Author: Vic Socotra

Thanksgiving Eve

Thanksgiving Eve

Jimi Hendrix would have been 83 tomorrow, and the Boomers who heard the great guitarist’s music in person always reserve Thanksgiving Eve to do some preparatory celebrating. We sympathize with Jimi Hendrix, whose birthday is on Thanksgiving and we feel he always got short-changed on his personal holiday. The traditional Turkey Day festivities normally overwhelm […]

Tysons Turkey Trot

Tysons Turkey Trot

Activity started early this Sunday. Those who unashamedly practice devotion to their Faith on this day of the week were up early and had shaved or donned fresh frocks, depending on what or who they were identifying on this delightful morning. They were the first to see the Police lights illuminating the intersection down below […]

Long Shadows, Chapter One

Long Shadows, Chapter One

Dear Readers, this is a sort of exciting event. A project I had been working on in 2009-2010 with Rex was put aside after his death, followed by that of his lovely companion Jinny Martin, I scrambled to try to make sense of it. Then my folks passed away within four hours of one another […]

Coming Home in 1903

This is not Vic’s great grandfather, but he is the one who carried the Kodak portable camera, and was willing to turn with a smile when summoned. Creative Section Chief Miles Broadlawn told us to come up with something that described what a bourgeoise merchant might have done and seen on what was styled as […]

Images of Another Age

Images of Another Age

This was Vic’s great Aunt, the renowned Nellie Bly, nick-named for the intrepid lady aviatrix in the early age of flight. She retained that nickname beyond the recollection of anyone who knew her in a legal perspective. Vic waved his tablet that displayed the fruits of two Artificial Intelligence algorithms to demonstrate what the faded […]

First Pass: Long Shadows

First Pass: Long Shadows

Front Matter — Long ShadowsTitle Page LONG SHADOWSBy Vic Socotra Socotra House PressArlington, Virginia Copyright © 2025 Vic SocotraAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission […]

A Close Shave

A Close Shave

This was, at one point, an official US Navy picture of one-time grooming standards in the the Sea of Japan. The thought had been, as best we can reconstruct the reasoning, that after the loss of the Vietnam conflict, recognition should be made to the changed social standards back home. And make shipboard life a […]

BREAKING NEWS: LONG SHADOWS RESURFACES

BREAKING NEWS: LONG SHADOWS RESURFACES

Well, that is partly quite true, since he manuscript has been in the electronic clutches of the ChatGPT algorithm for twenty-five hours, routinely updating status to “3-5 minutes remaining.” Creative Section Chief Miles paid a call to DeMille,his predecessor in that job, to see if there might be past experience with a creative staff in […]

Fleet Week at The Trilliumv

Fleet Week at The Trilliumv

Morning, Shipmates! Busy morning coming up here at The Trillium, although not as busy as Fleet Week up in New York! The run up to our Memorial Day explains why the Mexican Navy’s Tall Ship Cuauhtémoc, was in New York and the tragic crash into the Brooklyn Bridge last Sunday, resulting in two fatalities and […]