Woodworking Tip of the Day: Drawboring a Mortise-and-Tenon

Not for nuthin'…. But….. a joint that only trusts glue is a joint that's going to let you down the first winter the shop door stays open. Drawboring fixes that with a hole, a hair of offset, and a split oak peg. Same trick that's kept old barn frames and 17th-century New England joined chests tight for a few hundred years.

Why it matters: In a drawbored mortise-and-tenon you bore through the mortise cheeks, then bore the tenon's hole a little closer to the shoulder. Drive a tapered peg through the mismatched holes and it bends, hauls the shoulder tight, and keeps the tenon in tension as the wood shrinks and swells. No clamps needed, which is handy on a long stretcher. No glue needed either, which matters when a joint lives out in the weather and water gets in and eats the glue. Timber framers count on it to keep frames tight through the racking of raising day and the shrinkage that follows. That's exactly the abuse boat-shop horses, building stands, strongback legs and cradle frames take. A dory gets rolled over on them, a hull gets slid across them, and half the time they spend the winter out in the yard. WoodenBoat's gallery of boatbuilders' sawhorses keeps coming back to the same thing: let-in joinery that fits tight and solid stock. Drawbore those joints and they don't get wobbly with age.

Materials

• White oak or ash for the frame. Today's example joint: a 3½″ × 3½″ leg and a 1¾″ × 3½″ stretcher with a ⅝″ × 3″ × 2½″ tenon.
• Dry, straight-grained white oak offcuts for pegs, riven (split), not sawn. Ash and hickory make good pegs too. For gear that lives outside or in the damp, timber framers favor rot-resistant white oak or black locust.
• A candle stub or block of paraffin to wax the pegs
• Glue: optional (see step 7)

Tools

• Mortise gauge, chisels or a mortiser, backsaw
• Brace and ⅜″ auger, or a drill with a ⅜″ brad-point bit, plus a backer board
• A thin, sharp awl (or the bit's own point) and a marking knife or sharp mechanical pencil
• A steel drawbore pin. A machinist's alignment pin set in a wooden handle works fine, and a nail set will do for ¼″ pegs.
• Froe or a stout knife and a mallet for riving, a chisel or drawknife for shaping, and a dowel plate (optional)
• Flush-cut saw

Steps

1. Cut the joint and fuss over the shoulders. Drawboring forgives a so-so cheek fit, but the shoulder has to seat dead square and tight against the leg. Size it sensibly. The timber framers' standard keeps peg diameter at or under ⅔ of the tenon thickness, so a ⅜″ peg wants a tenon at least 9/16″ thick (our ⅝″ is fine). Their rule of thumb is a tenon at least twice as long as it is thick if it's going to be pinned.
2. Bore the mortised piece first. Bore a ⅜″ hole clean through both cheeks, centered ⅜″ from the mortise edge in furniture and ½″ in bigger work like benches, doors and shop stands. Center it on the tenon's width, well away from the tenon's edges, and leave plenty of tenon past the peg. Timber framers want at least 4 peg diameters of wood beyond the hole on any joint that might pull in tension. On our joint the hole sits 2″ from the end of the tenon, and 4 × ⅜″ is only 1½″. Go slow and use a backer board. In Follansbee's experience, when oak splits it's usually during the boring, not the pegging. A wide tenon gets two pegs so the joint can't pivot.
3. Mark the tenon through the hole. Seat the joint all the way home, then stick the bit's point or a thin awl into the hole and prick the center on the tenon cheek.
4. Move the mark TOWARD the shoulder, then bore. This is the whole trick, and the sources don't agree on the amount, so here's the honest range. Moxon's "thickness of a shilling" works out to about 1/16″, and that's where Paul Sellers and Follansbee's joint-stool book start. Chris Schwarz prefers 3/32″ for furniture and pushes toward ⅛″ on big joints in tough oak, ash or elm. Peter Follansbee uses about ⅛″. Fine Woodworking's door builders go a fat 1/32″ with ¼″ pins. Timber framers using 1″ pegs run about 3/32″ in hardwood and ⅛″ in softwood. For a ⅜″ peg in an oak stand, start at 1/16″ on a scrap joint and work up to 3/32″. Sight through the assembled joint, and the offset should cover about a quarter to a third of the hole. Mark with a knife, because a fat pencil line can wander 1/32″ on you.
5. Rive and shape the pegs. Split dry, straight-grained oak into sticks a hair over ⅜″, then shave them octagonal or drive them through a ⅜″ dowel plate. Taper the business end. Schwarz tapers the last ½″ down to a ⅛″ tip, and a longer taper (up to about 1″ on this joint) threads a bigger offset more easily. Make the peg long enough that the full-diameter body reaches the far cheek and the taper comes out the far face. About 5″ does it for a 3½″ leg. Store-bought dowel is OK only if the grain runs dead straight, and then use less offset.
6. Test with the drawbore pin. Ease it in. Schwarz twists his rather than striking them, and a light tap is as rough as it should get. It pulls the joint up, shows you the fit, and opens a path for the peg. If it fights you hard, ease the tenon hole a touch. If it slides through with no draw, make a fatter peg.
7. Wax it and drive it. Rub the peg with paraffin (an old timber framer's trick), head end up, and make sure the tip has started into the far cheek before you swing. Drive until the resistance builds and the sound changes, then stop. Don't beat it flush. Saw it flush afterward. Glue is your call. Schwarz still glues most joints and even coats the peg. Follansbee uses none. On horses that live outdoors, the peg is the thing doing the work anyway.

