Author: Vic Socotra

Burying a Giant

This was a funeral that I didn’t care about in the slightest, from the human perspective, anyway, but it did have its surreal aspect. The Congressman’s long shadow ran right across a business meeting we held with a company in Johnstown, PA, in the early afternoon.   After all the recent funerals it is a […]

Lots Wife

(Mrs. Lot, Big Pink unit #608, surveys the salt and ice mound that covers her 2009 Prius) I am writing a cookbook, though you might not know it if you have to wade through this stuff every day. It is a real problem; the books about Rex, Naval Intelligence, Civil War Battlefields and the cookbook […]

Farm in Winter

(The Farm in Winter. The drift in front is across the driveway, waist-high and hard-pack icy from the County plows) I was going to give you a really tasty recipe for Shrimp Helene this morning, but this president’s Day I slept through the night and right past the alarm. That is sort of remarkable, considering […]

The Mystery Man

(Ruins of the Führerbunker at the Wolf’s Lair near Ketrzyn, Poland) I am sick and tired of food, and writing about it; I am weary of the house and nearly everything I can see within it; I despise the white concrete covering that cloaks the streets and sidewalks and is piled up higher than my […]

Couscous and the Emergency Reserve

  (Couscous with Spinach, Pine Nuts and Munster Cheese) I knew they were going to do it. The Feds are opening a couple hours late, planning on leaving early, and assigning a “liberal unscheduled leave” policy to those who really cannot get out of their subdivisions all across the region.   The government is a […]

Post Attack Chili

(Buck up. The snow has stopped falling. Have some Noodle Chili. You will feel better). It is a different world out there today. Some of the drifts have piled up on top of the plowed snow, and stretch flat and level across the tops of the cars that were not dug out after Round One […]

NorEaster With Ham

  The isobars were all crammed together on the weather map, and that is not a good thing. They say we are going to get gale-force winds whipping the snow sideways and obscuring the church across the street from Big Pink.   The sound whistles on the sharp edges of the balconies and scours the […]

Chicago Rules

The County appears to have given up, but we remain indomitable.   Well, sort of indomitable. Jinny’s flight was cancelled at seven this morning and the cancellations are cascading. She managed to re-book on an earlier plane, but now it is asses-and-elbows to get to the airport or she is going to be stuck with […]

Hierarchy of Needs

(The View from Tunnel Eight, 0800 Saturday, 06 February 2010. Photo by Socotra) The alarm did not go off. I wondered about that in the grayness. A curiosity. I did not know what to make of it, but I am sleeping in the guest bedroom to give Jinny some privacy, and I don’t have complete […]