(Cocktail napkin note from intense discussion with the Admiral. Photo Socotra)   I don’t think Lizzie or Meghan knew the details about the spy swap. Didn’t matter; I was not privy to the nitty-gritty either, and certainly the Admiral didn’t know. He was just back from the Outer Banks and a week with his family […]

(World Headquarters, Sococtra Enterprises LLC) I was trying to stay in touch with a game in which nothing happened for 72 minutes while reviewing resumes in a teleconference. It was surreal. Then the Spanish scored in the 72nd minute and life continued to go on while some of us wanted to run out in the […]

(The Federalist, now known as The Federalist Papers. Photo wikicommons)   There is a high-pressure cell sitting on us as heavy as a Dutchman’s keister, and it is as reluctant to leave as a drunk at the bar. It will be 104 degrees again today, so it is only natural that we seek diversion. I […]

(Crochet bikini, sans wearer)   I managed to review a few dozen resumes at poolside yesterday, already feeling the remorse of the end of the holiday. As the afternoon deepened and the temperature continued to soar toward triple digits, the words on the paper began to dissolve with the perspiration that trickled down my torso. […]

I had one of those amazing weekends, and I hope you did, too. It was an intensely introspective holiday, and I read the Declaration of the Founders with a weather eye to the future and I labored on some stuff from the office that could be done while still in motion.   Behind it all, […]

  I am getting up at the Farm to the sound of a distant train, rolling with freight, holiday or no, down the tracks of the former Alexandria and Orange Railroad that my ancestors helped build. There is the sound of cattle lowing from the farm adjacent, and the clatter of ravens under clear blue […]

(The Maine Avenue Warf, Washington, DC. Photo Amantio di Nicolao)   They can tap-dance around the numbers all they want. The Dutch put the only numbers they needed on the board against Brazil, and I will be damned if America doesn’t seem to be interested. Shoot, I haven’t turned on the television during the day […]

(Area B at Big Pink. Photo Socotra LLC)   I was on the balcony at Big Pink. The high summer being upon us, access to the sun is starting to be a factor on the pool deck after work.   Work steals access to PRT- Prime Ray Time-  and by the time the whistle blows […]

(Grilled corn con quesa, photo courtesy Bonds in Northampton)   Brutal Day. I won’t bore you with the details, but I ended it with a complete understanding of Democracy, Socialism and Fascism.   That is not bad for a single 24-hour period, but I will have to do the set-up. Your government, bless its little […]

(Accused Russian Sleeper Agent Anna (Anya) Chapman. Photo courtesy Anna Chapman)   If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it. –       Sleeper Agent Anna Chapman’s pithy philosophy from her Facebook page. The whole thing is baffling. Why would any current or former superpower spend good […]