There was some relief from the regular readers that wrote to say “thanks!” for no Weather Report this week. We have all been watching (or feeling) enough weather already. They hoped they wouldn’t have to review the litany of social circus acts in progress. We would have deferred, but an older person whose pronouns agree […]

There was resignation but no panic here at Refuge Farm. The news of Hurricane-Tropical Storm-Hurricane Ian’s advance had been pervasive over the last week as The Big Story. Images of shattered homes and expensive boats stacked willy-nilly on the Florida shores was a sobering indication of what had swept across the Sunshine State and was […]

(Typhoon Kip, the most powerful storm ever to come ashore in 1979. It has been part of the Bragging Rights argument for years, since some of us were there, a fact of which they remind us any time anything else comes by. Like this morning). You know the feeling. “Something wicked this way comes.” This […]

(Vic Socotra conducts field research at the Hotel Roma, Taipei, Tawian, in the delirious year of 1980. God only knows who the photographer was, 42 years ago that alcohol-soaked afternoon. We were worried about a PRC invasion.) Editor’s Note: We get Letters to the Editor at Socotra House, and we publish them as they come […]

We could talk about the Big Storm down in Florida. Or maybe who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines up in the Baltic. Instead, we have often become a little hysterical over the arbitrary changes to our language. External Imposition! It is irritating since it comes and goes based on political need. You may have […]

We mentioned the “downsizing” thing the other day. We are spending real cash to do it. Not ours, of course. It is the Chairman’s cash, which he can justify by figuring the real total cost of hiring help to get rid of stuff. That will open up space, anyway. And some of the objects emerging […]