General

This isn’t a prepping post, per se. I’m off schedule due to life being busy. I’ll try and get back on track in a week or two. Be aware that most articles through the month of November will be “canned” (ie written long in advance, probably this month) because it is National Novel Writing Month and I need to sit down and write a whole-ass book (this year it’s my 18th century cookbook) in 30 days. 50,000+ words in 30 days is not easy, and I don’t do a lot of other writing, though I may pop in to say hi. We’ll see.

So last weekend, I was up at the Fort. It was the big “Out of Time” timeline event, meaning they invited people from other eras than the Fort’s (which is 1740s through 1760s, roughly) to come and set up outside the palisade and present information on their part of history. We had someone from 13th century, quite a bit from WWI and WWII, and of course my 15th century group, The Brotherhood of the Arrow and Sword. With all my favorite reenactors there (only the Vikings were missing, as they had an event elsewhere), I asked for and received permission to plan a grand meal for everyone.

As you can see from the image to the left, it was quite the feast. I had three “removes” (we would call them courses, today). We ended up actually putting all the food onto a big table and letting people get stuff buffet style, which I totally lost control of. I really got descended upon by locusts, and that was not what I had intended. Next year will be better, with the “removes” going out on the table for people to get food from. Also, those with food allergies needed to go up first, and that didn’t happen. I learn new stuff every time I do this. 🙂

The preparations for this meal started on Friday evening. The salt cod had to go in to soak, as the water needed to be changed several times before it was put in with the turnip to cook. I think I changed the water five times? Regardless, the cod was not at all salty by the time it hit the table, and actually was quite good all mashed up with the turnip. The “pumpion soup” (squash soup) was incredibly tasty and easy, and I will be doing it again. The salad was “just” salad, but looked at tasted quite good.

Yes, I cooked a turkey over a fire. This was my first time roasting a WHOLE turkey, as in the past I’ve always disjointed it and cooked it in pieces. I wanted to put the entire turkey out, though, and so I roasted it in my largest cast iron pot. I started it breast up, flipped it after 1.5 hours, then flipped it again after 1.5 hours. It spent its last hour in the beehive bake oven, crisping up its skin to a lovely brown shade. The turkey literally fell apart, was juicy and tender, and basically disappeared within a few minutes of being put out. The ham was “braised,” which means I seared all the sides first, and then boiled it. Or rather, it simmered most of the day. The result was delicious, and it was reduced to a single meatless bone and a piece of gristle before the end of the dinner. I was so pleased that everyone liked the food!

I think I served about 40 or so people. We ate in the Great Hall, which is also where I did most of the cooking. I baked bread in the outdoor beehive oven (four loaves) and did the rest of the cooking over coals in the two fireplaces at either end of the Hall. It was nice to have all that space for cooking! Of the side dishes I made, the clear favorite was the Roots a la Creme, which are basically root veggies in a cream sauce. I have to admit, they were very delicious, and I ate the leftovers (what few there were) the next day.

The star of the show, though, was definitely the Rich Cake, from Martha Washington. I have never made a cake like this before, which is dense and full of extremely alcoholic fruit. It was moist, solid, flavorful, sweet, and indeed very rich. I will absolutely be making it again, though perhaps with a few minor adjustments. I can see what that thing could be set on a shelf and left for a month, though. There’s so much alcohol and sugar in it, nothing will touch it! LOL! Think of it as an edible Christmas cake, the kind we usually use as door stoppers.

Ratafia biscuits were the other new-to-me dessert that I attempted. They did not turn out as well as I had hoped, but they were not a clear fail, either. They were very edible, with a lovely almond undertone to them. They didn’t “loft up” as much as I’d hoped, though. I think I folded in the almond flour too roughly, perhaps. I will say, I’m never making the ratafia biscuits again without modern conveniences. Whipping the egg whites until stiff BY HAND was quite the adventure, and my arm still hurts. Totally worth it, just to prove I could do it, though. It might not have been so difficult if I hadn’t started out by creaming the butter for the Rich Cake first, then creaming the sugar into the butter for that same cake, all before moving on to whipping egg whites by hand for 25 minutes. Yes, I’m nuts. But you know what? I know I can do it, now.

Here’s the thing. A lot of people there thought I was crazy for putting this dinner on. Cooking for that many mouths, spending an entire day in prepping, cooking, plating, and all the rest. I did have help, though, with two very good friends who took the time to show me the ropes (they’re both retirees from restaurant business, and know how to do proper mise en place). Everyone loved the meal, but yes, many of them thought I was insane for not putting at least some of this stuff into the very modern oven to bake. I was determined to do this “the 18th century way” though, because I know that if I can do it that way, then doing it with modern conveniences is easy.

