Author: Vic Socotra

Point Loma’s One China

The Great Wall looking fairly Biblical. One China “the United States acknowledges that Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States does not challenge that position.” It’s been a couple of weeks and I had promised to provide […]

Life & Island Times: Road Small Town Talk

Road Small Town Talk (summer 2005) We had come to the place on this motorcycle trip where we were used to our presence in little towns calling idle attention to ourselves with our strange dress and roadtrip adventures that we shared with the home-bound during our encounters. To a certain extent we were knights of […]

Postcard From The Swamp #35

Well, they certainly call it March Madness for a reason. My brackets are busted, the biggest snowstorm of the winter in DC happening in Spring. You know, the usual. I am slightly agog at what is happening now- anything from proxy wars against Russia in Syria, three-party Korean talks, the leadership of DoJ, CIA and […]

Already Too Late and Too Crazy

First notification of the Spring Gold Cup race festivities out at Great Meadow came out this morning. This is huge. With March Madness, the Masters, and the spring frocks being tried on and the sloe-eyed promise that Spring makes us all better, that marks our traditional emergence into the warmth. You know that this is […]

Arrias: A Daily Tragedy

“…worn out with labor and sinking under the burdens of anxieties, (he) could not sustain his spirits, which shook within him with the apprehension of a new war and fresh encounters and dangers, the formidable character of which he knew by his own experience… he fell into despondency, nocturnal frights, and unquiet sleep… Above all […]

Life & Island Times: They Thought It Would Be Weirder

Editor’s Note: Don’t trust me or anyone that looks like me. I would trust Marlow, but why start there? – Vic Author’s note: Today’s piece is a brief respite from my ongoing Road series. As God is my witness, none of what follows is fictionalized. They Thought It Would Be Weirder McM and the Doc […]

Life & Island Times: Road Valley of Steel

Editor’s Note: Marlow has been on a tear of late. I was an early fan of his “Four Corners” saga of a counter-clockwise motorcycle trip around the perimeter of the Lower 48 states. Today, he touches here on some home country, and a reminder of an impending crisis in which my brother and I may […]

Life & Island Times: Road Deer Hunters

Editor’s Note: Yes, it is Saint Patrick’s Day. And yes, I am half in the bag already and wearing the emerald sweater of solidarity with our hardy folk who crossed the gray ocean to bring us to this interesting and colorful continent. Better than getting chased around by Vikings, I would think, though I am […]

Postcard from the Swamp #36

Like, For Sure It has been quite a week, and that includes being just a civilian these days. There is a lot of information to process, and a lot to factor into the growing list of things-I-Need-To Do. You know, taxes and that Spring bullhockey. Oh well, here is what actually clogged me up this […]

Life & Island Times: Road Animal Bar Dragon Tale

Editor’s Note: More from Marlow’s magical mystical American road- seen from two wheels. Snow in the forecast here at the farm. Time to get it together if I am going to be back in The Swamp today. Wish me luck. But as Marlow notes, there could be a bar and dragons on the way. – […]