MOAM's shop note: The classic blunder is moving the tenon hole the wrong way, away from the shoulder. Then the peg shoves the joint open, and Fine Woodworking calls that one an easy mistake "with the direst of consequences." Second blunder: too much offset on your first try, which gives you an exploded peg or a split tenon. Cut one scrap joint first. Pro trick from Schwarz: use a coin as your offset gauge. A penny is .056″ (call it 1/16″) and a nickel is .072″ for a heavier draw. Moxon used a shilling. In Marblehead we'll settle for a nickel.

Sources: Christopher Schwarz, "Drawboring Resurrected" and related posts (Popular Woodworking); Peter Follansbee, "The Indispensable Mortise & Tenon" (Popular Woodworking) and his Joiner's Notes blog; Alexander & Follansbee, Make a Joint Stool from a Tree (Lost Art Press); Fine Woodworking drawbore articles; Paul Sellers; Sobon & DeStefano, TFEC Timber Design Guide 20, "Draw Boring of Pegged Joints," and the TFEC 1-2019 Standard (Timber Frame Engineering Council / Timber Framers Guild); WoodenBoat, "Sawhorses."

MOAM Out.

New Real Estate Listings on the North Shore Today – Sunday, October 4

New Listings Today – North Shore 29 Towns

Not for nuthin'…. But….. 13 new listings showed up across John's 29 North Shore towns in the last 24 hours.

Top towns: Lynn leads with 4, Rockport right behind with 3, then Salem and Gloucester with 2 apiece. Danvers and Swampscott each added 1. That's 6 of the 29 towns with something fresh this morning.

By property type: Residential Lease (rentals) 6 · Residential 5 · Residential Income (multi-family) 1 · Land 1.

The MOAM's take: it's a balanced Sunday mix — nearly half rentals, nearly half homes for sale, plus a multi-family and a land lot. Quiet weekend inventory, but enough to browse.

Contact Nanepashemet to view these.
Nanepashemet Real Estate Services
Call or text 781-727-6516
jnestor@nanepashemet.com

MOAM Out.

Listing data courtesy of MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN); listings shown are held by various brokerages. Nanepashemet Real Estate Services, MA Broker Lic. 136995-RE-B.

Boston Sports Morning Report — Sunday, Oct. 4

Football Sunday in Orchard Park — and the B's dropped one in Minnesota last night. Here's the Sunday board.

Short version: Patriots (1-2) visit undefeated Buffalo at 1. Bruins fell 1–4 at Minnesota and sit 2-1-0 atop the Atlantic with Ottawa at home Monday. Red Sox season is done. Celtics still waiting on preseason tip Thursday.

