A Glibertarians Exclusive – Too Many Goodbyes I
Honolulu – Saturday morning
Lieutenant (j.g.) Sally Neal was happier than she had ever been in her life. “This is going to be the night,” she told her best friend, Ensign Betsy Sheridan, as they sat in the tiny Ala Wai apartment they shared.
“You think so?”
“Yeah. I think Tom is going to pop the question.”
“Think they’ll let him off of his ship to come into town?”
Sally smiled. She leaned back on the cheap bamboo-framed couch. A warm morning breeze was coming in through the sliding door onto their tiny balcony overlooking the Ala Wai canal; it was a fair commute to the Navy hospital at Aiea where both girls worked as Navy nurses, but the girls reckoned the little apartment was worth it – better than staying in Navy housing. Sally was twenty-four, Betsy twenty-one, both a long way from home, both immersed happily in life in the islands and somewhat less happily in the Navy.
But there were compensations. One of those, for Sally, was Lieutenant Commander Thomas Braxton, who she had been seeing steadily for the last six months. He was the XO of a light cruiser, tied up at the moment in Pearl Harbor.
“He called this morning,” Sally said. “While you were in the shower. We’re meeting at the Pearl officer’s club at seven. Dinner, drinks, and dancing.”
“The officer’s club? Fooey. That’s for old Navy crocks. Why not head into Honolulu? There are way better places for drinks and dancing in town.”
“The officer’s club is fine,” Sally smiled. She put her little size five feet up on the coffee table that stood in front of the couch. She wiggled her bare toes. “Last night’s shift at the hospital sure was boring,” she said. “Nothing much ever happens here. If it wasn’t for being in Hawaii, I’d really get tired of this posting.”
“Well, at least you caught Tom. That should make this post worthwhile. I haven’t had any such luck at all,” Betsy complained. “Of course, look at you – five-two, one-ten, red hair, and green eyes. Every guy in Honolulu is at your feet. I’m too tall and too skinny. Guys don’t look twice at me.”
“Not true,” Sally objected. Betsy was a tall, angular Wisconsin farm girl, but made up for her near-absent curves with a ready smile and a vivacious disposition. Sally was from New Bedford, Massachusetts – both of them were still getting used to Honolulu after a year at Aiea.
“Anyway,” Betsy went on, “what makes you think tonight is the night?”
Sally looked thoughtful. “He sounded… different, when he called. A little nervous, somehow.”
“And that’s what made you think that? Good luck, girl.”
“It’s more than that,” Sally said. “I’ve had boyfriends before. In high school, and when I was stationed in San Francisco before I came out here. But this thing with Tom is different. It feels, closer, somehow. You know what I mean?”
“I should say, if you think he’s going to propose. What will you do about the Navy? Resign, be a good little Navy wife?”
“Not right away, anyway. If I get pregnant, well, that will be another thing. I’m figuring on crossing that bridge when I come to it – and I’ll have to find out how Tom feels about it, too.”
“You sure will. Well, girl, come on- it’s your turn to make breakfast. Then, what about some tennis? Neither of us has duty until Monday, may as well enjoy the weekend.”
“OK by me.” Sally got up and headed for the apartment’s tiny kitchenette. “Here’s to a nice weekend off in Hawaii.”
Fried Spam and scrambled eggs may not have been the most appetizing breakfast imaginable, but it was a very Hawaiian one. Dark Kona coffee leavened the meal some, and when the girls had eaten and cleaned up, they dressed and left the apartment.
They caught some appreciative glances from several groups of young sailors as they walked down Ala Wai Boulevard. “Look how young some of these guys are,” Betsy said, looking at two teenaged seamen from the lofty height of her twenty-one years. “Bet most of them can’t even buy a beer yet.”
“Likely so,” Sally agreed. She stepped ahead of Betsy and did a little twirl, tossing her tennis skirt around her legs. The two young sailors did a double-take; Sally grinned. “Sorry, boys,” she told them, “I’m spoken for.”
“Too bad,” one of the sailors lamented. The other slapped his comrade on the back; they moved on towards whatever destination they had in mind.
Two rounds of tennis completed the morning. Lunch was bowls of sliced mangoes and pineapple on the sidewalk in front of one of the big hotels on Waikiki, followed by strolls through some of the shops that lined the road along the beach.
By four o’clock they were back at the apartment. Sally showered, put on her dress whites, and parked in front of her bedroom mirror to fix her hair as Betsy watched.
“You’re way too Navy, girl. Going out on a Saturday night with your guy and you’re in uniform. Don’t you have a slinky dress to wear?”
