It is officially Spring, so of course the morning is completely screwed up. Yesterday, I was thinking about green shoots, and snow peas and hot peppers and the growing season to come. I will have an account of some of the pithier suggestions for avoiding green-horn mistakes in the garden, maybe tomorrow. It was fun […]

(Biscuit the Wonder Spaniel expresses her thoughts about a sunny Culpeper day. Photo Socotra.) I have not listened to anyone speaking on the radio since Friday. It has been tunes, tunes, and more tunes: lyrical ones, cynical ones, wistful ones. It is always a welcome change to pass outside the concrete barrier of the Beltway […]

(Action in Abbottabad: Team SIX in action in the film “Zero Dark Thirty.” AP Photo/Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Jonathan Olley) I have only seen two movies this year, and as we end the first calendar quarter, I doubt if I will see that many more. I was interested in “Zero Dark Thirty,” for personal and […]

I don’t imagine things can get much stranger, though I have been wrong about that many times. I was waiting for an appointment the other day and did not have the iPad with me, and looked at my alleged smart phone to see if there was a way to waste time. I clicked on one […]

By the time I finally got there, the gang at the Amen corner had already built up a pretty good head of steam. Sabrina got a new haircut and highlights and looked sharp. Old Jim was in his usual seat. Satchel was attempting- apparently successfully- to envelope one of the enormous corned beef sandwiches the […]

It was a gray and rainy Sunday with a pervasive chill that seemed to deny the impending change of season. I should have gone down to the garage and sorted through some stuff, but they said the cold rain would continue all through the day. The Russians had mentioned the possibility of going to the […]

  (The Bureau of Navigation, predecessor of the Bureau of Personnel, in its salad days. Arlington National Cemetery is behind the building. The Pentagon is off the frame to the lower right. Photo USN.) It will be Spring tomorrow, Dammit. It had better. It is gray and chill and spritzing this morning, not much different […]

It is two days before the official start of Spring and it is snowing in DC. I was daydreaming about warm places and getting rid of this lingering winter. Then reality intruded. The nice people on the BBC told me the number of dead pigs floating in the Huangpu river now exceeds 9,000. The river […]

Something complete! Damn, it has been a while. I attached the knotted bell-pull to the clapper on that chunk of heavy brass I have been dragging that bell around the world since 1968. Dad removed it from the fireplace mounting in a home we owned in suburban Detroit. It came to us in the purchase […]

(Willow took on a distinct Irish air last night. Photo Socotra.) I have tried to get out of Your Nation’s Capital on Fridays the last couple weeks. The farm is a comforting destination, and the level of stress in every sector of life inside the Beltway makes weekend flight irresistible. With the dysfunctional system gridlocked, […]