New England Patriots

• Yesterday: No game
• Today: Sun, Oct. 4 — 1:00 PM ET — @ Buffalo Bills (CBS)
• Next: Sun, Oct. 11 — 1:00 PM ET — vs Las Vegas Raiders (home)
• Standings: 1-2 · 3rd in AFC East (Jets also 1-2); Buffalo 3-0 leads · Dolphins 0-3 sit 4th
• Last result: L 6–35 @ Jacksonville (Sep. 27)

Road trip to Orchard Park against a 3-0 Bills club. After Jacksonville, this is the measuring stick. Coffee early, volume up.

Boston Red Sox

• Yesterday / Today: No games — eliminated, season over
• Last series: Swept in AL Wild Card by Yankees (G1 L 0–9, G2 L 2–9)
• Next: Offseason
• Standings: 87-75 · 3rd in AL East · Eliminated in AL Wild Card

Still October for everyone else. For the Sox it's the long winter — football and hockey hold the local board today.

Boston Celtics

• Yesterday / Today: No games
• Next (preseason): Thu, Oct. 8 — 7:00 PM ET — @ Cleveland Cavaliers
• Then (preseason): Sat, Oct. 10 — 8:00 PM ET — vs Philadelphia 76ers (home)
• Regular-season opener: Tue, Oct. 20 — 3:00 PM ET — @ Detroit Pistons
• Status: Preseason / 2026-27 not started. Last season: 56-26.

Quiet on the parquet. First preseason tip is Thursday in Cleveland — four sleeps.

Boston Bruins

• Yesterday: L 1–4 @ Minnesota Wild
• Today: No game
• Next: Mon, Oct. 5 — 7:30 PM ET — vs Ottawa Senators (home)
• Then: Thu, Oct. 8 — 7:00 PM ET — vs Utah Mammoth (home)
• Standings: 2-1-0 · 1st in Atlantic · 4 points

Minnesota snapped the perfect start. Still first in the Atlantic. Home ice vs Ottawa Monday — bounce-back night on Causeway.

That's the Sunday board, folks. Kickoff in Buffalo at 1. Enjoy it.

MOAM Out.

A New Home for Nanepashemet Real Estate

For a long time, the Nanepashemet Real Estate website did its job the way an old skiff does: it floated, it got you there, and nobody would call it pretty. This fall I hauled it out, scraped it down, and gave it a proper refit. The new site is at nanepashemet.com, and I hope you’ll take it for a spin. Why bother? Because the way people look at houses has changed. Most of you start on your phone, late at night, scrolling. I wanted a place where you can do that without wading through clutter, and where you can reach a real person when you’re ready. Here’s what’s aboard: Home search. You can search homes for sale in all 29 North Shore towns I cover. Save a search and let the site do the watching for you. New Listings Today. Every day there’s a fresh page showing what just came on the market across those 29 towns. It’s the same list I point to at the end of my daily listings posts, and it’s a good one to bookmark. Sell Your Home. If you’re thinking about selling, this page lays out how I work: honest pricing, getting the house ready without overspending, and staying with you through closing. Renovations. I’m a licensed Massachusetts Construction Supervisor and a boatbuilder, so I spend a lot of time thinking about how things are put together. That helps whether you’re buying a house that needs work or fixing one up to sell. About and Contact. A bit about me, about Marblehead, and about the name. The business is named for Nanepashemet, the sachem who led the people of this coast long before any of us showed up. I try to keep that respect for the place in how I do business. A website is no substitute for a conversation, though. If you have a question about a house, a neighborhood, or a project, call or text me at 781-727-6516 or email jnestor@nanepashemet.com. I’m around 7 days a week. Take a look, poke around, and tell me what you think. If something’s broken, tell me that too. I’d rather hear it from you. MOAM Out. — John Nestor, Broker – Nanepashemet Real Estate Services · MA Broker License #136995-RE-B · Licensed Massachusetts Construction Supervisor #CS-047636

New England This Morning — October 4, 2026

Take a slow look around — Sunday's already showing off….. Cool clear start across New England: Marblehead Harbor lit up gold, Mount Washington sitting above the valley fog, and Waitsfield wrapped in autumn mist.

Marblehead Harbor (BYC Oceanfront) — Bright morning sun low over a calm, boat-packed harbor. Soft gold on the water, quiet docks, and the Boston Yacht Club pier waking up easy.

