Press ESC key to close search

Vic Socotra

Author: Vic Socotra

  1. Home
  2. Vic Socotra
June 29, 2019 Vic Socotra

Life & Island Times: Comfortably Dumb

Hello, What the hell are you up to? Someone, please nod if you can hear me Is there anyone home? Come on Now You say we’re feeling down You can ease our pain Get us on our feet again Relax We need some information first Just the basic facts Can you show us voters where […]

June 28, 2019 Vic Socotra

Mad Jack Percival

Some early thoughts from Arrias on July 4th…and the REAL Old Navy. If you are ever find yourself riding along Route 6A in West Barnstable (the “north side” of Cape Cod), drop by one of the old cemeteries and find the grave of Captain John “Mad Jack” Percival. Jack Percival was one of those characters […]

June 27, 2019 Vic Socotra

Life & Island Times: Debate DemKu

As life-long car types and gearheads, W and I watched another “new to us” show on the MotorTrend cable channel, skipping the Democratic Party’s first 2020 Presidential candidate debate last night. This 8-season long show’s title is an eerily scary harbinger of what this debate process will become – “Roadkill.” While W did some early […]

June 26, 2019 Vic Socotra

Swamp Postcard: Smoke, Mirrors and Flashpoints

Well, here we are at midweek, and sort of confident that the world will continue until at least tomorrow. We are walking a variety of planks strewn willy-nilly all over the globe. It is not quite bewildering- I mean, winnowing 24 candidates for the Presidency is going to be an anguishing process over the next […]

June 24, 2019 Vic Socotra

Life & ISland Times: Salle 18

More than fifty years ago while studying as an exchange student at a French university, I suffered a serious head injury in a motorcycle accident. After a long time being sedated to quell my brain swelling, I awoke at night in “Salle 18” or ward eighteen. More than a month later I was allowed to […]

June 24, 2019 Vic Socotra

Solstice in the Country

Well, it happened again. The long swing from winter, in the northern hemisphere, anyway, to our sweltering summers in the Virginia Piedmont is accomplished. From here, we advance (or recess) by a minute or so of less daylight until we shudder and shiver again in the darkness, and wonder at the vagaries of our orbit […]

June 23, 2019 Vic Socotra

Arrias: Iran, Trump, and Napoleon

So, President Trump didn’t strike Iran. (Although reporting now suggests that he did attack Iran – cyber attacks on both the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and on their air defense systems.) In any case, this isn’t the first time a President has recalled a strike, nor will it be the last. We all may have viscerally […]

June 21, 2019 Vic Socotra

Juneteenth

It was the 19th of June, 1865. The blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico glittered in the brilliant sun. The sand was white as sugar on the barrier island. Major General Gordon Granger, late of the Army of the Cumberland, read General Order #3 to the people of the former Confederate city of Galveston, […]

June 19, 2019 Vic Socotra

Swamp Postcard Summer

Goodness, a complicated transition to high summer. Mr. Trump claims he is running again; goodness. Hong Kong, one of my favorite cities, is in apparent revolt against the central government. Life is great if you can live live it. Having a wonderful time. Wish you were here.

June 18, 2019 Vic Socotra

Rosie Still Rolls

Car People: Rosie Update A car parked in front of a truckDescription automatically generatedIt is car season, and those people who (like me) are obsessed with our shared history. and forged metal and paint. Mom and Dad flogged a station wagon like this version of Rosie from Detroit to El Segundo, CA, to show his […]