Author: Vic Socotra

Country Projects

Like you, Socotra House is confronting several nagging projects of necessity projects that complicate the transition from Spring to Summer. One that is foremost on the minds of the staff- at least those who have need to periodically step from enclosed spaces to the welcoming Piedmont out-of-doors- was falling through one of the unsound planks […]

Arrias: Marx for Treasurer

On Friday Secretary of the Treasury Yellen said that inflation could climb as high as 3% by the end of the year. But she added that she “believe(s) this represents transitory factors.” In this she echoes Federal Reserve Chairman Powell, who has been saying for several months that signs of inflation are “transitory.” But, what […]

A Thing Called Courage

We all get caught up in the excitement and activity of the coming summer, city or country folk included. There is seasonal work in progress at the farm that includes replacing rotted boards on the deck and slashing back the aggressive entwining green growth of the land that wants itself back. Eugene and his family […]

Science Himself

I submitted a piece to the Editorial Board a couple days ago. It was a little caustic about the systems under which we now live. The mirthful part seemed to have been overwhelmed, and it caused a bit of a stir. It provoked Legal to object about material that could be interpreted as critical of […]

Midway and Cam Ranh Bay

(USNS Richard E. Byrd, (TAKE-4) en route Cam Ranh Bay, SRV. Admiral Byrd was an early Naval Aviator and famed Antarctic explorer. Official USN Photo) I am pondering the past and the future it has wrought from the Great Room at Refuge Farm. I am embarked on a deck project to prolong the life of […]

Farm Family Affairs

We are observing the anniversary of the great conflict in the waters off Midway atoll in the vast Pacific, of course. I am missing a Zoom call on some elements of it now, since there is family business in progress at Refuge Farm. It is not my family involved, though I am paying the freight […]

Marlow’s Island Times and Beautiful Minds

Editor’s Note: There is another torrent of interesting events in the morning harvest. With COVID restrictions passing into the memory hole of national life, the streets are coming alive again and travel is possible. There are other singular events reported, citizens acting out in the smaller ones, and larger issues like the cyber-attack on the […]

Weather Report: 02 June 2021

Ah, look at the events in our world this week! We lurch into a new month that will propel us into summer! The warmth is palpable, but still tinged with a breath of chill in the morning and persistent gray skies. Our President was out in Tulsa yesterday to highlight the century-old racial tragedy that […]

Juneteenth

(Citizens observing Juneteenth in 1866). There was some minor controversy in the ongoing social conflict in America over the Memorial Day Weekend, and a couple stories that can be respectfully put away until the next one. It used to be a traditional American holiday honoring the fallen of wars we remember and others we do […]

Arrias: On Memorial Day

> USS Herring (SS-233) > Memorial Day… It seems lots of people get caught up in the “Served” side of “remembering those who served and died” and Memorial Day quickly becomes a second Veterans Day. But, of course, it isn’t; Memorial Day is not about thanking anyone for their service, Memorial Day is about remembering […]