(Flight Deck of Pan Am Flight 103)  I wish Bill Safire was here to help frame the debate about what to do about Iran. Man, he could turn a phrase.   I don’t think anyone will ever top that “Nattering Nabobs” line he crafted for Vice President Agnew, a nolo contendere crook of the Nixon […]

(The Great Bridge near the Dismal Swamp) I became a believer in this Fall for real yesterday in the sprawling parking lot at College Park in the state that adjoins Virginia to the east.   Oh, the squirrels outside the balcony that look me eye-to-eye in the morning have been adherents for weeks, eating the […]

(1968 Zippo presentation lighter of (then)Vice Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., USN, Commander, US Naval Forces Vietnam.) No adventures this morning, gentle readers, nor railing about the injustice of the system, or the follies of our times.   I got word late yesterday that a distinguished colleague has been laid low. His son told me […]

(Culpeper Minutemen Flag)   I took my thermos-cup of coffee and lit up a Luckie as I walked out of my gravel driveway onto the narrow black-top of the farm lane. The stones crunched under my sneakers. The sky was blue and the temperature just on the verge of sweater weather.   I was wearing […]

(Country Auction, by Aldro Thompson Hibbard)   I ran across an American Mystery last weekend that struck me hard. It seemed to convey the impact of the passing of the season and more. It made me think as I unpacked the mesh carry-bag from the pool from the last time.   iPod, sunglasses, spare lighter, […]

(Last Cannonball of Summer)   Don’t believe your calendar. Summer died, officially, at 8:07 pm last night.   She did not pass away quietly, leaving with raucous shouting. The Gang that assembled was fully prepared to carry on her post-mortem right into the wake, and I must say that when she died, Summer of 2009 […]

(Intrepid Historical Detective Negotiates the Mud of Building 19)   There are good days and bad, we all have them.   As bad as things get, I had to wince this morning. I do not believe I have experienced anything as surreal as North Carolina populist tort lawyer, Senator, and Presidential candidate John Edwards had. […]

(Maddy on Richard Quirin’s Grave)   I’ll explain all this tomorrow, I swear. But I am still crackling with adreniline, and this part is not embroidered or tall tale.   The names, of course, have been changed to protect the guilty.   We dined at the Officer’s Club at Bolling Air Force Base. It is […]

(Graves 276-281, Potters Field, Blue Plains, Washington, DC) It is the end of the week, and I was reminded at the bar last night that this story has been all over the map. Part of it is dry recitation of fact, part of it is action adventure and part was heading for a noir detective […]

Blue Plains Drive tees out at the Boss Shepherd Parkway, which is a grand name for a concrete two-lane that ends in Jersey barriers at the DC Impound Lot.   I slowed for the left turn as we passed DC Village on the left, and the gigantic banana palm trees waved listlessly in the humid […]