“We’re going to the officer’s club at Pearl. Tom will be in his whites. Why not?”
Betsy smiled, shaking her head. “So, what is it with this guy?” she asked Sally. “What makes you so sure he’s the one?”
Sally paused, her hairbrush in one hand. “Mister Right, you mean?” She realized it was a serious question, so spent a few moments thinking. “Well, like I said, I’ve had boyfriends before. But it always got to the point where you had to work at it, you know? Being with Tom isn’t like that. We are comfortable with each other. It’s easy, being around him. It feels natural. I’ve put up with the other kind of guys long enough to know the right thing when I find it.”
“But a Navy guy,” Betsy said. “You know enough of Navy life to know that it won’t be easy, being married to a sailor, even if he is a high-and-mighty Lieutenant Commander.”
Sally plied her hairbrush again. “Oh, I know that. There will be some lonesome nights. Tom’s pretty set on being a cruiser sailor. He’s been very clear about that. He’s a sailor, he doesn’t just want to be at sea, he needs to be at sea. You know?”
“He’ll have a ship of his own before too long, I bet. Then there will be even more lonesome nights.”
“Maybe. We’ll just have to see. And Betsy hon, he’s worth it. He’s worth all that and then some.”
“If you say so. Just remember, if anything goes wrong, Aunt Betsy’s right here to listen to you.”
“Nothing will go wrong,” Sally smiled into the mirror. She laid down the hairbrush and gathered her hair up in a bun, to go under her white service cap.
“Yup,” Sally said, looking in the mirror and giving her hair one final pat. “This is gonna be the best night of my life. I’ll look back on this day when I’m a little old lady. One day I’ll tell my grandkids all about how their Granddad popped the question – on Saturday, December sixth, 1941!”
***
I’ve seen love go by my door
It’s never been this close before
Never been so easy or so slow
I’ve been shooting in the dark too long
When something not right it’s wrong
You’re gonna make me lonesome when you go.
Ominous.
Fantastic start, Animal!
I’m gonna dive into this story. I hope it doesn’t bomb.
It is a pearl of a story.
I have zero idea what you guys are talking about.
Cruiser guy huh? I always thought the guys with the big decks won out.
Chicks dig a guy with a flattop.
Val does at any rate. Kate and Judy are pretty hot to trot now that they’ve ditched that old Claude.
I’m hoping he doesn’t telegraph his proposal.
I have a sinking feeling things will not go well in the next installment.
Why?
Do you think something is going to come over the horizon and torpedo their love?
I can only hope that they can get their relationship off the ground in time.
Swiss is going to dive bomb into this thread and…..
Dons glasses…
Widen his eyes
Someone is about to wake a sleeping giant.
Who will no doubt torpedo this line of puns.
Like a divine wind
From alpine heights shall descend
with eyelids touching
Nice so far Animal. I was looking for cultural and temporal clues that it was pre WW2 Hawaii.
The only one that kind of suggested it were the lack of discussion about cell phones, but that could be any decade before the 2000’s.
For me, it seemed obvious that this story was not present/recent past because of the conversations. How many women today chat about someone “popping the question” or complain that they’re too tall and skinny?
Your right that did stand out as well.
How tall? How skinny?
7′ tall, 4″ at the shoulder.
No clue how they’re alive…
Well done.
As soon as I saw “Honolulu” and “Ensign,” I immediately thought Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Mmmm. Now I want some Spam musubi.
I was thinking more “plate lunch.”
Mmmmm, plate lunch.
Poke or GTFO
I could go for those garlic shrimp the sell out of sketchy food trucks as well.
Great setup, Animal.
What I love about stories like these are their near universality – and by that, I mean, while this is a fiction piece, there’s a certain sense in which the reader knows that this is all possible and likely, even if not the precise details of the fictional story.
For example, how many people, couples, whatever, have a compelling story abut their September 10, 2001 plans to meet the next day?
It’s a wonderful “hook” to involve the reader instantly because we all know something that the characters don’t and couldn’t – and we all know that this is the nature of Life and Fate… we don’t know what’s coming tomorrow.
Thanks. Looking forward to what you weave.
What Ozy said. I was thinking the whole time “When is this happening exactly?” Then . . . boom!
“For example, how many people, couples, whatever, have a compelling story abut their September 10, 2001 plans to meet the next day?”
About 30 of my coworkers at Cantor Fitzgerald were let go on September 10. Probably woke up hungover the next day after drowning their sorrows.
“This is going to be the night,” she told her best friend,
I knew what day this was at this point in the story.