Mount Washington North View — Clear summit under pale blue sky, rocky alpine in the foreground, and a thick sea of clouds filling the valleys below. Cam stamp 7:45 AM.

Great Eddy Covered Bridge, Waitsfield — Soft morning fog over the Mad River, rust-orange fall foliage, and the covered bridge holding the scene. (Stream weather graphic can lag; the live view is the bridge and the mist.)

Southern New England looks dry and pleasant through the day — high near 63°F around Boston — with showers more likely late tonight into Monday.

Webcam views courtesy of the Boston Yacht Club, the Mount Washington Observatory, and Mad River Valley Television.

MOAM Out.

The Wing is on Amazon now

The Wing is up on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HL8VP2JM

Kindle is $5.99 and available now. The paperback ($17.99, 328 pages) is in stock too.

If you're a paper person like me, order the paperback. And if you're in a book club and want to talk about it this winter, message me.

Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HL77F6KS

TDS Watch: Salon columnist tags Trump 'Nazi-esque,' then Otis the town drunk

Not for nuthin'…. But…. Salon’s White House columnist just stacked “Nazi-esque,” “talentless,” Otis the town drunk, and a Yellow Lantern with fading powers in one column — and the MOAM’s got the diagnosis pad out. Down here in Marblehead we know when a midterm preview turns into a comic-book roast with a history channel garnish.

What was said

On Thursday, October 2, 2026, Brian Karem — Salon White House columnist — published “Trump's superpower is fading. Can he recharge before the midterms?”

He opens the clinical chart with this:

“His persistent greed, anger and need for revenge empowered him during his first 100 days back in office in 2025, leading to sweeping, Nazi-esque changes sold to the public by discrediting or co-opting the media.”

Then the talent review:

“He’s the most talentless man ever caught in the bright glare of the light he demanded from the world.”

And the sitcom punch line:

“…he has now come to resemble Otis, the sleepy town drunk in ‘The Andy Griffith Show’…”

Karem also writes that the White House East Room “looks like Dresden during postwar reconstruction,” and frames Republicans as “led by a Yellow Lantern with fading powers.”

Source: Brian Karem, Salon, Oct 2, 2026

Context (not spin)

You can argue the midterms look rough for the party in power. You can knock a renovation, a rally, or a 100-day sprint. Columnists get paid to have a take — that’s the job from Mayberry to Washington.

What Karem did is not a quiet handicap of November. He packaged “Nazi-esque changes,” “most talentless man,” Otis the town drunk, a Dresden East Room, and a Yellow Lantern with fading powers into one Salon White House column. That is not a midterm model. That is a greatest-hits reel of insult metaphors looking for a chorus.

If the argument is “Trump’s political capital is slipping before the midterms,” say that. Cite the polls, the districts, the generic ballot. What you don’t get — not if you want the “democracy in peril” lecture to land west of Dupont Circle — is Nazi-esque + town drunk + comic-book villain in the same byline and call it sober analysis. That’s not reporting. That’s fan fiction with a Salon masthead.

MOAM's diagnosis

Severity: ACUTE.

When “Nazi-esque,” “talentless,” Otis the sleepy town drunk, Dresden-in-the-East-Room, and a Yellow Lantern with fading powers all land in one Salon column, we are past spicy punditry and into clear TDS territory — but not quite yesterday’s Greenfield martial-law Armageddon. Presidents can lose midterms. Columnists can be theatrical. Neither requires a White House beat to cast the sitting president as Mayberry’s town drunk and a comic-book lantern running on empty. Down here in Marblehead we still know the difference between a hard midterm take and a Nazi-esque–Otis–Yellow-Lantern sandwich with coffee. Save the history-channel garnish for the evidence. Save Otis for the reruns.

MOAM Out.

Woodworking Tip of the Day: Epoxy Working Time

Shop epoxy answers to heat and batch size — not to your stopwatch….. A cup that looks fine at mix time can kick while you're still tooling the second fillet. Batch size, shop temp, and the early warning signs of a kick — that's today's tip.

