Dierdre burst into the Conference Room with a declarative announcement that seemed to bounce inward from the swirling gray outside the wide glass windows. “Y0!“ she said, pointing to Holly, who was leaning in from the Galley door with three brown grocery bags. Each was heaped tall with colorful boxes and containers. “I have a […]

Pastor fRank had done his Holy Week kick-off over at the Fairfax Ecumenical Chapel using young Reilly as an example from his group of theological students at the Temple of the Mystic Notion. It was a typical elliptical sermonette about examples, good and bad, that leaven the various philosophic pillars of thought. And how wisdom […]

Apologies for digging into the Socotra Archives, Gentle Readers, but the Chairman sent a note to Section Leader Miles with a copy of a battered old green notebook attached. He suggested we could use it as the conflict overseas enters a second week of steady-state explosive activity. It began a long time ago. The notebook […]

Miles gestured at the big flat-screen at the North End of the Conference Room. “OK. We have conflict in progress overseas and it is International Woman’s Day. Vic had a story about a miscalculation he made in writing an official message with a reference to how the Soviets observed the day 45 years ago. It […]

Fog, Bagels, and the Shape of What Comes Next There was a little friction at the Morning Production Meeting. Not confusion exactly—just the mild turbulence that comes when three different generations show up early, push through the fog, and gather around a conference table with bagels and incomplete information about a war. Frank had dropped […]

It was a busy week, as you are well aware. The war started Saturday afternoon here. The fireworks have continued through this morning, and Legal told us to stay away from the shakeup at DHS and who is going where and when. There are several rumors on which we have no comment, and we hope […]

Miles looked down the table to see who was going to wind the messaging threads together on a wartime morning. Splash, Vic and Rocket were over by the window, attempting to peer down to the corner in the deep fog. Dierdre was in the Galley doing something with deliberation that accompanied the clicking of a […]

(This evocative Wyoming sunrise provides a look at what will be coming to DC by this weekend. It also reflects a sense of the conflict far to the east. Hank Ruland got this picture looking from his porch over the Wind River Range and it was published in our morning paper, the Cowboy State Daily). […]

We were sitting in the conference room watching the periscope video of the fast-attack submarine torpedoing an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean where some of us sailed 47 years ago. It evokes a visceral sense dread at what it must have been like on the receiving end. The news about how effective MK-48 torpedoes […]