(Terrapins Stadium, College Park, MD, on a Pee Dee. Photo Socotra.) There were high thin clouds that enhanced the delirious blue of the Maryland sky. Temperature in the low sixties. A nice breeze to make the flags stand out. And the tailgate? Damn! It was a Pee Dee: a perfect day. It could have been […]

Crazy   (Batman, Robin and Civilian at Willow, Halloween, 2010. Photo Socotra.) I sometimes complain that I am overcome by what is going on, but this is an extraordinary morning. It is crazy. The two comedians, liberals, I think, who masquerade as conservatives,  are having a rally for sanity on the Mall today. It is a […]

(Old City Gate, Seoul.) I threw some money on the bar and we stumbled out; one young Spook, one active Mata Hari, and the last flower of the Empire singing “Waltzing Matilda.” Mata looked embarrassed. There was a fortuitous cab waiting in front.  We sped through the evening streets past the brooding bulk of Namsan […]

(Lavochkin LA-11 Fang fighter. Image copyright Militaryfactory.com.) On the eighth of April 1950, Soviet Lavochkin LA-11 Fang fighters, shot down a US Navy PB4Y-2 Privateer (BuNo 59645) Turbulent Turtle of VP-26, Det A. Based from Port Lyautey, French Morocco, the Privateer was on a PARPRO mission launched from Wiesbaden, Western Germany. According to CINCNELM accounts, […]

(Official portrait of Speaker of the House Carl Albert, a Big Pink Resident) I stopped by Willow last night with no agenda. It was refreshing. I had forgotten my phones in the morning- the Blackberry was charging peacefully by the coffee pot and the Droid was in the cradle by the toaster oven.   I […]

(The Great Pumpkin creating mortgage-based securities. I had always suspected but never knew. Photo credit unknown, but reserved.) I am pleased not to be Tarik Aziz this morning, one of the few good things I can think of this week. The Iraqi courts sentenced him to climb the short ladder and swing by the long […]

(Election Day is coming at Big Pink. Photo Socotra.) I have been meaning to get down to Eastern Market before the Fall produce is all gone. Maybe pick up some of that smoked pepper-encrusted bacon at Canales or the Union Meat market to render down nice and crisp and crumble as a garnish for salads. […]

(The Stragglers at Army-Navy Country Club. Photo Socotra.) The dinner commemorating a quarter century of The Professionals was last night at the Army-Navy Country Club. We were on the Cocktail Porch, maybe fifty of us, most of a certain age, and it was a blast.   It was the same place where we had the […]

(Kathie Van Den Brink Meek, Jan 15, 1956 – Oct 19 2010. Photo Meek.) The gathering the other night at Willow could have gone any direction, north or south. There was reason for great sadness, and there was reason for satisfaction at twenty-five years of survival for The Professionals in an uncertain world. In the […]

(Church Spire of The Church of the Brethren, 22 October 2010, viewed from the balcony of Big Pink. Photo Socotra.) It was one of those days. You know the ones, so much significant activity that only the alcohol at the end permitted any clarity, and that, in turn, made the morning after so damned complicated. […]