It's very sweet of the family who run my local Chinese takeout place to help me pretend I ordered for more than one person

My Favourite German (TM) informs me it would be: Liebesundweltschmerzjahr

2025 was the absolute best year of my life personally and the absolute worst of my life geopolitically, there must be an incredibly long German compound word for this

Getting a Filet-O-Fish instead of nugs is absolutely a sign of a diseased mind

The fact that when I'm asked for a press comment on "the Russian submarine in British waters" I have to clarify which one they mean is totally cool and normal

I'm slow-cooking a big pot of massaman curry today and my whole house now smells **phenomenal**

Video podcasts also mean I need to control my facial expressions, which is not easy given that I mostly go on pods to talk about shipbuilding

DK is my origin story, especially the cross-sections 🤌🏻

USA: I can't build a frigate in a decade 🥲 PLAN: Hold my Q-ship maritime-executive.com/article/chin...

Having a clear out and found my ancient DC Metro card. Unexpected pang of nostalgia for the swamp 🥲

Someone knows me well. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Multiple people have been in touch to ask me how much fun I'm having with the Trump class

What a flood of messages to wake up to. It's not the dumbest idea I've ever seen, and it's not a battleship, but there's definitely a few people in NAVSEA crying over those renders. Naming it the Trump class is everything I expected and less. But, I'll believe it when they build it.

Ok but seriously, they won't be Iowa-style battleships, so the possibilities: 1) Big-ass arsenal ship 2) Drone carrier 3) Just A Really Big Destroyer (TM) 4) USS Iowa with some gold bits stuck on it because even though that would be dumb idk with this lot

I dare you

Half of me thinks "oh cool do you need another class to mess up" while the other half is screaming "BATTLESHIPS" www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

There should be a label on some audiobooks: WARNING! This narrator will needlessly attempt several accents throughout, including "Polish", "Italian", "French", and, most distressingly, "Churchill".

France is getting its PANG - Macron has confirmed the construction of the Porte-Avions Nouvelle Génération, meaning that the Marine Nationale will finally get an aircraft carrier that's ever so slightly bigger than the British ones

Daaaaaaaamn Fincantieri

I may be heading swiftly towards 40 but my friend's dad just picked us up from a party and I felt 15 again

"Based" on the NSC makes me nervous they'll futz with the design again because, like, it's the US Navy news.usni.org/2025/12/19/s...

My beloved has just informed me that he has never seen this (for which I blame the Army) and you'd best goddamn believe I will be fixing that as soon as humanly possible

This evening I am rewatching the best US Navy ship movie ever made

I am become Reviewer 2, destroyer of worlds

I was telling a friend about my holiday learning goals and they said "you do know you're allowed to, like, just relax, right?"

Did I write about the Manhattan Project in my PhD dissertation? Yes. Have I only just got around to watching Oppenheimer? Also yes.

Because Christmas is a time for war movies (in my head at least), I'll be watching and rewatching some good ones over the holidays. If you had to pick one to recommend for my roster, what would it be? Given who I am as a person, I'll obviously be starting with THFRO.

The most mil-pilled take of today, via LI: "You should capitalize Warfighter, out of respect!"

Email from a historian colleague: "I have some questions about the Type 45, can I pick your brain abo..." Me, immediately:

So special, much relationship, wow www.ft.com/content/afd4...

I continue to maintain that every GOP candidate for elected or appointed office in the US should be required to sit, Kubrick-style, with their eyes pinned open to watch the entirety of Band of Brothers.

I had a chat with The i about Atlantic Bastion, Royal Navy readiness, and the threat from the Russian Navy - including my oft-repeated warning that the Black Sea Fleet's performance does not predict the Northern Fleet's performance. inews.co.uk/news/world/r...

For Ship Sunday, as I've been writing about Constellation a lot - the European multi-purpose frigate, or FREMM. I can't give you specs because there are several iterations for mission and national requirements. This one is an Italian Bergamini-class frigate, general purpose version.

An early Christmas present for all you naval nerds - our book on NATO maritime strategy and ops is out next week! My contribution is on mission modularity and why it isn't a panacea for, like, actual capability. It was an honour to work with such a great crew! www.nomos-shop.de/de/p/guardia...

Some thoughts from me included here on the new US National Security Strategy - I focus on the European perspective, particularly the abhorrent far-right language and framing of Russian aggression. www.fpri.org/article/2025...

The new frigates might be modified National Security Cutters - which was one of the options for Constellation. (If not frigate, why frigate shaped?) breakingdefense.com/2025/12/navy...

The Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine is apparently "and I'll 'ave you too, mate, watch yerself"

Just did a press interview about maritime threats to NATO that was apparently "too terrifying for a Wednesday"

I'm fluent in several citation styles but APA is unequivocally the ugliest and I deeply resent being made to use it. That's all from First World Problems for today, tune in tomorrow for my struggle through bin day.

Can't even use serifs now, because of woke

To everyone who thought I was being paranoid in my choice not to go to the US during this administration ⬇️ I refuse to have to curtail my speech to get a visa.

How I feel getting no edits back on a piece other than reformatting the footnotes

ICYMI - that patch on the helmet is a Jerusalem or crusader's cross, which has been co-opted by white supremacists and the far right. Hegseth has a tattoo of that cross on his chest.

A not insignificant part of my freelance work as an academic copyeditor is exasperated authors hiring me to correct the mistakes made by whatever AI or other outsourced system their publisher/outlet uses. (The best outlets and publishers use people, including also me!)

New AI horror unlocked: Just had someone tell me that they'd put an email I'd sent them - as part of a job I've done for 17 years - through ChatGPT and it told them my email wasn't the correct response while suggesting I should have done something I'm legally not allowed to do.

What's this "one more kind of big, beautiful ship"? Wrong answers only.

A little bit of therapy - I made my annual Yule wreath today and it turned out great!