Yep. The picture on the right (I think) was intended to convey it and I’ve been to Pearl (and K-Bay) a handful of times.
It’s the first place my mind went.
“This is going to be the night,” she told her best friend
Maybe Tom is gonna wear her like a flesh Tuxedo… Gonna sink her with his pink torpedo?
Cause she’s got a big bottom.
The looser the waistband, the deeper the quicksand? Or, so I’ve read…
This guy has been Lt Gov for eight years and this is the first I heard of this.
I really want to hear some black mouthpieces justify their votes for him.
he chased down a black jogger
I smell bullshit. Someone as big as Fetterman chasing anyone down?
Anyone trying to detain anyone, for anything, while armed, is too much of an idiot to be let outside unsupervised.
Saturday, December sixth, 1941
I knew that was coming.
I figured either that or said cruiser was going to be Atlanta, San Francisco or Indianapolis. One of the more tragic losses, at any rate.
For her sake, hope Tom isn’t on Helena — otherwise, his odds are better than if he were a black shoe on a BB according to this.
most of the planes sat outside the hangers, positioned wingtip to wingtip
Because it was easier for the guards to patrol around them so they couldn’t be sabotaged. I know this because my brother did a stint with the USAF over there and that was how the AF was still doing it. Apparently lessons learned is a lot like military intelligence.
I spent my midshipman cruise the summer of ’88 on the USS New Jersey (BB-62). She was docked at Long Beach right next to the Mighty Mo’ (BB-63). And then there was a Cruiser next pier over – the Bunker Hill, I think. That was an unbelievable sight when they were all in port.
I cannot imagine what it would take to sink a battleship, much less put at the bottom as much steel as the Japanese did. I mean, Holy fucking Cannoles, I don’t think people can really grok that as a matter of scale until you see those ships. The battleships were almost as long as carriers. I think the Jersey was something like 883′ long or some shit… (ah yes, Wiki says “887 ft 7 in (270.54 faggoty units)”).
That’s a pretty damn good kick in the nuts at Pearl.
The Arizona was a bit smaller at 608 feet, but yeah, these are still big ships.
HMS Ark Royal is just slightly longer at 689ft. Or was. The only aircraft carrier I’ve been on and frankly it did feel small.
I toured the Wisconsin in Norfolk a couple years ago. It was mind-blowing at how much armor those things had. And the fucking guns were insane.
I toured the Wisconsin too. The Navy wasn’t letting people below decks. There were a few doors/portholes open and sealed with Plexiglas so you could look inside. Yeah, huge.
If you want to see something mind blowing, check out U-505 in Chicago.
https://www.msichicago.org/explore/whats-here/exhibits/u-505-submarine/
An ice cube holed the RMS Titanic.
The difference between a commercial ship and a military ship is significant.
The Ehime Maru was scuttled and sank in 9 minutes when the Greenville hit it.
The damage to the the Greenville consisted of paint and acoustic tiles, with a bent rudder.
Wordle 338 4/6
Quordle
8 x
x 6
Daily Quordle 119
3️⃣5️⃣
6️⃣8️⃣
That bottom right was a 50/50 at the end and I chose poorly
I’mma have to admit my mind just does not work the way necessary to do these puzzles.
Oops, wrong post. Sorry, Animal.
Tsk-tsk! I was going to wait for afternoon..but you broke the seal.
And Animal…your stories are so damn good!
I thought we were just going to dump them all in the AM lynx?
I had a brain fart.
Ive been absent for a few days. Noted.
No worries! Just trying to make life easier for MikeS and Hyp.
Dammit Mo’! Now I have to go searching all over Glibs for your score!
Mojeaux = chump
You MikeS’d. I’m honored.
At least she didn’t SDF. I was worried I was going to again after wasting so many guesses on lower left this morning. No one shall challenge my autocratic rule over Chumptown!
From my non-scientific, quick scan of scores this morning, I think lower left was everyone’s worst…except Own’.
Ahem
The development of paxillon HCl continues apace.
ATTACK OF THE HAMSTER REAVERS!!!!!
Well, that’s what happens when you have a planet near Mars.
That might explain this.
The ancients learned not to fuck around.
Great start, Animal. I must say, I really love these stories.
Can’t be reiterated enough how these short stories are so fantastic
Indeed. We are really lucky to have so many gifted writers willing to share their craft here. I hope Animal can keep it going every Monday afternoon for a long time to come.
Yes! Keep it Up!
Oooh! This should be a 5 parter…possibly as many as 7. ??
Almost as good as the Bee’s take on different church denominations. Because we can all use a chuckle what with the world as it is (and a story that’s about to take a big turn).
