(Wingwalkers) Leaving Cleveland one time I was seated in the rear of a commercial jet. It was a DC-9, a nice comfy single-aisle aircraft designed for multiple quick turn-around flights. Its reputation for reliability and efficiency drove strong sales, and it was one of the most successful commercial jets of the era.   Many found […]

(Ernie at rest)   It is colder here than it has been in years. Bitter, biting cold that blows right through and chills the very blood. This cold front is the great divide between the long slide into winter and the slow climb back out of it. It is a simple trick. We just have […]

(The construction site) My mouth felt like an Iranian road crew had been working on a project overnight, and some of the concrete had not set up properly.   I took a couple Motrin first thing to see if I could kill the dull ache that radiated from the jaw upward toward my temple. I […]

(Paula Lloyd, Hero)   I had a story in the can for this morning. It was a titanic story, two days in the making, full of sound and fury and signifying precisely nothing. It was a humorous account of outsourcing and the triumph of the flat-pack marketing scheme that IKEA developed and which has been […]

(Old School Analog television dial) There is a chill wind blowing against the flank of Big Pink. It sneaks trough the chinks in the old windows and the draft of cold air creeps along the floor and over my bunny slippers. You don’t have to bear with me, though I beg your indulgence as we […]

(The Fence)   With the battle raging in Gaza, it is hard not to think of fences, and intractable problems and sorrow. There is no solution I am aware of to that situation, except that we are tethered to the problem by history as surely as the Palestinians and Israelis are shackled to it by […]

(Lawrence Olivier as Richard V- 1944)   If I had to go somewhere this morning- and I do- it would be in a police cruiser, rather than slogging across a vast cold field of mud. Even in the back of a squadcar would be preferable, in a pinch.   It is cold but not to […]

(LT James Panetta, USNR with VADM Dan Olver, USN-Ret. Photo by Vern Fisher, Monetery Herald)   I was busy enough that the news seeped into my consciousness. I was juggling two e-mail streams, the personal one and the business one. The latter was kicking my butt, since there are five task orders to deal with […]

  (Bill and the President Elect in happier times. Photo copyright NYT)   It seemed simple enough- if you want to get a seat at the table, or maybe some preferential treatment, all you have to do is grease the right palm. We are taught about it in our annual compliance training, one of the […]

(Ana Belen Montes, True Believer)   From the Urban Dictionary:   1. denile  (noun) The next-best alternative when someone can’t spell “denial”. 2. denile (noun) Not a river in Egypt, e.g., When a person denies a proven fact, you just say to him: denile is not a river in Egypt!   I find myself having to climb out of […]