Hi! It’s Dee. I asked Miles if I could just run the one graphic this morning, since there are no other celebrations in progress.

That I am aware of, anyway. That spun out of control immediately with two other ones which made it part of the New Normal and feel quite familiar!
The Boys cooked some French Onion Burgers from the patties left over from the Argentina futball match and began one of their drinking games down on the patio as we waited for the President’s remarks last night.

The timing was sort of weird. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s return to the podium may have had something to do with it. Remarks termed by some the most significant since the Cuban Missile Crisis were delivered after nearly all of us on the East Coast were asleep.

It was her first full briefing for reporters since she went on maternity leave at the end of April. She may be rested and ready, and if so, it is going to be a sprint to November—and to the question of whether we should let a quarter-million tourists select our next crop of United States Senators

But, of course, that is not the real news this morning.

We had a meeting with the Creative Section and the production and layout people from Digital Services and the Print Department.

In conference with Miles, Accounting, Legal and Production, we have ceased “creation” and moved into production on my new book.

I will take credit for it, but it has been a project in progress for more than twenty years!
It began with a biographical sketch of the life of Vice Admiral Rex Rectanus the Chairman did. Rex was the officer who reformed intelligence gathering in the Vietnam conflict. His companion after the passing of his wife was the Chairman’s pal Jinny Martin. She was the widow of legendary Navy spook Barney Martin and had been his partner in entertainment and espionage in Paris, Moscow and here at home across the Potomac.

There were some wild times in Arlington when the admirals and their ladies got together to demonstrate how the shopping, drinks and camera angles worked. They are all gone now, but the Chairman passed a box of papers and an ancient Apple Mac Mini to Deirdre to see whether she could make anything out of the mass of menus and tips for social-intelligence collection.

The production part is done. The meeting memo lays out the path ahead like this:

The people who actually work for a living, as opposed to merely thinking about it, claim we may have a new Socotra House release ready for its debut on 01 September—just in time to begin a festive fall cooking season!

After that, Splash and Rocket each have manuscripts in the pipeline: Letters to the World and The Snake Ranch Papers.

Between the World Cup, the midterm election and three book launches, we are going to sail through the summer and into the answers to the questions we forgot to ask!

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