(The façade of the fall-back bar and restaurant in the vibrant Ballston neighborhood.) I met Liz-with-an-S at the Front Page last night. A meeting was necessary. The mailroom at The Daily has been swamped with inquiries about her departure from the Willow bar staff. “Why?” read the torrent of lamentation. “She was so pretty, so […]

(The Socotras, circa 1959, foreground Vic, Annook and Spike. Raven in his Navy flight jacket behind. I have never seen this image before. Photo Socotra) There were several things to deal with this morning and it is already out of control and not even morning any more. It is a Kodachrome kind of day out […]

Hah! Just lost the veneer of one of my two front teeth on breakfast. Crap. New Year, new challenges. How can a fried egg demolish dental fixtures? Add another thing to the list for the working week. Crap. I hate Mondays. As we lurch toward the next artificial crisis here in town, the Administration is […]

(Transferred to the Library of Congress in 1998, Mount Pony had been a Cold War structure with 140,000 square feet of radiation-hardened bunker space to handle the computers that handle all US inter-bank transfers. The Richmond branch of the Federal Reserve also had several billion dollars in cash stashed there against a nuclear winter day, […]

I like to “eat my peas” first and get on with more pleasant things. So, I checked the office mail to see if I had missed anything in the night, plowed through the Times and answered mail from around the world. Now I am looking at the clock and sighing. Thank Goddess I got the […]

(The Panzer to the left of the old ANCC Flagpole that fronted the Club House for a gazllion years and which had a jaunty nautical flair.) Mr. Sluggo called out of the blue yesterday morning and said: “You wanna get a drink after work?” I said, “Sure. I’d like to have a couple Grey Goose […]

I wasn’t thinking when I made the appointment with a young man who was looked for a way to crack into the intelligence business. I had a scheme that might work to do that, and could use the help with the expanded portfolio I have at the office, but there are a lot of uncertainties, […]

(Speaker Boehner re-laying the sod in the House yesterday. Photo House of Representatives.) It is a lot like that old joke about the landscaping crew from Hamtramk. They had been off for the holidays and drinking a lot of distilled potato peelings. The days off meant that some training had to be re-instituted: “Green Side Up!” […]

Should Old Acquaintance be forgot, and never thought upon; The flames of Love extinguished, and fully past and gone: Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold, that loving Breast of thine; That thou canst never once reflect On Old long syne. CHORUS: On Old long syne my Jo, On Old long syne, That thou […]

(Spartans QB Andrew Maxwell drops back to pass in the 17-16 squeaker win over the TCU Horned Toads. Photo Matt Kartozian/USA Today Sports.) It was a good Saturday down at the farm. The skies cleared and the dusting of snow was gone. I shopped for local food at Croftburn Market, joined the local health club […]