Author: Vic Socotra

Death, and….

The big line of thunder-bumpers rolled through Arlington after I got home, followed by a cold front and night-time temperatures that hovered above freezing but at something less than cozy. When I checked the temperature this morning, it was just about dead-even with Stockholm. I sighed, filled with regret that I cannot tell all the […]

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Eddie the Docent waved elegantly to the crowd of tourists, some covered in oil, who stood around the Hemingway dining table under the fine Venetian glass chandelier favored by Ernie’s second wife Pauline. “He won the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea,” part of a somewhat disjointed narrative caused by the linear […]

Freezing My Ass Off, Up North

It was good to be back at Willow. Elisabeth-with-an-S was at her elegant and solicitous best; her movements graceful behind the bar as she topped off my first glass of happy Hour white. Old Jim was presiding at his accustomed spot at the corner of the L of the bar. The Johns- the one with […]

Shell Stations Near MIA

I could not have done it by myself. I have to thank S&M and key family members and business associates for their help. All of them are about the best that there is, in terms of pals, and I would have to thank the Government for getting me to the pastel palace of south Florida […]

Small Business

Miami is not one of the places I would have thought about spending the day honoring Saint Patrick. I remember it traditionally as a raw early Spring day up north, with luck accompanied by some sun and a light jacket, and without luck, gray and wet both inside and out. In Chicago they have turned […]

Quinn’s on the Beach

They say what goes to Vegas ought to stay in Vegas. Normally, I am in complete sympathy with that approach. After all, the innocent should be protected, and the wicked should be left where they can be scourged on their own account. But this was innocent enough, and besides, you don’t know Tom, a swell […]

Fukushima Daiichi

There are Ides of all the months, so unless you are Julius Caesar, I would not worry about it this morning. Or Muhamar Qaddafy, but he seems to have kept his self-esteem thing going pretty well, along with his attack helicopters and imported Taureg mercenaries. I worry a bit about the Libyan rebels, since I […]

South Beach and Cuban Black Bean Soup

Oh man, I am actually out of the winter. It was painful, but I suppose all good things are. The clock folly- springing ahead- occupied the last padding around, forgetting the last minute things that I would realize I really needed a thousand miles away. The time line to the flight changed markedly after losing […]

The Big Quake

The effects from the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan are still being assessed, and I am traveling this morning. It is pushing five thirty, and the ride to the airport is going to be here in twenty minutes. I could tell you about the adventure of moving my son’s stuff to Virginia Beach, but […]

The Wow Moment

Editor’s note: Management at The Daily is departing the building NLT 0645 this morning to support a Military re-location from Arlington to Virginia Beach. Accordingly, there will be no in-depth coverage of the mega-quake in Tokyo this morning, of which there may be $100 billion in damages, undetermined loss of life, and the spreading of […]