Lol. Guilty.
They’re on to us!
Both check out.
“Pray incantations in Pig Latin – Joe Biden”
“No prayer just rolling around on the floor saying gibberish – Pentecostal ” Also Biden.
Good start, I suspect this won’t end well.
it was a fair commute to the Navy hospital at Aiea where both girls worked as Navy nurses
I know an author who has a military nurse or two in his family. Can’t remember his name, though.
Any mention of Pearl Harbor reminds me of Dan Carlin’s horrifying account from Supernova in the East. Sally is fucked and not in a happy way.
I do enjoy your stories, Animal, particularly tying the stories to song lyrics.
Would.
The obvious impending doom aside, I also think our heroine is reading the intentions of her man incorrectly. I think he intends to break up.
I was thinking he was about to be deployed, hence the title….Until I read the last line.
That didn’t take long.
Asked during a press briefing on Monday in Tokyo whether the US would be willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan after not doing so in Ukraine, Biden said “yes — it’s a commitment we made.”
This is not amusing. That senile old fool’s handlers need to keep him on a shorter leash before he starts an actual no-shit hot war.
President Joe Biden said the US military would intervene to defend Taiwan in any attack from China, comments that appeared to break from the longstanding US policy of “strategic ambiguity” before they were walked back by White House officials.
Going to start WWIII and WWIV simultaneously.
Won’t be a real world war if we don’t have multiple theaters!
Well we already dug up the Lend-Lease Act…so…just rhymin to history.
Interestingly enough, Chinese news seems to be ignoring it.
They are playing up the Indo-Pacific Alliance though and there’s a fairly on-point editorial about the US and sanctions.
https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/
I think “we’re ignoring you” is part of China’s plan wrt Brandon.
Everybody knows he’s not calling the shots. Everybody knows it’s going to get pulled back. By refusing to engage, the PRC’s trying to look more like the adult in the room.
I don’t think their plan for ROC involves an attack anyway. They’re going to do it differently; provoke some non-military situation whereby they can claim to be the victim, and then as an administrative/remunerative measure announce something like “all trade into or out of the island has to go through PRC customs”. And get the PLAN to enforce as a blockade, and dare ROC or the US to start WWIV just to avoid paying the PRC instead of the ROC.
Huh. Posobiac was detained today in Davos.
By WEF cops!
Don’t know what the truth is, but here’s a counterpoint:
Yeah, I know, but I like to make fun of the Davos fucks.
This is pretty good:
Slo-Joe in 1988.
McLaughlin: Are my balls sweaty in these polyester pants? Yes or No?
Wrong! You all had Special-K with banana.
I think I’m going to leave, John.
WRONG! You can’t leave, all the doors are locked from the outside!
hahaha
I love John McLaughlin. “Is Joe Biden dead meat? Yes or no. Bob. Elanor.”
They were the panel lefties and even they were disgusted by Biden.
-_-
It appears that not even my direct reports read emails I write.
Try not including your Quordle scores in them.
I told them I would be out Monday and Wednesday this week, and they’re confused that I’m not available Monday or Wednesday…
You’ve taken to management like a champ!
Really good start, Animal. Saturday in Hawaii on December 6. Great set-up.
Nice story, Animal. Similar experiences for many military folks, boy meets girl, boy or girl leaves, big good bye, life goes on.
We’re kind of wondering about Chapter two. A lot of possibilities here.
My great uncle was officer of the day at Hickam on Dec 7th. His purple heart was from wounds he received while trying to get his plane in the air during the attack. He recovered and ended up as part of MacArthur’s staff in the Philippines later.
Great start again, Animal.
Speaking of fiction…
Joe Biden bullshitting his face off in ’88. Back then even the lefties seemed to dislike liars.
https://mobile.twitter.com/JimmyPrinceton/status/1528559511203729408
Well never mind – Tundra beat me to it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/trashy/comments/uvfevm/brawling_over_a_discount_code_at_pedros_taqueria/
Kinda NSFW.
LOL, the senorita in the red dress adjusting her skirt after flashing the room.
She’s a lady, you know.
Great start, as ever, Animail.
Although – ” Sally was from New Bedford, Massachusetts”;
New Bedford girls are way more likely to be dark haired and dark eyed, especially back then – huge Portuguese population. ISTR there are more Azoreans living there than in the Azores themselves.
Cool – New Bedford has an actual Portuguese consulate
I am not the only one impressed.
That’s pretty wild, given the size of the city.
