“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 […]

(The star of DESERT STORM- the F-117 NIGHT HAWK.) The flag that flew in the chill winter breeze from the balcony at Big Pink had flown on the roof of the Capitol on Kuwait Day, 1991, the deadline President Bush set for Saddam to take his legions home. It is a little faded, since I […]

(DVD cover for the epic film Battle on Shangganling Mountain. Photo YesAsia.) If anyone thought this whole rising China thing was going to be easy, or fair, let’s just disabuse ourselves of the notion. The arrogance of Imperial Britain, and later followed by the less-structured and well-intentioned international meddling of the Americans, is going to […]

(Wind Farm in the Pacific Ocean. Photo LA Times.) The conventional wisdom about what is going on in the wide world continues to chug along. I was going to talk about Adrian Lamo this morning, the third individual who played a major role in the WikiLeaks carnival. Young Adrian has been called a “snitch, a […]