Author: Vic Socotra

Yemen Separatists Seize Socotra Island

Dear Readers, This is from the heart. A fellow named Mohammed Mukhashaf has published an article about developments from my family’s ancient homeland. He calls Great Socotra Island “remote.” That is absurd. It is actually the center of the universe, and it is we who are distant from sanity. Considering the circumstances here, where a […]

The Longest Day

It was the longest day of the year, a cool thing in the northern latitudes where I hang out on the planet. I tried to think how many minutes of additional daylight we were going to get each day until the Summer Solstice marked the end of the growth and began the long slide back […]

Point Loma: The Birth and Death of the Modern

Falling Water I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a little weary of the second wave COVID-19 doomsday predictions, the George Floyd canonization, and the overall Trump Derangement Syndrome and unhinging of our collective sanity by the ravening mob of media fools. I thought this weekend I’d rather write about beauty, of things past, […]

…And Taxes

Big week, gentle readers. Maybe the most significant event was a strong rebuke from a dear lady friend who demanded additional information on the assertions of famed Plague Scribe Marlow, who did not include his recipe for what he claimed was the ultimate Old Fashioned Cocktail. I immediately sprung into decisive action and sent an […]

Passing of Ray Bollinger

Colleagues, Friends and Shipmates, I got one of those phone calls from Louisiana this morning you never want to get. We have all lost a friend, a comrade, a fellow in the great struggles of the last century and the one we are struggling through now. Ray was a Master Chief Bo’sun, among a myriad […]

Arrias: To No Earthly King

Quick quiz: Who was Ralph Rose? Before answering that question, consider something we’ve all seen several times in the past week, and for that matter over the past several years: people kneeling in public. In some cases it has been clearly a sign of deference to and thanks to God. Such acts have come in […]

Sixty-Nine

This is an account of the mess I managed to get myself into as I approached retirement, but which has its roots in my boyhood, and the thrilling aspect of contact sports. First was football, then lacrosse and the occasional and spirited crashes while on duty as a Ski Patroller. The distance running that I […]

Pierce County Executive Endorsment

Larry Seaquist: the Leader Pierce County Needs! I am a dedicated voter. I view it as a duty, and living and working in the Washington Beltway hothouse, I have had the pleasure to meet some of our legislative luminaries. I want to tell you about an extraordinary friend and public servant who defines what we […]