(Honor Guard at Arlington in the rain)   It froze again last night, all the water that had run off the Bluesmobile and onto the black asphalt is a neat white glaze, a natural process not unlike the making of an inverse holiday ham.   The studded cloves would be the dark chunks of […]

A sheen of diamond-clear ice cloaks the roads this morning. The rains did come in the night, and the sounds of scraping from down below came long before the light. The Schools closed early, all across the region, except for the contrarian District, which has decided to open late.   The Federal Government, located in […]

(Rabbit Ears Antenna) The snow-flakes are gigantic this morning, floating down past the tall windows at Big Pink like parachutes. The ground is cold, and the white stuff is sticking immediately. The roads are going to be awful, and this is one of those days I have to be out in the County early, and then across […]

  (Jacob Epstein Bust of Churchill- 1946)   “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” – Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill   You don’t have to forgive me, and I wouldn’t ask for it anyway, but I confess I am slipping my moorings. There are whispers in […]

  (How is it in Saigon?)   The 2008 edition of the Arlington Historical Magazine hit my box yesterday. The society issues it once a year, and it is a formal-looking journal on pale ivory stock. Dignified. That is what distinguishes us here in blue Arlington, with our 1930s houses and prim liberal attitude. We […]

(Cake) The new Administration is only two days old this morning, and has trouble sleeping through the night. I don’t mind, it is part of the process. A draft executive order was circulated that might, or might not, affect one of my business lines, and it was enough to get me up a little before […]

(The Former President, Departing- AP Photo) I was going to do the right thing, or at least the thing with the least risk. I was going to curl up like a hedgehog, like the Washington Cave-Dwellers of old, and pretend that two million people were not streaming into the city on bus and bicycle, on […]

(Mr. Bartley’s Burger Cottage)   It is inauguration day in Washington, and the place is locked-down, and jammed to the gills. Route 50 is eerily empty. At this hour it is normally a solid wave of steel and plastic headed into the capital. It is not, this morning.   You can feel something in the […]

 (America’s Promise- AP Photo) Loudoun- I could feel the rising tide as I crossed delicately into Loudoun County. The plane from New Orleans was due shortly after four. Based on the number of cars, sleek black Livery Limos and stretch monstrosities, there were a lot of them coming into Dulles this slate gray afternoon.   […]

(Old Hickory, 1829 Inauguration)   This is a solid morning, solid in the way that the sky has a certain density of cloud the color of steel, and the chill has brought all the molecules together in the most compact package. The antithesis of the expanding effervescence of the springtime: there is a palpable texture to this atmosphere that […]