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Vic Socotra

Author: Vic Socotra

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July 21, 2019 Vic Socotra

Arrias: The US Moon Landing

Some – amazing – friends of mine and I were in the small town of Mesilla, New Mexico last week killing a few hours; in one little store a young woman told us about the pottery they were selling, all of which had been made by Navajo Indians from around the state. As she talked […]

July 20, 2019 Vic Socotra

Life & Island Times: Savannah Crazy 1700 Hours Friday Evening

Alice: I don’t want to go among mad people Cat: Oh, you can’t help that. We’re all mad here . . . I’m mad. You’re mad. Alice: How do you know I’m mad? Cat: You must be, or you wouldn’t have come here. ​from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland BEWARE. Savannah is a mad city […]

July 18, 2019 Vic Socotra

Swamp Postcard: The Squad vs. Trump

Lord, another one of those weeks to which we seem addicted here in the sticky mire of The Swamp. It would make you tired if you had to dog-paddle. Oh, wait. That is what we do here. Copyright 2019 Vic Socotra www.vicsocotra.com

July 15, 2019 Vic Socotra

Life & Island Times: MAD one more time

MAD’s mischievous, devil-may-care Alfred E. Neuman — sadly not running for president in 2020 My brief note on the passing of MAD magazine prompted one reader, an older drill sergeant type, to say: “Oh my! Your thinking diverged from a neat-of-a-pin construction? Listen, Waldo, your thinking has never ever been anything but outside the box, […]

July 15, 2019 Vic Socotra

Arrias: A Tale of Two Countries

You know the story, or part of it: born amid poverty and violence in a third world nation, shuffled to a refugee camp in another country, then emigration to the United States, a home for the family, school, college education, elected office, then elected to Congress and national prominence. Then, there’s this: Born in third […]

July 10, 2019 Vic Socotra

Swamp Postcard: Sex, Politics & Rock N Roll

My bother was here for a delightful visit. He arrived by train, a sort of sepia-toned mode of transport, and he seems to like the farm, worked a bit on the truck, and we swapped old stories and memories, some good and others not. It culminated (I hope) the astonishing procession of grandkids and old […]

July 9, 2019 Vic Socotra

Arrias: Consensus on the Census?

In all the furor about the 2020 census some fundamentals seems to get covered up with a lot of noise. But there are some basic questions that would seem to suggest what the right answer should be. (I say “should” because there’s the additional problem of laws – which don’t need to be logical, laws […]

July 5, 2019 Vic Socotra

Life & Island Times: RIP MAD Magazine

Sometime around the age of 5 or 6 back in the 1950s, I unknowingly discovered philosophy, theology, ethics and morality in the form of a bi-monthly comic book — MAD magazine. It was a time in America of the McCarthy hearings when such a thing was viewed as subversive and unpatriotic so much so that […]

July 4, 2019 Vic Socotra

Independence Day

Nope, no explosives today, unless the buzzards encroach on the human jurisdictions of the farm. Maybe the Marine down the lane will blast some off later, as the dusk blends into the velvet darkness of this special summer day. I luxuriate in the memories of an epic trip bringing the Pepto-Bismol 1959 Rambler wagon to […]

July 3, 2019 Vic Socotra

Swamp Postcard 4th of July!

Ah! the legendary Nat King Cole’s “hazy, crazy days of summer” are here again. I am here to testify to that. As a chaotic prelude to the holiday celebrating our independence from a tyrannical despot, a total of five children occupied the headquarters compound of Refuge Farm. It was fantastic to see the kids taking […]