(Manger Square, Bethlehem)   Saturday morning normally starts with the shows about pets and young children, since it is the people who have both that are awake at the same ungodly hour. There is news about Bernie Madoff and his scam, and the bail-out of the car companies that Mr. Bush has announced to prevent General […]

(1972 Promo Ad)   Mark Felt died yesterday. He was Deputy Director of the FBI back in the days of Watergate, and he worked for J. Edgar Hoover and his fey pal Clyde Tolsen when the long reign of the cult of the personality that built the Bureau was ending. “Jedgar,” as we called him […]

I am not going to buy a new car this month. It was a hard decision, actually, since this is about the best time in the world to pick up things on the cheap, if you have a little cash. The car companies are on the ropes; GM needs billions to get to the end […]

(Lucky Seven Logo)   Are you feeling lucky?   I suspect not. The best we can hope for this holiday season seems to be one of caution. I shopped more than I wanted though not for what I wanted. Some of the last items to hit this credit card billing cycle will be an airline […]

(The Lipstick Building) I have made another colossal mistake in a life that appears to be an endless sequence of misadventures in early-adoption.   I am drowning in updates as it is, what with the intelligence mob commenting on the daily acts of lunacy, and the Chinese Peril crowd forwarding the translations of the PRC […]

(Below,The wall at Eight Mile)   It was about six hundred miles to the village by the Bay, give or take, and in the gray, every one of them seemed to be the same.   I didn’t much to do except twist periodically on the steering wheel of the big Lincoln as it pointed its […]

  (Hall of Mirrors, Versailles) It was a relief to do a little spook work this morning. It was either that or examine the prospects of General Motors and Chrysler going out of business before New Years, now that those idiots in the Senate have denied them short-term loans. What are they thinking? Do they […]

(Forrestal Building)   It is raining in Arlington, cold black pelting rain, and it saps the energy I need to get to the office. I dragged myself out of the rack anyway, since there are workmen coming early- they swear- to fix the closet doors.   They seemed to be energetic enough to actually do […]

  In a strange way, the Continuing Crisis is providing a pleasant divergence from what I think is real life. I know there is a difference. There must be.   The professional life, with its enforced cool analysis, has provided a stoic balcony from which to witness the chaos of the world. The training and discipline has […]

  (Marshal Zukov’s Statue in Red Square) The earth is slowing down- you have felt it, too, I suspect. The astronomers are going to have to add a “leap” second to the next year, 2009, I think, to accommodate the dramatic decline in the rotational speed of the planet.   I started feeling it last […]