Neighbor dude comes back outside, gets some new pillows from his truck, disappears back inside. I wait. Again, I'm human.
But, dear reader, sad to report, I heard nothing else. I went to and returned from the gym, and nothing is on fire (except my knees), so I guess all is well?
All I know for sure is that I'm not gonna be making eye contact with my neighbors for a little while, and the landlord should invest in some better walls
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Well, it's Friday. And apparently there might be some war or something? So might as well do my annual master and commander watch, just in case something were to happen that would prevent the normal one in the summer.
Crispy duck and Madeira pair well with 19th century naval dramas, ijs
My only aspiration is to get to a spot in my career where someone will bring my friend and I toasted cheese and we play stringed instruments
Look at this utter BAMF. Cpl. Clarence van Allen, Boston, Massachusetts. Peep that ribbon rack. Stacks on stacks on STACKS. There's a Distinguished Service Cross, the Croix de Guerre with Palm, and the Medaille Militaire (France's 3d highest award). Don't mess with this dude
Clarence van Allen was part of the Massachusetts National Guard, Company L, 6th Infantry. When WWI was declared, the 6th MA got organized into the 26th Division. All but CO L, which became part of the 372d Infantry in the 93d Division
Fighting alongside the French, the 372d fucked up the Germans something bad. The French 157th Div commander wrote to the 372nd, "'The Red Hand,' sign of the Division, thanks to you, became a bloody hand which took the Boche by the throat and made him cry for mercy"
Have been thinking a lot recently about the US Army after Vietnam, as we look to see what the Army after Afghanistan looks like. There's some disturbing trends and parallels, obviously not all the same because of time, situations, cultural shifts, etc but...it bears thinking of
The Army emerged from Vietnam utterly broken. The service was a disaster. Drug use was rampant. As Atkinson writes about in "Long Gray Line," it got so bad in US Army Europe that officers and NCOs didn't visit enlisted barracks for fear of violence. Racial violence was common
One battalion commander was literally shot at by one of his soldiers as he walked by the barracks. The moral and physical losses from Vietnam, the effect of the draft, and a shifting cultural tide led to an Army that was in a shambles. It took decades to rebuild it.