Thomas Holcroft: The Larder (1806)
from Henry Fielding's 1742 novel
The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews
and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams.

A Difference Nobody Could Miss
Mid-February reliably brings Spring along the forty-seventh parallel, though an arctic intrusion slowed the usual warming this year. The sun crosses some angle where its light reveals a dimension winter withholds. Trees suddenly show height and breadth, and the sky turns the most reassuring shade. A few days spent struggling to shrug off the accumulated snow and, what do you know, it started smelling like Springtime, too. Linda Sue, our housecleaner, chirped that she was so reassured to see the robins flocking in our yard. Flickers descended from up in the mountains to strip our ornamental crabapples bare before they started budding and discarding their fermented fruits. I felt moved to drive my pick-up across the state line to find some fruit tree spray. I'm dedicated to properly pruning the Sacred Apricot and the two newer Maribelle trees this year. I always enter Winter reluctantly, uncertain if I can face up to and survive another isolation. Spring, though, lures me in a month before the calendar finally insists it's here. The calendar and the meteorological always disagree at this time of year, but the angle of the shadows defines a difference that nobody can miss. This was a winter of considerable discontent. May this Spring bring a hasty impeachment. May the inept insurrectionists receive everything they ever feared they'd deserve. I want our country to be of thee and me and you again!

——

Weekly Writing Summary

This NextWorld Story, Deficits, reports on what might have been the swindle of the centuries, how the last person anybody should have ever listened to for financial advice managed in an afternoon to leverage the most prosperous nation in world history into one of its poorest. It's the sad story of somebody who never learned how to manage anybody's money.

Thomas Holcroft: The empty purse (1806)
"Damn those who never learned how to manage money!"
—
This NextWorld story tracks the source of my beliefs in search of the probable source of the now widespread fictional BeLeef system common to modern political division. The perversion of freedom eventually results in cruelty.

Thomas Holcroft: Parson Trulliber (1806) from Henry Fielding's 1742 novel The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams.
" … indulging in innocuously guilty pleasures to discover some sense of freedom …"
—
This NextWorld Story finds me startled awake before the middle of the night, then engaging in MiddleNightMusings until after morning comes. NextWorld nights prove unsettling.

Thomas Holcroft: Salutation (1806) from Henry Fielding's 1742 novel The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams.
" … it will not be because we knew what to do with it."
—
This NextWorld Story investigates the curious power of Dis-. Our current incumbent seems to eventually Dis- everything. He has no friends, only formers and newly trumped-up enemies. Fascism thrives on a steady diet of imaginary enemies.

Thomas Holcroft: Lawyer Doublefee (1806) from Henry Fielding's 1742 novel The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams.
" … They exclusively worship craven images."
—
This NextWorld Story refuses to produce what you might recognize as evidence. It insists that you take it on my say-so, with Innuendo replacing what otherwise might have been proof. No democracy ever thrives in the absence of a preponderance of evidence.

Thomas Holcroft: Squire Guzzle (1806) from Henry Fielding's 1742 novel The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams.
" … no jury in this universe fails to identify the guilty party."
—
This NextWorld Story considers what constitutes a wise king. TheWiseKing knows he's impotent, imagines himself wearing The Emporer's New Clothes whenever he's in public, and relies upon wise counselors to generously reinterpret his every commandment. Dumb kings imagine themselves omnipotent.

Thomas Holcroft: The Welcome (1806) from Henry Fielding's 1742 novel The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams.
"He obviously had no viceroy insisting The King Is Wise."
—
I spent this writing week describing the most prominent indicators that my world has been changing. Much of what passes for reality now seems deeply rooted in fiction, not necessarily great fiction, but fiction. Our economy's abrupt transformation from the world's envy into our leader's shame doesn't even have a name yet, though it's clearly just another potentially ruinous story. The dabbling in illicit ideas nudged voters into supporting the unimaginable. Maybe we should have paid closer attention to walking the straighter and narrower. I spent the writing week losing sleep, as if I ever possessed or could have misplaced it, musing through my nights, not dreaming and not quite nightmaring, just darkly anticipating and dreading. Before musing on what constitutes a Wise King, I duly noted the dangers inherent in replacing evidence with mere innuendo. I wonder if our president could be any wiser than the wise guy he purports to be, a Gawd-Awful Father if I've ever seen one! Thank you for following along as we trod this perilous path together!

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #NextWorld, #PureSchmaltz