I don't know why I think this is funny

Not "ha ha" funny, but just amusing, but I was at the library the other day and noticed that back in the American history section they had four books - 1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton, 1775: A Good Year for a Revolution by Kevin Phillips, 1776 by David McCullough, and 1777: Tipping Point at Saratoga by Dean R. Snow. The fact that four separate people covered a four year period of American history in a sequence independently of one another amused me.

I've developed an interest in American history recently, so these four books will help. I can't tell you exactly why I have this interest, but I think it might be a combination of two things: 1. Right-wingers going on and on about how the "commies", "leftists", or whatever the current boogie man is is trying to "cancel" history or some such nonsense. 2. Realizing that my own knowledge of American history, especially early American history, is spotty. I have a general knowledge of people and events, but I've never much cared about delved into it until now. Given that the right-wing is setting its sights on "patriotic" historical revisionism, I figured I better get to reading before it's too late.

With that in mind, I'm going to start with Norton's book, then work my way forward. I also started reading another book called Autumn of the Black Snake by William Hogeland. The book is about the events that led to the founding of the United States Army, the behind the scenes political maneuvering required for its formation, and its first campaign: an invasion of the Northwest to defeat a coalition of Native American tribes. The Black Snake in the title is a nickname bestowed by those very same natives on the general commanding this new army, "Mad Anthony" Wayne. Should be interesting.

I just hope I can get through all of these books!

Kim Il-Sung and his giant tumor [Warning: Graphic]

Hi-ho, we're going off on a trip to Weirdville with this one, folks! I was just thinking of North Korea yesterday because something is going down in the Hermit Kingdom after Kim Jong-un unloaded on his goons over something related to COVID-19. North Korea officially has no confirmed cases of the virus, but they're probably just not reporting them to the outside world. They aren't nicknamed the Hermit Kingdom for nothing. This did lead me down a line of thought about how devastating the virus could be in that country given how pisspoor it's managed. Famine and mass starvation are common specters there, to the point that malnourishment has successive generations of North Koreans to physically shrink. Somehow, somehow, that reminded me of something I read (and saw) about Kim Il-Sung, the founder of the communist state: the man had a giant tumor on the back of his neck.

No, really, I'm not kidding. Going by the rare photographs, the tumor was about the size of a grapefruit right on the back of his neck. Pictures of his condition were rare because Kim Il-Sung was the leader of a brutal regime and nobody was going to be snapping candids if they didn't want to wind up in a labor camp or in front of a firing squad.

According to Wikipedia, it was a condition called calcinosis, where calcium deposits form on the body. Clearly, milk did not do this man's body any good. Shockingly, this isn't even what killed him in 1994. No, instead he dropped from a heart attack.

I'm posting a couple pictures of it, but I'm putting under a read more because you never know who might be grossed out by something like that.