Why it matters: On a Chamberlain Marblehead gunning dory (or any stitch-and-glue / cold-molded hull), you're constantly mixing small epoxy batches for scarfs, fillets, and wet-out. Mix too big and the pot cooks itself before the work is done. Mix in a hot shop with Fast hardener and you get the same result faster. WEST SYSTEM / Gougeon publish the numbers — pot life for a confined 100 g mass, working time for a thin film — and the shop rule is simple: small batches, right hardener for the temperature, pour out of the cup when you need time.

Materials

• WEST SYSTEM 105 Epoxy Resin (or equivalent marine epoxy) with the hardener matched to shop temp and job size — 205 Fast or 206 Slow for most boatshop work; 209 Extra Slow (or G/flex) when it's hot or the pour is deep
• Calibrated mini pumps or careful 5:1 by-volume metering for 205/206 (do not change the ratio to "slow it down")
• Clean plastic / metal / wax-free paper mixing pots — no foam, no glass
• Wide, shallow roller pan for coating jobs
• Filler (as needed) mixed in after resin and hardener are thoroughly blended

Tools

• Mixing sticks (scrape sides, bottom, and corners)
• Gloves, respirator / good ventilation when a pot starts to heat
• Shop thermometer — know whether you're closer to 60°F or 85°F before you pick a hardener
• Clamps / fillet sticks / scarf setup staged before you mix

Steps

1. Pick hardener for shop temp and job, not for hope. At ~72°F, WEST SYSTEM 105/205 Fast: pot life (100 g) 9–12 minutes, thin-film working time 60–70 minutes, solid in thin film 6–8 hours (min temp 40°F). 105/206 Slow: pot life 20–25 minutes, working 90–110 minutes, solid 10–15 hours (min temp 60°F). Hotter shop or big laminate → reach for Slow / Extra Slow. Colder shop → Fast is often the right tool, and you'll mix a little longer.
2. Meter the ratio — never "adjust" it for time. 205 and 206 are 5 parts resin : 1 part hardener by volume. Changing the hardener amount does not control cure speed; it creates a mix that may never fully cure and will have weak physical properties (Gougeon / Epoxyworks). Use pumps or marked straight-sided pots.
3. Match batch size to the job. Fillets and scarfs: a few ounces, mix as you go. Spot bonding: same. Coating / glass: mix, then immediately pour into a roller pan so heat dissipates and thin-film working time applies. Large laminations: pre-measure several small batches ahead; mix one at a time; prefer 206 or 209. Do not cast thicker than ½″ in one pour (thinner if foam-insulated).
4. Respect the 18°F rule and the cup. Every 18°F above 72°F roughly halves cure time (Epoxyworks). A confined mass builds its own heat — WEST notes a 100 g mass can reach ~400°F, and 8+ fl oz in a plastic cup can melt the cup and burn skin. Same quantity spread thin cures at ambient pace.
5. Watch for kick warning signs — then stop using that pot. WEST calls the start of gel the "kick-off" / green stage: the mix thickens and flows slower, the cup may warm (and in a runaway can froth/smoke), then it goes tacky gel → hard rubber and is no longer workable. If the pot heats up: move it outdoors, don't breathe the fumes, wait until cool before disposal, and mix a fresh small batch. Don't try to "save" kicked epoxy on a scarf.
6. Stage the work before you pump. Clamps open, fillet sticks ready, scarf faces wet-out planned. Pot life is a lab number for 100 g in a cup — your real clock is shop temp + how much is sitting in that pot. Work the clock; don't argue with it.

MOAM's shop note: Biggest miss is mixing one giant cup "so I don't have to stop" — then watching it kick while the second scarf is still dry. Second miss: running Fast hardener in an 85°F shop because that's what was on the shelf. Third: thinning the mix with extra hardener "to buy time" (it doesn't — it ruins the cure). Prefer small batches. Prefer the slow hardener when it's warm. Prefer pouring coating mixes into a pan. That's how epoxy stays a tool instead of a science experiment gone hot.

MOAM Out.

New Real Estate Listings on the North Shore Today – Saturday, October 3

New Listings Today – North Shore 29 Towns

Saturday's looking lively on the North Shore….. 17 new listings hit John's 29 North Shore towns in the last 24 hours.

