Tinkerbell was taking care of us well last night. Mac did a second installment on his 92nd birthday, venturing out form The Madison in his golden Jaguar to join some admirers at Willow. Tink managed to doctor up a Bloody Shame (tomato juice sans vodka) for Mac with almost all the trimmings- cocktail onions, jumbo […]

As you know, the English language has some wonderfully anthropomorphic collective nouns for groups of animals. There is a Pride of lions, a Murder of crows, a School of fish, an Exaltation of doves and a Parliament of owls. Now consider the baboon, the loudest, most dangerous, and viciously aggressive of all primates. And what […]

As it turned out, it was a good night here in Arlington, and a relatively peaceful passing of the first hurricane here since Isabel roared through on September 6th, 2003. I was in unit 515 at Big Pink then, on the south face of the massive building and took the winds head on from the […]

Irene good night, Irene good night, Good night Irene, good night Irene, I’ll see you in my dreams. Last Saturday night I got married, Me and my wife settled down, Now me and my wife we are parted, I think I’ll go out on the town. Sometimes I live in the country, Sometimes I live […]

When I get older losing my hair, Many years from now, Will you still be sending me a valentine Birthday greetings bottle of wine? If I’d been out till quarter to three Would you lock the door, Will you still need me, will you still feed me, When I’m sixty-four? – Lennon and McCartney Who […]

“The guys who are looking for the Higgs-Boson may have blown the bottom out of Anthropomorphic-related global warming.” I said, looking at Old Jim over a glass of happy hour white, which was, on this day, a pink rose with a faint but invigorating hint of aeration. Crisp, but white is not red, regardless of […]

There was more damage than expected from the quake yesterday. Most of you felt it, as the rumble emanated from a point three miles under the tiny village of Mineral, Virginia. The tip of the Washington Monument has cracks, and some of the spires of the National Cathedral snapped off an plunged to the well-manicured […]

We have a hurricane coming this way. Doesn’t look like we will get smacked, though the Carolinas should not be so sanguine about their prospects. We will get soaked, though, and that is not so bad a prospect, though it will make the last days at poolside problematic. I was happy to get a decent […]

Morning, Gentle Readers! It is one of those Mondays for which there was no preceding day of rest- a flash-back to the old Pentagon Friday greeting that went: “Have a great weekend; only two working days to Monday!” On this particular Monday, our friendly government customer has scheduled two technical briefs on prospective bits of […]

I picked up my date for the service only a few minutes late. I did not want to keep him waiting, but had to stop by the office to retrieve the phone I had left next to the keyboard when I fled the office on Friday. My date was Mac- he is still a little […]