Anna Richland

I too loved the white circle covers.

Of course it could just be a vicious property inventory clerk too, quite possible.

But still - they would have known she was a citizen and didn't belong in ICE/CBP detention and would be gone soon, so trashing her jewelry for inventory or b/c her hands swelled - it's just petty and also expensive!

Same with cuffs, even if they didn't use zip ties.

I had to have my wedding band cut off in April b/c I was having gall bladder surgery, and the dr said if my hands swelled during surgery, they'd have to cut the rings off, so I should get it off ahead of time.

If you have restrained someone improperly, too tightly, too long, etc, their hands swell. Thus the ring being cut off (rather than just UNDO THE ZIP TIES for the 55 yr old lady).

Neck marks, WTF. I can't even.

I am 55. I just ...

To make sure I wasn't misremembering, I went to Rotten Tomatoes and yep, RWRB is an R:

R (Some Sexual Content|Partial Nudity|Language)

Hard to believe.

*yes, I did that. I love puns. My own books have puns; if you can't make fun of a fish scientist character with bad puns, are you even trying?

Although TBH since I've been watching HR maybe my idea of what is an R vs PG13 is a bit skewed! I guess if Hallmark sets the standard, then RWRB is an R, but I feel like if it's compared to cinema-releases ... I mean, Sinners was an R. And RWRB was def not Sinners-level heat.

I just watched RWRB this week for the first time, and was floored that it got an R rating b/c honestly, there wasn't that much sex and it wasn't very explicit. I do not believe I saw a buttock or even below the navel. And yet an R, which I think was just awarded b/c of WHO was having the sex.

Also, I love the new covers for Caudwell's books, but the old Gorey-esque ones were also great.

And have you read Cut to the Quick by Kate Ross? I was reading her MM Regencies at the same time I discovered Caudwell, so the two authors are linked in my brain.

I love Sarah Caudwell! I'm so happy to find someone else who does too. My son took a stopover in Jersey (to avoid LHR departure fees, he's that type) and I seized the moment to opine about Jersey as a tax haven ... *channeling* my inner Hilary Tamar, perhaps.

I'll see myself to the door, thx.

"US Intelligence" is doing a lot of work there. Did a HumInt guy reach out and say here's the list of who's going to be on the boat? Was he on the boat too? Or did they use AI and SigInt? Seriously, all 11 were identified and were on a target list? The world is just NOT that neat and tidy.

I find it impossible to believe they actually correctly identified 11 guys on a boat. There is nothing about the competence of this administration, or the prior record of every admin and of AI at correctly identifying people, esp. non-white people, etc that makes me believe this. Nothing.

My spouse retired and now starts his day with decaf. Golfs fueled only by decaf.

He has apparently been doing this for about three months and I only discovered it a couple weeks ago, I'm not a coffee pod monitor.

There are apparently no headaches? I am still trying to comprehend. The secrecy!

He's a veteran. He's had numerous law of war briefings. He knows what he says is evil and wrong and he chooses to say it anyway.

Has Tom Cotton ever been on a speed boat that size? ever flipped a sailboat? No way those men were trying to flip the boat to continue a drug run. None. I've flipped a small sailboat and it's not easy to get it back over, and that's with a keel to help. These guys were scrambling to stay alive.

The miracle that makes riding in a car with my husband possible. I can set mine at one red bar, he can put three red bars on his skinny butt, and we can stay married every fall and winter.

A pad of paper propped against a wall shows two images of golden brown croissants done in watercolor. They look pretty and yummy.

Today's #watercolorpainting class with @willowheath.bsky.social .

The three hours of focus it took to paint these was such a beautiful part of my day. I hope all of you can find something to improve your days in this dark time. I won't stop making art or writing books, and neither should you.

A photo of part of a yellowed paperback page. The text says: "God protect me from the female of the species! I wonder if Saladin's wives complained in the same way when he captured the city in 1188." Carla looked slightly ruffled. "Well, I did expect more than a quiet port town. And certainly something more interesting than four Russian patrol ships at the neighboring dock."

May I offer an amuse-bouche?

I open it and read pages haphazardly but I've never read it all straight through. Maybe I will now.

Actually the love interest is a lawyer. But whatever.

Photo of vintage book cover for "Treasure of the Heart" also by Glenna Finley. It's all crazy lemme n yellow and neon lime green colors and the heroine, gripped tightly by a dubious hero, is wearing a green and yellow scarf tied around her hair. Very very 1971

I read your review at their blog and I was so amused I went to my basement and found the thing I knew I had.

It's about an aspiring archaeologist and an art thief hero (or is he?), that's why I have it.

The yellow is WATER. Those are boats behind the hero. In yellow water.

I wondered when that would happen!

Ok

A vintage can of "Sanka" coffee with the orange plastic reusable lid and directions of electric percolators.

I feel like this calls for a cup of appropriate coffee.

Straight from the can that is about to hold all my Didi's reclaimed and straightened out nails. Rows and rows of Sanka cans in his basement work area when he passed, we don't know where he got all those nails.

Can a future US administration hand over a few top people to the ICC (possibly b/c they've been pardoned here by an outgoing admin)? If we agree and send them for prosecution as our own version of house-cleaning/reentry to the int'l order, can it can proceed? I'm thinking of top Yugoslav leaders.

It's also a way to prevent moral injury to your own soldiers. "I did what I was told, I killed people, but I did it the right way, I'm not a murderer, I'm a soldier." It's how you help your own soldiers sort their actions into the acceptable box and then re-integrate into society after.

I too love found family books.

Any books in that zone between reconciliation and cutting ties, where the protagonist accepts that sporadic contact is just the way it is, and they're never going to be the tight birth family they deserve/want, but they're ok with that?

Asking for a friend 😉

I come from a family on the dysfunction spectrum, and have a wonderful found family. It took a while to build though. But yesterday I was teaching my found sister's 19 yr old son to drive. She's posted overseas and this boy has lived last 6 yrs in left side driving places!

A lot of "your lane!"

That complicates things for a normal President. Not sure it would do anything here.

Congress. They need to get a spine.

Going out on a limb here, betting most E3s to E6s in any branch know more than "due process" for why we shouldn't do this. Because they have annual briefings about why we do NOT do this.

Waves hand -- my law school thesis in the 90s was on modern maritime piracy and then I was in the Army JAG Corps! That was all twenty (or more) years ago, but I know a bit more than "due process."

Or there's @radiofreetom.bsky.social, I hear he's an expert. Or anyone who taught at a JAG School.

Also, you and I were army. Navies have always, always, had tradition to pick up enemy sailors from the sea if not a risk to your own vessel. This disgusting crime must hit their sense of tradition extremely hard.

We plucked German sailors from the water in two world wars. They picked up ours.