Jake and I were in the Hubrismobile yesterday, watching the gunmetal sky over the gunmetal hood framed by the slick swooping windshield over the business-like German dashboard. We were barreling down I-95 just south of Springfield and outside the Capital Beltway. Jake was eating his tuna sandwich out of the foil wrapper fresh from the […]

NY times: “Socotra House Launches 548th Million Irrelevant Web Site: Publishing World Sighs in Indifference.” Editor’s Note: For those who missed the Daily yesterday, the entire production staff at Socotra House Publishing expresses the deepest regret. It is not our fault. Really, we showed up for work and everything. Here is what hung us up: […]

Brazilian Supermodel Gisele Bundchen and her hubby, Mr Bundchen, are back in Brazil for Carnival. I saw the news while scrolling through potential destinations to park my butt for a week or two. I do not want to think about what is going to happen when the music stops and we have to pay the […]

“Return to Raven,” read the note at the top of the page. My Dad was addressing his brother Jim Socotra, 17 years his senior, and really more father than brother to my Dad. Jim went through the same portal that Raven is going through now, long ago, and the echoes of his passing illuminate Raven’s […]

(A new Chrysler, or something, at the DC Car Show. Photo Socotra.) I should have been shopping this weekend, getting ready to put out a spread for the Superbowl, but I goofed off and went to the movies and then the Car Show down at the Convention Center. After the profound depth of anger at […]

(Crowd leaving the Hoffman 22 Cineplex in Alexandria yesterday after watching the documentary “Inside Job.”) I was going to share a couple really good pre-Superbowl recipes with you this morning. I have a nice comfortable story in the can so I can go to the Car Show down at the Convention Center this morning and […]

What the Postman Brings (Gladys Horton as a teen. Photo Getty Images.)   I would rather think about the musical legacy of Gladys Horton, the lead singer of the Marvelettes who charted the first of the MoTown hits when I was just beginning to think about things beyond my grade school, and who made Detroit […]

I have had something for a month or so, sudden nagging bouts of vertigo. If I move too rapidly, or hang my head at an awkward angle, the dizziness rises and I have to clutch something solid to get my bearings back. I suspect a minor inner ear infection or something, but it has not […]

You have to peel back the onion carefully on this mess we are in. I was hoping to get some insight into it last night, and got only a glimmer. There are great currents running in the public life, on broadcast and simmering on the web. One of my professional groups in cyberland is melting […]

(Segment of Grand Dad’s Trans-Isthmian Duplex Cable, circa AD 1914. Photo Socotra.)   “We could Hold Panama City for fourty-eight hours” (Torrijos) told me. “As for the Canal, it is easy to sabotage. Blow a hole in the Gatun Dam and the Canal will drain into the Atlantic. It will only take a few days […]