Dan > Recent Status Updates

I get that the author’s thesis is about masculinity, not geopolitics, but I need him to understand that calling Afghanistan part of the Middle East is bad enough, but multiple references to it as part of the Arab world is going to destroy his credibility with a number of readers.

I would find Elliot translating Latin way more believable if he were taking Spanish instead of band. Actually, considering an early chapter made such a big deal over going over the kids’ class schedules, I don’t know why the author didn’t slip Spanish in there as foreshadowing. Or even have Dig translate, given he went to school in France and therefore has some familiarity with Romance languages.

This is cute so far. Dig is a fun protagonist.

I suspect the author is using this book to work through some residual childhood emotions—a lot of what the protag is feeling reminds me of tumblr posts about being a former gifted kid.

Whoops, that last update should have been 51%, not 51 pages.

Vin's emotions re: feeling alone and isolated didn't make sense to me—she's at a school full of problem kids and she was inexplicably assuming no one likes her and she's uniquely bad among them, and she was nervous about the headmistress, too, despite the headmistress giving zero indication that she's not cool. So I'm trying to keep in mind that 13 y/o emotions often seem nonsensical to adults.

A guy named Silverman should really be more concerned with the Egyptian slaves carrying him on their backs.

Here we have the conflation of religion and Christianity. CHRISTIANITY “casts death as an honorable sacrifice that secures deliverance” and “view[s] pain and punishment as pious.” There are only three instances in Judaism where death is preferable to the violation of mitzvot, and Judaism is supposed to bring our lives beauty meaning—you don’t get extra points for torturing yourself.

This chapter about public schools makes me realize I’m surprised the current administration hasn’t pushed for a heavier JROTC presence in schools. But I guess Pete would be upset girls are allowed.

I don't know too much about California history, but I'm having trouble squaring how a cadet was enrolled in West Point but was discovered to be living in Orange County. California was still part of Spain in ~1818, so was a Spanish national enrolled in USMA? Or was there Anglo settlement there a lot earlier than I thought?

“the brass always needs bodies. . . . They have turned to . . . military-style reform schools packed with troubled teens. The resulting class . . . leading enlisted troops into battle includes Rhodes Scholars and former juvenile delinquents.”

Unless things have changed, you need a waiver to enlist with a criminal record, and officer standards are higher. So I’m not sure where this assertion is coming from.

I live in a very different world from one where letting a ten-year-old hold a Kalashnikov is a heartfelt moment.

Zawahiri is such a little bitch

bin Laden really should have stuck with farm life in SUdan.

The Saudi government looked the other way about religious extremism because it distracted the public from the royals' theft and corruption . . . Wonder where I've seen that before.

I was reading this to the cats at the shelter and they were very invested.

Come on, how are you gonna mention the war took place during Ramadan but not that it was launched on Yom Kippur

Imagine what a different world we'd live in if this one guy didn't hate women and Jews.

Starting to feel like The Menu

I like how Victor feels like a real fourteen-year-old, but I'm struggling with the timeline: Victor and Adam are acting like there's a huge rift between them, that things are so inherently different in their lives that who knows if they can ever go back, but all that's happened is they've each been doing their own thing for I think three nights.

“They don’t know what it’s like, sitting in a car while their supposed friends casually discuss how they don’t deserve to live.”

Been there—I’ll bet most queer people have.

Hm, I don’t like the book saying that calling something goyische is offensive.