Author: Vic Socotra

Renaissance

Life and Island Times July 31 2016 – Renaissance This one is from 2014. —————— A second chance at life was a long shot for Marlow a year ago. He was becoming weaker and thinner from serious, serial infections. In between courses of powerful antibiotics the preceding six months, he was set on drinking himself […]

Mazz-Int

I have to start at the beginning on this, which is a hard pace to get back to, since it was like thirty-five years ago. We are a tight little community, we spooks, and I think we are all grateful that we had a chance to do something we considered honorable in a dishonorable world, […]

Southern Sky Storm

Life and Island Times July 30 2016 – Southern Sky Storm This one is from 2012. —————————————— The afternoon and early evening had seen Marlow complete the divorce mediator’s homework assignment – a twenty page financial affidavit that got down to well below the nitty gritty. He had blasted a digital copy it off onto […]

OshKosh, B’Gosh

My late father and his brother were both aviation nuts. Dad was a Naval Aviator in the second installment of the last century’s version of the Hundred Years War, and Uncle Jim had been an aeronautical engineer of some repute before he got into the satellite imagery business for the people at Kodak. One of […]

Forecasts Magnified & Distorted

Life and Island Times July 29 2016 – Forecasts Magnified & Distorted This one is from early 2013. ———————————————– When you take upon yourself the schooling of others using your own life adventures as sign posts, and to acquaint them with what monsters lie in deep caverns, cruise beneath the sea and lurk in our […]

Long Term Care

I am at sixes and sevens this morning. I need to go to the bank and the grocery store- I should go to the Commissary, but the car I am thinking about purchasing is on the showroom floor of the Mercedes dealer by the Harris-Teeter supermarket and the Credit Union. An important note- I do […]

Writer’s Block

Life and Island Times July 28 2016 – Writer’s Block This one is from 2015. ——————– There it was again. A blank, white screen, devoid of black snowflakes. It was insistent that it be filled. Marlow could not respond. He was blocked. Writer’s Block by Adam Scott Rote Writer’s block sounded like a bad medical […]

Weather Report

Colleagues, It is a torrid week here in Baghdad-by-the-Potomac, and a decent thunderstorm might help to clear the sodden air- that is the point of these aperiodic reports. You may have heard that I have joined the staff of Syntelligent Analytic Solutions to take over the Intelligence Community Portfolio. I am excited about the challenges […]

Honey Boy

Life and Island Times July 27 2016 – Honey Boy This one is from March of this year. ———————————— Marlow awoke early on the ides of March with an upset stomach. He had forgotten to take his nightly tummy medicine and had sipped a half glass of red wine just before bedtime. He and W […]

Farnborough 2016

Jim Mueller is a peripatetic traveler, NIP Stalwart and regular contributor to the NIP Quarterly. Earlier this month, he visited the Farnborough International Airshow, a week-long event that combines a major trade exhibition for the aerospace and defense global conglomerates. It is modestly known by it’s promoters as THE WORLDS GREATEST AIRSHOW. In the days […]