This is also research. The cookbook I’m about to write next month will feature all of the recipes I used in this supper, along with many others that I’ve tried in the past two years. While I tailor my recipes to be cooked in a modern kitchen, the instructions suit those who want to do it the 18th century way, as well. I have to know how it works, so that I can explain it to others. Having the opportunity to work the kitchen for a big meal that way gave me a ton of insights into how an 18th century kitchen would have run. It makes my explanations better, when I’m talking to visitors at the Fort or to the encampment of my 18th century reenactors group.

Above everything, this is prepping (see how I masterfully brought it back to prepping? Go me!). I now know without a doubt that I can cook for a large group with nothing more than my two hands and fire. Nothing can stop me now! Oh, and everyone is looking forward to next year!

I’ve been working with Ally on how to communicate in Charlie’s Voice.

What I believe I’ve found is that he starts with people that are willing to have a conversation. Usually, the people he is speaking with have the start of their conversation with Charlie written out. They expect to have a one punch knockout.

It seldom goes that way.

The reason is that Charlie starts investigating how to connect with them or to get them to articulate what they mean by the words they are using.

This allows him to use his wealth of general knowledge to have a conversation where they are working from talking points, emotions, and opinions and Charlie is working from a fact based world view.

I’m still working on this, and we are still looking from articles by you.

Communism, an idea so good it has to use force to keep its citizens in.

The fact is that Communism requires that all dissenting voices be silenced. They are silenced with violence. People are sent to re-education camps, they are disappeared in the dead of the night, and they are grabbed off the streets, never to be seen again. All with the authority and violence of the government.

The image of people being disappeared is what the anti-American agitators are using when they say that “masked men are kidnapping people off of the street.” It invokes images of communist countries doing just that.

The difference is that these people are not being disappeared. They are being arrested. They get lawyers, or they had lawyers.

When ICE agents detain a criminal illegal alien outside a courtroom, that criminal has had due process.

Are these arrests violent? Only if the person being arrested makes them that way.

Soft Violence

When the Tea Party came into existence, I wanted to fly the Gadsden flag. I did not for fear of how it might affect my wife and children. I flew an American Flag instead and still worried.

People were silenced by fear of reprisals. This was the time of cancel culture from the left.

Voice a double-bad-think opinion, and you were canceled. Voice a bad-think opinion, and you might only be warned.

You were made to feel alone, but for a few lonely voices in the dark. You were told by every talking head that you were guilty of bad-think and would be punished if found out.

This is also the screaming and in your face, just shy of physical assault.

Physical Violence

This is where you start to see the laying on of hands. Physical beatings, shoving, and punching. Actual battery.

In Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s famous book The Gulag Archipelago, he talks about being stuffed into a cattle car. The violence was being dealt out not only by the guards but also by fellow prisoners.

But they weren’t “fellows” in the classic sense. Most of the prisoners were regular people stuffed in the pipeline leading to the Gulag. These were criminals, and they colluded with the guards for privileges and in exchange kept the rest of the prisoners cowed.

We see that in the criminal attacks in Seattle. Roaming gangs of violent thugs impose their beliefs with truncheons and bats. And if those don’t work, even more.

In Cabaret, the maître d` of the Kit Kat Klub kicked some Brownshirts out of the club. The cowards were not willing to do anything about it at the time. Instead, they waited until the maître d` had left the club, then beat the shit out of him.

They sent the message, “Oppose us, and bad things will happen to you.”

We see this type of thuggish behavior in the cities. We see it when conservatives set up tables to have a conversation and are driven off campus by gangs of feral louts.

And the state defends these thugs. Regular folk who stand up for themselves and others are punished by the state. Look at how the authorities treated prayer groups defending themselves vs. the antifa lice that attacked them. Look at the violence against federal buildings by antifa and then what happened when grandma walked through the Capitol.

This violence is vastly asymmetric, and it is intended to be. At every step of the process, you are told to back down. You are told that you have to restrain yourself. And if you don’t? Ask Kyle what happens.

Murder

Ask Lincoln how Democrats behave when they lose. Ask JFK, killed by a communist. Ask almost any victim of political violence in the last century how Democrats behave.

Unfortunately, you can’t. Most of those people were murdered.

The goal of the left is to create an event to prove the right is the more violent.

The problem is, we are. When we react, we do it with force and with a will to get things done.

Again, ask Kyle. When it was time, he pulled the trigger, and cos-playing degenerates died. That boy showed remarkable trigger discipline.

