Author: Vic Socotra

Weather Report: Storm Before the Calm?

DeMille looked up, already prepared for the Wednesday production meeting. The Salts and the lovely Melissa were grouped in various states of eager participation and a certain somnolence. “It is December,” he said gravely. People looked at one another with uncertainty. Some tried a smile. Others did not. “So, the Supreme Court is going to […]

Sailor, Red Sky at Morning

Sorry Gang. The morning missive got lost in what threatened to become a physical alteration between the Fire Ring and the coffee pot on the Loading Dock. The caffeine dispenser has few of the benefits of the ones back on the big decks we used to ride, and that got Splash going. We warned him […]

How Do You Say Independence?

The only mountains in Ukraine are in the west (the border with Romania), the Carpathian Mountains. Most of the rest of Ukraine is either steppe – grassland – or woods. Much of the forest has long since been converted into farmland and it was across the farms of Ukraine that German tanks swept with great […]

Skipping “Nu” and “Xi”

Mondays have always been a tough day for people shackled to the working world. We are fortunate that the Writer’s Section has a built-in antidote from the lives we used to live. One of our better scribblers hones a piece through the week, polishes it on Sundays, and provides finished copy for release as soon […]

The Guys We Grew Up With

The overnight digital harvest brought a remarkable series of authentic WWII images, carefully modified to reflect the original colors of the scenes of a massive conflict. It made me think of the pictures we grew up with. So here they are, in the original B&W… Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra www.vicsocotra.com

Black and White, In Color

(Rocket contributed this color version of a squadron patch from 1944. He said his Uncle’s unit had it manufactured prior to their deployment to the ETO. That was the color version of an old war, otherwise only visible in Black and White.) Sorry. We are going to veer off the usual litany of current crises […]

Constitutional Crisis

It is a relief to be done with Turkey Day, not that it wasn’t fun. The next major holiday is nearly a month away, and we are sure will will see the same sort of unbridled hostility to it. The Chief directed a certain amount of Hallmark Channel programming would be added to the daily […]

Turkey Day in the Rear View

It was a bit of an awakening this year, and one filled with legitimate thanks. Last year’s spirit had a tinge of resentment to the enforced seclusion and mandate talk during the pandemic. Masks were still a big deal. The schools were in an uproar, and some of the response to the public health emergency […]

Arrias: Thanksgiving 2021

If you dig around on the subject of Thanksgiving you will eventually find that the first one celebrated in what was to become the United States was celebrated in Virginia in 1608 when some Polish glass blowers, some British farmers and some Powhatan Indians (who were actually Algonquians) held a celebratory dinner after the harvest […]

Giving Thanks

Waking up is a ritual we all share. We take it in different manners because we are individuals in a mass society. Splash is the duty iconoclast at Refuge Farm, and he was up before most of us. We think it is the effect of the winter chill being more palpable outdoors. But with the […]