Author: Vic Socotra

The Air Campaign

20 December 2020 Editor’s Note: This popped up as I was trying to organize a compendium of official travel to some odd places- Delhi, Zagreb, Rangoon, Pyongyang among others. It was weird and fun. But I found some other stuff that stopped me in my tracks. This is one of them.We talked about th end […]

When One War Ended…

19 December 2020 When One War Ended…. Editor’s Note: Here in Virginia’s Piedmont, most of the snow is aligned in orderly clumps this morning. Those may depart before the endless series of Hallmark movies has been put to bed for what hopefully may be a bright new year. I can summarize: “cute lady returns to […]

Life & Island Times: Plague Blues After Hours

(Refuge Farm in snow, recherché. Photos courtesy of Grace). Editor’s Note: No snide bemoaning of the momentary politics this morning. That squirrelly jet stream of frigid air beat us up but good this week. More snow last night atop the crusty ice that enveloped us at mid-week. The usual preparations for the unknown were revealed […]

Waiting for Snow in the Swamp

They have been hysterical on the flat screen for the last couple days, predicting a wild variety of snow accumulation on the Eastern Seaboard. We had nothing last season, so this combines a potential novelty and systemic collapse as a news story. Of course, there is so much going on in the background it is […]

Bell in the Ice

It was an odd Thanksgiving this strange year, and odder still to feel the spirit of “thanks” that rises on mornings like this. OK, I get it. You cannot feel the ice that coats the old Navy bell on the back deck. It has spent it’s long life in the open, on the ocean, decorating […]

Snake Ranch Papers

(This young American is on the only side of this little bridge you would want to visit. The other side of it is in North Korea. Taken at he Joint Security Area (JSA) in 1980 by some kid named ‘Socotra.’) I am sure you want to talk about the Electoral College this morning, and the […]

The Snake Ranch Papers

(This young American is on the only side of this little bridge you would want to visit. The other side of it is in North Korea. Taken at he Joint Security Area (JSA) in 1980 by some kid named ‘Socotra.’) I am sure you want to talk about the Electoral College this morning, and the […]

Life & Island Times: Signs of the Times

Editor’s Note: Marlow chimes in this morning with the current signage in his Coastal Empire region. It has been a national phenomenon. Here, the last Trump sign is down on the farm lane where we reside in Piedmont Virginia. I do not display signs of political allegiance. I do not want to simplify other people’s […]

Current Events and What Gets Lost

The big epidemic and the big emergency continue to rule our lives. Not so much down here on the farm, since satellite coverage enabled us to see video of an obviously stressed United Cabin Crew throw a young family off a flight because the family’s two-year-old had trouble conforming with CDC guidelines. The rest of […]

Letter From Washington (Part 13,234)

Editor’s Note: So, SCOTUS refused to accept the legal challenge from Texas yesterday, and set the stage for the Electoral College vote on Monday. From what we can see from the Piedmont here in Virginia, that strongly suggests we will have a Biden Administration next month. I anticipated grand theater in this amazing year, but […]