Author: Vic Socotra

Post Card from the Swamp #31

Heck of a week So, the guys who are going to rip out my 1964 vintage kitchen were here this morning and some of it is gone, leaving gaping scars on the wall-board. Maybe it will be OK. I have been all over NOVA trying to figure out how this mass of stuff gets resolved- […]

Japan-gazer Update

Japan-gazer Update — January 26, 2018 平成30年1月26日 = (30th Year of HEISEI Era, 1st Month, 26th Day) – – – – – = This week’s poem: Some Wisdom If, for what you strive, Is so distant and far, Across a life’s desert, Like an unreachable star, Then don’t walk, take a car… { From my […]

Life & Island Times: America’s New Silence is Death Epidemic

A terse emailed note from a friend announced another of his children’s close high school friends was found dead of a heroin overdose. That brought the total in his child’s small midwestern town high school class to six in twenty three years. The details were heartbreaking in their recitation, but there was a leaden sameness […]

Arrias: Davos Economic Forum and School Redistricting

One constant issue here in the Tidewater is ‘school re-districting.’ Everyone is very conscious of which school district they are moving into, wanting the best for their kids. So, it’s quite frustrating when a city council approves construction of more housing, knowing it will force changes in the school district boundaries, and when citizens push […]

Life & Island Times: PonziCoins

Because money doesn’t grow on trees, here’s a pitch to my readers to become rich real quick. Invest in PonziCoins. They are based on blockchain software technology that is all the rage. Below is a simple primer on how this works. Look, PonziCoin’s developers are completely transparent and honest — the above white paper primer […]

TAPS: Rosie the Riveter

Editor’s Note: This is not an intelligence passing, but it is one that represents something extraordinary in American history. The pressures of the war demonstrated the ability of women to perform in many formerly all-male industries. Rosie and her sisters changed everything about how our society worked. It is worth some reflection on just how […]

Nellie Bly

(Elizabeth Jane Cochran, from Pittsburgh). Thursday is what passes for my biggest business day of the week, and to my mild surprise, I got through it again. Then I ran a couple errands that had been nagging since the weekend, and took myself off the clock sometime after three. I unloaded the groceries and bundled […]

Life & Island Times: What is Suitable?

A Black Tie Optional invitation to a family wedding looms in my future. I understand the suitable sartorial requirements for such an event. Or I used to. As a gentleman of leisure (aka retired old dude), my current lifestyle requires nothing more than the occasional wearing of a sport coat. None of my old suits […]

Postcard from the Swamp #30

I had a case of the flu or something that came on hard just as we thought we had a deal on the Budget. As it turned out, there was some petulance expressed on both sides about promises made and ignored. There was bluster and a member of the President’s party on the floor of […]

Arrias: Continuing Irresolution

What really happened last week is this: Congress didn’t fail to pass a Continuing Resolution, Congress failed to pass a budget. The federal government’s fiscal year begins on October 1st. If the government is functioning properly, a total budget, with 12 separate budget bills, would have moved through the various committees of Congress, been passed […]