Top towns: Lynn leads with 4, Beverly close behind with 3, then Peabody and Gloucester with 2 apiece. Salem, Danvers, Marblehead, Hamilton, Ipswich and Lynnfield each added 1. That's 10 of the 29 towns with something fresh this morning.

By property type: Residential Lease (rentals) 9 · Residential 5 · Residential Income (multi-family) 2 · Commercial Lease 1.

The MOAM's take: rentals make up more than half of today's new inventory, so if you're hunting a lease on the North Shore, this is a good morning to look.

Contact Nanepashemet to view these.
Nanepashemet Real Estate Services
Call or text 781-727-6516
jnestor@nanepashemet.com

MOAM Out.

Listing data courtesy of MLS Property Information Network (MLS PIN); listings shown are held by various brokerages. Nanepashemet Real Estate Services, MA Broker Lic. 136995-RE-B.

Boston Sports Morning Report — Saturday, Oct. 3

This is catching the MOAM's attention today….. the B's went to OT in Winnipeg last night and they're right back at it in Minnesota tonight — while Sunday in Orchard Park sits one sleep away.

Short version: Bruins (2-0-0) lead the Atlantic after a 4–3 OT win at Winnipeg; tonight it's Minnesota at 8. Patriots rest until Buffalo Sunday at 1 on CBS. Red Sox season is done. Celtics still waiting on preseason tip next Thursday.

New England Patriots

• Yesterday: No game
• Today: No game
• Next: Sun, Oct. 4 — 1:00 PM ET — @ Buffalo Bills (CBS)
• After that: Sun, Oct. 11 — 1:00 PM ET — vs Las Vegas Raiders (home)
• Standings: 1-2 · 3rd in AFC East (Jets also 1-2); Buffalo 3-0 leads · Dolphins 0-3 sit 4th
• Last result: L 6–35 @ Jacksonville (Sep. 27)

Quiet Saturday. Tomorrow it's undefeated Buffalo in Orchard Park at 1 on CBS. Bring your coffee early.

Boston Red Sox

• Yesterday / Today: No games — eliminated, season over
• Last series: Swept in AL Wild Card by Yankees (G1 L 0–9, G2 L 2–9)
• Next: Offseason
• Standings: 87-75 · 3rd in AL East · Eliminated in AL Wild Card

October closed in the Bronx. Cap tip to a wild-card club that got there the hard way — now the long winter, and the other three sports carry the local board.

Boston Celtics

• Yesterday / Today: No games
• Next (preseason): Thu, Oct. 8 — 7:00 PM ET — @ Cleveland Cavaliers
• Then (preseason): Sat, Oct. 10 — 8:00 PM ET — vs Philadelphia 76ers (home)
• Regular-season opener: Tue, Oct. 20 — 3:00 PM ET — @ Detroit Pistons
• Status: Preseason / 2026-27 not started. Last season: 56-26.

Still quiet on the parquet. First preseason tip is five days out in Cleveland.

Boston Bruins

• Yesterday: W 4–3 (OT) @ Winnipeg Jets
• Today: Sat, Oct. 3 — 8:00 PM ET — @ Minnesota Wild
• Then: Mon, Oct. 5 — 7:30 PM ET — vs Ottawa Senators (home)
• Standings: 2-0-0 · 1st in Atlantic · 4 points (Florida 1-0-1, 3 pts sits 2nd)

Back-to-back road wins would taste good. Winnipeg in OT last night; Minnesota tonight; home vs Ottawa Monday. Stay loud.

That's the Saturday board, folks. Hockey night in Minnesota, football Sunday in Buffalo. Enjoy it.

MOAM Out.

New England This Morning — October 3, 2026

This is catching the MOAM's attention today….. Saturday morning just served up three classic New England moods — a golden Marblehead sunrise, a summit sitting pretty above the clouds, and Vermont fall color still holding strong.

Marblehead Harbor (BYC Oceanfront) — Clear sunrise flaring low over a calm harbor packed with moored boats. Soft gold on the water, deep blue overhead, and the Boston Yacht Club pier waking up quiet.

Mount Washington North View — Above a full sea of clouds. Rocky summit in the clear under bright blue sky, with a little lens moisture — and the valleys underneath completely socked in. Cam stamp 7:42 AM.