And this is not new.

In 1977, JoAnne Deborah Byron, AKA Assata Olugbala Shakur, was convicted of murdering a police officer.

This happy little communist worm was a member of the Black Panther Party, the Black Liberation Army and other groups. She was a murderer, a terrorist, and a bank robber. After she was convicted, she was sentenced to life + 26-33 years.

Of course the standard whining leftists blamed it all on racism.

She escaped, stayed on the lam for a while before moving to Cuba to live the life of a privileged Communist.

On September 26th, 2025, she became a good communist. Cuba has reported she died of health complications.

I’m still working on how to write a persuasive essay to open minds that would otherwise be closed.

So you get a Charlie clip.

So I ran into this dude, Kaizen, a few days before Charlie was assassinated. I think he speaks a lot of truth. I wanted to share it with you guys, see what you think of him. This is today’s video:

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17ap4aXUbb/

And this is his substack, for those who use it:

Thatskaizen.substack.com

Enjoy…

Charlie made Turning Point USA, and I love it. It flows off the tongue, and it speaks to so many people. But it is religious, and not all of us are. Nor should we be! We are not a hegemony, and I don’t want us to be. It’s antithetical to the founding documents of our country.

So I suggest… “Perspective Forge.” It holds the idea Charlie had, when he asked, “change my mind,” but it also brings to mind the birth of things. A forge is where metal is strengthened, shaped, molded, and made better, and perhaps we can make a place where our country and/or our people can forge their own opinions, shaped and made better and stronger by questioning themselves and others in polite debate.

I am not the person to run this. I have so little time… But if someone wants to work with me, I can throw ideas at your wall. Like this:

A secular version of Turning Point USA, accepting everyone, leaving the choice of religion (or lack thereof) to the members. “Turning Point USA is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk. The organization’s mission is to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government. (Union University)” Therefore, Perspective Forge’s mission would be to educate and organize people and enable them to debate while promoting the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government.

And when I go and look up those three things (freedom, free market, and limited government), I run into some very interesting things. They are considered the hallmark of “classical liberalism.” Our Founding Fathers considered a free market to be one of the main ways to maintain freedom from tyranny (though they differed in how they get there). Safeguarding the right to acquire and own property was considered vitally important, as it shielded individuals from government overreach. James Madison called for the protection of one’s “faculties” (skills, talents, and abilities), which give rise to property rights, “the first object of government.” Whew. What that boils down to is that Madison thought that the government’s main purpose, first purpose, was to protect the skills and abilities of its constituents, so that they could excel in whatever “faculty” they liked. When government does that, he feels it automatically protects We The People from a rogue or tyrannical government. I’m not sure I totally understand that one, but the idea is interesting.

I would love to see this exist. I would love to participate in it. If nothing else, perhaps on Charlie’s Day (Wednesdays), I will ask everyone to “challenge my view” (rather than change my mind). I’ll pick a topic, and state my viewpoint on it, and you can join in the debate. Feel free to toss topics my way, because I’m not always great at thinking of good ones.

I know what I want to do, I am just not able to do it justice currently.

What is Charlie’s Voice?

This is taking up Charlie’s bloody microphone, not in hate, but in love and compassion.

It is being willing to listen to people ask questions and addressing them honestly with the truth and compassion. It is being willing to stand up for what is right but without acting out.

As one person put it, WWCD, What Would Charlie Do?

Since I believe that Charlie lived by WWJD, this is not meant to be a slight to any Christian; it is expanding on those ideals.

His voice is strong and positive.

But how did he convince people?

From what I have seen and read, his strongest point was to give people a smaller concept to grasp and think on. To personalize it. Instead of talking about weaponized lawfare, he talks in terms of a single person. Do you purchase things with credit? How do you pay for those things? How do you record those payments?

It is about getting the person to have something personal to work with.

So many of the big lies are so big that people can’t wrap their heads around them.

One I’ve heard recently is “Trump is a pedophile.”  Now the logic is a bit twisted, but I think it goes something like this: Trump’s DOJ took Epstein to court and got him convicted.  But because the court didn’t release the names of the people involved with Epstein’s crimes, Trump must be one of those people. Now the Biden administration couldn’t release the Epstein files because Trump had the records sealed. Now that Trump is attempting to get the files released, but it hasn’t happened yet, he must be on the list as a pedophile. Q.E.D. Trump is a pedophile.

On the other hand, Biden isn’t a disgusting pedophile, even if his daughter Ashley wrote about her father taking showers with her at inappropriate ages, because Biden is a kind man, while we know that Trump is a criminal.

