Author: Vic Socotra

No Night to Get Cute

Editor’s Note: Yeah, I know this is basically recycled, but I am only now coming to grips with the idea that the decade of Willow is well and truly past. There was a sense of family there, and I will always miss it. I had an interesting chat on Monday with one of the major […]

Life & Island Times: Hunt Them All Down

Yet another trio of senseless gang related murders occurred just after Savannah’s July 4th celebrations were winding down a bit after midnight on the 5th. Among the dead were two of the three gang member killers and a well liked local service industry worker who was an innocent bystander. The targets of this gangland slaying […]

Postcard From The Swamp #6

The heat index for The Swamp is going to be over 100 degrees today. Sounds like it might be time for everyone to cool off and do something about health care- 20% of the gigantic US economy- and for other people to cease “resisting” whatever it is that so infuriates them. Just an opinion here, […]

Editor’s Note: I felt like I was going to be one of them recently. Thankfully on the mend. Life is good. Live it while you have it. – Vic Author’s note: Thanks to my readers who submitted many of these additions. Marlow Taxpayer: “I’m spending this year dead for tax purposes.” Voltaire: “To the living […]

Arrias on Politics: North Korea is a real problem; maybe China can help?

On July 4th Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s autocrat, watched his engineers launch a missile into the Sea of Japan. Shot in a ‘high loft trajectory,” the rocket flew about 600 down range but rose more than 1700 miles. This trajectory, if flattened out (like a baseball player hitting a “pop-up” versus hitting a shallower […]

Life & Island Times: Nothing’s Crazier Than DC

Editor’s Note: I have had a couple health adventures over the last week but think we have identified the problem and are moving out swiftly to remedy it. I met with a Russian Attorney, so what could possibly go wrong? Hope to resume my usual drivel here shortly- and certainly in time for tomorrow’s Post […]

Life & Island Times: All My Friends Are Dead Or Dying

Editor’s Note: I love the way Marlow thinks. – Vic I saw and quickly read the short satirical children’s book for adults at a Beaufort SC book store this week. All My Friends Are Dead was a dark humor version of the short, sweet children’s books that were popular 20 years ago. Thus amused, the […]

From the Goat Locker

Editor’s Note: The Goat Locker is where the Navy and Coast Guard Chiefs hang out on naval ships or revenue cutters underway. It is an honor (or horror) to be invited there, depending on your rank. But we all know who runs this complex business. And they always have. This is from my retired Master […]

Life & Island Times: I Went to a Party

Author’s note: Since returning yesterday from my third and youngest grandchild’s high school graduation in northern Indiana, I have been thinking and researching a piece on the capitol beltway’s little emperor class and the self serving drama piece they are performing for us. Fortunately, a blast for the past and Noel Coward came to my […]

Postcard from the Swamp #5

Swamp Update OK- we are all jet-lagged here in the Swamp, every one of us, though in varying degrees. There were a hundred thousand or more people on the Nation’s Front Yard down at the mall all day yesterday to take in the Capitol 4th show. I avoid crowds these days, and had a vague […]