Great Eddy Covered Bridge, Waitsfield — Bright morning sun over the Mad River, peak orange and gold foliage, and the covered bridge reflecting in still water. (Stream weather graphic can lag; the live scene is the bridge and fall color.)

Southern New England looks sunny and pleasant later — high near 64°F around Boston, mostly clear tonight.

Webcam views courtesy of the Boston Yacht Club, the Mount Washington Observatory, and Mad River Valley Television.

MOAM Out.

TDS Watch: Greenfield columnist writes Trump his Stalingrad

Greenfield just mailed Trump his Moscow and his Stalingrad — and the MOAM's reading it cold. A retired professor writing for the Greenfield Recorder — western Mass, our backyard — just cast the midterms as Napoleon's retreat and Hitler's last stand, then casually prescribed martial law as the “best solution.” Easy, quick, and foolproof, he says. Down here in Marblehead we know a fever dream when we smell one.

What was said

On Friday, October 2, 2026, Jon Huer — retired professor and regular “As I See It” columnist for the Greenfield Recorder — published “As I See It: Napoleon's Moscow, Hitler's Stalingrad and Trump's America.”

He opens with powers that would make a history department blush:

“Donald Trump, our sitting president and the leader of the free world, who holds the fate of his nation and the world in his hands with powers greater than Napoleon's and Hitler's combined, is facing his own political end…”

Then the midterms become Moscow and Stalingrad:

“On Nov. 3, he will either meet his Moscow and Stalingrad and lose everything he cherishes or will cement his name in history as the greatest conqueror of the world.”

Lose the House and Senate, and the ledger is sealed:

“If he loses his majority in the House and the Senate, his whole political fate — just like Napoleon's and Hitler's before him — will be sealed.”

And here comes the cure — not a poll, not a platform, martial law:

“The best solution for him, as it's so plain to see, is to prevent Nov. 3 from ever coming to America: Declaring martial law and letting the army take over America, in the name of its commander in chief, seems high on his strategic plan — just for the simplicity of its execution: Easy, quick, and foolproof.”

Aftermath? America's Armageddon:

“everything we've known as ‘liberal America,’ ‘citadel of democracy,’ ‘shining city on a hill,’ etc., etc., will never come back, amid unimaginable civil war and chaos that will be America's Armageddon.”

Source: Jon Huer, Greenfield Recorder, Oct 2, 2026

Context (not spin)

You can handicap the midterms. You can argue that a president who loses both chambers of Congress is politically boxed in — that's Civics 101, and fair game for any columnist from Greenfield to Georgetown. Serious people write serious takes about November.

What Huer did is not a midterm preview. He stacked Napoleon and Hitler in the same sentence, gave Trump “powers greater than… combined,” cast Nov. 3 as Moscow and Stalingrad, then announced that martial law / army takeover is the “best solution” and “high on his strategic plan” because it's “Easy, quick, and foolproof” — before closing on “America's Armageddon.” That is not strategy analysis. That is apocalypse fan fiction with a local byline.

If the argument is “Trump faces a tough midterm map,” say that. Cite the districts, the polls, the generic ballot. What you don't get — not if you want anybody west of Franklin County to take the “democracy in peril” lecture seriously — is a column that scripts martial law as the sitting president's preferred Plan A and calls the aftermath America's Armageddon. That's not analysis. That's the end-times channel with a Recorder masthead.

MOAM's diagnosis

Severity: TERMINAL.

When “powers greater than Napoleon's and Hitler's combined,” midterms-as-Moscow-and-Stalingrad, martial law as the “best solution,” “Easy, quick, and foolproof,” and “America's Armageddon” all land in one western Mass column, we are past spicy local opinion and into clinical territory. Presidents can lose elections. Columnists can be dramatic. Neither requires a Greenfield byline to hand the commander in chief a martial-law cheat code and call the result Armageddon. Down here in Marblehead we still know the difference between a hard midterm take and a Napoleon–Hitler–Armageddon sandwich with coffee. Save the democracy lecture for the evidence. Save the martial-law bedtime story for the fiction shelf.

MOAM Out.