Now I’m wondering about “smallest city in the US with a foreign consulate”
Eyeballing it, it looks like Lake Worth Beach, FL, Silver Spring MD and Woodbridge, VA are all smaller cities with diplomatic missions – albeit all south/central american.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diplomatic_missions_in_the_United_States#Other_cities_with_diplomatic_missions
A few weird consulates: Kosovo in Des Moines, Slovenia in Cleveland.
Lots of Bosnians came to Iowa as refugees.
New Bedford has a Portuguese consulate that issues visas. There’s one in Boston too. That’s kind of unusual to have two real consulates in Massachusetts. In contrast, the UK, Canada and Switzerland have consulates in Boston (or Cambridge) but they don’t issue visas.
Reverse repos hit an all-time high today – 2FT (that’s 2 fucking trillion)
Hold onto your shorts, we appear to be very close to something spectacular.
https://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/desk-operations/reverse-repo
They give the cars back to those deadbeats who didn’t make their loan payments?
I don’t know what those are
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/reverserepurchaseagreement.asp
I thought it was when the borrower stole the car back from the repo agent.
thanks
I hope that didn’t come off as snarky. I wasn’t intending to.
no problem.
I took it as a clean, direct answer
I’m sure Sensei will correct me if I get this wrong, but here goes.
Reverse repos are a 24 hour vehicle for parking cash that pay basically nothing. The Fed implements this vehicle in order to set short term interest rates at 0%, insuring a non-negative interest rate.
Mutual funds, banks, etc… make usage of it in order to not show a negative funds flow which would scare more people out of the funds.
It seems to indicate that fund managers are freaking out right now and don’t know which way to go. The daily numbers keep getting bigger and bigger. The unwind is going to be historic.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/o27k2h/reverse_repo_operations_explaining_their_purpose/
For reference, the RRP market has increased by an order of magnitude in one year.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=Ktog
Correction, it’s primarily Money Market Funds that are getting overnight T-Bills in order to not “break the buck.” The banks actually don’t want the deposits because it’s makes their loan to deposit ratio look insufficiently profitable.
Perverse incentives all around. This cannot end well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0fSPO7AW7k
So, in a reverse repo, is the cash being parked by the Fed with the mutual funds, or vice versa?
correct!
Too much cash in the banks, etc… and they’re trading for collateral (T-Bills) at the Fed.
If I’ve parsed everything I’ve read and listened to on this, it means that there is waaaaayyyy too much cash in the system (thanks to all the stimulus, government spending in general and potentially stock market liquidation).
What are the results going to be? I don’t think anybody really knows. It would seem to indicate that inflation is going to be with us for quite a while and that the government should stop spending (HAHAHAHAHAaaaaa)
In other words, it seems to be an indicator that they’ve broken the financial system. How it will play out is yet to be seen.
What if we just send the extra to Ukraine?
A comment off reddit, take it for what it’s worth.
https://c.tenor.com/9b9cUZ-lse4AAAAC/spinning-plates.gif
Now I’m reminded of the background for the Ghost in the Shell series I am watching on Netflix:
Everything went sideways with the Global Simultaneous Default. The financial system just . . . shut down.
The US, in an attempt to stimulate the economy, invented the doctrine of “sustainable war”. Which apparently became a civil war in the US.
Oh, and the recurring villain figure is an NSA agent.
Props to the writers, I say.
Is Ghost in the Shell worth watching? I’ve considered it but thought it might just be another liberal fantasy script. Sounds like that may not be the case though.
I’ve enjoyed the series (Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045). No wokism that I can tell. The animation is good (the Major’s fight scene with a post-human in Ep. 10(?) is just phenomenal – they focussed on the footwork and defense), the writing is fine. Its been my before-I-crash watch the past week or so.
A well-regarded authority in online disinformation…
Sure, sure, simple public relations type stuff – which is why you gave it such a clear title as to what job it would be doing.
So, in a reverse repo, is the cash being parked by the Fed with the mutual funds, or vice versa?
That’s my question as well. I assume it’s a(nother) massive infusion of cash into the system by the fed.
This is why I don’t trust any of the rhetoric about a new right – it is all about empower me to do for you. The self serving stinks right off the page. If we’re going to have a fight/revolution – I don’t want another elite just like the last one; I want to destroy the elitism that has been destroying this country for a century.
GO
FUCK
YOURSELF
Essay about the search for a new right now that Buckley conservativism is dead.
https://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=27457
That led to this, which is blistering.
https://counter-currents.com/2012/11/robert-lewis-dabney-on-conservatism/
liberal with speed bumps
Ouch.
Nice to see that nothing has changed.
That ain’t any one I care to ally with.
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”