Elizabeth George’s In the Presence of the Enemy was published almost 30 years ago. One of the main characters is a far-left tabloid journalist obsessed with bringing down the Tory government. He has an 8-year-old son who happens to be somewhat girly. Back then nobody could conceive of reformatting such children medically and surgically, so the far-left Dad limits his efforts to make the little boy more dudely to giving long, tedious speeches about the importance of masculinity and a plan to enroll the son in an all-male boarding school.

At the end of the novel, Dad realizes he was being an idiot and there’s no need to toughen up the child who, in spite of loving dance and flowers, is plenty tough already. And the only reason Dad was hung up on his son’s imaginary girliness is that the father had been molested as a child and feared the boy would be molested, too, if somebody perceived him as feminine. [This is the tiniest of subplots, so you will still very much enjoy the novel if you decide to read it].

Only 30 years ago, and it was possible to resolve this issue without physically invading a child and modifying his body.

Honestly, if what we have now is progress, then to hell with that kind of progress, don’t you think?

And the prize for being our 7-millionth visitor goes to…

… drumroll…

reader Post Alley Crackpot!

Thank you and congratulations, PAC!

I will write about anything you want as a prize for your deftly taking us over the hump.

An US colonel of the Special Forces discovered a trespasser with a telescopic camera on his property. After an altercation, the elite US soldier was forced to kill the intruder. It turned out that the intruder is a Russian national of Chechen ethnicity and that he was illegally… pic.twitter.com/W9Ber0e4eV

— (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) May 26, 2024

The Russian dude is “from Chicago” but worked for a company “in New Jersey” while trawling around North Carolina. The company’s owner is Moldovan while everybody else working there is Russian. Obviously, everybody is in the country illegally, and “the company” is nowhere to be found.

Open borders was such an excellent idea. It doesn’t bear imagining what kind of operatives from which sorts of regimes are crossing into the US right now and in perpetuity because this process will never be stopped now. We’ve already brought in brutal gangs and drug cartels, now it’s spies. What the bloody Chechen are we even doing?

Today, the Ukrainian capital Kyiv turned 1542 years old. It was founded in the 5th century but there are people who argue it was in the 6th. Not that it matters much at such a remove.

The inhabitants of Kyiv were massively baptized into Christianity in 988.

Let’s celebrate our 7-millionth blog visit with some reflection and a cute, happy-making poll.

My books are all strangely linked to life and death. The first book was accepted for publication when I was pregnant with Eric. I was supposed to receive an award for it when he would be 6 weeks old.

I wrote the second book when I was pregnant with Klara.

This third book was inspired by the wish to stay connected to my father after he died.

I’m finally holding my book in my hands!

Hard cover, very shiny.

I know I get only about 4 Ukrainian visitors a week but if, by some miraculous chance, you are reading this in Ukraine, I have some promotional copies.

Тиснить на ось цей ґудзик, залишайте своє відділення Нової пошти та все інше, і я вам надішлю примірника безкоштовно:

Нічого від вас не хочу, тільки подарувати книгу.

Come on, people. Just a bit under 2,000 left until 7 million. We can do it!

In the meantime, I’m awaiting the delivery of the author’s copies of my book – which everybody has received before I will – and roasting young turnips with garlic scapes and mushroom-infused soy sauce.

Love doesn’t arise from similarity of education, similarity of background, similarity of experience. Love arises from nothing and creates as it goes. And without it, chaos is indeed come again.

Elizabeth George, Playing for the Ashes