(Bosun’s Pipe from the Age of Sail)   I am one of several admirers in town of the current Defense Secretary, Mr. Bob Gates.   I don’t think anyone really expected that a Air Force Reserve officer and career CIA analyst would turn out to be one of the most effective leaders in the history […]

(The Tall Man Wants You to Walk! and Starting Line)   I wheeled up to the farm in the Bluesmobile as the light was beginning to fade to deeper gray under gray skies with gray chill drops still falling.   I was amazed to see no less than six deer in the nearer pasture. They […]

(Progress)   Friday is when you want to announce these sorts of things. No one is paying attention, since they are more interested in getting to the weekend or squishing around on the completely soaked carpet in an office facility in Fairfax next to the third-floor women’s rest room.   I don’t mean to say […]

(eZPass toll Plaza)   The space-time discontinuity ended abruptly as he nose of the Bluesmobile approached the I-270 split at the 11:00 o’clock position on the Beltway. It is free to travel this way, and hence it is prone to clogging on work days.   The wired and wonderful sensation of absolute freedom dancing along […]

(“A”- “L” at the 40th Reunion) After I exercised my cell phone lifeline to my pal Muhammed in the parking lot, I steeled myself to do what needed to be done.   None of my asshole buddies were going to be at the 40th reunion- only the person with whom I had been closer than […]

(Letter Jackets, Old and New)   Unhinged in time as I was, the act of walking into the hotel lobby in the town near Grabbingham where I grew up was not as hard as I had anticipated. I was in jeans and a pullover sweater. It was cold Up North, and I push the Bluesmobile […]

(The Higgs Boson, in Plush Fabric)   Time moves backward in Ohio. I know that for a fact, since I saw it Sunday morning behind the wheel of the Bluesmobile.   In theory, this is a simple thing. Einstein laid the thing out; as old Police Cruisers approach the speed of light on the Ohio […]

(Early Electric Razor) It is a Federal Holiday, as you well know, but there is no rest for the wicked. I would have to burn a “floating holiday” in order to honor my Italian heritage and sit on the couch at home and recover from the 1,600 miles on the road this week. Not that […]

(View From the Bluesmobile Dash) I don’t know if it would have changed my mind any. It was the right thing to have a car up here, and driving my own made things a lot less complex.   Not one TSA screener asked to look in my back filled with electronic devices- Blackberry, cell phone, […]

(Jackie Gleason as Bus Driver Ralph Kramden)   This is a magical time of the year, as you probably have noticed. My favorite sports are in full flower. It is sweater weather, and there is football, college and pro, and baseball has worked it’s seductive best.   The weekend did not go so well for […]