(Sergeant at Arms Frank Larkin, left, speaks to Jake at right while the humble scribe scribbles). Altogether an eye-opening morning with lots of information to process. The reason we were treated so well on The Hill was the active intervention of a former colleague who retired (finally!) from his career at the Agency, and fond […]

(Ernest Hemingway called la Floridita’s daquiri the best in the world. The legendary Havana bar uses: 2.5 jiggers of rum, six drops of maraschino liqueur, juice from half of a grapefruit and two Mexican limes). Nope- you think I am going to rail or fulminate about the First Family’s Palm Sunday arrival in Cuba? Or […]

(That really is St. Malo, a graceful town in Brittany composed of ramparts and tall stone houses and filled with ancient enmity for English invaders. It is the place of refuge for a locksmith from the National Museum in Paris against the ravages of the Nazi Occupation). So, I had planned on going down to […]

So, it is going to be Spring this weekend and we are going to get snow. Go figure. I am so over all this winter stuff. But Friday was a nice enough day, from what I saw of it out the window of my home office as email flew around all afternoon in a rising […]

I went over to The Front Page, as advertised, at four pm, sharp. The weather was teetering on the edge of being cold, and I was wearing just a t-shirt with the words “Drinks well with others” emblazoned on the front of the emerald green cotton fabric. I did not want to wear a jacket- […]

I am planning on walking to The Front Page this afternoon. It is only prudent. I am, above all things, a man of calculation. I tend not to go out on New Year’s Eve in my personal vehicle, for the obvious reason. The amateurs are out, too, and it is the best personal defense from […]

I watched a brief summary of the primary election results when I got back from The Front Page last night. The place is getting as comfortable as an old shoe, like the battered deck shoes that I wear now that came fromDad. The leather is now molded to my feet, and socks or no socks, […]

(Chief of Naval Operations ADM John Richardson, USN, provided the WEST Keynote Address). I have been putting my oar back in the water lately, and attempting to demonstrate that there is some creativity left in the old fingers. I don’t have the corporate resources to actually travel to San Diego as I used to, so […]

19 November 1989. This is a business day. Woke up at six, got down to the office to get ready for business. I read the message boards and discovered there was a major meeting in the Mission Planning space at 1030, and had a chance to sit in on Captain Tim Thomassy’s Pre-Sail meeting, since […]

  Annus Horribilis I have been thinking a lot about bygone days, as my weary readers are well aware. It seems safer back there, though when one actually looks at it objectively, there have been a few rough spots in our national life. 1968 was one of them. One correction to Marlow’s magnificent essay “Crossings” […]