Trump having material protected and guarded by the Secret Service, which he had the legal right to have, is proof of criminality.  Biden having classified material stored in open boxes in his garage is not proof of criminality. Even though Biden never had the authority to remove those classified documents from their proper locations.

It is hard to follow the logic. But it is there, you just have to tease it out.

Lyrics

“Friends” are falling away like dead leaves. I’m trying to take my cue from the falling autumn leaves… it’s okay to let go of the past, and sometimes it can be beautiful.

One of the rough ones happened this morning. Opening up FaceBook to do some author stuff, and I run into someone I thought was a friend, posting up the entire of the “ciao bella” song that Kirk’s shooter had on one of his bullets. Just that, just the words of the song and nothing more. I realized that’s basically a threat right now. I didn’t hesitate to delete and then block him, but it hurt.

Another wasn’t Charlie specific. A very old friend (r/l tho we don’t get to see each other very often and interact more online) posted about “why can’t they learn that their stupid 2A stuff isn’t as important as the kids that were just killed?!” I admit… I hesitated. I thought long and hard. She didn’t threaten anyone directly. But then again, she IS threatening. When someone is telling me that my protected Constitutional rights are “not as important,” you’re giving someone tacit permission to use weapons to take my rights away. And that’s not directly violence, but it’s definitely the precursor to it. And so I deleted and blocked her, too.

When Charlie got shot, I ran out of fucks to give. There are no more chances. I don’t care if you’re liberal, but if you glorify the death of someone (and that includes schoolkids) then I don’t need you as my friend. If you want to have the government take away my personal rights, then you obviously don’t want to be my friend.

On the other side of that line, though, other things are happening. A friend’s wife, who I’ve known online for a while but never really met, introduced herself at a wedding I attended on Sunday. She took me aside and said she wanted to make sure I was okay, because she knew so many people who were hurting over Charlie. She calls herself a liberal, but said she’s been desperate for a conservative friend who is willing to talk and listen and debate (gently). We’re going to get together and have some chats, and go over some ideas and such. There are some parts of conservatism that I consider myself qualified to speak on (1A and 2A, for instance), and others where I will likely reach out to friends for help. I explained that I’m squeaky brand new… and that I’m also only conservative right now (imo) because the mid-line has moved so far left because of leftist stupidity, and that in any sane world, I’d be considered slightly left of center, a moderate. It was a good conversation.

It was also good to show up at a wedding, escorted by my boyfriend (who was packing), only to find myself surrounded by a handful of people who were also packing, and one who was very much open carrying a beautiful 9mm. I complimented him on both his sidearm and his holster (which was very nice), and he smiled and said in times like these, it doesn’t pay to be unarmed. It felt good.

Starting this Wednesday, there will be a new weekly feature tentatively named “Charlie’s Voice.’

The goal is to produce a persuasive article to carry Charlie Kirk’s voice forward.

The guidelines are something like this:

• Take a left-leaning stance, position, or statement at face value.
• Listen to the statement/argument as if a single person were presenting it to you, face-to-face.
• Extract from the statement/argument the actual points of the person presenting.
• Using persuasive language, present your counterargument in such a way that it brings that person closer to our ideals and goals.
• Maintain neutral language, no gotcha phrases, no barbed zingers.

I do not expect this to be easy, which is why I’m asking for help from you.

Submissions go to info@troglodite.com. We’d prefer a Google Doc, LibreOffice document, or a Word document. Submissions will be edited for grammar and may be sent back with red pen if more than grammar changes are required.

Please include the byline you wish to have your article published under.

Examples

If you want to write on these topics, feel free; I’m putting them out here now because I will be working on something for Wednesday.

President Trump is a felon.

Example response:

You are correct; Donald Trump was convicted in a New York state court of 34 counts of falsifying business records.

If there are 34 counts, does this mean that Trump was convicted of 34 different crimes? The court says yes; maybe you won’t agree with the court.

Over the course of nine months, Trump signed 9 checks to Michael Cohen. The checks were normal checks with a memo line. The prosecution claimed that the text on the memo line was fraudulent, resulting in 9 different counts. Because that memo line was repeated in a ledger, each entry in the ledger became another count.

The prosecution decided that there were 4 counts for each check that Trump wrote, leading to the 34 count number. All of which were for the payment of one bill.

This would be similar to you buying a new set of golf clubs on credit, then writing a check once a month to pay off the bill, but instead of writing “New golf clubs,” you wrote “Entertainment.”

The prosecutor’s argument was that anything apart from “hush payment” was fraudulent.

There will be more, of course; this is just the start.

I look forward to your submissions.