Author: Vic Socotra

Sammy’s Niece

(487th Bomb Group crew poses with their B-24 Sammy’s Niece). It is a little strange for a Holiday to come on a Saturday, a known Day Off, but that is the calendar. This was the day in 1918 when the fighting came to an end. In the First Big One, anyway. The horror of what […]

Arrias: Ship’s Surgeon

I recall thinking he looked old and frail. I was 14, it was my freshman year in high school and I remember him sitting there, on one of the love seats that my mom and dad had in the den, between the dining room and the living room, in that beautiful house we lived in […]

Monkey Business

Author’s Note: We were going to just wish the Marines in the crowd a “Happy Birthday” this morning. They are 248 years old, institutionally, this morning and they make us all a little proud. My son and I share experience with Marine Drill Instructors, though neither of us were members of the Corps. A special […]

Arrias and His Muse: Very Wrong

Author’s Note: My Muse and I were reading several accounts of life in the trenches around Avdiivka – could have been the Somme or Verdun a little more than a hundred years ago… – Arrias Very Wrong The trenches are long and dark and dank, Always hot or always cold, The men climb out and […]

Workplace Violence

– Stuart Jonathan Thad Schippereit 74, of Savannah, Georgia passed away April 24, 2023 at his home with family by his side. He was born March 22, 1949 in Columbus Ohio. Editor’s Note: We are aware of the discontinuities of perspective in this daily shout at the heavens. You will note that this brief excerpt […]

Let’s Take a Vote!

There was a vote heldyesterday, and they called it a “General Election,” though we did not recognize the General Officer for whom we voted. There were some startling results in the voting and some others that were not. Considering the social tumults in process outside the polling station, it evoked all sorts of emotion. We […]

Moderate Seasonal Change

Goodness! We have entered into that transitional period in the calendar here in Your Nation’s Capital! It could be mild or chilly. The skies above could be like the ones in the image below- steel gray with a dusting of moist snow. We have only two holidays to get through in the next few weeks. […]

Arrias: Ukraine: Time for a Ceasefire?

In an interesting development the Commander in Chief of the Ukrainian Army (the Ukrainian equivalent to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) released an essay last week, just as an interview was published in The Economist. In the essay and interview it was reported that Gen Zaluzhnyi said the war was “at a […]

Weather Report: War in the Middle East

So, good afternoon fellow campers! It is the weekend at last and we can luxuriate in the splendor of the weekend. There is more, of course. Antisemitism is sweeping our little town. There will be demonstrations today on the other side of the big river. The protests are wide-wide in scope and intensely, which is […]

What a Month!

It is Sunday, and we are just sitting here in the powered reclining chair looking at some remarkable stuff. The guy pictured below was elected Mayor of his little town and ruled his town through the combination of politics and religion. His Sunday job was as Minister of thee congregation of the local Baptist Church. […]