Musings of a Restless Mind

I seem to have missed the traditional post Christmas/pre New Year’s window for reflecting on a busy 2025. Instead I need a reflection on the not quite two week old 2026. Hence, rather than a well thought out essay, here are a few disjointed musings in response to events that refuse to stop swirling.

To make the blur of the last two weeks all the more disorienting, I’m prepping myself for starting my second novel. The new novel begins in June of 1968 and ends (I think) sometime in 1969. When I conceived the novel in 1970, long before I knew how to write, I wanted to make those turbulent times an essential part of the narrative. Even in 1970, only two years after I wanted to set the novel, I knew I had to do research to make the fast-moving cultural references accurate. To make sure I wasn’t being anachronistic, I annoyed a librarian at the periodicals desk of the San Diego Main Library. I wanted to know what music was playing on the radio in 1968, so I requested a year’s worth of Billboard magazine, since Billboard tracked the pop-chart top 40. Of course in 1970, there was no such thing as digital archives. Billboard was a weekly magazine, and the very pretty librarian (Hey, I was 19. Do you think I didn’t notice? Heck, I’m in my 70’s now, and I still remember.) said she could only give me 6 issues at a time, so she had them dumb waitered up to me in exchange for holding my driver’s license hostage. I made copious notes on what was playing when. When I decided to revive my novel, I went digging in my archives, looking for my notes. All I found was about 60 pages of writing with maybe a few plot points salvageable but none of my notes on contemporary songs.

Of course, now we’re living in 2026, so I just went to Pandora and plugged in the 1968 (and 1967) “radio stations” which exclusively play songs from only their respective years. So, now I’ve been living for two weeks immersed in the music from 1967 and 1968. First thing I noticed is, boy howdy, a lot of those songs were bad! Amazing how memory is selective like that. Also, I’ve been able to dig up pictures of what Pacific Beach used to look like in 1968 and even the movies that were in theaters. Who says time travel isn’t real? How well will this all come out? We’ll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, 2026 world events are moving at incredible speed. It’s been less than two weeks, and already the US has snatched the leader of Venezuela from his bed with no casualties (on the US’ side) despite the CCP’s best anti-air defenses which they had exchanged with Venezuela for oil. Whoops! The US is also tracking down and seizing oil tankers fleeing Venezuela. Then there’s Iran, where rumor has it that the Supreme Mucky-Muck is trying to rouse his creaky old body and head to the airport for an all-expense-paid trip to Moscow along with a couple of tons of gold he bought with Obama’s generous pallets of cash. And how is Moscow’s “2-weeks max” effort to re-constitute the USSR going in Ukraine as it begins to enter its fourth year?

Meanwhile in the still evolving New and Improved Confederate States of America, or maybe I should call them the Confederate Cities of America (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and Minneapolis—with New York City and Chicago petitioning to join), they’re finding out that catastrophic climate change hasn’t yet shifted riot season from summer to winter. It seems it’s harder to turn out enthusiastically riotous crowds in sub-freezing temps. Who knew? It appears it’s also harder to coordinate secession between geographically isolated cities, surrounded by hostile hicks in the countryside than it was to coordinate secession with contiguous states.

The latest worshipper at the altar of Our Lady of Outrage had her last FAFO moment. She found out that deliberately blocking the road in front of heavily armed law enforcement agents and then sending your “wife” out to film your demise, while both of you taunt the folks with the guns, is not the best strategy.

Meanwhile the Islamic Republic of Europe…, er I mean the European Union, has got its hands full trying to suppress Christmas and Shabbat by arresting anybody who deigns to express an unapproved opinion online, or anyone who’s silently praying in the street without a keffiyeh or hijab, and trying to sue American internet companies out of existence. Funny thing, Trump, that old boomer, seems to understand that international law also seems to come from the barrel of a gun. Rest in less than peace, Chairman Mao.